Crafts
The Simple Things
January 2021The Simple Things is a beautiful, useful, quirky and fun magazine about taking time to live well. We cover mindfulness and microadventures, eating and growing, forgotten wisdom, home life and slow moments. It's for people who love their lives but want to take the pressure off and remember what’s really important. We like tea & cake, learning stuff, being outside and the satisfaction of a job well done. Do you?
in this issue
editor
This year, we all have the same new year wish – that the months ahead are better than the ones just passed. We may dream of filling our diaries and seeing who we want, when we want to, but in the meantime, let’s make the most of snug midwinter pleasures. We’re talking afternoon snoozes under a favourite quilt, watching old films and reading new books. Of making plans for home and garden, enjoying winter daylight and coming home to slow stews and tea by the fire. Take a moment (maybe light a candle) to reflect and remember, then count your blessings from the sanctuary of your sofa and perhaps make a pledge to help the world in some small way. Sometimes you have to make your own sunshine.…
january almanac
Nature spot Plants you might see in flower this month Snowdrops (Galanthus); Witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia); Wintersweet (Chimonanthuspraecox) LOCAL LORE To mark a 14th-century scuffle over returning the hood of a lady, locals of Haxey, North Lincs, now play The Haxey Hood: a Rugby-style scrum of several hundred people push a ‘hood’ to one of four pubs, where it stays until the game resumes the next year. TERRAZZO! A new thing to learn An easy craft that involves pouring cast materials into moulds filled with coloured chips of glass or china. Buy all you need online or buy an all-you-need Terrazzo kit. IN SEASON SALSIFY It might not be the most attractive of veg, looking rather like a set of long, dirty fingers, but salsify has been enjoying a revival, having last been a hit on Victorian dining tables. With…
a merry midwinter
Scandinavians are experts when it comes to keeping cosy during the long dark nights of winter, so take inspiration from the north for an evening of eating, drinking and huddling under blankets. As well as having hygge down to a fine art, our Nordic friends also know how to make flavourful, nourishing and warming winter food that's a much-needed feast of colour at this time of year. From creamy fish stews to open sandwiches with bite, gloriously gooey cakes and mulled wine that'll warm your insides, this is a meal that can feed you for several days if you can just resist the temptation of eating all the buns at once. A cosy dinner for two enjoyed under blankets – ideally in your own little log cabin – can be scaled up…
seeing red
The colour red, as everyone knows, draws attention. I started my Instagram project @womeninredinart for fun last year, when I noticed that I’d unconsciously saved a disproportionate amount of artworks that featured women dressed in red. Since then, I’ve shared hundreds more through my account: women wearing red doing their hair, sleeping, shopping, painting, all united by a simple splash of red. But one of my favourite uses of the colour is when you see it against the crisp whiteness of snow and ice. This selection of women in red are all partaking in winter sports, images drawn from adverts, prints and fine art. However, it’s not just the considerable pleasure of looking at the images themselves that I enjoy – it’s also what else the image tells us. You…
magical creatures
“Good morning Mr Magpie, how’s your wife and kids?” I can’t help it – at the sight of the lone pied bird perched in the low, leafless branches of an oak, the words just tumble out of my mouth. It’s a long-ingrained habit. But the phrase isn’t the only tradition associated with the sight of a lone magpie. Someone I know looks around for a crow immediately after spying one. Another crosses themselves to dispel any bad luck this member of the corvid family might bestow. These little rituals have surrounded the magpie for centuries. It’s thought they’re rooted in Christianity – the story goes that it was the only bird not to accompany Noah into the Ark, instead choosing to perch on the roof, laughing and chattering as the world…
flicker and flame
COPPER CANDLE CENTREPIECE A copper pipe isn’t just for plumbing: it also makes for a modern statement candle holder. YOU WILL NEED: 1 metre of 15mm copper pipe (we got ours from Wickes, but any large DIY or plumbing supplies store will sell the pipe and fixings) 4 x 15mm copper tees 2 x 15mm copper corners 4 x 15mm x 28mm copper end feed fitting reducers 4 x 1p pieces Pipe cutter 2 part epoxy resin Marker pen Ruler 1 Take your pipe and measure it into the following lengths: 2 x 12cm, 1 x 10cm, 1 x 8cm, 1 x 6cm, 3 x 5cm and 3 x 3cm, then cut with your pipe cutter. 2 Start by taking your two copper corners and gluing them at either end of one of your 12cm pieces of pipe, then leave to dry. 3 Next,…
