Mini Summer Flower Arrangements (From My Garden)

Amelia Home Decor, DIY, Flowers, Garden, Summer

Petunia and String Bean Leaves

Hi everyone! I’m back again after my Christmas break – It ended up being a bit of a longer break than I expected but it has been nice and restful and I now feel inspired and ready to get back blogging. I thought I’d share a bit of a colourful summery post today as autumn is beginning to close in on us now – these are some mini floral arrangements I’ve done over the past few weeks using flowers from my garden. I don’t usually have a very large range of flowers to choose from where I live but I love being creative with them none the less and coming up with a different arrangement every week or so. I think smaller arrangements are so adorable too and its’ so fun to scatter them in different locations around the house. As you will see, I love including all sorts of flowers and leaves, such as those found in the veggie patch, herb garden or also amongst all the weeds!

Snapdragons, Pink Cornflower, Alyssum and Fern

Oregano Flowers

Floating Borage Flowers

Rose, Oregano and Pineapple Sage Leaves

Jasmine, Petunia, Geraniums (Pink, Coral and Red), Nasturtium, and unknown orange flower buds. A Floating white rose in the background.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season – wow that feels like so long ago now and strange to say that! Do you like making mini flower arrangements like these too? If you do I’d love to hear about them!

Succulent gift ideas - Egg carton succulents

Egg-carton Succulents – A Simple Planter and Gift Idea

Amelia DIY, Home Garden, Gift Ideas, House Warming, Succulents

I was so excited to find this carton of succulents waiting for me when I got up this Sunday morning. My Mum had just been over to a school fair where they were selling all sorts of cacti and brought these cute little ones home especially for me. I thought the egg carton was such a great temporary planter idea, especially for a gifting someone a wide range of plants (would be an awesome house warming or hostess gift), that I wanted to share it with you here!

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A few great Coffee Table/Lifestyle books to buy

Books Loved Lately

Amelia Home

A few books I’ve really enjoyed over the past month or so. One of these is a very recent release (Green Kitchen Travels) and the rest have all been published in the last few years. (Please note that I use affiliate links for these, you can find more info here).

1. Fa la la la Felt: 45 Handmade Holiday Decorations by Amanda Carestio. Some super cute craft ideas to make for Christmas using felt. I especially love the tree ornaments and garlands.

2. Green Kitchen Travels: Healthy Vegetarian Food Inspired by Our Adventures by David Frenkiel. This is from the writers of one of my favourite blogs Green Kitchen Stories. Even though I’m not a vegetarian, I’ve always loved their use of whole food ingredients, bold flavour and bright colour. The photography in this book is absolutely stunning too, I’ve actually only had the chance to flick through this so far but it’s on my Christmas wish-list!

3. Teeny Tiny Gardening by Emma Hardy. This is the cutest book ever and has completely inspired me to garden more. I absolutely love all the little arrangements in quirky up-cycled planters. A few favourites include the eggshell garden (on the front cover), vintage teacups and a fairy garden.

4. 100 Organic Skincare Recipes: Make Your Own Fresh and Fabulous Organic Beauty Products by Jessica Ress. This book has so many great DIY beauty recipes and provided me with so much inspiration for creating my own too. Many of the recipes also use basic fresh (kitchen) ingredients so it’s more accessible to the majority of people.

5. Small Plates and Sweet Treats: My Family’s Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking by Aran Goyoaga. The photography in this book is some of the best I’ve ever come across. It is so gorgeous, bright and colourful! The book is by the writer of Cannelle e Vanille and features lots of lovely gluten-free recipes. I am actually yet to try any recipes as I primarily got the book for the photos and it’s definitely worth having just for those!

6. Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling by Helene Dujardin. I’ve been working on my food styling lately and this is one of the books that has helped me the most. It has lots of great examples of shot styles, set-ups, lighting and equipment and is very encouraging to someone just starting out.

Simple Spring Decor Ideas - Floating Flowers with Washi Tape Tealight Candle and Sequins

Simple Spring Decor: Floating Flowers and Washi Tape Candles

Amelia Home

Each week, I love making a new colourful table centrepiece from flowers and pretty plants I grow in my garden. I usually like to make quite large arrangements during this time of year as there are so many flowers about to choose from. This time though, I decided to change things up a bit and go for something quite small and delicate. I’ve enjoyed this little arrangement so much that I thought I’d share it with you here as a simple Spring decor idea. It features some of my favourite things – Washi tape, sequins, a bud vase and of course flowers!

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Books I’ve Been Loving Lately

Amelia Books

I’ve started going to local library a bit lately and have come across some really great books. Although most of these are a few years old they are all still very up to date – they were all new to me anyway – so I thought I’d share some of my favourite here :)

1. The Green Kitchen by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindah
Wonderful, simple gluten free, sugar free, and vegetarian recipes from one of my favourite food blogs Green Kitchen Stories. It has absolutely gorgeous photos too.

2. Instant Entertaining by Donna Hay
Great menu ideas for all sorts of occasions. I love all of Donna Hay’s book as they are so beautiful and the recipes are always classic and simple.

3. The New Whole Foods Encyclopaedia by Rebecca Wood
A great, basic reference book for pretty much every sort of imaginable food. It also includes some buying advice and health benefits too. I’ve enjoyed reading through this as if includes a lot of more usual sorts of edibles.

4. Molly Makes Magazine
A mix of fun, modern craft patterns and ideas – felting, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, sewing, jewellery making etc. I first came across this magazine early this year (I just finished this beanie from it) and just recently found its available from my library too. I really like this magazine as its a mix of all sorts of different crafts which helps inspire me to try new things. (It’s from the UK but available at Coles Supermarket in Australia)

5. Creating your own Aromatherapy Perfumes by Chrissie Wildwood
(not sure if this is still available?)
A really simple introduction to aromatherapy with great lists of fun blends to try. I’ve become a bit interested in aromatherapy lately – not so much for the therapy part, but more for creating pretty scents for homemade cosmetics and candles. I borrowed lots of books on the subject but this ended up being my favourite and it was really simple and easy to use.

6. A Green Guide to Natural Beauty by Karen Gilbert
The most gorgeous recipes for homemade skin-care, treatments and bath additions. The author of this worked for cosmetic and perfume companies in the past so she has a great understanding of all the ingredients and mixtures. The photos in this book are absolutely beautiful too – I seriously want to make everything in this book! It by far my favourite book on natural beauty I’ve come across and definitely plan to buy it.

How about you? Read any good books lately?

Origami Butterfly Teabags

Amelia DIY, Entertaining

I saw these gorgeous butterfly teabags a while back on Pinterest and ever since have been meaning to make some. I had in mind I’d cut them out from some coloured card or draw them myself, but when I discovered this butterfly origami tutorial during the week I knew it would be a perfect match.

These butterflies are so easy to make, once you start you’ll want to keep making them!

How I made them:

I started by cutting down some small patterned sheets of scrapbooking paper to a 7.5 x 7.5cm square (3in x 3in)

The instructions for the origami butterfly I made can be found here – or there are quite a few other variations you can find on google.

I then tucked the teabag cord into the underside of the butterfly and put some double sided tape there as well (so they would be able to sit up on a mug).

I found the butterflies kept together and held their shape well, but if you do find they come undone it would be easy to glue them too.

This would be so pretty for a tea-party or boxed up for a gift.