Painted Apple Crates and A Pink Milk Urn

I started my day with hosing down my apple crates, they were mighty dirty!! It was a bit cold, despite the fact that there was glorious sunshine so please forgive my massive hoody and the stupid look on my face, I found that hysterically laughing helped me to ignore the fact that my fingers were numb.

So I eventually decided that painting just the insides of my crates would be the best idea, I was a wimp and didn't want to ruin the names on the crates and the overall appearance, so thats what I did. I went for lime, teal and cranberry red and also papered one of the slates on each crate, These 3 will be used for the storage of my fabrics and what not. Not sure at the moment what I will do with the other 5 crates but we shall see.

On a very different note, please appreciate my amazing pink milk urn!!! Rich came home with it today as a suprise, Ive had my eye on it for weeks and weeks and today I own it YAY YAY YAYYYYY!!!!

Apple Crates and Marrakech

Today I was woken up by the most fantastic call ever... my apple crates had arrived at work YAY!!! (and they were getting in everyones way cus they are BIIGGG!!) The pic below gives you an idea of size, they are a tad bit bigger than my armchair and they are terribly fantastic, told you I would get them!!

We headed out to get some paint for them just after they arrived, yellow, lime green and a gorgeous cranberry red but now I am not so sure that I want to paint them?! Maybe just doing the insides would be a good idea or just painting one of them (I have 8).. hmmmm I have no idea right now.

I am going to be using them as storage for my fabrics and what not, staking them together like shelves but they may also be used for my market stall to display products and what not.

I think I will have to just start doing one and see where it takes me.

And on that note I shall share something very exciting with you, Rich and I are planning a trip to Marrakech, eeeeeeee so excited, I have never been but I can tell you right now that I will love it, if anyone has any tips or places to visit please let me know. Come back tomorrow night to see how our crates turn out. Fingers crossed....

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*Pic courtesy of plateandpaper.com

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** Pic courtesy of only-appartments.com

LOOK HOW EXCITING IT LOOKS AND THAT'S JUST A LAMP STALL

Paper Pom Poms and Happy Eggs

I got home today and decided it would be a fantastic idea to make paper pom poms, you should really use tissue paper, it probably would have been a lot easier with tissue paper but hey hindsight is a wonderful thing. They are a lot easier then I realised actually, I shall do a "how to" for you when I get hold of some tissue paper.

So other then doing that, not much has gone on, my apple crates should arrive today but I wont know until Rich gets home from work.. hopefully they will be in the car with him and my plan is then to paint them and make some ever so sexy shelf/rack type things to keep all my fabric in, it will make more sense when you see a picture trust me, hopefully that will go up tomorrow. I have also applied for a stall on the craft market today so fingers crossed. I will keep you updated.

On a side note, I was bored and drew faces on my eggs.... and with that I bid thee goodnight!

Mondays Armchair Activity

Hello people! 

I hope you all had a very good weekend.

Mine was busy as per usual but today I bring you something very simple and quite relaxing actually..

Easy Paper Pinwheels

STEP 1. Here is what you will need: 

A long length of rectangular paper (i used the width of a roll of wrapping paper)

Scissors

A hole punch

String

Easy peasy

STEP 2. Fold your length of paper into a concertina..try to keep all the folds the same size but its not the end of the world if they go a bit askew.

STEP 3. Tie a long length of string around the middle of your concertina.

STEP 4. Snip the ends of your concertina into what ever shape you what, rounded, pointy etc etc (this helps if you didnt keep your concertina folds the same size... it makes it look like your going for the messy look on purpose!!)

STEP 5. Open up your concertina, so that it looks like two fans with the string tied in between the two. Then use your hole punch to punch 4 holes into your fans, one at each end where they join together.

STEP 6. Use a little length of string to tie the ends of the fans together, so that the pinwheel stays open, it should now hold its circular shape. You could use a stapler at this point or even a glue gun if you fancied it. Make sure however you decided to put it together, that you do it on the plain side of the pinwheel, that way if you make a mess no one will know.

And there you have it your paper pinwheel is complete YAY!! Now just hang it up using the long length of string you originally tied around the middle of your concertina.

STEP 1.

STEP 2.

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STEP 5.

STEP 6.

Well I hope you all enjoyed that, I shall bring you a tutorial about making slightly bigger, more complicated pin wheels at some point, but you cant do them on the sofa I am afraid!! Have good night and I shall see you tomorrow.

Meet Gary

Hello, this is Gary!!! 

He started life as this very tired looking side table... aaahhhh poor Gary. Don't worry though, he received a lush, lime green makeover, wooo hoooo!!! 

And he is even available for sale on my ebay shop.. how exciting!!! I wanted to keep him but I don't have enough space, sad face.

Any whoo here is a "How to", so that if you find a sad table in a charity shop, you can give him some loving too!! Enjoy!

 STEP 1. Lightly sand down your very sad looking table, so that your paint will stick to it a little better.

STEP 2. If you want to keep the top of your table natural or even if you wanted to do it a different colour you need to mask it up like so...

