Pine Cone Fire Starters, a great fun way to start a dull January. So Christmas is over but they days are still so dark and dreary but with nice activities they do go by faster, so a great January craft activity to make is Pine cone Fire Starters.

Fire starters are fun to make with the kids and beautiful gift to give and receive. After Christmas we always have loads of candle odds and sods leftover so this is a perfect thing to use them for. We usually also have a loads of very dry pine cones (often a little bit second hand looking, having been chewed by the dog or played with by the cat) so this is another reason to reuse them as they probably won’t last till next year. So this craft activity ticks so many boxes…fun to make, it’s creative, it turns a dull January Saturday into an interesting (and educational one at that) its sustainable and completely zero waste living, it makes a great present (perfect for your parents as a fun ‘happy valentine’ surprise) and it makes the house smell nice…you get it, I’ll stop now …basically it’s just such a fab thing to make.

So you have your dry pine cones, your old candle bits, your cupcake wrappers, some bits of greenery or use rosemary for the smell, or alternatively essential oils if desired and you are ready to roll.

Now, I use one of our polished natural coconut bowls to melt the wax in but you could use any bowls, so long as it can sit in a bowl of hot water until the candle bits are fully melted. The coconut bowls do a great job for this.

So I break up all my candle stubs and put a few twigs of pine needles / rosemary on top (or if I have no rosemary etc or fancy something a bit different, then essential oils are lovely). I then place the coconut bowl inside a pot of hot just simmering water. It usually takes about 15-20mins for the candles to fully melt. I have in the meantime arranged my pine cones in cupcake liners with a few twigs of spruce, tree ivy, eucalyptus (or what ever I have to hand) and once the wax is liquid, I pour it over the pine cones into the cupcake liners and leave to set.
Return 10 mins later and there they are all ready to use or to package up for a gift. and nothing looks lovelier than a brown kraft box tied with string or raffia and a seasonal twig!! I made some for Christmas as you can see below using our recycled brown Kraft paper boxes.

If you have some extra large pine cones that won’t fit inside a cupcake liner, you can also just coat the actual pine cone in wax and leave to set on a sheet of greaseproof paper, tied with a tag (again this makes the cutest of hostess gifts).

Finally, if I still need to persuade you to try this, then think how pretty they will look next to the fire place in a bowl compared to that cardboard box of fire lighter (My husband still buys these and I hate them (one day he will converts to making his own pine cone).

The pine cone doesn’t need a wick. Just stick in the fireplace with some kindling and light.

If you are doing this activity with your kids, please do take extra care with the liquid wax as it is sooo very hot.

Let me know what you think…. x

Let the excitement begin with a Countdown to Christmas!

One of our all time favourites leading up to Christmas is the countdown and the excitement & creativity that this brings.
Creating Christmas advent calendars for each and everyone can become a family craft that is passed down in generations. We certainly had the same cross stitched one that my mother family had used etc! The countdown to Christmas is loved by all in a different way to the actual Xmas. It is because it all about the excitement of what's the come and often the looking forward to is actually the best part...!

- Advent Calendars -

Advent calendars are a great way to count down to Christmas. Traditionally this is done with a ready bought card and paper picture with chocolate tucked away inside. Although this is great fun and a quick treat, the thought of something which is lovingly made and created by yourself is memories in the making.

- Create Your Own -

By creating your own Christmas advent calendar, you can have great fun not only putting it together but also seeing it being opened and enjoyed. So fill it with little gifts (we can especially recommend our furry little felt friends) and of course yummy treats - Chocolates always Welcome! We also like to include poems and special messages (of treats or outings to come).

And on top of all that, home made Christmas Advent Calendars looks fab too…just recently looking at Pinterest, there seems to be no end to people’s creativity.

How to crate your own - Pipii's step by step guide

Here is a little bit of inspiration from

Ideal Home Complete Guide to Christmas Magazine

Pipii.co.uk creating memories ....

Spooktagular Halloween Party Time

Get ready to Party! Look forward to a spooky Halloween party fest with all its webs, terrifying witches, gruesome ghosts making their way around the neighbourhood terrifying everyone in their wake. Prepare and decorate with colourful tissue paper honeycomb pumpkins, pumpkin garlands, ghosts and bats decorations. Create a feast to haunt even the most hearty souls. Set the table with spookily good Halloween tableware. Time to get ready for screams and frightful stares when they see your decorations & table setting! Its easy to create your own invitations and decorations, check out our Halloween temp plate and get creative.

But who says that Halloween is just for kids? The Indytute have published a blog with with 10 'Fangtastic' Events happening in London on the 31st, plenty to get your teeth into...From Discooo's to Haunted Pubs, so no excuses for a bit of adult Spooktacular time.

