Thistle and Olive

visitbristol.co.uk

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:58:32 +0000

visitbristol.co.uk:

Is Bristol Christmas Ice Rink in the Podium still open on Jan 13th?

Sparkle sparkle! #nails #nailvarnish #sparkles

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:37:39 +0000

Sparkle sparkle! #nails #nailvarnish #sparkles

Halloween Fun!

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:15:57 +0000

Here are a few ways to make Halloween a scream for both children and adults with ways to decorate your home, carve your pumpkins and have a few creepy cocktails for the blood-thirsty people later on in the evening!

There are many ways to carve your pumpkins. Although the tradition is to carve a scary face into a pumpkin and leave it by your front door, I always like to be a little different. And as I like the creative side I thought of trying something new. These oumkkins are all beautifully carved and decorated and much more original.

Sweetie necklaces

You just need to get a few sweeties that you can push a squewer through to make a hole. Then push some thread or ribbon though, tie a knot after each one and tie up the ends to make a necklace! Then you can hang these or hide these around the house for everyone to find. Or keep them by the door to hand out to trick or treaters! You can find some brilliant ghoul and goblin sweets here, or just use normal pick n’ mix sweets. I like to put them in black and white stripy paper bags as well. These are easy to create as well, simply by buying a pack of small paper bags - if they’re plain bags, you can decorating them yourself with felt tips, pencil crayons, sparkles and much more!

Homemade Vampire Marshmallows

These marshmallows are perfect for the kids and adults! They can be coloured with different food colourings to make them into vampire, zombie or devil marshmallows. I got this recipe from Yum Sugar, but have added my own little halloween twist.

Ingredients

3 packages unflavoured gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray and food different colourings

Directions

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.
In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.
Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.
Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows. (Heres my halloween idea - put different food colours in and gently fold the misture so there a marbled effect in the marshmallow mix. Put as much or as little as you like!)
Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.
Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.
When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Creepy Cocktails

Bleeding Heart Martini

Ingredients

2 ounces dry vermouth
8 ounces premium gin
Ice cubes
4 Pickled Baby Beets, each placed on a cocktail skewer

Directions

Chill 4 martini glasses in the freezer or fill with ice water and let sit until frosty, about 5 minutes (pour out water). Add the vermouth, dividing evenly; swirl to coat the glasses, then pour out. Add gin to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously until chilled; divide among chilled glasses. Garnish each with a skewered pickled baby beet, and serve immediately.

Five Favourite Wallpaper Prints

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 09:51:06 +0100

Entering The Hammam - Fired Earth

Peacocks On Grass - Squint Limited

Whitby Wallpaper - Lido - Mini Moderns

Dalston Rose - House Of Hackney

Sitting Comfortably? - Mini Moderns

Colourful Tiles

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:03:00 +0100

Never stop experimenting when it comes to design. One way to create your own design is with tiles. They should never be confined to just a kitchen or bathroom. Broken tiles can be used in mosaics for table tops, mirror or picture frames, decorative plant pots and much much more. But my new favourite thing is to add tiles to stair risers simply for decoration and colour. They can be tiles bought specially for this or a collection of all different left over tiles!

Aren’t these lovely? I love how a complete tiling novice (like myself!) can do this too as the tiles fit in easily between each step. And by doing this you can use your imagination and bring some boring plain steps to life by adding your own original design.

Agyness Deyn 2.5 Million Dollar Messy Heaven

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:39:00 +0100

I love her. Part of me wants to be her. But then I thought about the amount of travelling she must have to do to get to photo shoots and interviews and other bits and pieces, and suddenly appreciated my comfort. But then I saw these pictures of her beautiful home, and the jealousy came rushing back. Her house is beautiful, the word heaven isn’t good enough. Her interiors are colourful, imaginative and so creative. I wouldn’t mind having a busy busy schedule if I had this to come home to every night!

Geometric Prints

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:27:00 +0100

I love the geometric print styles at the moment, whether that be in clothing or homewares. Heres a few that I found!

