It was our birthday party last night, so I went for a makeover at MAC beforehand.

Last time I let the artist take full control and she went a bit crazy but this time I knew what I wanted, so I loved the end result so much more. Ellie, the makeup artist asked if I was a beauty journalist, because I came in prepared with a notebook of looks I wanted to try out. She also gave me a huge list of websites to check for CO+K and places to go in Bristol next weekend.

She even let me take photos as we went along, so I could put it on CO+K and thought that was a really good idea everyone should do.

I left with a big bag of makeup and then went shopping for a new outfit too.

We headed home and it was party time! I think we’d picked the worst day of the summer to have our party, as everyone was away but we can’t do any other weekends. It was lots of fun anyway!

We made Hurricane Cocktails like we had in New Orleans and brought out the Mardis Gras beads.

I baked a chocolate absinthe cake…

which we set on fire and was much cooler than birthday candles. We served it with Lego-shaped vodka jelly and even King Charles enjoyed his slice! Other party food included enough candy to kill someone, delicious homemade pizza from Raz & Anna and questionable chocolates from Dave.

Mel sent a video message from Toronto!

Lynz gave me an awesome pair of scissors earrings (very CO+K) and Tony gave me a download of the Dr Horrible Sing-A-Long-Blog (I don’t know what it is yet – we’ll watch it at bedtime).

Dave played us a little gig when everyone left and warned us about the impending mid-twenties crisis which may, or may not be waiting around the corner for us… 4 more days until I’m 25, eep!

We have just launched Snippets 20, the Happiness issue!

This issue has musician Sia on the cover, Tom’s interview with his favourite beer company BrewDog, a feature on one of my heros and the happiest person ever Mr Warwick Avenue and an interview with The Oskar, who we met at Newark Station on our way to New York.

I had to pull in all the reinforcements for this issue, including Barbie for another modelling photo shoot with my ring.

I can’t believe we’re already on issue 20! Tom got the covers printed out and I didn’t realise there would be so many of them. My favourites are the the Emily Strange, Trashy Life, Amy Lame and Tarina Tarantino covers, but I like the new one a lot too!

We put them all on the wall. Not sure what to do when we get past issue 21…

On Tuesday, Tommi and his lovely new wife Julia came to visit on their holiday away from Canada. We haven’t seen Tommi in over a year and a half, so it was great catching up and reminiscing about our Dundee days.

They even brought us three cutesie wooden turtles.

It’s our birthday party tomorrow morning, so I made myself a bunting necklace to wear. I’ve also been baking all night and have successfully made a three-tiered absinthe chocolate cake!

I sewed some owl cushions. I’ve decided that I don’t want any cushions I haven’t sewn myself (apart from the awesome tube fabric one). The owls were made out of two tweed skirts and pieces of Liberty print fabric – I’ll post a how-to on CO+K soon.

We’ve been doing lots of de-cluttering in the mews and I finally organized my shoes with DIY polaroid photos. I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to do that for.

Because polaroid film is so expensive, I came up with a super cheap DIY solution and you can see how to make your own on CO+K.

The exciting news in my life at the moment is that I’ve learnt how to play guitar. I’ve been terrible at it for years but after being taught how to play bass, I picked up the guitar and magically knew how to play it. Tom’s decided I’m getting an electro-acoustic Daisy Rock guitar for my birthday… we’re just torn between the sparkly pink (which is amazing) and the purple (which is a bit more me!). We want to get a heart shaped bass too, so I can play along with T’s music. I also got a 4-track app for my iPhone and I’ve been having so much fun with it!

I’ve done a few interviews recently and there’s one in the latest issue of Alt Fashion Magazine and another one on the Bead Army blog. We have a meeting with our publicist Sally after work today, so hopefully we’ll be doing a few more *fingers crossed*.

Bead’s Unlimited sent me a box of beads and links to play around with, I need to get my crafting hat on and see what I can make with them.

