Bows, sequins, ribbon and stripes in one heart

Such a cute little fabric heart from my friend Hannah which she popped inside my Christmas card :)

Weekend Projects: Tree Hearts & Puddings

Best carried out with a bunch of festive tunes, here's my Spotify playlist if you can't be bothered to compile your own - CHRISTMAS Playlist. Lemme know if I've missed any crackers! (pun intended)

I made these last year and can't wait to get them out again this weekend once we've been to pick out our tree. They're pretty simple and cheap to make, all you need is;

• Ribbon
• Brown felt (for the pudding)
• Cream fabric (the the pudding sauce - I just used the same for the hearts)
• Gold beads
• Coloured thread
• Stuffing

Obviously, use whatever fabric and ribbon patterns you want to match your own decor.

Make yourself a few stencils, something simple like these will do.

 

Pin them to your fabric, and cut out. Each decoration with need two cut outs, so once you have a pair, pin them together. Pick out your matching thread and start sewing together, I used a blanket stitch around the edges to hold them together a bit better. Once you're need to the end, remember to take a break from the stitching to stuff them before finishing. 

For the puddings I stitched the cream piece onto one side of the pudding before sewing both circles together. I used a few gold beads dotted around, and added a loop of ribbon to the back.

The hearts also have one piece of looped ribbon on the back, and a small bowed stitched onto the front.

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!

Happy Halloween!

Determined to make a decent effort this Halloween, I've gone all out on my pumpkin carving, with a full graveyard scene. I will be sad when the time comes to throw this baby out. 

 

As self entitled 'head of decorations' for our Halloween party, I also made a huge family of bats and mice cut from bin liners to invade the house, along with plenty of spiderwebs and creepies for the bookshelves.

I'm now looking forward to cooking up a treat from all the leftover pumpkin insides...Pumpkin and pecan pie?!

Walk Through Walls

...Kyla La Grange.

I always appreciate photos of other peoples homes, seeing all the little nic-nacs they've accumulated, lovingly displayed as part of the décor. It generally fills me with a mix of envy and inspiration, along with a gentle reassurance, knowing that my favourites are a combination of cheap finds and a bit of D.I.Y. that I can copy.

While I don't have the cute country cottage, or rough walled NYC style loft, we've spend the past few months trying to make a modern Ikea furnished flat feel a bit more like a home, with a touch of floral, a few antique finds and hand made bits and bobs.