The Hinds Head, Bray

All I really need to tell you is, go to The Hinds Head. Go go go. Especially if, like me, you can't afford The Fat Duck. We dined from the A La Carte but the Set Menu is good value at £27.50 for 3 courses.
Now here are some pictures that will make you hungry.

'Hash of Snails' - garlic pan fried snails on sourdough with pistachio puree and shaved fennel.

Snails are surprisingly like mushrooms, except a bit more meaty. I was not freaked out about eating them, which was good.

Shaved lemon salad with goats curd and salad leaves and walnuts. Mr Giraffe's starter, the really thinly sliced lemons were excellent and the goats curd so good -  I need to find out where to buy goats curd.

My main course; Shepherds Pie with Sweetbreads

totally amazing, so meaty and the mash with the crispy top was beautiful.

Bubble and squeak cake with mushroom parfait, crispy quails egg and leek & potato sauce. Despite there being a lot of meaty dishes vegetarians are well catered for, this was lovely and featured the same kind of crisp crust as the shepherds pie.

Triple cooked chips , obviously we had to order these.

My lemon tart, I love lemon tarts that come with crispy creme brulee like tops, it came with a syrupy hazelnut syrup, nuts go well with lemon surprisingly.

Quaking Pudding (c 1700.) with shaved apple. This may sound odd but it tasted really traditional flavours and quite rustic. It came with a little bit of paper explaining what the history of the pudding was too.

We really enjoyed our meal at the Hinds Head. Definitely a place that will always impress you. I'd love to go back. Any place that can serve snails like that wins with me. The menu felt quite similar to Dinner, which we are yet to try. I think the famous meat fruit features at the Hinds Head sometimes too.

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little spring special..

Just to let you know I am running a Springtime / Easter special in my Etsy shop - 10% off all items until Friday 10th April.

You can pay as normal and I will refund the discount via paypal. Any other voucher codes or coupons can be used alongside this offer too!

I'll be listing some new items over the next couple of days, including the earrings above - of which I only have one pair!

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Wrapped with Love

I am pleased to say I have introduced new packaging for all my orders!
All purchases are gift boxed and now wrapped in sheet music and a little Lazy Giraffe sticker.
I haven't quite been able to relinquish using the satin ribbon so some of my orders will go out with gorgeous thick shiny colourful ribbon.

As you might be aware Valentines day is approaching!
To celebrate I am offering 15% off all my Valentines Gifts. See the special section in my Etsy shop for details. All prices are already adjusted so no need to wait for a revised invoice - shop away!
My new packaging will also add a perfect touch to your valentine gift.


I've been able to reclaim my studio so there will be new items in the shop this week, watch out for new listings in my Etsy shop. I have just listed a pair of 'Sweet Dreams' earrings, to match my Sweet Dreams necklace.


xxx

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This weekend..

New Packaging Ideas, originally uploaded by lazygiraffe.

Has been a bit hectic over here, we have gained another furry friend in our household, our new cat Jess. She's a beautiful black and white long haired cat, 15months old. Very good natured and purry! We've had a bit of hissing and growling between her and our other cat Tilly, but they are tentatively accepting each other.

All this has meant zero production on the jewellery front. She's having my studio room as her settling in room and so the beads have been safely packed away from her who likes to jump on things and chase chains. Plus furry beaded jewellery is not very nice. Hopefully she'll be settled in soon and my studio will become a cat free zone again.

I have instead been looking at new packaging, i've been meaning to try something new for a while. Currently my packages go out in black gift boxes tied with ribbon. I have lots of gorgeous vintage sheet music paper which works really well as a 'wrap' for the boxes. I am of course colour copying it rather than hacking into the lovely paper!
Its still in progress but I think my packages will be finished with thinner ribbon and maybe a little sticker too.

Look out for new style packaging in your next order!

xx

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Much awaited..

I am a busy bee at the moment, there are lots of new designs coming up for the shop, I have listed two that I am very excited about today.

