Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Happy New Year! 

I for one am very excited about 2014 and am really glad that my new blog has launched just in time! I hope you like it, I certainly do! Blogging is one of my favourite ways to relax and as I will be travelling/adventuring this coming year, I am planning on using this as my main way of keeping people informed. I have changed the name to a catchier one as when I started this, it had about 10 views a week! I want to add a few weekly things and share some shorter posts with you as they all seem to be quite long!

So, keep your eyes peeled for all my upcoming scribbles! 

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Oh, Night Divine!

I can't believe it's Christmas eve again..where has this year gone?! It's taken much longer this year for me to feel as festive as I normally do. One year whilst I was at University, I secretly decorated my entire bedroom, tree and all - my housemates only found out one by one if they knocked on my door and I let them in. That was a great October. Ha! Alas, this year I was lucky enough to experience Thanksgiving too so I will have had my fair share of turkey by the end of 2013. 

I have just gotten round to the aforementioned sugar cookies, but didn't really have enough time to but 100% effort into the decorating stage. I chose the lovely Gooseberry Patch Recipe as I had the same cutter as the one they used, and I just think their recipes are too darned CUTE. I accidentally made about 1 million cookies but hey ho - it's Christmas! One of them tragically broke in half so I was forced to try it and it was pretty yummy. 

I'm also ready for my annual Christmas Eve tradition of opening my gifts from friends at midnight that usually live under our Christmas Tree. I fought long and hard for the right to do them separately and I won. I am ready for it once again:

Last night, one of my best friends and I enjoyed a wonderful 3 course meal with a free bottle of Prosecco as part of my early Birthday celebrations. I am travelling down south on the day so I am dragging out the festivities as long as physically possible.

Thankyou, Italy and goodnight. 

We also like cocktails.

                                   

Cheers, to being another year older!

As for the rest of today, we are going to 'stay classy' and go see Anchorman 2 - before heading home for a midnight tipple and the chance to dive in to round one of my presents. I don't care how old I get, Christmas always makes me feel like it did when I was 6!! 

So, I would like to wish all of my L-O-V-E-L-Y readers the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years! Be sure to check back here in 2014 as I blog my American Adventures. I think 2014 is going to be my most exciting one yet and I can't WAIT to share it with you all! 

Much Love xxx

P.s. I may or may not have opened the tree presents from my friends over an hour early. I simply could not wait any longer.

P.p.s. Someone PLEASE take this box of twilight mints away from me.

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The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

First of all, I have been terrible with keeping up with this here blog. It's been quite a whirlwind lately, filled with lots of lovely things that have been keeping me rather busy. I had a lovely 2 weeks of winter sunshine in Tucson surrounded by cacti, filled with pumpkin pie and my first dash of eggnog. Those weeks were so relaxing but as soon as I touched down, (after a rather bumpy ride home in the storms!) things went up a gear as it is now so close to the holiday season and move to Delaware day. 

All my gifts are bought and wrapped and cards are sent out, so in that way I have managed to keep organised. I have made some really nice American inspired gifts including my first attempts 'cookies in a jar,' pretzel rods, chocolate marshmallows (inspired by these badboys), easy fudge bites (which I have NOT perfected, which clearly I am not bothered about ARGHHHHHHHH), gift card holders - which made handy little envelopes for the recipe cards for my cookies in jars and I am going to make some mitten shaped sugar cookies and some exciting cupcakes. When I find a minute. 

Though I did spend an inordinate amount of time in Target whilst in the States, I did enjoy buying gifts from independent sellers this year. I have to say, I have found some amazingly talented crafty folks through the ever growing medium; Instagram. It has introduced me to loads of great sellers and stores that I would like to share with you all. They are both UK based and American but they usually ship worldwide. I've had a couple of parcels from the US that have cost as little as $3.50 to reach my door! Bargain. 

1. Polkadots and Petticoats - The shop is shut for Christmas but I got a lovely Santa scarf and some cross stitch patterns for 50% off! Great sale, lovely parcel.

