24 Things Before I'm 25

This year instead of my regular New Year's resolutions I have put together a rather fabulous list of 24 things to do before I'm 25. I cannot wait to get started as I love that feeling of pride and satisfaction when you check a item off a list because it's been completed. Sad but true :) I intend to share each one of these experiences with you here on this blog, so let's get to the fun bit, the list!

1. Learn to Crochet - this is something I've wanted to learn to do all this year but things (for example making Christmas gifts!) kept getting in the way, so it's first on the list :) I will learn to crochet!

2. Learn to use my camera properly - I am the proud owner of a very beautiful and very fancy DSLR camera, but I haven't really got a clue as to how to use it. This will change.

3. Design a new blog header - you may have noticed the changes to my blog layout, this year I want to give the whole look of this blog an overhaul, and I thought I might as well start with making my own header (although as I'm not too good with computers it may take a while...!)

4. Take one of the e-course at A Beautiful Mess - these are amazing, I want to take most of them, but I think I'll start with the blog love e-course for bloggers

5. Go and see Florence and the Machine live - tickets booked, cannot wait!


6. Cook my first roast - Roast dinners have always been my favourite so I thought it was about time that I learnt to cook one of my own!

7. Start my UFO/Stash busting project - I am very excited about this! More details will follow at a later date... :)

8. Make a thread holder - I've always wanted one, so why not make one?

9. Paint a picture - I drew quite a lot when I was younger, I took art at GCSE level, and I'd really like to get back into that side of my creativity. Plus I'd love to be able to hang my own artwork in my home :)

10. Cook Eggs Benedict from scratch - my favourite breakfast/brunch meal, and as yet I can't even poach an egg!

11. Go for tea at the Dorcester - a little dream of mine :)

12. Make a dress from an Eva Dress Pattern - these may be the most beautiful dress patterns in the world, plus they're quite ridiculously fancy, both things that work in their favour as far as I'm concerned!

13. Go to the pottery painting cafe in Brighton - I just want to go and paint some pottery, is that wrong?

14. Make Gertie's Bombshell dress - I joined the online course for this dress months ago and still haven't really gotten started so this year I'm going to change that.

15. Have the great purge of 2012 - something I do every year, sort through everything I own to see what I'm going to keep and what I'm giving away, it's a great start to the year, I can't wait!

16. Create and post my own tutorial - as soon as I come up with something worth posting about!

17. Cook at least one recipe from each of my cook books - I have a rather huge selection of cook books and yet most of them I haven't used at all, so this year I want to help them do what they were born to do and hopefully get a bit better at cooking along the way!

18. Make a quilt - I have always loved quilts so I thought it was about time to give this craft a go.

19. Have a blog photo shoot - I cannot explain how exciting/scary the thought of this is to me...

20. Read all my coffee table books - much like my cook book obsession I also own a large number of glossy coffee table books, mostly about fashion and designers and I'm going to read each one from cover to cover.

21. Make a jewellery holder - self explanatory really!

22. Write an "I'd just like to say" article every two weeks - I wrote one of these at the end of last year and loved it, but once again Christmas preparations prevented me from having the time to write more. This is definitely something I want to rectify this year!

23. Complete the list of different sewing techniques - I'm going to take the basic list from Curves, Patterns and Pins and add a few fancy things from some of my sewing books, I can't wait to start learning some new sewing tricks :)

24. Organise some special family days - a very special one for me, being away from home has made me really treasure my time with my family, so I want to make the most of it and organise some really fun and exciting things to do

And that's it! Follow my progress through this list on this blog, I have a feeling it's going to be a great year :) Hurrah for 2012!

Happy New Year!

Well here we go, the first blog post of 2012! I hope you all had a marvellous New Year's Eve, I had a great time with my Sweetheart in Dublin town, and I wore my "Party Dress Book" Dress, which went down a treat!

I can't count the amount of nice comments I received on this outfit and I also had some great conversations about sewing which was brilliant, a lovely way to spend the last hours of 2011 and see in the New Year.

I nearly always make New Year's resolutions, I love writing a to-do list and that feeling of satisfaction when you tick things off it :) Well this year is a little bit different, because I've shamelessly pinched an idea from the incredible blog A Beautiful Mess (seriously, it's a brilliant blog, if you haven't read it then DO) and I have written a list of 24 things to do before I'm 25, which I will be sharing with you in detail tomorrow. Basically this year I'm going to be really committing to this blog and I have some really exciting challenges ahead of me, I cannot wait!

