Shop Focus | Love Eco

In ♥ with Love-Eco

.

properly in love! If you click on the images it should bring you straight to the shop

I found the link to this website in a magazine - they initially had pictures of doorstops i thought were quite funky... but after browsing the site i want all of the stuffs lol and shopping fair trade is the best way to go (they have a fair trade section) and im in love with that grey underwear set. Its so beautiful, it might help that the model is stunning and it will look totally different on me but i dont care! I want it! I might push her over and steal the flower from her hair too :p

T

hey have so many great products! you can follow the manager on twitter too :) I really love the ACME Climate Change Action Book!

Valentines Pies

Last night I had to make the wee apple pies for valentines. The pastry was absoulutely delicious - it was the wholemeal pastry recipe from Tessa Kiros book Apples for Jam - the only thing i replaced was the wholemeal flour with plain flour. i nearly ate it all! And then i used the apple filling recipe from her book also.

I had bought lil dumpling moulds so they would fit in the Twig & Thistle Box I blogged about before. Theyre 'family necessary kitchen things' lol. Made me laugh.

I had been trying to doodle and catch up on my lil journal but its not so easy!! I wasnt too well last night so my dad had to take over the wee pies and they were in the oven too long so they definitely were not photograph-able in any way!

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010

Get involved with fairtrade fortnight!! I started swapping my products for fairtrade a wee while ago.. starting with teas, coffees and cereals. Didnt cost much extra and i bought them in the oxfam fairtrade shop in town but you can also get them in your local coop stores. You can interact online with fairtrade supporters which I think is really good.... i shall be investigating. Ive just added the fairtrade foundation to my flickr and will be updating my swaps for fairtrade fortnight to their group. Its easy to get involved so do it.

"Swapping your usual stuff for Fairtrade stuff is a brilliantly small step to making the world a fairer place. It means that you get to show your support for developing world producers through what you buy. Two billion people - a third of humanity - survive on less than $2 a day. Unfair trade rules keep them in poverty, but they face the global challenges of food shortages and climate change too.


Fairtrade believes that developing world producers should be in control of their own lives, by getting a better deal for the work that they do. This is a different way of doing business. It's a way that puts the poorest of the world first. Look around our map and find out how Fairtrade is changing the lives of farming communities worldwide. And learn a bit about the stuff that you’re swapping too."

Love Food | Vanilla Heart Biscuits

Vanilla Heart Shaped Shortbread Cookies/Biscuits Recipe

D and I were doing some baking last night because I got a bad case of sweetitius.. i needed something sweet. This is really bad for my diet. Anywho! I reached for my '1001' Cupcakes, cookies and other tempting treats' book that i treated myself to at christmas.. I decided to go for number 451 - 'I Love you' Vanilla Hearts. Theyre actually quite tasty but the recipe from the book didnt add any water or anything to the mixture to make a dough.. so i added a little with the vanilla essence.. just keep that in mind. (Im adding it)

Recipe:

Ingredients:

♥ 225g/8oz Plain flour, plus extra for dusting

♥ 150g/5.5oz Butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing

♥ 125g/4.5oz caster sugar, plus extra for dusting

♥ 1tsp vanilla extract

♥ 1tbsp water

Method:

♥ Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a large baking sheet.

♥ Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and use your fingertips to rub the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

♥ Stir in the sugar, vanilla and water and mix together to form a firm dough.

♥ Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surgace until its about 1cm/.5'' thick and cut out your biscuits.

♥ Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or just until coloured.

♥ Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and dust with caster sugar before serving.

Swap Bot | Valentine Swap

Valentines Swap on Swap-Bot

This is my amazing valentine swap that i did with ashley! I really want to list everything that was included in my package but theres a chance I will forget something despite it being in front of me!! I was so excited going through this!!! I really loved my wee heart shaped box of chocolates.. i dont know what happened... as soon as i opened them there was like this gust of wind.. and my hair blew in my face and I looked down going.. what the.. the chocolates were all gone! frig sake. gutted, is the only way to describe how i felt. mmhmm

so yes! My fantastic swap! I really liked this ribbon too, i hope you dont mind ashley, this is guna be reused for next sunday lol as i dont have much money i havent quite decided what is going to happen for valentines day but whatever it is its being made with love. Like Ashley, I also love baking... she included amazing cupcake sprinkles which i LOVE but over here a box of them is sooo expensive.. and LOVE cookie cutters - again.. this is the kinda randomness id be buying this week online in time for valentines but its expensive over here too.

