lazy weekend, lazy sunday

Being that I still have my part-time job (anyone fancy employing me? No? Okay then..), having free weekends is something of a rarity for me. On Saturday I was doing a late night shift, and Sunday I had somehow wrangled the day off through booking my holiday incorrectly. Yesterday I had a very hot wander around Alton and the farmers-market and ate far too much good food, then today I did well.. practically nothing. I woke up late, made an amazing cup of coffee, popped to the shops, then chilled with some magazines, books, and a new knitting project in the afternoon. 

I've been having some problems with my wrist so knitting has to be with long breaks in-between, and the thing I had been knitting (a very large entirely stockinette t-shirt) was driving me crazy. I wanted to cast on something really fun so I'm doing a vanilla toe-up sock which will have an after thought heel, but its in this super amazing Regia wool that is just so bright.

I'm also currently reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and I'm so obsessed with it - I can't believe I've never read it before, it's making me want to read other things by Woolf, which I've never really entertained the idea of before. If you have any other recommendations, let me know?

I also picked up the new copy of Elle (with the Malin & Goetz samples) and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed flicking through Elle - not something that I ever normally go for, but it was a good read. And how cute are my little cornflowers that I picked at the allotment? They perfectly match the candle I got at Ikea, that is annoyingly washed out by my bad photography..

What have you been up to this weekend? 

do-it-yourself gifts - part one

image from wit and whistle, rowan

Christmas is coming, as I'm sure you're sick of already! I don't know if you're like me, but my cash isn't stretching as far this year, unfortunately. I've seen a lot of posts already about gifts for him/her, even a stocking fillers under £50 (I don't have that kind of money?! I wish I did!)..  This year, I want to try and make as many presents as possible, because I want to give nice things to my friends and family even if I am a bit poor this year, because they still deserve nice things. Over the next four weekends I am going to show you some of my favourite items you can do for friends - that will cute and thoughtful, and won't break the bank!

• Handmade candles; now this might not sound so cheap, because you do need to buy a few things for it- the wax (I recommend the soy container wax, that melts in the microwave) the wick tabs (get the premade wicks!) and some glue dots to stick the wick down. Whilst this might sound like a lot, you can make a lot of candles from one bag of wax - making it very cost effective. Then you have to scour charity shops for some cute little cups and jars (or you might have some around your house) that you can use. There lots of variations on how to make them, but these are the two simplest methods to follow: here and here. Perfect for: girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers.
• Hand-decorated sharpie ceramics; this is something that all over Pinterest at the moment, drawing on plain ceramic with black sharpies, that you then bake in the oven and it 'sets' it onto the mug! There are two ways to gift this cute little gift. You could draw it on first and do a cute design, or give it to the person with instructions. Get some cheap mugs from Tesco and go crazy. This blog tells you exactly how to make them, or search Pinterest for ideas (search; sharpie mug). Perfect for: couples (do his and hers mugs), teenagers or adults who like giving-things-a-go and are creative.
• Hand-knit hats; now if you can't knit already, I probably suggest missing this one out, but if you have some skills in the department, brush up on them and find some easy knit hats on Ravelry (there are hundreds!). Everyone loves knitwear at Christmas, and you've probably got yarn that you haven't touched that is suitable in your stash! The hat pictured is from a Rowan Easy Winter Knits catalogue, but there are lots of free ones: beginner hat and scarf and ridged pom-pom hat are two of my favourites. Perfect for: anyone really! Plain beanies for men in blue, green or grey go down well, or in bright neon colours for fashion-conscious friends.

current flame

My favourite thing at the moment, now that it is dark in the evenings is to tuck myself up in my room with my quilt and my knitting with all my candles lit - it's really nice and relaxing, having wintery scents around, I think. I thought I'd show you some of my favourites at the moment...

Wax Lyrical Red Berries

Sainsbury's Frankincense & Myhhr Tealights

Kringle Mulling Spices

Glade Blackberry Frost

Yankee Candle Kitchen Spice

Waitrose Christmas Spice (A bit like this one.)

