Christmas colour crush...

Well, I didn't think it would be right to not do a colour crush post with a Christmas theme... 

After all, there are so many gorgeous colour schemes out there to choose from.

For this one I've gone a little nostalgic and opted for a crush on colours we used to decorate our tree/ home with many years ago when I was a little girl, and I still love them now. 

Hope you do too...

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

(image credits - clockwise from top left)

So, Merry Christmas to all my lovely followers and I hope you have a wonderful time over the festive period, eat, drink and eat some more!
See you back here very soon...

x x x

Christmas bake off...

Next up... a spot of good old Christmas baking.

Christmas Eve will be the day for me and the boy (the glamorous assistant) to bake bake bake, mmmm and then eat eat eat, more mmmmm's over the festive few days with the folks. 

And up on the menu this year, Buche de Noel (also known as yule log, but it looks very fancy so felt I should use the proper name, ha ha!), some lovely deep filled mince pies Paul Hollywood style, and finally a lemon drizzle cake (I know, I know, its not christmassy but its been requested and it always goes down well)

Is that too much? 

I also want to try the white chocolate rocky road... 

ooh and the gingerbread letters...

and maybe the chocolate salami recipe...

Anyway, here are a few favourites...

typo gingerbread

lemon rosemary shortbread cookies

molten orange chocolate lava cake in a jar

chocolate 'salami'

buche de noel

paul hollywood's mince pies

white chocolate rocky road

portuguese custard tarts

x x x

Christmas craftiness...

A few Christmas related posts coming up...
A little bit of crafting, a little bit of baking and a little bit of colour crushing, ooooooooh lovely!

So, first up...as I mentioned in a previous post, I've spotted quite a few interesting crafty bits and bobby projects floating around recently, so as it got me in the mood for a bit of make and do, I thought I'd do a little round up of a few favourites...

creative gift tags

mini garlands for gift wrapping 

paper heart garland

 

decorated tea lights casing

diy crayons

edible ornaments

felt ornaments

cinnamon ornaments

5 minute gift tag diy

x x x

Inspired by...Petra Boase

Its been a while since I did a little 'Love Print... Love... ?' post, so here goes, a special one for you now.

Petra Boase...

A top British talent with a passion for collage.

I've long been an admirer of Petra's work, loving the mix and match approach and eclectic style.

Amongst her creations being stocked in some of the most reputable boutiques and big name stores are collaged canvases, hand made greeting cards, home and babywear.

Here are some of her beautiful designs and to check out more, visit here.

And theres also a blog to follow here.

(all images from Petra Boase's website)

x x x

Christmas crafting...

How beautiful are these painted ornaments that were featured over on the oh happy day blog recently...

Couldn't resist sharing them with you, I adore the colours too, yum!

(and a perfect colour dress to pick to go beautifully with the decs!)

(all photography credits to Paul Ferney for oh happy day)

Ooh feeling a bit crafty now, might do a little round up of a few favourites soon...

x x x

Come and get your art prints...

If you haven't popped on over yet, go and have a little peek at the lovely art prints just launched by Paper and Cloth Design Studio.

Ooh and just in time for Christmas...

Oh Little Owl

Whale 

Happy Owl

Marge

Suitcase girl

All prints are 30cm x 40cm and printed on 310gsm textured art stock, bright white art paper

Wouldn't they look super lovely on your wall...

(all images copyright of Paper and Cloth Design Studio)

Happy (belated) December!

Well, I'm a bit late saying it... but Happy December everyone!

Our decorations went up last weekend so we're fully into the christmas swing of things so to say.

Now... anyone who knows me, pretty much knows I have a strong aversion to red.

Any kind of red. 

I cannot for the life of me wear anything even close to red. 

Its safe to say, I look awful in red.

So, thats said...I love (yes, love! well, around the house anyway) red at Christmas and feel the need to fill our house with it and go a little white and red scandinavic meets traditional cottage style.

After our first christmas in the new house a couple of years ago, we had a bit of a make do approach  regarding decorations and had donations from my lovely folks to make our house feel even remotely like a home for the festive season.

As grateful as we were of them, I do now love buying a few new bits every year now and adding to our box of tricks, well, decorations.

