Autumn Swap!

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A few weeks ago I took part in a Autumn Swap organised by the lovely Ingrid of Mythologising Me. In previous years Ingrid has organised a Yuletide Swap, which has always been fun! But this year she decided to do it as a Autumn Swap, so we would all have some nice surprise post to come home to on these cold dark nights.

In the swap I got a package from the total cutie Sarah and she got me loads of goodies. I loved it all but especially the Halloween nail stickers and the homemade acorn brooches!

Look how pretty the package was decorated!

I was making my package for Caitlin. Although I have never met Caitlin I was given a list of her interests and some of the things she had mentioned liking were cross stitch, cats and stationery so I decided to make her some cat yarn holders and some envelopes.  

It was so much fun putting this package together and knowing that it was going to brighten up someone's day. I enjoyed it so much that I have now signed up to Oh Comely's Perfect Stranger Project. I have received the information for the person I am putting a box together for this week so I'm excited to get started. 

Do you like receiving surprise post or do you know of any other exciting post swaps?

E

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Kawaii Subscription Box

I signed up for a 3 month subscription to this Kawaii Box and every month I have absolutely loved my surprise package from them. Sadly this box is the last of my subscription, but I feel like it has been the best one yet!

It contained:

• Kabaya Fish Gummies
• Food Stickers
• Moonin Mini Pouch
• Fragrance Beans 
• Animal Greetings Card 
• Toast Squishy Charm
• DIY Bracelet Kit 
• Alpaca Pouch 
• Egg Mini Plush 
• Caplico Mini Ice Candy

I loved everything in this box but I think my favourite thing has to be these foam food stickers. They are such good quality, I can't wait to use them! I'm also a big fan of the addition of more sweets in this month's box compared to my other two boxes. I love all novelty sweets and can't wait to try the fish gummies. I hope they're not actually fish flavoured! The same company also does just a sweet subscription box too, which I have been tempted to try.

The boxes work out about £12 each, which I think is excellent value for the amount of stuff they include and the postage is completely free. Even though this is the last box I will receive for a while I plan on renewing my subscription in the new year. I just can't resist all the Kawaii cuteness!

E

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Raccoon Brooch Custom Etsy Order

Last month we received a custom order request on Etsy from a lovely person in Canada. In case you can't tell, it's a raccoon! I enjoyed making something a bit different to the fox, badger, bear and mountain brooches that are part of the regular Young Explorer 'collection'.

Let me know if you have an idea for a brooch design that you'd like me to make! 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/YoungExplorerStuff

Get Crafty #1: Pompom Hair Band

I have been finding it difficult to motivate myself to do crafty things recently, so thought I'd do a few simple tutorials for the blog. Here's the first one!

My motto in life is that everything can be improved if you put some pompoms on it and that’s why I thought I would share this super quick and easy tutorial for making your own pompom hair band, which will brighten up any outfit.

To make a pompom hair band you will need:

1. The first thing you need to do is decide on what order you would like your pom poms to go around your hair band. I decided to just go for a random order but if you are going for a pattern it’s best to check now that you have enough of each colour before you start.

2. Once you have worked out the order you then need to thread your needle with the cotton and tie a knot at the bottom. It is best to double up your cotton to make it stronger. For my cotton I picked black (the same colour as the hair band) to try and hide the stitches as much as possible.

3. You then need to start to sew the pompoms on to the hair band in your prearranged order. For my hair bands I have started by sewing my first pompom on to the hair band about 6cm away from the end to allow space for the hairband to go behind my ears.

4. Decide where you want your first pompom to go and then start by doing one or two stitches just into the hair band to make sure that the cotton is secured.

5. Then put the needle through the middle of your first pompom and secure it in place on to the hair band. To make sure that the pompom will stay in place repeat this process two or three times.

6. Once you are happy that your first pompom is attached to the hairband move on to your next pompom. With the cotton and needle stitch carefully along the hairband until you get to the place you want the next pompom to go. I have placed my pompoms right next to each other but you don’t have to.

7. When you are happy with the positioning of the needle add your next pompom and repeat stage 5.

8. Continue in the same way sewing on each of your pompoms.

9. Then, as you did at the start, stitch into the hairband only a few times to make it more secure and then neatly tie a small knot and cut the end of the thread off. I tried to hide the knot neatly behind.

Then that’s it! Your pompom hair band is ready to wear!

Death By Knitting

The other weekend we went to London to visit our friends and, while we were there, we did loads of fun things. The best thing by a mile was going to see the new exhibition at Prick Your Finger, by the super incredible and talented Kandy Diamond.

