Look What I Made...

This might explain the lack of posts.

:)

Will be back soon ... as soon as little bean is big enough for trips beyond Costas and the local mum and baby club. So please don't delete me from your blog roll ...

This was when she was box fresh, She's loud and a bit
bigger a month on!

My Youtube Channel

Howdy folks! Hope you're enjoying ekeng out the last few weeks of summer. If you shun the sun like a mysterious vampyre, delicate flower or erm like, a worm or something you might enjoy going on Youtube. Even if you enjoy the sun, Youtube waits faithfully for those rainy weekends or days when you're on your own in the office.

Why not watch my most recent attempt at a video? As with this here blog, I can't always guarantee focused content (Vintage? Beauty? Creepy? WTF?) but the general theme is nosing around my stuff. Don't worry, burglars wouldn't want my stuff. I don't even want some of my stuff (see freaky musical box for details) but it's there for your viewing pleasure.

Nose Through My Nail Art Stuff!

Yes, I know green isn't a primary colour. Sue me.

And heyyy, subscribe while you're at it! I haven't got a cute or funny kitten but I do have a purple Hello Kitty onesie so a cute cat video isn't out of the question. Although I would also need beer to do that. Lots of beer.

Classic Creepy Music Box Video

Actual Vintage-Educational-Type Video! Wonders never cease...

Button Revamp - New Old Top!

Hi all! I hope you're enjoying the bank holiday in all its glory. I was a little worried yesterday as I could see my breath and it was pouring with rain, luckily it's brighter today! I shouldn't really be blogging now if I was a proper blogger, as people don't read it straight away - but heh, you guys can read this whenever. If it starts raining again you can thank me for something to do.

Miss Selfridge via a Chazza

Cute Pocket detail

I was rummaging through my wardrobe recently and found this shirt, which I bought for about £3 from a charity shop a year or two ago. I love the pattern and cute pockets - it also lends itself to being styled with casual jeans or work wear, and can look very 50s gypsy style or hippy chic. Bargain! However, as you can see, it was all crumpled and folorn at the back of the shelf when I found it...

Poundland Haul

Sorry I've been away. I've been quite poorly recently unfortunately.

Never mind. Local Poundlands had a chance to re-stock. Here's a V-log about my latest Poundland and 99p Stores haul...

 Enjoy! And if you do YouTube, subscribe to my channel as I am planning to do more video stuff in future. Just don't expect expert camera action, it's gonna be more You've Been Framed than BAFTA material.

Dying Hair With Spices... Dare I?

I have been considering giving my hair a break from harsh permanent dyes recently. Mainly because it's crispy fried and dry, good if it was fried seaweed from the local takeaway, bad for hair. Not sexy. However I am not prepared to forgo dye altogether - I'm one of those people who (up until a few weeks ago) couldn't tell you what my natural hair looks like. Well, I let some roots grow a few weeks back and I was like 'NOOOO' ... I don't want to see my natural colour. It's brown - not lustrous rich brown but cool, dull crap brown, and where there used to be streaks of red and blonde there are now streaks of grey. Ugh. So, what were my options?

The first, from Superdrug, is simply wash-in-wash-out 'Effects' dye. The stuff you used as a teenager in the 90s! It's pretty quick, easy and cheap, but I have to apply the dye and wait 15 min (to get a good colour) every other time I wash my hair, which is a hassle. I don't mind once a week - or preferably once a month if I can get away with it. So I'm looking at other natural alternatives. At first, I was primed to pop off to Westfield and pick up some henna from Lush (only buy henna from reputable sources m'kay - as a West London girl I've seen the allergies and scars using adulterated, cheap - especially black- henna can cause). But then I got wind of a thriftier, home-made alternative from Youtube; spice dying.

As anyone who has got haldi (turmeric) on their clothes will attest, it's a pretty strong natural dye. The same goes for paprika, cloves, coffee and saffron. See how they can be used on these Youtube clips:

So, shall I try it? Do you want to see if my plain brown roots turn a nice chestnut? Or, which will probably be more entertaining, do you want to see me with an orange scalp and no decipherable change to my hair?

