LINE ONE: I know I’m always sharing DIY’s from Oh Happy Day, but Jordan is just keeps impressing me! I’m loving the idea of this Heart Balloons in a Closet
LINE TWO: Another great crafty DIY, this time Valentines Gift Wrap from Sugar and Cloth - So simple and so effective!
LINE THREE: I don’t even really like Pavlova (I know, I know. How horribly un-Australian of me!) These Pavlova Hearts from Return to Sunday Supper look positively delectable!
LINE FOUR: My friend Daria was invited by Wildfox to be part of their Take 10 competition where 10 bloggers style the same Wildfox piece – a glitter heart jumper – and you can vote for who’s styling you like the most. If you like what you see, you should head over here and cast a vote!
We’ve made it through the first week of our new home and starting to feel settled in, I think it’s time for some more celebrations in the form of another giveaway!
I mentioned earlier in the week my love for Society6 whenever I’m in the need for some snazzy new covers for my tech, but don’t forget, all the illustrations and designs come in many different forms; prints, framed pictures, pillows, computer covers or skins, tshirts, bags, books, even hoodies! There are so many artists and designs to browse through, there’s no way you wont find something that you like, and we’re giving you the chance to win a $50 voucher to spend on any Society6 products!
TO ENTER:
Follow High Walls in one of the following ways and leave a comment below with your name and contact email address:
- Subscribe using the “Follow” Tab at the bottom right hand corner of the page
- Follow on Bloglovin
You can also grab some bonus entries in one of the following names and leaving a separate comment for each entry:
- Follow on Twitter
- Follow on Facebook
- Tweet “Win $50 to spend at Society6 over at the new @HighWallsBlog”
The winners of all the High Walls celebration giveaways in February will be announced on the 2nd March 2013.
Good Luck and stay tuned for more giveaways -and if you want to enter the Lomography Fisheye Film Camera giveaway you still can!
(1, 2, 3, 4 & Image Source)
It seems that everyone has a stylish, vintage bicycle these days and I’m getting jealous! While it’s been years since I’ve ridden a bike, I’m already planning out my bike riding fashions. Tie my hair back with Bow to Stern Scarf and carrying my brand new Bike Watching Journal in my snazzy Camp Director Tote while wearing my Chance Greeting Flats…. Sounds pretty sweet to me!
As soon as winter hits in the northern hemisphere, I start seeing all these recipes floating around the blogosphere for vegetarian chilli. They all look amazing, but I’m sorry you guys, I live with three red blooded men, so this isn’t going to be one of them!
We re-discovered chilli con carne only a few months ago. I saw one of the aforementioned vegetarian recipes and suddenly had an insatiable craving. I’d never even made it before, but I was on a mission. My mum used to make the best chilli when I was a child, but my brother and I couldn’t handle spicy food back in the day, so she almost never had it. Since re-discovering chilli I don’t know how I’ve lived without it all these years!
As I said, this isn’t a chilli for the vegetarians or vegans out there; it’s choc-a-bloc full of meat and dairy. You could substitute the meat for beans if you prefer, but I wont lie, I prefer the smokey, meaty flavours of this dish. We’ve been having it a lot over summer, but I can’t wait for winter to kick in so I can curl up on the couch on cold evenings, with a big bowl to warm my insides.
What you Need:
3 tablespoons of Olive oil
125g of rindless bacon, roughly chopped
750g of lean beef mince
2 medium brown onions, finely chopped
2 medium red capsicums, chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3 long red chilli’s, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of chilli powder
2 tablespoons of paprika
800g can of chopped tomatoes
1 can of red kidney beans, drained, rinsed
1 bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tub of sour cream
1 packet of plain corn chips
1 avocado (optional)
What you do:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add bacon. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until starting to crisp. Add the mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up mince, for 15 minutes or until browned.
2. Add onions, capsicum, carrot, garlic and chopped chilli. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Add chilli powder and paprika and any other herbs and spices you might like. (I usually put a pinch of basil, dried coriander and oregano as well) Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes and 1 cup of chicken stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, partially covered, for at least 30 minutes or until sauce has reduced slightly. For extra flavour add in some half cherry tomatoes.
