Brass Animals

I have two glittery reindeers that make an appearance every Christmas and I love 'em.  Needless to say I hate putting them away once the 12 days after Christmas have passed. This year though, they've been replaced and I am in love.

Meet the brass giraffe candlestick holder that is currently residing on our TV. He was about £5 in the Anthropologie sale, though I'd loved him when he was nearer £30 {I just couldn't bring myself to pay that}.

I know it's rather random but he fits in rather well with the slightly ecclectic decor in our flat. I like to think it's tasteful but with character - in keeping with our gorgeous cornicing, high ceilings and ridiculously bold colours thanks to our landlord. I might be verbose when it comes to thinking about fashion but I know exactly how I want to merge my personal interior style with my boyfriend's and how I want our home to look and I love that our styles seem to mix so well together. And that he humours me when I do think like bring home a brass giraffe...

Reader. It must be love.

Love B x

Olivia Palermo - or rather, a post that was meant to be about her but turned out to be about personal style...

So January has been quite intensively crafty in terms of posts so I thought I'd diversify a bit and think about some of my other resolutions. One of which is to be consistent in the ways I present myself - both in terms of style {making more of an effort, more of the time - rather than stumbling from high effort to schlomp pants} and looking after myself more with regards to {granted, vacuous} things such as haircuts, eyebrow waxes, nails. I am aware how vain and inconsequential this comes across but I recently stumbled across an interview on Vogue.com with Olivia Palermo in which she talked about personal style and some of the things she said really resonated with me.

She talked about how you can't wear the same clothes at 24 as you did at 18. As I grow up and find myself using my time differently - working full time being the main change - I find I the clothes I wear and love must adapt accordingly.  It's not to say I have had a complete style overhaul, infact I'd say my tastes have been fairly consistent since my late teens, but I am certainly more and more confident in finding pieces that I love and actually reflect my tastes. and my wardrobe is finally beginning to reflect that. A large portion of my clothes need to reflect my personality whilst still be practical for me to carry out my job well. I'm on my feet all day and working with children in a school so I need to maintain some air of authority but formal office wear isn't really appropriate. Nor are high end or trend led pieces. As such, whilst working in a school gives me more freedom than working in a corporate environment, for example, my clothes are still required to be smart and practical enough for me to do my job and show a bit of personality.

Not that that should cause much issue. My style has grown and evolved as I have: I have no desire to dress like I did at 18 nor should I really be presenting myself in the same way I did at 18. I want my outward appearance to reflect who I am as well as where I am hoping to be headed in my future. Perhaps I'm taking clothes a bit too seriously here but I certainly believe that the clothing you wear helps paint a picture of you to those around you. Working with children, I think this is particularly evident as they pick up on visual clues so well - the kooky art teacher isn't going to wear a sharp Tom Ford suit everyday. Equally, the head of a school isn't going to turn up in ragged jeans every afternoon. Especially in a work environment, I think your clothing needs to be consistent with your personality and approach to work. So, as a teaching assistant/hopefully a trainee teacher, and with youth as perhaps a barrier rather than a help, I need to dress in a way that encourages the children to interact with me and that shows a hint of personality, but that also reinforces my role and position in the classroom.

Am I making any sense? I think what I am trying to say {in a rather wordy manner} is that I want my clothing to reflect my professional ambitions, my professional position and my personal approach. Equally I want off duty clothing that reflects me as I am now, at nearly 24, rather than the clothes I wore at 18. Phew.

This new sense of "clarity" {and verbosity, apparently} isn't to say that I don't have days where I hate everything I own and believe it makes me look hideous; there are far too many pieces in my wardrobe that I have spent far too much money on only to realise I like them considerably less than I thought or that they simply don't fit with my lifestyle. Looking at Olivia Palermo and her personal sense of style, I certainly find her tastes have an affinity with mine. She always looks effortlessly polished and pulled together - something that I'd like to emulate more in 2012. Reading this back, this seems like such a vacuous thing to be pontificating on {and pontificate I have} but I know I feel so much better if outwardly I present myself in a way that exudes confidence, poise and a bit of grace. Clothes that express my personality and present myself in the way I want to seen.

Oh hell. This has turned in to a far more epic and wordy post than I had ever anticipated. Sorry. Now for some pretty pictures.

{all images via pinterest}

What do you think? Does your dress sense reflect your personality well? Or present you as you would like? Have I just chatted absolute tripe for the entirety of this post and you've wished I would just shut up?!

Love B x

DIY: Monogram Mugs

More inspired Christmas gifting, this time in the shape of monogram mugs! I love the little teapot on the back of each mug - it's my favourite touch.

These were super easy to make too. I bought mugs from IKEA and used a ceramic pen that I had at home but that you could pick up at most craft places or online. I sketched out designs on paper before copying them onto my mugs, using photos from pinterest and google as inspiration. For the teapot I googled teapot silhoettes which came up with plenty of inspiration too! The pens can wipe off as you go if you makes any mistakes but once you fire them at something like 200 degrees for 30 minutes, they'll be set. 

