By Alice | Published:
December 19, 2011
I made this Christmas wreath by cutting out two rings of cardboard, one smaller than the other. I covered them both with felt. Then I wrapped lengths of ribbon around the bigger ring sticking down the ends. The ribbons were just ones that I’d gathered over the years – from gifts and here and there. Then when all the ring was covered I stuck the little ring to the big one so it had a nice neat back. A fun project!
The other decorations I made were these. They are for my family. I try to make one decoration for them each year. Working in the countryside now I have so much more access to pinecones so after a couple of lunchtime walks keeping my eye to the ground for the really small ones I had enough to take home and dry out. I did some experiments trying to string them on wire but in the end hot glueing them to each other was the easiest and most satisfying. I them painted them with gold enamel as that’s what I had to hand, spray paint would probably also be good, they had two coats. I didn’t worry too much about getting the gold in every crack as I think it’s nice having a bit of the natural colour showing. Final thing was to string them on a ribbon. I did try adding a bow but that seemed too cutesy. I hope that my family like them :)
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By Alice | Published:
November 1, 2010
The last two I did are now gone so I fancied doing another one, this time I carved a fish into the pumpkin.
I got the idea to do a fish from this fan.
Here it is lit up.
The view from the window in the morning, the leaves are amazing at the moment.
Cats really know how to relax don’t they!
Some friends came around on Saturday which gives a good reason to bake. The Moomin cutters I got in Japan. The hippo I found at a charity sale, I think it might have once been part of a Zoo set.
The recipe I tried out was Nigel Slater’s Brown Sugar Spice Biscuits, the recipe is at the end of this article. I like my gingerbread a little more fiery so I would increase the amount of ginger next time and perhaps roll them thinner. The cardamom in his recipe is a nice touch though.
I like a weekend that has room for these sort of random things alongside all the bustle :)
By Alice | Published:
October 13, 2010
Pumpkin season! Usually I just do a traditional gap-toothed face but this time I fancied doing something different. I made these by the method where you don’t actually make a hole right through but instead chip off the skin so that the light shines through a small remaining layer of the white flesh. So what you do is 1. cut a hole in the top, 2. scrape out the flesh, 3. draw the design with a pen or knife, 4. carve off the outer skin in the shape of your design.
I did the whale first and then as it was much easier than I thought it would be I decided to do a ship too. Why I did a whale and a ship I don’t know, maybe I was influenced by the trails on the BBC for an upcoming serialisation of Moby Dick.
It took me only about 20 minutes per pumpkin. Really the only tricky thing is not taking too much flesh out out of the middle. If you take out too much it is easier to accidentally pierce through when taking off the skin.
These were the tools I used (we like red things), I had a bit of a search around the house to see what tools I already had that I could use. The ones I found were: a lino cut tool to carve out the pattern, a knife to cut the hole in the top, and an ice cream scoop to scrape out the flesh.
It was fun to do, next time I’d love to take on something even more detailed. It’s pretty cosy to sit around in the orange light of pumpkins :)
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By Alice | Published:
August 13, 2010
1. 6am Had fallen asleep watching the meteors and so we woke up with the window open and a great view of the morning sky.
2. On the way to work.
3. This is one of my favourite daily views.
4. Morning sun.
5. After work threading watercolour hearts onto gold thread.
6. Argh! My assistant wants to eat them.
7. What to do with them?
8. Here?
9. Here?
10. We are working our way through all series of Northern Exposure.
By Alice | Published:
August 5, 2010
My sister and I are going to be cooking a meal for my dad’s birthday this weekend. As an advance preparation I made this mini bunting from felt triangles strung on some wool.
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