Mother's Day Love

Mother's Day is just around the corner and it's time we said thank you to our mummies for all they do! I love that Mother's Day falls just as spring has sprung as it gives me the perfect excuse to incorporate plenty of flowers and bright colours in to my gifts (as if I need an excuse). And in the essence of being a child again, it's only right that we hand make our cards.

I saw this little watering can flower pot in Asda for an absolute bargain price of £2.50 and instantly fell in love. Isn't it the cutest thing?! Asda have a great range of flower accessories like this at the moment so if you haven't picked something up for your Mum yet I'd recommend you go for a trip before Sunday. The watering can was plain white when I bought it but I couldn't resist adding my own personal touch with some little hand painted pink dots with some acrylic paint. Just perfect for my Mum's work desk and I can't wait to give it to her.

My boyfriend even got stuck in to the DIY for his Mum and made this adorable tea set in to a lavender scented teacup candle. You can see my tutorial for making candles here.

Home made card. Inspiration - Pinterest

I live 3 hours away from my Mum, it's not easy being so far away but hopefully it won't always be like that and it is sure going to be alot easier to see her once I can drive (fingers crossed soon!). This weekend I am lucky enough to be spending the weekend with her when she comes to visit tomorrow night. The pink wine is chilling in the fridge already and I can't wait!

What are your plans this weekend to spoil your Mum?

Some Dairy and Gluten Free Goodness

This weekend was a lazy weekend full of Breaking Bad marathons wrapped in fluffy blankets, late lunches and watching the sun stream through the bedroom window. As much as I love busy weekends socialising and going on trips, sometimes you just need some time at home to relax from a hectic week.

I've had a gluten free diet for the past 8 years since discovering I was intolerant at 16. After a few years you get so used to what you can and can't have that keeping a gluten free diet isn't actually as devastating as you might think, although don't get me wrong, I still wish I could eat proper pizza every day of the week! Recently however, I have been feeling like something else is wrong. I have been sticking to the gluten free and still feeling like crap. I started to cut out dairy and suddenly feel alot better (still not entirely but hopefully the doctor will shed some light on that!). 

But here's the thing - living gluten and dairy free is NOT easy! And here's where the wonderful blogging world has been coming to my rescue. Just this weekend I tried out two recipes from blogs, one from The Londoner for dairy free ice cream and one from Handmade Charlotte for grain free "n'oatmeal" - both are simple to make, use every day ingredients and are completely dairy and gluten free, yay!

Are any of you dairy or gluten free? Do you have any recipes which get you through the day?!

Fairy Project #4 Teacup Candles

Ever since I saw my first teacup candle in a shop I knew I loved them, but also knew that surely they couldn't be so difficult to make. At around £12 each in the shop, I decided to do my research and make my own! 
I'd recommend these teacup candles to anyone as it was SUPER easy! You can pick up teacups in charity shops and they are normally very well priced; the one I used here cost £2 and it is real bone china.

For the candles you will need:
Wax - I used soy wax after reading loads of reviews about the pros and cons of soy and parrafin wax. In the end I went for the soy as it meant to be more natural, but both types have their benefits!
Wicks
Colour dye (optional) - I used a tiny amount of fushcia dye which turned a lovely lilacy pink colour
Scent (optional) - I used lavender oil and it smells so good!

Fill your teacup with the wax flakes about two times over and then transfer to an old pan sitting inside a bigger pan which has simmering water until the wax will begin to melt and go clear. 

In your teacup, place one of the wicks in the centre and hold straight by placing the wick between two pens taped together at the top - this will keep the wick centred when the hot wax is poured in.

In the pan, add in a couple of small pieces of your colour dye to the melting wax (the wax will look really bright but as it sets the colour will lighten) and a few drops of your scent and pour carefully in to the teacup. 

Leave to set for 12 hours and then enjoy how pretty it looks!

The Good Things Jar

At the start of the year in my house we started the Good Things Jar. Every time something good happens, we write it on a sheet of my lovely Cath Kidston paper from a notebook I received from my litter sister for Christmas, fold it and pop it in. The idea is that we will sit down on New Year's Eve this year and tip open the jar to read about all of the good things which happened this year.

The jar sits on my fireplace and brings me a little smile each time I look at it, remembering the notes from January when we saw my boyfriend's little half sister smile for the first time or from February when we ate those amazing burgers! I think it's far too easy to get bogged down in worries about work, uni and everyday stresses and having this little jar is a constant reminder that there are many, many things to be thankful and smile about!

Tonight I think I will be putting a note in about how nice it was to feel the spring sunshine on my face on my lunchtime walk around the loch....

PS. It's only March so if you haven't got a Good Things Jar yet, it's not too late to start!

Cards Cards Cards

I've always been a fan of cards. I know some people can find them a bit unnecessary and a waste of money, but I love giving cards (and love receiving them even more!) especially when it's just for no reason. Who doesn't get excited when you push open your front door when you get in from work and see a hand written address on an envelope lying on the mat? I think nowadays it has become all too easy to just send someone a text or even write on their "wall" when it's their birthday or they've got a new job or passed their exams, but for me, cards are 100% more personal and lovely.

Which is why I've started making them! 

