littletree loves...Oxfam Unwrapped

A slightly more serious note to todays post, only slightly through! A few years ago I came across the Oxfam Unwrapped gift ideas catalogue in a local store and ever since then have always tried to buy/donate at least one thing from there as an unusual christmas gift to someone in my family, and encourage everyone I know to do the same for theirs! People have even had wedding list's of goodies to buy/donate, which I think is such a fab idea! So seeing as the catalogue dropped onto my doormat this week it is my turn to bug you! There are so many fun gifts, big and small, for everyone's taste and humour levels (build a bog anyone?). Over the years I think we have bought trees, safe water, goats, tools and school equipment, but to name a few. So today I am going to share a few of my favourite gift ideas with you, but PLEASE stop by the website for many more! x

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Some of these things such as a simple health check, clean running water, food in the fridge and education for all, we just couldn't imagine living without! And we always know that they are available to us, please don't take them for granted...x

littletree discovers...a sign...

Hello again...How are you today? Believe it or not I actually found this sign lying on the side of the road just down the way from our house looking sad and lost :( I have always wanted an old metal sign and see them all the time at car boot sales, they're often a bit pricey and I have no where in the house to put one but when it's free it's a different matter! This sign isn't metal but wooden, I have no idea what it would have been used for or where it may have come from but I just liked it and felt it needed a home! It's about A2 in size and for the moment is living tucked away down the side of my wardrobe, but one day I shall find it a home amongst all the other various stuff I've collected over the years! Here are a few of the pics I took at the car boot with some old signage that I wanted very much...amongst other things! How great would that skeleton have been for Halloween? x

littletree loves...Jane Ormes

Hello all! My mum bought me this cute Jane Ormes postcard when we were in Paperchase a little while ago, I love the big green eyes that remind me of a cat we had when I was younger. I have seen a few of Jane's cards in Paperchase before but I thought I would investigate a little more over on her website and lovely blog. My particular favourite has to be the 'Ode to Daniel Craig' it makes me laugh everytime! Here are a few of my other favourites...x

All images from Jane Ormes Website Gallery

littletree bakes (cooks)...chutney

Happy Monday! Hasn't the weather been lovely this weekend? Hope you were out enjoying it! So remember last week when I made muffins? I also mentioned I was making chutney...Apple and Pear Chutney to be exact...and so at the weekend I got my craft on (I think I was inspired by all the DIY goodness from Fridays Pinterest picks!) and concocted come pretty lid covers and labels so they are all ready for presents! I wanted them to look natural and a bit rustic seeing as most of the fruit we had collected were from windfalls around our area. The fabric and red wax string was from a local fabric store but the labels, beads, buttons and twine we had already. I love the brown tags, it means I get to use my special white ink pen to write with, you can see I had fun decorating them! Anyway I thought I would share what I did step-by-step if you were thinking of doing anything similar with homemade jams and pickles or even a smores kit as seen here...you know you need to make those! Here's the how-to...x

1. First collect all sorts of bit and bobs that could be used for the decoration.
2. Pick out the fabric, beads, buttons and twine. Cut the fabric into circles using pinking shears, remember the circles need to be larger than the lids to be able to give you that frill around the edge.
3. Double wrap the twine around the lid making sure it's nice and snug, tie a double knot. Tweak the edges of the fabric so it's roughly even and pleated all the way round.
4. Thread on your beads, tie a knot and cut at the desired length.
5. Wrap the red twine around and thread on the label before trying a knot.
6. Thread the two ends of twine through a button and tie in a bow.

There, It's as simple as that! Well if I can do it anyone can...x

pinterest pick of the week...

Well it's Friday again so it must mean it's time for some Pinterest fun! This week with the weather truly becoming colder and the nights darker I thought it might be nice to have a few projects to do indoors on those days when you can't face going out. Yes you have guessed it we are doing some DIY today! Plus with christmas looming the odd homemade gift idea might be handy...today's picks are from Elodie Chardon and the board is of course DIY home. There are some lovely projects for all tastes and skill levels such as the painted jars above, who knew old jam jars were so fab? So here are my other picks but there is plenty more to browse through so do pop over and take a peek...Elodie has lot's of other fab DIY boards too so check them out! Hope you all have lovely weekends whether you're DIY-ing or not!x

I love this fabric scrap lampshade, so easy and I bet everyone's got an old lampshade with awful fabric lying around somewhere that is just waiting for a makeover! I'm loving the old window turned handy kitchen noteboard too...genius! As usual click the links above for sources. x

littletree discovers...Eve Cege Designs

Morning all! I had a lovely comment left the other day by Eve Cege, she has recently opened her online shop and left me a link to check it out and guess what? I love it all! Eve is a quirky jewelry designer born in Chile and now lives in Madrid, Spain (so lucky!) her work is stunning...simple, super colourful and delicate. I even love the styling and photography for the pictures! So hop on over to the website and grab yourself a little gem before they're all snapped up...x

All images from Eve Cege Designs.

a few very different christmas cards...

