Abersoch March2012 part 2

 Firstly we had to say goodbye to Seabear, who always hates it when we go without her! 

I packed my camera, the charger, and the spare battery just incase this time.

It took 2 hours but finally we got there, with the buoys to greet us.

We ate out a lot for lunch, Scott likes a cappucino, I like tea.

I had grilled goats cheese on toast with roasted root vegetables from a nice little cafe in Porthmadog called 'The big Rock'

The next days I had welsh rarebit on toast (I just realised how much bread and cheese I ate over the four days) which was very tasty from a small welsh cafe in Pwllheli.

 

 Scott had a meatball and something toasted wrap

As always we cleared our plates.

We get through a ton of orange squash!

And I get through even more tomatoe sauce, I am well and truly addicted to the stuff.

In one cafe they had these quirky ducks as table numbers which I thought was a great idea.

I picked up these beautiful hand painted vinatge scales from a charity shop for £6.00

 And this dress (along with two others which I will post more about later on)

We found this lovely vinatge child's horse rocker for £10, and I couldn't resist it, I'm not sure why I buy some of the things I do, but when you find one off pieces, sometimes you just have to go for it!

Abersoch March2012 part 1

Abersoch is a lovely little seaside town in Wales, where Scott's parents' have a caravan. Over the weekend we went to celebrate being together for one year, and we have a wonderful time eating, exploring, and charity shopping :)!

Ive done this into two posts as I used my camera (Canon E0S) and my Iphone with instagram and they both give very different looks.

Scott's always at his happiest whens he's in Abersoch or 'the soc' as I like to call it.

Scott was lovely and carried my shiny red shoes as I was taking pictures and finding things in the sand.

Abersoch has these beautiful beach huts (which are mega expensive to buy) and they are all lovely colours and look very 1950's British Holiday-ish!

I like the one with the red and white striped door.

And the yellow one as it's the brightest colour :)

But.... what I love to look at most in Abersoch are the buoys! (excuse the pun). They have tons and tons of beautifully worn and distressed pink, green, white, blue coloured buoys which are tied to various boats and are kept in a large pile by the harbour. I really really want to take one home with me, and maybe convert it into a light or even to just hang from the ceiling.

I love the colours of this small paining. Scott took this picture, I think he quite enjoys the whole blogging thing now, he's good at making sure I remember my camera, and he likes taking a few shots of bits and pieces himself.

The daily contact lens!

This as a piece of a rotting boat, but I really like the flakiness of the yellow paint, and though it deserved a picture.

The same thing here really, I love how the sea and weather have taken their toll on the painted wooden boat.

We had a quick stop for oil, the blue of the plastic is very pretty.

Scott had been counting down until the mileage was '44444' but we forgot to keep checking, and the next time we did it had passed it and was up to '44446' which amused me, but Scott not so much ;)

D.I.Y Bear ears

Bear Ears

This is a super cute D.I.Y to add to an unused or plain Hooded top to make it that bit more fun!

I was really into bear Hats about two years ago, and when River Island brought out their range of animal hats I was first in line (and in school) to have one! Then they became a bit, well over used and EVERYONE had one, but I still love the idea and this way you don't have the same hat as everyone else, but you can have your own version!

 I chose bear style ears, but by changing the colour and shape of the fabric you could do rabbit, cat, fox, antelope, the world is your oyster ;)

What you need:
2x Colours of felt
Thread
Sewing Machine
One Hooded Top (Mine is a cheapy from the men's section in Primark)
Needle

 1) Start by marking out where you want your ears. I wore my hoody and looked in the mirror to see roughly where they needed to be. Then use Tailors chalk to mark onto the fabric. I used a ruler to measure the distance from the middle seam to each ear so they're not wonky.

 2) This next step depends on how you want your ears to look. Cut four of the same outer shape (in whatever colour you choose, it's best if it matches the hoody though), and two for the middle colouring. I like white as it's pretty simple and more 'realistic' (as far as bear hoody's go?!)

 Now you need to sew one side of white felt to one side of black, and do this twice, so you have two shapes like the picture above.

To sew them together, place TWO RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER (as my textiles teacher would always emphasise), and sew along the edge. Make sure not to sew the bottoms together, or you won't be able to turn them the right way! Now turn them back out so you have a shape like the one below.  Do this twice, once for each ear.

