Saturday, 29 June 2013

26/52

Posted by Alison on June 29, 2013 in 52 in 2013 / 2 comments

Little e: Using chopsticks for the first time, she is already better than me...!

Big E: After tears because he couldn't master the chopsticks he soon 'got it'!

Pretty rubbish camera photos this week (we were out for my little sisters birthday) but I had to use them, they were so proud of themselves!

Joining up with Jodi again this week for

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

And the winner of the Embroidery book is....

Posted by Alison on June 28, 2013 / 1 comment

Entry 3, which is Wendy from The Crafter's Apprentice! Wendy, I am mailing you now for your address!

DIY Formal Shirt to Cushion Cover

Posted by Alison on June 25, 2013 in cushion, giveaway, men's shirt, refashion / 11 comments

My first formal shirt refashion was a shirt to blouse, this time it was a lot more simple!

I got an old shirt from my Dad, dyed it turquoise, then cut it under the arms. I placed my cushion on to the shirt, drew round it, then sewed it to size, making sure the ruffles and buttons were centred (the buttons are the cushion opening).

I then trimmed the seams and turned it the right way out and popped my cushion inside! Simple. It is a light weight cover so wouldn't be suitable for a sofa but for decoration on our spare bed it is perfect.

Linking to some of these fab linky parties!

Finally, a spare room!

Posted by Alison on June 24, 2013 in giveaway, new house, renovation / 2 comments

It has been 4.5 years since we have had a spare room so it is great to have one again and be able to ask people to stay!

Since we moved here a year and a half ago the spare room has been a general dumping ground for all 'stuff' we have no where to keep while we renovate so getting this room done has meant a lot of tidying and sorting but it is worth it.

This is it when we moved in...

Pretty horrible with awful skirting, a window sill that didn't fit and matting over the floorboards.

Every room we have done so far has involved stripping the wood battons off the ceiling and getting it re-plastered. We chose to keep the battons in the spare room as the ceiling was in a lot better condition than in the other rooms. It also means we can show people what the house was like when we moved in!

This is the room now:

I wanted to re-use the curtains we had in the Master Bedroom in our last house so picked the aqua colour from the curtains for the walls. We got an Ikea Hemnes day bed second hand on gumtree and I had fun making cushions for it!

The kids have been banned from this room now because their toys get everywhere and I want this room to stay tidy, who knows how long that will last though!!

Linking to some of these fab linky parties!

I am having a Country Living Embroidery book giveaway, entries are low, click here to enter!

25/52

Posted by Alison on June 23, 2013 in 52 in 2013 / No comments

Big E: Throwing stones into Loch Ness.

Little e: Hopping between rocks and mildy dissapointed that Nessie was not there to greet us :)

Joining up with Jodi again this week for

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Book Review and Giveaway!

Posted by Alison on June 20, 2013 in giveaway / 7 comments

I recently agreed to do another book review, this time it is this fab book:

Hand Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob

It is a gorgeous book and has some fantastic ideas and embroidered textiles projects in it, I love the nautical pictures!

Each project comes with very clear instructions and there is a stitch guide at the back for those with less embroidery experience.

The book covers everything from pictures to table cloths and napkins to cushions, they are all gorgeous and if I had the time and experiese I would make them all!

Unfortunately (for me) I have so much on at the moment that I know I will have no time to do any projects from the book in the near future so am going to give it away.

If you would like to win this book then you can in the following ways:

1. Leave a comment.
2. Follow me then leave another comment for another entry.
3. Share this giveaway and comment to let me know for another entry.

The giveaway is open to UK residents only and I was provided with the book free of charge to review then giveaway if I wanted to.

If you are a no reply blogger please make sure I can contact you if you win!

The Giveaway will run until 9pm (BST) on the 27th June and the winner will be chosen using a random mumber generator.

24/52

Posted by Alison on June 16, 2013 in 52 in 2013 / No comments

Playing trains at Granny and Grandads!!

Joining up with Jodi again this week for

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Blanket box to window seat

Posted by Alison on June 12, 2013 in makeover, upholstery, window seat / 12 comments

I acquired this blanket box/ottoman type thing a few months ago and it has been sitting around waiting to be made over.

Finally the time came when there was a clear space in the house to sand and paint it because the garage is full of man stuff!

I removed the legs (it was too high with them), sanded the box bit and gave it a coat of undercoat then 2 coats of a matt wood paint. I then cut a 1 inch thick piece of foam to the size of the lid and covered the foam in a layer of wadding and then fabric.

skirting board is coming soon!!

Very simple but I love it, perfect for hiding all the kids art things that I don't want living in the carpeted bedrooms and nice to sit on and look out the window!

Linking to some of these linky parties!

Playing Catch Up!

Posted by Alison on June 11, 2013 / 1 comment

To say life had been busy over the last month would be an understatement.

There have been Beaver events,

the death of a Great Aunt,

my Dad's 60th Birthday,

a garden party,

a room renovation,

my first furniture makeover,

transition to school sessions for little e (how did my baby become so big?!),

some major tidying and sorting inside,

A tidy hall for the first time ever!

and an epic amount of gardening outside!

Hopefully the wind down to the summer holidays starts now (2weeks and 5 days till the end of term!!) and I will finally be able to write the posts that are stacking up in my head!

Back soon!