craft | christmas gifts!

So for Christmas, we thought it was about time we got crafty again.

Mum has a problem with always losing her keys! So Sarah thought it would be a good idea to try and find some place she can put them or buy some sort of key holder for her Christmas present.  And so started the creative juices flowing! Next thing I knew, my lovely friend at work handed me a magazine that had a brilliant craft section in the back, and there was a great idea for a key holder that can go on the wall!

Off I headed to Amazon to buy the supplies...

Handmade Key Box 

You will need:
1 wine box (we used one that could hold 2 bottles of wine, try eBay or Amazon to buy them online if you haven't got one hanging around)
Paint (we used leftover acrylic paint from our Art GCSE days)
Self adhesive hooks (we used 'Command' self adhesive hooks, which you can get on Amazon)
Picture hanging hooks (so you can fix the whole thing to the wall)

What to do:
1.  Sand the wine box down so it's nice and smooth all over.

2.  Paint the entire box in whatever colour matches your decor.

3.  Give it two coats if you think it needs it, we only used one as we were going for the shabby chic look!

4.  Set aside to dry thoroughly.  We left ours for a day.

5.  Decide how you want to customise your key box.  You can make it totally personalised - and the idea in the magazine was to use a photograph for the front of the box.  You simply print the photo onto A3 paper and then trim it to size so it fits the lid of the box, making sure it's clear of where the lid runs in and out of the box so it doesn't get rucked up.  Glue the photo in place.

6.  We decided against using a photo, so using a different coloured paint, we painted our design onto the front of the box instead.

7.  If you do decide to use a photo, once you've put it on the front of the box, use Mod Podge Gloss to coat the picture so that it looks shiny once it's dry.  You can get this in HobbyCraft or online.

8.  Add your self adhesive hooks to the inside of the box so you can hang your keys.  Screw picture rings into the back of the box so you can hang it on the wall.

I also decided I would make Sarah something for Christmas.  She's looking to update her room and really wants to go down the natural route - everything in white & accessorised with natural plants so in green and brown.   I thought it'd be a nice idea to make some wall art for her new room.  I had a canvas lying around, so I used that to create...

Fairylight Canvas Wall Art 

You will need:
Sharp scissors
1 blank canvas
Acrylic paint in your choice of colours
Battery operated fairylights (I bought mine from Amazon, 30 will be just right)
Selotape

What to do:
1.  Prep your canvas if it needs it, by giving it one or two coats of white acrylic paint.  Leave it until it is dry.

2.  Using a light pencil line, draw your letter onto the front of the canvas.  Using the paint colour of your choice, fill in your pencil drawing.

3.  Leave the whole thing to dry.  I left mine for 1 day.

4.  Pierce as many holes as there are fairy lights in the canvas along the line of  the letter using scissors.  Don't make the holes too big as the lights will just drop out the other side.  You want a tight fit.

5.  Push a fairylight through each hole.  The canvas should hold the bulb in place.  Tape the wires to the back of the canvas so they don't fall out.

6.  Secure the battery pack in the bottom of the frame with tape.  Hang on the wall!

Hope you enjoy making these Christmas crafts as much as we did.
Happy holidays! Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

live | music we're loving right now

Our friends Saru & Emily helped us out by giving us a list of tracks she thought we would like to formulate our first rosinaviolets playlist! This is by no means definite but certainly includes some of the tracks we've had on repeat recently.

Here's a link to our youtube playlist where you can listen to the following songs...

For when you're feeling thoughtful
These songs are kind of broody, and help you think about stuff when you're feeling calm and pensive

1.  Bon Iver: Skinny Love

2.  A Fine Frenzy: Avalanches

3.  A Fine Frenzy: Pinesong

4.  Coldplay: Atlas

5.  Ed Sheeran: I See Fire

6.  Angus & Julia Stone: Big Jet Plane


For when you want to do something (like clean your room / you need background music)

1.  Lorde: White Teeth Teens

2.  Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes: Home

3.  Charlie Simpson: Farmer & His Gun

4.  Futures: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

5.  Train: 50 Ways to Say Goodbye

6.  Coldplay: Yellow


For when you feel like dancing!
We love listening to these when we are cooking or at other times when we feel happy!

1.  Beyonce: Love on Top

2.  Beyonce: Party

3.  One Republic: If I Lose Myself

4.  Tinie Tempah: Lover Not a Fighter

5.  Of Monsters of Men: Mountain Sound

6.  30h!3: Back to Life

7.  Coldplay: Charlie Brown

8.  'Frozen' Soundtrack: For the First Time in Forever (our guilty pleasure!)

read | life lessons from an alchemist: Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist'

I was recommended Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' by a good friend at work, and I am so glad I decided to read it!  The book won the Guinness World Record for the most translated book by a living author after it was translated into 67 languages.  It's sold over 65 million copies and won loads of different awards.  I think it deserves it.  It's probably the most inspiring read we've had since Rhonda Byrne's 'The Secret', but it's better than that because it's fiction so you've got the fun of doing a bit of work yourself to decipher the meaning behind the story.

