I recently contributed some projects to Brother and they’ve put together a little download which is on their site now.

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).

Ahoy! I finally finished my sailor dress. This is the second dress that I’ve made and now I have the hang of it, I’m going to make lots more.

I’ve started a new fashion scrapbook to keep all my ideas in, so I’ve been drawing coquette’s (which I will do a how-to for soon) and cutting out pictures and fabric patches. The fabric I used for this dress was a striped linen, which cost £5 a meter.

It has big bulky pockets at either side (I love pockets on dresses), metal buttons down the front and a wide collar.

I’m going to style it with a sailor hat, anchor necklace from Forever 21, the Vivienne Westwood pirate boots I wish I had and a bottle of rum!

This morning we went for brunch at Jack’s up in Queen’s Park. It’s such a lovely area, with lots of fancy shops, restaurants and bakeries. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the Mews, so we’ve really been missing out.

Breakfast was very healthy – pancakes, hash browns, eggs and baked beans. Tom had chips with his hash browns for two of his none a day!

Everyone was so full of energy before breakfast…

and then we were defeated by food… it’s not suppose to work this way around. Pete Burns was heading in for lunch when we left.

We then headed to the park and the petting zoo (which is free!). There were goats, chicken, ducks (which walk funny), rabbits and guinea pigs.

We got to pet a little goat.

Afterwards we relaxed in the park, tried not to get hit by balls and low flying kites, saw Pete Burns again and went to Louise’s house.

Dress update: I found some linen for the sailor dress I’m making in Soho. I had to haggle with some wise-cracking Cockney’s to get it but it was only £5 a meter. I almost finished it but then I ran out of white thread. I’m going to have enough fabric leftover to make a matching sailor hat too!

Also, happy Independence Day Americans!

Last week Tom’s brother Jack came down to stay for a few days, as he was in an art show at Truman Brewery. His work included a photograph of him naked in a quarry next to two giant diggers and a series of photographs of bathroom taps – Tom’s pointing to the one’s in his bathroom back home.

I also bought 4 pairs of shoes… a black pair, a purple pair, a red pair (with matching red bag and Gay Pride sparkly red velvet cupcake)…

and a pink Vivienne Westwood pair with a matching skull & bone orb necklace.

I also made a quilted star bag. I’m going to braid some fabric through the chain when I figure out how to make piping on my sewing machine.

I love the Cath Kidston meets Chanel bags, but they’re £45 so I decided to make my own. I’ll post the Cat Kidston how-to on CO+K soon.

This weekend was full of crafting. I met T after work on Friday and we went for frogurt from Snog – guilt free apart from the mini oreos on top.

We met Emma for milkshakes at the Diner, so that I could give her the dino bone necklace I had made her for her birthday. She loves the T-Rex Tatty Devine one, which cost £110, so I decided to have a go at making a Brontosaurs. The waiter walked past when she was opening it and said “my friend has that necklace”, so it must look pretty similar.

I put the how-to on CO+K, if you want to make one too. It does take quite a long time though!

I also made a Union Jack pin cushion wristband, which is really handy when sewing. I really love Union Jacks at the moment but I’m hating St. George Crosses because of the football. We were trying to avoid the World Cup this weekend, but even Plan 9 was divided in to England vs. America, with flags on one side or the other. Louise came over to watch it and knew a surprising amount about football – even managing to explain the offside rule to us.

I countered the football by crafting and made us a spotty cosy for our cafeteria.

I also made Tom an Octocat, from the Github website, to be his little coding mascot. We might get to meet Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook on Monday

We launched issue 19 of Snippets on Friday. This one is the Glitz & Glam issue with Tarina Tarantino on the cover. We have interviews with RockLove (+ a giveaway), Cake Wrecks (which is sooooo funny), Sew Crafty Fox and musician Jason Webley. We’ve also got how-to’s for making Chic Steals, Glitzy Decor, a Valentines Brooch, a competition to win the Crafty Chica’s latest craft novel and much, much more.

I can’t believe we’re at issue 19 already! We’re going to have a proper launch party for issue 20 with a cake with the cover printed on it.

Yesterday morning I woke up to an exciting package that Brother sewing machines had sent me. It’s sooooo pretty, has loads of amazing sewing and embroidery features, and it comes with an attachable mini-sewing table, which is really handy when you’re sewing something big. I’ve got lots of exciting plans with Brother and now that the sewing machine has arrived, I can get started!

Our Crafty Superstar on CO+K last week was Audrey Kitching, who shared lots of awesome DIY fashions projects. She makes me want to run down to the craft store and buy all kinds of glittery things.

Tom and I have had a cold for the past week (in Summer, not fair ), so instead of lazing around and getting better, we’ve been working full speed on CO+K and have so many new features on the go. Today we’re launching project embedding, so that people can share projects elsewhere! (If you have projects, go here to embed them).

On a whim yesterday, I decided I’d have a go at sewing a Vivienne Westwood style dress. I finished it today and, as this was the first dress I’ve ever made, it went really well. It ties around the middle and has pockets at and flaps that fold around.

The design is based on an Anglomani dress but as it cost over £300, I couldn’t afford it, so I took a trip to Goldhawk Road and for £5 worth of fabric + a £3 zip + 2 days of sewing, here’s my £8 dress, just in time to wear to New York!

It goes really nicely with my Lady Dragon shoes and my new Vivienne Westwood necklace, which Tom surprised me with when I got to the airport after my trip to Tenerife.

Tom also got himself some socks and a set of offensive coasters.

My next update shall be from NYC, so in the meantime, keep yourself busy by watching the Whip It! movie, which is so awesome.

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!