Christmas 2015

Christmas went by so quickly this year, despite the fact I felt like I'd been preparing for it for ages. 

Before and after. It was nice to get my hair done in time for Christmas for once (pre-booking is a tricky habit to master) so my hair is looking nice and sharp and pink (and matching my lippie, of course).

I still love our little black tree with its pastel lights. Folk who say white lights are classier can get lost! And... er, I've decided that 'pink and turquoise' is the new 'red and green'. Way more cute as Christmas colours!

Oh yeah, and this is the handbag I made my mum for her Christmas present! I did it using this pattern. I've never made a handbag before... or probably will again... or have ever followed a pattern before, but I got matched with my mum in our family's Christmas present syndicate and wanted to make her something special. It's made of yellow wool with a silk lining and has a magnetic fastener. 

Lastly (and tastiestly) here are the two cakes a made for our family Christmas dinner. A red velvet cake and a dark chocolate and pistachio cake. I have to confess the icing on the RV one is shop bought as, after two batches of failed gloopy, liquidy cream cheese icing, I gave in and turned to Asda for some help. I must ask my mother in law how she makes hers...

Anyway, I hope you guys had a lovely Christmas this year. Did you get any cool presents?? I'm still spending my Christmas money! Although I did get an extra cool present I'll be posting about very soon.

Sunday Treat Score

Sunday is the only day you can have a Sunday Treat (that's why they call it a Sunday Treat, duh).

We picked up some matcha pocky and some little pastries with red bean filling from Lim's and even managed to find Turbo Kid on dvd, after searching for it in the cinema listings for ages.

Moontrap (1989)

Buying a video you've never you've heard of before can be a risky thing. Sometimes a film that looks cool in the shop will turn out to be a total disaster. This was definitely not the case with Moontrap which is great a great little '80s scifi film. Just don't make the mistake of only watching it because it's got both Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell in it (they're both great in it); you really have to be a fan of (slightly naff '80s) scifi to love this one.

My screenshots give a little bit away so if you want to watch it, go and pick up a copy (I got mine in Fopp) and don't look at the rest of this post. The film has funny lines, awesomely creepy robot/cyborgs and some genuinely "scifi" ideas. I can't recommend it enough!

Upcoming Exhibition

I am very excited to announce that there will be an exhibition of my work from the 14th November to the 13th January at Broadcast in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. The exhibition is being put on by the lovely people at Broadcast Arts and will feature twenty big A2 pieces which are all for sale. The launch night is 7pm on the 14th November. There will also be a stall of smaller A4 prints, books and stickers available to buy at the launch night.

Coffin Purses For Halloween

I'm really feeling in the halloween spirit this autumn so I took some halloween themed photos of my coffin purses to show them off a bit better. The purses are wallet sized and are available here from my etsy shop. 

New Range Of Coffin Purses On Etsy!

I recently made a range of three new styles of coffin purse. You can see more photos of them at my etsy shop.

Coffin Purse With Gothic Cross & Dark Purple Lining

Coffin Purse With Celtic Cross & Mauve Lining

Coffin Purse With Ornate Cross & Rust Red Lining

What do you ghouls think? Which one is your favourite?

New Long Bob Hairdo

I finally got my hair chopped the other week to a long bob, something I've wanted for ages. I'm not ruling out growing it long again, but it's so nice to get rid of the black ends that I was growing out and to have a proper "style" for the first times in ages. 

I went from this to this. Think I might keep it!

D.I.Y. Gudetama Tote Bag

Ok, I'm a little bit in love with the Sanrio character Gudetama right now. He's a lazy, adorable egg yolk with a butt so how could anyone not love him? Unfortunately, with Sanrio being a Japanese company, the shipping on Gudetama is quite dear and, although I did treat myself to a bundle of collectible gashapons (bottom picture), I couldn't really justify buying a Gudetama bag which is what I really wanted.

Instead I decided to use fabric paint and make a D.I.Y. one for myself as a treat! (It's only for personal use, don't worry). 

The finished Gudetama tote bag. I used Pebeo paints, but you could use Dylon fabric paints too, I'm sure.

Taking my Gudetama bag out for a matcha latte like a proper obnoxious Japan-obsessed Westerner! Yee-haw! *speaks random words of pigeon-Japanese and nibbles a pocky stick*

And how cute are these Gudetama gashapons I got?? Now I have a bag to clip them to as well.

Home-Made Bunting

To brighten up our bedroom a bit, I decided to make some bunting recently. I have no idea why I'm obsessed with yellow at the moment, but I am and working in a fabric shops means I get tempted by lovely fabrics all day, that's for sure. Below, you can see the bunting in its place in our room. The stuff on the bed was some Japanese candy from Tofu Cute I surprised my husband with and also a copy of Akira on DVD (can you see what theme I was going for here?!)

Resin Foxjaw Necklace by Hysteria Machine

It was my birthday last weekend and my husband got me this beautiful silver resin cast foxjaw necklace from Hysteria Machine (aka Cara Trinder) on etsy. I can't wait to wear it.

Cute Things From Tofu Cute

I went a bit nuts the other week when my husband and I were off on holiday and ordered a bunch of cute Japanese things from Tofu Cute. Sometimes going nuts pays off though as everything I ordered turned out to be super cute/tasty!

A bag of Japanese cuteness (yay!)

I couldn't resist (and I really tried. Believe me.) buying this Pote Usa loppy bunny charm by Amuse Plush. It comes in six different styles, but I fell in love with the albino one as soon as I saw it.

Pens are a sensible thing to buy, right? I mean, I'm always running out of pens. It's only a coincidence that these Mameshiba (a dog that's also a bean? How great is that?!) pens happen to be utterly, adorable as well. As pens go, I mean. The styles I got were: kidney bean, coffee bean and green bean.

I also got a bunch of ridiculous sweets for us to try out. These Koala March biscuits by Lotte really did taste like cheesecake in the centre.

I've never tried pocky before so I thought I'd order some in our "New Favourite Flavour" (TM). They were delicious.

Since Japanese Kit Kat flavours are way more interesting than what we can get in the UK, I had to order some of those as well. I've never tried red bean paste, but it's definitely on my list now after trying these Hokkaido Red Bean Kit Kats. The flavour was really interesting.

After seeing my husband's reaction to the after-kick, I chickened out a bit with the Hot Shinsya Chilli Kit Kats and only ate a tiny nibble. Not for the faint-hearted!

These Tamaruya Wasabi Kit Kats were more my cup of tea than the chilli ones. They had a very subtle, but totally recognisable wasabi taste that hits the sinuses.

Last, but not least, is this Puccho Melon mini bento tote bag which I think will be a very handy thing to have.

In conclusion, the quality of the products from Tofu Cute was even better than I'd expected. And that, combined with the cheap prices and quick shipping means I'll definitely be ordering from them again!

Trying Matcha Lattes For The First Time

My husband and I are both off work this week so, the other day, in the spirit of adventure, we tried matcha tea for the first time! They was only from EAT and were in the form of lattes so they were probably a lot sweeter and milkier than the real deal, but it's a start. To be honest, I only wanted to try it in the first place because it's such a cool colour, but I think, having tried it, I might have caught the craving for the taste.