And my own festive spice tarts!

candlemaking

I've wanted to make my own candles for a little while - my mum bought some soya wax the other week and let me make some candles. Soya wax is good because you can melt it in a Pyrex jar in the microwave; no messing about on the stove: perfect. I've posted about candles you can make in old jelly moulds before and have always wanted to try it, but the price of 'vintage Jello moulds' is ridiculous! Then I came across these metal tart tins in my local cheapy-cheap shop (£1.50 for six) and thought they would be perfect.. They look super adorable, and I added some fragrance that I had bought from the same website as the wax and they're lovely. All you have to do is fill your container with the unmelted wax (to know how much to melt), put it in a microwavable container and melt for 30 second blasts, stirring in between. When done, make sure you have the wick held in place with some string, a peg, etc, and pour in the wax. Leave to set and bingo, some lovely little candles. Just a tip, you use a lot more wax than you think, so buy more than necessary!

spice is nice

Kitchen Spice, £8.39

Just in case you're wondering, this is what my room smells like. You might not have been wondering, but here is the knowledge anyway! My mum got it for me as a little back-to-uni goodbye-gift, and again for Christmas. We both agreed that it really smells like our house. The Yankee Candle website says it smells orange, clove, ginger and cinnamon. My mum has these jars in our house with oranges in with cloves and cinnamon in, and a lot of food comes with a liberal helping of ginger, so it is just perfect, and its so lovely on a cold day.

insect dilemmas

With the hot weather we had last week, I faced a huge dilemma. Do I leave my lights on and windows open, and face the onslaught of moths? Or do I shut the windows and slowly melt and suffocate to death? 

Well, if you too suffer such dilemmas, fear not! I ended up just lighting loads of little tea-lights all over my room, particularly along my windowsill, and the strong scented ones really kept the moths and other insects at bay! These little lovelies are from Ikea and you can buy them in big packets, and they smell amazing. I'm not really sure of the scent, it has like papayas and passionfruit on the image but they just sort of smell fruity. I snapped these pictures with instagram, but I thought they were kind of pretty.

burning up

 

Quince, M&S, £9.50

Passionflower and Mango, Sainsbury's, £8-9

Bahama Breeze, Yankee Candle, £8.39

Now I've had a bit of a sort out in my room (more on that one shortly) I can get to my candles better, so I've been lighting them at every available chance. Some of my pretty unscented ones are at uni, so I have a couple here to keep me going, and I really love these.

The Quince one I picked up on a whim from my local Marks and Spencers when looking for duvet covers.. It smells absolutely amazing, very fruity and fresh without being too sickly, and I really love the jar it comes in, because when it's done I'm definitely going to use it to store something in. I don't know what, though. I don't know what the burning time of this is, but it seems to be burning very slowly, so that's good!

The pink one, is very pretty but I can't smell enough of the mango? I straddle a thin line between floral and fruity and this one leans slightly too far into the former for my liking. It's pretty, but it cost the same as the others and its burning much quicker, and I don't like it as much. However, I do think Sainsbury's have a good line in candles. I can't find them online (their website is shocking), but both my local ones have a good stock selection!

And finally we come to Yankee Candle. Whilst I haven't ventured as far a Diptyque candle yet (although my housemate has a beautiful one), this is about as much as I can stand to pay for something that literally burns your money. A slightly smaller jar than the other two for a similar price, Bahama Breeze has an amazingly summery, fruity scent. It borders on being too fruity, but for the summer, it's amazing. 

Basically, though, this boils down (burns down? ohh, the puns I could do) to whatever scent you like. I wouldn't disregard the 'cheaper' ones, but they don't seem that much cheaper? And I think sometimes the more you pay, you do get a slightly better quality candle, and therefore burns for longer. Just my two scents, really, and I thought I'd show you what my room currently smells like!