littletree makes...a beaded door hanger

Hello again everyone! Did you all have good weekends? And for those of you that are mothers I hope you had a lovely and relaxing mothers day yesterday! Today I have a little crafty goodness to share that was a project from one of my new books Homemade Gifts Vintage Style by Sarah Moore, you can read more about the book here on my beautiful books post...

This crafty little gem came about after I had bought a bumper tin of buttons from a charity shop recently...I had remembered this project from the book so my friend and I had a great afternoon fishing through all the buttons and beads, old bits of jewellery etc to make these beautiful beaded door hangers!

They were super simple, just craft wire bent into a 'V' first, thread on your bits and bobs, about 2 inches from the top start to bend the wire round to make a heart shape, add a few more buttons etc then finish off by bending the wire to make a loop and tie on a piece of ribbon for hanging. And that's it! The hardest part was deciding what to put where and which buttons were the prettiest!

Have a go! You could make some lovely pastel coloured ones for Easter decorations or even tiny ones as an extra finishing touch on a present...if you do, send me a photo, I would love to see them! Have a great week everyone...x

pinterest pick of the week...

Image HERE

With this image above everywhere on the blogisphere recently it seemed only natural to have a pinterest picks dedicated to the phenomena that is Pantone...there are literally hundreds of products that are Pantone related and this board from Cathe Huynh-Sison - Pantone Heaven has a fantastic selection...some of which I have chosen to share with you today! Pantone nail varnish...yes please!

And last but not least...a Pantone pumpkin!? Brilliant! 

Hope you have enjoyed this Pantone love-in, as usual click on the links above for the sources. 

Happy Weekends everyone!x

'snap happy!' birthday print

Image copyright of Littletree Designs

Hello all, today is indeed Thursday the 15th of March which means the weekend is almost here but it also means it's my Dad's birthday! Now you may remember the other week me sharing the badges I had bought him from Cut Copy Create? And I explained how he is a complete camera nut...so I came up with the idea for this print as a little extra present as he is indeed 'snap happy!' when he has a camera to hand...If you are interested you can visit his flikr site here to have a look at his pictures, they're pretty darn good! But then I am a little biased...see you all tomorrow for this weeks pinterest picks...x

colour inspiration...'button hues'

Image from HERE

A little vintage button love to go with the vintage inspired dresses from Katrina...how pretty are all these colours? Loving the minty-ness with mustard combo, not great on the food side of things but great colours!x

littletree features...kitty o'brien

Hello again blog friends! I have something a little different for you today...now I don't usually post much about fashion but I am making an exception for a friend...Today is all about my good friend Katrina's beautiful dress and pattern designs. I knew Katrina from a retail job whilst she was studying for her BA Hons in Fashion and Textile design and she has now set up her own business designing dresses and even her own fabric for the dress designs! She is mainly influenced by the 1930's style combining it with a modern twist yet still maintaining the key aspects of the era with draping, bias and open back details of many dress designs.

The 'Marigold' dress below was actually auctioned for a national charity fundraiser where the lucky bidder paid £1,500! Which I can totally understand as it is stunning with the twin waterfall fabric running the length of the back...

I also have some images of the patterns that Katrina plans on turning into fabric for her dresses, all of the patterns below are made using blown up images of feathers, manipulated and repeated in Photoshop to make these beautiful repeats...

All images copyright Kitty O'Brien

If you want to find out more then hop on over to Katrina's website, facebook, society6 or Etsy shop where you can order your very own custom dress!x

littletree bakes...lemon drizzle cake

Hi everyone, a little cake-y goodness for you today...lemon drizzle cake, one of my absolute faves! This recipe is super simple and always comes out zingy and moist with lemon juice...it came from a supermarket magazine sent in by a reader, I don't have the original anymore so thanks to whoever this recipe came from and I hope you don't mind me sharing it!? Here's the how to...x

Ingredients

• 4oz Butter, softened
• 6oz Caster Sugar
• 6oz Self Raising Flour
• 2 Eggs
• Zest of 2 Unwaxed Lemons
• 4 tbsp Milk

Let's get baking!