2. Poppy and Fern - Hand embroidered jewellery, so cute. I am waiting on a cactus necklace that I ordered on holiday whilst they had Black Friday sales on. Exciting! 

3. Oh, Sweet Joy! - She has a lovely blog and a lovely shop. If I suited headbands or if my head would fit in a headband, I might consider buying one. Alas. My head is stupid. 

4. Sarah's Cards Ltd. - This shop is a stockist of lots of nice American craft supplies, as well as UK ones and recently had an a-m-a-z-i-n-g sale. 

5. Lovely Tape UK - If you like washi tape or nice tapes as much as I do, check out this site. I recently won some Christmas tapes from them and can't WAIT to get mi mitts on them. 

6. Poppy England - I have never bought anything from this website but I frequently dream of owning one of their dresses. 

7. The Fabbadashery - This is really local to me, but I popped in there for the first time this week and loved it. Such nice staff, gorgeous fabric and ribbons and so good to have a craft shop in town that runs fun workshops! 

8. Artsyville - This lady makes GORGEOUSNESS. So bright, fun and colourful - right up my street. I love everything she makes. 

9. Pinkfresh Studio - I'm addicted to pretty tape, please don't judge me. 

10. Pink Paislee - I also won a prize from these guys! I'm getting pretty lucky. Or I just enter too many giveaways. They have allsorts of loveliness. 

11. The Heart Gallery - My favourite shop in the whole wide Universe and stars. I love LOVE LOVE it loads. 

12. DeGrazia - I visited the DeGrazia gallery in Tucson this year and thought his works were beautiful and really enjoyed the gift shop, ha! I love museum gift shops. 

There are lots of small businesses out there that are making a living doing what they love. It's so nice to be able to pay a small part in supporting those people in exchange for nice things!!! It's also good to get some unique gifts to share with friends and family at Christmas time! 

I will aim to share my sugar cookies with you this week - virtually of course - along with some Christmassy pictures as this is my favourite time of the year by FAR. I am averaging about 5 cheesy holiday films a week at the moment but still haven't had a mince pie yet! Crazy. 

Happy Shopping! 

Much Love xxx

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Crafting Lately.

I've been doing lots of crafty things lately and thought I would share some of the projects with you. It's bonfire night here so the jacket potatoes are in the oven and we are getting ready to brave the cold to have a mini display in our garden!

I have stumbled upon loads of great blogs and stores lately that have really inspired me to get making. I would highly recommend looking up:
Studio Calico
Trimcraft UK
We R Memory Makers
Glitz Studio
They all feature different crafters and have some really good ideas, and some equally good giveaways. 

We just found out that we are going to run a jam stall at a local Christmas fair this month so we have been collecting fruit and thinking of recipes/decoration to make the jars all Christmassy. Our local TKMAXX never fails to provide for us, and we found a pack of fat quarters that are going to go really far and were a real bargain. If you want to make festive toppers for your jams; here is how I did it.

Check the size of your jam jars to make sure your fabric will cover it

I cut out squares, but circles work too! I got those pinking shears a while ago for only £8 at IKEA

Make sure you have elastic bands and labels for your jars.

Get some festive ribbons (Lidl) and Bakers twine (The Range)

Secure your fabric with the elastic bands & tie around your ribbon.

Don't forget your labels!

I have also been prepping some things to make my first proper scrapbook to keep all my memories from my internship in one place. Most things are on my Christmas list but I did manage to find an absolute bargain in TKMAXX that I am using to create my own journalling/scrapbooking cards:

The papers are really cute, and they came with a couple of large sheets that had cards ready to be cut up.

I used a template from a Project Life printable to cut out my own cards

 I don't have loads of paper punches because they are quite expensive so I used cookie cutters to cut out my own shapes for the rest! This entire pad was on sale for £4.

