Birdcage Gardening...

Should be the next BIG thing...

If like me you have little and larger lads who insist on kicking a football around the garden like they're at Rio  then this is the way forward!

My birdcage planter is 

thriving from this pretty little thing

to

THIS

little beauty!

Literally overflowing with prettiness...

I can vouch that it has survived their best attempts to use it as a goalie and is just simply stunning!

Vintage Inspiration in the Garden...

I have a small, chicken ruined garden.  Last year I set about re-seeding it, which went ok-ish but it is still in need of a lot of love.

You will I hope see a theme in my crafty blog, of re-purposing old bits into new bits.  

Or re-jigging things to work.

Mainly painting stuff...it is a joke in the family that if it stands still long enough I will paint it.

Roll on a pot of wood stain later and we have progress on the patio

I've taken the chalk board down and re-housed that down to the grassy area and dumped the shelves that were in the corner as they had rotted.  Just need to re-paint that fence!

The ladder was lingering in the house for far too long, gathering dust and not being at all useful.  

It is now suited and booted, almost finished to hold some pretty plants.

The bench in the back is one of two, sturdy old school benches fished out of a skip a couple of years back.  

We don't have space a proper table and chairs out here so we tend to use the benches as a table or flexible seating if the teens have friends over.

The other one will I hope have tomato plants growing on it shortly {in preparation for chutney making later this year!}

The deckchair is also one of a pair, bought at a dump many years ago.  Stripped back awaiting a new cover {ooo you'll like it when you see it}

The boot rack bought last week at the booty for a wonderful £3, long on my wish list but not being prepared to pay retail I thought it would just stay on the wish list but lucky old me found one!

I got fed up of seeing the pink birdcage waiting for love so have lined it with moss and filled it with a selection of hanging basket flowers!  It looks lovely and is outside the window where I spend many hours washing up!

The strawberries are in old enamel bread bins, planted last year.

Fingers crossed I will beat my youngest kiddos to actually have more than the one strawberry this year!

And tadpoles!

Once again not really a craft but things that keep me busy!

All practical stuff.

Sewing and Such...

I could rather grandly call it 'my desk' but in reality it's the dining/craft table that lives in our dining/play room.

There is a theme with the table, I clear in preparation to work/craft at it and various kiddos will come along and fill said cleared space with their work/craft.

Space in a 3 bed house and 7 people is a thing of rarity!

Recently my eldest, Abba, has been as busy as a Bee, turning gorgeous Liberty fabric into even prettier cushions along with a whole host of other sewing projects!

In a recent break from her sewing I started a new project that has been in the wings for far too long!

My middle daughter, Lolly, has been after a standard lamp for her room for quite a while.  

I had the stand and shade 

{this one}

After a bit of a re-think she decided she would like it all white so I set to work on another stand and stripping the shade of washi tape and pom poms.

I have a selection of lovely linen table cloths and found one with a couple of minor imperfections and set about making her lampshade out of one of them

It was/is going well until we hit this week...

GCSE's start this week and Lolly has taken over the desk for her revision. 

So once again the desk is not mine to play with for a time

I am so very near finishing the shade, it has been a lot easier to make one second time around 

{despite not having the original shade pieces to use as a template}

The first one I did was a labour of love

which after not selling at the last fair is now hanging, 

albeit upside down, 

on my landing!!

And I have a plan for this lovely table cloth, I'll give you a clue...

think window

Vintage Plate Cake Stands...

Crafting has been occurring...not in an organised planned way but in a much more higgledy-piggledy way.

What and when has depended on the weather, space available and what tickles my fancy!

On a recent search for a lost pack of buttons I stumbled by happy accident across the bag of 'bits' needed to drill and convert plates into cake stands.

3 years in a cupboard, put away 'safely' 

So roll onto a chillier day and a little ta- da moment

A very pretty mix of pastel green fine porcelain

The makings of more

*sigh*

Very pretty!

Is it crafting?

I'm not sure I can really call it a craft but it has been keeping me happy!

Raspberry Ripples Crochet...

Behind my front door my little fingers spent March busily crocheting away in a blurry fury to finish off the pink stripe blanket!
{now known to me as the Raspberry Ripple}

And finish it in time for the birthday I did!!

It is once again just so much nicer than I had hoped...

I was still busy on the morning of the birthday, adding the finishing touches of pom pom trim to the sides.

I didn't follow a pattern in the end for the pom poms just used my brain

(and surprisingly it all came out very nicely in the end).

What else, what else?

That has been it for March, most, no all my time was spent with the pink blanket which grew and grew!

I must, must, must finish the Christmas blanket though, once that is upon the lap of its recipient then I can concentrate on other little follies!

Up-cycled Bird Cage...

A while ago, well last year, I had an idea after a bit of buyers regret.  
I had spotted at the boot sale a really cute very old bird cage.  It was small but curvy and reminded me of the little old fashioned caravans {that I dream of owning}

Anyway at the time as much as I liked it I had already filled both my arms with booty and in the heat couldn't be bothered to struggle back to the car with it.

*sigh*

Hence the buyers regret...snooze you lose

Roll onto to a wet day earlier this year and I found a bit of a beauty...

The idea I had brewing was split in 2.

A shelf for my girls room, which would mean cutting the front of it off and inserting a shelf

or 

to fill it with potted plants as I have a set of steps for the garden which it would look lovely hanging off

Now if it was to go into the girls room it would need to be white so...

but it wasn't rocking it for the girls and I put plan B into action...

Paint it bright pink to either go in the garden or list it for sale...

I have to say I think Plan B is the better one

and it sits nicely with the hand-made Cath Kidston Budgie fabric lampshade...

Mothers Day 2014...

I am  a lucky girl...

This year Mothers Day was dry and sunny,

I made a most delicious roast dinner with the best bit of beef I've eaten in years {thanks farmer Giles!}

I was gifted pretty flowers...

But I was also gifted a day off, a real genuine day off!!

Not on Mothers Day, that was spent with various little and big ones and a trip to see my very own mum x

No my day off was...

The Cath Kidston store in a local town was hosting a Lampshade Making workshop and I booked myself in!

It was good fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, I chose my fabric online the night before...

Cath Kidston Big Budgies

and soon got to work...

perched {do you get it?} just inside the shop by the door

it was a fun couple of hours and I had a legit reason to be lingering in a very cute little shop!

The end result?  

Well turned out way better than I had hoped

soon to be listed for sale

 and

Ties in nicely with another little March project which I'll show and tell next time!