Flower arrangement.

Flower arrangement no. 4.

This is the creation made last night at my flower arranging class, and I am pleased with how it turned out over all, although it was meant to have a candle sticking up out of the middle, but I decided to take it out as the one I had just was not big enough, and was looking a little lost amidst the flowers. I'm loving having fresh flowers in the house every week, and most of the time the flowers come from small country side shops or from honesty stalls along the road side, I think the most I have spent on the flowers so far is £5.00, and I got two dispalys from this little lot!

Needle point meets pop culture.

Hello to you all, hope you had a fab weekend, did you sleep well? Good, but next time you find it difficult to nod off at night instead of counting sheep or reading a book, or what ever you like to do to help induce sleep, how about trying your hand at one of these great tapestry designs, made by stitch up designs

The six tapestry kits above have been created by Alex who recently started a tapestry kit company that specializes in modern designs inspired by pop cultural trends such as skulls, union Jacks and graffiti.

Having been unable to find designs that fitted her taste, Alex set about making her own designs, and after a great response from friends and family to the skull design, Alex wondered if she had accidentally stumbled on to a good idea for a new business and things have grown from there.

The range currently comprises of six designs that are quick and easy to complete, the canvas comes pre-printed with user friendly instructions included. Alex says she wants people who have never bought a kit before to be tempted to give it a go and discover the pleasure that comes with making something special with their own hands, and apparently it is a good way of relaxing and aiding a good night sleep as well!

Personaly I love the butterfly kit with the vivd pink back ground, what would be your choice, the skull maybe or the union Jack?

Currently available from Alex's Etsy shop here and also from Liberty, John Lewis, and rockettstgeorge.co.uk

Chair update. To paint or not to Paint.

If you are a regular reader you may remember that as of this Monday coming I will be starting an upholstery course, and the piece of furniture that I hope to breath new life into will be a chair that has spent the last 18 or so years in the attic, well here is a little up date for you, its been stripped of its tatty seating and padding, (by me!) sanded back and is now ready to be painted. Although if the men in my life had there way (and by men I mean my Dad and Brother) it would not be painted black! " its a lovely piece of wood" said my Dad, its just spent the best years of its life in the attic with no one bothered about it! So Yes I want to paint it black and add bright bold fabric to it to give it a fun lively young feel.

So one trip to B&Q later and here is the primer and paint to start the transformation, I have chosen a Matt black for wood so hope this does the trick, probably be starting this over the weekend.
What are your thoughts on painting furniture? love it or hate it....

Craft and Market day

Well I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, the sun was shinning yesterday and I popped down to the local Farmers and Craft market in St. Aubins, just to have a wonder around you understand, but the stall holders where out in force, music was playing, lovely food smells where wafting in the air, and some of my favourite stalls where there displaying all the type of things I love, hand crafted, hand painted, homemade, and needless to say my money did not stay in my purse very long! I spotted the stall of Anna Le Sueur, you may recall she featured earlier on in the year here ,and I just had to have one of the gorgeous little sewing tidy cats (below). Isn't it lovely?

I also spotted the stall of Nanette Regan of Area Thrifty One, who designs and makes lovely soft toys and dolls, and I have added one of these dolls to my wish list, you can just about make it out in the picture below with the pink arrow pointing at it; a sassy little rag doll with lost of character and charm, a doll for big girls like me I think! You can see more of these lovely creations here, here, and on flickr here.