Project Seaside Stripes

Lovely project for today, new covers and matching cushions for a pair of vintage deckchairs rescued by the Boy from our local junk shop.

Gorgeous stripy deckchair fabric from these lovely people, who included stripy sweeties in the package. And my goodness me, choosing colourways was difficult ... 

One false start where I thought I could staple the fabric to the frame using the Boy's seriously scary upholstery staple gun, but the trusty sewing machine was what I really needed.

Now we just need some more of this fantastic sunshine, and it'll be just like the seaside.

Blackpool Promenade, 1898 

Image uploaded to Flickr by trialsanderrors

Scented candles in vintage tea cups

One of my more successful homemade presents: scented candles made from vintage tea cups and saucers.

Take one candle making kit, lavender essence, a bunch of thrifted china (great fun to source) and some pretty wrappings and trimmings - and hey presto. The only tricky bit was getting the wicks dead-centre when pouring the warmed wax.

A bit of cellophane, a bit of ribbon - I even did little cards using hand-carved stamps and a "made by me" stamp drawn for me by the talented Sianuska ...

Such fun, and so quaint and pretty.

And they seemed to go down quite well. Well, better than buying people random stuff they don't need or want for the sake of it, I guess!

Right, what can I make next?I wonder ...

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Art Journalling

Threatening skies over London today, so that rules out gardening and ushers in some cutting-and-sticking: this is last summer's art journal, which I didn't post at the time for some reason. Art journalling concept totally nicked from ByBlanca, who has lovely collages over at Cuttings on a Blog.

Now, where did I put those scissors?

Update: the new one ...

Ahh, that feels better!

[www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Knitting delight

Last weekend, inspired by the ever-increasing bevy of knitting mammas among my friends - see Helen's lovely 'Hand-me-down Handicraft' piece on A Matriarchal Cornucopia  - and fired up by my failure to take to crochet, I decided to learn to knit.

Perhaps rashly, and not a little swayed by the helpfulness of the lady at Teasels Yarncrafts, I invested in some 7mm needles and a chunky yarn (ideally for hiding beginner's mistakes, apparently!) and set to work.

I'm doing ok - I tackled casting on and knit stitch via the wonderful videojug How To tutorials and, so far, my scarf is growing nicely.

I admit to a little bit of a wonky start where I gained stitches at an amazing / alarming rate, and a few holes where I hadn't quite got the tension thing nailed, but I am powering on and may do a little judicious embellishment with ribbons, buttons and the like, to hide the mistakes! Or I'll just claim the whole thing is an artisanale design ...(sorry, family joke!)

I am thoroughly enjoying myself - the rhythm and low-level concentration required is very relaxing.

It also seems quite zeitgeisty: having posted my inital efforts on Facebook, lots of friends came out of the woodwork to confess their own first steps into granny-dom. Some kind of credit crunch make-do-and-mend movement, or are we just turning into our mothers? (Not necessarily such a bad thing!)

Glorious domestic goddessness

Engaging in an enjoyable burst of domestic goddessness this morning, complete with Cath Kidson-lite apron.

A batch of lemon cupcakes nestles in the oven, alluringly filling the house with a homely, wholesome air. Recipe taken from Rachel Allen's beautiful book, "Bake".

For an hour or so there, I was beautifully absorbed in creative flow, caught in the moment and complete outside of my head. Very rare experience for me!

All this prompted by a visualisation exercise suggested by a lifecoach I am currently seeing: take your average week and the activities you do, and represent them proportionally to fill a 24 hour clock.

I spend 17 hours of my "day" at work or asleep and 3 minutes on creative activities that I feel passionate about! Oh dear!

In a similar vein, a common theme has emerged from this year's birthday presents, jotters and notebooks and journals. Clearly, my friends are ushering me back into writing! I plan to take the hint.

Also inspired by ByBlanca's art journalling project, so I think increased creativity is on the cards! Hurrah!