Mini Makeover

This weekend I finally tackled a loooong overdue mini makeover.  By long, I mean I've had this sad little plant stand on the to do list for 2 years.  Yes, 2 YEARS!  I bought this on my very first trip out to Bama Flea Mall for a cheaper than cheap $5.

The minute I got home, I sanded it down ready to be painted.  And that's how it has stayed.  It even made the move from our last apartment to our first home - I refused to give up on my little project.

I'm trying hard to use up the paint and craft supplies I already have.  I hunted around in the garage and found a tester from when we were deciding on the living room wall colour.  It's just one shade lighter than the colour we finally settled on (Behr, Opal Silk).

I gave the plant stand a quick 2 coats.  I wanted to add a little detail, so used a gold paint pen to mark a single chevron.

I'm contemplating turning it into a little table - maybe with a frosted glass top?  Maybe!

Kate

xxx

Package Pals Part 2

Look what arrived on my doorstep this week:

A whole load of crafty goodness from my Package Pal Sara.  Sara's amazing blog, Sara Does, is packed with crafty tips and creative ideas.  To find out what Package Pals is all about, check out Jamie's blog CRAFT.

Now onto my loot.  The rolls of beautiful paper are for making my own envelopes - you can see the pink template bottom right.  Such a cute idea (find Sara's full tutorial here).  I have to admit, I'm so obsessed with the print on the turquoise floral paper that I may have to pop it into a frame.  You know I'm a sucker for cheap art!

The extra large eraser and 2 round pieces of wood are for carving my own stamps and creating their little handles.  I would never thought of this, but what a genius idea.  I'm thinking maybe my initials, or perhaps a star or even a quatrefoil shape.  I have some plain cream napkins that I've been looking to jazz up, so I think this would be the perfect project.  Stay tuned.

And the fabric is for sewing my own scarf.  I didn't mention that purple was one of my favorite colors, but I'm sure you could tell by looking round our home.  I've had my eye on a sewing machine so this will definitely be my first project when I take the plunge.  Check out Sara's tutorial on how to create your own scarf.

A big fat thank you to Sara for a fantastic package, and to Jamie at CRAFT and Julia at Stars and Sunshine for putting the whole thing together.

Kate

xxx

To Mount or not to Mount

This weekend was the final straw, I couldn't spend one more minute looking at these wires.  It also didn't help that last week I read an article about why you shouldn't mount your tv above a wood burning fireplace.  Plus it was at an awkwardly high angle, so really wasn't comfy to watch for any length of time.

You can see we already had a little unit on the left that all of the receivers (or whatever they are) were supposed to go in. Of course, they never actually made it into the cabinet and have been sitting on top for the past 8 months.  Uuugh, those blooming wires! 

The switcheroo was very easy.  We popped the receivers into the little cabinet (it has handy sliding doors to disguise them when they're not being used) and took the back off so all of the wires could run behind it.  The proportions of giant tv to tiny cabinet aren't ideal, but we'll make it work for now and be on the look out for a wider cabinet.

It also gave me the opportunity to pretty up our mantel.  I hunted round the house for things we already had that I could use.  This is how it looks now, though I'm sure I'll be playing around with it.  Watch out for many more mantel updates in the future - I'll be taking full advantage of my new found decorating space.

The little origami fox was a Target clearance find, along with the flower pic.  I can't get enough of those Target end cap clearance goodies.

The glass owl was an antique mall find.  I think it's supposed to be a bookend, but this little guy is flying solo.  And the love is an Urban Outfitters Christmas decoration.

Not bad for working with what we already had.

Kate

xxx

Package Pals

In March I signed up to Package Palls.  Hosted by CRAFT and Stars & Sunshine, the idea is you are matched up with your Package Pall and throughout the month collect and put together a crafty package for them.  I'd never heard of this idea before, so as soon as I read the concept I signed up.

I was matched up with Sara at Sara Does.  She has an amazing blog packed with fun and original ideas.

After emailing our likes and styles, I knew I wanted to do a mixture of crafty goodness and thrifty finds.  This is what is currently winging its way to Sara.

For crafting I picked up 4 napkins in a fantastic print, I thought they would be perfect for making a pair of funky cushion covers (hanging in the back of the pic).  I also found some fun matching trim.

A set on mini letter stamps and an ink pad, an apple stamp and washi tape for a quick craft fix.

For thrifty finds I found a cute wooden frame (the possibilities are endless, paint it, stain it, tape it, stamp it), some vintage scrabble letters that spell out Sara Does and old school number flash cards - I've seen them used in all kinds of craft projects

All this was squished into a cute turquoise card holder.

I hope she likes it!  I'll let you all know what I receive as soon as it arrives.  And if you want to see what everyone else sent and received, check out the Link Party over on CRAFT (yes, we're fashionably late to the party, ha!).

Have a fantastic weekend.

Kate

xxx 

Thank You

Just popping in today to say a huge THANK YOU to Grace and Kate (another one, I'm not thanking myself, ha!) who have recently featured a couple of my projects:

Grace at Design Sponge who featured my super size cross stitch:

Kate at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating who is featuring my striped hallway today over on her blog.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to you both.

And if you're visiting for the first time, hello!  Thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to have a good poke around.  To make it easy to catch all of my updates you can follow along at Bloglovin right here:

 

 

Kate

xxx

Take the Tour

The first thing I do when I stumble across a new blog is to track down their house tour, anyone with me?  I love having a nosey round other peoples houses - and all from the comfort of my own sofa, perfect!  I'm constantly finding inspiration in other bloggers style and design.

These are a few of my favorite house tours - the perfect way to waste a few minutes:

Sarah M Dorsey Designs - love her colour choices and mixture of prints

Yellow Brick Home - amazing to think they packed this much style into just 650 sq feet

Making It Lovely - a fantastic sense of style

Tudors Down - a sea of mid-century, so 2 thumbs up from me (check out their latest tour at AP)

And with all the changes around here I've been busy updating our House Tour page - so feel free to have a look around.  I won't judge!

April is turning out to be a busy month for house poking aroundery (definitely a word!).  First up is the Birmingham Parade of Homes.  I've never been before, so am looking forward to seeing what decorating ideas I can shamelessly steal.  Then at the end of the month it's the Decorators Showhouse.  Each local designer gets a room in a huge house to decorate.

Here is this years house:

You can count on it being massively incohesive as the designers each try to cram as much of their style into their one room.  Some go subtle, some go neutral, some go bold.  It's guaranteed to be an interesting mix.

Kate

xxx

Sucker for Succulents

I'm ashamed to say we have absolutely no plants in our house.  Mainly because I'm a crazed plant killer.  Clearly if we were going to add plants, it needed to be something hardy that wouldn't shrivel up and die a day after I forget to water it (which I inevitably will). 

So this weekend I hot footed it to Lowes to jump on the succulent bandwagon.  I picked up 3 for $4 each.  I already had 3 little red buckets from the Target dollar section.  Our window sills are irritatingly narrow so they weren't going to fit there.  Instead, I decided to try and hang them.  Luckily I found a measuring cup hook at a local flea mall that worked perfectly.

There were lots to chose from.  Ultimately, I went for the ones that looked the weirdest.

I love the strange shapes.

If I was going to name this one it would be "the claw" - I'm sure it's actually called something like the "succulentomiticus clawstotensis".

They hang in our kitchen, right below our red retro clock.

I love the mixture of old wooden hook and crisp red buckets.

Fingers crossed I can keep these sweet little plants alive!

Kate

xxx