Thank you for coming

Just a quick post to say a big thank you to all those lovely people who came to our Christmas extravaganza on Saturday. We raised £688.80 from all your cake eating and crafting. Well done you.

Keep an eye on our blog for pictures.

Crafternoon is tomorrow!

We're excited. Are you?

After, what feels like, a long wait crafternoon is finally upon us. Starting at 1pm tomorrow (Saturday, in case you read this another day) at St Olave's Chruch Hall we will be preparing you for Christmas by creating our very own grotto. Even Santa is coming along.

Upon arrival you will have the choice of making your own advent calendar, creating your own Christmas baubles, designing wrapping paper and crafting a Christmas cross stitch. Also, on hand to teach you to knit and supply you with Christmas knitting patterns are our friend Purl Stitch. Experience knitters are also welcome!

All this crafty mayhem will be sound tracked by the lovely RDA who, as well as performing their own material, will be knocking out a Christmas number.

As Marie Antoinette said: Let them eat cake! And, yes, we plan to eat lots of it.

Crafternoon finishes at 5pm so come early to make the most of the day. The area will, also, be sign posted so you can't possibly get lost.

See you all tomorrow!
Crafty Creatures x

Easy mince pies

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Yay, Christmas is coming and that means its time to stuff our faces with yummy mince pies. To do this you don't have to always pop to the shops and buy pre-packaged mince pies. You can easily make your own and we are going to guide you through it.

The first step is to buy ready made puff pastry and ready made filling. So may say this is cheating but others, the sensible people, say that you can buy very tasty fillings now so why not. Plus is you buy a jar you can have many, many more mince pies and who really wants to fart about making pastry?!

Once you have your puff pastry, defrost, let it sit for a while (time for a cup of tea and don't forget to preheat the oven at 200C!) and then roll out so that its a couple of millimetres thick. When you're ready take a biscuit cutter and cut out and many rounds as possibly, re-rolling the pastry cut offs. Lay out a baking tray with a grease proof paper, place half the rounds on the tray, fill with the mince meat filling and brush with a milk and egg mixture, which will stick the bottom of the pie to the top. Once you have done this brush the top, make a couple of holes in the lid and sprinkle with sugar so that when they are cooked they have a crunchy top.

Cook the mince pies for 25 minutes (this will vary due to the thickness of your pies so you might as well have another cup of tea or read a magazine). Then you done and eat mince pies until you feel a little ill.

Vintage Vogue patterns

After seeing in Vogue a feature on DIY fashion and how certain editors had recreate their favourite design one crafty creature was inspired to try and create her own vintage inspired garment.

Available in most haberdasheries the vintage Vogue patterns are incredibly cool and come in a variety of different levels of expertise. You can, also, shop for them online: www.voguepatterns.com.

This crafty creature is attempting to make this pattern. Fingers crossed it goes ok and looks better then the woman modelling it! Will keep you posted.

King of Cakes

Finding gems in unusual places is always great especially when you love cakes. Kings Cross has never been a mecca of great cafes or interesting shops but with all the regeneration planned for the area things seem to be improving.

On my lunch break today this Crafty Creature went to a really rather lovely cafe called Simmons on the Caledonian Road. It sells a variety of sandwiches, biscuits, snacks, cakes and drinks but the best thing has to be their cupcakes. Also, when you order tea it comes in a pot with beautiful vintage cup. It made for a very dignified lunch.

Jingle Balls

With Crafternoon a week away, (yes a week away now...actually, I lie, 6 days away) us Crafty Creatures decided to make some Christmassy baubles like the ones you can make at crafternoon. They are pretty simple and quick to make and look fantastic.

The first thing to do is to get a polystyrene ball (available from ebay) and wrap it up in wool, material or paint it so that the base is a nice texture and colour. See us the lovely ladies below doing this.
Once they are completely covered we then stuck colourful pins into them, beads and attached ribbon to form a bow which can use to hang them to a tree...a voila:

You could always turn then into an accessory if you fancy. Crafty Julia took this to a completely new level to show how versatile they can be

Monster Mash

Here is our own monster after doing the Make Your Own Monster kit. Say hello to snappy.

Crafternoon Christmas Flyer!

Hurrah - a new batch of Crafternoon flyers have arrived! We'll be dropping these into the grimiest pubs and the loveliest craft shops all round London (well, mostly South London where the Crafty Creatures live).

Send your friends the link to this blog so they can see how much fun we're going to have!

The event is taking place in St Olave's Church Hall, which is near to Fenchurch St (Rail), Tower Hill (Tube) and Monument (tube) You can see a Google Map here:
http://tinyurl.com/ybzom9n
...and there is a more exact map on the flyer below.

Come along and try your hand at an advent calendar that will last a lifetime (and you can put chocolates in), homemade baubles, hand-printed wrapping paper and present tags and Christmas cross-stitch!

Remember to bring £5 for entry, pocket money for cakes and mulled wine and a spare t-shirt (or other fabric you have lying around). We'd love to see you there!

Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing...

Make your own monster

At crafty creatures HQ we love crafts, as you would have guessed. Sometimes, though, we don't always have the time to create things from scratch. If you have a problem finding time for crafting too then look no further then Donna Wilson's make your own monster kits. They're scarily good.

One crafty creature purchased one from Magma in Covent Garden for £15. We believe they are available from other shops too.

The kit comes with everything you need to create a small, unusual monster. There are a number of different shapes but they all come with a pre-sown body shape, stuffing, cut out shapes and a step by step instruction guide.

Donna Wilson, also, makes a load of other really cool things. You can find them all on her website: www.donnawilson.com

The Independent

The Independent have kindly feature us in their christmas gift guide. This is mega exciting!

Ideas for the weekend...

If you are looking for something to do over the weekend look no further as we suggest some fab things for you to do.

Tart...
No, we are not calling you a tart but if you like tarts (the sweet kind that you eat) then this might be the event for you. This afternoon enables you to let out your inner lady, a don your most prettiest dress and stuff your face with cakes in the quaint setting of east London's boutique hotel, 40 Winks.

Starting at 2pm on Saturday 14th November, this event will set you back £60, which may seem like a lot but you do get lots of treats included for that amount.

Oxfam Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Who isn't a fan of Alice in Wonderland? Or the idea of dressing up like some bizarre extra from the film? Oxfam brings, for your pleasure, to Circle Bar, Clapham, a nocturnal mad hatter's tea party to remember. With live music from Othay and Wilderness and Jonny Clark powering the wheels of steel expect a night of beautiful hats, Cheshire cats and tea martinis! Sounds great to us.

Tickets must be brought in advance through: http://madhatterteapartylondon.eventbrite.com/

Grind A Go-Go
The 1960s return to Bethnal Green this Saturday as the working man's club is turned into a den of go-go dancers making moves to the sultry delights of girl group vocals, Mersey beats and psychedelic sounds.

For more info visit their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/grindagogo

Potty for Teapots

Interestingly radio 4 have a new series on teapots, which starts this afternoon. Now this may seems like a very dull prospect but the series is narrated by Spitting Image's Roger Law so should be a light hearted and funny listen.

For more info visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00npf9t

Knitting...

Hello all,

At our christmas crafternoon on Saturday 28th November we will have a special team headed up by our friend Martin on hand to teach people how to make knitted christmas treats.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a couple of weeks.
Crafty Creatures x

Work Bake Off

One little Crafty Creature made her work do a charity bake off and here is some of the results.