Jar Labels

Every year I make sweet chilli sauce to give out as gifts. It started because I used to have a slight obsession with growing different chilli varieties even though we don't eat them! Plus now I have a sweet chilli sauce that I actually like and I can make it seedless, plus everyone I've gifted it to seems to like it.

If you're interested in making it yourself, I use this recipe but I use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar and halve the ginger. Since we don't like our food to burn our mouths I use approximately 2/3 medium heat chillis and the rest is a sweet, mild chilli. Of course this changes depending on what chillis I have grown each year. I make a double batch so I have enough for gifts and our own consumption for the year - although if I run out again I'll have to triple it next year!

Originally I started out just using a sharpie to label the jars each year but then I started using my silhouette to make stickers. They look so much nicer that I did the same for the little gift jars of honey as well. Although after weeding all of those stickers I'm thinking next year I'll just do printable labels to make my life easier!

Christmas 2013

Since I've been busy (by that I mean slack at updating my blog) I realised I never shared my handmade gifts for Christmas 2013!

I had been a little obsessed with woodburning, which meant everyone got a wooden spoon for Christmas! I made up a vine/leaf design and sketched it onto each wooden spoon before I started burning them.

With the wooden spoon I also gave a tea towel and I made everyone a jar of sweet chilli sauce using my favourite recipe.

Oh and of course everyone got to enjoy my rumballs - I think they are expected every year now!

Wedding - Part 2

Well I took the last photos if my wedding crafts, so here are the rest of my ideas and craft projects.

I love growing chilli plants, purely because of the way they look and luckily the colour of chillis matched the red theme for our wedding! So for my centerpieces I wanted living plants. Originally I considered bonsais but I don’t have much experience with those. Then I decided to use some glass bowls I found at Ikea to make a kind of terrarium with chilli plants and succulents. Unfortunately the plants didn’t grow as fast as I hoped so they had no chillis on them for the wedding, they had started flowering which was better than nothing!

I also made little origami lights using vellum then popping leds connected to batteries inside (basically LED throwies). They took me forever to fold as I made 50 of them but I now know how to make them without the instructions and they are easy enough that I can watch tv at the same time!

I didn’t want a normal wedding cake because we were already having dessert so not many people would eat the cake anyway. I was considering cupcakes, and also cheesecakes with all different sauces that people could put on themselves. Then I decided that lamingtons would look cute and they tasted so good especially since I got them with jam inside. I also got a lamington cake purely for the cake cutting. Best thing was it only cost $100 for the cake and about 60 lamingtons from a local bakery!

I bought a bamboo cake stand which did have a pole handle on the top section so I just bought a bolt to hold the top plate on without the pole. The cake covered it so no one even knew.

The cake toppers, I originally wanted those rhinestone letters and started making them. Then I changed my mind and started making little clay pandas with a bamboo stand. But that didn’t work out too well and I never bothered to finish… maybe one day so I can add it to my panda collection. In the end I used a set of salt and pepper shakers that my big sister bought me - they are kissing pandas that have magnets for mouths to hold them together.

To add to my little addition of chillis to the wedding I made little chillis of out marzipan that I coloured with food dye. They were quick and easy to make and looked cute sitting on top of my lamingtons. I made them a couple of days before the wedding as they absorb moisture easily.

For my invitations I spent ages designing and carving  a bamboo stamp for the invitation and another one for the envelope. They worked well until I super glued them onto pieces of wood – I guess it needs to stay flexible. In the end I just scanned the image into the computer and printed it off at the same time as the invitation text.

My favourite DIY from the wedding was the jewellery! I used swarovski crystals, black onyx, moonstone, myuki seed beads, metal spacers and lampwork beads and more I am sure. I learnt a lesson when making jewellery – give your hands a break otherwise you can’t get anything done because your fingers are so sore after days of twisting wire!  I actually didn't get any specific photos taken of the jewellery I made for the wedding but afterwards I took photos of what I made for myself in case I lose them or break them.