In other news, I’ve been doing DIY The Look guides for various stars on the CO+K blog. So far, we’ve had Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Kristen Stewart. Any ideas on who to feature next? Also, Knitten Kitten Jenny came to stay on Monday night. I love that her hair is a different colour everytime I see her (last time pink, this time bright purple).

Tom put fairy lights behind his bus blind and it looks even more amazing than it did before – he can be so crafty sometimes!

My parents came down to visit today so I took them to my favorite new lunch spot, Gail’s Bread in Queen’s Park.

They make the most amazing inside out chocolate chip cookies, which have melty white chocolate chips. We really need to get them to share recipes on CO+K.

There’s a really good bookstore in Queen’s Park with a big comic book section. They had Dame Darcy’s Meatcake comic, so I was impressed!

I bought some mini purple moleskins to carry around in my bag because they’re as light as a feather.

On the subject of feathers, we went back to the petting zoo, where they have chickens that are so fluffy and look like the inside of Ugg boots.

There were two really cute rabbits who’s ears would flop around and get stuck sticking up.

We headed in to town afterwards to do a bit of shopping at Wholefoods and went to the amazing Camellia tearoom in Kingly Court.

They have so many flavours of tea and you get to smell them all before picking which one you like best. They had teas to help with everything from tummy cramps and sleeping problems to sore throats and making your skin beautiful!

On the way home I spotted this window display on Oxford Street. I’ve been wanting to take polaroids for my shoe boxes for a while and this gave me an idea for a super easy way to do it, so more on that soon…

It’s been another fun and crazy busy week. On Tuesday we went for a picnic in Holland Park with Sarah & Bruno, saw Inception on Wednesday and on Thursday, I was invited on the first ever Leap office night out, which included lots of cocktails, Moroccan food and shisha.

Tom made a frame for his bus blind, painted it black and put it on the wall. The blind is from a real bus and has hundreds of stops on it, including School Bus, Partial Route etc, so he put a curtain chain on it and you can twist it round. We’re going to get some LED fairy lights to put behind it so that it lights up at night.

Tom’s parents have been in Italy so came for a visit on their way back. They brought us two cute wooden animal cocktail stick holders.

On Saturday we went for lunch at Gail’s Bread up in Queen’s Park.

They make amazing salads and it feels like you’re having an indoor picnic.

I love their metal lightbulbs.

We jumped in the car and went for tiramisu at Cake Boy in Battersea.

They gave us a sneak peak at a tea party cake they’d just made. It had a little boy and girl with all their imaginary friends sitting around it. We really want an icing Annabelle & Baby (our two favourite teddies) on top of our wedding cake!

We then went for a drive through Richmond park, where we were lucky to find a huge herd of deer right next to the road. This one was really sleepy, so didn’t mind us sitting next to him. I joked that he must have had a late stag night… hehe!

I think they had hay fever because they kept sneezing (you can hear a couple of sneezes in this video).

Next up, we then went to Hampton Court and had a look around the gardens.

The roses were really pretty…

and there was a cute little dog hiding in them.

We went through the maze and followed Tom…

who walked straight through to the middle in about 3 minutes, without getting lost. He didn’t even use Google maps.

They had cute button seats. I wish we had a garden… and a maze.

In the evening we had dinner at Carluccio’s in Bayswater, where I had a voucher for a free bottle of wine. I had sorbet afterwards which was soooo tasty, I’m going to learn how to make it this week.

It’s starting to feel like summer in the Mews again, so Tom and I replanted our flower baskets. Unfortunately, we don’t have Em and Raven to lean out of the window and water them anymore, so we’re going to have to throw water up in the air and hope it lands on them.

On Saturday, we did the British thing of thinking “it’s summer but it might not be tomorrow” and spent it picnicking in Regent’s Park and walking in the woods of Hampstead.

We even climbed up a tree to see the view.

The animals were out in full cute force.

After walking all the way to Highgate, we stopped for white hot chocolate and Austrian cakes at Mozart’s Cafe.

This cake looked a little questionable!

Today was spent in a similar fashion, relaxing on Primrose Hill followed up with a drink in Hampstead with Emma and Alex.

