Tea Cup Craft Challenge

It's been a while since I got my craft on.  I started this blog primarliy to chart my foray into the crafty world and I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything crafty that's blog worthy this year.  Oops!

So to get my craft on I've decided to do a bit of tea cup crafting.  Tea Cup crafting is everywhere on t'internet and everything always looks gorgeous.  I do love a tea cup.  So I'm going to give it a go.

I've got lots of mismatched tea cups dotted around the house, but I've chosen a tea cup set that I bought on my thrifty travels to craft with.  I'm always wary of spoiling a good tea cup with my cack handedness so this set it perfect as it is gorgeous and it's not a known maker.  So I think I can just about live with any mishaps.

I'm not setting myself a time limit on this as I do have a tendency to phaff when it comes to crafting.  So to keep you happy in the meantime here's some pics of the tea cup set I'm going to sacrafice  use.

Four tea cups from the same set but each one is a little bit different.  There's matching saucers and tea plates with them too.

Jeez, the nerves are already starting to set in.  Can I really bring myself to "do" something to these beauties?  I'm off to google and pinterest for some inspiration.  Yikes!


This post is shared on Tea Cup Tuesday.

Welsh Slate Tile Chalkboard

One of the places we visited on our Welsh holiday was Chirk Castle.  I'll write a more detailed post about our visit later but for now I want to show you the souvenir I bought from the very pricey farm shop on the castle grounds.

In amongst all the lush homemade cakes and goodies, organic meats and treats, plants and flowers was a huge pile of slate tiles.

I ignored all the goodies and went for the slate tiles.  At 50p each how could I resist!  The slate tiles were taken from the castle roof itself and were rather manky to say the least.

I thought they would make a great hanging chalkboard sign.  Unfortunatley they all seemed to have only one hole in them probably where they were nailed down.  But after a lot of rummaging around I found one solitary tile with two holes.  I know I could have asked the Big Man to drill an extra hole in but unfortunately I have a husband who does not really prioritise my crafty needs i.e. he would have chucked the tile into his "workshop" in the hopes that I would forget about it!

After much scrubbing of the tile, it came up lovely.  I couldn't find any twine in my stash so have had to make do with some ribbon (I hope it's strong enough).

The sign is now hanging in my porch.  It's all lumps and bumps and rather difficult to write or draw anything neatly on it.  But I think it all adds to it's charm. 

This post is shared on Frugalicious Friday  Show and Tell Friday Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Bedside Cabinet Makeover

After a dry spell, I've got into my groove again and have been painting up a storm.  No furniture is safe from my trusty paint brush and Annie Sloan chalk paint.  Last year I made over some bits of old furniture I'd scored from freecycle and car boot sales.  There was my beloved dresser from a very lovely young lady and my ever useful little side table.

Now I'm in the process of making over the Wee Man's new bedroom.  We are moving him into the spare room to give him more space which means the furniture in there needs to be made more Wee Man friendly.  I've just finished the last coat of wax on his new bedside cabinet.

The Wee Man's favourite colour is blue and wanted his whole room to be a blue haven, blue walls, blue curtains, blue carpet, blue furniture.  Luckily he was born to a mother with some sense and that idea was quickly quashed.  We compromised with some touches of blue and we are both happy.

Here's a photo of what it looked like originally.

A plain old very boring and very orange, pine bedside cabinet, found in the majority of 1980s UK homes.  The cabinet was originally the Big Man's, bought from Argos for £60.  £60 for a bedside cabinet?!

It's had two coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in "Old White" and the stripey front is wallpaper (a "sample" I acquired from Wilkinsons).  It was a very quick project to complete and it's now cluttering up my living room waiting for the Big Man to move the Wee Man's bed into his new room.

This post is shared on Transformation Thursday, Open House Party Furniture Feature Friday  Feature Yourself Friday Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Blue Cricket design, Momnivore's Dilemma, Saved by Suzy

Quick Knob Painting Tip

I've recently got back into my furniture makeover groove and been painting like a loon.  I'll show off my recent projects once I get some decent pics of them.

But until then, a quick tip for painting drawer knobs...use chopsticks.  The picture explains it all (rather dark but you get the idea).

No messy fingers and every inch covered (including the chopsticks - yikes).

A Handbook for Christmas

Come December, the shops are choc full of guides and handbooks on how to have the best Christmas ever.  How to dress your tree, how to serve a Michelin starred dinner and how to make exceptional presents that will become heirlooms.

Not one to deviate from the bandwagon I found the best Christmas handbook ever published.  Bought for a meagre £1 from a charity shop last week, the book has given me a lot of  lightbulb moments and a few chuckles.