For now, Happy New Year and I hope you got in as much partying and happy times as you could over the festive season :)

Colette Fall Palette Challenge 2011 - 1960s top and tunic

You may or may not remember that way back when in September I vowed to take part in the Colette Fall Palette Challenge. I got as far as making a mood board and selecting my colours (see the post here), but then there was a slight problem with my sharing my finished projects with you. Because there weren't any! For various reasons, including the theft of my sewing machine, I found myself unable to complete any of my planned items for my Palette Challenge, however this all changed a few weeks ago! I have finally completed two of those projects and I can finally share them with you now...

So take a look at my new 1960s style top and tunic!

Usually I'm draw to the looks of the 40s and 50s but I found the pattern for this ensemble tucked away at the back of a vintage shop near my home and brought is home for next to nothing with a whole bunch of others. It did feel very strange to wear such a short skirt after so long in never wearing anything above the knee, but as soon as I got used to it I must admit I enjoyed it! 

This outfit uses three of the colours from my Fall Palette Mood Board, grey, cream and red (although I had the red items already!) and I love how they all work together. I'm totally in love with this dress fabric, which is covered in black and white pictures which have their names underneath them in french, I bought it at Ray Stitch and I cannot get enough of it! I also made a bow belt, once again using Tilly's tutorial, and I think it really sets off the whole look.

The top is my first ever attempt at using a stretch knit fabric! It's made with a beautifully soft t-shirt fabric that I picked up in Manchester months ago and it's so snuggly and comfortable. It was surprisingly easy to work with and the finished top is something that I know I will wear again and again and again, in fact several of my friends have expressed an interest in having one for themselves, so who knows, you may be seeing more of this top in the future! The original pattern had a high necked pussy bow look which I altered to add the peter pan collar - a favourite look of mine! - and I also added some fabric covered buttons to the cuffs and collar for a nice extra detail.

And yes, the observant readers amongst you may notice that the boots I'm wearing are the very boots that I featured on my mood board for colour inspiration! I love my Miss L Fire boots, they are heavenly to prance about in :) Although this isn't my usual look I really enjoy it and I'm sure I will be taking this outfit out on the town again soon!

Top - Handmade by me

Dress - Handmade by me

Belt - Handmade by me using this tutorial

Hat - Knitted by me using this pattern

Gloves - a gift from my Sweetheart

Bag - won in a competition by the wonderful Emma of Lady Jardin

Boots - Miss L Fire

All photos taken by my Sweetheart

Wednesday Wonderfuls #50

Hello my lovely readers and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

Dita and I sending you love!

I have always enjoyed the few days between Christmas and New Year, they have always been a time to relax and enjoy the festive feelings that still remain after Christmas before welcoming in the New Year filled with hope and promise. It's an exciting time where you can look back over how much everything has changed since last year and think about all the incredible things that could happen to you in the next. In January this blog will be celebrating it's first anniversary and I really can't believe how quickly that time has gone by! I really didn't think that anyone would be interested in what I have to write about and now I have over 160 followers and I'm so thankful for each and everyone of you! 

This is my last Wednesday Wonderfuls post of 2012 and I wanted to take this moment to thank you all for your support during 2011. The fact that you take the time to stop by my little piece of the blogosphere to read my ramblings and to leave gorgeous comments really does mean the world to me :) Writing this blog makes me very happy and hopefully I spread a bit of that happiness around for you all too!

Anyway, let's get on with the matter at hand, the Wednesday Wonderfuls!

• If you're still in a Christmassy mood and don't feel like letting go quite yet, then try these cupcakes from Joy the Baker, guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy from the inside out!
• If you've ever thought about making your own Photo Christmas Card then this post from Craftyminx may be a big help. She has created some amazing cards over the years and here she gives you the low down on everything you may need to think about during the creative process. Maybe keep these things in mid for next year!
• Another Christmas-type post, and yes I know that Christmas is over now this year but this peppermint packaging tutorial over at Strawberry Moth was just too cute and pretty not to share. This is definitely how I'm going to go with packaging next year...
• I'm getting serious house envy after seeing another post from A Beautiful Mess, this time of her stunning kitchen *swoon swoon swoon*. 
• If you one of those old fashioned type (like myself!) who will always prefer a letter to an email of a text then why not send out written thank you cards this year? Heart Handmade UK has rounded up a great variety of free printable thank you cards, so it doesn't have to cost a fortune, so why not show the ones you love that you care in a really personal way :)
• Lots of people have been looking back over their posts of 2011 and sharing their favourites, none so useful as this year in tutorials from the Coletterie. It's packed with useful tutorials, tips and tricks, check it out!