The book isn't too long - if you're a voracious reader you'll probably read it in a week - but it's one of those books that you'll dip for a long time to come after you've read it once.  I think the more it's in your head, the more you'll apply it to your life, and the more you'll become the alchemist of your own life!

What is it about?
The book is about a shepherd boy called Santiago, who keeps having the same dream of finding treasure in the Pyramids of Egypt.  He goes to a gypsy, who tells him that he should follow his dream, because when he reaches the Pyramids he will find his treasure.  He then meets an old King, who encourages Santiago to follow his dream and carry out his Personal Legend.  This is what: 'you have always wanted to accomplish.  Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is... when you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you achieve it'.  Santiago decides to follow his dream and leaves Andalusia, where he was living, to find the Pyramids.  The rest of the story tells the tale of his remarkable journey.

We thought we'd do our review a little differently this time around, and try to distil some of the key principles of the book for you.  Like 'An Alchemist's Guide to Life', if you will.  We hope you find these inspiring, and we hope you go ahead at read the book - it's brilliant and there's no way we can do it justice in just these few words.

1.  Vanity, despite it's perils is not the devil we make it out to be
You've got to look after yourself and your dreams.  The book makes it clear that even though being vain in the traditional sense is perilous, you have to allow yourself to spend time on yourself.  Being entirely selfless all the time is not the route to happiness.  You've got to get a balance between being charitable and spending time doing the things you love that will bring you closer to your dream.  The book makes it clear that we mustn't be guilty for spending time on our own dreams and desires, rather, we must spend time cultivating them in order to truly be happy.  And when we are happy, that's when we can have the most positive effect on other peoples' lives.

2.  To be happy, we've got to seek out a higher purpose for ourselves
So many people know they're not satisfied doing what they're doing, and know they're not happy in the place they're in.  But so few of them actually take the time to think about what would make them happy.  They live with a general feeling of dissatisfaction, but don't really know what would make it go away.  You've got to grab hold of life and decide where it's going to go for you.  If you don't like working at the supermarket, think about where you would like to work.  The next step is realising that with hard work and determination you can get there.  It is never too late to forge your own path to happiness.

Take a moment to sit down and brainstorm ideas.  If you could do anything, what would you do?  Take inspiration from children around you.  Once we get older we forget the power of dreaming without limits.  This is something that children do every day.  Get back to this position, and think of boundless options for your life.  If you can conceive of them, they are possible for you to make your own.

3.  Embrace breaking out of your comfort zone
Yes, things might go wrong, but if you truly want what it is that you are dreaming of, then you must have faith that you can manifest it into your own life.  You are an extraordinarily powerful being.

In order to get where you want to go, there will have to be changes.  You don't get someplace new doing what you always did.  So you've got to jump in there and embrace those changes.  This is a new and exciting time for you as you follow your own path to your own dream.  Keep your eyes on the prize, but enjoy the ride too.

4.  Don't tie yourself to material possessions
Like Santiago, the main character in the book, you've got to be free like the 'levanter' wind, to break out of your comfort zone.  The changes you need to make may seem difficult if you maintain an iron hold on all those material possessions that up until now have been the end in themselves.  Use them as the means to the end, instead, and you become as free as the wind, and capable of doing anything.

5.  Don't let fear stop you from achieving your potential
If you're too scared to get moving, you will never get there, after all! In the book, Santiago meets a crystal merchant who never achieves his dream of going to Mecca because he is too afraid that when he gets there things will not live up to what he's thought of.  He's also scared that when he's accomplished his dream, he won't have anything to live for afterwards.  His fear stops him from achieving his dream and is reflected in his lack of imagination to run his business successfully.  Santiago rejuvenates the business via changes the crystal seller was too anxious to complete on his own.  The crystal seller wasn't willing to change.  Santiago learns that sometimes you've got to be willing to sacrifice a comfortable life to be able to grow.  The crystal seller eventually realises the possibilities for life have no limits, and he feels weak for having resisted his dreams.  We don't want to sit thirty years from now and wish we'd done things differently - don't be scared - do it and don't have any regrets.

6.  Love the journey
Your prize isn't in finding your 'treasure' at the end of the day, but in the lessons you've learnt and the living you've done along the way.  Spend a moment every day to be thankful for the new experiences you are manifesting in your life.  Love today.  Live for the moment.  Enjoy the ride.

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

live | keen on green

I don't know about you, but my favourite colour is green right now. I'm just loving the fresh colour of grass, big palm leaves and... avocados! To me, avocados scream happy summer days on holiday, and those days are my favourite days in the world. There is something about the firm but soft texture, the juice that gets everywhere - giving my hands, face and chopping board a green tint, the beautiful central stone, and of course, the wonderful taste! These babies make me very very happy.

Just look at that fresh green colour! Don't tell me it doesn't just fill you with happiness. 

