January Review

In Life...

We looked for houses, planned weddings and got organised!

What We Watched...

Sunshine Cleaning - My friend lent me this and I really enjoyed it. It is a bit of a strange subject matter though, about 2 sisters who start up a crime scene clean up service. Interesting!

Lord of The Rings Return of the King - I believe I only every watched this once before, which is terrible seeing as how big a LOTR fan I used to be, and how many times I had watched the others.  But it made watching it again all the more enjoyable. I am REALLY looking forward to the next part of The Hobbit coming out now!

Snakes on a Plane - Did  what it said on the packet! I have to say I do really like Samuel L Jackson in pretty much any film!

Django Unchained - This was awesome! I used to be a real Tarantino fan so it was great to see this. It was rather strange watching it at the cinema at 11am though!

What I read...

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the ring - You may be sensing a theme here. I'm swatting up for the next Hobbit film. Also, if there are any LOTR based pub quizzes going on in the near future I will surely come in handy!

A Street Cat named Bob - What a sweet book this was. Any cat fans out there should read this!

The Great Gatsby - I have been meaning to read this for a long time and when it was on offer on the Kindle for only 70p I jumped at the chance.

The Happiness Project - This book was really inspiring and I can relate so much to Gretchen! It's definitely worth a read. She has a blog too which you can find here.

In Blog Land...

This has been a month of firsts for my little blog! I jumped in to the crazy world of outfit posts with this post. I also decided it was time to host my first giveaway!

I received a liebster award from Besma at Bonjour Madmoiselle, how exciting! Because I had received one of these before ( you can see the first post here) I decided I would answer Besma's questions on my monthly review, so here they are..

1. If you could be any film character for real, who would you be? I think Marilyn Monroe's character Sugar Kane, from Some Like it Hot would be fun. She carries a hip flask, she seems like a fun gal!
2. Favourite artist/piece of art? This is difficult! I don't think I have one actually. I do like art, but I've never really had a favourite artist.
3. Best band you have seen live? 'Everything Everything'. They were amazing and seemed genuinely excited that the crowd knew all their songs, I think we must have been at one of the first gigs of their tour.
4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I would stay in England but find somewhere really quaint and pretty. Can I have a holiday home somewhere thats always warm though? I'm having enough trouble deciding where to live in real life so this is probably not the best question for me to answer!
5. Favourite author/writer/poet? This is a tricky one, there are so many! But since I am totally obsessed with Lord Of the Rings and The Hobbit at the moment I will have to say J.R.R.Tolkein
6. If you had one wish, what would you wish for? Eternal Happiness! Thats pretty all encompassing, right?
7. Do you have a phobia of anything? Large replica whales and dinosaurs. I have trouble in museums!
8. Do you still get Deja Vu? I used to get this SO often, I haven't noticed it as much recently but I do still get it from time to time.
9. Biggest guy crush? When I was a teenager I had a massive crush on Josh Hartnett.I remember having a picture of him on one of my school exercise books.
10. Biggest girl crush? Probably Zooey Deschannel, I do love New Girl!
11. Gold or silver jewellery? Gold

Thanks again Besma!

My Favourite Posts...

80s NAILS

EASY CANAPE'S

DIY TUTORIAL KINDLE CASE AND STAND

OUTFIT POST - COLLARS AND COLOURS

MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

DOTTY NAILS

Laura xXx

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Dotty Nails

Time to reveal what I did with these lovely little nail dotting tools that my Aunt bought me for Christmas.... dotty nails!

First off I painted my nails a nice shade of grey. I wasn't sure what kind of paint I was meant to use for this, so I just picked some pretty acrylic colours that I already had. All I did was dip the tool into the acrylic, then dot a line all the way up my nail. One application of paint on the tool lasted for 1 vertical line, then I re-dipped,  which is why the dots get smaller towards the top of my nail.  

