favourite photo of the month and a great big #reverb post

This could possibly be the most staged photograph I've ever taken, but it's SOOC (straight out of camera) and I am super pleased with it. I don't use that word nearly enough. I feel like I've just fallen out of a Ladybird book. I took a little series like this and I'll upload them to Flickr over the next few days or so.

I am way, way behind on the #reverb prompts (is anyone doing them in a different order? Has anyone else been as rubbish as I have with them? Do you know of anyone giving one word answers to the prompts?). Part of this could be to do with the fact that I've been busy. It could also be because I've been making a December scrapbook (I'll attempt to post photos in the next few days). So, I thought I'd respond to a few in one post. Here goes...

Day 13: Action. When it comes to aspirations, it's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. What's your next step?

Day 17: Lesson learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

Day 18: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did/didn't go for it?

Day 20: Beyond avoidance. What should you have done this year but didn't because you were too scared, worried, unsure, busy or otherwsie deterred from doing? (Bonus: Will you do it?)

Day 21: Future self. Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?)

My response to the above five prompts is this:

Stop dabbling with things I'm rubbish at or just alright at and focus on things I'm actually good at. Possibly things that other people don't really do so much or something that I can do a bit better than other people (napping?). In 2011, I will try to get a teensy bit further away from being a jack of all trades and master of none.

Day 14: Appreciate. What's the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

Day 15: 5 minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

Day 16: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

For me, these prompts could kind of answer each other. The question is, with the 5 minutes prompt, would you record all of the awful stuff too, so that you know what you've overcome? Or would you only record the fun stuff?

Day 19: Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

I've experienced much healing this year. But it's not a question of what has healed me but who. Willpower and a positive outlook can only get you so far.

Merry Christmas.

Try to do some playing, if you get a chance.

how I wrapped my fudge

If you were curious as to how I wrapped my fudge - the super easy fudge (and perhaps wanted some inspiration as to how to wrap yours), this is a post for you. You're welcome.

1. Arrange your squares or rectangles or triangles bits of fudge onto a large(ish) bit of greaseproof paper.

If you're packing quite a bit of fudge, put a little sheet of greaseproof paper between each layer so that they don't stick together.

2. Wrap the paper as you would for a gift or parcel and secure with bakers' twine.

Or string or jute or ribbon. (These below were wrapped with white greaseproof paper, which I quite like.)

You could stop there and add a mini tag (here's one I punched a hole into and used in a scrapbook. There it is on the right).

I chose to put my parcels into cellophane bags and top them with a card label.

Stick a label onto the card (so that the recipients know what they're getting).

If you're packaging a few, perhaps you could shred some newspaper or old brown wrapping paper to pad it out. That's what I did.

Finished! Now I'm going to update the fudge-making post with some other recipe ideas.

Super Easy Fudge

So, you've left it incredibly late to get a Christmas present. Fear not. It's not too late to make something. No, really.

Here's a recipe for some really simple fudge. (I had never made fudge before making this. This recipe caused me to say, "I'm just going to quickly make some fudge before we leave the house". Who says that?! Me. And so might you. In fact, you could say it now if there's no-one around. Go on. Let me know how it goes.)

What you will need:
300g white chocolate
200ml sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
greaseproof paper
a dish or baking tin

[Line your baking tin or dish or whatever with greaseproof paper before you start heating the ingredients, to avoid a panic when it comes to stage 3.]

1. Chuck the condensed milk and white chocolate into a saucepan and heat on a medium heat until the chocolate has melted (don't stress if it's not all melted. What's the worst that will happen? You'll have bits of chocolate in your fudge. Disaster).

2. Remove it from the heat and add the vanilla essence. Stir it in well.

3. Pour the mixture into the dish and put the dish into the fridge to cool for about 4 hours. If it seems too soft, leave it for a bit longer. Leave it overnight if you like.

4. Lift the block of fudge out of the dish (it should be easy if you lined it with greaseproof paper) and onto a chopping board.

5. Chop it into whatever size or shape bits you want.

THAT'S IT.

It really was that simple.

Would you like to see how I wrapped mine? Have a look here.

+Edited.

To make Turkish Delight fudge, replace the vanilla essence with rose water flavouring (I could only find rose flavouring in Waitrose) and add a bit of pink food colouring.

To make peppermint fudge, replace the vanilla essence with peppermint flavouring and add some green food colouring.

To make almond fudge, replace the vanilla essence with almond flavouring and add some chopped almonds.

11th December {#reverb10: 11 Things}

Prompt: 11 things. What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

I've been keeping things from you. I've been keeping many, many things from you.

Some of you may have had a browse at photos of my home, or seen some nice bits here on the blog.

It's not all like that. 

