Life :: 2013

Like every other time I've said I would endeavor to make blogging on here more of a habit, my laziness has taken over and I've let myself down.  But I'll try harder.
In the mean time enjoy this picture of my hair in it's current state.  I've been growing my hair ever since I started university in Autumn 2008 when it was not even touching my shoulders.  Since then I've had one haircut where 6 inches were taken off from the ends as it had grown out from my shorter layer and looked really odd, so I had it all leveled off. So four and a half years later, my hair is down to my waist; this is actually probably the longest it's ever been! On my Twitter/ Instagram I keep talking about stupid situations I find myself in due to how long it is with the hashtag, "#howmuchhairistoomuchhair?".  Anyway, when you've had the same style for so long it's nice to mix it up - back when I was 15 I had a side fringe put in and it's been the same since, just different lengths based on when I could be bothered to trim it myself.  Recently I've been seeing a lot of models with a more forward fringe, like Francoise Hardy - thicker but long and face framing, a really nice winter look!  So I went to the hairdresser - who I will name and shame - RENEGADE IN LEEDS - and showed him several pictures of what I wanted. I explained that I wanted it long enough to pin back and sweep to the side and he assured me he knew what he was doing. Then he cut it all off, at once, above my eyebrows. To say I was pissed would be an understatement.
Luckily my hair grows kind of quick, and I am able to look back on this and think "Ha. Idiot". But I'll never be going back there again and I wouldn't recommend anyone else does either! Anyway, here it is, in all it's Grimes-y glory.

Make :: Dreamy clouds

I've always loved clouds. I remember when I was little I used to think - I'm sure like most kids - that clouds were made by those factories you see on the motorway.  So shapely and dynamic. I could spend hours lying in an open field looking at the sky.

I came across a tutorial on how to make clouds a few days ago and decided to try it out; having a bit of the dreaminess they bring in my own home seemed like something I just had to attempt!  I can't seem to find the source right now but when I do I'll credit them :)

What you need:
10 balloons
Masking tape
A mixture of flour and water - heat them together until you get a paste
Toilet paper
Pillow stuffing
Spray adhesive

Steps:
1.  Blow up your balloons and tape them together.  Try to make some sort of a shape where there are rounded edges at all angles and place the balloons facing at different angles.  Really tape them up as the paper/paste mix is pretty heavy so you don't want them moving around.

2. Once your paste is made, use it to layer on the toilet paper.  You could use a brush but I used my hands as I found it easier - I used about three layers of toilet paper over the whole thing in order to cover up the colours, if you used white balloons this may not be a problem.

3.  Allow to dry - this took about 24 hours for me.  Once dry spray areas with the adhesive and stick on the pillow stuffing - fluff it up so it looks natural and don't have it flat.  You can either place a layer and then another, or work in sections with thicker pieces.  Make sure everything is really fluffy and nice and there you go, easy!

Here is how mine turned out!

Grimacing because I'm terrified of heights and especially heights on an antique ladder on wobbly grass.

My boy Hugo most definitely judging me for pretending to be a cloud.

Life :: It's Alright, Ma. I'm Only Bleeding

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a bike from the university. It's an ex rental and I got a great deal - £70 for the bike, a D lock, lights, pannier and bungee cord, what a deal! It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike  so I'm slowly getting back into it and taking easy routes into town and the supermarket; today I went my normal route and must have stopped paying attention because next thing I know there's a bus in front of me and I swerved into the pavement and next thing I remember is pretending nothing happened and getting on with my life.  Oh dear.  Well here's the damage... my hand is actually a bit worse off as I landed right on my thumb.

What's funny is that on my big TO-DO list in the biggest letters and highlighted and with arrows I jokingly put "LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE!!!". I sure showed myself, didn't I?

Make :: No-bake Apple Pie

Sometimes, I get cravings. More often than not, it's for unhealthy things and pretty much always with ingredients I don't happen to have on me at all.  Today was a craving for apple pie; don't ask me why as it's wonderfully sunny and warm outside today so bringing in all these autumnal flavours so early seems a bit strange, but it hit the spot for sure! It was also super easy to make, is more on the healthy side and took about 15minutes start to finish (finish being me eating it all and none being left.) I should point out that the "crust" is actually oats - I had these on hand and recently had a friend over who ate his morning porridge raw! I was astounded at the time but since then I've found myself doing the same - they stay a bit crunchy and it avoids the mush - I transferred that onto the topping for this pie as it gave me just the texture I wanted to contrast the nice soft apple.

Ingredients (serves two)

Filling
2 cooking apples - peeled, cored and diced
4 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon butter/ margarine
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon each of: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger

"Crust"
1 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon butter/ margarine

Method
1. Place the chopped apples in a pan with the water and allow to cook until they are soft
2. add the butter and melt, mix the apples with the butter
3. Add sugar and spices and mix so everything is evenly mixed up
4. Spread in a ramekin or a small baking dish
5. Now for the topping place the butter in a pan and melt, then mix in the oats until they are coated
6. Spread this mixture onto the apple mix

DONE! If you wanted the oats more crispy then you could put them in a pan without anything and allow them to crispen then put some on top of the pie - but this seems to save more time to satisfy any quick cravings you may have.

Enjoy! :)

Life :: If you don't know what you're doing...

Let me tell you a little something about myself. Ever since I can remember, my eyebrows have been my pride and joy. For some it's their dress sense, their legs, eyes, flawless complexion, or hey maybe even their children. But for me, eyebrows.  I'm going to go as far as to say that if there were a such thing as eyebrow models, I may even have been one - a very successful one at that.

So bearing all this in mind, I can't really explain what was going through my mind when I decided to take it upon myself to shape my eyebrows myself this week, especially when I have a wedding to attend on Sunday where ALL of my friends I've not seen for months will be.  The last thing I can remember thinking is, "How hard can it be, it's just a pair of scissors" and before I knew it...

Look at that! What makes it worse is that it's all my own fault and I can't even blame anyone else! Luckily, once I stopped sobbing into my pillow cursing my stupidity I was able to see the funny side and I've learnt and important life lesson: don't mess around with stuff you have no idea about. If only I knew sooner....

Make :: Foxy!

So I’m back! It’s been a crazy year but here I am in one piece.  For my triumphant return (!) what else would I be posting about other than Fantastic Mr. Fox!  This is a project I meant to do a long time ago (around the same time I created Kristofferson), but I never really got around to doing.  This summer I found my hands itching to do something and my brain in need of a focus so I decided to get this project done.
For the most part I’m really happy with it; this is the most complex thing I have done so far due to the clothing therefore the amount of pieces involved.  I also decided to work from a pattern, albeit one that I made up, so that added a new challenge into the mix.  Along with this, because I couldn’t find the fabric I wanted for Felicity Fox’s dress, I ended up having to dye some fabric and print on it myself after several failed attempts I managed to salvage something which was okay.  Nevertheless, I’m a great believer in documenting your fails as well as your wins because hey, nobody’s perfect right?  So, say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Fox!

Life :: I'm back!

It's been a long time since I last posted on here. I made this blog in order to regulrly chronicle things I've made however it's been pretty slow this year as I have had a lot going on in my life. That said, things are now settled and from now on I'm going to put aside time to do the things I enjoy which (apart from eating) means crafting! So bear with me while I sort out some new posts; I have some exciting things I've been making and a couple of tutorials too to get me restarted. I hope you stick around, I think it'll be pretty fun! :) Akhila.