Happiness is
…splashing about in a pair of canary yellow Hunter wellies. These are on my wishlist for Autumn.
We’ve just spent the entire day in the garden, weeding and planting and laying down mulch and generally remedying a month or two of neglect.
A while back, I found a three-piece outdoor cane sofa at a flea market and carted it home, sans cushions. James went to Clark Rubber to source some new foam inserts, while I stayed home sewing up the cases. Olive was content to simply play in the mounting pile of fabric scraps, god love her. They took all of three hours to complete and we’ve been enjoying them all summer.
This is our back patio, where we spend most cocktail hours, and here’s a few of my favourite things:
Lime blossom
New limes
A backyard bust
Olive's watering can
Potted plant
Luck over the lintel
Craft feature in this month’s AWW
Heart, bow and speckled hen egg cosies
This is the latest craft feature I worked on with Australian Women’s Weekly, out now in the March 2010 issue. Grab a copy for the instructions on some fun Easter craft, and a little taste of what’s to come in The Crafty Kid: projects for and with children (out this June).
The gorgeous snaps are by my friend and ACP photographer, Dean Wilmot. Love your work, Dean.
Five-year-old Enzo and me
Easter Bunny and Chicken Little finger puppets
Aiya’s crafty bedroom
My sister-in-law just sent me these gorgeous photographs of my niece, Aiya’s bedroom. My brother and sister-in-law are super crafty – they’ve completely transformed their (UK) home into a handmade haven. We stayed in this room a few years back when they first bought the house and I can barely recognise it.
Some information on the decorations from Vanessa -
Card collage: made from many of the congratulations cards we received on the arrival of Aiya. It seemed such a shame to throw them away or store them in the loft, never to be looked at again!
Ceiling lampshade: the original shade was picked up from a homewares store for £1.50. I removed the cheap covering and used it as a template for my material. The edges were hemmed and then the fabric pulled over the shade frame and stuck using fabric glue.
Floor standing lampshade: again, this is a cheap shade I purchased for £8. The shade diameter was over 50cm so I was pleased to have found this so cheaply. The original had a silky lining which I carefully removed and kept, then discarded the original shade fabric. I then cut two arc-shaped pieces of material (using the inner lining as a template) and sewed them together at both ends, leaving the top and bottom open. The material was then placed over the shade frame, as if putting on a hat, then pulled tight and the edges tucked under and over the frame and stuck down. I then hemmed the inner lining as it had frayed where it had been taken off the original, and stitched it inside the shade.
The lamp stand belonged to my great uncle. It’s wooden but we sanded it back and painted white.
Charlie’s paintings: The Phunky Penguin Series were painted on some old pieces of chipboard. I framed them using some old white frames I picked up and we then mounted them using cream card.
Shelves: the wooden shelves were made from excess stair treads from a building site, taken from an old bespoke staircase. We painted them white and the white brackets were purchased very cheaply from a garden centre. We have 4 shelves in Aiya’s bedroom and they cost a grand total of £10.
Retro looks for Northern Hemisphere Spring
The Garden Collection by H&M
So I was spending far more time than I care to mention perusing the new collections yesterday and found this image in the H&M Spring 2010 lookbook. I love all these outfits, but it struck me immediately how utterly 80s retro this is – to the point where I could almost go to Rozelle Markets this weekend and find the exact same items in almost the same fabrics and cut, bar the rosy frill embellishment on that red bubble skirt (which is rather special).
There’s a whole section in The Crafty Minx on updating past-it frocks – if you have anything remotely like this, you could do some tweaking to get the same effect. Or head off to your local charity store where you’re bound to unearth an appropriate item or two.
Molly Ringwald, eat your heart out.
A few good blogs
Cushions by Karlyn Jackson
Oh how often I end up visiting one blog, then link off to another, and then another… I could waste days, weeks, months…
I just found these gorgeous handmade cushions on Karlyn Jackson’s blog, Rosa’s Room. I saw this fabric at IKEA a while back and fell in love with it also – it’s so bright and cheerful. See the pretty purses below which she made as Christmas gifts, and she’s also created a doorstop from the instructions in The Crafty Minx from Anna Maria Horner fabric (a firm favourite fabric designer of mine as well).
Purses by Karlyn Jackson
Check out the wonderful Yarnstorm by Jane Brocket and Six and a Half Stitches if you haven’t seen either of these sites, plus here’s some delicious, evocative images from Anna Maria Horner’s blog below… I’m getting that wistful winter feeling again.
Mmmm... hot chocolate
Sneak peek at No Chintz projects
Here’s a little peek at some of the projects I’ll be making for the first three No Chintz workshops. Above is my beloved pompom-adorned tea cosy, inspired by Loani Price of Wild Tea Cosies fame, but with no knitting involved (because I still haven’t figured out how to do a purl stitch without ending up all twisted up like a pretzel – true story). And a flower embellished egg cosy, just in time for Easter (it’ll be here before we know it).
These are a cinch to make and so fun, too – the felt means they’re also very forgiving when you want to multi-task, completing them while drinking a large glass of red wine, say (as I was when putting these together last Saturday night*).
And below, some simple oven mitts and the apron I’m making tomorrow for the private class – all these are made by hand and can be completed within 1.5-2hrs max.
*If making a tea cosy on a Saturday night is the very definition of old age, then I may just be 93.
Vanessa’s Crafty Minx throw
Recycled throw
Vanessa bought the book late last year and we’ve had a lovely correspondence about the things she’s been making. Here’s a throw, made from her daughter’s recycled clothes following the instructions in the book. I love its homespun charm – thanks Vanessa.
A lazy crafternoon
Retro cushion
I went over to Katrina’s this afternoon for some crafting, tea and a chat, and look what we came up with: her first cushion, whipped up on the machine in no time at all, and my handmade headband for a wee girl, made from fabric yoyos, buttons and a few shiny fripperies. Katrina bought the fabric from the Rozelle markets aeons ago – doesn’t it look great in its new incarnation?
Girly headband
Fun new top experiment
Bead detail
I had lots of fabric left over from the silk scarf cushion I made for the book, so set about to playing with it over the holidays. This is what I came up with – a funny little top with cropped front and longer back, to be layered over a simple black velvet dress I own, or grey silk harem pants.
I’ve no patience for patterns, so simply cut around a favourite loose-fitting vest, leaving a few centimetres all around for the seam allowance and flaring out a bit at the sides to add (what I hope is) hippie charm. The panel of beading at the front I bought complete and ironed on – hey, presto!
From the front
At the back
A parting gift
Anna's sewing kit
Anna has a young friend who’s off travelling overseas for the first time, so she made her this as a going-away present. It’s a mini sewing kit, with threads, needles, pins, scissors and various other bits and bobs for minor emergencies. See the way it folds up nicely, like a travel wallet:
And here’s a couple of other items from two crafty ladies who came along to a workshop down in Melbourne. The first is a purse for spare change by Rebecca of Beccasaurus, and the second a tissue holder by Caroline (who also told me about the craft blog, Posie gets Cozy – for the pattern, click here).
Just three small ideas for things you could make in time for xmas – even if it is only a few days away.
Rebecca's coin purse
Caroline's tissue holder