I got an awesome set of candy jars, which are perfect for storing my necklaces, beads and bracelets!

Last night we watched the Spend an evening with Saddle Creek documentary and it’s made me want to move to Omaha and start a band even more.

On Sunday, Emma had tried to plan a surprise brunch / engagement party, but our reservation at Fifteen fell through so we all ended up at The Diner in Kensal Rise, which was equally as awesome.

The hard shakes went down really well. The stress of planning had driven Em to margaritas at breakfast.

My breakfast was a cheesy sweet waffle (odd but nice combination) with hash browns, baked beans and scrambled eggs. Yum!

After we headed back to the Mews for absinthe champagne cocktails and Tiffany box cakes.

I had managed to make them the night before and they tasted really good. Check out the how-to on CO+K.

Our neighbour, Barney popped by with a bottle of champagne.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Buzz, singing karaoke, drinking and planning a trip to Amsterdam (which I really hope happens). Emma brought a huge box of red velvet cupcakes from Hummingbird, which tasted soooooooo good and made up for a lack of dinner.

Last night, Barney came over to drink the champagne with us, while we nibbled on cheese and crackers and listened to records.

If we’d  known being engaged was going to be this much fun, we’d have done it ages ago. Thanks so much to all of our amazing friends, we love you xxx

There’s a pretty baby blue mews door on our street and I’ve always wondered what it was like inside. Yesterday, I accidentally found it on an estate agent websites and it’s amazing.

I love the crazy wallpaper…

and the awesome kitchen.

Everything’s so organised and cluttered at the same time!

I’m soooo jealous of their roof terrace too. I love snooping around other people’s houses!

This week I’ve been super crafty. My first project was a couple of Union Jack pillows for the bed. “Someone” brought me a heap of Chanel ribbons to use and they worked really well.

I made a mermaid tail as my costume for Mardis Gras. It has a zipper up the back at the bottom, so I can unzip my feet and walk. My favourite movie when I was a kid was The Little Mermaid, so I’ve always wanted a tail and now I have one

The secret cafe at Westfield has closed down but we discovered a new little place called Ca’puccino which serves yummy Italian food.

There were floating shelves of books everywhere, which made me feel at home.

The mugs and napkins had a lined paper pattern and now I really want a set.

CO+K has been getting lots of press this week and has been in a bunch of magazines. This article was in Craft Business – they call me a well-known journalist, hehe.

There was also a little mention in MakeJewellery magazine. We’re also in the new issue of Sew Magazine, so if anyone has a copy, could you please send me a scan with the bit about us? I’d love to know what it says.

Finally, someone else has made a version of my kitty hood scarf, I’m going to have a little army soon.

Time to start packing, we leave for New York in less than 48 hours and I’m so excited. If anyone has any NY tips, please send them this way!

On Saturday we had a Christmas party at the Mews for our friends. We had mulled wine, mince pies, homemade eggnog and gingerbeer (which tasted better than the shop bought bottle that Lynz bought) and presents for everyone wrapped under the tree. I even made some presents…

including a hama bead 3D glasses necklace for Lynsey. I can now post the how-to and it’s here.

Before the party, Tom surprised me with a bag from Vivienne Westwood. My party outfit consisted of a black H&M dress, necklace from Forever 21, sparkly silver eyeshadow, my Vivienne Westwood horns…

and a new pair of Vivienne Westwood skull and crossbone earrings. They’re so sparkly and come in an indestructible box. Tom also got me an hour at Lucky Voice karaoke with up to 15 friends, which will be so much fun.

I gave Tom a whole bunch of geeky presents, including this Come In / Go Away ambigram doormat.

Twitter and Facebook mousepads.

iPhone application coasters.

… and yesterday I sewed him a set of social-networkig cushions. I’m making a pair of matching RSS ones for him today.

Emma gave Tom the best present though, which will be two pet goldfish when we get back from Scotland. We need to start thinking up names… any suggestions?

I also made a couple of squirrel brooches yesterday for the family – I hope they don’t look on here before xmas. Check out the how-to here.