It covers everything you need to have a very merry Christmas for all the family with recipes, decorating ideas, craft ideas and even instructs you on how to take down and store your decorations for next year. 

By far my favourite section in the book is the "Choosing of Presents".  With a handy illustrated guide on which presents to give and not give each member of your family.  For example,  who knew giving Gran a corset for Christmas would elicit this response from her?  

And it is really not a good idea to give Mum toilet paper and a scrubbing brush?

The kids would take exception to receiving a school uniform or writing paper.  And poor baby should definitely not be reminded of his incontinence.

There's also a chapter on how to decorate your tree to a theme with great crafting ideas for ornaments.  There's the Children's tree.

With wool and stick stars.  I remember making these at school.

Sweetie garlands which will no doubt rapidly become an empty sweetie wrapper garland.

And fluffy woolen pom poms.  Did these at school too and hated it.  They are so monotonous to do.

There's also the Victorian tree with gravity defying doves at the top of the tree.

A Soft and Safe Tree for baby with cotton wool garlands and paper chains.

And my favourite tree is the Wildlife tree for your garden.

Who needs gawdy Blackpool lights in your garden when you could have this lovely creation?  It's so simple to make and the little birdies will be kept happy through the Christmas season.

The book also gives some handy tips on how to build with snow.  Who'd have thunk you could use a cardboard box to make snow squares or a wasing up liquid bottle to make towers?  Genius!

All I need now are four trees, two feet of snow and definitely not toilet paper or scrubbing brushes.  

Another score from Freecycle

Who loves Freecylce?  I do, I do!  I love Freecycle, love it!

You may remember the fantastic dresser I got earlier this year and it's subsequent transformation.  Well I got myself a new project to dip my chalk paint into.  

It was described as a half moon display unit.  I always find descriptions on Freecyle posts to be rather obscure so it's always a bit hit and miss when you turn up to collect things.  This unit is most definitely a hit.

It has glass shelves and a light but a bit of the veneer has come off the corner of one of the doors and the keys to the locks have been lost.  But a lick of paint and maybe some wallpaper on the back will transform it.

I love it and the Big Man and Wee Man are rather taken with it too.  The Wee Man has decided his model trains will look lovely displayed in it!  He is still reeling from my refusal to display his trains on my dresser.  A stern "No way!" hasn't sufficed so far.  Looks like I'll have a mini battle on my hands.  

This post is shared on Flea Market Finds, Blue Cricket Design

Out of Chaos Comes Lovelies + Giveaway

It's been a bit hectic here.  I've picked up some bits and pieces from my travels to show you all but I just haven't found the time to take pics and post about them.  It takes a lot of time and effort to take really dark, out of focus photos, dontcha know?

The past couple of weeks have been all about the Wee Man and his allergies.  But to be honest it normally is all about the Wee Man and his allergies.  I've had meeting after meeting with various people at the school.  Discussing this, that and everything in between.  He starts reception in September, so he will be moving from the safe bubble that is his nursery class to the big school and beyond.  He'll also be having lunch at school which is a whole minefield in itself.  I won't bore you with the details of it all, but needless to say it's been quite a stressful time.

We all had lunch at the school yesterday, so we could witness first hand what lunch time at the school is like.  Think sixty, four and five year olds eating lunch with very little adult supervision.  After the lunch, the Big Man declared that he wanted me to be at the school every lunch time to watch the Wee Man.  He was physically shaking with fear with wide starey eyes and everything.  Thankfully, I talked him down from the precipice he was tottering on.

Anyway, there's still a lot to discuss and do before the end of term, which is only a couple of weeks away.  So really, not feeling any big pressure or stress at all.  Nope, not me.  Stress free and emotionless me(!)

Anyway, in spite of all these goings ons, I've found great solace in shopping.  A girl's gotta shop and all that.  I've picked up a few lovelies on my travels this past week.  First up, a set of vintage playing cards.  I've seen some gorgeous ones floating around blog land and of course I wanted some also.  They're so pretty and I'm going to use them for some crafty thingie rather than play with them.  I'm not sure they would survive a game of Scabbie Queen or Snap in our house.  We do get rather excitable when playing cards.

They are illustrated with wild flowers from Western Australia.  They sure beat the native British dandelion.  They are a complete pack with their original plastic case, £1.

The Wee Man and I went to the dentist last week and of course we had to pop into the charity shops on the way.  There were very poor pickings on the day but at the very last charity shop we went into I found this delightful lovely.  I very nearly didn't pick it up as it is a far cry from my usual vintage bone china.  But when I did pick it up I couldn't put it back down.  A quick peek at the bottom and I realised they were Gisela Graham and not only that, they were brand new and still had their stickers on them.