The first is my Paired Lockets necklace. This is a follow on from my Two Lockets necklace which has been my most popular item. I wanted to try something new with these lovely teardrop lockets and matching them with sterling silver has really worked very well. I do like the combination of brass and silver, it feels very classic and elegant. I am hoping for this to be one of my signature pieces, like the Two Lockets necklace, I hope you like it too!


My second are named 'Scotch Bonnet Earrings'- they are as fiery as the name suggests, amongst some of the best beads I've found. I only have 2 of these beads so this design is a one off design, not to be repeated again. These earrings also feature long brass hooks which I have handformed myself, they are hammered for strength and the ends filed down for comfort. The beads are a good, true red, unfortunately my camera picked it up as orange, but they don't have any orange in them in the flesh.
These are show stoppers, perfect for a valentine who doesn't like pink!



xxx

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Being productive

I've been most productive over the last week or so, and there are new designs in my Etsy shop for your perusal (and hopefully purchasing too). Finding that my mind is still in winter time, hopefully I will be feeling a bit more spring like soon and able to also include some spring designs as well as winter ones.


Back to the daily grind today, feels like the week went very quickly last week. We had snow during the night, hoping to catch some pictures later before it all melts away.

(the photos are clickable thumbnails leading directly to the Etsy listing).



xx

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Festive Goings On

I am very much enjoying my long Christmas break this year, it is nice to have a whole week off after Christmas before returning to my day job. I had a great Christmas, ate too much and received some lovely presents - some of which were handmade too!


My other half bought me this great Dr Who mouse from The House of Mouse and a handprinted notebook from Pumpkin Sputnik. The mouse is sitting in my jewellery studio and the notebook will be useful for keeping notes and ideas all in one place, rather than on bits of paper everywhere.


I also treated myself to a pincushion from Lupin's shop, and I was her 1,500th customer to boot, I received some brilliant freebies from her! The doves are also going in my studio and the flowers pinned on bags and coats :) I love the map writing set too, I think I might include some of these in my orders!

Being as we have had some free time we've used it to spend a bit more time outdoors, we visited Knole Park in Kent on Boxing day, which is full of deer roaming about freely, they are quite tame too so you can get really close up!We also visited Jimmys Farm in Suffolk this week, which has a great nature trail which includes rare breed chickens, guinea pigs (randomly!), ferrets and a lovely woodland walk.
We also stopped at their farm shop to pick up some pork, farmed just in the next field. I'll be blogging a gorgeous crispy pork noodle recipe later.


Amongst all of this I have also managed to make and list one new item for the shop, these Angelhair earrings. I adore these beads, they really jumped out at me when I was bead shopping, they are so interesting and in limited supply. I am definitely going to keep a pair for myself too. In my Etsy shop and soon to be in my Folksy shop too.

I am working on new designs for 2009, including a new version of my popular Two Lockets necklace, this time with oxidized silver chain which matches perfectly with brass lockets. I am eagerly awaiting more silver chain in the post so I can make and list this design. I hope you like it.

I am now going to end this mammoth blog post by wishing you a Happy New Year!


xx

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Weekly Special!

I have begun a new special in my shop this week, every customer will receive a free pair of Turquoise Splash earrings with every purchase in my Etsy Shop. They will arrive gift boxed too!


I am also still gift wrapping my boxes with lovely satin ribbon and a handmade gift tag.

Happy Shopping! :)

P.S. - only last order date for customers in the USA, Canada and everywhere else is tomorrow.

xx

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For Your Hair

Just to let you know I'm doing a little promotion in my shop this weekend.

Every customer receives one pair of lovely rose hairpins, either a pair of Flamenco red hairpins or Emerald green hairpins. Just let me know when you checkout which pair you would like, if I don't have a message I will suprise you :)


Perfect for filling stockings! In my Etsy shop


xxx

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Light in the Dark

So yes, the nights are drawing in. I love the bright and cold days of autumn, all the rusty colours from the falling leaves but I'm not a huge fan of winter. As much as I love a cosy night in by the fire, wooly jumpers and Christmas in reality winter is mostly a gloomy affair in this country! It has definitely felt like winter these past few days, with hardly any proper daylight today in particular, I miss autumn!


