Wednesday 30 November 2011

Dear Santa

Compling my letter to Santa Claus used to mean sitting for hours at the kitchen table with an Argos catalogue trying to decide which games, dolls and novelty items we wanted. As the illusion of our letters being swept up the chimney with a gust of wind faded, so did the carefully complied wish list. 

Christmas lists turned into a trip to the shops, to a scrap of paper passed around the family, to an email, to a few vague ideas across the phone. So this year I've taken back the fun of making my Christmas list. 

(Of course I'm going by the rule of providing plenty of options, with the expectation of receiving only a few... this is just my wishlist.) You never know, it might even give a few ideas of what to buy your own girlie, crafty friend/ sister/ daughter/ girlfriend/ etc.

Clockwise starting top left;
What's on your list this year?

Monday 28 November 2011

Sneaky Peek - Chistmas designs

Excited to get my Christmas cards finished in good time for sending out this year. I still have a few more to draw out and pick my card colors, but here's a sneak peek!



Saturday 26 November 2011

Weekend Projects: Re-upholstered dining chairs

This is something I'd never had a reason to try before, but since we recently moved to an unfurnished house, we decided to take a trip to a local antiques & junk yard to find salvageable pieces to fill the dinning room. We thought it'd be fun to have four mismatched chairs and each decorate our own... and here is mine!

Being the cheapo that I am, I picked this one merely for the fact that we could get a pair for £5. Bargain! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the original, salvaged chair, so you'll have to use your imagination - dark, chipped varnish with a sludgy green patterned seat, which probably wouldn't have been so awful, had it not been sat outside in the junk yard.

First off I sanded the whole thing down, dusted it off, then painted a base coat. I then spent an awfully long time wandering around the paint isles at B&Q, before picking out this Victorian 'Winchester Green'. 

The fabric I used to re-upholster the seat was found after rummaging around in the cut offs bin at my local fabric store - never under estimate the scraps! Luckily the original seat filling was still in good condition, so after pulling out the old staples and fabric, it was pretty simple to cover with my new material, folding the edges under to keep it tidy before stapling down.


We've also just acquired a pair Arts & Crafts style chairs, which I'm in the process of sanding, so stay tuned for the results of those. Enjoy your crafty weekends!

Friday 18 November 2011

Weekend Projects: 'a' letter tote

My crafty friend, Alex Carruthers, always makes people the cutest birthday cards. So when I left it a little late to start on hers, I decided to make a belated birthday present instead. She's not one for fussy accessories, and lugging things around, so I went for a simple tote bag.

The letter 'a' is embroidered using crimson and dark plum coloured cotton, and is backed with two layers of fabric and appliqued onto the bag. I also made a little bow with left over fabric from my re-upholstered chair.