Every time I take a photo in my home, I hide things from you. Here are just a few.

Yes, my 11 Things post is basically a load of stuff I want to get rid of.

1. [See picture 1] An old broken iMac
2. [See picture 1] An old broken eMac
3. [See picture 1] Those curtains in the spare room
4. [See picture 2] Those curtains in the utility room. The plastic hooks are too old to move anymore, so if you try to open the curtains more than halfway, they snap. And, well, there's no need to comment on the visual aesthetics of the curtains.
5. [See picture 3] The light. The thing is, we have a beautiful light. But, it's so much hassle to put up and when you're in a rented house, you never really know how much longer you've got. In the house, not how much longer you have to live. Blimey that would be tense.
6. [See picture 4] My old, broken iMac*.
7. Old leads which serve no purpose.
8. I can't remember what number 8 was.
9. This one might have been to paint that delightful polystyrene ceiling rose in picture 3.
10. Craft supplies I'm never going to use.
11. [See picture 5] Jewellery making stuff. I seem to lose all creativity when I'm confronted with beads and stuff, so this will be finding a new home soon.

I did have visions of having a different picture for each of the 11 things I want out of my life so that I'd have a cool-looking mosaic thingy. But then when I realised that most of the things are quite ugly, I decided that the fewer the photos the better.

* Interestingly, this post has prompted Mr Pippa to have another go at fixing this. By the time I finished this post (it did take me a few days - energy reserves have been low), that old Mac made its way to Mr Pippa's desk. Perhaps it will leave the premisses during 2011. That would be nice.

10th December {#reverb10: Wisdom}

What do you mean I'm 8 days behind? Shh, you.

Prompt: Wisdom. What's the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

I try to make wise decisions everyday. But, generally, this year, it's been to stop, collaborate and listen. No hang on, that's a song. It's been to stop, wait and listen.

#reverb10

As you may have noticed, I've been responding to the #reverb10 prompts on this blog. I heard about it in November and decided that reflecting on the past year and looking to the next one could be good and I thought I'd attempt to respond to the prompts creatively (instead of boring you all with thoughts about my mundane life).

However... I had no idea what to expect with the prompts. Ali Edwards' prompt was my favourite (this one) but some of them have left me feeling a bit like this:

So, I'll do the ones I feel like doing. And, I may only use the first word of the prompt and go somewhere else with it. But that's OK.

DIY paper box

I've had a few requests for a tutorial on how to make paper boxes. So, at last, here it is:

You don't have to glue it, but it stays together a bit better if you do.

Make them out of whatever paper is handy. I'm going to attempt to make one out of newspaper for a Christmas present I'm wrapping (some homemade fudge, if you were wondering. That'll need a whole post of its own, of course). I'll let you know how it goes.

[If you're wondering why you only ever see one hand, it's because I was holding the camera remote with the other hand. If I only had one hand, I'd make much more of a big deal out of it. Making the things I make using only one hand would be far more impressive. Anyway, enough of that.]

9th December {#reverb10: Party}

Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

The word party on its own in a title reminds me of that Black Books episode. I love that episode.

Manny: Let's paaa
Bernard: DON'T YOU DARE USE THE WORD PARTY AS A VERB IN MY SHOP
Manny: Paaotter along, in order to attend the party!

Right. So. A party that rocked my socks off. This one:

People: brilliant
Music: our own (8 different instruments in total)
Food: cake of every variety
Drink: mostly tea

8th December {#reverb10: Beautifully Different}

Prompt: Beautifully different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different - you'll find they're what make you beautiful.

Hmmm. This prompt is so not me. Yes, I'm a beautiful princess warrior, bla bla bla. So, how to respond?

Well, while typing the above sentence, I was inspired (handy timing). And for this, I'll respond by talking very briefly about illness.

5 years ago, I became ill with what I would later discover/be told was M.E. I had ambitions and plans but they all got dashed upon the rocks. And that sucks.

However, if I had never become ill, I would never have returned to one of the passions I gave up after A levels: art. I would never have discovered the healing therapy of creating and I would have missed out on learning a lot. I'm pretty sure that, had I been well, I would have blindly joined the rat race immediately after university and my imagination would have been packed away in a box somewhere. And so, what was meant to harm me, has been turned around and used for good. And that is what has made life beautifully different: that good has come out of this. 

7th December {#reverb10: Community}

Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

This year, I had a birthday. I try to have one every year, bank holidays permitting. This year, I had a party. It was splendid fun. And at that party, I realised that I'm a part of a really lovely community. Which is nice.

Here's a photo vaguely related to the prompt.

It'll need some explanation first.

