Saturday, 17 December 2011
ass="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4040" title="handmade-cat-toy" src="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/handmade-cat-toy.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="460">Hi! I am here to show you the cat toy I made for our cat Eddie. But, before you click away because you don't have a cat, please stick around if you are interested in learning how to do the most basic of macrame knots. This knot can be used to make all kinds of things, like necklaces, bracelets, plant hangers ... basically anything that requires a long and thin cord.Here are the supplies I used to make a cat toy for Eddie's Christmas present. I also added some beads which I only thought of including after I had started.
Friday, 16 December 2011
ass="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4015" title="cappuccino-1" src="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cappuccino-1.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480">Hello :) I'm shaking things up (quite literally) this week and making the Food Friday post about a drink! It is easy to make a delicious and pretty cappuccino at home, with equipment you already have on hand. There's no need for an expensive machine for this one; all you need is your regular coffee maker and a jar with a tight fitting lid, and a microwave oven. We used a
macchinetta) to make the coffee and since we really enjoy foam we invested the $50 or so to buy a milk frothing tool called a Cappuccino Creamer by
Frabosk, seen in my "Make Mocha Coffee at Home" post
here. But the 'shaking a jar of milk' method works well too and is what I did for the cappuccinos in these photos.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
A couple of treasures arrived yesterday, via EBay! It appears I am going right along with the good advice given by Julie at
Olivine's Charm School in her post called "How to Survive Holiday Shopping Without Getting Arrested", that "YOU should be on your own holiday gift list, every year"!
The first thing, two Pyrex casserole dishes with lids, are for both of us, because we use our vintage Pyrex collection every day. It is so handy and pretty and we only live once, so we use it regardless of the threat of breakage! After-all, it's fun to find new pieces to replace any that break. Even Boycat Eddie drinks his water out of a vintage Pyrex casserole dish, albeit one for which the lid had a little accident and broke.
Today's arrivals are a brand new pattern for us, which as far as I can tell, is called Butterfly Gold.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Making a gift bow from a magazine page looked so interesting that I couldn't resist trying it out. The result is impressive and these are really lots of fun to do. Try it ... you'll like it!
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/branch-ornament-display31.jpg" alt="" title="branch-ornament-display3" width="640" height="783" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3968">Since I began collecting vintage Christmas ornaments a few years ago I've been on the look-out for a vintage display stand. These are metal stands, which sit upon a table, with curled arms from which you hang the special ornaments you want to feature. But these seem to be quite rare and so far I've had no luck in finding one to call my own, so this year I decided to make my own using tree branches.Since the ornaments adorning these branches were fragile and cherished, the key element of my display was that they would be safely hung, with little chance of them falling off or of the whole display toppling over. So I anchored the branches within a large-vase with sponges.