STEP 3. Start painting your sexy man table. Don't be afraid just go for it! I used normal wall emulsion although you can you specific furniture paints if you wanted.

STEP 4. (Boring bit) Wait for your first coat of paint to dry and then do a couple more and wait for them to dry!

STEP 5. Now you can start disressing your table. I use coarse sand paper and just highlight the areas which would receive normal wear and tear. Sanding with the grain of the wood will make it a little easier. If you want a more heavily distressed look, then you can always use a chisel or even a flat head screw driver to scratch paint off and bruise the wood... be careful if you want to use that method though, especially if your clumsy!

STEP 6. Once you can finished sanding, clean off all of the dust with a damp cloth, wait until your table is dry and varnish with clear gloss wood varnish, this will protect your work.

And there we have it, Gary the very sexy green side table! He will be up for sale on our Ebay shop very shortly and will come with a special Pug and Cupcake Gift!

Remember if anyone would like a piece of furniture brightening up or even if you'd like me to find a specific piece for you just send me an email or facebook me and I am sure that we shall be able to arrange something.

Have a very good weekend everyone, lets hope the snow doesn't hit again!!
Oh and go and buy Gary.. he needs you!!

BUY HIM HERE!!

Carly the cupboard gets a makeover

Good evening all, I am terribly sorry this is such a late night post but I have spent all day today producing furniture and Tesco shopping and charity shopping and cleaning and cooking and well everything else under the sun!!

For you today I have a couple of pictures of Carly, shes my cupboard and she lives next to my sofa. Before today she was a really boring old, cheap, rubbish cupboard I purchased at Argos a fair while ago but today she received a makeover so that she would match the little chest of drawers I showed you a while ago, which live in my dinning room/craft room/still my living room because its all open plan.

I shall not bore you this evening with a step by step because I shall bore you with that tomorrow... it will be Gary the green side table tomorrow, I say its boring, its not. He is lime green and ever so sexy.. another bargain from the Emmaus charity shop.

I shall now leave you with some pictures of Carly, excuse the poor photography, she is pretty honest, the sun had gone down by the time I started taking pics and I have a dark house.

PPPSSSSTTTT..... just so you know, the next picture isnt of Carly.. DAHN DAHN DAAAAHHHH it's of Gary, just to get you a little excited, you know how it is?!! We shall see you tomorrow...

A very inspiring day

Staying up until 4:30am this morning talking about the worries of the world and what not with Richard has oddly left me feeling really inspired today. It was one of those chats which snowballs from; the closure of hmv to world debt to our home run business. They are my favorite kind of chats, and as I said has left me feeling rather inspired, as though perhaps in some me making all these crafty bits and teaching other how to do it to could save the economy! Well thats what Id like to think any way, I'm not entirely sure it's true though.
So any way we decided to go shopping today and I was sure that, in my totally inspired mood, I would find something fantastic in one of Winchesters many charity shops or even the vintage shop. Sods law... I didn't!! Saying that I did find a very cool wicker basket in the "home" shop, which has solved all of my paper storage problems. I also brought a new dressing gown, its warm but not terribly exciting.
Now sitting here in my polka dot dressing gown, I realise I have spent almost 4 hours flicking through various books, websites, blogs and of course ebay and now my mind is brimming with things to make a do, a list which is getting so ridiculously long, Im not sure I will ever complete them all.
So instead of attempting to start crafting at 8:00pm, I shall instead share with you some of the lovely things I have found and seen. Yay for you!

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1. Hand made paper bunting, from last mondys arm chair activity
2 + 10. My wicker basket find, and collection of papers
3. Large apple crates which I am going to turn into a shelving storage unit for my fabric
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330855484813?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648
4. Some more lovely apple crates which will be mine, I have big plans for these too...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251210922567?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648
5. Gorgeous bee house available at Not on the highstreet
6. I want to eat this and Im not sure why... pink egg bird feeder from Not on the highstreet
7. very cool veg storage, from not on the highstreet.. wish my kitchen was big enough
8. Amazing chairs from Kelly Swallow
9. Emmaus homeless charity have an amazing shop in Winchester, I shall be there tomorrow, spending all of my money!

Pom pom garland

Good day everyone! 

As promised, today I shall show you something extra fun (well kinda) to do with all the pom poms you made yesterday...well if you don't want to attach them to your clothes that is!!

Right so you will need some thin nosed pliers and a long length of string or wool!!

1. Grab your string in the nose of the pliers

2. find the middle of your pom pom by using you thumb and forefinger 

3. Push the pliers into the middle, wiggeling them slightly to push the wool out of the way.. don't worry if a few pom pom threads come out, its not a big deal.

4. Once you have the pliers trough, open them up and pull the thread through

5. Now remove the pliers and slide your pom pom down the thread, tie a knot in the end so that it doesn't fall off

6. Continue like this until all your pom poms are threaded, you could tie knots between them so that they keep their spacing.

7. Now all you need to do is hang your garland where ever you fancy!!

TAAAA DDDAAAHHHHHHH