Love B x

Sea Salt Caramels

I don't know about you but I am quite happy to spend most of Christmas devouring all kinds of food that I wouldn't normally go near {honest...well, maybe...}. These sea salt caramels are right up my street with their mix of savoury and sweet flavours.

I used a recipe I found online, of which there are plenty of variations, though I omitted any butter from mine and it didn't do them any harm.

Ingredients:

8fl oz double cream {I used the extra thick kind}

60g honey

60ml water

200g caster sugar

1tsp sea salt {and extra for dusting - I used Maldon because I already had some}

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Heat the cream and salt together over a gentle heat. In the original recipe, this was left heating until the butter melted but because I obviously can't use that marker, simply heat for approx. 5 minutes.

Add the honey, sugar and water together over a high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Boil until it turns a golden brown. I'll be honest here, I have no idea whether I'm meant to stir it or not and what is proper caramel ettiquette. I stirred, because my first batch burnt when I didn't. Like I said, maybe I'm wrong.

When the mix has turned golden brown, remove from the heat and carefully add the cream/salt mixture. Carefully does it because it will bubble up something crazy. Cook for another 10 mins {still stirring? I am!}. This should be when the caramel reaches 250 degrees F/120degrees C but because I don't have a sugar thermometer {are you noticed the adhoc trend yet?} I just waited until a drop of the mix formed a reasonably firm ball in cold water.

When that happens, pour the mixture into a lined tin and leave to cool to room temperature. Then simply pop in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours. It might harden up too much but don't worry it should soften up back at room temp.

I used a heated knife to cut my caramels into 60 little rectangles which I wrapped in strips of wax paper. I used cellophane bags from the pound shop and some of the smaller stickers from a Christmas label pack I had bought, to make little bags of 5 as gifts. The second batch I simply wrapped and whacked in a bowl to accompany my festive film watching. Yum.

Have a lovely weekend everyone - ours is full of seeing family and friends. Wonderful! See you Monday.

Love B x

DIY: Snood

A lot of my December {and November, come to think of it} was spent handmaking Christmas presents. I've been itching to share them all since I started but obviously couldn't before the big day! Now though....

This little project started off life as a Christmas present for my sister and descended into making snoods for rather a lot of the lovely ladies in my life! Whilst it took a reasonable chunk of time to make 6 snoods, it was totally worth the effort and the outcome is lovely. I found myself passing any free time I had with knitting needles in hand and it was great to have something to focus on outside of work.

These chunky snoods are particularly satisfying - using large needles and chunky wool they come together really quickly. I found that I often didn't need more than 1 - 2 balls of wool per snood either (though the large grey snood used 3) and considering you can pick wool up for a reasonable price on Amazon, for presents on a budget they're lovely.

I simply cast on 30 stitches {remember the video I uploaded} using extra chunky wool and size 10 knitting needles {though the wool you use will dictate the thickness of the needle normally}. Being careful to not drop any stitches {and fiddling about to 'repair' the ones I did} I simply knitted until I reached near the end of the ball and to the end of the line {top prevent any knots in the middle!}.

Casting off at the end, I used any remaining wool to tie the two ends together, though I could have used a similar coloured thread to stitch them instead. I made most of mine quite snug - they need to be large enough to go over someone's head and not choke them but I quite liked that they are fairly unobtrusive and could be worn all day without getting in the way!

I folded mine and wrapped them up with Christmas ribbon for a bit of festive flare. I love them and most certainly will be embarking on making one for myself!

Love B x

2012

{via}

Well, December vanished in a blur. I love Christmas and there are so many parts of the festive season that I wanted to blog about. All of which fell by the wayside as I got swept up in the whirlwind of festivities and actually partaking in them rather than documenting them! I'm still getting used to that.

There were trips to the German Market, decorating our second tree in our home together, a wonderful ten days split between my boyfriend's home and mine, Christmas day finally spent together and we topped it off with possibly the best New Years Eve I've ever had. Great company, a big dinner party, perhaps a little too much wine and absolute hilarity was guaranteed to follow. I had the loveliest Christmas and New Year and spent it with the people I love most. It was the most perfect way to round of 2011 and ring in 2012.

A New Year always sets my head spinning with resolutions and changes that I want to embrace. Personal, professional, health, aspirational, relationship - you name it, I can probably give you a resolution about it. I'd like this year to set myself achievable goals rather than make promises that I can't keep. I'd like to strive to be a better version of myself - look after myself and my health more, be more present in all my relationships with friends, family and a certain loved one, keep working towards the career I want and do more to develop my hobbies and interests - blog more, read more, run more, craft more. I'd like to make the most of the opportunities around me and grasp things with both hands - relax and enjoy things a little more perhaps {I am a Monica by nature}.

I have a lot of hope for 2012 and I'm excited to see where it will take me in my professional and personal life.

Happy New Year.

Love B x

Fair Isle

As soon as the weather turns wintery and Christmas begins to creep ever closer {my favourite time of the year don'tchya know} I find myself wanting to throw on a fair isle knit and curl up in front of the fire place with some hot chocolate and book. I've gone with this sweet little H&M number this year, though there were plenty of options - some more traditional than others. I have a feeling it will make several outings over the next week!

Love B x