Art and Clasp

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Xmas Feast

My Xmas plate

As promised, here are the photos of the Xmas lunch I cooked for my family. Err yes, there were only five of us...


Oysters with bacon, avocado, and chives


Sourdough bruschetta with basil, tomatoes, asparagus, and feta


Shrimp, grapefruit, and avocado salad


Salmon and portobello mushroom tart


Roasted potatoes, red bell peppers, and baby carrots with rosemary


Fruit mince tarts, and chocolate-dipped strawberries (forgot to take a photo of the pecan pie)

It's Christmas Eve here... we are not of any particular religious persuasion in my immediate family but we have always done Christmas with a tree and presents and good food. There's just my parents, my brother and I in our little satellite family unit in this corner of the world. My brother's girlfriend will be joining us also, bringing our total to 5 plus little dog and big dog.

Since I am unemployed this year, my gift to everyone is doing all the cooking and baking for our get-together. Today I made pecan pie, fruit mince tarts, and chocolate-dipped strawberries in white chocolate (to cater for the caffeine-sensitive) and dark chocolate (for the lactose-intolerant)... Tomorrow's menu has been compiled from five separate issues of Cuisine magazine and is anything but traditional. I'll take pictures and post them. Let's hope I can pull it off!

Happy Chrismakwaanzakuh to you and yours from me and mine :)

Rolled Fabric Flower Bib Necklace

Here's another flower bib necklace I made, using strips of fabric rolled into rosettes and glued onto a felt backing. I already had all the materials for this one in my stash, it's so satisfying not having to buy anything!

I googled "rolled fabric rosettes tutorial" and found a variety of instructions. Most tutorials produce rosettes that show the raw fabric edge, like this from mama monster:

Very cute too but I prefer them without frayed edges, so I was just extra careful when folding my fabric stripes to keep them tucked under.

I love how it turned out!


Another bathroom mirror/iPhone photo

If you'd like to make one, here's a tutorial from Tortoise and the Hare. Enjoy!

New Zealand Handmade Holiday Ornament Swap

I am a terrible swapper, I just realised I forgot to post about the ornament I received in the swap organised by New Zealand Handmade!

My swap partner was Debbie, a nurse in Surrey in the UK. How cool to swap with someone overseas, kind of reminds me of having a pen-pal as a child. Debbie has a blog that she first started when she was still studying to be a nurse, called Student Nurses Allotment.

For some unknown reason, I did not take pictures of the ornament and card I made for Debbie! Good grief. But hopefully she will take some :)

Here are the darling little ornaments she made me (two! how lucky). They are about 5cm (just over 2") across. They are cross-stitched, which I am super impressed by as I have absolutely zero cross-stitch experience.

I really enjoyed the swap experience, it's the first one I've ever participated in. I'll be looking for more!

Since attending the Auckland Art and Craft Fair, I've been itching to get my craft on... I spotted this guest post tutorial for a lace flower bib necklace by Little Miss Momma over on Tater Tots & Jello.

It's super cute and very easy. The first couple of flowers I made didn't turn out well though. My lace had a raw edge instead of a nice tidy binding like the kind she used in the tutorial, so I think that's why the "petals" kind of stuck straight up like a cup instead of a flower shape. Also, the blue pearl beads I used looked small and kind of lost. Then I tried pleating the lace as I glued it down, and it turned out much better!


Bathroom mirror/iPhone photo

You know you must enjoy something when you burn the crap out of your fingers every ten minutes with hot glue, but keep doing it anyway...

Auckland Art & Craft Fair

Yesterday was the second Auckland Art & Craft Fair, which if you follow my blog you know I was supposed to be partaking in but had to pull out of (sulk). Anyway, I put my big girl panties on and hopped on the bus to go check out what I was missing.

I ran into a friend there and got so wrapped up in things that I of course forgot to take photos. I did however swipe a business card from everyone that I admired.

You also probably know how broke I am, so it was somewhat torturous, although I did lay down a whole $3 for this bookmark from Honey Design:

Some of the other wonderful vendors were:

I also got to meet the lovely Jessica from Foxes, at whose table I was ogling the wonderful work of Devon Smith:

It was a nice big space, plenty of room for everyone, vendors and customers alike. I was very impressed with the quality of goods for sale! I'll definitely be hanging onto those business cards for when I start receiving a paycheck.

I hope it was a very successful day for everyone involved, I heard that the next fair is planned for May 2011, so maybe I will have quit sulking and figured out how to source supplies and wrangled with my other artistic crises in time for that one...

DIY Holiday Gift Tutorials

This holiday season I find myself on quite a tight budget! I spent some time yesterday scouring the internet for DIY holiday gift tutorials that wouldn't break the bank. Here's what I found: