Blog of the Week Number 7

This week's Blog of the Week is someone very special indeed; Aunt Peaches. I can't remember how I discovered her blog, but I remember my first thought upon finding it was "Where have you been all my life?!". Not that I'm accusing Aunt Peaches of purposefully hiding from me or anything.  

The utterly fabulous Aunt Peaches

Aunt Peaches is the Goddess of Craft War, armed with glitter and a glue gun. I imagine her apartment to be full of cupboards crammed with thousands of pieces of loose confetti, and I know for a fact that even her food is glittery (ish). You can read more about her here, including how her feelings got butter stains all over a skirt. We've all been there....

If there was ever one thing that qualified someone to be top of my Blog of the Week list, it would have to be a Disco Giraffe. Wrap your eyes around this beauty.

These are some of Aunt Peaches' other incredible (and cheap!) craft projects. You can click on the photos to find out how she made them. 

These roses are made from the filters used in coffee machines! Genius!

Swedish Easter Tree. Also genius.

Hurry up Easter! I need these in my life. 

If a blog could be fitted with an accompanying glitter canon that fired right out of your laptop screen into your face, I imagine Aunt Peaches would be the first to sign up. Or perhaps she's working on it already. We can but hope. 

Katie xxx

P.S. Aunt Peaches' mother also gave her the best advice.

All photos are the property of Aunt Peaches. 

Blog of the Week Number 6

Howdy folks!

How's things? Eaten any nice biscuits recently? 

Apologies for my tardiness with this week's BOTW. As I mentioned yesterday, I've been busy getting my Somerset on. Where it rained, and rained, and rained... Anyone else getting sick of this "winter" nonsense?!

Well- help is at hand with this week's star blogger! Sharon is a woman on a mission- to turn the nation's unloved, uncared for caravans into things of beauty! And, my word, is she doing it! 

The lovely Sharon modelling a gorgeous dress she made herself!!

Sharon blogs over at The Happy Caravan and is a little ray of sunshine! Her blog is the perfect place to go if you fancy having a day dream about lazy summer afternoons, beach BBQs, and road tripping with your homies in a gorgeous home-from-home. 

As someone who probably needs to go to rehab for looking at too many before-and-after photos, Sharon's blog certainly fuels my addiction. She can work wonders with a paintbrush and a sewing machine- and has a seriously enviable collection of vintage fabrics! 

One of the "Befores"... Good luck, Sharon!!

Nailed it!!

Please do pop over to The Happy Caravan and drool over Sharon's hard work that definitely pays off :) You can even buy one of her caravans!! 

Katie xxx

P.S. You can see the previous "Blog of the Week"s here

Blog of the Week Number 5

Hello lovelies!

How was your weekend? I'm sorry this instalment of my new Blog of the Week (BOTW) series is a day later than the others have been (you can see BOTWs 1-4 here)- I've been busy making stock for my shiny new Etsy shop!

This week's BOTW is the lovely Emma Kate, who blogs over at Painted Style. I love Emma Kate because she's just so damn dedicated to her makeovers/upcycling/home remodelling projects. I can't figure out how someone can manage to do so many wonderful things in such a short space of time- every five minutes there seems to be a new awesome project up on her blog for me to drool over. The woman must be a sanding machine!! (Seriously, Emma Kate, what's your secret?! :) ) 

The lovely Emma Kate: seriously handy with a paintbrush and just LOOK at those legs!!

In addition to lots of wonderful furniture makeovers, Emma Kate shares lots of lovely photos of her beautiful work-in-progress home. I *might* have cheered out loud when she announced she finally had a new floor after living with this for FOUR YEARS! Cheering about other people's floors is perfectly normal, OK!

The beautiful large mirror frame was painted by Emma Kate

Emma Kate is also the car-booting QUEEN. I would be jealous, but Emma Kate deserves every wonderful bargain she finds, because she actually gets up early at the weekends. Unlike people who spend their weekend mornings eating bargainous day-old Waitrose pastries whilst flicking through the H&M catalogue *ahem*. 

You should see the "before" of this gorgeous drawer upcycle. Mind. Blown.

Please do pop over and say hello to the lovely Emma Kate- she's one of the nicest bloggers here in blogland and always takes the time to write really nice comments :)

Katie xxx

P.S. Just LOOK at her kitschy Christmas decoration collection. *swoon*!!

Blog of the Week Number 4

Hello lovelies!

I hope you're all having a relaxing, adventurous, indulgent, heart-warming, sociable and creative weekend. Or watching endless re-runs of Come Dine With Me and eating handfuls of dry Cheerios straight from the box- whatever floats your boat!

This week's BOTW is the utterly stunning Tartine and Apron Strings, run by Jen. A new discovery for me via Bloglovin', and something a bit different from my previous BOTW choices (Katy, Katie, and Amber). Jen's blog is centred around recipes and photography, rather than craft projects and stories about cats. 

The very talented Jen from Tartines and Apron Strings

Food is one of my all-time favourite things in the whole wide world, to the point that Tom is always accusing me of loving chocolate more than I love him. Which is NOT true. But, thankfully, no-one is making me choose...

