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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Inspiration Station.

I can't believe the last time I sat to write was Easter. These past few weeks have flown by unusually quickly and I feel like I need to catch up a bit! I haven't neglected the writing due to lack of inspiration, quite the opposite actually! So much has changed lately that I feel a bit overwhelmed and don't even know where to begin. I suppose the biggest change is that I now feel settled in a new Church. I've already made some great friends and am enjoying getting stuck into life with those guys. I feel my heart shifting towards this new place, with this group of people and am excited about where the next few weeks might lead me. Check them out here. They are involved with lots of great community stuff, and this is the place where CAP (Christians Against Poverty) all began.

The main thing that has prompted me to write comes from a book I am reading at the moment. I was finally persuaded to pick it up as I was looking for something that was bound to inspire and stir me up. So far, it has passed that test as I knew it would, with flying colours! The book is called 'Undaunted' and is written by Christine Caine. After reading one of her previous books; 'Stop acting like a Christian and be one,' I fell in love with her honesty and uncompromising style. It's just so refreshing. I actually started reading Undaunted right before a shift at work and found even the first chapter left me heart broken and totally distracted all day.

You see, we all have dreams dont we? As i've said before, i'm a real daydreamer. I sit and think about when I will have my first youth work job, getting paid to do what I really love. Maybe i'll have my own office. Or then i'll be able to have my own home...full of trinkets and bedspreads (as I seem to have a weakness for bed linen.) Or marriage, family, future holidays or places I'd like to travel to. I know we all do it! Imagine if one day, somebody came to you and just offered you your dream. A fresh start, a new country, provision for your family, your dream job - but more than that - a HOPE that you didn't think would ever come to you. Imagine you are feeling hopeless, like you've given up, you're trapped, you'll never get out of this situation. In a dead end job, with little money, a house you hate or in a place you can't stand - and someone comes out of the blue to offer you a way out of that. How likely would it be that you would at least consider it? That glimmer of hope?

Say, you go for it. You trust that person. You move, ready to start your new adventure, a better life that secures a brighter future for you and your family - only to be trapped. It's not the place it was supposed to be. You were moved under false pretences, lied to, beaten, abused repeatedly. Trafficked. 

You may have guessed why this book left me distracted. This is the fate of so many people today. 27 million. Even as I write this, or as I continue to read the book this is happening. People are being SOLD. Trapped in shipping containers as if they are a product. Men, women and children. Forced into labour or the sex trade. Slavery is so REAL. It's happening right here, in my community, in my town, in my city and likely in yours too. This issue is bigger than ever before. We need to speak out! We need to educate, to spot the signs, to intervene, to rescue, to act, to pray, to speak out, to END IT. We musn't ignore it, or make it feel distant. This doesn't just happen in far away countries, poorer than ours.  You don't have to look far in the news to find it. These people; mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers - are being BOUGHT and SOLD. Human beings, just like you and I. We can no longer sit back  and pretend like this injustice isn't taking place day in, day out. Because it is!

I have blogged about the A21 Campaign before, and the author of this book is the freedom fighter behind this amazing Charity. Even if you aren't a Christian, I would recommend you read even just the first Chapter. It's actually on offer at $2.99/£2.99 as an E-book at the moment so now might be the time to snap it up. Christine writes with much more conviction than I do, but also has real life experiences in rescuing women from trafficking, which are heart breaking accounts - but a necessary read. There are also other great campaigns that speak out - The End It Movement, Restored For, Stop the Traffik, Hope for Justice, MTV Exit and Walk Free.

I think it's important that our hearts break for issues such as this, that we are moved to do something to eradicate it once and for all. Fundraise, talk about it, raise awareness, sign petitions - get involved. Freedom for all is something we must fight and keep on fighting for...

Much Love xxx

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'The Renewing of Your Mind'

Following my post re: New Year, I've decided to make a few 'head' changes. I deactivated one of my social networks the other day as a way of cutting all the time I spend trawling through posts by people I barely know and instead inputting my time into those who are closest to me so that I can know them really well. I've noticed i'm not the only one going this way as a few people have done the same. It feels as if I've gone back in time, back to the years before all this internet nonsense got in the way of real and true friendships.

It's not the only thing it's bad for. I've spoken time and again about the way we spend our lives comparing ourselves to others. Social networking has a way of making us feel better about ourselves by throwing our personal lives all over the internet to see how many 'likes' we can get. Our insecurities are not going to be resolved this way. It might be a temporary fix that 70 people said Happy Birthday to us, but that doesn't make those people true friends, who would be there when you need them.

You see, I've reached a place where honesty is always going to be the best policy. (Unfortunately, once I've had a drink or two, it gets worse.)

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” 

― André Gide, Autumn Leaves

There's just no point in pretending anymore! Why do we do it?! We were chatting last night in the pub, about how when you're in a relationship and your partner annoys you - you will most likely tell them, yet in our friendships we rarely do the same thing. Not only this, but if we aren't open with our friends - how are they ever able to truly help us? If there aren't some people in the world that we can be real with then how can we ever be ourselves? Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies!

So this year; I am going to write more letters, drink more coffees, keep it real, make more phone calls and focus on those whom I truly love. I am going to forget about fear, and take courage in my own decisions without feeling like I have to explain myself to everyone. I am also going to love more.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” 

― Mother Teresa

P.s. I found this great website the other day which has spent many an hour inspiring me: look here :)

Much Love xxx

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