New Designs

I haven't posted in far too long and probably wont be able to again for quite some time unless I actually slow down and find time to actually find out what is happening in the world of fashion and beyond. :)
But I wanted to share some of my work with you that I've started to post on RedBubble and Society6

They're just a couple of old pictures and designs that have been gathering dust on my computer so thought i'd try and share them with the world and see if anyone else liked them.

Hopefully I'll have a bit more time to take some more pictures or maybe post while i'm away at the end of January. 2012 has come and gone far too quickly.
Here's to an amazing 2013!

Easy Jam Tart Recipe

Even though it's been over a week since the Jubilee, I've only just got round to looking at the pictures I took over the weekend.

Unfortunately it rained and dampened the spirit a bit but it was nice to see some people preparing for a slightly wet street party and not given into the elements. I also had a great view of hot air balloons flying over Bath and saw an amazing fireworks display from my bedroom window.
To get into the Jubilee mood, I did the tutorial for the nails (the next post below) before the weekend also baked red,white and blue cupcakes and jam tarts. 

I've made the tarts previously and they seemed to be very popular so I thought i'd share the recipe with you.

What you’ll need;

Ingredients:

- 250g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 100g cubed butter
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
- Strawberry jam (or any fruit jam you have. I used blueberry jam as well strawberry and it was just popular) or lemon curd.

Preheat the oven to180°C and lightly grease a 12 cupcake tin with a little butter.

For the pastry;

Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl.


Once chilled;
 - Be careful not to overfill the cases as the jam will spill out when hot and burn/stick to the tin (as I found out on my first attempt)

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm.

Add the water to the mixture and using a cold knife stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.

The dough can also be made in a food processor by mixing the flour, butter and salt in the bowl of the processor on a pulse setting. When the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, add the water, slowly, through the funnel until the dough comes together in a ball. Wrap in Cling film and chill as above.

Unwrap the pastry onto a lightly floured work surface and roll roughly to a 0.5cm thickness. Using a tart cutter, cut circles from the pastry just slightly bigger than the holes in the prepared tart mould. Gently press one disc into each hole.

Place a heaped teaspoon of jam or lemon curd into the pastry lined tins.

Repeat until all the pastry is used up – you can squish the pastry trimmings back together and reroll several times, so don’t worry, just make sure you rest the pastry circles before cooking.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Tips and Tricks;

If they’re looking a little empty, add a little jam towards the end or just after they’ve been taking out of the oven.

- For alternative fillings try adding Nutella, peanut butter,  different flavoured jams or experiment with cheese.

- If you don’t have a cutter use a large glass and pinch the edges once in the tin.

- They are great for British  or even Alice in Wonderland theme parties. Just add heart shaped pastry to the top and you have Queen of Hearts, Jam Tarts.

- And lastly do not eat while hot or you may burn your your mouth, (the jam stays hot for a long time).

British Nail Art - Using Scotch Tape

I've not really been fazed by the the Olympics being in London this year but this week we had the Olympic Torch pass near where I work. With it being the Diamond Jubilee next weekend and seeing the torch in the flesh, I did actually feel a little more excited and quite patriotic.

I've also been writing for a website created to help promote Jubilee events happening in Bristol and one of the posts I'd written for the website, I thought I would share here in honour of all things British.
I decided go down the popular nail route and go a bit red, white and blue with my nails and paint the Union Jack.

Now I'm not particularly good at painting in straight lines so I thought I would try a technique I've seen around on the blogosphere and try using Scotch tape.

The results actually were much better than I thought they would be, especially for a fist attempt. But i think the results are quite largely dependant on what kind of nail polish and tape you use.
But give it a go and I think it would work really well using pastel shades, neon or even try doing the American flag.
I'll post the written instructions later this week.(UPDATE: which are now below)

• Buy some tape on a dispenser –  Scotch Tape or Magic Tape seem to be the best. It’s not too clear or too thick, comes on a dispenser and I know it worked for me. However, feel free to try any kind of tape and see what results you get.
•  Paint two thick strips, one white and one red. Make the strips a tiny bit longer than your nails – you’ll be cutting them shorter.
•  While that’s drying paint your nails a shade of blue.
•  Once all nail polish has dried, cut strips of white and red from the tape (make the white strips larger than the red so you can see them beneath.)
•  If you find the tape is sticking to everything in between using it (as I did) hang each strip off the edge of a piece of grease proof paper, or anything that won’t pull apart when you take the tape off to use.
•  Once you’ve cut your strips, you can start to make your flag shape (I had a picture of the Union Jack in front of me for reference, just in case)
•  Start by making a cross with the white strips and then diagonally lay another set of white strips over the top of your first cross.
•  Then do the same with the thinner red strips.
•  Don’t worry if the strips over lay onto your fingers or the top of the nail. Just trim the sides with nail scissors then fold the top ones over the back of the nail and use a nail file, filing downwards until they come away.
•  Once you’ve done that you should have something that resembles the Union Jack and then to finish, put a clear top coat on top.

You don’t have to stick to the traditional blue, white and red. Try pastel shades, neon or match them to whatever you intend to wear.
 If you find that it looks too 3D for your liking (which will depend on what thickness of tape you used), paint the white and just use the red strips or vice versa.