Pearl Couscous with Grilled Tofu and Red Peppers? Errr... YES PLEASE

Jen is hands-down one of the most talented food stylists I have ever seen; and has inspired me to stop photographing my lovingly-made dinners with my shoddy camera phone and just posting them to instagram. 

Is it possible to bake the sensation of a hug? Because I think Jen might've done it!

If you only do one thing this week, please read the About Me page on Jen's blog- her stories, and particularly the story of her grandmother, are so inspiring. 

Even though I'm vegetarian, I think these prawns on sunshine-yellow rice look incredible!

All images for this post have been borrowed from Jen's blog- please do go and say hello/drool over more pictures of muffins :)

Katie xxx

Blog of the Week Number 3

S'up homies,

Welcome to the third installment of my new post series- Blog of the Week. 

This week's BOTW is the lovely and very well dressed Amber from Forever Amber. Combining hilarious honesty, Rubin-related anecdotes and a truckload of beautiful polkadots I find myself constantly snort-laughing when catching up on Amber's latest exploits. And, boy, does that girl know how to dress! 

Picture courtesy of Amber's lovely other half Terry who takes all of her blog photos. 

Sometimes I think about introducing outfit-related posts to my blog, but then remember you lot probably don't care I spend 90% of my time in the same three dresses and a dinosaur jumper. Side note: I have just realised I never posted a photo of my DIY-d dinosaur jumper on here. This is it:

Anyways, back to Amber. She has no problem sharing her victories and her catastrophes, her love of shoes and her hatred of winter, and stories about how she became locked in the bathroom. 

I find Amber's writing style absolutely inspiring and, even though I started blogging well before discovering her blog, it has influenced me to pour my heart and soul into writing as amusingly as I possibly can. 

Amber: inspiring me nameless people to start wearing nice clothes and brushing their hair since 2006.  

So, if you fancy a giggle and more pictures of pretty dresses than your eyes can handle, please do pop over and say "hello" to Amber. 

Katie xxx 

P.s. If you missed either of my previous posts you should be able to see them here

Blog of the Week Number 2

Hello lovelies!

Today is the second post in my new regular series- Blog of the Week. My first BOTW, for those of you who might have missed it, was the beautiful Katy's brand-new blog Sparkle and Shine. I've known Katy since I was a nipper and it's nice to be able to keep in touch via the internet as we don't get to see each other as often as we wish in the real-life world (although I am actually seeing her today! Hurrah!). 

The other side of this blogging m'lark is getting to discover (and befriend) people from all over the world with similar interests, different lives, beautiful babies, and unbelievable skills. Funny people, thoughtful people, clever people, and talented people. Thank you, internet for being so awesome. 

My second BOTW is one of these very people. I have chosen Katie from Color Me Katie (I promise BOTW is not themed specifically to bloggers called Katie- that would be silly and also slightly neurotic). 

Katie- sleeping in a pile of craft stuff. We've all been there. 

When I first discovered Katie's blog I spent an entire evening reading all of her previous posts. She is one of the most generous and inspiring bloggers I have ever found; capable of turning bits of coloured paper, or tiny rubber ducks, into things of beauty and delight. As you might have guessed from her blog title, she's a big fan of colour (or "color", as she is from across the pond), and confirmed to me there is no such thing as too much colour when it comes to decorating. Hence our explosion-in-the-Dulux-factory house. 

You can read more about these balloons here

Her blog is the perfect rainbow-bright remedy for the current grey wintery weather here in the U.K. Katie also does a lot of very sweet, inexpensive things purely to make other people smile, such as hiding things in the street for them to find, or making unusual decorations from nature. I think it's a really lovely idea, and I spotted a tree stump today that gave me a spark of inspiration. I'm hoping to do a bit of a sneak-attack on it myself in the summer.

Just catching up on the food shopping...

Katie xxx

P.S. Cat fans- she has a very cute cat called Moo - who gets up to all sorts of adventures!

Blog of the Week Number 1

Hello lovelies!

I've decided to try and introduce some regular posts onto my blog to give me more inspiration to write, and to hopefully give you some more interesting things to read too (I may also introduce a regular, themed photo post- Pictures Of Hugh Jackman's Abs, perhaps?)

What was I talking about again? 

Yes, so- I've decided to start a weekly feature called Blog of the Week where I (you guessed it!) share a blog that's either a firm favourite or a new discovery (through Pinterest, twitter or other blogs, mostly). I'm hoping I can help showcase some of the crafts/opinions/adorable photos of babies out there on the internet that you might not otherwise have discovered, and introduce some of my favourite internetty-type people to each other too. Please do feel free to link up your favourite blogs at the end of this post. 

I've discovered several new blogs recently from places far and wide, but my first in the series is going to go to the blog of a girl I've known in real life since I was practically a foetus! Katy is one of the most driven people I know; every time I see her she has new stories to tell about her adventures, crafting successes, and general wholesomeness that make me feel like perhaps I should be doing more with my life than eating chocolate cereal and watching Location, Location, Location (only kidding- I love you Phil!). Katy started her blog as one of her New Year's Resolutions for 2013 and it would be brilliant if some of you popped over to say hello whilst she's finding her feet with the whole "Dear Internet" thing :) 

You can find out more about what this pretty lady has to say over at http://sparkleandshine55.blogspot.co.uk 

Katie xxx