Graduation Card DIY

One of my close friends recently graduated with a First! I'm really happy for him and all his hard work paid off! So I thought I would put my card making skills to use and make him a little card. I spent a while trawling through hundreds of photos on Google and Pinterest until I found a template of an owl that I liked. I thought I'd keep it simple and do a big owl on a card.

I printed off the template

Cut around the template and drew them onto card

I'm pretty sure it takes me longer to decide what colours I want and how to do the card than actually making it itself haha! So after I'd fiiinally decided on colours (aka asked mum to pick between the options I'd narrowed it down to) I started copying the template onto each colour and cutting it out.

Glued all the pieces of owl together

Made the hat and glued it all onto card :)

It was quite simple and easy to make and it looks super cute! I'll probably be doing this same card again unless if I find another one I like for everyone's graduation next year, maybe vary the colours slightly, or not haha :') Sorry everyone for getting the same card XD 

If you've recently graduated congratulations! And if anyone's made any cards link me below I'd love to have a look! :)

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Cho's Birthday Meal

Cho is a really lovely girly that I met at Uni on my course. Her birthday is during the summer so we had some early birthday celebrations to celebrate her birthday once everyone's exams had finished. We all got dressed up and headed of firstly, to La Margherita, where we all ate some yummy Italian food. I decided to keep it classic and went for a pizza :) The restuarant was actually really nice! There was a really good atmosphere and there were little fairy lights everywhere and it was all lit up looking really pretty and fancy. It was also by the waterfront so there was a nice view, and then separate from the eating area there was a dance floor where people could dance. Probably one of the fanciest bars/restaurants I've been to, although I can't say I've been to many fancy ones, being a student and all XD

After our meal some of us headed into Southampton to go clubbing. We started off in Cafe Parfait, usually I like this club however on a Saturday it was full of the older folk of Southampton and the music was pretty rubbish in my opinion :) So we ended up going to Vodka Revs. I went to Vodka Revs last year for my birthday but I guess we never went again, I was surprised how good it was! Downstairs was really packed but there was an upstairs so we were all dancing away :)

The bell they clanged whilst singing Happy Birthday hurt our ears so much! :')

 

All in all, I had a really busy night! Can't say I've ever gone out for dinner and then to 3 different clubs in one night but it was loads of fun :)

I dressed differently to something I would usually go clubbing in (aka not a black dress) as I wanted to dress up a bit for the meal. So i decided to wear my pink floral pencil skirt from Zara. I've had this skirt for a few years but i hardly wear it, I need to get mum to take in the waist bit as annoyingly i need it to fit my hips and bum but then i have a small waist so finding clothes is a nightmare, I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem XD Also, the skirt doesn't stay tight, when you put it on its like soo.. how am I gonna walk? and then after an hour or 2 its like ah, my skirts suddenly 2 sizes too big :') Anyways enough about the whinging, I still like this skirt, I guess I don't wear it often haha XD and I teamed it with a white crop top from New Look and flats because even though I'm the shortest I'm embracing it as heels just hurt too much and I'm still shorter than everyone. #ShortGirlProblems haha :')

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Peanut Butter Cookies

Last year before I started Uni, one of my best friends Sam bought us girls little presents for going to Uni, one which was obviously 'The Student Cookbook'. Now I'm gonna admit, I've been a bad friend and had flicked through it a few times but I didn't really try anything new, being a typical lazy student.

Mum recently bought the same book for my younger brother who's venturing off into Uni life in September and she's already been trying recipes. And finally this brings me to these Peanut Butter Cookies. I am a fool for not making these sooner! They're so easy to make and if you're a pro baker like me you only need to use one bowl. It probably would have been easier to measure in a separate bowl but that is not the point.

I think they might have merged a tiny bit XD

Anyways! These are my new favourite sugary treats, theyre easy to make and they taste yummy :) I've never really been a fan of peanut butter until the last few years maybe but even then its like meh I guess, but I'm converting to the peanut butter side :)

Ingredients

115g unsalted butter

115g crunchy peanut butter

115g caster sugar

115g light muscavado sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

85g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt

115g rolled oats

Method

The method is pretty much the same as any other recipe. 

Mix the butter and peanut butter, I used an electric whisk as it's easier.

Add the sugars, whisk, mix in the egg and vanilla and whisk some more. 

It says sift in the flour, bakng powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt, but who even sifts that's extra washing up! It does say it in the recipe so it does probably make a difference if you're fussy XD and finally mix in the oats. 

I also decided to add in some chocolate chips, because who doesn't like chocolate chips :) 

You then spoon little spoonfulls onto a baking tray , be careful not to have them too close as they spread, and then bake them for 12 minutes at Gas mark 4. Or if you have a stupid oven like mine, 5 minutes, turn them 180degrees and bake for another 5 minutes. 

Take them out and leave them to cool before moving them as they're soft and then you can eat until you are full :) 

I ended up making 32 cookies which isn't too bad :)

Lemme know if you end up trying them! You should as they're super easy! :)

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Porcupine Pincushion DIY

 I made a porcupine! :) Mum's current pincushion is an old, tattered, rubbish little square, so for years now I've been meaning to make her a cute new pincushion but I just keep forgetting. So now that Uni's finished and the weathers a bit grey and rainy I thought I would finally get round to making one. After trawling through loads of Pinterest posts I finally found this one. At first I was torn between a crochet cactus XD so cute, and little mushrooms but I decided to choose this one. Maybe next time! :)

So I finally managed to find the instructions as you can see below, buuut they're not in English. The picture seemed pretty self explanatory but I typed it all into Google Translate anyway XD Turns out I didn't really need to but never mind.

You can find the post with the instructions here and the original post that I found is here. I ended up doing a little hybrid between the two and I put beads for the eyes and nose. I was thinking about sewing eyelashes but thought I'd probably mess it up XD

Basically you cut out the template, sew along the body and pull it together to make a ball, stuff it with pillow stuffing stuff, Sew along the head bit and make it into a cone, and sew on the eyes and nose. I sewed on the ears after but you could probably do that now. I decided to do a blanket stitch around the face and the bottom as I thought it looked cuter but it's personal preference :) And then you somehow neatly sew it altogether, that's where mine went a bit wrong, but it's cool, it makes it look handmade and not that I've bought it in a shop :')

And that's it! Probably shouldn't take you a day like it did for me but nevermind haha! I forgot that I was such a slow sewer! I guess you get quicker with practice, but I'm quite proud with my little stitching XD The face is a bit wonky but never mind :')

So yeah, there's my little porcupine pincushion. Link me below if you've made any pincushions or if you try this one out I'd love to have a look! :)

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