We recently finished a very long and painful renovation of our little kitchen – we have a new roof, beautiful new sliding doors, a new floor and not much else. Now the fun bit starts, we are going to deck the new part of the kitchen out ourselves to the exact specifications we want. Its going to be a slow process, but at least it will be done perfectly and exactly how we want it.
I am afraid that having our house over run with builders and contractors has left me very jaded. Our build went from being a 4 – 5 week project to a 13 week nightmare – full of drama and frustration (and a fair share of dust and dirt too). This was not a pleasant experience and hopefully wont be repeated again in a hurry.
Anyhow, enough moaning Jo – onto the fun bit, we are now planning all new goodies and gadgets for this new part of our kitchen. While looking for ideas I stumbled upon Homemade Modern, a website filled with fabulous ideas that look relatively easy to make and are all quite affordable. Here are just a few of my favorite’s:
While Valentines day is (in my books) overly commercial and terribly forced, it does seem like a nice opportunity to do something sweet for my dear husband… but what?
Cooking something delicious is the obvious choice (which I will still do) but what can I do that’s unusual and something that he can keep? Last year I made heart shaped red velvet ice-cream sandwiches (they didn’t last long) so this year I decided to make him a huge “I Love You” rosette.
Making this was so much fun (and so easy) that I thought I would share it with you.
You will need:
Different coloured papers – I used 3 plain papers and one with an old school newspaper effect
A ruler
A box cutter
Glue
If you have one – a tool for making folds in paper (have no idea what it’s proper name is?)
1 – Cut strips of your paper in varying widths. Remember you want them to be progressively wider than each other so that you get a multilayer effect. Also cut out a backing circle and a heart shape for the front of your rosette.
2 – Carefully measure and crease your strips of paper every 1cm. Then fold the paper up so it make a concertina. Here having a cutting mat (with lines on it) and that fold making tool (as in the photo) really did help.
3 – Now take your widest strip of paper and glue the two ends of the concertina together to form a band. Gather all the folded edges of one side of the concertina together and push the other ends out so it lies flat. Your paper should now create a circular fan. Apply a generous dollop of glue to your backing circle and stick this onto your fan.
4 – Now continue creating circular fans with the other coloured papers. Continue sticking them down, one on top of the another, until you have a set of concentrically smaller circular fans.
5 – (not pictured) Cut strips of your paper to create the ribbon tails and glue these onto the back of your rosette. When you are happy with the overall look, glue your heart in place – Voila, you are done!
This is so easy to do, and you can customise it in so many ways, sticking on some sparkly glitter, or using a photo in the middle. The options are endless.
Hope you all have a romantic and happy Valentines Day
Much Love
xxx
I couldnt resist trying to make this little origami heart bookmark I spotted on Bloomize.
It is so simple to do that I thought I would photograph the process and share it with you.
Here are the simple steps to making this cute little bookmark:
1. Cut a square (mine is 10cm wide) of pretty paper
2. Fold your square in half
3. Fold it in half again
4. Open it up and you should see a cross of fold marks in the middle
5. Now turn it over and fold the bottom part up to the centre fold line.
6. Now turn it over again and fold the corner into the centre fold marks.
7. Turn your paper over again
8. Now fold the tip up to the centre middle
9. Turn your paper over again
10. Now gently ease open the bottom fold
11. Repeat step 10 on the other half
12. Now fold the corners of both halves in
13. Gently fold up the tip of the two points
14. Turn your paper over
15. Fold the edge peices of both halves of your paper behind the paper
Voila – you have a gorgeous paper heart to mark your spot in your current read.