Goldwork embroidery at Hand & Lock, Pinterest x Mastered

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I was invited by Pinterest to go to an embroidery class at Hand & Lock, an amazing embroiders based just off Oxford Street. They have been around since 1767 (mind blown) and embroidered for Micheal Jackson (the iconic military jacket!), the Queen and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few..

The studio is amazing, colourful cotton, threads and embroidered goods everywhere, it maintains a very British aesthetic with flags hanging off the ceiling and old paper goods stacked up high.

Before the event I had never embroidered in my life, only sewn giant lions and attempted to make shift dresses (badly). Oh the things I learned!

First off, goldwork is for the pro’s. It is super time consuming but ultimately satisfying like any repetitive creative task. If you can do this, I salute you! It’s an amazing skill and to get it perfect and neat is super impressive!
There is also a reason hand embroidered items are expensive. A LOT of time and love goes into this, it took almost two hours to embroider a tiny leaf!  Looking at these photos now I feel even more impressed than I would have felt before the event…

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Pinterest cake pops, oh they were good… (naughty)cakepops
Some ‘here’s what I did earlier’, how amazing!
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Perri’s leaf, mine was only half as photogenic… Perri is also super lovely and works at Mastered, which I’d not really heard much about before, but it looks like it has some pretty interesting online courses.
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It was actually so good to get to know some other people who use Pinterest lots, as there is barely any social interaction on there usually and I met some lovely people. My obsession with that website continues!

Vintage toys – a sneaky peak

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A sneaky peak of some illustrations I’ve been working on lately, sooooo many toys! I haven’t had chance to put any up for a while, super secret. x

Delicious banana, hazelnut & cranberry flapjacks

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On my quest to eat 1. less chocolate, and 2. less processed sugar, I came to the conclusion that these flapjacks were the answer! They can be eaten for breakfast with a bit of Greek yogurt (mmm) or as a tasty snack. I find the oats and nuts keep you quite full!

There is a bit of sugar in here, but it is from the fruit and honey. A lesser of two evils…

To make these delicious banana treats you will need:

  • 3 mashed bananas
  • 200g oats (gluten free if you are super sensitive – I find oats actually OK)
  • A handful of dried cranberries
  • A handful of chopped roasted hazelnuts
  • Roughly 30ml honey (depending on what honey and how liquid-y it is, you may need more, or less!)
  • 20 ml olive oil
  • A baking tray with baking paper (parchment, don’t use foil or it will STICK!)

To make:

1. Mash your bananas in a big nice bowl, and then add your oats!
2. Add in the honey and give a big stir, you want the oats to stop being dry but you don’t want the mixture to be liquid-y. Pour in your olive oil and keep stirring so it gets less dry.
3. Add your nuts and cranberries and stir to a thick paste.
4. Lay your baking paper on a tray and spread out the mixture so it is roughly 2cm thick, in whatever shape you like!
5. Put in the oven at 200c or gas mark 6 (whatever almost highest is on your oven)!
6. Bake for 20-25 minutess depending on how hard and crispy you like them. I like them softish so keep them in for 20!
7. EAT!

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Eating clean – 2014 fix my tummy.

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Food, fucking glorious food. I never used to be one of those people who ‘lives to eat’, more so I was a bit ‘eat to live’, until I got a full time job, a boyfriend who likes eating out and I moved to central London with some of the best places to eat on my doorstep. I guess you could say I got ‘into food’, like one of those annoying people who call themselves ‘foodies’.

For the past year and a half, I have suffered with IBS (I won’t bore you with the gory details), I had been not-quite-right for a while in the tummy department, which then ended up with me ill and in hospital with a kidney infection and a lot of pain. I had all the tests done to check for anything ‘serious’ and I did not have UC or Crohn’s (thanks universe), but something was/is still not right. Hence being told by doctors I am one of the many lucky millions of 20-something girls with IBS.

I cut out bread, and most other things (lol, panic disorder). Jokes about my brain aside, cutting out bread has got rid of a lot of the naughty toilet running behaviour that my body likes to do, but not completely gotten rid of my IBS. I try not to eat wheat at all, but it is hard (it’s in all the fun food, and those drunken walks home with bagels are happening far too often these days..). I also have realized it’s not just wheat, it seems to be yeast, rye, milk & cheese (lactose) and probably lots of other delicious stuff. I have to tell you, these exclusion diets are pretty boring..

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^Sugar free nutella, um yes please?

Out of frustration and annoyance that my stomach is fucked up almost every other day, alongside doctors fobbing off anyone with IBS to experiment with diet themselves, I have been reading quite a lot about the Paleo way of eating lately, and also the FODMAP diet. These both supposedly offer great relief to people with IBS.

I’ve gotta say, this also makes perfect sense to me, as I’ve found through trial and error that plain vegetables, fruit, meat and fish are probably the only foods that don’t make my intestines do a dance and make me feel like napping 4 times a day.

Also I am 100% a sugar addict. I could happily eat a pack of Tunnocks teacakes in one sitting, or for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyone knows how bad sugar is so I needn’t explain why I want to eat less!

It all has to stop! The sneaky bits of bread, the sneaky bits of cake full of gluten and pizza once a week. It is no good, and you only get one body. Over the next few weeks i’m going to try and eat less grains, less sugar and more vegetables, meat and fish and see how it goes!

I guess I will be posting some experiments in ‘healthy people cooking’ soon. The Nutella up there has cost me about £12 in ingredients (one of which I had to source from amazon as even the giant hipster health food shop in East London didn’t stock it, major LOL @ HEALTH FOOD). That’s a fucking expensive Nutella. I’m too poor for this middle class diet shit.

Tonight I also tried to make a chilli sauce out of the Susan Jane White book above and it made me gag (however, it is a beautiful book with lots of amazing looking recipes..). Lets hope this good luck continues. On the upside I have been told about the best veg shop in North London so will be stocking up this week. Thanks Ava and Rose!

If any of you has advice or words of wisdom.. please do help a sister out. x

Hanging out with the dog pals

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The pals are Poppy and Daisy, my dogs from home! The doglets like to play on York Racecourse for big runs and playing with other dogs/pigeons/balls/treats. Doggy spam commence…
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Playtime..
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Gazing off into the distance..sisters
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I wonder if Daisy would be embarrassed by this shot? sky
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