Not the best picture in the world, sadly, but I did like this colourful mural we saw in Dublin when we visited there in December 2013. This can be found at the junction of Fleet Street and Bedford Row (Dublin, Ireland).
Archive for May, 2014
Street Art #13
Posted in Street Art, tagged barfly camden, kraken, kraken rum, mural, nw1, street art on May 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »
An organised life
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged article, creating misericordia, guest post, list, organisation, organising on May 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Katy at Misericordia asked me to write a guest blog post about organisation – so I did! Click here to visit her blog and read it.
Sunday Sketchblog #103
Posted in Sketchbook, tagged art, brighton, deckchair, drawing, illustration, pier, sea, seaside, sketch, sketchblog, sketching, slush puppy on May 18, 2014| 1 Comment »
Wow. I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last shared any sketches. I’ve done some, but they’ve mainly been ideas that I’ve been getting down on paper (and aren’t ready to share yet!).
I went to Brighton on Friday for a short (one night) break, and did do a little sketching while I was there. Not much as it was ridiculously hot and there’s very little shade to be found on the sea front, but here’s what I’ve got in my book.
There were also too many people. WAY too many people. I definitely prefer the seaside in the off season…
Wednesday WIP
Posted in General craftiness, tagged bookbinding, butterflies, butterfly, coptic binding, despicable me, handmade, inktense, knitting, minions, the big knit, work in progress on May 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
It’s been a wonderfully creative week here. I’ve made an awful lot of books which are already for sale in my Etsy shop, I’ve made more jotter notebooks which will be added to the shop soon, I’ve made a start on tiny knitted hats for The Big Knit, and I’ve had a lot of fun experimenting…
Street Art #12
Posted in Street Art, tagged #codefc, acklam village market, art, code fc, graffiti, london, street art, W10 on May 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Take some old coffee sacks…
Posted in DIY/home decor, tagged chair, coffee sacks, DIY, footstool, hessian sacks, recycling, reupholstering, upcycling on May 10, 2014| 5 Comments »
… and some furniture that’s in need of refreshing, and what do you get? Well, lots of mess for a start (hessian sacks will shed lots of fibres when you’re cutting them), and also a deep sense of satisfaction when the job is done. Shall I start from the beginning?
Last week I ordered some coffee sacks from a seller on eBay. I could have gone to Brick Lane and picked them out myself but frankly it was a lot easier to just have a random selection delivered to my house!
The dog really wasn’t impressed. I was though, as some of the sacks were almost too pretty to use.
Not sure what I’ll use those for yet, but I eventually decided on this one for the job in hand.
It’s a little more subdued than the others, but the furniture in question is for our sitting room and I didn’t want anything too gaudy. First up we have a footstool which was actually ok, but I fancied a change.
See, it’s alright but a bit, well, dull. Anyway, on with the revamp. I took off the stud things (do these have a technical name? If you know what it is then please enlighten me!) only to find that there were loads of (of all things) carpet tacks underneath.
After I’d finally removed all the studs and tacks the rest of the task flew by.
I cut a piece of sack to size and used a heavy duty staple gun to fix it to the underside of the footstool…
…and it looked good, but didn’t seem quite finished. So I put the studs back on.
Perfect! The second piece of furniture was my desk chair. This was yet another chair I found in the street and I’ve been meaning to cover the seat ever since it came into our home.
This was a really quick job. I took the seat off and cut a few layers of black felt to fit on top as a bit of padding (I could have gone out and bought some proper seat padding but basically I’m too tight to spend that money when I’ve got perfectly serviceable felt going spare).
Then it was just a matter of putting some of the sacking on, stapling it in place on the underside, and voila!
Yes, I know I need to finish cleaning the chair. Just ignore the dust and paint and focus on the beautifully covered seat!
It cost me £21.90 for ten coffee sacks (£15 for the sacks, and £6.90 for the postage) and this project only used one side of one sack. Bargain! I’m chuffed to bits with this little project: it was quick, cheap, and the result is just how I pictured.
Street Art #11
Posted in Street Art, tagged art, joe strummer, london, mural, portobello road, street art, W10 on May 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Joe Strummer mural which can be found at the junction of Portobello Road and Blenheim Crescent, W10.
Sealed with a…
Posted in General craftiness, tagged embellishments, letters, love, romance, self adhesive wax seals, thank you, wax seals, wedding, weddings on May 6, 2014| 1 Comment »
It’s been a while since I introduced a new type of product to my Etsy shop, but here goes… self adhesive wax seals. Wax seals add such a beautiful touch to letters or packages, but can be a bit tricky to get right. I’ve done all the hard work for you and these wax seals have got a sticky pad on the back so that all you need to do is peel off the backing and stick it on. Easy peasy!
I have two designs available at the moment: thank you, and love.
If you’d like to order a larger quantity (for a wedding, perchance) then please do contact me for an estimate of costs.
Boot sale bargains (part 8)
Posted in Boot sale bargains, tagged beatrix potter, books, car boot sale, chiswick car boot sale, dandy, ladybird books, robinson crusoe, shakespeare, vintage books on May 4, 2014| 1 Comment »
It’s been a whole year since I last visited the Chiswick boot sale, which is probably for the best given my inability to say no to bargains! I picked up some lovely bits and pieces today…
So, we have eight volumes of Shakespeare, for a grand total of £4.
A copy of Robinson Crusoe for £2 (the spine is knackered but the covers are gorgeous).
A pretty book for £1
Another pretty book for £2 (look at the spine on that!)
Observer book of military airplanes, £1.
Four ladybird books and a couple of Beatrix Potter books, £3.
Big book of animals. Knackered spine on this one, but the covers are still vibrant. Full of beautiful line drawings (although some have been defaced by the original owner).
Some lovely vintage Look & Learn comics, 20p each.
A huge stack of vintage Dandy comics for £10.
Last, but not least, this HUGE book (see the first photo at the top which will give you an idea of the size) which I have grand plans for. £3 for this beast. The woman had another two copies and wanted £10 for the lot, but I really only needed one (see, I can say no occasionally!).
Not a bad haul, and I bought a very pretty linen dress too (brand new, and sadly not cheap in the grand scheme of things, but it’s gorgeous)…
That’s it for this month!
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