Using decals to decorate

Like many people my age, I live in a rented apartment. I really have no desire to leap into owning a house anytime soon. Much as owning my own little nook would be nice, I don't want to be tied to a mortgage or have to worry about maintenance. It's great to be free from owning any real furniture and it's great to know that I can leave my job without stressing quite so much. However, the one massive flaw in renting is that you can't decorate your apartment properly.

My apartment is white EVERYWHERE. I mean there is no colour at all. I could try painting small sections like cupboards - my landlord is not averse to the idea - but I don't want to invest in paintbrushes nor do I want to risk the serious mistakes that can happen with paint. I also live abroad and will be returning home at some point so I cannot invest in good paintings or wall hangings.

One day, loitering around on Etsy, I discovered wall decals. These are basically high-end stickers. You can buy them in numerous colours and designs and then just stick them on your wall. They are made from top quality self-adhesive vinyl and can be stuck to a wall and removed when you leave.

I did a quick search on etsy and found Byrdie Graphics - an etsy store specialising in wall decals and wall patterns. My purchase was incredibly cheap and Byrdie Graphics ship worldwide at very reasonable rates.

A couple of weeks later, my decals arrived with an instructional postcard as well as a tester decal of a small bird. I did the tester as advised and all went well. The main decals were quite tricky to put up. You need to make sure that you get them straight and centered which in itself can be quite hard. On top of that, they are seriously sticky once you have taken one side of the backing off. We nearly went wrong a couple of times but we got the hang of it and soon our breakfast bar was looking quite a lot jazzier than it had that morning. We did get a few air bubbles but they are only visible if you look very closely.

The decals even got the sniff approval from our cat Scampi.

The Valley of the Roses, Agros, Cyprus

On Sunday, we went to the Rose Festival in the small village of Agros in Cyprus on the foothills of the Troodos mountains. The drive up was gorgeous, all the flowers were out and the mountains were verdant and fresh – a pleasant reprieve from the heat of Nicosia. Driving in the troodos is always a bit scary thanks to all the people driving too fast or too slow along the windy mountain roads. We finally made it to Agros and had a delicious lunch at the main taverna in the village. You can sit outdoors under the shade of a huge tree whose branches spanned the entire seating area of the taverna. As it was Sunday, there was a set menu of souvlaki (rotisserie pork, lamb or chicken). We ordered souvlaki with green beans, greek salad, dolmades (stuffed vine leaves), fresh yoghurt and olives washed down with some local wine. The food was really good although a little pricey.













Afterwards, suffering from the accompanying sugar low of a large meal, we headed off to find the rose festival. Like most things in Cyprus, it wasn’t very easy to find. Eventually we got there – take the first left before the high school (the modern building with a green roof) - and follow the road down. First stop was the rose house of Agros which is home to the Venus Rose range of bio-certified organic rose products. All the roses are grown locally and harvested in May at dawn. The petals are distilled using by hand. It takes a lot of rose petals and a lot of work to produce even a tiny drop of pure rose essence.

We were given a guided tour of the venus rose range by Christakis Tsolakis who owns the company. It is a family business which has been running since 1948. Chris demonstrated the rose water cleanser which really did seem to work miracles. My skin was left cool, soft and very clean. We also got to try some of their local rose liquer, rose aperitif and rose wine. Chris was a charming if slightly eccentric guide. His demonstration of the flammability of the rose perfume certainly put me off buying it! The Venus Rose range is distributed worldwide which is incredible for a little company based in a mountain village. However, it is easy to see why people would want to buy it. There is no animal testing, no parabens and the ingredients are all organic and natural. The Venus Rose range is very ahead of its time!

The best thing about the tour is that you are under no pressure to buy anything. The shop is in a separate part of the building and you are left to browse alone at leisure or to leave empty handed. Unfortunately, we missed the main events of the rose festival but we were shown a video of the proceedings and it definitely looks worth visiting. The festival takes place in May each year.

Click here if you are interested in buying from their range.

Made my first treasury on etsy

Today I managed to finally be on Etsy at exactly the right time to make a treasury. My treasury theme is Mediterranean Dreams and it contains lots of gorgeous items to get you into a summery mood. Please take a look at it and leave a comment if you can.

First donation to Argos Animal Shelter

At the weekend, I made my first donation to Argos Animal Shelter Cyprus. It wasn't a lot of money, just 20% of my profits so far on my jewellery sales. I think it will still make a difference as it was enough to buy a couple of bulk bags of animal food.

Argos Animal Shelter looks after more than 200 abandoned cats and dogs. They really need all the money that they can get! Hopefully people will keep on buying jewellery and I can keep on giving donations.

Sale at New World Monkey Jewellery

I've just launched a sale section in my etsy shop where you can buy some pieces from my collection at greatly reduced prices. Don't forget that 20% of all profits go to helping animals in Cyprus. Happy shopping!

Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies

I recently made cookies for the first time; I usually make biscuits and a rather leaden shortbread. Anyway, I amalgamated a number of recipes in order to bake some peanut butter and nutella cookies. They worked out so well that when I offered them to my colleagues at work, they were all begging for the recipe. The best thing about this recipe for peanut butter and nutella cookies is that you don’t need a weighing scale. Also, don’t be put off by the name; the resulting cookies have a subtle flavour which tastes more of orange, nuts and caramel. Here it is in all its glory. It’s a rough recipe so don’t feel that you have to stick with it exactly and if you discover any ways to improve it then please leave a comment!