Avocados are something else. The avocado, a fruit native to Central and South America bags a spot among some of the best superfoods around. Yes, it's not only a superfood, it's one of the best ones! The health benefits of avocados are endless. Avocados are an incredibly nutrient-rich, energy dense whole food, containing an abundance of unsaturated fats and omega 3 fatty acids. These nutrients will boost heart health in the lowering of blood pressure and bad cholesterol! Eating avocados also will increase healthy brain function, established by the omega 3 fatty acids, folate and vitamin E, all of which have been proven to prevent the development of Alzheimer's. Not only are they a fab source of vitamins and minerals, they are carotenoid packed which aid the body in the absorption of nutrients from other foods. The antioxidant Lutein, is the main carotenoid present in the avocado, helping to fend off eye diseases. This is not all, though! There is so much more that avocados will do for you. This fruit is, dare I say it, utterly bangin. 

As there are too many things to say about them, I will list the benefits of avocados below (but even this list has been simplified)!

Health benefits of avocados

• Lower cholesterol and blood pressure

• Anti-inflammatory

• Optimised absorption of carotenoids

• Protect skin from ageing and dryness

• Prevention of Alzheimer's disease

• Anticarcinogenic

• Satisfying, YUMMY taste!

Clearly, eating avocados will do a world of good to us. We must take advantage of them! And did I mention they are extremely scrummy and so unbelievably easy to add into your diet? 

We have some tips to help you with your avocados at home, including storage, ripening and cutting (bit of a no-brainer but I thought I'd add that one in anyway), and a few yum avocado 'recipes' which can be easily inserted into/act as substitutes for your regular day to day meals! 

TIP #1

Making sure your avocado is ripe to eat:

Ready avocados are usually very dark green or black, with slightly wrinkled skin. If your avocado is giving way slightly when it's top (near the stem) and bottom are gently pinched, it will be ready to eat. 

TIP #2 

How to spot a spoiled avocado:

In your supermarket, sneakily remove the short stem part protruding from the avocado's top! If what lays beneath is black, put it back! It will be rotten. It is a healthy avocado if this piece of skin is green/yellow.

TIP #3

Cutting your avocado:

Take a chopping board and lie your avocado on it. Take a medium sharp knife and cut vertically down the length of the avocado - in other words from the pointed part to the rounder part, or vice versa. The stone will prevent the knife from cutting right the way through the avocado, so turn the avocado as you cut into the skin to cut all the way around the stone. You might need to ease each half of avocado away from each other a bit, but you should be left with two halves, one of which containing the seed. The seed is easily removable and can be discarded if you want the whole avocado.


You can then cut the open flesh of each avocado half length and/or width ways a few times, and scoop it out from the skin or just scoop out the flesh with a spoon without cutting, depending on the requirements of your recipe.

TIP #4

Storing your avocado:

For avocado pieces, give them a dash of lemon or lime juice and place in a plastic container or set on a plate covered in cling film to be left in the fridge for one day. To store half an avocado, make sure this half has the seed still intact and spritz the exposed flesh with lemon or lime juice. Cover with cling film pressing the wrap close to the exposed flesh. The avocado half can be left in the fridge for a maximum of one day.

The avocado recipes!

AVOAST (my fav!)

This is, literally, avocado on toast. Amazing. 


It literally takes only a couple minutes to do, and makes a crazy good, healthy brekkie (or any timie!)

Pop your favourite sourdough, wholemeal or seeded bread in the toaster (I'm using some granary french bread sliced in half here), scoop out the flesh of half a medium, or the whole of a small avocado and squash onto the toast. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper and eat eat eat!

SIMPLE TOMATO AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH A SUPER DRESSING

So quick, so easy - you will always have these ingredients!

Chop up your avocado and any greens you have in the fridge, slice your tomato in two and plonk it all in a bowl. Mix a drizzle of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a small splodge of honey together in a bowl. Add a tiny sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss it all into the salad. And you're done! Eat with sandwiches, soup or make it bigger and add a wider variety of greens and veggies/ chicken or turkey/ cheeses to have it for a lunch!

AVOCADO-SPRUCED POACHED EGG

This is similar to the first recipe, but it's a little different...

Scoop out the flesh of a small avocado into a bowl, and squash it all up. Mix in a teaspoon of lemon juice and some black pepper. Slice the tomatoes and squash them with the avocado mixture. Crack an egg into a small bowl and gently ease it into a pan of boiling water with a teaspoon of white wine vinegar (water must be covered in bubbles). Set the timer for 4 minutes, or until the whites are set. Meanwhile, toast your bread. Spread the toasted bread with the avocado and tomato mixture. When the eggs are cooked, lift out with a slotted spoon and lower onto the bread and enjoy!


One thing you ALL MUST DO is eat more avocado. Or at least try it! Including avocados into your daily diet is something you can do to benefit your well being. And such a simple move to make too, you can do it right now. Why would you not?

Enjoy your avocados!

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets   x