Keeping busy with craft projects part 2

This project is a favourite of mine. I got the idea from Carrots 'n' Cake. I just saw the photos of the kitchen and thought:

I need a shelf next to my oven.

So I bought some wrought iron effect shelf supports from ebay to match the door handles and a length of wood from B&Q.
I then measured and cut the wood to length, levelled and drilled holes in the wall... Okay, I'm lying. I got my Dad to help do the technical stuff while SBB was at work.
But I did varnish the shelf and screw it into place via the pilot holes my Dad had drilled for me... That counts, right?

Ooh, pretty, right?

But what to put on it.....?

I had a selection of storage jars I bought a couple of years ago from Ikea. I'd planned to use them at the flat to 'dress' the kitchen.

I bought some 'blackboard' labels and a chalk pen from Amazon. I debated a little about what to put in the jars, but decided to use them for the three main pastas/rice we use (rather than lentils etc, which I have to sneak past SBB!)

Ta da! It's funny how such simple things can be so pleasing!

Keeping busy with craft projects part 1

You would be forgiven - entirely - for thinking that our obsession for craft (well, mine) and DIY had waned with impending parenthood and in the bleary early months of babydom. Any mention of my craft projects has been sadly absent so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some photos of what I've been up to.

Nursery lamp shade

The nursery is forest themed - I've yet to share the final photo of the mural, but it's rather fabulous if I do say so myself! 

Anyway, I searched for a forest themed shade for the ceiling light but the only one I could find was about £40 from John Lewis. A tad too expensive! So instead I bought a cheap uplighter from Dunelm Mill and covered the metal point with some paper leaves left over from our wedding. 

Simple, yet oh-so-satisfying.

Front door wreath

I do love a door wreath, but haven't ever shifted myself into gear to make one for Christmas - let alone a generic one. However, I have a thing about shoes indoors. Specifically, on my carpets. Call me a weirdo, call me a germaphobe... I don't care. Just don't walk shoes over my carpet.

The inspiration for this came from Hobbycraft - one of the newsletters they send out via email - the one in the photo was for Christmas, but it got me thinking.

I bought a polystyrene wreath, a ball of wool, decorative moss, twine ribbon and a slate sign. I used acrylic paint to paint the words.

It gives me warm fuzzies whenever I open the front door.

Nursery drawers

Eh.... So not really crafting, but a little piece of fun none-the-less. I'm not very good at measuring or cutting straight, so the liners are a little wonky, but they inject some fun into putting away/taking out the baby's clothes every day. 

And all for less than £1 from Card Factory!

Ooh you stud(ded jumper)

A while ago I had a bit of a case of jumper envy while watching Ellie Mecham's channel. It's a pale mint green/turquoise jumper with stud on the arms. I tried to get a screen shot but couldn't seem to time it right so ended up with a few un-flattering pictures. Out of respect for Ellie I'm not going to show them - so I'll just direct you to her 14 week pregnancy update to see the original.

I had the thought at the back of my head for a few weeks but couldn't find a jumper of a similar colour so had pretty much shelved the idea until one evening SBB and I were in Newport to collect a healthy and nutritious meal (*cough*McDonalds*cough*) and I saw a suitable jumper in the window of Oxfam. By that time Oxfam was closed so I went back the next day. It was no longer in the window but it was still there and in my size! Obviously meant to be...

I bought some iron-on studs from eBay and on a Saturday while SBB was watching football I set to work.
My materials:

• Jumper
• 100 iron-on studs
• Iron
• Greaseproof paper
• Folded cardboard

 

I used the greaseproof paper between the studs and the iron - just in case any glue leaked out - and the folded cardboard I put inside the arm to prevent the material sticking together. I have a thing about finding patterns in things - knots in wood, freckles etc - so I wanted the studs to be as random as possible. It took a little while to get the timing right for the glue to stick but I got there eventually. I'd split up the studs so that it was 50 per arm - 25 for each side - but ended up with a few left over.

SBB eventually wandered in and looked over my shoulder.

"Don't say it," I warned, seeing the look on his face. "Whatever you're going to say about my jumper... just don't."

"I wasn't going to say anything," he said blithely. "If you want to look like rhinestone cowboy that's your business."

Thanks, honey.