The last thing we did (although I didn't really help that much) was use some really cheap wood to put together some tapes and ribbons storage. I'd seen loads of things on instagram that were really fancy but expensive so I tried to think of a way to make something cheaply that I could decorate. Here's what we came up with:

I decorated this one with the Washi tape I won from Artsyville

 I used was a couple of sample pots to paint them from B&Q where we bought the wood.

The piece of wood was sawn in half, and the dowel was sawn into three (we had two pieces). Three holes were drilled into each piece of wood and were secured with a screw. It was really easy to watch haha. It took about 15 minutes to make them and not so long to decorate so I'd recommend this as an easy project that will create some cute storage that you can really make your own!

Any kind of craft whether it be scrapbooking, card-making, decorating, Project Life etc can easily get so expensive, but there are loads of ways to make it more affordable. I would say maximise your creativity to use what you have rather than over-paying for things that you might not actually need.

Happy Crafting! 

Much Love xxx

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A quick jaunt to London, Baby!

I'm not really a big fan of big cities and I don't often go to London for pleasure, but recently I had to visit to get my visa ready for my upcoming American internship. It's just so busy and fast paced, everyone is in a rush and it can get pretty tiring, especially if you have to carry your luggage around with you. It's not a place I could ever see myself settling but every now and then I don't mind a flying visit!

When I arrived in Kings Cross Station, they were filming something and there were loads of people around taking photographs. Though I hadn't the foggiest idea what it was, I joined them and took a few snaps. It turns out it is something starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley so I probably would've seen them if I'd have stayed around! 

I arrived in London in the afternoon and headed straight to my hotel, after first heading to completely the wrong tube station (my fault!) It was really nice, the people were friendly, staff couldn't do enough for you and it was about a minutes walk from Paddington tube station. For those of you that are interested, it was The Cardiff Hotel and I would highly recommend it! I had a nice meal in a restaurant up the road but didn't bother travelling around as I just wanted to chill out before my visa interview.

A cup of tea in my hotel room

The next day I travelled bright and early on the big red London bus to Oxford Street and went through the visa process. It felt like I was in there forever but thankfully, it was approved! I promptly headed to my favourite bakery, the one whose recipe books I use all the time to bake with: The Hummingbird Bakery in South Kensington. 

I chose a pumpkin cupcake - yum!

I headed back to the tube station but then saw a sign for the V&A museum which I have always wanted to visit so changed my plans and popped in there! It was good as I could put my luggage in a locker and have a wander around. It was huge so I didn't get to see it all but here are some of my favourite parts:

I loved the fashion exhibition

Raphael Cartoons - truly stunning

Some amazing prints!

I had NO idea what this room was but I sat in there a while.

A history of tea.

Lights in the entrance

One thing I absolutely must mention is the gift shop. I am obsessed with Museum gift shops and this has to be one of the best I've ever been in! I spent ages in there, but only bought a few nice postcards though I could've bought nearly everything. This museum also had a fashion shop and a book shop, though I didn't find the book one (luckily.) It's worth a visit just for that though in my opinion!  

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, the lighting was really relaxed throughout which was lovely but didn't make for very good iPhone photos! 

After my lovely visit, I headed back over the stations and had a look around the shops in St Pancras station. I LOVE that place as it has all of my favourite shops; Cath Kidston, Joules, Fat Face, Paperchase and Accessorize to name a few as well as some lovely cafés. 

I had a spot of late lunch in Peyton and Byrne - great food and a much needed coffee whilst a strange man next to me struck up a conversation about suicide which was just what I wanted to talk about over lunch. Not. This happens to me ALL the time. Shortly after that, I found out that nearly all the trains going back up north had been cancelled and all passengers were being advised not to travel. That surely popped my bubble after a lovely culture-filled afternoon. 

I had to quickly find an alternative route which involved running to Euston station carrying my luggage, having to stop halfway to read the free map the hotel gave me. I arrived to find a train I could catch which I ran to and he closed the doors just as I got there at which point I almost cried. I then waited for the next one, getting a great seat but then missed my connection because we were delayed so had to wait a further 30 minutes before I could eventually get home in one piece. 