It's a Gisela Graham Gingerbread man jug and plate, £1.99.  It's so cute, the Wee Man is enamoured with it as am I. The Big Man however did his rolley eye thing when he saw it.  It's perfect for Christmas Day dinner and I'm thinking of using it as the theme for the table this year.  But that's six months away and only one day.  It's too cute to use only once a year, so I'm on the hunt for the perfect display spot in my house.  Which is a lot harder than it sounds.  I think it'll look a wee bit out of place next to vintage tea cups and the like.

Giveaway

On Saturday we also made a visit to our local scrapstore.  It's a great place and I'll write a whole post dedicated to the Aladdin's cave that is our scrapstore.  But that's another day and another post.  One of the things I did pick up was a great knitting pattern book.

It's got lots of great children's knits in there.  Beautiful, whimsical knits that I would love to be able to make.  I picked it up thinking that one day I'd be good enough to attempt them, but in truth I think that will be many, many years from now.  I think it would be a shame for this book to get lost in my craft stash so I'd like to give it to someone who would make use of the patterns.

There are 12 patterns in all.

My favourite is the green Maid Marion jumper.  It's so cute with a little fringey frilly thing at the bottom.

If you would like the book, just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a name out next week.  I'll give it until next Tuesday 12th July.  Good luck.

This post is shared on Magpie Monday Flea Market Finds Treasure Hunt Finds Club GW Nifty Thrifty Tuesday Twice Owned Tuesday Someday Crafts

Here comes the Sun

It's been silly weather here.  One day we've got a heatwave the next it's thunder storms and long sleeve jammies at bed time.  I'm not one who enjoys hot sunny weather.  Give me a cool Spring breeze any day.  

With the heatwave, I had no other choice but to dig out my old summer clothes.  I hate the change of seasons as inevitably it means trying on last years clothes to see if they still fit!  More often than not I'm disappointed but this year I have a little spring in my sunny step because my favourite summer skirt still fits.  Hurrah!  

It's a patchwork skirt from M&S.  I bought it years ago, before the Wee Man was born, from an M&S outlet shop.  I do love it so.  I love the fabric on it.  It is actual patchwork and not the cheap printed patchwork you find a lot of these days.  

Every time I wear it I tend to sit and stare at it.  The fabrics are so lovely.  I have thought about cutting it up and making it into some cushion covers.  I'd like to get more use out of it other than a few of times a year.  But I just can't bring myself to do it.

What do you think?  Should I keep it hidden in my wardrobe to be pulled out and worn a few times a year or should I get the scissors to it and make something with it?  It's such a difficult decision.

Pour moi?! Not quite.

A few months ago I took part in a swap and my lovely swap partner sent me the most gorgeous handmade bag.  I love the bag and have been using it every day since I got it.  It's so roomy, gorgeous and holds everything I need to humph about with me.  Which is a lot.  Have a look at my "What have you got in your bag?" post.

And look what came in the post today!  Lots of lovely beautifully wrapped parcels, with little butterfly stickers on them and.....

Two bags of each of the three designs, so six delicious bags in total.  Six bags, five teachers which means one for me to keepsy!

The bags are so gorgeous I thought they would be a perfect gift for the Wee Man's nursery teachers at the end of term.  So I asked Cartier to make me some and lucky for me she said yes.

I'm going to give each teacher a gift basket/ goodie bag with lots of pressies in it.  It's always fun to get a goodie bag don't you think.  Delving in and puling out another lovely.  It's like a lucky dip with everything inside guaranteed to delight.

There are five teachers in total in the Wee Man's class.  Three actual teachers, his support worker Mrs. H. and another little girl's support worker Mrs N.  The Wee Man doesn't have much to do with Mrs. N. which is the nature of being a support worker but she is such a lovely lady and I think it only fair that all the teachers are shown some appreciation for all the hardwork that they do.

I like to show the teachers that we appreciate everything they do for us, especially with the Wee Man's allergies and the extra special care they give him.  Plus the ladies in the school office for all the hard work they do behind the scenes and of course the Head Teacher.  So all in all it will be a pressie bonanza.

Better get my crafting hat on and get my bum into gear!  Got some pressies to make.

I've been playing with my toys!

What do I do when the Wee Man's at nursery school?  I would love to say housework but in reality I play with my toys.  My beautiful, delicate, gorgeous lovelies that makes my heart go bumpity-bump.

I've spent this morning playing with my dresser.  Putting new things on display and sighing at their loveliness.  Everything but two of the things, on the dresser came from either a charity shop or car boot sale.  The dresser itself was free from Freegle.