• Preheat oven 180/200c. Grease and line a 450g/1lb loaf tin.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Add in your Flour, Egg and Lemon Zest, beat until well combined.
• If you want to you can add an optional squeeze of extra lemon juice, it shouldn't curdle the eggs as you have added the flour, stir through.
• Spoon into tin and make a well in the centre, bake for one hour or until golden.
• Whilst cake is baking mix the juice of 1 lemon with 3tsp of icing sugar to make a runny syrup.
• When cake is ready remove from oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin.
• When cooled slightly prick holes all over the warm cake with a cocktail stick and loosen the edges of the cake from the tin/greaseproof paper.
• Carefully spoon over the lemon syrup making sure you get down the sides of the cake. Use all of the juice.
• Leave the cake in the tin to absorb all the liquid and cool completley.
• Remove and dust with icing sugar.

And that's it! This would make the perfect cake for Mother's Day this Sunday or just for afternoon tea. You could decorate the cake further with a simple runny white icing and curls of lemon zest or if you're feeling crafty some mini bunting toppers! I even found a DIY for bunting below and it comes with free printables too! Happy baking! x

Image and DIY from A Pair of Pears

littletree loves...lisa stickley

Morning blog friends! Did you have a good weekends? Mine was lovely visiting my old friends and university city, I may have a few pics to share with you later on this week...

Last week though I found a rather nice surprise on my desk...my mum had very kindly bought me these lovely Lisa Stickley notebooks (above) that she had seen at our local TkMaxx as a little treat! I had seen a few before but as with some things in TkMaxx they can get a bit knocked around the edges, but these ones are perfect and come in a cute box too...ok enough gushing, I'm done now I promise.

So thinking I hadn't stopped by the Lisa Stickley website in while I hopped on over to browse more beauties...as with quite a few things recently neon seems to be making an appearance in all areas and Lisa Stickleys's shop is no exception. So today I am sharing a few neon pink faves from the recent collection, I love the combination of soft greys, black and pink together with delicate old fashioned florals...and how fab is that bed linen?! Love x

1//  2//  3//  4//  5//  6//  7//

All Images and Design by Lisa Stickley / First Image taken by Littletree

pinterest pick of the week...

Helloooo Friday! I have no work this weekend, yey! I am actually off to visit my old university city of Leicester to meet up with the girls I used to live with to do a little catching up, as well as some shopping and much scoffing off good food! So this pic above sums up my weekend plans perfectly! Hope you all have something nice planned for your weekends...

Anyhoo, back to the task at hand, this weeks pinterest picks! Today is all about that super soothing colour, mint...I may be slightly biased because my favourite ice-cream flavour is mint choc-chip so to me mint just sums up summer and relaxed times, plus it seems to be a pretty popular colour at the moment! So todays minty treats come from Courtney Wilkerson and her board 'minty fresh'...x

Mmm...these bowls would be even better with some ice-cream in them! 

Hope you have enjoyed the minty-ness...I thought I would leave you with this little saying below 

which rings very true for me and how I felt a just a few months ago...love to all x

Victor Fox Giveaway!

Hello again, just a quick post about this fab giveaway over at Victor Fox one of my Leibster award winners...You  may remember me mentioning that Clare had just finished illustrating her way through February and now you can enter the giveaway to win a print of the day of your choosing! Hop on over here to find out more, the giveaway closes next Friday 16th March. x

littletree's top 5 blogs...

Yes it's that time again, a new month (can you believe it's March already? Eep!) and an all new Top 5 Blogs! After last months bumper edition we are back to just 5 but I hope that this months blogs get as many new followers and views as the last group did, it was a real success! This month is a bit pick and mix with a range of different blogs, design, craft, homes and a blog dedicated just to beautiful typography which I love...So hopefully there will be something new for everyone to discover, just click on the links below the banner image to hop on over and check them out!x

chictype

annarack

Lisa Martin

Polkadot Lighthouse

My Attic

All designs and images owned by their respective blog owners. 

Thanks to all the ladies for letting me use them!x