Easter

I can't wait until next year when I will have a cute little baby to dress up in Easter outfits. (Our baby should be here in the next couple of weeks!) For now I have just been looking for some little Easter treats to cheer me up in my final, difficult weeks of pregnancy.

1. Yellow Jaeger dress from John Lewis.

2.Pale yellow ballet pumps from Debenhams.

3. Yellow Cambridge Satchel from Paperchase.

4. Mini chicks from Paperchase.

5. Flower tealight holder from John Lewis. 

6. Bunny egg cup from John Lewis. 

7. Mini chocolate speckled eggs from John Lewis.

1. Egg decorations from John Lewis.

2. Gingerbread bunny mask on a stick from John Lewis.

3. Chocolate lambs from John Lewis. 

4. Bunny ears from Paperchase. 

5.Woven Easter nests from John Lewis.

6. Mini egg cubes from John Lewis.

7. Large cream bashful bunny from Laura Ashley. 

Painted Pottery and Egg Shell Surprise

I thought that I would make a little Easter gift for my sister today. My sister has the food blog Bilberry Tart, and is obsessed with buying kitchenware and crockery. I thought I would utilise a couple of bowls that I already owned and use some paints that I had bought. I first used these paints to decorate some tea cups and saucers for my baby shower's favours. Unfortunately, my baby shower was cancelled due to my ill health, but I'll post some photos when we have the rearranged shower. 

I used Pebeo Porcelaine 150 paints and mixed together some Ivory and Opaline Blue.

I decided to paint a simple flower design on to the bowls. These paints are really easy to use and mix well together. If you make a mistake, and the paint is still wet, it will wipe off with a bit of toilet roll or a cotton bud. If the paint is dry then I used a sponge with a bit of soapy water to remove the mistake. I painted the two bowls and left them to dry for 24 hours. Once they have dried for 24 hours to seal the paint you need to bake them in a domestic oven for 35 mins at 150°C. 

As I had some paint left over, I decided to do a little secret message in a painted egg shell. First you need to get an egg and a needle and pierce both ends of the egg. Wiggle the needle around in the hole to widen it a little. You then need to break the yolk inside by piercing it several times with the needle. Once you have done this you should be able to blow into one of the holes and the egg should drip out of the other end. If this does not happen then you may need to widen the hole or wiggle the needle around some more to break up the yolk inside. When all of the egg has been removed, run water into one of the holes and blow through to make sure all remnants have been eliminated. To dry out the egg, I give them 30 seconds in a microwave.

I then painted the egg in a couple of coats of paint. Once this had dried, I used a cotton bud to make spots on the egg.

Whilst this was drying, I wrote out my message on a small piece of paper. As the message will need to fit through the hole in the egg, your message cannot be very long. 

Your message needs to then be rolled up as tight as possible and when your paint has dried and stuck through one of the holes you made initially. I then made a little label saying 'Crack me open.'

I'm sure I'll be posting some more painted crockery in the future, as I think you can make some really beautiful personalised, and inexpensive gifts. 

Yummy cookies

As I'm getting some visitors tomorrow, I thought I would make my favourite old faithful cookie recipe. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where I first discovered this recipe and its had several alterations since I first made it. What I love about this recipe is its really hard to get wrong and they taste like the chewy, gooey American style cookies!

Ingredients

50g Dark Muscovado sugar

175g Caster sugar (Still works with normal granulated sugar)

125g Butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract.

225g self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt.

100g Milk chocolate chips

100g White chocolate chips.

1. Preheat oven at 180°C.
2. Cream butter and sugars together.
3. Lightly beat egg.
4. Add egg and vanilla extract and combine.
5. Add flour (I don't bother sifting) and salt.
6. Add chocolate chips. You should now have a nice cookie dough
7. I then make them into balls roughly the size of a golf ball and squish them flatish. (They work at all different sizes, just need to keep an eye on them in the oven.) I cover a baking tray with reusable baking paper and fit six balls per tray. 
8. Place in the oven. The amount of time is dependent upon how you prefer them. If you want them really gooey like the many chains of cookie stores make them then they need around 8 minutes. If you like them a bit crisper and golden then 10-12 minutes.

Once they've cooled, if you want to get that fresh from the oven gooeyness back, then I stick them in the microwave for 10 seconds.

I am planning on modifying this recipe for Bonfire Night to make some toffee apple cookies and also want to try a maple syrup and pecan version (Will let you know how these turn out!)

Chocolate roses were made using mould bought from Ebay here. 

