Hanging Vases!

The sweetest little project everrr! Right now, my grandma keeps the flowers from our garden in long clear plastic glasses on the window sill, but I must gather some ribbon, or jute twine to make hanging vases!

Found via DesignMom :)

Lace

I seem to be obsessed with lace lately. I think that I would like me some Lace Cups, yes.

Oh, how about lace made out of concrete?

Or a lace floor!

Would you be happy to see a lace fence?

Edit: How fun would it be to send your friends this goodie bag when they're not expecting it?! So cute!

Maraschino Cherries

Gasp! Maraschino Cherries in rainbow colours! In jelly shots! With tutorial! :O

Yummeh Pop Tarts Pops recipe. For us NZers, who aren't lucky enough to get Pop Tarts here! (Or maybe I just haven't been looking).

Also check out this amazing Star Wars themed party. With lots of photos and recipes! Makes me want to throw a Harry Potter themed party... Can you believe that the Part 1 of the final movie of the series is releasing in 15 days?!

Links found via Epicute.

Origami Rose

Just wanted to share and save it here for myself. :)

Edit: How lucky is Jim's daughter?!

Paper Roses

I was given a corkboard/whiteboard recently, and I've been collecting things I like best to put on it. I love roses [yeah I think I might've mentioned it once or twice ... or many times] and I found this little tutorial to make a pretty paper rose. I wonder if I should make them out of the shimmery paper I got from KikkiK ... hmmm ...

Edit @ 10pm: Finished with the inspiration board! I wasn't planning on it, but it has turned out quite pink! I shall upload a photo tomorrow! Now for a movie!

kikki.K.

Lovely, delicious, shimmery new paper from kikki.K. Mine now. ^.^

Eep!

Pantone bikes!

DesignMom's new baby!

Sailor's Knot Doorstop! [and it's a giveaway]

Apple and Rose Petal Ice Cream

Heya ... today I come with another recipe from Vogue 1996. The other one is right here.

Apple and Rose Petal Ice Cream [900ml]

You will need:

4 pink scented Rose heads/

425ml thick cream/

450g eating apples [we used two Royal Gala and two New Zealand Beauty] peeled, cored, sliced/

2tbsp water/

juice of half a lemon/

150g caster sugar.

The preparation:

- Make sure that the roses weren't sprayed with chemicals.

- Remove the petals from the rose heads.

- Put them in a saucepan with the cream, bring slowly to boil, then remove from heat, cover, and allow to infuse for one hour.

- Strain the cream, pressing the petals firmly to extract all flavour.

- Cook the apples in a covered saucepan over medium heat with the water and lemon juice until soft.

- Blend the apples to a smooth puree, add the sugar and allow to cool.

- Mix the apple puree with the scented cream and place in the freezer for one hour.

- Remove from the freezer and beat for a few seconds with a hand beater until the mixture is slushy.

- Return to the freezer and repeat the process twice more each hour.

- Freeze for a further hour when the ice cream is ready to serve.

- Serve with crystallised rose petals.

Notes:

- The roses I got were a beautiful bright pink colour, but lacked the scent. So I had to put some rose essence in it, and it worked fabulously. You can add about four drops.

- Also, I decided to leave the rose petals in the ice cream. The petals look good in the cream-coloured ice cream, and mm they have a rose petaley flavour that I like.

- And yes I served it with crystallised petals.

Crystallised Petals:

This is a good recipe for crystallised [gah! Blogger won't stop underlining 'crystallised' in red; apparently I'm spelling it wrong!] petals, pretty close to what I did. I used one egg white to cover about 3 rose heads.

I liked this ice cream. It's different to what I've ever had before, and made our kitchen smell of lemons and roses ... mmm, so refreshing! There's still some left in the fridge, and you are welcome to come over and help yourself to some! :)

Let's get bakey!

Tee hee ... it's my dad's and my gran's birthdays coming up real soon, and I'm thinking of baking a little something! I've never exactly baked before, just a little blueberry pie [recipe here] for an assignment, so let's see how this goes!

I'm thinking of baking ... drumroll, please ... the Rainbow cake! Except ... I'm not sure if I'll make it rainbow, maybe in colours they like best? Anyway, I thought the idea was brilliant, and I like how it looks white from outside, then you cut it open, and voila - burst of colour. I'd bookmarked another beautiful cake recipe, but alas, I can't find it at the moment - I'll definitely put it up if and when I find the link, though!

Some more bakey links:

- Cupcakes that make me drool.

- Even more cupcakes that make me drool [minus the Twilight ones].

- Smart and beautiful cupcakes.

- Glitter cupcakes!

- How to make some cupcake art.

- Here's where my mum got me cupcakes. They were totally yummeh, if a little expensive.

Fun fun! I'm doing this next Sunday, and I shall post pics up if all goes well!

Edit:

p.s.: Brrr, it's getting colder here. I must get my soft and cuddly Singapore Airlines socks out! I hope you're warm and cosy, wherever you are!

Epicute

Hiya... been a little busy with uni work... but wanted to share a link. Epicute. Very, very cute food.

Like this lunch box...

I want to gulp these down!

Eep! I wonder if it's real, though?

Oh wow, I can't wait to make these!! *summons bottles of food colour*

Thanks, Morgan!! 

Pictures from Epicute.

Love 2010!