Things I have learnt: travelling is not always so fun.

Much Love xxx 

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The best socks in the whole dang town.

This is no secret, I am obsessed with Joules Clothing. I have been for quite some time now. When I was at University, I was unlucky enough to be in the same city as one of their stores, which is where most of my student loan soon found itself running along to. They had great sales, which is the only time I ever bought anything and out of that I got my ever so practical waterproof coat, wellies, umbrella and slippers, amongst wedding outfits, my stand out graduation dress and causal tops. But the BEST EVER buy has always been the fluffy socks. 

I don't know about you, but once I find something I like I tend to buy it in multiple colours or patterns as if I am an old lady. I stick to what I know is comfortable and stock up on it. These socks have been an absolute winner every time. I have about 5 pairs, all of which I bought on sale for about £4 a pair. Especially since I have been walking the dogs, these things have been a life saver, the pugs also tend to nip at my feet in a morning due to their excitement and I found them quite protective for that too! They keep my feet cosy in my joules wellies or winter boots, they're warm when I'm walking about the house and I often wear them to bed if I'm cold at night. 

These are the ones i'm wearing right now, which were my first ever pair. I'd say I've had them for at least 4 years and they are surviving very well. They still have their fluffyness and the colours are the same as when I first bought them. Even at £7.95 a pair, they're worth the investment! 

What I love most about Joules is (other than the quality of their clothing) their colour combinations. They always put the nicest shades together. My favourite pair of these socks are a dark purple, navy and mustard stripe - they are so autumnal. 

I've felt like such a country bumpkin whilst walking the dogs everyday and I couldn't have done it so comfortably without ya, Joules! 

Much Love xxx

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A Pug's Life.

I am spending some time over the next couple of weeks looking after my Uncle's 2 pugs, Harry and Alfie. I have never looked after a dog in my life and up until a few years ago, had a pretty bad phobia of them. I didn't know where it came from, but I was lucky enough to meet a couple of dogs that cured me of my fears. These two twin brothers have a good routine and tend to sleep most of the time, which unfortunately seems to be making me rather sleepy too. 

They are so funny, they just follow me everywhere! I go to the toilet and they sit outside and wait for me to come back out. I get changed in a morning with the bedroom door shut and I can hear them breathing right under the door frame. I come out of the bathroom after a wash and they act like they haven't seen me in years. 

I sat down the other night at the table to do some Christmas crafts and told them to go to bed which was just around the corner but they couldn't see me - once I moved their bed so they could watch, they were quite happy. Occasionally they got up and sat right under the table so I couldn't even move my legs.

Right before bed they are supposed to go outside for one last toilet trip but in order to get their lazy bums out you actually have to plonk them outside yourself. They just look at you as if to say 'I don't think so somehow.'

The weather has been quite nice somedays and on our walks there have been some mighty fine views:

I have found some time to do a few more Christmassy stampy/decorationy things:

This is my favourite tag so far! 

Ribbons

Unfinished Salt-Dough Decorations

I have had time to watch a few movies which is good because I have a rather huge selection to go at. After years of hearing it referenced in Friends, I finally know what Sophie's Choice was and I'm currently watching 'Wyatt Earp' as I embark on the Western film selection. I had previously read about him in one of my educational Wild West books but the film is pretty good too (and 3 hours long!) I have watched both my favourite Comedies - 'I Love You Man' and 'Bridesmaids' along with a really cheesy Christmas related one I found on TV last night. 

I've started reading one of the large print westerns I found in the library for 25 pence the other day called 'Mail Order Bride.' It's great because I can read them without my glasses on in bed! Ha. I bought four at the time and went back to buy the rest but it seems that there is another large print western fan in this town, and it 'aint big enough for the both of us. I also baked some experimental healthier oatmeal dark choc-chip cookies for snack cravings that are made with no eggs or butter and wholemeal flour.

 At this point, I will say I have been here the grand total of 2 1/2 days. A lot can be done in 2 1/2 days. 

Much Love xxx

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