I even have some old bags of spices I forgot to unpack when I moved... lacking in flavour but perfectly OK for DIY dye...

Attacking Things From Poundland With A Glue Gun

Ah yes, the weather has been foul so I have been doing things indoors. By doing things, I mainly mean reading trashy fantasy novels and watching YouTube tutorials whilst eating Pringles by the fistful - but eventually, occasionally, I actually get round to making the things I've watched. Yes, crafting. Or in my case, sticking everything in sight together with an overheating glue gun and hoping for the best.

S'cuse the nekkid nails.

Do You Make Christmas Gifts? Useful Links!

Yeah, it's November. With Bonfire Night and Halloween out of the way, my thoughts turn Christmas-wards. I always intend to make elaborate home made gifts for everyone, but sometimes time (and money) get in the way of creating complex applique designs or cards so complex they could be filmed for Grand Designs.

Often, if you're not amazing with the sewing machine it's those little stocking fillers which are best home-made. Gifts for work mates, neighbours, friends and kids. I find simple, low-cost crafting incredibly therapeutic and relaxing on a cold winter night. Working long days and often bringing work home, projects need to offer impressive results with either a quick make, or, if a longer project, small steps which can be split up over several evenings.

Also... they have to be cheaper than buying a (nice) example of said object from a shop. I am no longer a kid and people won't smile through gritted teeth "it's loooovely" if I present them with some chewed up can-you-guess-what-it-is-yet article; all the worse if it cost me a new mortgage via  Hobbycraft. Most of my craft materials are recycled, thrifted or scrounged from Poundland or - on a good day - Dunelm Mill.

I usually start searching for ideas in my old 70s books and online around now. Thanks to Pinterest (yes! I am on Pinterest! And I'm shamelessly plugging my boards!) I've rounded up and filtered out some of the best easy/thrifty/actually cool Christmas lists out there and am sharing them today (click the captions to link):

36th Avenue has the BEST range out there; it delivers exactly the level of thrift, ease and actual nice gifts I want. What is more, at the bottom they link to two further installments. So that's up to 75 gifts! now my family'sbig, but not that big...spoilt for choice.

This range of 24 easy projects from Tip Junkie has some nice bath items and paper crafts.They say they're for neighbours only... I'm gonna be a rebel and give them to people who don't live next door (but are neighbours in the metaphorical sense, I guess).

These ideas from How Does She are a little less 'hands on' but every bit as cute;printable labels and ideas for little baskets, sweets etc'. Perfect for making a simple little gift more special.

Finally - Cut Out And Keep is a great craft community with literally thousands of projects... if you want something specific, or want to search by material, it is the place to go.

See Felt Bows On Elastics and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

Don't forget to check out my Christmas Craft board on Pinterest for more ideas (including how to make sleighs out of 2 chocolate bars and some candy canes... genius!).

Microwave Rollers? From 99p Stores?

Ah, I hear you say, that's why she hasn't blogged much; she's blown her house sky-high by using microwave hair rollers bought at 99p Stores in West Ealing. Fortunately my house is intact, but my health wasn't so great for a while (I won't bore/ick you with why) hence yet more blogging neglect.

Retro Cookbook Corner: Quick & Easy Cooking

There is a magnet on my fridge. I says "If you are what you eat, I'm quick, cheap and easy". I wish I could say it was given to me by someone who knows me not, but it was a gift from my own twin sister. Quick, cheap and easy, that's me.

Aint No Party Like A Retro Party

Helllooo! Apologies for the recent lack of posts. I've been working hard (mid exam season) and haven't really done anything interesting to blog, hence the online absence.
Well Saturday night I did something very blog worthy. Whether you think so or not hahaha! As it's my birthday this week, I threw a party for me and my sister, with a full on 70s buffet. For all the trends and pinterest boards on classy snack stations, you just can't beat a cheesy old retro buffet with cocktails. I combined some older recipes with some modern ones off t'internet, and it went down very well.

Of course, some pictures...

Sweet little fella!

My old university pal brought a cheese-and-pineapple hedgehog. With a face, no less! What a garnish to the buffet that was. We could hardly bear to eat it. It was hard... but we managed - he was spineless by 10pm. Even the vegetarians had a go- for shame!