Its nice to be thinking of Christmas (I know, I said it, Christmas!) when its getting a bit gloomy which is what inspired my newest pair of earrings. These are fantastically festive, they glint and sparkle and are so feminine, perfect for Christmas parties. They are made with nice chunky brass chain and vintage glass pearls in a beautiful champagne gold colour, they are dimpled too which makes them really unique. In my Etsy shop right now!


Thank you also to snapdragonbeads for the vintage sheet music booklet she sent me, the cover makes for a gorgeous background for photographs, it really goes with my vintage jewellery.

I am working on Christmas gift upgrades this week, so I hope to have some nice pictures to show you what I have on offer for your gift wrapping needs. I have just ordered some really beautiful ribbon, in chocolate brown and also teal (not very Christmassy but I can't ever resist teal) for my orders. There is also an extra special addition to my gift upgrades, which I will be blogging about as soon as I receive them! I love packaging , can you tell?

xx

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Lovely hardware...

Not usually described this way but it very much explains my newest necklace.
I made the earrings above recently, Coal Earrings, and I loved how smokey and charcoal like they were, especially the great oxidized earwires and I really wanted to mimic this in a necklace to match.


I found these great horseshoe shaped findings, in a great shiny black steel - which looks just perfect against the grey lucite beads that I used in the earrings. I love this necklace (even if I do say so myself) its edgy, dark, wintery but also delicate, lustrous and feminine.

I've got more designs coming using the little horseshoes, including a snowy creation using little white flowers and rosey pink copper.

For now the Coal Necklace and Coal Earrings are in my Etsy shop, the earrings are also in my Folksy and now also my Coriandr shop.

I just opened my Coriandr shop today! It is a new handmade site, but based in the UK so all prices are in pounds sterling. I believe they are also working on Euros and US Dollars, I will update here when they introduce other currencies.

xx

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etsy front page!

Yesterday a Treasury West I created made the front page of Etsy! I love creating treasuries, especially as I get to look at lots of gorgeous shops, so its even better when I get one of mine on the front page for all to see.

My treasury featured the following artists, please check out their Etsy shops.

marieflyfly, aBreathofFrenchair, Applause Design, stamp, snapdragonbeads, allthosethrees, fleurfatale, treacletoffee, Sneddoniart, longwinterfarm, graceandglam and cherrypips.

Well done everyone!

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Widgets

I found this great little widget today, perfect for blogs.
Just a quick fly by post before I settle into the weekend, hope you enjoy my little stack of cats and guinea pigs!

I think I will be using this more and more to display things I love. I like this stack on the best because its like flicking through a set of printed photos (well kind of), which I miss sometimes as I spend more time using a digital camera on my PC.

Powered by GoodWidgets.com

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Crafting 365 - day one!

Today I have started Crafting 365 - a Flickr group dedicated to everyday craftyness. I love to take pictures, particularly of what I am doing and I love to log the everyday.

I have started my first day with my new supplies, I am getting stuck into the autumn and winter seasons and I have lots of ideas in my head about what I want to do. Autumn is my favourite time of year.

You can follow my progress in the Crafting 365 group, or on my Flickr page.

I hope I can make the year interesting!

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featured by moocow

I have recently been featured by lovely seller moocow, in her Folksy shop, which I am so chuffed about!

Check out her lovely shop on Folksy, lots of cosy knitted goodness for the fast approaching autumn and winter. My flamenco hairpins have been teamed with her gorgeous knitted green beret and armwarmers, which are the best shade of olive greenCheck out moocows shop here

I've recently added another line in my rose hairpins, a beautiful emerald rose on a silver pin. They look particularly great tucked into a bun or a 'up do.' These are in my Etsy shop right now but I will also be listing them in my Folksy shop.