The exhibition is called 'Death by Knitting' and is made up of knitted horror film movie posters, from films that have knitting needles used as weapons in them. Super exciting, right? But there is more! Not just are the pieces knitted but they are also 3D!!! You get given 3D glasses to view the pieces while you are there and it really works!

To accompany the exhibition there is also a zine (with a 3D cover!) about how knitting is used in each of the films featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition is on until June 12^th and I highly recommend that, if you are around London before then, you take the time to go and see the exhibition. You won’t be disappointed!

Bird in Borrowed Feathers

Hi everyone, are you alright? I am off sick from work so I'm taking this opportunity, between coughing, sneezing and wiping my nose, to write a little blog post. Sorry it's been so long since the last one! A lot has happened since February 9th. The new issue of Young Explorer came back from the printers for a start (BUY A COPY NOW).

That's all very exciting and everything, but I want to talk to you about Nottingham today. Do you live in Nottingham? Do you live near Nottingham? Are you going to be popping to Nottingham for a day out any time soon? If so, we'd totally recommend visiting Bird in Borrowed Feathers. They've been stocking some of our stuff for a few months now and it looks like a lovely little shop. We wanted to get to know Hannah and Georgie from the shop a little bit better, so we asked if they could send us a little biography of themselves and the shop for us to put on the blog. And here's what they sent back!

Born from a shared love of vintage, handmade and craft, Bird In Borrowed Feathers was started in the summer of 2013 by Hannah and Georgie, two sisters from Wiltshire who now live and work in Nottingham.Bird In Borrowed Feathers is a brand new shop in the centre of Nottingham, showcasing a fantastic collection of local and national designers. We sell a beautiful selection of handmade products including cards, jewellery, prints and home accessories.We are proud to be able to support and promote a fantastic range of established and up and coming designers, both local and national.

Georgie recently graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in Italian, French and Linguistics, she's since been putting her language skills to use translating our Bird In Borrowed Feathers Etsy shop! Georgie has always been passionate about buying handmade and vintage, this can be seen in the dedication she has for our new venture.

Hannah also graduated from Nottingham Trent University, in 2011 with a degree in Decorative Arts. She has since set up her own business, working from home, designing and illustrating a range of tote bags, greetings cards and jewellery. Her dream in life was to open a shop selling beautifully designed, handmade products, lucky for her this has now come true!

So pop in to Bird in Borrowed Feathers and let us know what you think! Or if you want to sell our stuff at your lovely craft shop in London/Newcastle/Sheffield/Paris/New York or wherever, get in touch. You can see our whole "range" on our Etsy page.

See ya!

Fig + Sparrow and Brownie Owl!

Our favourite place to get coffee in Manchester is Fig + Sparrow on Oldham Street. We like it to an almost creepy extent.  We were initially drawn in by the amazing gift shop at the front of the café (They sell dead nice homeware things and other great stuff) - and we still probably buy something or other every time we go in - but it's the coffee and cake that we go for now.

Do you remember when it was really hot a few weeks ago? That was kind of alright, wasn't it? But in a way it was pretty unbearable too. Thankfully we were able to go and sit in Fig + Sparrow next to a fan and cool ourselves down with some lovely iced teas and coffees. Look how their cold drinks come! Cute, eh?

The breakfast pots they do are pretty brilliant as well. You get a jar of yoghurt and some chunks of chocolate brownie on the side and then you mix it all together and you're in heaven, basically. Sadly I don't work in town so going for breakfast every day is not really an option. But if I did...

Speaking of the brownies, wow! They're made by The Brownie Owl and they're probably the best brownies I have ever eaten. I'm always a bit 'okay then' about brownies. A brownie is a brownie. Like a jam tart, I'd be happy if I was given one but probably wouldn't choose one if there was anything more fancy on offer. But these brownies are actually incredible.

We were lucky enough to win some Brownie Owl brownies in a Twitter competition, so we had a whole box of them to munch on (With a fair amount of restraint they still only lasted about two hours). Here's the exciting news as it was announced!

Winner of our @thebrownieowl competition for a box of amazing brownie is.... @_YoungExplorer congrats!!
— WhosWhoManchester (@WhosWhoManc) August 16, 2013

We enter the lottery every now and again but very rarely get a number. This was like the food equivalent of hitting the jackpot. Look how tasty they look...

...and then times that by 100 and you're somewhere close to how good they tasted. They are probably on sale in other cafés in Manchester but we haven't bothered to find out where. A coffee, a brownie and a table at Fig + Sparrow is the best way to spend your afternoon.

See yer!
S