The Interior DIYer
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DIY – edible ornaments

I’m so excited today to share with you my first Christmas tutorial of the year – my cheeky spin on edible Christmas ornaments! Today’s tutorial is also part of Lupin’s Christmas tutorial link-up which is going down today and tomorrow. Today everyone involved blogs their tutorial, and tomorrow we share all of the things. More deets on that at the end of this post. 
My idea for today’s tutorial came from my stomach, if I’m being honest with you. I love Christmas treats, except I’m not partial to all the faff that comes with decorating them. I wanted to make something that had a simple enough template, was a little out of the ordinary, while also easily bespokable. Is that a word? Well it is now. Feast your eyes … 

I wanted a light and fresh recipe for my cookies that wasn’t too Christmassy. I stumbled upon a very easy cookie recipe on the BBC website which was perfect, and I added my own bit of zing; Husband is tore up from the floor up about lemon so I added the zest and juice of one lemon to the cookies and icing. I love citrus flavours around Christmas, especially to cut the heavy flavours that usually come with the season. Of course if you don’t like lemon, you can use whatever flavour you prefer, or you can play it safe and leave them plain … 
COOKIES 
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 free range egg
275g plain flour
1tsp vanilla
Added pizzazz – the zest of one lemon
ICING
400g icing sugar
Added pizzazz – juice from one lemon
MARKERS
Edible markers in the colour of your choice. I used black and red which I bought from my local cake decorating store, Kitchen Compliments. On to the good stuff … 
Step 1 – cream together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly add the flour until the mixture resembles a dough. Flour your work surface and roll out your dough to roughly 1cm thick. Step 2 – using your cookie cutters of choice, cut out your cookies and place on your baking tray. To make a hole at the top of each cookie for the ribbon, just poke with a straw. Bake your cookies at 190C / 375F for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Step 3 – when your cookies are cool {if you’re unsure, leave them for about an hour}, you can begin to apply the icing. You’ll want your icing to be the consistency of custard. If it’s too thick, it won’t level off and dry smoothly, and if it’s too soft, it’ll go all over the place, much like your blood pressure and we don’t want that. Step 4 – leave the icing to completely set. This means no touching for 2 days. TWO. DAYS. I know, I hear your pain. But if you don’t let the icing completely set, the icing will crack and bleed when you draw on your cookies and ain’t nobody wants that. Trust me, the 2 days pass a lot faster than you think. Tuck them out of site. 

Step 5 – when the icing has fully set, you can start drawing to your hearts content! String a piece of ribbon through the top of each cookie et voila! Hang them wherever you see fit – on your tree, kitchen cupboards, door handles, but I tend to leave them just within reach … You can make them as simple / complex, cheeky / politically correct as you like. 
I drew some of our favourite things onto our cookies; husband’s glasses, Alice in Wonderland references, our wedding vows ‘Always and Forever’ {which is a quote from Napoleon Dynamite}, black and white stripes, a movember moustache and this little guy, but unfortunately this little ‘trooper didn’t make it to the ribbon stage … 

These edible ornaments can be easily changed and adapted to whatever you want, so I hope today I’ve at least set off a couple of crafty light bulbs {I already have loads of ideas for my second batch!}. And the best part – you just shove them in your face whenever you want. Easy on clean up, and you don’t have to pack them away at the end of the season. Winning on all accounts I think. 
So that’s my little contribution to Lupin’s Christmas Linkup! Check back tomorrow Here’s my Christmas tutorial link-up blog post sharing all the tutorials made by everyone involved. A solid dose to get your Christmas brain juices flowing for the season ahead. Happy holidays! Nope, still too early. xx A

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A little something on the side (table)

It’s about to get romantic all up in here friends. This time last month we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We journeyed back to Dunboyne Castle, where we got married on a surreal autumn day. We of course booked a room for our anniversary, a fabulous dinner, and breakfast the next morning. We checked in and when I got to our room, this is what I found … 

Husband had been sneaking. He got in contact with the florists we used for our wedding {the lovely Dolores and Brian from Dunboyne Flowers}, he e-mailed them reminder pictures of our wedding flowers, and back in August ordered the most gorgeous hydrangeas from Holland, which were the exact match to my wedding bouquet, and had them delivered to our hotel. Gentlemen, take note. 

I never got to keep my bouquet from our wedding as the drunk girl young lady who caught it, kept it. I think that’s how the rules go, don’t they? But the romance-ball that husband is, he gave me a second chance to swoon over my bouquet all over again. 
They were incredibly delicate hydrangeas and unfortunately didn’t last very long. Since the first time around I didn’t get a memento of my bouquet, I stole a couple buds and leaves here and there and squashed them in a Harry Potter book highly respected novel for adults for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I did a quick revamp on an old picture frame I had by spray painting it my all time fav spraypaint – Montana’s ‘winegum’, stuck on some leftover black and white ribbon I had used on our wedding boutonnieres / button holes, and framed the pressed and dried hydrangea pieces. It’s a perfect little addition of oomph to my nightstand. Yes and yes. 
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Lovely mention – the Irish Independent

A couple of weeks ago I got a surprise e-mail from the lovely Gabrielle from the Irish Independent looking to include me in an upcoming feature; she was writing about ladies who are ditching cosmo’s for crochet hooks and getting crafty at home {for the record, I am partial to a tall, cold G&T or a healthy glass of wine}. I of course agreed {nervously}, and later that afternoon I spoke with Gabrielle about all things thrifted and handmade throughout our home. From items made from scratch, to revamped thrifted pieces, to crochet, knitting and cross stitch, we talked about it all. And when I say we, I mean I rambled on for some time.

A word of warning ladies – when you’re as pale as me, if you hold a lamp up to your face, your eyes will look like two piss-holes in snow. That is something I have now learned. Aside from that, I am giddy with excitement about my little feature and would like to thank Gabrielle again for being so cool, down to earth and for letting me prattle on about handmade stuff, and Ronan the photographer for making it a fun and relaxed mini photo shoot in my living room, because cameras terrify me and all I do is make dumb faces. 

For anyone who would like to creep the online version of the article, check it out here 🙂 xx A

p.s. I LOVE LAMP. 
Also featured – lamp revamp – fancy footstool