Trawl through 'Saved for Later'

By the time you're reading this, I will be on my honeymoon!  I've queued up two posts to cover the two weeks I'll be away, I've got lots of craft and thrift related reading and projects planned for my holidays so I'll be back with a vengeance!



I know it's ridiculously early but I'm starting to think about Christmas.  Specifically, what presents am I going to attempt to make and what baking projects I'm going to trial.  I've done pretty well in the past year for not taking on more than I can manage but there are definitely a few things I want to make before the festive season, either for me or as presents.

1. I've just bought an overlocker (more on that when I'm back!) so some simple projects to master the machine would be super useful.  This piece from Veronica Darling inspired me to make some placemats and what better reason than for the holidays.  Create-Enjoy made some tie-dyed napkins that were pretty cool, I'd probably just use stash fabric but would be a great little project to practice the art of overlocking!


2. A Beautiful Mess had a round up of 20 favourite holiday recipes in December last year, some of which would be perfect to practice in autumn, before serving to family at Christmas.  The truffles especially caught my eye...


3. For our American brethren, this adorable card from Laura Berger would be perfect for Thanksgiving.  We have one of her prints (A Tiny Visitor) and it is adorable.  I would buy up most of her shop in a heartbeat.


4. I'm not planning on crafting too many presents, since I always take on too much and it stresses me out in the run up to Christmas.  Last year was a nice balance of handmade and bought gifts and I plan to repeat that again this year.  I want to knit an Owlet from Kate Davies for my god child, partly because it's adorable and easy, partly because I made one for myself and we could be MATCHING!  So much cute.


5. These aren't specifically for Christmas but are definitely autumnal, Whisky Cinnamon Rolls from A Beautiful Mess.  I love cinnamon rolls so much and the addition of whisky would be amazing, especially after a chilly dog walk.  I'm imagining the fire on, hot chocolate on the stove and warm, boozy rolls straight from the oven.  Perfect for Christmas Day morning.

So many plans!  I love this time of year, autumn and the run up to the holidays are definitely my favourite times.

You can see my previous trawl over here.

Craft & Thrift does hen party!

Last weekend was my hen do and much crafting, thrifting fun was had by all!  I wanted it to be quite relaxed, with the kind of activities my friends with babies could partake in, between feeds and changes.  You may have already seen some of these pictures if you follow me on Instagram but I thought I'd bring them all together here, with links to some of the projects and recipes we used.



One of my favourite things in the world is afternoon tea with cocktails.  I love me some baking, and baking with friends with the radio on in the background and sunshine streaming through the kitchen window, was perfect.  We had quite the spread, you can see the recipes used (or approximations thereof!) in the links below, or just drool over the pictures, whatever floats your boat!

• Delia's fruit scones (with cream and jam, prompting the old Cornish vs. Devonian method for applying one's toppings)
• Mississippi mud pie (home recipe passed down from my Mum - I'll share in a future post if anyone is interested)
• Egg mayo and chives (instead of watercress) sandwiches
• Salmon and cream cheese oatcakes (no recipe needed, but how nice does this BBC recipe for smoked salmon pate sound?)- one of my all time favourites in case you ever ask me for afternoon tea
• Mini cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery 

Cocktails included Mojitos with homegrown mint and peach bellinis.  All served in my selection of thrifted china and glassware.  One of my new-to-me sets is the cups on the left there, you can see a close up of the plates below, how cute are they?  A total bargain from a charity shop, £3 for 3 cups, 3 saucers and 2 side plates.  Very Scandinavian inspired I think.



Next up - sugarcraft!  Taught by the lovely Heather of Heather's Cakes, we all learned how to make edible sugar icing roses, which will eventually end up decorating my wedding cake.  I was really pleased with the outcome of these, they look lovely all grouped together.  Everyone was worried their roses would be the bad one, but honestly I think they look amazing, we all did a great job!  If you're interested in making sugarcraft roses yourself, check out this Youtube video.  Or hire Heather, she's amazing.

