Halloween

Halloween has always been one of the most exciting nights of the year. I have a love/hate relationship with fancy dress. I love researching and coming up with the ideas but I get all manners of stressed with the ridiculous tasks I end up giving myself to achieve it!

This year was a fairly easy costume and it still took me several hours to sew and finish. It was probably one of my favourites though; a voodoo doll.

I'd seen several on Pinterest so I knew basically how I wanted it to look, but the original dress I found, I just wasn't comfortable in. I ended up buying a white broderie anglais dress in the sales for £10 - bargain! But I needed sleeves on the dress. Luckily, I had an old broderie anglais top I was getting rid of, so i fashioned myself some sleeves! I also added lace to the bottom to add a bit of length to the dress. It turned out quite pretty and is something I could wear again :)




For the pin stabbed heart, I first cut out a heart from red felt. The second step was to make the pins. Other costumes I'd seen had used knitting needles, but I didn't want my pins to be quite so lenthy, for fear of stabbing! Instead, I used silver garden wire. I coiled each end after I had poked it through the felt heart. This mean they were able to lie flat against the fabric and I could sew them on. the tops were then covered with silver foil for the pin head effect.



All I had to do then was sew the heart to the dress, cut bits of black tape to stick on as seams and draw a big stiched grin on my face!



The night was lots of fun, with some fab costumes. We had The Joker and Two Face, an evil mermaid, Coraline's Other Mother, Black Swan and various other ghoulish outfits!



Already having to start thinking about my Heroes and Villains costume for New Years..yikes!

Miss x

Adventures in the Sun

It's so very nearly spring like this week! The sunshine is out and the skies are blue :) Although it has turned much chillier this week, that's my favourite weather ♥

Just some pics from the last week or so, using the Instagram app which I absolutely adore!

A new craft night started up in Southsea last month at Tea Tray in the Sky. This is a gorgeous new tea shop and a great setting for crafting! I set about making circle paper bunting, which basically meant I cut up a lot of circles..hoping to be prepared with something more fun next time. It's a monthly event, but talking to Lou, the organiser, it sounds like she's got some fantastic ideas up her sleeve!

Went to City Museum to see the new LBD exhibit. We can't get enough of this place! It's small but fun and cheap :) The exhibit had some beautiful dresses from all different eras and I like the local involvement with dresses and photos from people in the area. I ♥ Southsea


I picked up these pretty green and pink jam jars in the village where my parents have recently moved. The shop was filled with lovely home items and upstairs had vintage furniture and glassware. The lady in the shop even paints up furniture! I ♥ my parent's new home, I like to pretend I live there when I visit..sigh! Pretty daffodils were from the boy :)

At the weekend, we decided we needed a night out and a few drinks! Unfortunately this lead to a dangerous drinking game played at the boys' house which never fails to get me very drunk :s This time, however, there was a new twist...we all had to do a shot of Balkan! That's 88% alcohol and my god, could you feel it! The picture above is when we burned of the remnants after drinking the shot...that bad boy burned for a looong time.

Nicola with the Balkan :) She's smiling now, but our faces were not that happy after the shot!

That Fucking Drinking Game - this is the official name..it's pretty appropriate!

I got overly excited about the sunshine being out this weekend (although it managed to throw out a fair bit of rain). Blue skies in Southsea are the best.

The boy and I baked an awful lot of cupcakes last week...24 in total! We made marshmallow vanilla ones and chocolate chip ones. First time i've done chocolate and I've learnt not to be so eager with the cocoa powder :s

Phew, it's been a busy few days! But lots of fun :)

Miss x

Looking Forward To...

As you may have guessed, it has been an incredibly hard month. Many things have gone wrong and at times it seems difficult to see a way out. I've been lucky in that I've had some truly amazing friends to sort me out ♥ thank you!

In an attempt to find the positive again, I've decided to make a list of things I am looking forward to :) Maybe I can focus on this instead of the bad!

1. Putting up the Christmas tree and decorations

2. Festive Film Festival...the lovely Caketin has come up with this fab idea! All our friends are taking it in turns to host a Christmas film evening :) Mine is going to be Santa Clause The Movie and I'm hoping to make eggnog, mulled wine and Christmas cupcakes...hurrah!

3. My parents moving in to a beautiful old cottage..and getting a dog!

4. Return of craft nights and getting my knit on again :)

5. £10 nights out. I need to dance my socks off and have a bit of fun.

6. Dressmaking. I'm determined to have a go, my mum is going to have to help massively!

There you go, a list of 6 things to look forward to...I don't think that's bad :)

Fairly therapeutic and I recommend doing this when you're having a really rubbish day!

Miss x

P.s Huuuge thank you to Caketin for sending me the Darwin Deez 'Bad Day' vid I posted last...it helped a lot!