London for Lovers

The Warr has been living in London for close on 7 years now - and I would say that the "novelty" of living in one of the world's coolest capitals has long worn off. As for me, whenever I come over I'm in a perpetual state of "WOW! AWESOME!! We're going on one of those RED BUSES!! OOOH!! We're going to sit UPSTAIRS!! ON THE DOUBLE DECKER! woohooo! FUN!!" And Warren has to usher me to the back of the bus under his coat - to stop the locals from staring at me.

As of yet - we have no hard and fast plans for after our wedding (6 April 2013!) But we will be in London for [some] time once we are married. {I know how these things go though - you think, hey, I'll just spend a year in South Korea and then 3 and a half years later you're considering going for citizenship - anyway I digress}.

In the next few coming months and years as a newly married couple - I want to explore London as tourists, together. There are a bajillion cool places and secret cafes that we have yet to discover and I can't wait to unearth them all. For Valentines Day this year, I bought Warren a book from Urban Outfitters (definitely one of the coolest shops on the block) titled "London for Lovers".

This book is an awesome mix of quirky, fun and interesting places to see, eat, discover and explore within London. The book is divided into different categories such as "Late Night London", "Live London" and "Learned London"and it includes things like cool graffiti spots in the city, interesting and obscure museums and art galleries, different boutique shops, niche restaurants, unexplored parks and off the map coffee shops. I was also partly drawn to the awesome graphics, typography and layout of this book - that elephant pic! Did somebody say tattoo?! 

(Just kidding mom. 

Sort of).

What I love about it is that of all the usual places is mentions that you are sure to have already tried and tested - (Nottinghill, Brick Lane, Shoreditch etc) it gives you the names of unique restaurants to try or the name of an awesome little shop that is maybe tucked around the corner that nobody really ventures to.

I made The Warr a Valentines day card ahem,

{I love you so much I want to squeeze you 'til your eyeballs pop out}

Then I tied it to the book with some purple twine - which really does make it look like the eyeballs are being squeezed out. 

At least,

that's what I think.

x

Valentines Day

I decided to send my bridesmaids a little love for Valentines Day - so I bought them each a pink heart shaped notepad (ie something not too heavy for international shipping). I wanted to post this in the lead up to Valentine's day but the lovely gals didn't receive their little surprises until today - which is unfortunate because I sent them off with plenty of time to spare. Anywhoo - I made a Valentine's day card with the text "my favourite thing about you is........ " and then I left a blank spot to fill in something personal, in ink for each of my lovelies.


Then I made a little matching gift tag and taped it on using some bright red washi tape and a little wooden heart that I found in Tiger - one of my fave UK stores. et Valentines voila! xo

{Gift Wrap} Brown Paper and Prints

I was about to post some pictures of my Valentines Day Gift Wrap when I suddenly realised that I havent yet blogged the Christmas Gift Wrap I wanted to share. Fail.

I have two excuses for this:

1. The Warr and I celebrated Christmas in February because we weren't in the same continent in December. Christmas in February is different from "a belated Christmas in January" and it's very different from "Christmas in July!" It just throws everyone off.
2. Wedding. Wedding planning makes your brain a little woooo-hooosy. You forget about the normal functioning of life. You forget about things that you would usually have done. You think you have already done the things you would usually do. Your brain goes to mush and you have severe lack of sleep which inhibits normal brain functioning. But that's a post for another time.
   (and FYI, I totally spelt inhibits "inbihits" until I went back to check it. Point in case.)

Anyway,

Back to Christmas!

Boys. They are such TRICKY monkeys to buy presents for. 

Question: What can you get a girl for Christmas?

Answer: A lovely perfume, some sparkly earrings, things to add to her gift-wrap and stationery drawer, any fancy (read: expensive) facial or body care; lotions, masks, body scrubs, moisturisers, a spa treatment voucher, a handbag, delicious candles, pretty underwear, any jewellery, glossy magazines, make-up brushes etc

Question: What can you get a boy for Christmas?
Answer: Socks or a car.

hmmm.

A little while back, The Warr and I were wondering around a department store and we came across the most amazing store display - a little corner with a cozy couch/sofa next to a (fake) crackling fireplace, a warm thick throw over the arm of the chair, an amazing soft faux-fur rug and the most incredible wall paper that looked like the whole scene was in a wintery forest. 

Me: Oh that looks SO amazing!

Warr: I know! It looks so cozy!

Me: Imagine it with some delicious red wine! Or some delicious hot chocolate!

W: Exactly - and with an awesome game of backgammon on the go! We neeeeed this in our future house!

Me: I totally agree. But I don't know how to play backgammon.

Anyway after this little encounter I decided that for Christmas, I would get Warren a little collection of things to make up this little "winter scene" for our future home one day. So instead of getting him "things" I got him more of an "experience". 