4. Add in the beans and increase heat to medium. Cook for 15 minutes or until beans are heated through and sauce has thickened. Stir through the coriander, reserving a handful to garnish. Serve chilli with sour cream and corn chips. Top with a sprinkling of coriander and avocado if you so desire.
Okay, so I know that we are in February already, so I’m a little late to the party with these calendars and diaries. I do this every year, I always forget to buy a new calendar or diary until its already January and then I spend ages trying to find the perfect one. Its always ends up being February before I have my calendar set up. This year I ended up going with the fabulous Mi Goals diary, but all of these babies were up there on my short list. (Yes, I had a short list. I take this stuff seriously okay :P )
ONE / 2013 Calendar Typographic Poster - The Sun, It Shines / Spring Once More / $22
TWO / 2013 Cute Animals Calendar / Loopz / $15
THREE / 2013 Daily Planner Calendar in Dandelion / Julia Kostreva / $22
FOUR / 2013 Wall Calendar / Dozi / $22
FIVE / 2013 Desk Calendar Colors of the Year / Ruby Red Design Studio / $17
SIX / 2013 Pocket Planner -Teal Forest / Dozi / $11.50
So, maybe I have a washi tape addiction. If you’ve been with me for a while you might have noticed that this is my 4,372nd DIY project featuring washi tape (a totally accurate estimate) I just can’t seem to stop finding uses for the damn stuff! It’s not my fault I swear!
I don’t have any children of my own, so I’ll be the first to admit you won’t have seen many kid-friendly DIY projects around here. That said, I now have many friends with children, whose never ending cuteness is a constant source of inspiration. This DIY is all thanks to an adorable conversation I had with the young boy of a friend, who was lamenting on how his pencil’s always get stolen at school because they get all mixed up. His mother suggested putting his name on each pencil with a label maker, but Ugh. How boring!
I had a packet of coloured pencils lying around looking equally as boring and lame, so I decided to give them a little personality and maybe give her some ideas to ensure all of his pencils always come home.
What You Need:
Pencils – preferably round, plain colours
Washi tape – all different patterns and colours
Scissors
Pencil Sharpener or exacto knife (optional)
What You Do:
1. Start by pairing up your pencils with a matching tape. As Washi tape can be relatively se-through (especially your lighter colours) you will want to put similar or darker colours onto your pencil.
2. Take your tape and cut the end diagonally across the tape leaving a triangular shape.
3. Line the diagonal edge around the top of the pencil, along where the pencil tip begins. Wrap the tape around to create a flush line around the tip.
4. Gently pull the tape tight and slowly and carefully twist the pencil so the tape continues to wrap around, travelling down the pencil as you twist.
5. After a couple of turns you will be able to see if the tape is going to cover the pencil evenly. You will need to experiment with how much to angle this cut depending on how you want to wrap. For example, some of my pencils I left a gap in between the twist to leave the under colour showing through, for the patterned tapes I preferred to overlap so that the pattern was solid the whole length of the pencil. Washi tape sticks quite well, so don’t worry if you need to pull it off and try again once or twice. Just take your time so you don’t crease the tape.
6. Smooth the tape as you twist and continue until you reach the bottom of the pencil.
7. Once you reach the end, line up the base of the pencil and pull out and cut the tape around 3cm from the end. Then cut a diagonal line like we did in step 1 so that the tape wraps around the base neatly.
8. Smooth any bumps as necessary. If you find the tip is a little messy you can trim it by sharpening it with a (sharp) pencil sharpener or neaten it up with an exacto knife.
9. Repeat with all of your pencils until you have a whole set of unique and fun pencils!
Most simple patterns will line up nicely as you wrap, but if you find that some patterns do not lend themselves to this method, you can always wrap the tape horizontally, cutting small strips and wrapping them individually. Just ensure that your strips are the same size so you don’t end up with a weirdly shaped pencil that is thicker in some parts.
These pencils would make a great gift, for the little ones upon their return to school or even for that crafty friend you know. What do you think? You could even use them to jazz up your plain old lead pencils!
(On Friday something happened in my life. Something that affected me more profoundly than I ever thought it would. That’s right, I got a new iPhone 5.
