Springy Eastery Garland

Some of you may remember seeing this photo on Facebook a couple of weeks ago.

I was having a particularly creative Saturday (it was the day I made my peg bag out of shorts) and decided to spruce up some sticks I’d bought from Ikea. I’d bought them because I could imagine them hanging over my fireplace, all covered in pretty springy decorations, but up to that point they were just sticks with a few flowery fairy lights!

So I grabbed some plastic eggs (really cheap from the supermarket), a jar of paper flowers and a jar of buttons and this is what happened…

I loved the colours of the eggs, but not how plasticky they looked. The paper flowers disguise plastickiness nicely! And I love the bright, spring colours too. I hadn’t really planned them to all look so coordinated – it was only once I’d finished that I realised I’d chosen really similar colours for each flower.

In addition to the eggs, I also cut up some fake flowers to add to the flowery fairy lights (the big white flowers in the photos below). I’m not usually a fan of fake flowers, but I’d bought these to go in my basket when I was Red Riding Hood (it was a dress up day at school – I don’t usually dress up as fairy tale characters!) and it seemed a shame to let them just gather dust somewhere. I really like the different pinky colours too.

As I was unpacking boxes I came across a couple of other decorations. I think this tin egg was a gift from a child at one of my placement schools when I was training to be a teacher.

And I made this heart several years ago when I was experimenting with sewing fabric and paper. I really like it, but think it must have been a bit of a pain to make since this is the only one I have!

I finished off the garland with a few tin heart bells that I found in a lovely local shop. I love their colours and the soft jingles they made as I hung them up.

Here’s the finished product, complemented nicely by the bunting which used to hang on my bookcase.

So things are complete – for the time being! I love the fresh feel of all the combined items together, but at some point (probably soon after Easter) I’ll take the eggs off and replace them with other things. Not sure yet what I’ll replace them with though – any suggestions?

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!

Inspiration

I’ve realised that a few of the things I’ve made this week have been inspired by things others have done. The first thing is one I have seen appearing on several blogs. Have a look here for Rachell’s take on it.

This got me to thinking. It’s a fab idea, but I’m just not sure that a jar would be big enough. So what I’ve decided to do instead is write a thankfulness list. Each night, before I go to bed, I’m adding things that I’m thankful for. Some things I’m sure will be repeated several times through the year (e.g. time spent with friends, crochet, a good meal, etc.) while others are one offs. I think this may be challenging on the days where everything seems to go wrong, and I end up grumpy and bad tempered. But I also think it’ll be really good for helping me put things in perspective – even when I’ve had a bad day I still have so much to be thankful for!

(Along the same lines, I just started reading a book called ‘One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully’. It’s written by a woman who has experienced a lot of pain in her life, but found a new intimacy with God through having a thankful heart. It’s really beautifully written, and I’m finding it both an exciting and a challenging read!)

Although I decided against a ‘good things’ jar, I decided that I wanted to make use of a jar in some way. Especially after I saw what Hannah had done for her ’22 before 22′. I loved the idea of washi tape around lolly sticks being used instead of a plain old list – so pretty!

I didn’t have any washi tape, so I decided to decorate my sticks with buttons (what else?!) instead. And I put them in a jar that was given to me for Christmas. It was intended as a tea light holder, but it will get far more use this way! It is now holding some of my intentions for 2013. So far I have…

…be thankful

This one links in with my thankfulness list.

…try not to let clutter take over

This one might never happen. I hate living surrounded by clutter, but somehow it seems to sneak in without me noticing! But you never know, 2013 might be the year my life becomes clutter free!

…arrange more social crafting

I added this one because I so much enjoyed the few craft evenings I organised last year. I hope that everyone else will be just as enthusiastic about them!

Now, on to the final thing that’s inspired me. The other day, Katherine from Pillows a-la-mode posted about changing her decorations from Christmas to Winter. I thought this was a great idea – why get rid of all decorations just because the Christmas stuff has to be put away? I particualrly loved her garland, which includes trees made from music paper.

I have a book that I’ve been cutting up at various points during the last year, and thought I’d make good use of the final few pages by making a new garland for my bookcase.

