Table Time

I've been a busy bee over the past few days working on my first furniture project  (about time, right?).  I mean, I've tackled the odd flat pack here and there and changed out some hardware, but this is my first real furniture transformation, and I'm loving it!

I even splashed out on a sander!  Good grief, I think I aged 10 years just typing that, ha!

This is a sneak peek at the before. 

There has been a lot of drying time involved so hopefully everything should be sealed and ready to show off by the end of the week.

In the meantime, here are some pretty flowers that are defying all the odds and surviving in our garden (see Mum, I told you we had flowers!).

Also, has anyone else noticed that everyone in blogland is moving?  I can't wait to see how they all approach their new spaces and transform them.  Here are some of my faves:

Young House Love:

Little Green Notebook:

House of Hepworths:

I'm also keeping an eye on Yellow Brick Home as they will be revealing their new pad any day now - and it sounds like it's going to be a mammoth renovation converting 2 apartments into 1 family home.

Kate

xxx

Design Star

Did you catch the first HGTV Star show of this season?  I'm already hooked.  From the lovable David Bromstad, to the shameless product plugs (we get it Lumber Liquidators, we get it!), to the contestants soundbites that are guaranteed to come and bit them in the butt by the time this season is over.  I love it all!

The fabric and wallpaper design concept in the first challenge was a nice twist. And I liked that they were given free rein but I wish we could hear what their budget was.

My favorite line of the night had to be: "it's not going to be fine, it's disgusting".  How right you were Ann!

Other first impressions:

Jessi = Taylor Swift

Jeribai, news flash, the JT brand already exists and it belongs to Justin Timberlake!

Ann, matched her crazy red room to her crazy red hair.

Brooks, mad scientist, heavy on the taxidermy!

Tobin, token carpenter

Poor Cris, you know as soon as they say "I quit my job to be here" they're in trouble.

Tyler was my fave, even though we only saw his room for a nanosecond.  This is a terrible picture, but I promise it looked good as a whole.

Anyone else gripped?

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

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