Autumn Celebrations - Guy Fawkes

We love that we can look forward to even more celebrations in the Autumn. So get ready for a Guy Fawkes celebration on the 5^th of November with more festivities. Its time to invite friends to an out-door gathering by sending autumn leaves invitations. Get cooking and serve up the hearty French Onion Soup in paper container with lids and feast on Bonfire treacle and Toffee Apples. Light the way with jam jar lanterns and paper lanterns. Not forgetting to light those sparklers and fireworks to make sure the evening is celebrated in glowing style. We think the fireworks are best left at home because its really not that great for the environment and our poor dogs and animals in general really hate them.

Why are we celebrating Guy Fawkes?

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night! This is an annual commemoration observed on 5th of November, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of the 5th of November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot was arrested. He was caught while guarding explosives that the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people then lit bonfires around London. Months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Acten forced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure.

This is one of the finest and most fun Scandinavian Easter traditions. Papier mache Easter egg containers available in beautiful traditional designs as well as the classic Beatrix Potter images. These egg shells open up and are ready to be filled with your children’s favourites or depending on the age of the receiver, this could easily hold a lovely piece of jewellery..

We think these are much more fun than a typical chocolate egg and only the imagination limits your choice of surprise!
Whatever takes your fancy, this could of course also be a written promise, a poem and a holiday...here hoping !!! But of course, good chocolate will do!!

We remember them from when we were kids and had the same one for years...easy to stack as the 'halves' sit inside each other neatly.

They are available in many sizes, the small and medium ones also looks super cute displayed hanging from a ribbon in windows.

Also check out the blank kraft paper and white Easter egg containers which are ideal for kids to decorate themselves. The white one are easy to draw and paint onto and the kraft eggs looks really pretty sparsely decorated with feather, ribbon etc.

And if you want something very different from actual Easter egg containers, you could always go for the mini pinatas. They are also available in a bunny designs, so cute and hard to resist. They would look so pretty as part of the bunny tableware series on an Easter table.

Easter egg containers are just one of this season essentials!!

We welcome Spring

We welcome Spring with anticipated breath. Oh so many lovely celebrations to look forward to. On the 21st of March, it's the first day of Spring - hopefully the weather will know this too. Celebrate this by bringing in budding branches and early spring flowers in to your home.

But the most important celebration this month is surely the 31st of March - Mothers Day - A celebration to honour mums & maternal figures to show them love. Celebrate the day with serving breakfast in bed, a big lunch or a delicious afternoon tea with plenty of cake.

Dainty little glass flower vases, perfect gifts for Mother's Day,
fill with little posies of spring flowers or single stems.
Adorable little table settings, perfect for the afternoon tea extravaganza.
Go on. Give mum a treat.

Pipii's Carrot Cake

Serve this divine carrot cake, the recipe has been developed from the from Fortnum & Mason's book on Afternoon Tea - moist and delicious. Carrot Cake Recipe

Mother's day Packaging

Pretty packaging to make Mother's day even more special.
Wrap your present or flowers in pink tissue paper, rose gold wrapping paper, a decorate with pastel honeycomb balls and pretty ribbons.

Bring Spring Indoors

Bring spring into your home with these delightful spring colours & gentle pastels. Pastel coloured feathers, new pale green & pink cotton runners, ombre Bolsious candles, glass vases & spring themed quality napkins, perfect for creating a setting.

With Spring comes Easter, how we love this season! It gives us the perfect opportunity to decorate the house with pretty coloured honeycomb paper fans, Easter decs & wooden eggs on budding branches and start to buy in special treats to fill paper mache Easter egg containers for this years Easter egg hunt. We have got a wonderful selection of Easter Egg Containers - Retro, Vintage & best selling Beatrix Potter designs.

Valentine's Day...make it special for all your loved ones ♥
Here at Pipii we ♥ to turn every day into a special occasion. Valentine's day is yet another one you can have a bit of fun with. Despite it being February, Winter and ... We sincerely hope you are enjoying the new year so far. These next couple of weeks we are embracing all the pretty pink, red, sparkle and hearts of Valentine's Day to get us through these last few weeks of Winter! So why not share it with all your loved ones in all sort of wonderful ways...
Decorate the house, get crafting, bake or cook a special treat & meal and
most importantly, just have a lovely day together ♥

We have a special treat for you to bake for your loved ones.. One for you and one for me.....

Raspberry Éclairs

These little jewels look so beautiful and taste divine too. Perfect for a Valentine's treat for a special one. Éclairs are made from Choux pastry which is deceptively easy to make, they are typically filled with a sweet vanilla cream known as crème Chantilly, instead of the traditional chocolate or coffee icing we have chose to make a raspberry icing and fill with fresh raspberries for a summer treat.