I liked my old iPhone 4 just fine. It was a decent phone. Pretty much on par with my old HTC android phone. I wasn’t in love with it or anything. My new phone isn’t all that different from the older iPhone but it’s just so new and shiny and pretty! All I want to do is keep it safe so it can stay as beautiful forever! Whenever I need to dress my tech, Society6 is always my first point of call. The almost never ending supply of art and designs come in so many formats, you can always find something a little unique to show off.
I’ve narrowed my choices down to some black and white or CMYK designs. What do you think? I’m kind of partial to that octopus dreaming of hummingbirds, even if I don’t really understand him.
LINE ONE: I’ll admit, when I first heard that there was a store in LA called The Pie Hole I was instantly intrigued (Photos from here, here and here)
LINE TWO: This mural by Hense on a Church in Washington DC is magical. If only he could come to Australia and make my house look as amazing!
LINE THREE: Ever since I started blogging, I’ve become a little obsessed with typography, so it comes as no surprise that I’m smitten with the series of travel images by Istanbul-based photographer Gokhun Guneyhan. Each image mixes photography and typography by juxtaposing typographic elements over the photographs and in doing so tells the story of each place.
LINE FOUR: These knitted wigs by Louise Walker are so great! I especially love the pink and long turquoise ones. I would love to rock out in one of these for a day.
PS. It got a little delayed with all the changes going on around here, but I hadn’t forgotten about the Frankie Gift Paper Book Giveaway! Thank you to everyone who entered, but the lucky duck who will be receiving a copy of the book is:
To celebrate the launch of High Walls and to say thank you for making the transition with me, we will be holding a series of giveaways over the month of February! There will be 4 major prizes to be won, each giveaway announced every Saturday with the winners of all four prizes drawn on Saturday the 1st of March 2013.
The first giveaway is something I own and love myself: A Lomography Fisheye Film Camera!
TO ENTER:
Follow High Walls in one of the following ways and leave a comment below with your name and contact email address:
- Subscribe using the “Follow” Tab at the bottom right hand corner of the page
- Follow on Bloglovin
You can also grab some bonus entries in one of the following names and leaving a separate comment for each entry:
- Follow on Twitter
- Follow on Facebook
- Tweet “Win a Lomography Fisheye Camera over at the new @HighWallsBlog”
Good Luck and stay tuned for more giveaways!
“Where am I?” You might be wondering. “I popped over to see if Kittenbear.net had posted today and I ended up here instead! Whats going on?!”
First of all, don’t worry - you haven’t gotten lost along the information highways; you are looking at the brand new home of Kittenbear!
Things are set out a little differently in our new home, our menu is now located on the left hand side (which I’m sure you already noticed) Here you can find a brand new About section, and more places you can Contact me. As well as this you might have noticed the new blog is now open for sponsorship and advertising. If you have a blog or shop and you would like to promote your brand on High Walls check out the Sponsor page or email me for more details.
While the blog is now for profit, all revenue from sponsorship will be going towards more DIY projects and recipes as well as an exciting brand new feature; Monthly Giveaways! Don’t worry, I still maintain control over what products and companies advertise through High Walls and I will only allow things that I truly love and think would be relevant to my readers.
You’ll also see links to a few of the regular feature posts. The new layout now has DIY and Recipe Post Archives so you can find that project or recipe you’re looking for without having to scroll through all the posts (although you can still do that if you’re in the mood to browse.)
You can also check out some of my other external work, like my monthly Craft DIY column at the wonderful blog Drifter & the Gypsy and various posts contributed to the Frankie Magazine website.
“That’s all very pretty and everything,” I hear you saying, “But what can I expect from the blog under the new name? Is this a totally different site now?”
Well, All of the regular feature posts you’ve come to know and love will continue. With the new format, posts will be published under an editorial style calendar. There will be a renewed focus on both the quality and quantity of content for this year. So while things may not always adhere strictly to this format, generally here’s what you can expect on any given day:
So that’s it! I hope you love the new blog as much as I do. I’m super excited and inspired for 2013 to be the biggest and best year yet! I hope you’ll stick around to see what we have in store for you :)
CLICK HERE to return to the main page and browse the whole blog!
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