Jikana Damaru

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by the sweet Oh, French!, so I have to list 10 things about myself and tag 10 other bloggers with the award. Here are my 10!

I am a Marilyn Monroe fan.

I have been sewing things since I was a little kid!

Diet coke is my drink of choice!

I am trying to get everything in my kitchen colour coordinated.

I wear these a lot! They are so comfy.

This is my first purchase from Cath Kidston, a tray I bought over 10 years ago, and is still my favorite print of hers.

I love candy! (if you hadn't guessed already)

I love bows on everything.

I love finding new and vintage trims.

I relax by gardening.

Over to the sweet bloggers:

French Charming - adorable finds and pics.
Mimi Charmante - I love her Treasures post!
A little bit vintage - for inspiring craft projects
Alluring Interiors - for, you guessed, alluring interior photos
Among the hedgerows - for the softest, romantic photos
Bella Dreams - she has the prettiest of homes
Bluebird Notes - for beautiful photographs and more
City of Dionne - for the best illustrations, among other great things
Daisy Pink Cupcake - for beautiful inspiration and ideas
In Bug's Drawers - for great stories and pics

Please check out there adorable blogs. Have a great weekend x

Another weekend of parties for us! August is a big month for my family so we continue our celebrations this weekend with my nephew who turns 13 and my niece who turns 3 plus the re-celebration of my sisters birthday last week and Sienna's 5th birthday last week! I have had enough cake to last me a good month or two!

Hope your weekend is filled with lots of surprises as well!

ooohh.. look what I got in the mail

Thank you to the lovely Beckie from One Wise Owl for a very special package I got in the mail this week. I was one of the lucky winners in her Facebook competition and scored this very pretty coin purse and cute owl brooch. Her products are made using vintage, recycled, or reclaimed fabrics and range from bags, to purses, toys, beautiful cards and papercraft. Check out her lovely store here and if you love her stuff as much as I do why not become a fan on her facebook page too. Hope you have a great weekend!

Blackberry marshmallows

Blackberry Marshmallows (makes about 500g)

Ingredients
455g (16 ounces) granulated sugar
1 tbsp liquid glucose (light corn syrup)
340ml (11.5 fluid ounces) water
9 sheets of gelatine
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
vegetable oil for greasing tin
125g (4.5 ounces) fresh blackberries, blended
1 tbsp sieved Icing sugar for dusting (powdered sugar)
1 tbsp sieved Cornflower for dusting (cornstarch)

Cooking instructions

Lightly oil a shallow baking tray, dust with icing sugar and cornflower.
Soak the gelatine in 140ml cold water.
Place the granulated sugar, glucose syrup and the remainder of the water in a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil and continue cooking for about 12-15 mins until the temperature reaches 127 deg C (260 deg F) on a candy thermometer.
Add the soaked gelatine and water carefully to the pan of syrup when it is up to temperature.
Pour the syrup into a metal jug.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Continue to beat the egg whites with an electric whisk while pouring hot syrup from the jug. The mixture will become thick and shiny.
Add the vanilla extract and continue whisking for about 10 mins.
Add the blackberries and continue whisking until the mixture is stiff enough to hold its own shape.
Spoon mixture into tray and leave to set in fridge for at least an hour.
Dust work surface with icing sugar and cornflower and turn out marshmallow, cut into squares (easiest with cheese wire) and lightly roll in icing sugar & cornflower, leave to dry on a wire rack.
Store the marshmallows in an airtight container.

Packaging

You will need:
Cone wrapper
Double sided tape
Cellophane
Ribbon

Print cone wrapper (double click the "blackberry cone wrapper" below, which will open up in a separate window ready to print).
Cut around cone wrapper and along dotted lines.
Roll wrapper into a cone shape and, using tape, fix in shape.
Place a second piece of tape inside cone along one side and peel off backing.
Cut out cellophane (double click the "cellophane pattern" below, which will open up in a separate window ready to print. Note each straight line is 24cm long).
Roll cellophane into cone, place inside cone wrapper and fix in place.
Fill with candy.
Tie ribbon around the top.

~ Did you remember the milk? ~

I love it - Such a cool name for a book.

I purchased this great home organiser last year and it has been fantastic (being the obsessive organiser I am!)

This week it was my sisters birthday and she is probably the polar opposite to me - disorganized and definitely not obsessive so I thought what a great gift this could be for her as she is always complaining that she can't find things and has no system!!

Now all I have to do is get her to fill it in and use it and hopefully she will feel a little more in control.

New Cuteness!!

I am so thrilled with these new hair clips I put together today, aren't they so cute... ? Lots of colours and pretty sets. These will available in the Lulu froufrou made it shop now.

We also had our first feature with Handmade Kids this week.... Handmade Kids showcases all things handmade for our delightful little ones - check it out here!

Don't forget to subscribe, comment or follow Lulu froufrou in the month of August to be in the running to win a Hair clip set of your choice!! To celebrate I am also doing FREE postage from our made it shop until the end of the month as well! YAY!!

'Frames' Wallpaper

For a while now, I've been contemplating wallpapering my house. Not the whole house, mind... I'm not nearly brave enough for that. But a room, or at least a wall within a room.

Anyway. A couple of years back I stumbled upon an image of this 'frames' wallpaper, used in somebody's home and featured in an international design magazine and I fell in love. Then I saw it on a home renovation show whilst I was holidaying in the UK. After that, it kept popping up everywhere. I don't know why, but for some reason I assumed it would not be available in Australia, and put it to the back of my mind.

Today, I was browsing the Australian distributor's website for wallpaper company Graham and Brown and THERE IT WAS! My Frames wallpaper; just one click away from my mailbox. And, at just $99 a roll, it was an absolute steal. I restrained myself (barely), as convincing my other half that any choice of wallpaper is (a) a great idea and (b) not something I will get sick of in three months is something I will have to be strategic about. I do sort of have a tendency to want to change things fairly consistently, and wallpaper is a touch harder to remove than say, paint.

But that wallpaper! The possibilities are endless... paint or draw onto it directly; paste photographs or drawings onto it; or leave it blank! I adore the concept of an ever-changing artwork evolving over time.

Now, if I can just work out how to get it over the line...