Éclairs can be prepared in advance: once the unfilled pastries are cooked and cooled, they can be kept in an airtight box for a few days or frozen, it is best to make the Chantilly cream on the day that you are planning on eating the éclairs.

Ingredients

Choux pastry

• 100g plain white flour
• Pinch of salt
• 150ml water
• 75g butter
• 3 free-range eggs, beaten
• 1 extra egg beaten - to brush éclairs before baking

For the crème Chantilly filling

• 50g icing sugar (1 generous tbsp), sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 400ml whipped cream, (measure when whipped)
• A punnet of fresh raspberries

For the Raspberry icing

• 200g icing sugar
• 5-6 raspberries
• 1 -2 tbsp cold water

Method

Choux Pastry

1. 1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and set aside
   2. Place the water and butter in a medium-sized saucepan with high sides, set over a medium-high heat, stirring until the butter melts. Allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil then immediately remove the pan from the heat. Add the flour and salt and beat very well with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.
   3. Reduce the heat to medium and replace the saucepan, stirring for 1 minute until the mixture starts to ‘fur’ (slightly stick to the base of the pan). Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 1 minute.
   4. Pour about one-quarter of the beaten egg into the pan and, using the wooden spoon, beat very well. Add a little more egg and beat well again until the mixture comes back together. Continue to add the egg, beating vigorously all the time, until the mixture has softened, is nice and shiny and has a dropping consistency. (you could well get a tired arm) You may not need to add all the egg or you may need a little extra. If the mixture is too stiff (not enough egg) then the choux pastries will be too heavy, but if the mixture is too wet (too much egg) they will not hold their shape when spooned onto greaseproof paper.
   5. Although the pastry is best used right away, it can be placed in a bowl, covered and chilled for up to 12 hours, until ready to use.

Éclairs

1. 1. 1. Preheat the oven to 220°C Line a baking tray with parchment paper (not greaseproof paper, as the éclairs may stick when cooked).
      2. Place the dough into a piping bag fitted with the plain 5–8mm nozzle and pipe into lengths approximately 10cm long onto the prepared baking tray, spaced about 4cm apart to allow for expansion. Use a small wet knife to stop the dough coming out when you have finished piping each éclair.
      3. Brush the éclairs gently with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C and continue to cook for a further 12-15 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed up, golden and crisp.
      4. Remove the éclairs from the oven and using a skewer or the tip of a small sharp knife, make a hole in the side or the base of each éclair. Return to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes to allow the steam to escape. Transfer the éclairs to a wire rack to cool.
      5. Meanwhile, make the icing. In a bowl mush up 5-6 raspberries with a fork into a paste, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add a little water and stir to mix, adding a little more water if necessary until the icing is spreadable but not too watery.
      6. To make the crème Chantilly filling, fold the sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract into the whipped cream. Chill until you are ready to use it.
      7. When the éclairs are cool, cut the éclairs in half, spoon the crème Chantilly into a clean piping bag fitted with the small, plain nozzle (or use the same nozzle used for piping the éclairs) and pipe the cream onto the half of the éclairs until they are well filled, place 5-6 half raspberries on top of the cream.
      8. Using a small palette knife or spoon that has been standing in a jug of hot water (to make spreading the icing easier), spread the icing over the top of each éclair, dipping the knife into the hot water between each éclair. Serve and watch them being devoured!

More ideas -

For chocolate éclairs follow the recipe above but replace the raspberry icing with chocolate glacé icing and leave out the fresh raspberries

1. 1. 1. • 200g icing sugar
         • 25g cocoa powder
         • 1 -2 tbsp boiling water

Enjoy!

Honeycomb Decorations - True Paper Magic

It is time to create magic... Honeycomb Decorations...
In our view, simply the best Christmas, wedding and year round party decorations. Honeycomb Paper Decorations - balls, bells, fans and snowflakes are magic creations. The way the start off as plain looking piles of paper and how they simply unfold and turn into the most fantastic and intricate shapes, is nothing less than magic!

Let the snowflakes be the centrepiece!

I have fond childhood memories of multicoloured garlands and fans. – Immediately fascinated by their magic. These amazing honeycomb paper decorations seemed to disappear for a while and when Pipii launched in 2009, it was one of the products on our wish list to re-introduce…

The popularity of honeycomb paper decorations has grown hugely since we first started stocking them in 2010 and are now available everywhere in all colours, shapes and sizes. The quality varies greatly, if you buy good quality, they will be made with lovely colour-fast tissue paper and strong cardboard inners which means that they will keep year after year and stand the test of time. They will then make great ‘hand me downs’ (hopefully remembered in the same way as we do).
For Christmas, we hang honeycomb paper snowflakes in all sizes in large windows mixed in with twinkling fairy-lights, it is so beautiful, so simple, so inexpensive and so effective, nothing else can really match a display like it.