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

1 - Free People 2 - Habitat 3 - House To Home 4 - 1973 5 - H&M 6 - Marks & Spencer

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers Love this song! Listen to her album,...

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:16:41 +0100

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers

Love this song! Listen to her album, Wounded Rhymes. Truly beautiful.

South of France

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:53:00 +0100

These pictures are from our holiday in the South of France! It was sos beautiful there, I didn’t want to leave! It was so hot and sunny everyday, with lovely and warm evenings! We stayed Nice in the old town in a lovely little apartment, (yourniceapartment.com) and explored the coast from there. But as we were only there for a week we couldn’t fit everything in! We visited Cannes, Antibe, Monaco, Nice and St Tropez. They were all so beautiful, all with amazing ports and buildings. I definitely want to go back to see the rest!

Photo

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:52:52 +0100

Photo

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:52:35 +0100

New York Apartment Wish List

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:26:30 +0100

A few loft apartments in New York that I love!

I love the large windows here that let in all the natural light to an otherwise fairly dark apartment. The horizontal lines are carried through from the windows to the chairs to give an incredibly relaxed feel.

This is the perfect flat for me! I love the idea of having the things that are important to you right on show. I particularly like the ‘boxy style’ shelving in white that covers the walls both upstairs and down, and the big bold ceiling lamps.

I love everything in this room! So lovely to view the room through the large window too.

This is my favourite loft apartment of all. I always feel that the things to look for in an apartment are… wooden floors, white walls and large windows. This is a definite winner, especially as it has a high ceiling! From that basis I always think you can create whatever look or feel you want. Although I personally love the furnishings and colours in this too!

My lovely boyfriend standing on the pier. It was pretty wet. ...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:40:53 +0100

My lovely boyfriend standing on the pier. It was pretty wet. (Taken with Instagram)

Trams on the pier (Taken with Instagram)

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:36:46 +0100

Trams on the pier (Taken with Instagram)

Southport beach on a rainy day (Taken with Instagram)

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:34:36 +0100

Southport beach on a rainy day (Taken with Instagram)

A Lovely DIY Sewing Kit

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:43:36 +0100

Have a look at this link to make your very own personal DIY sewing kit! A really sweet little way to add your own little person touch to the things you own. Try it with sequins, beads, buttons, lace, embroidery and much much more. Whats more, its made within your own little book, so you can take it on your travels. Click this link to try it out.

Sock Teddy Bears

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:55:11 +0100

Today I’ve been making some sock teddys just for fun! Meet Charlie and Boo

A really beautiful song that makes me want to sit back and close...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:27:29 +0100

A really beautiful song that makes me want to sit back and close my eyes! I’ve known of The Kills for a while but have only just looked into their stuff properly, and straight away I fell in love with it! Hope you like it x

BT ArtBox

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:35:00 +0100

I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to write anything for my blog! For that I can only apologise! Right (I know its a ‘bit’ late) I’ve done a bit of research on the BT ArtBox exhibition. They were shown all around London starting on the 5th June, and are being auctioned off on Ebay and at The National Portrait Gallery with Sotheby’s to raise money for Childline. They asked 80 artists and creative minds to come up with their own unique design inspired by the original Gilbert Scott K6 phone box. And the results were incredible! Here are just a few of my favourites…

Rosemary Goodenough

Pete Bishop

Lauren O’Farrell

Giles Deacon

Julien Macdonald

Natasha Kumar

Rebecca Campbell

Have a look at the BT ArtBox website to see all about the exhibition and auction. Also theres a link to download a phone box template to create your very own design!

The Olden Days

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:34:00 +0100

I decided a few days ago to be arty again, and so I’ve started from the beginning. Potato printing is the way! Just slice a potato in half and cut shapes into it. I used cake cutters to outline the shape I wanted and then cut around it so the only bit left was the shape I wanted to print with….

And so I covered my floor with old news paper, got my paints and brushes out and got printing! Here are a few of the ‘better’ ones….

Then I had a go with some asymmetric ideas in pastel colours….

All in all a very productive day!x