Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Last month I mentioned that I love seeing which characters customers choose for their crochet/knitting stitch marker sets, especially if they don't choose the expected main characters of the story.  And this month I had the pleasure of creating a Romeo and Juliet set of stitch markers where the character names chosen were very much a surprise.

The customer opted to omit the names of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, instead choosing the names of lesser (but still important) characters as well as the names "Verona" and "Mantua", the two cities in which the story is set.  What do you think of these choices?  Would you do the same, or would you have done what most do and choose "Romeo" and "Juliet"?

Lemon Dessert Roundup

We were recently the happy recipients of a MASSIVE bag of homegrown lemons from our next door neighbours (their dad's tree is VERY fruitful and produces enough crop to keep multiple families supplied for months on end).  So today I am sharing a roundup of my favourite lemon-flavoured desserts, because that's the best way to use lemons, right!  (Other than our favourite roast chicken recipe which I will share with you another day.)

1. This lemon drizzle yoghurt cake is moist, easy to make and oh so lemony!

2. Combining two of my favourite desserts in one: lemon meringue chocolate cake!!!

3. Change up your go to magic custard cake recipe with the addition of lemons.

4. Perfect in winter served with a little cream or ice cream, lemon delicious is one of my go to winter desserts.

More English Literature

Thank you everyone for your well wishes this past week!  I am pretty much back to normal now, and raring to go with several plans I had temporarily put on hold.  Today I am showing off a few new creations which feature classic English literature from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

The first is a set of wine glass charms featuring some of my favourite characters from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.  Like many, I loved Doyle's quirky detective before he became even more popular thanks to Robert Downey Jr's and Benedict Cumberbatch's film and TV portrayals of one of the most famous detectives in literature.

The second is a set of charms featuring the sweet, funny and naughty animals from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  I recently took the Cheeky Monkeys to see The Australian Shakespeare Company's production of Grahame's most famous work, and it inspired me to include its characters in Domum Vindemia's more popular designs (you can currently find Mole, Toad, Rat and friends in our magnet sets and wine charm sets).  Which set is your favourite?

Hey, Boo

A quick post today, as I am recovering from a small surgical procedure I had done on Valentine's day (oh so romantic to have Mr Cheeky Monkeys driving me to hospital at the crack of dawn and then picking me up all groggy and out of it from anaesthesia).  To distract myself from the yuckiness of recovery, even if it is just from a minor day procedure, I'm sharing a fun To Kill a Mockingbird creation I was working on last week.

"Hey, Boo" is one of the cutest lines in the whole novel, and I finally found the opportunity to add this sweet quote to Two Cheeky Monkeys.  For those of you who have been following this blog since its start, you'll know that my watch necklace creations have evolved over the years, starting as merely vintage-inspired creations and gradually changing to become literature-themed pieces which still embody the vintage look.  So, what do you think of my latest addition to the range?

Romantic Bookmarks

I bet you never thought you would see the words "romantic" and "bookmark" together in a sentence, but here you go, I've gone and titled my blog post with those words!  I'm wishing everyone out there a happy Valentine's day, be you single, married, taken or otherwise, by showing off the two newest additions to the bookmark range at Domum Vindemia.

I thought today would be a great day to unveil the new additions given the quotes they carry - both love or romance-related (okay, the Gone With the Wind quote might be pushing it, ha ha ha).  The first is a sweet quote stating, "Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favourite."  This one comes in both US and UK (and rest of the world?) spelling versions of "favourite/favorite".

The second is Rhett's exasperated quote from Gone With the Wind, "You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how."  I wonder if this quote was George Lucas' inspiration for Han Solo's "You could use a good kiss!" in The Empire Strikes Back?  Which of the new quotes is your favourite?

Chinese New Year Celebrations

So I completely forgot to take photos of the AMAZING spread my family and our friends put together for Chinese new year the other weekend, but today I'm sharing a quick pic of potsticker dumplings (jiaozi) I made from scratch with the Cheeky Monkeys.  I figure that Chinese new year is traditionally celebrated for two weeks, so I'm not too late with the Chinese food photos!

These are amongst the Cheeky Monkeys' favourite Chinese dumplings and not too hard to make.  So if you want to try making some for yourself (including the dumpling skins), a good place to start is Poh Ling Yeow's (who remembers Poh from season 1 of Masterchef?) easy recipe here.  The only alteration I make to the recipe is to throw in a little chopped coriander to the dumpling filling, because we all love coriander and there's usually some in my fridge waiting to be used up.  Oh, and I ALWAYS make a larger quantity than the recipe states - one can never have too many dumplings!

Valentine's Day Inspiration

While I freely admit that I don't generally celebrate Valentine's day and am not a fan of it's commercialisation, the romantic in me loves fun and thoughtful ways of showing loved ones that you care.  So I've put together a vintage-inspired Valentine's Day gift guide with items for everyone, from the love of your life to family members to your bestie.  Are you planning to celebrate this Valentine's Day?

1. Perfect for that friend or your sister who's too scared to commit to a real tattoo, floral temporary tattoos are a bit of fun and reflect the traditional bouquets given on Valentine's day.

2. Who wouldn't prefer an everlasting bouquet to one that fades and dies after a week? 

3. Spoil a little girl with a fun vintage Valentine skirt!

4. A literary way to declare yourself as that special someone's secret (or not so secret) admirer.

5. Show your hipster friend how much he means to you.

6. Perfect for newlyweds or someone who has moved cities, this vintage map heart artwork celebrates the city your recipient calls home.

9 Ways to Upcycle Paint Card Samples

So the summer school holidays are well and truly over here in Australia, but I wanted to share some fun tutorials I found for creating with paint card samples (or paint chip samples as you North Americans like to call them).  For those of you asking why one would need to upcycle paint cards, then you need to know that it is almost impossible to enter a hardware chain store (such as Bunnings Warehouse) without the Cheeky Monkeys grabbing a handful of pretty-coloured paint card samples.

I got sick of their growing piles of paint cards, so I suggested that they put those cards to good use instead.  Here are nine of their favourite tutorials for upcycling those paint cards.

1. These orbs make for fun decorations on a desk.

2. Paint card mosaics make great artworks as well as greeting cards and scrapbooking embellishments.

3. The Cheeky Monkeys' favourite way of upcycling their paint cards - bookmarks!

4. Adorn baby's nursery with a cheap but pretty paint card mobile.

5. Make adorable little boxes out of paint cards.

6. Fun gift packaging makes any present even better!

7. If you're lucky enough to own a spiral binder, turn your paint card samples into notepads.

8. My personal favourite, multicoloured artwork made from paint card shapes.

9. You don't have to leave the paint cards as is, use them as a base for embellishing and collaging in these handmade notebooks.

Massive 3 day sale!

Hello all!  Today I have a quick, mid-week post to advertise my very first massive sale event for both Two Cheeky Monkeys and Domum Vindemia.  I'm offering 30-40% off ALL items in-store (yes, that includes SALE items in-store!) for three days only starting today, February 1st.

For those of you already receiving our monthly news updates, you should receive an email today with the special coupon codes.  If you're not on our mailing list and NEEED the discount codes, you can sign up for our updates HERE and receive this month's update with all relevant sale codes.