Ooh, check out these 2010Love t-shirts. Really good play with the words 2010 and LOVE. From DesignSisters.

Picture from DesignSisters' Etsy shop. If you're the owner of this picture, please let me know if you'd like me to take it down, and I'll do that pronto!

Origami Stars

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday break. I certainly am. Devouring lots of chocolate in the form of Lindt choccy balls [picture here], Nutella, and Chex [my usual breakfast cereal is however Cheerios]. Drinking lots of Coca-Cola. Playing lots of Bubble Struggle. Reading The Midnight Twins. Straightening my hair with my brand new Remington. Taking part in heaps of giveaways. Getting ready for that overseas trip. Mmm.

Anyway, here's a tutorial that I found on how to do 3D Origami stars! Don't forget to click on it to view it better!

p.s.: Okay, yeah, today's the 24th but I'd saved this post as a draft on the 22nd ... :D

Luggage Tags

Gran and I are going overseas soon. In a little over three weeks. After almost five years. I'm too excited about this. I love flying in aeroplanes ... there's just something so special about them! I know what movies we'll be watching, what we'll be eating, what seats we're thinking of ... haha! Call me crazy ...

I'm also designing our luggage tags. I was Googling some, and look at these totally adorable ones! So inspiring!

 I think mine will be based on these, anyway ... I'll print them out on heavy paperstock [I'm thinking 300gsm], laminate them, punch a hole through them, and ribbon them! Totally personalised! And, we can also have them as keepsakes for later on ... :)

I've been drawing more Disney princesses ... I'm debating as to whether I should post them up here!

Have you seen any cute luggage tags? Please let me know!!

Currently chomping on: Lindt Lindor Chocolate Balls [milk and dark]. Best. Chocolate. Ever. Period.

Smiggle

Ever fascinated by a Smiggle store? I was today. I think that currently they only have stores in Australia and New Zealand, but they do have an online shop. And now they're opening at a mall near me. Yeay!

Basically, Smiggle is a fusion of a.) cute and funky, and b.) stationery.

[I have just realised that I'm typing this without my glasses and my vision is kind of going foggy, so excuse me while I go get my glasses..]

Okay, I'm back and the glasses are on.

This is what I got from Smiggle today [they're actually my initials, but they could also stand for 'Graphic Bee'. Awesome!]:

I would love to own one of those pencil cases! How unique are they?!:

Glue and markers:

Duck-shaped rubber bands! Bendy pencils! Bone-shaped paperclips! Oh my!

 Take a peek at their wide and amazing range of stationery.

All images are from the Smiggle website, except for my badges :)

Tutorial - easy corsage brooch

My first-ever tutorial! Don't forget to click on the images to see them better!

Yup, these are the flowers that I bought the other day at Spotlight. If you want an extra challenge, you can of course make them yourself. [I'm also going to be doing a tutorial on making a brooch from scratch :) ]

Oh, and I'd tied a knot to the stem just to make sure the petals didn't come undone.

To make it extra sturdy, I cut a cardboard circle, chalked a bigger sized circle on a piece of black fabric, and stuck the fabric on the cardboard. 

Snip the flower stem, stick the base that you just made, and attach a brooch pin with strong glue. Leave the brooch to dry! Mine is still drying. :)

And voila! Super cute corsage brooches!!

Egg Sculptures

Beautiful laser-cut egg sculptures that I've been meaning to upload for ages! Here they are, finally!

Writing Ball

Isn't this writing ball so very gorgeous?! I really want to type with it! Wikipedia link here, to learn more about typewriters and writing balls!

p.s.: My corsage brooch is coming quite well ... better than I expected. It's actually half-done, and attached to my scarf right now! Will post pics of that later, and instructions and more pics when I finish making it!

Back to my assessments now!! :)

Edit: I am finding the brooch so easy to make, it's not funny [but it kind of is ... hahaha] ... I'm so excited to post everything here! It's no-sew [I can't sew to save my life], and I've just found out that two types of brooches can be done with the same method!!

Corsage Brooches

Don't you just love corsage brooches?! I know I do! It looks like they're going to be a huge trend here in Middle Earth [aka New Zealand] this spring [very appropriate, too!]. I've already spotted them in Diva and eQuip. They're in necklaces, they're sold as brooches, they're on headbands ... oh my!

But they're quite expensive for what they are ... $15 for a flower on a pin? Hmmm ... hence I decided to make my own! Following very simple instructions [that were originally for making a tutu]. And I just adapted them to make brooches! Sweet!

A traditional corsage brooch ...

Corsage brooch as a belt! So inspirational! [One of my brooches broke last week, and I can take off the pin and glue it onto a long piece of ribbon! And voila! A cute belt!]

I'll post the instructions after I make the brooches! [I'm also thinking of making some brooches with my characters (the one that you saw in the stickers) on them ... what do you think?]

Stickies.

Oh, what the heck, I haven't posted anything awesome in such a long time. So here goes:

I made stickers. Lots and lots of them. And yes, I designed them, too. I think I'm getting addicted to printing out stickers!!! It's such a fun thing to do.

These stickers got me thinking ... how would they be as a first-ever giveaway? I seriously don't know how to host giveaways, and it's just a thought!! They have their own little box, too!! Let me know what you think, okay?!

Shoe.

Cute emo shoe, no? Yup, it's mine! :D