First I went online and gathered some pictures that would remind him of the "winter scene" we saw. Most of these pics came from my Pinterest Boards - I curate a variety of "random" boards for these such things {warm and cozy; festival; summer etc}. You never know when they might come in handy! (You can follow my pinterest boards here)

Once I had collected and printed all the images I wanted I wrapped up my gifts in brown paper and attached the pics with washi tape in shades of wintery blue. (See what I did there? Smart.) I then tied some of them up with purple twine.


I also made a personalised card to go with the gifts which.. in case he hadn't made the connection with the (quite obvious) pictures.. also explained the idea behind the gifts.

I included in the "winter scene" Christmas gifts:

• a warm throw blanket
• a bottle of delicious red wine
• a DVD
• cute little cheese markers from Poetry
• a backgammon set 
• and a few other little bits and pieces

We decided to celebrate Fake Christmas at a Moroccan style restaurant called Doukan. The food was delicious - we shared a starter platter with hummous, dipping sausages, a spicy lentil mix {which definitely has a fancy name that I can't remember), baked cheeses and Basilla Fasilla - a sweet and savoury chicken with almonds and cinnamon in a pastry parcel.


For mains The Warr had Seffa Meklouba: a sweet and savoury lamb on almond couscous - served with tomato jam and a spicy lamb consomme. (lol. I don't even know what consomme is - I totally got that straight off the menu). I had the beef tagine... They were so yummy!


And I made Warr wear a Christmas hat in the middle of the crowded restaurant. And he did it cause he loves me. (And also, he didn't want to RUIN CHRISTMAS.)


Warr gave me some awesome stocking presents (yay me!) and one of them was an Absurd Word tabletop game. We played at the table. And everyone in the restaurant watched us playing games and unwrapping presents in our Christmas hats in the middle of February and they all thought we were very strange. Obviously.

And then we ended off our evening with a very scrumptious apple crumble  -

because WHY NOT?!

it's Christmas!

{and now warren has to teach me how to play backgammon}

{giveaway} glass

After seeing the Consol giveaway - One of my friends sent me a pic of her Christmas pressies - yummy biscuits in glass jars with blackboard paint. This type of glass jar is such thoughtful gift packaging because after chowing down on all the delicious treats, the recipient can keep the jar to be filled with anything they choose.

You could fill a glass jar with any kind of small present - any crafter or seamstress would I'm sure LOVE to get a jar like this filled with pretty buttons (or pens or washi tape!!) or to kids filled with farm animals or mini action figures. Or send one to a golfer filled with golfballs and golf tees. 

I am currently running a giveaway with Consol Glass - they are giving away a hamper of glass goodies which is absolutely amazing! You can read about and enter the giveaway here. Good luck!

Christmas giftwrap: House and Leisure

I was recently asked by House and Leisure to share some "Christmas type" Gift wrapping with them. I came up with some holly-berry goodness - here's how:

Things you will need:

1. A box
2. Metallic paper various colours (I got these from the Crazy Store)
3. Sticky Tape or glue dots
4. Chocolate balls - preferably red. (I got mine from Woolworths)
5. Green paper
6. Scissors
7. A black pen
8. String

Step one: wrap your box in the metallic paper - I like putting gifts in boxes because they are way easier and neater to wrap than oddly shaped gifts.

Step Two: Use a contrasting metallic paper to make a broad band around the gift.

Step Three: Draw some holly leaves on your green paper. These are easy to draw if you imagine drawing an inside out cloud. You can use various shades of green to make it interesting if you would like.


Step Four: Cut out your holly leaves and write on the back of them as you would a Christmas gift tag.
Step Five: Attach the holly leaves to your gift using glue dots or sticky tape doubled back on itself. Attach some rough string around the gift to create a new texture.

Step Six: Attach your red chocolate balls onto your gift to make the holly berries - added bonus for the receiver as an extra little something sweet!

Et voila Christmas Gift-wrap ala Holly Berries!

give with love x

You can see the blogpost and interview at House and Leisure Here.

Gift wrapped

I love well wrapped gifts. In fact, you could wrap up an empty shoe-box for my birthday and if it had killer ribbons and bows and whistles on it  - I probably wouldn't even notice. (ok, I'd notice a little. And in any case, it's not very nice to give people empty shoeboxes on their birthday). Anywhoo - one of my bridesmaids recently celebrated her birthday and so I got involved in making some pretty packages for her. I also bought her some real-life gifts as opposed to empty shoe-boxes. 'cause i'm a nice friend like that.

Wrapped presents in brown paper.

Cut out some little circles from some purplish-pink tissue paper.

 

Folded the tissue paper circles into half and then half and then half and then half and then half...

 

Taped the bottom of the tissue paper circles together.

 

Bought some vintage-esque birds/ eggs/ flowers/ nests paperabilia. 

(Paperabilia - I made that word up. It's very fancy.)

 

Took my little tissue paper circles (taped together) and stuck them onto card with a bit of washi tape -behind a little bird. Also made a birthday card - from printed black and white pics, tissue paper scraps and other paper scraps for texture. As well as some fun blue gift tags and thick brown card stock:

 

Most normal people are fully addicted to washi tape.

You can see some of my other gift-wrapping ideas by clicking here.