Craft room

One of the best things about my new house is that I get to have a craft room! It started off as a bit of a dumping ground…

…but the cat loved exploring the boxes and found some great hiding places.

I’ve had some time to do a bit of sorting and tidying, and even though it isn’t completely how I want it, it’s definitely useable! I have quite a lot of storage space on my two shelf units, and I love having all my pretty, colourful things on display and easily accessible.

I’ve added two of my drawer units to a shelf. They fit perfectly and don’t take up any desk space – bonus!

I have Granny’s old sewing machine…

…and pretty plates holding Useful Things.

This is the ‘I’ll-get-round-to-sorting-it-out-one-day’ area! Not great to look at, but stuff is out of the way but easy to get to when I need it.

I even have somewhere for the cat to sleep in the sun…

…although she sometimes prefers to just sit next to her cushion and look out of the window.

And my favourite part of the room – my colourful wall! I love all the different bits and pieces on this wall, some useful, some holding great memories, some just decorative. This wall is a work in progress – I plan to add more things to the spaces around the edges, and will probably take down/put up different things at various points.

This bright, colourful space really makes me happy!

Spring decor

I had lots of fun decorating my house for Christmas. As well as all the usual decorations I also added red cushions and a super thick red rug to the lounge which made the room feel even more cosy and Christmassy.

But with Christmas over and the decorations packed up and back in their boxes for another year, I decided it was time to get rid of the red.

Red is a great colour, and I particularly love it at Christmas time, but it’s not how I want my front room to look all year round.

Pastels are my most favourite colours, and they just shout ‘Spring’! Now, it’s not really spring yet. Although we’ve had some wonderfully sunny days it’s still very cold. But it feels like winter needs to be given a bit of a push to make way for spring, so out come the pastels!

It didn’t take much effort – I simply swapped cushion covers, putting away the red ones until next winter. Some of the cushion covers didn’t need to be changed because they work with both colour schemes.

I like having blankets around no matter what time of year, so I just put away the red ones and brought out the pretty pastels again.

When I first moved in I had the pink rug on the floor, which I’d put away for Christmas. But it’s back from under the wardrobe, looking slightly grubby (I think I’ll need to wash it, but only when the weather’s a bit warmer so I can dry it outside!) but very spring-ish.

The look is completed (for now – I’m sure I’ll be adding more Easter related decorations soon!) with my colourful bunting and some flower fairy lights…

…some pastel candles…

…and of course some beautiful flowers in colourful vases.

Lovely!

Recovering chairs

When I moved into my house I ended up with 5 mismatched dining chairs. I don’t really mind the mismatched look, but some of the chairs had definitely seen better days! They were grubby and one was slightly torn. Here they are in their original state…

I decided that fresh fabric would do them the world of good. I bought this lovely spotty  fabric (I was tempted by some stripes, but decided it would probably end up looking wonky!) and was ready to get started.

I started with the chair that Mum covered a few years ago. I took off the cream fabric and used it as a template for the first cover.

After ironing it (using lots of spray starch to get rid of all the creases) I began stapling it in place, making sure that I pulled it tight on each side.

The end result was pretty scruffy on the bottom…

…but I was really pleased with the top.

And it looked even better actually on the chair!

I’m sure this isn’t the most professional way to add new fabric to a chair seat, but it’s quick and easy! I timed the last one and it only took me 15 minutes from taking the seat off the chair to putting back on again. That included cutting and ironing the fabric and beating the dust out of the seat!

Here are the finished chairs, still mismatched but looking a whole lot better than before.

My ‘new’ chairs make me smile every time I walk through the room!

Growing granny blanket

More than a year ago I came across a blanket my auntie had made for my cousin.

It was made of knitted squares and backed with fleece.

It was pretty weighty and hugely cosy. It’s kinda stayed in my mind since and I loved the idea of making a crochet version. In fact, I even had plans to turn a CAL blanket into something similar.

But the CAL blanket it still unfinished (along with so many other things!) and I obviously forgot about my original plans. But the idea for a chunky blanket stuck with me. So back in May last year I ordered some Stylecraft Chunky. As soon as it arrived I crocheted a very long chain and got to work on my granny stripe blanket. (I followed Lucy’s Granny Stripe tutorial to make sure that I didn’t end up with wonky edges!)

Well, it got off to a good start and I fairly rapidly made my way through 3 or 4 balls of wool. But then I did my usual thing of putting it down and leaving it – for about 7 months!

I only found it again as I was packing to move. Last weekend I went away with some friends and wanted something easy to take with me, something I could work on and still be sociable. The blanket seemed like the perfect option.

So I ordered some more wool (I hadn’t ordered nearly enough the first time!) and have more than doubled the amount of rows in the last week.

It’s going to take a while to finish. Each row takes about 15 minutes, so it’s not a quick project! But I’m hoping that my current momentum will last a while…

…although I can sense the momentum will slow when I get to darning in the ends!

I’ll keep you updated 🙂

Today I have…

…enjoyed working on my chunky granny blanket.

…unpacked two more boxes of books…

(…but it’ll still be a while before the room is properly sorted out!)

…found two friends hiding in boxes.

…enjoyed my favourite flowers in colourful vases.

…curled up with a good book.

What have you done today?