From there more cocktails and food at mine and Andrew's favourite Bruntsfield Bar, Henricks.  We had our engagement party here and regularly visit with the dog, it's a lovely bar with a great selection of modern Scottish food and wine (amongst other beverages).  They make a lovely fuss of Badger, which always sells me on a venue.  And they're literally stumbling distance from my flat.







Frances made me this amazing 'Bride' sash, hand sewn!  Mary Jane added to it with a hand sewn 'Bride to be' rosette. My friends are so creative and thoughtful!

From there, those of us left wandered into town for some more cocktails and free cabaret at Voodoo Rooms.  All in, it was an amazing weekend, I woke up on Sunday hungover and husky-voiced, but having had a brilliant time.





Sunday was craft recuperation time, so I finished off the last of the brooch bouquets and browsed my lovely photo album, handmade by Victoria literally as we went!  She brought an Instax camera with her and mounted the photos in the bars as we drank, getting my lady friends to write touching and silly notes along side each one.  That is dedication to your craft, right there.   

The brooch bouquets are finally done, I can't wait to show them off in a future post but I'm going to save it until I've got professional photos of them all.  They've turned out really well though, I'm really pleased I used fake flowers because I'll have my bouquet to keep forever.  It's going to be lovely to walk up the aisle carrying brooches from friends and family, plus some thrifted pieces with Frances and Victoria.  It's like a little piece of all areas of my life, together in a bouquet.  Only 4 weeks to go now...!

Vintage Cluedo cards to button packaging

Just a quick one today dear friends, I'm on lates this week so working until 8.30pm.  Doesn't give me much time to blog or craft, sad face.  Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of valuable crafting time?



I made these up recently as a way of organising some buttons I was giving away to a friend.  I've had these vintage Cluedo cards for ages after I inherited a copy of Cluedo that was missing half the pieces ("Miss Scarlet in the conservatory with the thimble" - just doesn't hold the same terror).  I bought the vintage Edinburgh photographs from a jumble sale, back when I had an Etsy shop.  They sold quite well but these ones were left over when I shut up shop and I wanted to put them to good use. 



I especially like how that gurny face peeks out from between the buttons.  Some of these photos date from the early 1900s, I actually got in touch with a collector to find out if they were worth anything before I went and poked holes in them and apparently you can pick them up for between 10-50p per photo.  I didn't feel too guilty destroying them after that.



I would definitely do this again, so quick and simple but I think they look quite unusual!  If I were in the business of selling vintage buttons, this would definitely be my preferred method of packaging I think.  Thrifty, sustainable and unique, the whole package!

Welcome to Craft and Thrift!

Hello fellow Thifters!  Friendly Crafters!  Passing-by Knitters, Crocheters and Sewists!  

 Welcome to my new blog, Craft and Thrift.

Some of you may have been reading my online witterings for a while, under my first blog Second Fiddle Crafts.  You'll have seen me through my first degree in Zoology in Aberdeen, through graduation and starting Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh.  You'll have watched while I moved in with my then-boyfriend, now fiancé, Andrew.  You may have awww'd your way through photos of our sadly-no-longer-with-us pygmy hedgehogs and now deliquent puppy.  Well, I'm now a qualified vet, working in Edinburgh and thrifting my way (slowly) towards The Good Life.



Throughout all these ups and downs, crafting has been a constant source of calm, relaxation, anger, joy and sadness in my life.  The beautiful moment your finished cushion cover slips perfectly into place, all plump and inviting.  That fateful day you realise the top you've been slaving over for so long is unlikely to fit a 7 year old, let alone your slightly plump, 27 year old self.  The fourth time you forget to change the needle position on your sewing machine, leading the needle to hit the foot at speed, shear in two and come flying at your eye at blinding speed.  Ah, the joys of crafting.



So, dear readers, new and old.  These are the joys I will share with you on this journey we undertake together.  You'll laugh.  You'll cry.  You'll question my choice of sentence structure.  The photos dotting this post are but a snippet of what's to come.  

Intrigued?  Then read on, Macduff...