That's it from me for today and that's also it from the Wednesday Wonderfuls this year! But don't worry because they will be back again next year with bells on :) 

Bye for now!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Boxing day to you all! I hope you've all had a wonderful festive season, opened lots of presents, ate lots of Christmassy food and spent lots of time with the ones you loved. I had a great time yesterday and also today, and saw both my family and my Sweetheart's family, it really was pretty much perfect :) 

Anyways I just wanted to drop in and show you the outfit that I was wearing, you may remember from this post that I was planning to make the perfect Christmas dress based on one of my favourite of Chuck's dresses from "Pushing Daisies", and I did! I finished it at the eleventh hour on Christmas Eve, and the perfectionist in me can see quite a few things that I'd like to tweak to make it just right, but all in all I love it and I couldn't help but feel festive in it! Also it has a horsehair braid hem, how cool is that!

I also fixed myself a fancy hairdo trying out my new Christmas snood, a gift from my fabulous mother, she's knows how to pick a brilliant present! 

Unfortunately I was unable to complete my New Year's dress (my own version of Gertie's Bombshell Dress) because I've been so busy with Christmas preparations. I guess I'll have to save it for a Valentine's outfit or something! But hey, I don't really care what I'll be wearing because my lovely Sweetheart will be welcoming in the New Year with me in Dublin so I'll be grinning from ear to ear regardless of what dress I end up wearing!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all enjoy the run up to the New Year, I can't wait! 

Bye for now!

Wednesday Wonderfuls #49

Only four more sleeps until Christmas! My goodness me I'm excited!

You may have noticed that posts have become a little sparse here recently. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, I have become completely swept away with Christmas preparations, not that I'm complaining because I love this time of year, but it has made blogging a little bit difficult! I do have a couple more blog updates to post before Christmas, but I'm going to be focusing most of my time on spending time with my beautiful family and my Sweetheart, so I wanted to take this last Wednesday Wonderfuls post before Christmas to wish you the very best of the season, I hope you have exciting plans for this festive time of year :)

Anyways, let's have some lovely Wonderfuls to get us in the mood for Christmas, I can't wait!!

• Fancy using up your odds and ends of yarn for a last minute Christmas gift? Try making one of these knitted felted rings, a free pattern from Tiny Owl Knits. They are so sweet, I'd like to make a whole bunch of them :)
• Here's another project for your left over yarn, I know this one's been going around the blogosphere for a while but I love it so much that I really had to share it myself :) utterly ridiculous but utterly adorable, crochet apple covers!
• Here's something I'd love to give a go in the New Year, a stunning walk in wardrobe! It's going to be a while before I have space for one of these of my very own, but a girl can dream...! 
• And finally here's a treat that I think everyone will enjoy (both the making and the eating!), hot chocolate spoons! What a simple and fun gift, if you have time left before Christmas you really should give these a go, I wish I could!

Right, let's all finish getting ready for Christmas so that we can enjoy this magical time without any stress! Who's with me?

That's it from me today, but I'll be back soon! :)

Wednesday Wonderfuls #48

Hello there lovely readers, and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

It's been a really fabulous week so far for me as I'm on holiday, 10 blissful days at home with my gorgeous Sweetheart and my beautiful family. So far I've had a brilliant time, baking, putting up Christmas decorations, wrapping presents and making cards, vintage shopping, visiting craft fairs, going to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and seeing the amazing musical, "Matilda". It's so nice to have a big stretch of time to just enjoy myself and not think about work, plus I've got a whole load of sewing done, updates soon to follow!

Anyways, let me spread my joy around the blogging masses with some Wednesday Wonderfuls, and this week has been a particularly good one in my opinion!

• Still looking for a good homemade Christmas present idea? Check out this messenger bag tutorial, it's great, anyone would be very lucky to get one as a gift!
• Or how about a lovely Christmas decoration tutorial? Look no further than the Evil Dressmaker and this gorgeous ice skating boot decoration, it's so sweet :)
• Fancy a bit of homemade booze for your holiday season? Well you can't go wrong with homemade amaretto, which is actually my Sweetheart's favourite tipple. I guess I know what I'm going to be doing some time soon!
• Have you ever read one of those articles about capsule wardrobes that always seem so popular at the start of a new year? Well Zoe gave them a piece of her mind brilliantly this week, do check out her article, it is, as always fantastically written :)
• Now this is a video that you should really watch in the lead up to Christmas, it's all about how to pipe icing! If you're a fan of gingerbread like me then I'm sure you'll find a use for it!
• Tasha is once again showing us the knitting ropes this week with a post all about stranded knitting. It has made my fingers itch with the need for new knitting projects!
• And finally, let me share with you the perfect Christmas dessert over at Joy the Baker, a chocolate peppermint roll with chocolate ganache. Be still my beating heart. Excuse me, I need to get baking...

What a great week of posts! I hope you've enjoyed them, I'll be back again soon with some more yummies :)

Bye for now!