Spring pastels

Although you would not realise it with the weather outside (we've had snow this morning!), today is the first day of spring. I'm dreaming of getting my pre-pregnancy size 8 figure back , and the shopping trips to reinvent my wardrobe with New Mummy style.  I know a lot of women like maternity clothes, but I never really got used to my new shape. Despite still being huge and not able to ditch the maternity clothes, I'd love to get some pretty springtime pastels, so here's a few of my picks.

1. Yellow shift dress from Monsoon.

2. Mint rose bracelet from Etsy.

3. Mint necklace from Debenhams.

4. Emerald and Ivory dress from John Lewis.

5. Mint print wrap dress from John Lewis.

6. Mint coloured nail polish from Debenhams.

7. Mint polka dot hairband from Miss Selfridge.

8. Blue dress from French Connection.

9. Mint scarf from Debenhams.

10. Dress from John Lewis.

1. Lace dress from John Lewis. 

2. Set of hair pins from Debenhams.

3. Pink watch from Miss Selfridge.  

4. Floral print dress from French Connection.

5. Peach peep toe pumps from Debenhams.

6. Pink nail varnish from Debenhams.

7. Nude Peter Pan blouse from Miss Selfridge.

8. Heart scarf from Oasis. 

9. Trousers from French Connection.

10. Summer top from French Connection.

My cousin Alex brought me round these adorable and delicious cake pops in pretty springtime colours to cheer me up. I think this could be a future tutorial, if she will reveal her secrets. Let's hope that the springlike weather will soon be on its way!

Notebook style crush

Whilst I have been recuperating, I have been watching several girly movies in an attempt to pick up my spirits. One movie that always provides a good old cathartic cry is The Notebook. I think every girl would love to have the wardrobe from this movie. Here are some affordable alternatives...

1. Polka dot tea dress from Ebay.

2. Rose hair corsage from Accessorize.

3. Pearl ring from Debenhams. 

4. Polka dot dress from Wallis. 

5. Retro floral suitcase from Not On The High Street.com.

6. Blue Artist dress from Modcloth.

7. Rosebud hair clips from Oasis at ASOS.

8. Pearl necklace from Debenhams. 

9. Pink polka dot hairband from Accessorize.

10. Nude court shoe from Debenhams. 

11. Pink bow barette from Topshop.

12. Blue flock print dress from Dorothy Perkins.

1. Backyard Date Dress from Modcloth.

2. Red tea dress from River Island.

3. Silk lined leather gloves from ASOS. 

4. Lindy bop tea dress from Vintage Twists. 

5. Red rose hair clip from Ebay. 

6. Picnic in Paradise dress from Modcloth. 

7. Red notebook from Paperchase. 

8. Red polka dot bikini from Forluna.

9. Cut out court shoes from Debenhams.

10. Polka dot hairband from Ebay. 

11. Floral belted dress from Dorothy Perkins. 

Housebound Arts & Crafts

We have had an eventful couple of weeks culminating in me having a week's stay in hospital. I am therefore, going to be housebound for the upcoming weeks, so I'm probably going to turn to some arts and crafts to keep me busy.

Twine bottle with paper flowers

I've seen these a few times on pinterest and decided to have a go at making them.

What you need:

Empty wine bottle
Scissors
PVA glue
Super glue
Lace ribbon (I bought mine from ebay - there's lots of choice)
Pearls/crystals (I had some pearls from a broken necklace)
Old book
Twine (I bought mine from Wilko £1.49 for a large ball)

First take labels of your wine bottle and make sure it is thoroughly washed. I put quite a decent blob of superglue to stick the beginning of my twine to the top of the bottle. Then I started to wind the twine around the bottle. I used the PVA glue to stick the twine to the bottle and the twine together so there wasn't any gaps. I didn't glue all the way down the bottle, but just used PVA glue and then superglue at intervals. It holds without it all being glued. 

Whilst your bottle is drying you can make the paper flowers. I used pages from a charity shop book for the paper. (It was in Spanish so I was unlikely to read it.) Remove a couple of pages and draw on three spiral designs and a couple of stalks and leaves. Cut along the line and cut out the stalks and leaves.

Once you have cut them out they should look like this...

You then need to glue along the inner edge of your spiral and stick it together lifting up the outer edge, so it creates a flower shape. Once you have created your flower shape stick a pearl or a jewel in the middle or it looks pretty just as it is. 

I let my bottle and flowers dry overnight. I then added the ribbon to the twine bottle and arranged the flowers and glued with PVA glue. 



This is really an easy project that I think is really effective. Hope this has inspired you to give it a go.