  

Pretty, pretty china.  The mosaic box in the bottom of the picture was one of my first bargain finds at a charity shop.  It was brand new and made by Sia.  It had an original shop sticker on the bottom for £16.  I got it for a mere £3.  It now stores some of the Big Man's many card readers, USB stick things and leads!

The cake slice was a birthday present from a dear friend.  I came home one day to find a surprise package on my doorstep.  She has a tendency to turn up unannounced at my doorstep with presents.

The single cake stand in the middle was one of my first crafty makes.  A charity shop vintage plate and glass vase, with a bit of Pinflair glue and I had me my first cake stand.  My cake stand collection has kind of grown since then.  They are kind of haphazardly piled on top of each other on another cupboard.  I have vowed never to buy another cake stand.  Promise!

The tea cups are some of my many tea cups.  I think I'll have another play in a couple of weeks and get my other tea cups out of storage.  

So what do you do when the kids are at school?

This post is shared on "Show and Tell Friday",  "Vintage Inspiration Friday" , "Feathered Nest Friday" , "Inspiration Friday", "Home Sweet Home" Strut Your Stuff Nifty Thrifty Sunday Tuesdays Treasures

...Easter nests

I think this post may be a wee bit late for anyone wanting to do something similar.  But I've been away and this is my first day back and since today is Easter Sunday I thought I would share with you the Easter nests the Wee Man made.

So simple to make and a lot of messy fun.

The Wee Man and I tore up a Primark shopping bag, but any brown paper will do.  The Wee Man then squeezed a lot of PVA into a plastic food tub and mixed in some water, to make a watered down PVA solution.

Whist he did that I hunted down some little bowls and wrapped them in cling film.  Then came the messy bit.  It's best to work on a plastic tray or a cling film covered tray.  We threw handfuls of torn paper into the PVA solution and basically smushed them on top of the upturned bowls.  The messier the better so you get a more "natural" nest look.

It took a couple of days for the nests to dry out completely.  When they were dry I gently prised them off the bowls.  They came easily off the cling film.

We've put some chocolate eggs into them and will be taking them round to his little friend and a lovley neighbour later today.

Happy Easter.

...a Spring Swap (Part 1)

I received the most wonderful surprise this morning.  There was a knock on the door and there was a rather sweaty man with a huge box for me.  It was my Spring Swap from the lovely Cartier on SCC.  It's come all the way from Germany so goodness knows how much postage must have cost.

The box was huge and heavy, no wonder the man was a bit sweaty.

I had to fight the urge to tear the box open.  I wanted to take lots of pics to show everyone so instead hunted down my camera.

Inside was lots of lovely pink tissue paper.  Just the tissue paper alone made me smile.

What was inside?  So many lovely, gorgeous, beautiful things.

A beautifully wrapped Easter/ Spring basket brimming with goodies.

There was a set of bright spotty tea towels.  Way too lovely to dry dishes with.  I'll have to think of something suitable to make with them.

Some Easter and Spring themed paper napkins which will definitely not be used to wipe mucky mouths and fingers.  A decoupage project is in the offing.

A sunny yellow "Welcome" heart that is already in it's new home, hanging in my porch.

Wooden Easter decorations.  Cartier explained in a lovely letter that in Germany they decorate their homes with an Easter tree for Easter.  Some branches in a vase festooned with all things Easter.  I will definitely be doing this with the Wee Man over the school holidays.  In fact I'm not really sure I can wait that long.

A bottle of yummy cherry blossom hand wash and beautiful card.

I also got a beautiful handmade bag, lavender sachet and lacey drawstring bag.  The bag is perfect and will be used daily as my every day bag.  I will no doubt be the envy of every Mum at the school gate.  The lavender sachet smells divine.  I love the smell of lavender.  I'm not sure what to do with it as it is too gorgeous to hide away in my knicker drawer.  I want to carry it around with me, hanging 3 inches from the end of my nose.  Though maybe that would be a bit unwise.

I also got a whole pile of magazines.  I love reading magazines and I am so looking forward to curling up on the sofa tonight with a cup of coffee and the Martha Stewart mag.  I often browse the Martha Stewart website for tutorials and inspiration.  I am really rather excited at the prospect of reading the mags.  Like Cartier, I always seem to find myself in front of a magazine rack when I go on holiday abroad.  It's always interesting to see what the magazine culture is like in other countries.

And of course, Cartier didn't forget the Wee Man and he got a great Easter sticker book with 400 stickers!  He will be very pleased.

I can't thank Cartier enough for all the lovely gifts.  They really have brought a huge smile to my face.  Thank you so much Cartier.