New Time Eater: Youtube Recipes

How are we all? I don't know about you, but I'm all celebrated out. Pooped. I could go back to work for a rest after four days of visiting, partying, flag waving and so forth. And the food... suffice to say if I so much as sniff another mini sausage roll or lick some buttercream bad things will happen.

Cheers.

Crafty Bargain

As any craft-lover knows, crafting is back in vogue. This is fantastic for ideas- a quick search for blogs, Pinterest, or my favourite site Cut Out And Keep, brings up a wealth of content. However, as any fule kno, when something is popular, it gets expensive.

My bargain book: £1.49!

Taking A Retro Recipe Out To Tea

A few weeks ago I had a bit of a challenge on my hands. I had to make something from my retro recipe collection (fair enough), but it had to be both completely retro-tastically OTT with sprinkles and guaranteed edible. Edible for people I knew and some I didn't; I was taking retro cake to a party hosted by my friend who had made my wedding cake and is a dab hand at all things edible. This was risky.

Basically, I went with the idea of chocolate (that if something is utterly coated in it, it will always go down well). This worked.

99p Garden Fun

After several hours of hacking, strimming, mowing and being raked by brambles last weekend, we got our new-ish garden looking like this:

OK, so it isn't the prettiest yet, and (you may note, by the G plan chair) we have no charming rattan garden furnishings either... but it's finally useable. So we've been using it, to dry laundry, to put out wee seedlings of herbs and small veg. Mainly, however, given the lovely warm weather, to sit about in.

Quick, Thrifty, Tasty

Yep that's me. Haha, no, I'm not that vain - I'm talking weekday dinners. Oh no, I hear you cry, not one of those smug 'much cheaper than a take-away' so-called easy weekday recipes that are actually nigh on impossible. I feel your pain; when I read features like that in magazines they drive me up the wall. This post reveals the truth behind my thrifty eating... the lazy, cheapo, truth. How to eat if you:

• Work 12 hour days;
• Also want to actually have a life;
• Want to save money;
• Don't want malnutrition.

Charity Shopping Furniture

The crumbling pile of a house we bought has up until fairly recently been very full of boxes. Boxes of cardboard, boxes of wood, boxes of plastic - all stacked in places which will have shelves and cupboards when we get round to buying them, overflowing with china, books, DVDs and bits-and-bobs like sleeping bags. But now, at least some of those many, many boxes can go into the garage, folded away. We have a sideboard.

Photographed in excitement, before dusting.

Me New Kitchen, Me Ole' China

Oh yes, it is here! I can cook again. Behold the wonder:

This is, obviously, just one side of it. The other is just cupboards - this is the business end of things. I have already made delicous noms such as paprika turkey and steak pie, we shall feast like kings until the novelty wears off!

Back With A Vengeance

Hello, I'm back in your blog roll, clogging it up with my stuff and nonsense.

I wish I could say I've not blogged for almost a month because I was on a small Greek island, partying it up in a hippified manner with candles and acoustic guitars and Mythos beer. But that would be last year (I went with my mum, for those of you wondering if they make swimming trunks in tweed; His Lordship's beach holiday form is poor - in the main chuntering about the newspaper being two days old, wanting to go to the old town then complaining about the steps/lack of black cabs).

This year, I went here. Permanently:

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I haven't been up to much this weekend - which is probably a good thing, as I'm completely knackered from work and the end-of-term-germs are out in full force!

Instead of my usual social whirl (you know, going round some charity shops then to the pub) I plumped for a pop into Matalan on the way back from work followed by 48 hours of sitting around eating olives and drinking tea and/or cider. So yes, a trip to Matalan was my big day out of the last few days. Ah, the back to school displays, the overheard tantrums and mothers tell daughters they don't care if it's a holiday, they aint getting a t-shirt with that slogan on it at their age... the multipacks of tights and pants. Overwhelming sophistication.

Sew and Sew

His Lordship gave me a sewing machine for my birthday. A 1914 Singer in perfect working order with original case, to be precise.

Well, it was in perfect working order when he bought it; by the time it arrived at our flat, the case was smashed to pieces and the workings somewhat bruised...