I've just started turning our visitor book into a 'house scrapbook/journal' where we stick tickets and photos and bits and bobs from things we've done and places we've been. It's also a place for friends to write us silly messages. Anyway, I am trying not to get too caught up in the scrapbook side of things because it won't ever get done. So, I'm accepting imperfection and, because of that, it's coming together quite nicely. The above photo is of the page I did pertaining to my birthday party. It's not spectacularly beautiful, but it captures a happy time. So I'm fine with that. So, next time I show you a page or two from the house scrapbook, you'll know not to expect perfection, OK?


[P.S. I do realise it's not the 7th December today - it's the date of the #reverb10 prompt. But you probably knew that.]

consumable gifts {part 6: the packaging}

Hello and welcome to the 6th part of this Consumable Gifts series.

So, you've made some scrummy treats but you're not sure how to wrap them. Somehow a crumpled plastic zippy bag just doesn't do your jam justice. What a mental image. Hopefully you'll find some better ideas here to inspire you.

Things in Jars
Jam, chutney, pesto, body scrub, cookie mix - so many great homemade consumable gifts can go into jars. If you want to impress, buy a nice jar - one they can keep things in afterwards (one they'll want to keep things in afterwards). Or if you're being thrifty by reusing old jam jars, well done you! But do hide the unattractive lid. Here's a lovely idea:

(image found here)

Find some pretty fabric to cover the lid and attach your own handwritten label. Or forget the fabric and just go for a bold label like these from Jamie Oliver:

(image found here)

I adore this one (below) with the sealing wax. You could use sealing wax to hold together ribbon, bakers' twine or old fashioned string (or an old bootlace, if you really want).

Maple Honey Caramel Spread: it's enough to make me want to move to America, just so I could try some.

If you're giving more than one jar as a gift, think about packaging them together. I like this idea - mainly because it uses a free and plentiful resource. Looks quite effective too.

(image found here)

Fudge And The Like
As we know, Martha Stewart has some ideas for how to wrap fudge here (only two ideas though. Not that impressive, is it Martha?) or there are Candy Packaging Ideas here. This is a fave of mine:

(image found here)

There's a great tutorial for these at Givers Log (brilliant site), along with a load of other fantastic ideas. In fact, I could just give you that link and call it a day, but I'll show you a few more. Below is an idea I stumbled upon o Givers Log for a DIY Bakery Box. Genius!

(image found here)

Or how about this gift box made from a paper cup? Nifty.

(image found here)

Or make your own paper box (tutorial here) - they are super easy.

I think that's enough for you to be going on with for now, don't you? Oh alright, here are some more nice packages to inspire you. You see, you don't need fancy wrapping paper: brown wrapping paper, newspaper and maps all make really effective wrapping paper. Use some string or bakers' twine or ribbon to brighten it up a bit. Maybe you could make your own label too?

1. Regalos decorativos bajo el árbol, 2. You mean the world to me, 3. all ready!, 4. This week I..., 5. Paint chip package, 6. Season's Greetings. 10 pack gift tags., 7. Untitled, 8. Einzigartige personalisierte Aufkleber, 9. Untitled


If I've whet your appetite for pretty packaging, have a nosey at the Flickr groups nice package and gift wrap.

Now, I'm feeling inspired enough to go and wrap some fudge. I shall return with photos.

6th December {#reverb10: Make}

Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

This prompt is much more up my street. I made a paper garland for the Christmas tree a couple of days ago.

What I used:

• red paper
• two different sized circle punches
• a sewing machine 
• red thread

Just feed it through the sewing machine and arrange it on your tree. So easy!

As for something I'd like to make, the list is very long. High up on the list is to make a quilt. 2011 shall be the year for that. Even if I don't finish it in 2011, I shall start it.

5th December {#reverb10: Let Go}

Prompt: Let go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

I let go of a few things this year, most of which I didn't want to. Instead of blathering on about it, here's a picture with some writing on it.

[If you're curious, the lyrics are from a song by Rend Collective Experiment.]

3rd December (#reverb 10: Moment)

Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year.

DIY sock cupcakes

Sock cupcakes are a great way to display socks as a gift. Or you could just display your own socks like this, if you really want to.

What you'll need:

• One pair of socks (matching or not)
• Some muffin cases or large cupcake cases. Make sure to use at least two together for each sock cake, as it gives it a bit more strength.
• That's it. I just wanted to put another bullet point because things look nice in 3s.
  

Here's a little video I did to show you how I make sock cupcakes.


DIY sock cupcakes from Pippa on Vimeo.

Were you able to follow along? Have you made some already? If so, I'd love to see - just leave a link in the comments.

How strange: I'm craving cake all of a sudden.

Special thanks to Mr Pippa for helping. He created the backing track with the power of his mind. And his bass. And GarageBand. Didn't he do well?