Once upon a time necklaces

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, these super cute necklaces were made. Get yours here and make everyday your own little fairytale!

Folksy Friday Pastels and Patterns

A lovely collection of pastels and pastel prints. Inspired by the blooming spring pastels seen all over fashion. As you can see in many forms; jewellery, cloths, pictures and cards. Embrace the softer side of life!

For all the items I've selected for this theme please take a look at my Pinterest  board.

1: Beach hut photograph : Cassia Beck
2: Mint bow necklace: iloveyou
3: Bunting Card: Memory Laines…
4: Keyring: Red Brick Glass
5: Typewritter print: Lolas room
6: Precious stone scarf: NKOYO

Photo help

I've started to take some new product photos yesterday. Luckily as soon as I found my camera, got the setup right and the sun came out from behind the clouds Ed came to help. She dose make the picture super pretty, but is a bit distracting from the necklace....I'm hoping the plainer back ground will help show of my items better. (I also came to the realization that if any item is featured on the front page of etsy or folksy, they usually have plain backgrounds. I'm not sure I have much hope of being on the front anyhow, but maybe this'll help?)

More than anything I wanted to try and get back to my first visualization of 'The Catkin Boutique.' I like fresh Japanese-y images; minimal, graphic with small splashes of colour. I'm very inspired by Japanese craft books, and I think they are the reason I started to make crafts to sell, where as before I just made odd bits and bobs for family and friends.

{An inspiring craft photo}

spring solstice

Happy spring solstice! Hope we get lots of things done in this perfectly balanced day :)

Chinese lanterns

Here's a bit of visual inspiration. I love the delicate gold veins the enclose those bright orange beads. It'd be great to actually have a lamp in the shape of these...

I'm thinking about setting up a new range of photos with plain backgrounds. And maybe set up some with models? This could mean i change the whole look of the Catkin Boutique, moving away from the brown paper (which i may still package my items on) to more neutral tones with candy coloured accents. Difficult to describe the ideas in my head, maybe I'll make a mood broad!

Folksy Friday: Animals In The Wood

Badger plate: Night owl handmade

Owl purse: Honeypips

Fox in Jumper: Owl art by Ashley Percival

Squirrel necklace : wiv wuv creations

Sky Fox Magnet: Whirlygig

Squirrel wood print: The windmill stump

Inspired by the misty days we've been having and all the animal coming out of hibernation. Full selection on  Pinterest

Misty

It was lovely and misty this morning.

Butterfly Wallpaper

I'm working on my butterfly wallpaper till, there are a lot of elements to consider with it, so it's taking a while. Trying to space each repeat print correctly, trying to avoid any mistakes, as that ruins the whole strip... I think i'll just have to go for it and hope for the best! As you can see these are the butterfly illustration I use to print my cards and textiles with, wallpaper was always the reason i drew them though.

bird nest

Found this cute little bird nest on my walk today :)

Andy Warhol Prints

 

I found these in a charity shop the other day, and I love them! Funny little drawings of cats by  Andy Warhol called "35 cats called Sam and one pussy" never seen any of his drawings before and these use the bright ink colours I love.

Coconut Cake

  Coconut Cake

2 1/4 cups plain/baking flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
140 grams butter
3 large eggs


Grease and line two 9-inch round cake pans. Heat oven to 350°. 

Heat the coconut milk 1/2 cup desiccated coconut and the 1 teaspoon vanilla until hot. Set aside.

Sift the cake flour into a bowl with the baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a bowl with electric mixer, beat butter until light and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, a few tablespoons at a time, scraping the bowl and beating for about a minute after each addition.
Add the 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping sides of the bowl frequently.
Slowly add about one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture along with half of the milk/coconut/vanilla mixture. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape the bowl and repeat with another one-third of the dry mixture and the remaining milk mixture. Scrape the bowl and repeat with remaining flour mixture. Scrape the bowl and continue beating on low speed for a few seconds.
Spoon batter into the two baking pans, spreading evenly. Bake for about 30-50 minutes, or until browned and sides pull away from the sides of the pans. Cool in pans on racks for 15 minutes. Invert onto racks to cool completely.

Fluffy Coconut Frosting

2 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups fresh grated coconut

Bring the 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar to a boil; cover and cook without stirring for 1 minute. Uncover and boil, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot enough to spin a thread when a little is dropped from a spoon, or to about 230°. Remove from heat and set aside. In the bowl of electric mixer (with whisk attachment if available) beat the eggs until fluffy and soft peaks form when you lift the beaters or whisk. Still beating on high speed, gradually add the sugar syrup in a thin stream. Continue beating until the frosting is fluffy and holds peaks.

cover cake (and in between layers) in frosting then sprinkle with more desiccated coconut.

Looking at the sky...

Dusk was very pretty yesterday, vapor trails all over the sky and wispy little clouds, the horizon was purple...not sure you can see that.

Folksy Friday: What Ever the Weather

1: Button Earrings: Nosey Rose Parker
2: Here comes the sun: Through the round window
3: Felt hangers: The Happy Whale
4: Whatever the weather: Lil sonny sky
5: Cloud Plush: the imagination of ladysnail
6: Kawii writing pad: Asking for trouble

Full selection on Pinterest

Wooden beads

I'm currently experimenting with painting wooden beads. As you can see I'm doing the 'Aztec arrows' along side with these designs. I've chosen the best shape and size to go for with the arrow beads, so now I'll try and make lots! I'm painting them in mint green, pink, ivory, powder blue and peach.

Floral Print Necklace

Florals are everywhere, it is spring after all. Top of your flowery outfit with a vintage floral patterned alphabet letter necklace! Have any letter in a range of colours all handmade by myself, so totally unique. Shop Here

Aztec Arrows

Some of my sketches for my latest designs. A lot of my ideas never get made, but I'm working on these right now, and should have them done by the end of the week! Aztec / Native American inspired arrows, using the popular pastel colours seen everywhere at the moment. I think this 'collection' of jewellery will complement a lot of the cloths you see on the high street now, but is still unique!

New Kittens!

We've just adopted some new kittens from cats protection! They're so cute, it's difficult to get any work done...

Spring Blossom

 Spring Blossom

Spring has bloomed, this was taken yesterday in my garden. I love watching all the plants wake up, I feel I come out of hibernation a bit too. So with the new found inspiration I'm going to get a few more designs finished this week! Hopefully there will be even more sunny days this week so I can take some nice photos of them too. I should get the veg patch sorted too! What are you up to at the moment? Has spring inspired you?

New Phone

I have a new phone! It's so much cheaper than my last one and I have a new cover I can decorate with the pretty sequins I brought in Singapore last year. This is the level of awesomeness I'd like to get to, but I know I haven't got enough glitter and diamonties to achieve it, I'll try and live the dream with what I have...

Pinterest

Are you on Pinterest? I joined recently and have found it to be a useful tool. Just looking back at my recent posts I can see I'm draw to the same sort of colours at the moment; Pastel yellow, peach, powder blue and olive green. Maybe I'll make something in these colours...Pin me!

Cat Makeup

Had to share this amazing set of make up from Paul & Joe! My favourite is the cat head lipstick, he has a top hat! : Shop

New to my shop today!
Bow necklace