Get your Hotmail Mail to Your Mac Mail

Something I've always been meaning to get round to doing is to get my Hotmail emails straight onto my desktop through Mac Mail. After a fruitless attempt a few years ago I abandoned the idea but now, with he help of a little online tutorial I'm emails a go-go, combining all my email accounts and feeling organised!

How to from About.com:

Access Windows Live Hotmail with Mac OS X Mail Using POP

To set up a Windows Live Hotmail account in Mac OS X Mail using POP (which lets you fetch new incoming mail easily):

• ›› Step by Step Screenshot Walkthrough

• Select Mail | Preferences... from the Mac OS X Mail menu.
• Go to the Accounts category.
• Click the + ("Create an account.") button.
• Enter your name under Full Name:.
• Type your Windows Live Hotmail address (something like "example@hotmail.com") under Email Address:.
• Type your Windows Live Hotmail password under Password:.
• Click Continue.
• Make sure POP is selected under Account Type:.
• Enter "Windows Live Hotmail" (or something similar) as the Description: for this account.
• Type "pop3.live.com" (not including the quotation marks) under Incoming Mail Server:.
• Enter your complete Windows Live Hotmail address ("example@hotmail.com", for example) under User Name:.
• Click Continue.
• Enter "Windows Live Hotmail" under Description: for Outgoing Mail Server.
• Type "smtp.live.com" under Outgoing Mail Server:.
• Make sure Use Authentication is checked.
• Enter your full Windows Live Hotmail address (e.g. "example@hotmail.com") under User Name:.
• Type your Windows Live Hotmail password under Password:.
• Click Continue.
• Now click Create.
• Close the Accounts window.

Voila! Emails whenever I start up my Mac, no need to fight slow loading Firefox!

Black Swan Posters

These amazing art deco inspired posters for the forthcoming film Black Swan starring Natalie Portman have just been released. A round of applause for a film studio that allowed graphic design to speak for itself and not have to squeeze endless celebrity faces into a generic film poster.

It must be the first time I've wanted to put a modern film poster on my wall! I'm just wondering how to get my hands on them? May have to chat up a cinema worker over the next month...

Lino Cutting for Beginners

So I tried my hand at lino cutting, something I have to admit I haven't done since I was about fourteen, cutting out a picture of a local church under the orders of my 200 year old art teacher. So I wanted a way of creating something immediate and with a handmade edge to it - literally edge, the wobbly edge variety. Within five minutes I had a bird stamp with which I adorned the front of my newly bound notebooks (stand by for the blog on easy binding!).

You may think from the pictures the stamp seems to print in rather a patchy manner but as I just used a standard ink pad and not a roller with proper ink the results were not as good but nevertheless the stamp is still great! Another easy method of printing is to paint on some acrylic with a paintbrush to the stamp and you get a lovely painted look.

First off you need to buy a little special equipment here, a lino cutter ad some lino, I bought a cutter with changeable cutting shapes on it for a mere £6 which is a great start as it gives you 10 options for cutting shapes and is a good price to give it a go without the guilt of investment! You can get them at most craft shops or online here.

Next you need a piece of lino, also available from craft shops, prices range from about 40p for small squares to around £3 for an A4 size, for my stamp I just cut a square out of a larger piece.



Next you need a piece of lino, also available from craft shops, prices range from about 40p for small squares to around £3 for an A4 size, for my stamp I just cut a square out of a larger piece.

Simply draw on your desired shape in pencil and decide weather it is in negative or positive, i.e. cut round the shape or cut the shape out, then start slowly marking with the cutter around the shape and cut away the lino. Make sure to cut the lino deep enough to prevent the other parts catching the ink.

N.B it's much easier if you warm your lino a little on the radiator or on top of a lamp for a few minutes as you get smoother edges and less crumbling of the lino.



Once you're done, use a rolled over piece of tape or souble sided and stick it to something solid, I used a wooden letterpress block to give it an even stamp as it's quite small and flimsy at this size. Then stamp away to your hearts content!


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Christmas Decorations Online Shopping

1. Fabric Christmas Pudding, John Lewis £3.25; 2. Dot Hearts Hand printed Decorations, SouthernSkirts $9; 3. 'Gwyn' Owl from Habitat, £2; 4. Lovebirds Christmas Ornaments, PrinceDesignUK £10; 5. Help for Heroes Charity Bears, Selfridges £15 each; 6. White Porcelain Bell Garland, The White Company £15

My top picks of Christmas tree decorations that are available online to shop in your lunch break. I was disappointed that Habitat hasn't a great selection online, as in store they have some amazing decorations. You may prefer to go into The White Company shop for some of their decorations as they are selling out fast - or do what I did this January and buy them up in the sale!

If the shops are a bit same same etsy.com has the world's largest selection of handmade items for sale, beware it's addictive!

The alternative it to make you own which ensures some unique and budget friendly decorations, so if you have the time, have an afternoon with some felt, origami paper and string. Try these links for some home-made ideas:

- For a modern wreath I made one from Domestifluff last year - totally worth the effort!
- Origami a go-go with this amazing star from How About Orange
- For food that will last forever, try these faux sugar cookie ornaments from Creature Comforts

If you can't find anything you fancy with these amazing blogs, my ctl+alt+del is always craftzine.com for an endless supply of making ideas.

Eco Gifts Under £50

1. I love Recycling by Peter Blake, £45 2. Christmas Tree Seed Bomb, £3.99 3. Charity T-Shirt by Luella for EJF, £30 4. Graphic Butterflies, £29 inc delivery 5. Leaf-it bookmark post-it notes by Ginkgo, £12 6. Protect Poster by Binary & The Brain for the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, £10

Eco Gift ideas for Christmas for my eco-warrior PHD biologist little sister Milly. The only problem I have now is which one to choose!

Script Ampersands from DaFont.com

1. Chopin Script 2. Champignon Alt Swash 3. English 4. Champignon
5. Sachiko 6. Shardee

My top picks of script ampersands from free font site DaFont.com

Why cats are no good at puzzles...

Clearly puzzles are far too dull for Martha...

Christmas Tree

Yay, we finished our first Christmas tree in our first house! Minus the flea market fairy on top, but she's just disinfecting at the moment. It was like opening new presents this year as I'd rather thriftily bought my decorations in this years January sales and managed to get a rather lovely selection of The White Company decorations at a third of the price, so opening my decorations box I was glad to see they'd survived the move and looked as lovely as they did in the shop (the danger of The White Company - everything in the shop looks so amazing in the shop but your house has to be chic to start with!).

With a few additions of Home Bargains candy canes (a mere 70p for 20!) and Ikea baubles, I think our tree looks lovely this year - we're almost grown ups!

Now if only we had presents for underneath...

Salford Flea Market Postcards

After braving the fog, snow and freezing cold I finally made the 50 metre trek to Salford's Sunday flea market in search of an old Barbie for the top of my recently erected Christmas tree. Success was to be had with many a bedraggled barbie for the princely sum of 50p, a quick wipe down with a disinfectant wipe and a little sewing and we'll be fairy a go-go in no time!

Aside from the usual tat there were a collection of postcards at my usual favourite stall of war-time memorabilia and house clearance items. I just had to have the postcard from Canada between two school pen-pals with the message "Dear David, I hope you get in the world book of records. From Jennifer Mott". I've been googling all morning to try to find this Jennifer Mott from New Brunswick, just thought it would be lovely if she could get the postcard back after 22 years. I shall endeavor to keep looking...