Honeycomb Paper Balls are hugely popular, all year round …for weddings to Christmas….all colours and sizes.
Pipii.co.uk stock honeycomb paper balls from 48cm (in diameter) right down to 5cm (dia). With the smaller ones you can create dainty little baubles for the tree and branches to making ball garlands also to go round the tree or as part of a mantelpiece garland or swag…

The smaller size honeycomb balls look great on our display tree as above.

The 3 sizes in the middle, 12, 20 and 30cm are the most popular and look
great displayed together either as simply table décor
…hanging in windows or ceiling in a mix of sizes.

Lots of our customer use them only folded halfway out and then secured onto a wall or table on both sides of the circle to create a semi circle as part of a room display or they are displayed together with snowflakes or fans for a lovely effect. Hanging a couple of balls together in a variety of sizes creates the most effective display, a quick and easy way to add a bit of wow to a room. They also look great mixed together with snowflakes.

For Christmas the most popular honeycomb ball colour is white closely followed by red but we do see more and more than customers are inspired by magazines such as Living etc to be bold and brave and create with colours hence we have this year expanded our collection of snowflakes to include some real wow colours. We see no end to the interest in honeycomb balls and decorations in general and suspect that they
will go nowhere in the foreseeable future.

All you have to do is to choose which colours, shape and size is going to adore your home...Enjoy!

Unique Christmas gift wrapping ideas
Have you got everything you need to make
your presents, the best looking ones
under the Christmas tree..?

Merry Christmas Woodland Recycled Kraft Gift Wrap Paper

Brown Paper Packages tided up with string, just some of our favourite things...

Brown kraft paper is a great start for your Christmas wrapping. The neutral colour allows you to play around with lots of fun of decorative ideas that will make your Christmas presents special. Beautifully complimented by our Nordic neutral green twig paper - perfect for smaller gifts.

Large selection of gift wrap, tags, stickers, ribbon and bakers twine

Kraft bags, perfect for wrapping up gifts

Embellish your presents - fantastic choice of gift tags, stickers & washi tape

Ribbons & Twines

Recycle...recycle...
Good news our brown kraft wrapping paper is recyclable, even the printed wrapping paper! As it turns our most of wrapping paper is recyclable, just not the ones with metallic embellishments. Just make sure you remove any sticky tape and any other bows before adding to your recycling bin.

Halloween Fun - The perfect excuse to turn ordinary days & nights into a bit of fun!
Welcome visitors with a carved pumpkin lantern to crate a little bit of atmosphere.
Invite in the friendly neighbourhood ghosts, gaols, witches & monsters to a table with ghostly delights, set the table with the most brilliant stripy plates, bat cups and bat foil napkins from Ginger Ray & Meri Meri. A backdrop of bats of fluttering bats are perfect to set the scene. Create a Skeleton photo props and hang out with a life-size cut-out skeleton decorations for a bit of fun, temporary tattoos, Day of Dead balloons & banners, stickers and table decorations. What more could your little house ghosts wish for...

No Halloween is complete without a little recipe... Try to keep you vampire teeth in while you chew on these delicious Toffee Apples...

Recipe for Toffee Apples...

Relive nostalgic childhood memories with these cracking good toffee coated apples. To make them a little different add a little red food dye to the toffee, to get a beautiful red shiny toffee and dust with desiccated coconut.

Ingredients

• 225g demerara sugar
• 110 ml water
• 0.5 tsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 25g butter
• 6 apples
• 6 BBQ sticks, for holding the apples

Method

Please note that making toffee must be approached with caution; toffee gets very, very hot (up to 140 °C) as it is boils!

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water over a moderate heat. When it has dissolved, stir in the vinegar, syrup and butter. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until it reaches hard-crack stage (138°C) or hardens into a ball when dropped in a bowl of cold water. This should take around 10-15 minutes boiling time.
2. While the syrup is cooking, wash the apples and dry well, pierce each apple with a wooden BBQ stick. Once the toffee is ready, add an optional drop of red food colouring and stir well. Dip each apple into the hot toffee, turning it around in the syrup so that each one is fully coated.
3. Optional; Dust with desiccated coconut
4. Leave to harden on a lightly oiled tray before serving. If bringing the toffee coated apples with you to a bonfire party, why not pack them individually in our pla brown or white paper bags. If you're planning to keep them for a day or two, wrap the apples in cellophane bags.