I think they look pretty cool, though they seem to remind me of Daaleks! Once I had painted a layer of Seche Vite on top this seemed to solve the problem though... not that it is really  a problem, particularly if you like Daaleks!

Supplies:

• Elle Grey Nail Varnish
• Nail dotting tool
• Acrylic Paint
• Seche Vite
• 
  

On a side note, how awesome is it that the colour of the dotting tools match exactly the colours in my header!?

Laura xXx

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My First Giveaway!

Hello lovely readers! I thought it was about time I said thank you for reading my little blog with a  giveaway! So I'm giving away one of my hand painted Aztec Mugs, along with 4 of my handpainted Aztec buttons! It's just a little giveaway for fun, but you sure won't find these anywhere else as they were made by my own fair hands! Here is a closer peek:

a Rafflecopter giveaway So I am using Rafflecopter for the first time with this giveaway! Gosh I hope it works! Let me know if you have any problems.  Anywho, you can enter by following me on twitter, you can then get an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway. Make sure you fill in the fields above to enter successfully. Just UK entrants this time please, I'll try to do one soon that is worldwide but I think this package would be too heavy. Good luck :)

Laura xXx

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Blogger Meet Ups

You may have already seen this mentioned around the blogsphere, but I am very excited about it and therefore I must dedicate a whole post to it! First off, big thanks to Rachel from OhNoRachio who has had the forethought to announce our Southampton meet up plans officially, and from whom I nabbed the below pictures. You can see her original post here. She has evidently been in cahoots with some other bloggers organising a Cambridge meet up, which I am hoping I will also be able to attend!

If you would like to met up and are able to get to Southampton on 9th February, let me know and I will keep you updated. Hop over to OhNoRachio to show your interest about the Cambridge meet up until I know I am going to be there for sure. Looking forward to seeing some of you soon!

Laura xXx

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Outfit Post - Collars and Colours

I thought I'd try something different today, so I present you with my first ever outfit post! I was inspired by my lovely new jumper from Asos, so I thought I would give it a go.

Jumper - ASOS

Jeans - Topshop

Elephant Ring - Urban Outfitters

Shoes - Brantanos
Glasses - Lensway

I must admit I had a bit of trouble taking photos of myself! It was very tricky trying to get a photograph in focus, and I ended up with slim pickings, which is why this post is quite accessories heavy! I think I'll get Chris to help me if I do another one.

Perhaps you can help me out with some tips if you do outfit posts yourself? Anyway, what do you think, should I make it a regular feature?

Laura xXx

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DIY Tutorial Kindle Case and Stand

You may have noticed, since I have been banging on about it so much, that I have bought myself a Kindle, yay! Now, I want to look after my new toy, but the cases for it are pretty pricey, so I decided to make my own, and I am really happy with how it turned out. Lucky for you lot I remembered to take photos throughout the process, so you can make it too! I used a similar process to this tutorial I did a little while ago for an iphone stand.

To make the base

You will need;

• A piece of material measuring at least 49cm x 38cm
• 2 pieces of strong cardboard measuring 12cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of strong cardboard measuring 11cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of cardboard measuring 1cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of cardboard measuring 1.7cm x 17.5cm
• A needle and thread or a sewing machine
• Velcrow

To make the inside panel with elastic corner straps

You will need;

• A piece of thin cardboard Measuring 11.5cm x 16.7cm
• A Glue Gun
• Felt or a scrap of fabric
• A long piece of elastic

