Goodies from a friend ...

A few weeks back I received a wonderful parcel in the post.

It was goodies from a sweet friend, Helen.

This is her blog. Visit, read and follow!! - Because It's well worth it. I love her.

We were both feeling a little "down in the dumps" and needed cheering up.

 Helen is so generous and kind. She wanted to send me a gift, but I wanted to send her a gift too. So it turned into a little "just because" swap.

Above are the wonderful treats I received from Helen.

They came beautifully wrapped (but I tore them open in excitement before taking a snap!)

There was a wonderful collection of handmade goodies (don't you love Helen's Christmas makes?!)

She'd made a lovely bag, which was full of gorgeous decorative treats, as well as smellies, candles, bunting, magazines, cake stands, craft kits and embroidery patterns!

Jealous?!?! I thought so.

This is what I sent to Helen.

I made crocheted goodies, a candle, cupcake flags, fridge magnets, brooches and a necklace with a presentation box for the jewellery.

I also sent a mug, umbrella, Cath Kidston notes and badges, a giant pincushion, cross stitch kit and handmade card (not pictured).

Thanks again Helen for my wonderful treats.

I adore each and every little thing.

Have a great week, Ladies and thanks for reading.

Love Katie

xxx

Craft room Re-vamp #1

Over the past month I have been giving my little craft room a make-over.

It's a small room at the back of the house, so it's often dark and very cluttered.

My aim is to make it a more inspiring place to be,

by making small (and inexpensive) changes.

This little storage unit was one of the first under the radar.

I've had it for years (I think it came from Ikea once upon a time), It's always been very handy, but not very pretty.

I gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Old White and waxed the parts that weren't to be decoupaged.

Good old PVA was used to paste the patterned papers to the drawer fronts and a craft file to sand down the paper edges flush to the drawer.

These little trays had the same treatment, but here I used a mix of AS Duck Egg and Old white.

I hope you all have a super weekend.

Can't wait to hear what you've all been up to.

Thanks for reading.

Love Katie

xxx

Milly-Molly-Mandy's Things to Make and Do

I promised in an earlier post to tell you more about a new book of mine.

Milly-Molly-Mandy's Things to Make and Do.

First of all... It looks cute doesn't it?!?

It was the cute front cover that had drawn me in.

If you ever come across a copy, do pick it up and have a flick through the lovely pages full of cute illustrations and wonderful ideas for things to make and do!

Among others you will find things to make and do ... outdoors, in the kitchen, in the spring, summer, autumn and winter. Plus games for sunny and rainy days too.

Being the greedy guts I am. I went straight for the "in the kitchen" pages,

where I found simple recipes for coconut ice and "no-cook fudge".

They were so simple that I thought I had to try them out for myself.

The coconut ice was delicious and even won over my sceptical husband!

The fudge however was nice, but very very sweet (not a problem for me of course)!

Next time i think I'll try the Sugar Mice recipe! Yum yum.

All in all a very sweet book. Perfect for little girls (and big ones too!!)

Thanks for reading.

Love Katie

xxx

It's Curtains ...

Good morning Ladies.

I have been meaning to show you this curtain refashion for a little while.

For one reason or another things here have been a bit hectic and I have so much to tell you about.

All in good time.

For now, It's curtains ...

As you know I'm not a whiz on a sewing machine. In truth they make me a bit nervous!!

But I faced my fear to give these curtains a face lift.

I have two windows in the dining room, before they were hung with some green curtains that had been passed on to us from a family member. They never really suited the room and made it feel quite dark.

I didn't want to get rid of perfectly good curtains, but they weren't suitable.

One morning while tidying in Charlie's room I had a brain wave. Charlie's room also has two windows, the curtains where light which meant he needed blackout lining to avoid very early morning during the summer!

Blooming things!! These liners were so heavy and bulky they just looked awful.

So killing two birds with one stone the dark green curtains retired to Charlie's room and block the light perfectly (no more blackout liners!) and the light curtains from Charlie's room would look much better in the dining room.

But there was a problem ... the light curtains were better, but they had pencil pleated tops.

I don't like them. So thought I would TRY converting them to tab tops.

I used my sewing machine to make the tabs for all four curtains. All 64 of them!

They were turned right side out and pressed (again).