You will need:
Approximately 100g of butter – I didn’t have weighing scales so I used just under half of a 225g pack of butter
One cup of caster sugar – a small coffee cup should do (not a mug)
3 tablespoons of nutella
One orange with the skin on
2 tablespoons of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, you’re call)
One egg
At least half a pack of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder

• Mix together in a large bowl the caster sugar, butter, nutella and peanut butter. You can use a wooden spoon and your muscles or a whisk. I just used a spoon and it was fine (and I’m a small woman).
• Once you have a smooth mixture, grate in the skin of the orange. Mix some more.
• Whisk the whole egg.
• Add half the egg to the main mixture. Add about one cup of plain flour (sieved) with one teaspoon of baking powder.
• Mix until smooth.
• Add the rest of the egg and more sieved flour as necessary. The flour doesn’t have to be measured exactly. Just keep adding small amounts of flour until you have a firm, smooth dough which isn’t too sticky.
• Cover the mixture and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Take out the mixture and shape into 1 inch dough balls. Place them on a plate. Put topping on them. I put half an almond on some and a lump of chocolate on some (just normal Cadburys chocolate).
• Refrigerate the uncooked cookies for another 15 minutes. You don’t have to put the dough in the fridge but if you want soft, chewy cookies; I’d advise doing it. If you don’t refrigerate them then you will get a more crisp biscuit.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Place the cookies on baking paper – do not grease it.
• Put them in the over for about 15 minutes but check them regularly. You are aiming for them to be gently baked on the outside and slightly soft inside.
• Let them cool and store them in an airtight container.

This is a great recipe because you can play with it. I am adding nutmeg to my next batch!

How to make Christmas less expensive

Having recently taken in a stray kitten, my spare cash has rather shrunk. For the first time in a while, I have been thinking about why we all feel we have to spend so much money at Christmas.

A while back, I did a post on home-made gifts. Home made gifts can help you to ease your cash flow a little. I also think that it's a good idea to cut out unnecessary gifts. Gift-giving should be limited to close family and your partner; do we really need to be receiving gifts at Christmas from more than about 5 people?? Excessive gift giving is just a way to be more materialistic than we already are and find an excuse to shop.

A good idea is to combine a home made gift with a small bought gift. For instance, why not make use of special offers and get a few books and then give people a book and a home made gift. Another idea is to make your Christmas cards yourself. Buy some coloured card and cut out humorous pictures from old magazines and newspapers. Stick them on the card and add a funny caption.

Food is always a great home made gift to receive. Another good idea is something that I saw in The Guardian today. It sounds crazy but you can "knit" jewellery for the women in your life. You will need to know how to knit (easy to learn, just google it) and then you will need metal wire and some beads.

Instructions:

1. Thread all the beads that you want to use onto your wire. To work out how many beads to use multiply the amount of stitches per row by the length of the bracelet in centimetres (eg if you are doing a six stitch wide, 12cm long bracelet, I'd thread at least 72 beads on).

2. Cast on as many stitches as you think want and knit one row. As you knit the first stitch of the second row, bring one of the beads up to your needles and knit it into the fabric. Repeat for every stitch of the second row.

3. Continue knitting every odd row without beads and every even row with beads - this will ensure all the beads stay on the same side of the bracelet.

4. Once the bracelet or choker is long enough, cast off then fix a jewellery clasp to either end of it.

The end result looks pretty good and would make a great gift for someone.

Top Five home made gifts

Ok so there's a recession etc etc and we should all be out there making gifts for each other and not spending our money. I don't know about you but I am fed up of being told that if I make gifts or buy from charity shops then I can weather the recession. Normally these lines are said by people who know nothing about financial difficulties or finance in general.

On a different note though you should consider making home made gifts because they are fun, personal and useful for when your cash flow is a bit tight. This top five list only contains items that someone would genuinely enjoy receiving and that someone with basic artistic skills could make. You will have to buy some stuff to do them.

1. Sentimental photo frame.
Yes you will have to buy a photo frame but nowadays with shops like Primark and Ikea that shouldn't cost too much. You will then need to find a friend who has a printer that can print photos or pay out for the print out of a photo. On the plus side though you can spend a few happy hours searching for a particularly touching photo. This gift is guaranteed to be appreciated as it shows thought, love and will bring back happy memories. Alternatively, if you are giving this gift to a friend or sibling, perhaps you should dig out their most embarrassing photo and put it in a nice cheesy frame. Something like this would work:

2. Bead bracelet.
Buy some cheap but attractive beads or recycle some from old jewellery that you no longer wear. Buy some elasticated string (go to a craft store). Arrange the beads on the string in an attractive design. Tie a knot. Put a blob of glue or clear nail varnish on the knot to seal it. Great gift for little girls and big girls - everyone loves jewelry.

3. Fudge

This is a great recipe http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Vanilla_Fudge.aspx

Put it in a nice box with a hand made card.

4. Your time

Offer one night of free babysitting to people who have children. Offer to cook dinner on a night of your friend's choice. If you have a skill in something then offer to give a tutorial in it. It's surprising how many people don't know how to use excel or how to sew. This is a perfect gift to give if you are a student and have no money.

5. Make a hamper

Get a small cardboard box from your local supermarket. Wrap it in attractive paper. Revisit your supermarket and buy lots of things that they would like. They don't have to be expensive. For example you can get them things that only you know they like such as polos, earl grey, coconut body lotion, figs - whatever you want. Hampers are great to receive and can be a gift you enjoy for a long time. Plus hampers are usually very expensive to buy ready-made. Hampers are also a great gift for men.

So that's my top five list. I will be adding more to it soon.