Making The Base

The base of this is basically going to be an rectangular pocket which we will then slip our pieces of cardboard into. Your card pieces should look like the below. I just used cardboard box card, but the stronger the card you use the better.  Use a craft knife, ruler and mat to cut the correct sizes.With your card ready, you now want to get your fabric and fold it in half with the wrong side of the fabric facing out. Place your cardboard in a row against the fold as below, then draw around the cardboard onto the fabric, then pin along the lines you have drawn, catching both sides of the fabric. Now trim around the edges of the line, leaving about 1 cm around the bottom and the side and a few inches above the cardboard, which will become the opening. Don't sew along the top yet! Now you are going to sew along the lines you have drawn. You can use a sewing machine but I just used a needle and thread. To make sure it was the right size I sewed the bottom line, then inserted the card inside the fabric so that I could follow the line of the card when sewing up the side. Below you can see the finished 'pouch'. Now you are going to turn it inside out so that the right side of the fabric is on the outside. Use the end of a pencil to poke the corners out, you might also want to trim the edges of the fabric at this point so that the corners turn out properly. 

Next we are going to re-insert the cardboard into the pocket. The order should go; Large rectangular piece, largest thin piece, large rectangular piece, smaller thin piece, large rectangular piece. In between each piece of cardboard we need to make a hinge. So sew along using the edge of the cardboard as a guide, be careful not to make it too tight or loose. When you get to the end you will need to use a backstitch, making sure the edges are tucked in neatly. See step 7 of this tutorial for a better idea.When finished the base should look something like the below, and should fold up around your kindle.

Making the Inside Panel

Now we need to make something for the Kindle to be held in with. Get your piece of thin card and your felt/spare fabric. Cut the fabric so that it looks like the below picture.

Now you will need to get out the glue gun and glue each side down, pulling tightly to make the fabric nice and taut at the front.

Here is the fiddly bit, you need to make your elastic corners, so you need a nice long piece of elastic. The picture below shows the back of the inside panel when complete. I have used the glue gun to glue each piece of elastic on the back.

Below is the step by step process to create the corner straps. I forgot to photograph this originally so I just used a piece of card for you to get the gist. Between taking each photo I turned the card over.

You can adjust the corners bit by bit as you go. When you get to the end untape the end of the elastic, and tie the two ends together. At this point you use the glue gun to stick it all securely to the back. Before I did this I placed the kindle in the holder to make sure it all fitted. I actually then left it there until the end of the process, but be careful not to get glue on it! Finally you will need to glue the panel to the middle piece of your base. Just use your glue gun to go around all 4 sides of the rectangle, then place and hold in the middle for a minute until it is dry.

To finish the whole thing off you will probably want to create a fastening. I just found some velcro, cut it into circles, then used the glue gun to fix it in place.

The great thing about this is that you can stand it up, both horizontally and vertically!

I hope you liked todays tutorial, it was definitely one of the most satisfying things I have made. If you have any questions just let me know, I would be happy to help!

Laura xXx

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A day in the life...

Chris abandoned me on saturday to go on a skiing holiday with the boys in Andora. I have been incredibly jealous. Skiing is pretty much the only sport I am any good at and actually enjoy, so I have been in a bit of a grump.  Anyway, on Sunday I allowed myself a lazy day bumbling about, crafting, painting my nails and reading on my brand new kindle! I didn't venture outside the house once, but it is just as well because the weather was awful! 

So here are a few snaps of the day which will be fully revealed in later posts...

I am glad it is now Wednesday, mid way through the week, hurrah! And the prospect of having the girls over tomorrow night has cheered me up. Also I have just received my ASOS order for all my new work clothes, hurrah again!

Laura xXx

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Easy Canapes - Salmon, Cucumber and Cream Cheese

Here I am, back with another easy canape.  I know the holiday season is pretty much over now, but I thought that this was such a good one, I couldn't resist! It is perfect if you are catering to people who are wheat or gluten intolerant, and ideal if you have 'last minute' guests, as it only takes a few minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Cucumber
• Smoked Samlon
• Cream Cheese (I used Philadelphia Light with Chives)

Chop up your cucumber into nice chunky pieces. Add a blob of cream cheese on top. Seperate your salmon into nice bitesize chunks, then pop them on top of the cream cheese. Hey presto, your done! This has got to be the easiest one yet and they went down really well at a party we had recently. 

Laura xXx

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