I ordered some plain Kraft cards from Hobbycraft to start as I really like the shabby chic look they give and whenever I see these kind of cards in Paperchase they are the ones which catch my eye. Whilst browsing on Hobbycraft's website I also found some alphabet stamps (similar here) which I thought would be great for creating that old school typewriter look whilst I wait for the arrival of new ink ribbons for my actual typewriter (which is another blogpost waiting to be written!).

Using the printed paper and twine leftover from the bunting I made (have a look here) and of course some Pinterest inspiration (see my Craft board here) it was off to work I go!

What do you think? Is my dream to open an Etsy shop a bit too ambitious yet?!

Fairy Project #4 Bunting

I love bunting! I saw some cardboard bunting on Etsy a while back so decided to give it a shot myself. I found a lovely book on Amazon filled with premier paper in all different prints in greens and reds (the colours in my living room) and ordered along with some twine string. Cut into triangles with every second one being given a contrasting heart and then threaded with the twine, it's brightened up the fireplace with a touch of shabby chic!

Premier paper booklet

American Diner Style Birthday

It's fast becoming tradition that on my boyfriend's birthday, I cook a big slap up meal for us and of course, bake the obligatory chocolate cake! Who's idea was this "tradition", hmmm?!

This year I decided, after seeing an absolutely mouth watering post on a homemade burger with pulled pork by The Londoner (here), to go for an all out American diner style theme. Now, I do like to cook and I'm not a complete kitchen disaster (although the broken ceramic dish in my bin would tell you a different story), but I'm by no means a chef, so I beg of you to try this if Ultimate Burgers are your thang!

So, here's what I went for:

Southern fried chicken burgers (gluten free)

BBQ pulled pork

Paprika sweet potato fries

Toasted marshmallow milkshakes

Chocolate cake (gluten free)

And I'm sooo happy to say it was all a roaring success! 

For the Southern Fried chicken burgers, take 200g of gluten-free flour (I try to eat GF as much as possible) and sift with some salt, paprika and piri piri salt in a big bowl. Beat an egg in a separate bowl. Take two chicken breasts and score along the top and flatten a little, then dip in the flour, then the egg, then the flour again so it's coated well. Pan fry in hot oil for about 10 mins and then whack in the oven at 220 degrees celcius for 20-30 mins. 

The trick here is making sure you take the chicken out the oven as soon as it's cooked and white all the way through - I used to be so guilty of leaving chicken in the oven for an hour "to make sure it's cooked" but all that happens is you get bone dry chewy chicken! Take it out as soon as it's cooked and it'll be soo tender!

For the pulled pork, I did exactly as The Londoner did in her post, which I've linked above. Cooked in the slow cooker for 4 hours (after work meaning I did not see my bed till 1.50am by the time I'd taken it out and pulled off the bone, so maybe try this at the weekend when you have more time!), then pull the softest meat off the bone and mix with some more BBQ sauce, and it's honestly that simple. And let me tell you, it tastes AMAZING!

I didn't make the bread buns (shoot me) and they aren't gluten free (because GF bread SUCKS), but I did put an egg wash on the top, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked in the oven for 10 mins to try and get that American diner bun feel!

Now, layer up in a loaded, messy style, serve with some sweet potatoes roasted with plenty of salt and paprika, and enjoy!!

Oh, and not forgetting the marshmallow milkshakes, which are a Spike Mendelsohn recipe, find it here...mmmmmmm!

I used a Nigella chocolate cake recipe (here) and decorated with baby bunting which was somewhat a by-product of the real, life-size bunting which I made as part of Hamish's birthday present. I will be doing a post about the making of that next week! As I'm sure you can imagine, Pinterest provided oodles of inspiration for the decorations!

Here's the birthday boy himself, badge and all, getting tucked right in <3

 PHEW! I'm almost as tired writing what I did as I was preparing it all! We ended the evening shacked up in a tiny little pub drinking Disaronno and coke listening to some brilliant open mic, and are off on a trip to the West coast of Scotland this weekend. I like birthdays, even if they aren't my own!

Let me know if you have a go at the burgers, or have any advice to give!

Fairy Project #3 The Rocking Chair

Let me start by saying - who doesn't want a rocking chair?! When we went on the search in our local and very beautiful vintage furniture shop (I 'oooo' and 'aaaah' the ENTIRE time I'm in there) for a simple little wicker chair to sit in the bare corner in the living room, I didn't expect to be spending the rest of the evening re-upholstering a vintage rocking chair!

You know when you walk in to a shop and see THOSE shoes, or in to a cake shop and see THAT cake that you know you just aren't going to leave without, well this was the case for the Rocking Chair and I. Despite it being a little over budget at £60 for what we had planned, I knew it would end up being one of those pieces of furniture which will end up staying with me and therefore be worth every penny and more! And you can't deny that it will fit perfectly in a baby's room in the future for late night feeds! :-)

The original upholstery on the seat wasn't awful...but the material was like linoleum and not what we were looking for to go in our cosy living room. A trip to Dunelm Mill for half a metre of fabric (around £5), a staple gun and an old white pillowcase to stop the old material from showing through, and a Sunday night of re-upholstering commenced!

Original shiny material - cute but too kitcheny

 With a little help! Unscrewed the seat

Stretched white pillowcase stapled as an underlayer

Stretch the fabric tightly and staple then cut to neaten up

 Screw back on and pop in little corner with some more contrasting flowery prints

I'm happy to say that the chair even made it through the flat party without turning to kindling!
What do you think of my first piece of re-upholstery? :-)