{a little pot of happiness}

Inside this pot is the secret to happiness.

Well, lots of different ingredients to happiness, really. From making up a batch of Nigella's chocolate mousse to slipping on my threadbare red flannel pajamas, these are the things that have the power to turn any rough day into a smooth, rich and creamy day (yes, I've got my mind set on that mousse now...)

Of course, it works best if you can build up a stock of happy little slips when you're having a good day already. Whenever you bake a delicious new cupcake, discover a favourite new place to sit and read, hear a quote that speaks to you or a great song, add it to the pot, ready to be pulled out when you need to recreate that feeling. (Congratulations to Mumford & Sons, who made it into the pot less than a week after I'd heard of them!)

And it doesn't just have to be ideas. Along with the slips of paper, I keep a couple of stones in the pot. The chalky one, I found on the beach at Mariendal in Denmark, where we stayed this summer; it carries the taste of ice cream and Fransk hotdogs and the feeling of adventure. The striped stone is from Southwold, the nearest beach to my parent's home in England, and reminds me of long, peaceful walks along the shore, with the sea to one side and the bright beach huts to the other. Like tickets to another place -- and another state of mind -- just rolling them around in my palm is like an instant holiday.

So, all you need is a pot, a jar, a tub, and you're ready to start your own...

{diy: soft speech bubbles}

Prepare yourselves -- it's going to be a pretty photo-heavy week here at RedRed. Two new cameras (mine and Tilly's), plus a camera-themed birthday party coming up on Saturday. Phew. We'll need our shutters cleaned at the end of this week.

Today, I was making some of the props for the party. I love the idea of little speech bubbles for guests to hold, and set about making some myself out of poster board.

Have you ever tried cutting poster board? It's tough! You hack through one layer, find the tricky board in the middle, and by the time you're through to the other side, you've run out of blade. I tried scissors, a box cutter, an extra sharp fancy paper knife. What worked best, in the end, was Justin's pocket knife and it's seven inch serrated blade. I was very scared for my cutting mat (and my fingers, too), but luckily both survived unharmed.

The edges, though, looked a little rough. Okay, very rough. Like I'd cut them blindfolded. At night. One-handed. With a blunt chainsaw.

Enter half-a-yard o' cream fleece. I simply lay the poster board bubble on top of the fleece, and drew around it, leaving about an inch of extra fleece all the way around.

Ah, the scent of a hot glue gun hard at work. I put a thin layer of glue all around the edge, and pressed the fleece up (being careful not to put my fingers directly over the hot glue -- it burns even through the fleece).

Then, with a quick trim of the excess fleece from the back, the boards were covered. The fleece did a lovely job of softening the hacked-up edges of the poster board.



A few snips in a bit of felt, and we had our messages. Obviously, 'Cheese!' was needed...



... and when I looked through my stash of rejected letters I'd cut for our 'Stars at Night' hanging, the letters spelled out 'Hooray'! Perfect.

To attach the letters, I simply turned them all upside down and gave them a hearty spray with Krylon adhesive. There's a another nice smell for you. Not.

So, there you go. How to make speech bubbles for your photo booth that don't look like something Edward Scissorhands could have made. I can't wait to put them to use...