Wednesday 18 November 2015

Dresser and craft fayre

A while ago I posted about decorating my dining room and whilst I had every intention of getting it all done at once, sadly it has been slower progress and in stages.  I wallpapered about 2months ago and began painting my dresser but have only just got round to taking pictures!
It was my first attempt at wallpapering and overall I'm quite pleased.  After painting the dresser in the Annie Sloan chalk paint, I then used the wilko gloss to highlight the edges.  I'll be rearranging the dresser in a few weeks for Christmas but thought I'd show it here now in it's normal state.

On Saturday I was brave/ daft enough to visit the Malvern gift and craft fayre again.  It will be on again in 2 weeks but we are visiting family for an early Christmas gathering and so will miss the parade and turning on of the lights so I thought I'd make the effort.  I bought a few things out of sympathy for the poor stall owners- who am I kidding! I loved so much that I could have bought on every stall.
I bought a felt angel from the middle stall pictured here and I bought my sister a long overdue present from a stall not pictured here.  I did discover though that she is the sister of a friend so it felt good to be supporting her on such a wet day.  I am also hoping to commission miamia Jewels to do a family tree with 2 big birdies and 3 wee ones for my husband for Christmas. 

I haven't got much further on my Christmas present making due to a series of poorly children and now husband but hopefully this weekend I will get one finished and another part way done.  The fayre has made me feel more excited for Christmas but also pressured to get the place tidy before we're overrun with Christmas presents, tinsels and decorations.  It's the first time in 3 years I'm managing Christmas prep along with working a full time job so I may let one or two things slide a little- but it wont be the food!

Thursday 12 November 2015

Kitch and Kaboodle

During the half term I took the children to our local Country Park which is just beautiful at this time of year.  I had promised to do something else but when we couldn't get transport there, I thought I would take them here as a consolation.  There is often a craft activity in their 'sewing room' which is off the café and on this day Kitch and Kabbodle were there.  I'd not seen them before and looked in to see what the craft was.  I'll be totally honest and say I saw masks and glitter and thought how is that £2.50's worth so got a bit closer and realised that the masks were blank and black to begin with but that patterns could be created from scratching off the matt black paint. 


Lydia went with her own design while Fiona copied the example piece. 
  I was transported back to childhood and realised immediately the potential fun the children would get from it.  The girls chose cats and Michael ran off the play in the wooden play café.  He soon returned and wanted to do a mask of his own which inevitably, I ended up doing! 

 




That is until he saw glitter and sparkly things to stick on and then I wasn't allowed to touch it again.




Fiona went for the less is more look and used a minimal amount of glitter whereas Lydia decided to be generous with her decoration.

 I love the individuality that these masks allow and that they appeal to all ages (including adults!) and they kept the kids occupied for close to an hour.  I would definitely do them again and totally retract that the price was steep as I actually think it is priced perfectly.  Thankyou Kitch and Kaboodle :D

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Cushion

This post is a long time coming.  I started this cushion in August and have alluded to it several times in my posts but it has been a project that I have picked up and spent 3 nights on and then not touched for 3 weeks etc.  I finished it several weeks ago but kept forgetting to take and upload pictures but finally, we're here!
I bought the bird and flower fabric off ebay and knew I wanted to do something for our room but I hadn't decided what to do so one night I took it out along with lots of haberdashery bits and began to have a play around with possible layouts and trims.

I began to form an idea of what I wanted but it took me weeks to decide whether this would be a panel on a quilt or a cushion on it's own.  I spent so much time on the little details that I was unsure I could sustain it for a while quilt so decided on a cushion.
I had the peach crochet/ lace doilies from a carboot where there had been about 7 for £2.  The little mint green ones were bought in a charity shop -4 for £1.  The floral fabric with buttons and coordinating ribbons was £2 from the works and the green buttons were also charity shop finds at 4- 50p!  This really was a bargain cushion (my favourite).  I realised as I was doing this cushion, that this is what I love the most with crafting and would happily make this type of upcycled, vintage, shabby chic but eclectic stuff all the time- especially if it had birdies on.
 I decided to make rosette's from the green doilies, layering them with extra lace trim, crochet flowers (also off ebay) with a button in the centre,  I didn't want too many of the same thing so also made a couple of yoyo's with buttons in the middle with quite a contrasting green to add some depth.  I felt it would benefit from more detail so appliqued a bird and a blue flower again adding the blue to vary the colour pallet.  The white lace around the blue flower has been in my stash since I began collecting ribbons and lace and was £4 for 28meters!  It is nearly all gone but has embellished so many of my pieces over the years.



After I had assembled it and was happy it was detailed enough, I began to quilt it and actually filmed a little of the quilting.

 It was nearly all done but I still needed to make the back up and also stumbled upon this gorgeous lap quilt in one of my favourite local charity shops.  There is a lady who regularly crochet's these lap blankets and baby blankets and I often pay a visit and purchase them when friends have baby showers etc.  When I saw this, I knew it would match the cushion and had to buy it!
And here is the finished product in situ.  I really love it and was surprised when my husband said he hated it!  Pah, what does he know.