Monday 31 March 2014

Freya's Fabric #1

Through one of my birthday crafting parties I have met a fun loving and endearing girl called Freya. Since then I have gotten to know her parents a little better and last week her mum offered me Freya's old bedroom curtains. She knew that I probably wouldn't use the fabric as curtains but chop them up and turn them into something new. She was right!

I thought I would keep a little note of what can made from one pair of curtains and see where it leads. There is alot of fabric in a set of curtains and so often they can be picked up free of charge or in a charity shop for a few pounds.

 One of the pair.

 A little book bag ready for a birthday party which Lj has been invited to.

 A soft toy canopy to help store Lj's soft toys and keep her room a little tidier.

Now, what next to make with Freya's fabric?!

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Another week of creating!

 At the end of last week MJ announced 'I wish things would go back to how they were, I was 5, Lj was 2 and the bathroom wasn't a mess'! This is what he was referring to!


So I went a little crazy with the bathroom and stripped all the tiles off ready for the suite to be replaced. What I hadn't anticipated was that half the plaster would also come off. I have watched a couple of You tube videos on how to re plaster a room but I think it is time to leave it up to the experts!





Last week I finished two cushions for the lounge. When in Bath over the half term holidays I spied a new Michael Miller panel, Norwegian Woods. I loved the print and the colours and although I set myself a personal target at the beginning of the year, not to buy any fabric this year, I just couldn't resist...oops! I decided to quilt the panels and add some embroidery detail before turning them into cushions.



My first crafting birthday party of 2014 was 'fab'. I love working with 10 year old girls. They are so capable and ready to have a go at anything. I realised again that I would like to do more of these crafting parties.

Sunday 16 March 2014

Remembering the little things #1

I have been noticing on a few blogs that I check in and out of a kind of summary of the week and I'm wondering if it will help me get back into blogging...so let's try and see where we go with it.

This week I/we...

Read/Listened- Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick. MJ, Lj and I love the stories about Katie Morag who lives on the Isle of Struay so we have been visiting the library and borrowing a few at a time. This week I also listened to an interview of the author Mairi Hedderwick on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island discs while out on one of my 5km runs. She is a really interesting woman with a great story to tell. Listening to her story and reading the stories she tells has really made me wish I could spend a year on a little Scottish Island with M and the kids. But I do have a tendency to believe that 'far away fields are green' and as life is pretty good just here in this little patch I think we will stay put for now!

Watched- Downton Abbey Series 1. M and I do not watch much TV owning a lot to how we can so easily get addicted to a Series and then feel guilt at having wasted so much precious time. However this week we really felt like watching a TV series and thought we would try Downton Abbey, after all everyone seems to have watched it and loved it. One week in and we have finished Series 1 and started Series 2 and the addiction had led to a week of later than usual bedtimes but relaxed and enjoyable evenings together. Thankfully we have only got Series 2 and 3 left so we should have them dusted of in another week or so and get back to doing something useful with our evenings and earlier bedtimes.
  

Thought- 'Comforter'...a while ago I was challenged about what my role of Wife, Mother and friend is and somewhere along the journey I came across the word 'Comforter'. Nothing less and nothing more. A 'comforter'. I quite like it. I like how it simplifies things for me. If I am in any doubt of what to do in a situation if I could just remember 'to comfort' then I think many disputes would be resolved, many wounds would be healed and stressful situations would be eased.

Made-


This week I went a step further in our bedroom revamp. I decided that the curtains definitely had shrunk in the wash and were in need of lengthening. I used red gingham cotton and covered the original hem line with a blue grosgrain ribbon. With the left over fabric and ribbon I covered our bedside lamps. 

Inspired by-



I always love Habitat and its products and their Spring 14 range is no exception. I love the red/orange, yellow and blue combination in this mug. As the main colour in our dining room is similar to this shade of yellow I'm thinking that our kitchen would look nice with hints of the blue. I'm so tempted to get a big pot of paint and start painting. Watch this space!

I thought this would be a quick and easy blog post to write but I was wrong. However I did enjoy it and am sure I will try it all again soon.