ADVENTURE : KATOOMBA : DAY I + II

25 August 2015

Hello!
As you may (well, you probably don't!) already know, over the holidays (over 5 weeks ago! talk about procrastinating!) my family and I visited Katoomba - in the Blue Mountains. It was a super fun and beautiful place to visit, so I will be sharing some photos I took along the way...

*THIS WILL BE A VERY LONG POST - BE WARNED*

I had to narrow 1000 photos down to 300 and I'm finding it hard to pick which of the 300 to leave out... :(
Expect part II (Day 3 - Jenolan Caves + Day 4 - Cliff walk & macro photography + some little extras) by next week. If I have not posted by then, assume the zOMBIE APOCALYPSE IS UPON US, AND RUN, RUN MY CHILDREN! or i could just be busy, you never know.

MAKE : SIMPLE BRACELET

27 June 2015

Hello!
I know, I always say it but i haven't posted in a while...
It's been a whole month and blah blah bla blah bla.......
(but i certainly will be posting next week - we're going on holidays to a really beautiful area(!)
Today I'm going to show you how to make this super easy bracelet with only 2 simple ingredients!

I've been planning this post for a while, so the photos are pretty bad as they were taken on my ipad. My old camera was broken and now that I have a better one (a sony rx100 mark i), I wish I had waited! Ok, that's enough blabbering on.
here's what you'll need: 
clay in desired colour/s, scissors,1-2 colours of string (one must be quite thick), clay roller/ round pen, something to poke holes with.
instructions:
i. roll clay into a ball, then flatten it into a 5-10mm thick circle. Shown above is how to make a marbling effect. Combine two colours, but not completely. Marbling is completely optional.
 ii. cut the circles in half. Add dots, stripes or anything you want + two holes to thread the string through. Bake them according to package / website. Sculpey Premo must be baked for 30 mins @ 130C.
iii. (optional) once baked, drop the beads into cold water to harden quickly. Or, you could be patient and let them cool down for a few hours or until cold enough to handle (they may be a bit bendy).
iv. thread the thinner string through the bead, and attach a small bead, or tie a large knot at each end.
v. now, here's the tricky part (which actually isn't too hard). Make the strings overlap (shown in step iv / 4), and tie a knot, leaving quite a bit of thread loose. wrap around multiple times, and tie it up tightly. Assure that you can move the ends of the bracelet, and that you can't pull the bead / knot through. If you're a bit confused, I would suggest searching up "adjustable knot" on youtube or something, that's probably a lot more helpful.
vi. aaaand you're done! Just pull the ends to tighten it. Make sure the ends aren't too long or it will be super awkward to wear. If you plan on selling something with the same kind of knot try it on a few people and determine the length of the ends by making sure it fits larger wrists, but doesn't hang too low on other's.

Oh, and here are a few photos from my new camera.
4pm view off the deck
narla - a bit over-exposed, but i still love this shot
my lil' dreamcatcher
As you can see, the quality of these photos is much better than my old camera could ever take. These photos aren't edited but were reduced in size (so they could fit on the page!)

I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks post!
See you next time,
 Sophie xx.