Handmade Halloween

Hello and Happy Halloween!

This weeks Handmade Monday is inspired by Halloween and Pinterest. For those of you who don't use Pinterest yet - you must try it before Christmas! It's absolutley packed with ideas for amazing things to make and do. If you want to see what I mean have a look at my 'things I'd love to make' board.

Anyhoo. Here are some things that I found on Pinterest that were recreated in my home for Halloween.

Using old jam jars, vintage poison labels and some plastic bugs, I made these cocktail jars.

 With some plastic bug rings, I made some wine charms (and forgot to take pictures of them on wine glasses!)

We also had an infestation of bats. I wanted them to look like they were swooping out from the cupboards.

I also made some rats to go up the stairs - which I was REALLY pleased with. Alas, I forgot to take a picture. Damn the Halloween excitment going to my head!

Finally, my message for the evening:

 Thank you for reading, have a spooky evening!

Don't forget to check out Handmade Monday

xxx



Delia's Christmas Cake Part 1

I've reached that age now, where I feel like I'm ready to make a grown up Christmas cake. 

So I googled 'best Christmas cake' and Delia popped up, reassuring me that her recipe is fool proof. Well, we'll see about that!

I won't bore you with all the details of the recipe - because you can find it here - and Delia tells it so much better. 

But here's a few pictures to give you the idea:

Soak the fruit in brandy for 12hours (or quite a bit more in my case!) Ooh it smelt sooo good. 

a tiny bit of mixed spice and nutmeg and the kitchen was filled with the smell of Christmas (sigh)

adding the wonderful fruit - an exciting moment!

Finally the nuts, treacle orange and lemon. Time to make a wish everyone!

All wrapped up for the oven (as per Delia's instructions)

4.5 hours later...it's a bit on the thin side, but it smells lovely. When it's cold it's dosed with more lovely brandy and wrapped up well again.

In case you can't tell - I love Christmas.

Thank you for reading xxx

Hand Made Monday

Yesterday was our 1st Wedding Anniversary!

For anyone who doesn't know - that's paper. So thought I'd share the day's makes.

My husband made me a beautiful yellow rose (my favourite)

And I made him an animation using paper:

My brilliant mum came round with a replica of our wedding cake:

We were married at the beautiful Hatfield House, and went back there for a visit yesterday. It's even lovlier than it was a year ago, and it looks like they are going to have some brilliant Christmas Fairs on this year. 

We've had the most wonderful year. I think it takes a very special type of person to marry someone who makes such a mess and is so fond of paint that stains everything. I can't wait to see what I'm sharing with you this time next year :)

Thank you for reading xx

Don't forget to check out other Hand Made Monday blogs. 

Handmade Monday

Hello! I hope you've had a great week. 

Last week went by without any trouble. My class are settling down and I seem to be enjoying things a bit more than I was previously. Maybe this is because of the kids or maybe because I've eaten alot of chocolate this week 

On the crafty front, I had an order for 3 of the chocolate martini glasses which went out this week. 

And it gives me great pleasure to share my Christmas glasses! 

Thank you for reading. Don't forget to check out Handmade Monday. 

Anna xx

Handmade Monday and Giveaway

Hello!

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend and are not suffering too much with that sinking sunday evening feeling.

I had a magical day yesterday, wondering around Hampton Court pretending to be a queen. Our little house does feel rather small after all that grandeur (and the garden definitely feels messier!)

And I couldn't fail to be inspired by sights such as this:

Back to the real world now, which in my case is full of butterflies.  I decided to extend the family of purple butterflies to other cocktail glasses, which has kept me busy.

And there we have it, one big happy purple family.

And finally...

Last week a posted my first give away to celebrate 50 glasses being sold. So here are the names  - it felt more appropriate to put them in a glass than a hat...

And the winner is...if you could make the drum roll noise in your heads please...

Congratulations to Wendy :)

Have a lovely week, and don't forget to check out Hand Made Monday

Anna x

Handmade Monday

Hello!

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend and are not to distraught at the prospect of another

Celebratory Give Away!

Hello! I hope you've had a wondrous week. 

I am celebrating a mini milestone today, as this week I made my 50th sale. Woohoo!

A large amount of these sales were for the butterfly martini glass (about 15) - and nearly every one one of them has been purple!

So to mark this happy occasion, I'm giving away one of the purple butterfly glasses:

I'll happily add a name or message (for you or a friend if you'd like to give it away) to the base of the glass. 

How to enter:

 - Become a follower of my blog, or like my Facebook page (or both if you're feeling very friendly!)

- Leave me a message to let me know that you'd like me to put your name in the hat/bag/bowl or whatever I decide to pull a name out of!

I will announce the winner next Sunday 

Don't forget to check out the other blogs on Handmade Monday this week.

Thank you for reading!

xxx