Pop

I made my first attempt at making cake pops a couple weekends ago for my Mum's birthday. They are quite possibly the most time consuming things to bake in the world. ever. But they tasted good, so I guess that's what counts...!

Benjamin's Montréal

It was recently my dear friend Benjamin's birthday, and for the occasion I made him a map.

Ben recently spent a year in Montréal travelling, working, and generally experiencing life on the other side of the atlantic. I got the chance to nip across said ocean to visit him for a short week, during which time he took me to some of his favourite places. I didnt want for his year out there to fuzz up in to one big memory, it's always nice to remember the little things, and one off places, so made him a map of the end of town in which he stayed and worked, and plotted out some of the places he mentioned, and all of the ones he took me to.

It's a pretty lovely city: very interesting and musical. Void of faceless chains and big brands. Very independent and traditional and highly recommended!

Mappiness Part Two

I've been wanting to rave about this book ever since I first received it in the post. Not only is it an excellent read that transports you to several different million miles away from nowheres, it is also beautifully bound (in signatures), typset and illustrated - all by the author herself, and won the German Arts Foundation prize for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year! I can't recommend it highly enough!





In other map news, I picked up some great little treats whilst in venice - A clipboard, notepad and pack of 5 bookmarks depicting various Italian cities (Venice included). All by Fabriano.

Moats and Boats and Waterfalls

Paul and I have just got back from a lovely trip to the Venetian Riviera. The majority of our time was spent swimming, reading, relaxing and even tanning (no mean feat for pale ole me!), but we also took day trips out to the island of Venice, and Burano.

I do love a good boat trip on holiday, so Venice was pretty much a dream! I'd LOVE to live in a place where I'd have to take a boat to work every day! Especially in a place that does such good ice cream!

Theres plenty more photos on my Flickr but heres a small(ish) selection...








Burano was also full of boaty goodness, along with row upon row of coloured houses. Apparently, historically this helped the fishermen to identify their own houses after an afternoon of heavy drinking! Nowadays, if a family wishes to paint their house, they must write to the council to request permission before being sent a list of permissible colours!

We went on a bit of a grizzly day so the whole island was close to being empty! Such a change to the constant crowds of Venice...








And now we're back home already. A week never seems quite long enough...

Just 3 working days to go until we head off to Venice! Really, honestly, truly, 100% cannot wait!!

Mappiness

Over the last year, a new obsession has presented itself.
Maps.
Now, I've always appreciated the beauty of maps, always loved having a good flick through an atlas, and more recently exploring the world vicariously on google maps (satellite vie - oh my goodness, technology is amazing!) and teaching myself the geographical location of countries (europe, asia, north america and africa done, south america still to go...!), but now my flat is slowly filling up with maps: handmade and bought...

It's been a while...

Its been a very long time indeed since christmastime and my last post here... so here's a quick 20 second round up:

- House moving
- New jobbing
- Neglecting the things I enjoy the most
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Generally surviving!

It's been so busy, with so much change to adjust to... it's not all been bad though, I've holiday-ed and booked more holidays, so there's always been something to look forward to!

But now things seemed to have calmed down and bedded in a bit, it feels like i might actually have time on my hands to get making, sewing, drawing etc again. Fingers crossed!

Hearty art

I came across this very worthwhile project at CatRabbit's blog and had to repost it here. Art 4 Heart is an art auction in aid of the Queensland Floods. Between the 18th and 27th January pieces donated by some pretty awesome artists and creators will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to Premiers Flood Relief Appeal. Surely you don't need a better excuse to buy a little treat for yourself than this. Go buy!

London Santacon 2010

Time for some more Christmas cheer: Namely the Christmas cheer that was spread all over London yesterday by the participants of the 10th annual London Santacon. Hundreds and hundreds of Santae gathered at Trafalgar Square having marched through London, giving out free Santa Hugs, sweets and brussel sprouts to the unsuspecting public, singing their very own 'special' Christmas carols on the way. Lucy and I managed to find ourselves in the midst of the chaos that ensued...!







Now, if that doesn't make you feel Christmassy, I should imagine there's not much hope left for you!

We also took a trip to the Super Christmas Market at Somerset House for some last minute gift buying, sadly, in comparison to previous years there was nowhere near as many gift stalls, and only a handful of interactive stands, each with rather large queues, so was a little bit of a let down. The Santa's more than made up for it though!

My Christmas shopping is now complete, so I can now move on to my age old tradition of wrapping in front of Home Alone! So very excited! I'll be inducting Lucy to my wrapping regime this week, cant wait to see the living room covered in a mass of gifts, wrapping paper, ribbons and tags!
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20 days to go...

Little by little I'm managing to cross things off my monstrous pre-Christmas to do list. Today, I'm crossing off Christmas cards: The making of - not the writing of, sadly! That's a job for this evening!


I made a set of five cards, the concept being that Christmas is the perfect antidote to any bad mood, and that all those little christmassy bits and bobs can turn even the hardest of scrouges!


So yes, very glad to have these done and dusted. I'm feeling even more Christmassy today... I wonder if i'll reach the limit of Christmassy-ness soon, or if I'm just going to keep going and going? I think the latter is more probable. Last night was our annual Christmas Party complete with mulled cider and legendary onion soup, we even cracked open a tin of Quality Streets, which is probably the reason for my topped up Christmas levels today. Yes, I am aware that I have now said 'Christmas' 9 times in this post...! See! I told you: OBSESSED!!

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Christmas is coming...

Christmas can never come quick enough in my book, and so with only 20-something days left to go, I'm feeling a little bit giddy! I've been super organised this year - only have 3 more gifts to buy and my wrapping to do, and it's not even December yet!

With it being Paul and my first christmas since we've moved in together, we've had the added bonus excitement of getting our first tree. It's a rather small little number, but it does the job rather well. We've been decorating the tree using only handmade decorations, it's not quite finished yet: I'll need to make a few more pompoms, and am planning on making a second reindeer, but here's what we have so far:



The reindeer was made from this lovely little pattern here, and the angel/fairy tree topper was a pattern I made up myself. If anyone would like the pattern, let me know and I'll put it up here.
I've also almost finished my annual batch of christmas stockings: a big achievement as these are normally a very last minute job! I just need to fill them now!


If only Christmas wasn't so cold! The heating in this old house is not standing up to the frost weather outside. Time for another jumper and a hot water bottle!


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