A roundabout way to awesome

A little while back, I was spending a pleasant morning procrastinating on Pinterest rather than actually studying and I came across a lovely DIY post from Woods of Bell Trees on making awesome string lights that are diffused by ping pongs – sounds weird, I know, but take a look, it’s quite cool.

Anyhoo, I absolutely adored the 2 tone print of the Mexican woman that has been used as a prop in the money shot for this DIY and kept thinking about it for ages. Eventually realising that I was unlikely to find it on my lonesome, I emailed the lovely Heather and asked about it. Luckily for me she’d purchased it from Derrick Castle (straw castle designs) on Etsy rather than some out of the way shop in her corner of the world and so now…. I have ordered one too!

I get strangely excited by new housey things…

Las Bandidas by Derrick Castle

I also couldn’t help myself and bought this:

Bitten by Failure by Derrick Castle

The title just spoke to me.

And that’s this week’s roundabout way to awesome.

All images are from Derrick Castle over at his straw castle designs Etsy shop…seriously, check his stuff out, it’s pretty darn cool.

A quoi ca sert l’amour?

If you haven’t seen this, then you have been deprived. This is what the internet was made for!! The perils of love, a film by Cube. Enjoy xx

Spiced Caramel Pear Butter (aka get rid of excess pears recipe) with free label

While all of my social media keeps sending me all of these enticing summer deals and sweet spring dessert recipe pins, I look out the window at a scene that is very obviously Autumn (Fall) and feel the temperature that is very obviously turning into Winter!

SO, for all my southern hemisphere friends that are also a little fed up with sites being too lazy to be geographically accurate in their marketing, I’m putting up this recipe, which I think of as Autumn in a jar.

Is DIY dead, resurging or evolving?

The last few years has seen a rise in the belief that DIY skills are becoming a thing of the past, with Gen Yers more interested in paying a handyman that getting dirty themselves. I know that if I look back through the generations in my family, my grandfather could do everything from tiling to whittling wood to fixing electric wiring. My grandmother could knit, bake, crochet and paint. My dad, conversely, could wire up a circuit board (nerdiness is genetic it seems) would never tile or cement or re-render a wall, and hates getting dirty generally. Then we get to my cousin – I don’t have a brother – and while he pours a mean cosmo, he probably doesn’t actually know which end to hold the hammer.

Super Duper Easy Crafty Cleaner

So, let’s do some maths beautiful people. What do you get if you take the juice of half a lemon, add 2 cups of warm water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda?

Alons-y Alonso!

Hello hello everyone! I’m stepping out for a short 2 weeks, but I will be back.

And if you know the reference that the title comes from, you’re as big a nerd as me :p

What’s Lazertran I hear you ask?

If you have never heard of lazertran paper before, you my friend, are in for an awakening. Lazertran is a transfer paper that you can print onto with your normal, everyday, garden variety inkjet printer and transfer onto any surface known to man *insert evil laughter here*. Well, almost any surface, I’m not sure it could transfer onto, say, adamantium, but it can do ceramic, glass, wood, plastic and even, I shit you not, CANDLES! How frickin’ awesome is that? If you live in Ozlandia (Australia), I buy mine from eckersleys, but if you go to their website, you can get it there too – globalisation, the best thing for the everyday consumer since sliced bread… or something.

Red Velvet Cake Balls including Gift Box Goodness

Instead of a standard “hello world” post and in typical me style, I’ve decided not to christen this blog with what I’ve mentioned in the about page, or what I initially intended for it, but instead with three of my favourite things – cake, chocolate and homemade packaging. Check this out, red velvet cake with butter frosting, dipped in chocolate, decorated with more chocolate and then wrapped up in pretty homemade boxes. Can you think of a better start to what will hopefully be a beautiful collation of all that is mean and crafty?