It was super easy to make – I just cut the stars out of the book pages, then stitched through alternating buttons and stars with a long lenght of embroidery thread. It has joined the general colour and happy chaos of my bookcase, which is also adorned by…

…teeny tiny bunting

…more teeny tiny bunting

…and the full size bunting strung with fairy lights at the top!

Here’s the whole bookcase in all it’s glorious, chaotic colour…

Maybe I need to re-think that thing about not being cluttered in 2013…

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t already 🙂

Good news and bad news

I have good news and bad news.

Good news – I’ve made a few more lavender bags (and still have one or two more just waiting to be filled).

I also made some super cute teeny tiny bunting to go across the top of my display boards.

The best part of the bunting is that I used only scraps of fabric (each flag is less than 2 inches wide) and a fairly short length of ribbon.

However, the bad news is that the charity event where I was going to sell all these lovely goodies has been cancelled! It was due to be held at a local football club, with the car park on one field and all the events on the other. But we’ve had so much rain that both sides are completely waterlogged. And with more heavy rain forecast for this week the organisers took the decision to call the whole thing off. They decided that people would probably not want to come out if it was raining anyway, and there’s not much chance that things will dry out before the weekend.

So now I have loads of stock and nowhere to sell it on Saturday – perhpas it’s time to update my Coriandr shop…

Big 30 giveaway

Good morning! Some of you may remember that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I’m turning 30 soon. I’m still trying to decide if I’m more excited or scared about it, but have decided to celebrate regardless of how I feel! And part of those celebrations will include my second giveaway 🙂

The winner will receive these goodies…

1 flower brooch
2 egg cosies
4 fabric napkin rings
5 fabric covered buttons
6 books and buttons pegs
12 crocheted flags of bunting

And hopefully (if I’ve added correctly!) this adds up to 30! Let’s have a closer look at some of those things.

First of all, the flower brooch – 5 layers of fabric with a cluster of beautiful buttons in the middle.

The 2 blue egg cosies will comfortably fit over both an egg and egg cup.

The front of the fabric napkin rings…

… and the back.

Five fabric covered buttons.

6 books and buttons pegs (see the post about them here).

And last but not least, 12 mini flags of crocheted bunting. Each flag is approx 1.5 inches wide and long, and the whole string measures 32 inches from end to end.

Each end has a loop and a cute little button (you could even wear it as a necklace if you felt like it!)

So there you go, a lovely little bundle of goodies all handmade by me 🙂 If you would like a chance to win all you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me what you love most about your birthday, or if you have any special birthday traditions.

I will put all the names into my high tec hat and will draw one at random on 12th May, so you have a whole month to enter. I look forward to hearing from you!

What I got up to in March

Here is a little sample of some of the things I have made in the last month…

And just a few of the pretty things I have seen during this month of glorious sun…

Lovely!

An unexpected day

As I’m sure anyone in the UK will have realised (if you didn’t remember you may be in trouble) yesterday was Mother’s Day.  And although I’m not a mother, I got flowers!

Every year bunches of daffodils are given to all the women at church. I love this partly just because I love daffodils but also because it’s a reminder that I’m part of an amazing family there. (I must also say that my own family are also pretty amazing, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea!)

So these beautiful blooms are now gracing my bookshelves and adding a lovely springiness to the atmosphere. Lovely!

Anyway, as I was checking my diary for something I realised that I had absolutely nothing in it for the next week. This is so unusual and really quite exciting. So I made myself a little list of all the things I could do with my time.

I didn’t realise until I started listing them that I had so many unfinished projects (and these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head – there may be several more burried in boxes around the house). I also thought it’d be good to start planning some new things for the fair later this year. I know it’s not for ages yet, but I like to be organised about these things.

So I had it all planned out. Then the phone rang. At 6.55 this morning. And I ended up doing this today instead…

Not at all what I had in mind! But it ended up being a good day anyway (and I actually earned some money which is always a bonus) and I still have time for some relaxing crochet this evening.

And just to finish, I had some good news about an hour ago. You remember my procrastination last week? Well, I got the application finished and sent off yesterday and I’ve been offered an interview for next week. Let the panic begin!

 

Procrastination

Today was the day I set aside for filling in an application form. Therefore today is that day that I have been procrastinating. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this (at least, I hope I’m not!). I was good this morning and did the longest part of the form with all the important information like my name and qualifications. It all went downhill from there.