Then you will have these two shapes. Don't worry if they're a bit wonky, it all adds to the look. (Have I ever told you I am THE WORST SEWER EVER!)

This next step is optional, but I think it does help to keep the ears upright when their sewn on. Stuff the ears with cotton wool, or this synthetic wool stuffing I have here. Make sure its not too full, but that there's enough so it holds a fatter shape.

 Lastly, sew the ears to the hoody! I didn't stitch the bottoms of the ears together before sewing the
m to the hoody, but you could do if you fancied. I just used black thread and sewed them by hand.

And that's all there is too it! I hope you enjoy your new ears :)

They work well as a very lazy dressing up costume too !

Day out to Betws-Y-Coed

Scott and I went to Betws-Y-coed for afternoon tea (Betws is a little welsh town,very toursit-y and always raining, but pleasant). Scott's been working most Saturdays of late so we haven't been many places like we usually would, so it was lovely to get back into exploring new food places and walks.

 I wore my new dress which was £3.99 from the Charity shop, Bargain :)

It's originally from Warehouse, and was £40!

 Scott had his sunglasses on as per, even whilst it was drizzly!

We shared a pot of tea, and a diet coke (bad habit!)

And ate a platter each made of ham & cheese sandwiches, Scones, welsh cakes, jam, cream and Bara Brith (Which is like a welsh fruity bread).

Later we went into a lovely little Deli, and I bought these two bottles of flavoured water to add to cake recipes and icing!

I found these dead cool shiny red welly boots in Lidl, but opted out at the last minute when I saw they were £6.99. I know, I'm terribly stingy.

I ran out of battery in my camera so these were taken on my iphone, and I used the instagram app for the filters, I chose a dark one here to emphasise the rainbow, and it is quite poignant!

I have a 'thing' for these plastic ice cream cones, I think they're gorgeous, and one day I will take one home with me!

I can't take him anywhere....

 Lots of yummy cake shops were dotted around the town, I personally love Cherry Bakewells.

Lastly we took the dogs to the river, and came home to a bowl of warm pasta that my Mum had made. All in all a lovely day together, and hopefully many more to come now Scottt's free again on Saturday's :)

Homemade Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter is one of my all time favourite foods. It's also one of my favourite foods as a combination, from peanut butter and jam to peanut butter and Nutella, it is just delicious.

Here I tried (and succeeded) in making my own peanut butter, and it was very good, and felt quite natural and not synthetic like some makes can be.

 The recipe is incredibly simple.

What you need:

Food Processor

600g Dry Roasted Peanuts

1 teaspoon ground nut oil

Sterilised jar for keeping

Add the peanut's to the processor and blend for 8-10 minutes. At first the peanuts are powdery, but after every two minutes give the mixture a stir, and eventually it become creamy and peanut buttery! If you've ever made your own mayonnaise its kind of the same process.

If you want to add sugar or salt you can do this now.

Finally fill your jars, and put in the fridge to cool and harden slightly, as the mixture is a little too runny once it's been whizzed.

Enjoy on toast with jam, Nutella, or on it's own :)

(Ive been a bit of a loser this week and lost my camera battery charger , DOH!! So these were taken using my iphone and the instagram app.)

And Bethany shall be going to Uni!

So last week my mum Hazel and I went to two university interviews in Nottingham for Decorative Arts, and Leicester for Footwear Design. I spent the best part of Monday and Tuesday frantically running from the printer to college to home to the camera etc trying to put a portfolio together, which I did eventually manage to do, but only in the nick of time as my family are well aware of :) !

We started the day with a full English breakfast (those who know me know I do not function  well without food) and found our way to the interview rooms. Then there was a lot of waiting! But to be honest it's not as scary as you might think! The tutors looked through my portfolio, asked questions about my work and why I wanted to do the course etc and that was it ! The next day the same process, this time for Leicester, and it is just amazing there!

I'm not usually to finicky about what I wear, (it's usually a dress which helps prevent the putting things together process)  but I put a bit more effort in this time and decided to go for this assemble.

Dress: Juicy Couture (From a special occasion, I can't usually afford that!)

Shoes: Red or dead

Bag: H&M

Coat:H&M

 These pictures were all taken by my mum, who is also a document-er! Here I was on Tuesday morning panicking and laying my portfolio out all over the floor, and making a right royal mess.

But...... It was all worth it ..... Because.....

 I got two unconditional offers :)! So very very happy!!!