The Ex Expat

28 May 2012

This coming weekend is Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. If we were still back in Edinburgh, we probably wouldn’t be giving it another thought. But being over here in Berlin, expat fever has hit us, so we’ve decided to gather all our friends (British and others alike) for a Jubilee Party. Of course, the occasion calls for some baking, making and the like - the British the better - so I’ve lined up some fab DIY and recipe posts to share with you. First up, is a quick tutorial on how to make your own bunting, because you can’t have an afternoon tea party without one.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Some fabric of your choice (For the jubilee bunting I used red, white and blue. I did briefly consider embellishing them with ribbons to make Union Flags, but I thought keeping them plain would make them more versatile to reuse in future).
• Some bias binding (mine was 2.5 metres, but just use a length to suit your space)
• Thread and pins
• Pinking shears (for cutting fabric with a zigzag edge)
• Paper scissors (never use your fabric scissors to cut paper as it will blunten them!)
• Some cardboard, a sheet of paper, a pencil and a ruler

You’ll also need a sewing machine and an iron.

First of all you need to make your bunting template. Fold your sheet of paper in half length ways. Mark out 18cm from the top down along the folded edge, and 8cm along the top edge. Use your ruler to draw a line connecting the two marks, cut out and unfold - voila! A perfect triangle.

To transfer your template to your fabric, it’s better to have something more study to draw around, so trace around your paper template onto your cardboard and cut that out. You’re ready to go!

With your pencil, draw around the template on to your fabric. I made 6 triangles of each colour, i.e. 18 in total (though I only ended up using 17 to give myself more space at the ends for hanging the whole thing up).

Cut out your triangle with the pinking shears and give them all a quick iron.

Don’t out away the iron yet - need to fold your bias binding in half and iron it to keep it in place.

Next, pin your triangles in place, and remember to leave a bit of bias binding at each end for hanging up your bunting (I left about 10cm each).

Sew along the bias binding to fix the triangles in place. I also folded over the end of the bias binding and sewed them in place to make a loop at each end.

Hang up your bunting and get the party started!

27 May 2012

So, I’m back from Barcelona, the Eurovision is over, and it’s time to sort through all my photographs. Given the reason I was there, most of my photographs are of museums and the conference, but I did also manage to take a couple of the city itself. Here are a few things that caught me eye:

26 May 2012

Half the fun of watching the Eurovision is to rate the songs, singers and their performances as you go along, give out your own scores at the end, then shout at the TV when the voting goes off in completely ridiculous directions no where near what you guessed. To make it easier, here’s a blank score card for you to download for tonight.

Download Scorecard

(Royalty free photography courtesy of www.eurovision.tv)

25 May 2012

So, are you ready for the Eurovision Song Contest tomorrow night? Here’s half an hour of Eurovision golden oldies through the years to get your Eurovision party started!

Track listing

1. Puppet On A String (1967 UK 1st place) - Sandie Shaw
2. Boom Bang-a-bang (1969 UK joint 1st place) - Lulu
3. All Kinds of Everything (1970 Ireland 1st place) - Dana
4. Jack In The Box (1971 UK 4th place) - Clodagh Rogers)
5. Waterloo (1974 Sweden 4th place) - ABBA
6. Dschinghis Khan (1979 Germany 4th place) - Dschinghis Khan
7. Love Shine A Light (1997 UK 1st place) - Katrina and the Waves
8. Guildo Hat Euch Lieb! (1998 Germany 7th place) - Guildo Horn
9. Take Me To Your Heaven (1999 Sweden 1st place) - Charlotte Nilsson
10. Hard Rock Hallelujah (2006 Finland 1st place) - Lordi
11. No No Never (2006 Germany 14th place) - Texas Lightning
12. The Worrying Kind (2007 Sweden 18th place) - The Ark

24 May 2012

As I mentioned in my May Happy List, I’m a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest and not afraid of it. We’re inviting round some friends to watch it with us on our big screen, with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine. If you’re having a Eurovision Party too, why not get your guests to test their knowledge with this Eurovision Quiz. You could even hand out a small prize to the winner.

Download Eurovision Quiz

Download Quiz Answers

(Royalty free photograph courtesy of www.eurovision.tv)