It started when I decided to list my mini bunting on Coriandr. Everything was going well – until I published the listing. For some reason the title and product description changed to that of a ‘Recycled Tires Bag’. Hmmmmm. Not quite the same. And the same thing had actually happened yesterday too. And another poor seller who was listing a baby outfit ended up with the title and product description of my Crochet Cushion Cover! So of course I had to contact the support team to let them know what was going on.

By the time I’d done that all thoughts of application forms had gone right out of my head. My washing needed sorting and it was just about lunchtime anyway, so time for a break. Last week a wonderful friend (and my very first follower!) was having a clear out and gave me this lovely stack of old craft mags. So I started flicking through them over lunch.

But of course, when it came to the Crafts Beautiful mags just flicking through was not an option. Those need to be Read. And the one on the top there (from April 2007) had just so many lovely things to be looked at and admired. It’s a very springy, Eastery issue with some really lovely makes.

 

 

 

 

This was the first thing that caught my eye – a GIANT Granny Square jumper! I’m sure by now you’ve picked up on my love for Granny Squares, but the thought of making a giant one into a jumper just never entered my mind! Definately something to think about.

 

 

 

 

 

There were so many other beautiful pics that it would take forever to show you all of them individually, so I thought that this collage might do the job instead.

This is now also set as my desktop background as a sort of Springtime mood board. Mmmmmm, pretty 🙂

Also, a friend of a friend has just invited me to be part of a charity fair she’s been hosting the last 7 years to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease. She’s managed to raise £21,000 so far which is just fantastic! And I’m so excited that I get to be part of it this year. It’s not until July, but thought I’d better get a head start on boosting my stock, so have started another crochet bag (similar to this one). This seemed like a good place to start as several people have admired mine recently, so hopefully people will like it enough to buy it at the fair! I’m sure there will be many pictures over the next couple of months of my new stock (and hopefully some new ideas too).

If I’m lucky I might even finish that application form.

Distraction

What a gorgeous sunny day! Yes, I know some places had snow today and yes, I know it was crazily windy, but it just looked lovely. I got out in the garden this morning to take some pictures of the beautiful flowers coming out. I’m not a gardener, and I have no idea what most of these are called, but look how pretty!

As I was trying to get a shot of the primroses next door, their 3-legged cat Clive came to say hello too, trying to fit his face through the fence and sitting on the flowers!

I also found two half dead plants indoors (as I say, I’m really not a gardener!). I gave them a drink, pulled out all the dead leaves (which is why the pot on the right especially looks quite bare)  and put them out to enjoy the sun. They did seem to look a lot happier when I brought them back in this evening.

I was also full of plans for finishing my cushion. I planned to do all my jobs (exciting things like washing, planning, catching up on emails, etc.) as soon as possible so I could get on with it. But by the time I’d started pottering round I’d been well and truly distracted by the sun. Although it wasn’t all that warm it didn’t really feel like a day to be working with wool. It did, however, put me in the mood for bunting. Sun seems to do that. So I decided to make some mini bunting using some of the fabrics I got last week. As I was reaching for them I came across some other fabrics which would work well with them. These were things I bought in the January sales – they cost £1 each, but with most things in the sales I either didn’t really like them, or they didn’t have it in my size. But I loved some of the fabrics! And as they were so cheap I couldn’t resist.

These three featured in my bunting, alongside the lovely cherries, strawberries and flowers from last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This blue, boat fabric immediately shouted ‘beach bag’ at me, and although I have no idea what to do with the skirt it’s just so pretty I couldn’t just leave it there!

Anyway, back to the bunting. I cut smallish triangles (I think they were about 4 inches from top to bottom) with pinking shears, then cut 72 inches of cotton tape, ironed it in half and pinned each flag into place. After a brief encounter with the sewing machine the bunting was finished – simple! Photographing it, however, was not quite so simple. I felt it needed to be shown outdoors, but it was just so jolly windy that the flags danced all over the place. Normally this would be a good thing, but not when trying to take photos! Anyway, here is my first attempt:

But just as I was reaching for another couple of pegs to tame the fluttering, there was a sudden brief lull:

Lovely sunny bunting! But no finished cushion cover. Maybe tomorrow?