Hello Wednesday! Can you believe it's Wednesday again? It's all going a little too fast for me these days, either way christmas is definitely on it's way! This year I have had some friends ask if I would be making christmas cards, if so, could they purchase some? So here are a few ideas so far...I've tried to cover a variety of tastes here, so there is cute 'n' quirky (top), more of a male rocker/teenager card (middle) and then a more simple, sophisticated tree design (bottom). I'm pleased with how they have turned out, my favourite is the cute 'n' quirky card. The idea came from how at christmas everything gets the special treatment and nothing is without a bauble or length of tinsel draped over it! Not even boring everyday picture frames...do you like? Which is you're favourite? Are you planning any crafts for christmas? x

littletree discovers...derhy

And now for something a little more fashion-y...if that's a word?! I found this little french brand, Derhy, through a freebie brochure in the new Elle magazine a friend had given to me. There are some lovely quirky clothes that have a bit of the handmade, crafty vibe about them. Pieces with embroidery, flower corsages or chunky knitwear mixed with lace. I just thought it was something a little different and special, pop by their website to take a peek at some more...x

All images scanned in from free brochure, no stylist or photographer info available.

littletree bakes...mini victoria sponge muffins

A merry Monday to all! Have you all had nice weekends? There has been a bit of a baking/cooking bonanza in my house over the weekend and this little muffin recipe was just one of them...there has also been soup making and chutney being concocted ready for Christmas, but to name a few! I thought of the idea for these muffins after watching the final of the BBC programme The Great British Bake Off, where the eventual winner, made mini victoria sponges. I thought 'I could do that!' but make it slightly simpler by baking a plain vanilla muffin and just cutting it in half to fill with jam and buttercream...and so the mini victoria sponge muffin was created! They were very tasty with a nice cuppa on a rather chilly Sunday afternoon...

Ingredients
Dry
9oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Caster Sugar
1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
Wet
3 fluid oz Vegetable oil or 3oz melted Butter
8 fluid oz Milk
1 Egg
Splash of Vanilla Essence
Filling
Jam
Icing Sugar and Softened butter to make Buttercream

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 200c/400f, thouroughly grease a 12 hole mufin tin.
2. Measure and combine all the Dry ingredients into a large bowl, set aside
3. In a jug measure in oil, milk, egg and vanilla essence, whisk. (This may look a bit odd as the oil seperates from the other ingredients, but makes no difference when aded to the dry ingredients.)
4. Pour all the Wet into the Dry ingredients and stir just to combine, it will look lumpy but no flour should be visible, over mixing makes a heavy muffin!
5. Pop in the oven and bake for 20-25mins or until golden brown. Remove and leave to cool slightly in the tin.
6. Turn the tin up-side down to remove muffins, some may need a jiggle or a knife running around the edges before they will come out, place on a cooling rack.
7. Wait unitl the muffins are cold before cutting them in half and adding the jam and buttercream, sandwich back together and dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy! x

pinterest pick of the week...

 A Happy Friday to everyone! Well normal weather service seems to have resumed here in the uk with Autumn returning like a slap in the face compared to last weeks mini summer! So out come the socks and scarves again and bye bye flip flops...but hello to more excuses to snuggle up with a nice cup of tea on a wet and windy afternoon, so thats where we are off to for todays pinterest picks! This board is just simply named Tea and was curated by Angie Christine Dillon, she has collected some really beautiful and interesting images so I'm going to share some with you today. Please don't forget to pop by my own pinterest page which has grown a little more since last week - no surprises there then! Have a lovely weekend, go out and enjoy the wonders of autumn and then come back in for a nice cuppa...x

I love this saying and is so true for me! Plus how cute is the kooky little critter among the books! 

As usual the click the links at the top for full sources.
Ooh also check out Angies board called Nutella Love if your addicted to the stuff like me!