Then I chopped off the pencil pleat from each curtain, turned it under and attached the tabs at regular intervals. Then more pressing and whizzed each one through the sewing machine once more.

Sounds simple right?! Well it was, but it did take me ALL day to finish them all.

I was chuffed with my attempt at converting the curtains and like the contrast between the creamy yellow curtains and the pink gingham tab tops.

But they needed a little more pink to bring them all together.

So I turned my thought to the tiebacks. I knew in the depths of a vacuum storage bag they would be tiebacks for these curtains. I hunted them out and went to work demolishing some crocheted tiebacks I had made for the original green curtains.

For each set of curtains the tiebacks were slightly different.

I simply sewed the flowers to the ready made tiebacks.

The room feels brighter, I spent nothing and I'm getting over my sewing machine fear!!

Can't be bad hey?

Sorry for the waffling Ladies.

Until next time.

Love Katie

xxx

P.s I brought this little embroidered hankie from a vintage fair. I really love it and I was lucky to pick up a teeny embroidery frame on a charity shop trip for 20p! Bargain.

This now hangs from a length of ribbon hung from a tieback hook next to my "new" curtains.

A few thrifty buys ...

Good Afternoon Ladies.

I just wanted to share with you a few of my favourite thrifty finds.

Flowery doves, Liberty oven mitt, Rosey coasters and pomander...

Sweet tapestries - Quiet as a mouse and Busy as a bee,

Birdie pomander, rosey bedspread, some pretty hearts from a craft fair and a few more books for my collection.

I want to tell you more about the books another time and you may have noticed my little pile of hexies propped up again my Bee tapestry. I'll also come back to these soon. 

Short and sweet...

Have a lovely week.

Love Katie

xxx

Jar of Love swap goodies.

Hello Ladies.

Just a quick one today. Lots of pictures I'm aware and not a lot of words.

I should have posted this before now so sorry about the delay.

Anyway ...

Because of the odd number of entrants to the swap I had two partners.

Marina at Evelyn-May and Beki @ Ramblings of an Everyday Mummy

Here is what I sent Marina ....

I tried to make both jars equal, so each had 26 items inside. I had read that Marina liked toadstools so had made her these little toadstool earrings and bag charm. There was a few Cath Kidston goodies in there: a keyring, soap, buttons. I made a tiny heart hanger with birdie embroidery and crocheted a pot cover to decorate the jar.

This is Beki's jar ...

Again a little more Cath Kidston. I made some button earrings and a ring too. The little cupcake charm I made out of Fimo. I notice she liked Hello Kitty so when I saw these magnets I thought they would be perfect. Again I crocheted her a pot cover for the jar.

This is what I received from Marina.

A pretty jar, wonderfully wrapped and finished with a pretty bow.

There was cupcake cases, fabric, perfume, hankies, teddy, socks, necklace, cookie cutter, lace, glitter, beads and chocolate inside (the choccy didn't live long enough to make it in the photo) !!!

Thank you Marina!!!

I am yet to receive a parcel from Beki, but if I do. I will be sure to share it with you.

Have a great weekend.

Love Katie

xxx

From Shabby to Chic #5 - The dresser gets it!

Let me introduce my dresser ...

She has been with us for a couple of years, brought from Ebay for a steal of course.

She's big, practical (you can only imagine the junk hid away inside!) but not very pretty.

I have been wanting to give her a makeover for sometime. I kept putting it off knowing it would be a big job.

But now I've finally done it...

Before

and

 After

.... aahhhhh .... that's better!

No more ginger varnish, no more faux metal handles!

Still as big and practical but pretty to boot!

What do you think?

It was a bit of a team effort, I had roped my reluctant Husband in to dismantle her and lay the sheets down for painting.

(I promised him a lie in, in return for his services.)

Using Annie Sloan Old White, I gave her two coats, then my Husband offered to take the top to the workshop and sand off all the gingery varnish! Who am I to refuse such an offer?!?

He returned home a few hours later with not only a beautifully buffed and waxed top but 6 little draw knobs too. (Do you think I owe him another lie in now?)

After spending what seemed like an age waxing the paint work (I wish he offered to do that too!).

She was finished and ready to be reassembled.

Pleased as punch with the results.

Thanks for reading ladies.

Love Katie

xxx