DIY Christmas Gifts

A special installment of DIY gift guide. Christmas can be sooo expensive and tiring when you are making a million trips to the local mall for gifts. Why not spend the arvo chilling out with your favourite music, friends or pet and make some gifts? If not the ones below, perhaps it can inspire you to bottle up your specialty produce or get creative and make something unique.

Peri Peri Sauce

I am a wee bit of a chilli sauce fan... So giving a gift of chilli sauce is only natural for me.

Ingredients (no measurements on this one guys)

• Tomato Sauce
• Tobasco Sauce
• Lime rind and juice
• sweet chilli sauce
• a good handful of fresh red chillis
• worstershire sauce
• One big red onion
• Plain oil
• chilli flakes

Blend all the ingredients together, use more lime juice and tomato sauce to make it mild and more chilli's for hotter etc. You will have to be brave and do the finger dip test for flavour until you get it right. My husband found this one out the hard way!

Source: An english chef friend of mine kindly passed on the recipie. Photos: Monika Berry.

Choc Chip Cookies - the BEST ever

I found this recipie on A Cup of Jo, I'm a sucker for a good cookie and these DID NOT disappoint.

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or chunks
Sea salt

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Source: A Cup of Jo
Photography: Monika Berry

Fresh Herb Christmas Cards

Found on Frolic-Blog, a gorgeous way to dress up a holiday ham, hamper or homemade savoury produce. Click here for directions.

 Source: Frolic-Blog

Doggie Treat Jar

With my friends, we are pretty much all parents to fluffy kids. We discuss them over dinner as if they were actual humans! So giving a gift for a pooch is kind of ideal in this current phase of our lives.

Pretty Fluffy has provided this tutorial on DIY Treat Jars.

 Source: Pretty Fluffy

Free Christmas Gift Tags

Oh the Lovely Things, has wrapped up the best free downloadable tags for this season. Check it out and get printing!

Source: Oh the Lovely Things



How to organise your wardrobe in one weekend.

First things first, before you go tearing through your wardrobe, spend some time online or strolling through a few of your favourite shops, get a feel for the current trends and fabrics. GET INSPIRED!

This is important as it will helps to change your state of mind on your current wardrobe.

When you get home, section the project off. Maybe start with the folded stuff. Pull it all out. All of it!

Give the shelves a wipe down or lay down some new liners.

Now for the clothes... As you sort through, the question for the keep it or chuck it is " have I worn this in the last 6 months?" if no "can I picture a time I would ACTUALLY wear it in the next 2 weeks" if no - chuck it!

Understand that some items have sentimental value - like a band shirt or those hot pants you felt amazeballs in - maybe put these in a storage box, kept outside of your bedroom - but do not fold them back into the piles!

Speaking of storage boxes, use small clear (and stackable) storage boxes for your beanies, belts, thongs, bikinis, gloves etc - this is also handy through the seasonal changes you can rotate them easily.

Then voila! You should have something like this, or close to.

Speaking of wardrobes, a girl can dream....

One other tip worth noting, before you go and donate your car load of clothing, shoes, bags and belts to the local Salvo's, take a good look through it, is there something that is still in fashion or a pair of shoes you wonder why you bothered to buy? Maybe they can score you some cash on eBay. It might be a tedious task of photographing and loading each item up - but it could be worth it. 

I recently listed 10 items I didn't like anymore, but were just 'too good to throw out' - you know we all have them! Well, I only expected to fetch about $50 in total, but it all sold for a mammoth $170! So it definitely pays (literally!) to clean out your wardrobe. 

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

DIY Wedding Programs and Bombonieres

After receiving the bill for our wedding invites (which you can view here, the invites that is!) , I was financially intimidated to head back for more stationery. Plus, I wanted to put a bit more of a personal touch on the wedding and didn't like the idea of a 'uniform stationery' wedding.

I figured, while I didn't have graphic design skills (yet!), I was still capable of some creativity with scissors and glue. With assistance from sites such as Pinterest I was able to get going and create our bits and pieces. 

So here I present two of my projects. 

'Songs to get hitched to' - A collection of our wedding songs for our guests to take home. Total cost: AU$1.70each

Confetti bags - AU$1 each

Wedding Programs - 8 page booklet on running of the events, our story, our bridal party, photos and questions. Total approx AU$1.50 each

Envelopes & Twine: Spotlight

Doilies: Safeway/Woolworths

Stamps: Typo (Ink: Officeworks)

Discs & Disc Labels: Officeworks

Crate & Chalkboard box: Provincial Living

Jars and milk tin: opshops

Lace tablecloth: opshop

M&R Bags: Etsy

Weekend Projects 2

The semi-mad dash is on to complete our spring projects in the yard. We planned our weekend to 'socialise' on Friday night, so that all recovery processes were done by Sunday morning. Which is when we successfully completed the painting on the back weatherboards, I am super pleased with the outcome.

Here are some pics from our back deck, we have finished painting and revamped an old chair that came with the house, I definitely need more plants out there, but it's a great start anyway. 

Here is our garden, in full bloom, I love the seaside daisies lining the pathway. 

Have you been working on anything around the house lately? Please share! 

Xx

Weekend Projects...

Today I got a little closer to realising some 'great ideas' I dreamed up over the past couple of months, as well as defining an achievable action plan for our kitchen reno. Although, as every creative or home deco project goes, once you start one, another 'great idea' pops up and you begin the second (or third!) project without first finishing the original one.

Here I am sharing some of my 'pretty much done' (as it is never fully complete, right?) projects.

Since I found my inspiration for these online, I thought I should return the favour.




Here is the new study,was originally a bit of dead space in the house. It used to occupy a custom built bar, which was never used. It is also a good quiet reading area.


Note the rhino head at the top of the wall, we picked him up from Exhibit (as previously mentioned in this blog) . The desk was custom built by my partner and the super large clock was an engagement gift from Provincial Home Living.

The gorgeous hat stand was picked up from an antique/second hand store in Phillip Island for $12!! It was the coolest store I had ever been in, Ray and I must have looked everything over for a good 1-2 hours. 

This is in the corner of our lounge, I stack a bunch of my fav books to flick through (often Miranda Kerr's 'Treasure Yourself'). The picture frame ledge is from IKEA (as previously featured in this blog) , the mirrored frame on the side table is from Empire Trading and the larger frame and bulldog cushion from Freedom Furniture. 

 For a long time, I didn't like the old frame we had above the fireplace, the picture here is one I took while volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. It was an engagement gift (probably the best gift I have ever received) and I display it proudly! :) 

This is the new decor for summer months on the deck, the curtains are from IKEA and will be able to close off when the blazing sun comes in (now that our backdoor is all glass), as well as create an 'outdoor room' when we have dinner on the deck in the summer months. The lanterns lining the deck are filled with citronella candles. - The next project is to stain and move the large rustic chair that came with the house and fill it with bright cushions, making  great spot to chill on with a book. 

What are some of the home projects you are currently working on? Have you started one, only to get distracted and begin another, before the first was finished?? 

Xx