Three favourite DIYs of 2013

Before starting all the exciting DIYs I have planned for 2014 I thought I’d take a look back at my three favourite and most used makes from this year. It’s been a busy one but I plan to try even more new ideas out in the coming months.

Branch necklace holder - this is without a doubt the easiest, quickest and cheapest DIY I have ever tried but it looks SO effective. I think I need to find some more things to make out of sticks in 2014!

Heart fingerless gloves - I couldn’t not include something knitted and these have been warming my hands pretty much constantly for the last few weeks! They were fun to knit and my first try at knitting in the round – which is a great technique once you’ve got the hang of it. I still love both the colour and the heart design <3

Cameo brooch - what can I say, I watch too much Downton Abbey and fancied a cameo style brooch. The shrink plastic gives it a modern twist to the classic design.

Have you got any new crafts planned for 2014?

Christmas time

I hope you all had a great Christmas! I thought I’d share just a couple of pictures I took on the day this year; I spent the majority of the day at my parents’ house, which is where the pictures below were taken. But the boyfriend and I spent the first part of the day in our flat and managed to visit both sets of parents together before heading to our own families for Christmas dinner. Being three different places meant that the day went way too fast!

As well as seeing family we also managed to fit in time to eat lots of delicious food and open presents. I was lucky enough to get some lovely bits including a few Cath Kidston goodies, a fish eye lens for my camera, jewellery and a candle making set. I love those few days after Christmas when you have time to wear and try out all your new presents and I think I’m going to investigate the candle making set tomorrow. Eeeee.

Looking for his presents!

Trying out my fish eye lens on the Christms tree at my Mum and Dad's house

A needle felt Christmas decoration

This is our first Christmas in our new flat and first tree together so to celebrate I spent last night making a needle felt heart decoration for our Christmas tree. I’ve mentioned my newly found love of needle felting before here (as well as details of the wool and needles you’ll need) and once you’ve got the hang of the basic - stab the wool with the needle as you shape it, it’s really simple and great fun.

I made up the heart as I went along, felting in more wool here and there until I was happy with the shape, but for something more structured you could draw a template first and use this as a guide. As a simple rule, the more wool you felt and the harder you stab it the more sturdy your decoration. Watch out for your fingers though, those needles are sharp!

Once you’re happy take some ribbon, tartan is obviously the best at Christmas time, and push a pin through the middle of the ribbon and down into your decoration. Tie the ribbon together at the top and hang on your tree! The perfect thing to make with a Christmas film on in the background.

Barbados

Well we're back from holiday and before Christmas well and truly takes over our lives, I thought I’d share a few pictures from our trip to Barbados. As I said in my last post it’s the first holiday we’ve had abroad in over three years and first time going anywhere like the Caribbean.... and it was truly amazing. Not even a slight exaggeration there.

We spent most of our time on the beach or by the pool, basically just enjoying the sunshine! I’d really recommend Barbados as a winter sun destination – although it was rather strange to see Christmas decorations while out in 30C heat. They also had some good reggae Christmas song remixes.

The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly swimming with sea turtles, they can be found living near several beaches and it’s so easy to get a boat trip out to see them. We took a cheap disposable underwater camera and I’m so excited to see the developed pictures!

I took around 700 photos on my canon (oops) so here's a very select few...

DIY pom pom Christmas garland

Because it just wouldn’t be Christmas without a few pom poms.

This may just be may favourite make so far and it's certainly my new favourite Christmas decoration. It’s super easy to make, just whip up a few pom poms and tie them on a piece of string; simple but effective!

I think I may need to make a non-Christmas one to put up in the New Year!

p.s. let me know if you would like a pom pom tutorial.

p.p.s. holiday pictures coming later this week :)

Winter sun

Just to let you all know that things are going to be quiet around here for the next week or so as we’re off on our holidays and to be more specific we’re off to Barbados! It’s the first time we’ve been abroad in a few years (and I’ve NEVER been anywhere like Barbados) so I’m super excited!

Work has been pretty stressful (again) recently so a break is well overdue, not to mention the added stress of going away in December... err when do we do our Christmas shopping?...and working right up until the night before we fly, the thought of relaxing is pretty much all that’s keeping me going. I’m afraid I’ve not been organised enough to schedule any posts or guest posts, but have been working on some Christmas DIY’s and a few other exciting things to share with you when I’m back.

Here’s hoping the beach looks something like this...

Image taken from Pinterest

Hope you all have a fantastic week :)