i was opening this with my bf in the room and all he could hear was *gasp* omg! I love theeese!!! I laughed, cuz of the wee red box thats there..... I sent over the K&Co phrases that come in that shape of box AND we dont get those shapes of boxes over here for take away or anything so i love them lol. I love the parcel tape... my housemate absolutely LOVES dr pepper! Ninja has claimed the pink elephant.. god damit! She just loves wee soft things. I love all the heart shape things because im trying to take photos of heart shapes and bits and pieces for my blog headers. There were amazing office supplies inside this wee box.. i really loved the paper clips, il prob use them as bookmarks rather than anything else cuz id only lose them :)

I will shoot more of the items i got... i got a lil cupcake set with hearts and hearts on cocktail sticks so I think for valentines i will make cupcakes for my housemate so he doesnt feel all ronery! I will prob be at Ds so if im going to do this il need to do it early!

I got my crafty items and thickers, which are my absolute favourite. i was sooo happy with this swap i really love everything i got! Thank u so much :)

Today i decided to get around to sorting out those tea bag things from the Creature Comforts blog - for valentines. I printed cut and sewed the necessaries! I was pleased but the paper got very crinkly and our teabags in the UK are a bit big.. the best ones are tetley - the round ones so just minor squishing into the packet issues!

Photo Love | The Wedding

This is my new favourite photo of us! unfortunately we only stayed for the church service.. which was lovely. My friend siobhan looked so beautiful i cried a wee bit (like a big girl) when i saw her. She managed to handmake her invites, the wee booklets for the church, the peticoat for her dress and her own wedding cake and i cudnt get photos of them so il try and see if i can see her photos when she gets them back! I just wouldnt have been able to stay the whole day so im sorry siobhan! Oh yeah I should possibly include a pic of my dress!

I Made This | Wedding Hair

Soooo im heading to a wedding tomorrow and went to get my hair done earlier... I have been growing out especially for this day and i think im only getting to attend the church ceremony because ive had such a bad week where my health is concerned... either way... I likes my hair a lot! I took pictures this evening because theres a chance it wont look this good in the morning and i wanted to remember how it looked! Apologies for the terrible quality in pictures :) if there are any good ones tomorrow I will upload them to flickr with my dress!

 

I Made This | Home Embroidered Cushion

So this was my first attempt at embroidery! And cushion making!! I made my bf a cushion also, a bit plainer, not as girly and i havent taken a photo of it yet! Its taken me this long to get around to shooting this bad boy!! This cushion was inspired by Tilda - Sew Happy Homestyle Book - i really love that book and there are so many lovely things to make. It was also quite simple to make also. I used carbon paper to transfer the embroidery pattern and stocked up on hoops!! My first attempt at sewing machine zips was a bit of a disaster but my mum understood lol. Im happy with how it turned out as a first attempt!

Shop Focus | Papaya Art

I got my address book from Papaya Art that i ordered ages ago... because it was so beautiful... and im so freakin happy!! I got it yesterday in the post and the packaging was so pretty i had to photograph it.

I really love how simple the packaging is... it is literally wrapped in purple tissue paper with a simple band across it. Something to consider when designing packaging. Depends on what types of things that would be sold.. notebooks etc.

This is the cover... I love the rich colours. Anahata Katkin is the best artist,, i really love her work.

oo its so beautiful! I was tempted to take pictures of all the alphabet but thats slightly excessive lol. You get the picture of how beautiful the book is. It was well worth the money. AND after a short email to the people who run Papaya Art about their International Shipping cost - which was about $60 for an Address Book which cost $14 - Ridiculous! But i wanted it really badly.... and sent a mail saying i really wanted the address book and an international shipping cost of 60 dollars seems a bit extreme so i put the order through and those LOVELY people went to the post office and got me flat rate shipping, waited until i confirmed i was happy enough to pay the shipping cost and wouldnt process the order until i was happy. It was great customer service and I received the item really quickly and i was so happy with the service! I would highly recommend ordering from these guys!