When it was finished I asked him to take a couple of photos of me wearing it and discovered that he really sucks at taking blog photos. He took a few - initially of himself because he'd managed to switch it to the front camera (bless!) - but they all came out blurry. Every. Single. One. (sigh)

But here it is, the finished article. Not bad for £3!

A First Christmas cuddly toy

It was my niece's first Christmas this year and I wanted to give her something that would last and that she would hopefully keep forever. From my own experience the soft toys that I've kept from childhood were the ones that were personalised in some way. I was very lucky and my parents had a very creative neighbour who knitted me a rabbit with a yellow dress and white ballerina shoes - I called her Buttercup. Now, I can't knit, so that wasn't an option but a few of the others I still have are ones with added ribbons or clothes made especially for them and that I could do! (Or so I thought)

I started out by buying a cute soft toy on sale from Mothercare and I was lucky that the one I had my eye on went into their (additional) 20% off toys sale so I ended up with a bargain at about £3.99!
I then bought an offcut of material and some ribbon from Hellerslea in Newport. The ribbon bundles were about 60p each and the material - which I think was a sample size - was about £2.

I browsed the web for ideas of designs and decided to try and keep it as simple as possible. I had a rough idea of what I wanted it to look like so I mocked up a paper version and then cut out the pattern from a scrap piece of material.

...There was just one problem. I forgot that the tension from the bobbin is too tight in my sewing machine so it ended up looking like this:

Hmm. Maybe I wouldn't be sewing a dress afterall...
This discovery was only made after about four hours of measuring and mucking up various different paper versions. I'll admit, finally defeated, I shed a few tears. My intended present was ruined. To my mind at least.

I gave up and settled on handsewing the bow and stitching her name onto the foot.

So, not entirely the Christmas gift I'd had planned but it's still a pretty cute present.

'Ello Vera! A housewarming gift

Unfortunately this is not a post about a lady named Vera. It is however a quick post about the little present I put together for our friends who have just moved house. The question was: what to get them as a housewarming gift...?

SBB suggested a bottle of wine but I don't drink and, as he wasn't around to advise me, I decided against it. The other option was a plant. Now, I'm not very green-fingered. In fact, SBB calls our house 'The Place That Plants Come to Die'. Charming.

However, having said that there is one thing that I've been able to keep alive for years and that is a little dude which has come to be known as Lazarus.


I've had him (I don't know why it's a 'he') for about 9 years. My Nan gave him to me to take to uni and he has so far survived long periods of drought when I left him in my room over the holidays, even longer periods of drought when I moved in with SBB and he sat neglected on the kitchen window sill (the plant that is, not SBB), over watering when I finally remembered him and last but not least a winter outside. He also survived many years in a pot that was too small and the traumatic re-potting when I finally got round to it.

I left him outside (should it still be just a 'he' if there ended up being more than one plant? I'm getting confused) last winter and the green leaves withered. Sad face. I thought I'd killed my aloe vera plant. My Nan was disappointed every time she forgot what had happened to the plant and asked me about it and everyone else was incredulous that I'd managed to kill off and aloe vera - one of the hardiest plants around, so they said.

What can I say - it's a special gift.

So, you can imagine my delight when lovely new baby green shoots appeared in the spring. And so Lazarus was named. Even though there's more than one of him. Them. Arrgh.

I popped into B&Q and picked up this little pot which is so lovely I may have to go and buy one for myself so I can buy a new plant to kill off gently nurture.

Re-potting/moving plants seems to be what I'm worst at and I was really worried that I'd kill all the plants off when re-homing them. But I carefully loosened the plants from their pots - I put everything in a large bucket as I'd used up all my all-purpose soil doing the bush beds last year.

I put a couple of stones for drainage in the bottom of each plastic pot and then repacked the soil, leaving a hole for the plants and then topping up with soil.

After planting (and wiping excess soil off the pot) I decided that the soil looked a little bare. B&Q didn't have any small packs of decorative stones but luckily we had some put down this summer so I popped outside to cherry-pick some of the prettiest ones.


I'm rather pleased with the outcome:

The other weekend while SBB was working I went out to dinner with my family to a place called Seven in Shorwell.

Nan had brought me a new aloe vera plant - which I think may have grown from an offcut of Lazarus - she handed it to me and told me not to kill off this one. I made no promises.

I wasn't too keen on the pot (pink plastic with white clouds) so I popped it into this one that had previously housed a Lazarus-baby. The hedgehog came from Nan - isn't he cute?