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Lemon & Coriander Houmous

I made houmous today! I've tried and failed before so I was pleased that this came out well, and tasted good too. It was very nice with toasted pitta bread.

To make you need:
1 tin of chickpeas, drained
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
a clove of garlic
about 5 leaves of fresh coriander, chopped.

Blitz the chickpeas, garlic, a good slug of olive oil and the lemon juice in a food processor til its smooth - you may need to transfer to a bowl and stir it yourself as it can be too thick for the processor. Season, add the coriander and stir. Add a bit more olive oil, seasoning or lemon juice to taste, a bit of olive oil will also help to loosen it a bit and make it smoother.

Eat!

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The Great Winter Coat Search - Part 1

(yes I know its August)

I am looking for a winter coat and I am beginning my search early, because I know when I come to buy there will be nothing but bikinis and flip flops in the shops again!

I am looking for something either in a muted grey/brown colour or something more bold like teal or purple, I'm trying to stay away from black as I always buy black coats.

This is the first jacket I have found, from Great Plains (above), it looks very cosy and I love the colour of it too. But I would like something longer, and a tad cheaper though. Its £80 which I suppose is a good price for something that you could wear for several winters, but my budget is more like £50.

Post any suggestions in the comments please, I'd love some help. And if you can find something handmade then all the better!

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A very good find...

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet!

As you may know I am having a lot of fun sorting through my newly acquired stash of vintage buttons for my button shop, and amongst the treasure trove I found this very vintage Homepride cloth flour bag which was full of old buttons.

I've never seen anything like it myself before so I did a bit of digging around and asking around and I got this reply from Homepride, it makes for very interesting reading.

"The item was from Paul bros, note it refers to Cambridge mill which was built after 1925. Paul Bros was sold to Spillers in 1945 so unless they used up all the old packaging it is no later than 1945. so is likely between 1925 and 1945. I think the character on the bag was called Tommy Homepride but I've never seen such an early reference to him before, he had a series of books in the 1950's."

So I am hanging on to it, it is safely stored away from cats who like to sleep on important things, until I find something to do with it. I might frame it one day, maybe for my studio or maybe for my kitchen.

If anyone knows anything else about these cloth flour bags I'd love to know!

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buttons and bobs

I have two projects at the moment (well two main ones, I normally have about 10 different items I am working on at any time) - buttons and bobby pins.

I have recently acquired a lot of buttons from someone locally, all very old buttons and all so beautiful. I have 3 boxes, so maybe in the region of about 500 buttons? I am planning to start a little button supply shop on Etsy for these, although I am keeping some of them for my own fun and games. I'm quite excited about finding these because most of them are from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and even a few from the 1890s!

I am sorting through them this week, its quite time consuming as I'm cleaning them up and sorting them into batches, I am hoping to start listing things next week.

The other new project I have is bobby pins, or hair pins. This is something that will also feature some of the vintage buttons I have but I will also be using some lovely flower and rose beads. I have listed one pair so far, a pair of Flamenco red hairpins made with brass pins and a lovely aluminium red rose. I've made a pair for myself and they stand out really well on my black hair, they are perfect for evening wear.

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Bold as brass

I've been meaning to start working with brass for a while now, and I finally got my big order of beautiful brass findings last week!

I've added some lovely things to my shop with brass earwires, chain and little hammered discs, I love how each piece of brass is slightly different in the way that it is antiqued so that each piece looks a little bit different. I even experimented with antiquing it quickly, with a small amount of vinegar - its amazing how quickly it will antique to a lovely burnished vintage style look.

I am also going to be listing a gorgeous brass necklace in the next week or so (pending arrival of more beautiful brass chain) which is a round circle of brass with little freshwater pearls wired around the edge. This has also made me think about starting a bridal collection, or just a few bridal pieces, using lovely pearls and sterling silver.

I am also gearing up for the We Make craft fair which is on the 22nd June at Dragon Hall, Covent Garden, London. So I have lots of things made already, which I have squirelled away for the fair. Although I am also dying to list them a bit too!

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