Happy Birthday Salt!

Satch here. 

If you read Salt’s wonderful Happy Birthday blog post to me a few months back, you’re probably wondering why, now 12 days after Salt herself had a birthday, there’s been no birthday blog in return from yours truly. Had I not been spending that special day surprising my bloggy bestie in Cardiff (why yes, I am a great friend. Thank you for noticing.) I would have returned the favour. However, as the lady is soon to get on a train for her hometown celebrations, I thought now would be the perfect time! 

When I was in Cardiff, Salt and I established that we’ve been doing this dance of friendship now for 9 years (not including that time we sang together for the school choir and I thought she was a stuck-up cow – largely because she got to stand in the middle of me and another tiny girl – and, for obvious reasons, she thought I was slightly petty). The good news is, a few years later, we reconciled our differences and I think a few photos through the ages are in order, to celebrate 9 weird and wonderful years with the birthday girl. 

2004 - My Auntie Dawn's Wedding

2006 - My 15th Birthday (for some reason, no photos exist from 2005...and yes, that is blue eye shadow and hoop earrings I'm rocking there.)

2007 - This move is known as "I'm waiting for the milkman."

2007 - Hard Rock Cafe, Barcelona.

2008 - Posey fun on the beach

2009 - I told you we didn't always get on!

2009 - Here we may be serenading each other with a bit of Michael Buble...(who Salt now hates because he has "Paedo eyes.")

2010 - Yes, we had matching plastic rain ponchos...at least mine was only 25p!

2011 - Intermission drinks at Legally Blonde, the Muscial (Salt's 21st Birthday present from me, big Jacklin and little Jacklin - tickets, not the drinks!)

2011 - Acting out the complext relationship of Zeus and Hercules in an Athens airport...

2012 - Rocking the luggage, turtle-style, on our way to Isle of Wight Festival

2012 - Salt's birthday last year in St. James' Park (don't worry, we know the guy behind her - it wasn't some random. It was, however, hilarious.) 

And now....2013!

  
Happy birthday Salt! Here's to the next 9 years (but let's call it quits after that because you are a stuck-up cow). Love you xxx

Tissue Paper Cards

Hola Kiddiewinks, 

Satch here. I thought I'd actually written this blog post but it turns out I only planned what I was gonna say in my head while I was in the bath...whoops. 

About a month ago, I was sitting in my room when I suddenly realised that the next day was a) the last time I'd see Sophie Davis for a year and b) my and Cobb's 4 year anniversary. That, my friends, is a desparate card-making situation! Luckily, I have crap-loads of card making supplies in case of just such a crisis, and tissue paper is my go-to, no-time-at-all medium of choice. 

Let's start with my card for Cobb. You will need: 

Card
Two different colours of tissue paper (preferably left over from something else so the planet will like you more and bake you cookies)
PVA glue (or just pritt-stick if you're not weird like me) 

Start by slathering (great word!) your card with glue, and rip up your tissue paper into strips. 

Then layer the strips over each other. It doesn't have to be super neat, as the ripped-up thing is part of the look. (And if you're wondering, yes, that is wrapping paper left over from Christmas, but Cobb likes Christmas, and snow, so deal with it!)  

When I finished the vertical stripes, I was going to just write 'Happy Anniversary' but there just wasn't a good focal point on the card. I looked down at my left-over paper, and noticed that one of the grey chucks was vaguely in the shape of a '4'. Luckily, we've been together 4 years, so this was perfect. I whacked the grey bit in the corner, and rolled up a few strips of red to make a 3D 4, which gave the card a bit more depth.

For Sophie Davis' "Don't leave me or the Cupcake gets it" card - which you just cannot find in shops these days - you will need: 

Card
Pretty tissue paper
A picture of something cool (preferably from old wrapping paper) 
Glue
Permanent Marker

 Start the same way you would for the other card, but as for this one I only used one colour of paper, it doesn't really matter what size/shape the tissue paper strips are. 

Then, crack on with the pasting until the whole thing is covered. You might need to add more glue to places where the tissue overlaps. I decided half-way through that I didn't like the polkadots being so shiny, so I went for an extra layer of glue at the end to calm it down a bit. Then stick on your picture of a cupcake, and outline it with permanent marker to make it stand out from the paper.

 They turned out pretty well, and 'Sorry you're leaving to go live in a commune' and 'yeah, we're in love but we don't bang on about it' are quite difficult occasions to get a card for, so these were perfect. 

There's a whole bunch of designs you could try. I once made our friend Reb one using strips of various shades of pink, and then cut out the letters of her name from wrapping paper to give it a bit of texture. I also did this one for my friend Gillet, and stuck a picture of the inside of the tardis in the card. 

If you're thinking 'Yeah, Satch, that's great but what about all that left over tissue paper?' I found a use for that too. I wrapped Cobb's pressie up but decided it was a bit bland, so used some of the left over strips and glued on some 'ribbon' and a make-shift bow.

And with Sophie Davis' card I re-used an envelope, so tissue-papered over where my name was so I could replace it with hers. However, if you are going to do this, don't be a plum (like me) and write on it before the glue dries!

 

Tissue paper - who knew, right? 

Until next time,
Satch x

DIY Citrus Body Scrub

Hello one and all, Salt here.

As any of you who have read my other blog will know, I'm a sucker for beauty products. One thing I'm not a sucker for though, is the huge price tag that goes with them.

I saw this little recipe on another blog, and decided to tweak it and give it a go myself. I made this for Mummy Salt for Mothers Day, but obviously had to do a little quality control batch for myself too.

Ladies (and Gents) I give you, Lemon and Grapefruit Body Scrub.

Surprisingly simple to make, and honestly, I think it works as well as any branded ones I've paid for recently.

What you'll need:
A jar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (This can be swapped for an essential oil if you'd rather, but they cost more!)
1 grapefruit
1 lemon
Coarse Sea Salt




 The original recipe calls for:
5 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp oil
1/2 lemon

But this makes a really tiny amount, so I filled the jar with salt, and counted it in tablespoons as I put it in the mixing bowl.

 My jar held 15tbsp of salt, so I adjusted the quantities as follows:

15tbsp salt
3 tbsp oil
1/2 lemon
1/2 grapefruit










First, mix the oil in with the salt. Make sure its all fully coated (add extra if you need). The oil protects the salt from the lemon, so if you skip out this stage, your salt will dissolve and all you'll have is mush, albeit a lovely smelly mush.

I then zested the grapefruit and the lemon to make a more rustic scrub, and to give it a bit of colour.
Then I added the juice of half a lemon, and half a grapefruit and mixed that in with the salt and oil.
I had too much juice, and ended up not using quite a bit of it, so best to do this bit in stages.

Pop it in a jar, tie a bit of ribbon around it, and voila! A lovely homemade gift.
The whole jar must have cost me less then £3 to make too, and it smells so lovely and citrus-y. The shelf life is a little less than your shop bought scrub - about six weeks, but no need to refrigerate.

If you give it a try, let me know how it works! I'd love to try some different flavours!