One of my all time favourite decorations has been in our family for years though, and I remember being obsessed with it when I was younger and so my Uncle gave it to me some years ago. 

Its the most battered little wisp of a tree but I absolutely love it and each and every year, up it goes, sitting there, feeling a bit sad but I'll never get rid of it.

Here it is in all its glory...

(photos by me)

x x x

Blueberry doughnut muffins...

I found this yummy recipe on 'my baking addiction' recently for blueberry doughnut muffins, and gave it a go last week.

They are ridiculously nice and went down very well with everyone.

The recipe gives details for a glaze on top but I opted for more of a thicker frosting and made them extra lemony, mmmm, enjoy!

Heres a little link to the recipe on my baking addiction.com

(photo by me and credits for recipe www.mybakingaddiction.com)

x x x

Ooh new shop...

Shiny new Paper and Cloth shop open now!

Check out the blog post here and visit the big cartel shop here.

Five prints to choose from at the moment with more coming soon...

(copyright paper and cloth design studio)

Ooh christmas pressies....

x x x

Paper & Cloth looking for Designers!

Pop on over to the Paper & Cloth blog - exciting news!

x x x

Studio pics...

As part of the November photo challenge I'm trying to do, two of the themes this week have meant I've taken some pics of my ickle studio (well, one side of it anyway), so I thought I'd share them with you on the blog too, why not...

The top two pics are of my inspiration shelf which constantly changes, and a huge source of eye candy on a daily basis. 

Current loves on there are rosehip notebooks (oh my...gorgeous colours and prints), Paperchase notebooks and stickers, Lisa Jones cards, soft toys, Jane Ormes goodies, Ben Javens for 1973, Junzo Teradas' 'Happy Animal Time' postcard pack, french children's books, Jurianne Matters 'Blom' paper flowers sitting nicely in a folky inspired pot, my big fat owl cushion in the corner keeping everyone in line on the shelf (!) and of course my little felt garland that hangs there all nicely.

The owls at the bottom are a recent little gift from a works trip and I loooooove them, arent they cute!? (fuelling my obsession with anything owl/ bird related) 

Hope you've enjoyed sharing a little piece of my world...

x x x

Colour crush...

It's been a while since I did a colour crush post, so I thought it best to just bloomin' well do one, so here goes with the latest...

I know it looks a bit springy with the lilacs and mint (theres a little nod towards a winter warmer bottom left with those cozy knitted mug covers) but I thought the combo was super yum, mmm

enjoy...

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

(image credits - clockwise from top left)

x x x

November photography challenge...

Happy November!

Well...as its the start of a new month, I decided to try one of those photography challengey thingys where you take a photo every day based on a specific thing; colour, item, letter, etc...  

As I'm new to my ickle slr I thought it would be a good way to learn a bit more about it alongside reading manuals/ photography books/ blogs/ watching you tube videos...

I'm documenting my attempts over on my flickr page if you wanted to take a look.

One of the challenges was 'breakfast' and after doing some baking at the weekend, this was my breakfast on Sunday morning, mmmm... (decadent I know, to have nutella muffins sprinkled with cocoa powder for breakfast but they did have rolled oats in them (!)...what the heck, they were yummy!

They went down very well with the boy too, happy hubby :-)

Please pop over to Rebecca's little tree designs blog for the recipe; 'Nutella filled oatmeal muffins'

I couldn't resist giving them a go when I saw her post.

(photo taken by me -

definitely a work in progress as I learn the tricks eh, ha!...)

x x x

The Awesome Project...

I stumbled across an image on pinterest recently and just had to see more of the same, so I clicked the link, (as you do) and oh my....just beautiful...

See for yourself...

I couldn't help but do a little post on it here.

'The Awesome Project' is an experimental journey through the world of porcelain, by a multi-disciplinary duo Madalina Andronic and Claudiu Stefan.

Using romanian folklore as their influence, they create beautifully adorned, decorative objects using porcelain, underglaze colours and stoneware glazes.

Heres a few to wet the appetite...mmm

Please go and check out their tumblr page here.

(All images taken from The Awesome Project tumblr site, all copyright owned by them)