Nail Art Tattoos

Things have finally calmed down after the build up from my friends wedding so I actually have time to do things, like blog. It was an amazing day and I can't believe how quickly it came and went. 
I only had a small part in the wedding but gosh that stressed me out, I can only imagine how the bride felt. As it was a close friend it felt like there was so much prep work leading up to the big day. Maybe it would of been different if we weren't as close or if it was someone I didn't know as well. But it was the first wedding from our group so it was a really important day for me and my friends so I wanted to put extra effort into everything.
Firstly was the table plan (which I'll post later this week) but also the choosing of the outfit, tanning, even the planning of what to do with the nails (I'm a devil for detail). 
My dress was quite floral (the dip back dress in my last post) and my blazer and shoes were a coral pink. I originally was going to paint my nails a matching pink but I did a trial run and they looked a bit too Barbie (especially with the fake tan and blonde hair.)

Bag - H&M
Rings - Pretaportabello
Nail Varnish - Rimmel Matte top coat & Nails Inc Elizabeth Street

So I decided to go for a nude pink and went for a matte top coat. I had also bought some Nail Tattoos from Topshop so chose some swallows, which I put on the thumb and middle finger so they weren't too plain and boring.

I really liked how they turned out and was so much easier and quicker than trying to draw something.
Only downside was I think I put on the top coat too quickly so it made the nail transfer crack a little but I left a bit more time before I did the others and they were fine.
Apologies in advanced if the next couple of blogs are all wedding related in someway. Like I said I'm all about the prep and detail.

S/S 12 Trend - Waterfall / Mullet Hemline Skirt

This has to be one of my favourite styles that has emerged this year. The waterfall hemline, also known as the 'high-low' or less attractively known as the 'mullet', has come back in style for summer.
I used to see it a lot on eBay when I was scouring for vintage pieces that had been reworked but I'm glad its gone mainstream. Seen on the  spring/summer 2012 runways at shows like Diane von Furstenberg and Alexander McQueen, it has been a popular style that's been popping up in a number of high-street shops.
I particularly like it because unlike some maxi skirts which I often find too short this combines both a mini/midi with a maxi skirt and I personally find is quite a flattering shape.

1. Pleated Dip Hem Skirt £32, Topshop

2. Bright Blossom Hem Dress £46, Topshop

(Middle image - M.K @ beware-of-my-heels.blogspot.co.uk

3. Love Rose Aysmetrical Maxi Dress £48, Love

4. Skirt with Aysymmetric Hem £22.99, Zara

 I have a few I can wear with tights at the moment but I'm particularly looking forward to wearing pastel versions when (if) the sun comes out and summer truly begins. 

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DIY - Laundry Bag

When I was doing work experience last year, I was pretty much strapped for cash all the time. Other than not having any money for clothes :) I always felt bad on friends birthdays as I couldn't give them much, which is when I started to make presents instead.
And actually from what I could tell they appreciated and liked my gift far more than if I had just bought something (though they could have been lying so as to not hurt my feelings). 
At first I started making calendars but I also ventured into printing. 
I bought a few cheap cotton laundry and make up bags from Bee Crafty and some photo printing paper and then just let my imagination run wild.

One of my friends is a dancer so I did a ballet theme make up bag and another had done a lot of travelling so I created a postcard style print creating the stamps from her images from travelling (above).

Stupidly though I forgot to take pictures of the finished products but I had two more friends birthdays coming up and actually remembered to take some photos.

The first one was for my friend who loves New York. I took a couple of her images from FaceBook and played around with them on Photoshop to create a print for the front and a collage for the back (above). 

The second one was my first attempt at using the laundry bags, which I found harder to design for as I couldn't initially find a theme that would work with the space and colour of the bag. 
I settled on using her favourite colour as the basis then created a dreamcatcher (using Photoshop again) and then found a drawing of a girl which I played around with so it matched the colour scheme and then just added a few buttons around the edge just to add a bit of detail. 

The pictures are a bit naff but it was the best I could do in a rush but overall I was pleased with the final result. I'd like to find somewhere that did relatively inexpensive screen printing as the only downside to the printing paper I used is that it came off in the corners. The best one I've used so far is from Crafty Computer Paper but I think they would look seamless if I'd used a screen printing process.
Well least i'll know if I ever go into business :)

Pintrest

I'm not sure where the time is going at the moment. One minute it's February, the next we're well into April and I'm not quite sure what I've been doing in between.
My friend asked me last year to create her wedding table plan (which I was thoroughly honoured to be asked to do) but with it less than a month away I realised I needed to get a move on and between that and working, everything else (including blogging) has taken a back seat.
Though ashamedly I should admit, that I've also been spending far too much time on Pintrest. I'm sure most of you of heard of it by now but if you haven't I wrote a short article about the basics here.

It gets pretty addictive (as you can see I've been pinning quite a bit) because it's so easy to use and it's all visual. You can pretty much pin anything.

The flaw I find is that it's often difficult to search for a specific term like 'platforms' or 'pink lipstick' as it all depends on what is put in the description by the pinner. I've typed in before looking for interior design schemes and pictures of food have come up.
However it's still a relatively new social network site in comparison to say Twitter or Facebook and they seem to be making improvements regularly.
The other sort of grey are is the copyright of images. Whatever you pin, the responsibility lies on you rather than Pintrest so if someone is going sue over copyright at the moment they would sue you.
It doesn't seem to have stopped the masses however, as it's now supposedly the third largest social networking site but it will be interesting to see what happens in the future or what will happen to the site when the first lawsuit happens (which will undoubtedly happen at some point)
Are you on Pintrest?