A new kitchen curtain and bunting

Well, the title says it all really.

As usual, my inability to focus on completing just one thing has shone again.

Whilst on the ground and painting the white floors in the kitchen, I looked up and decided that I really didn't like the blue gingham curtain that was hanging on my kitchen window, and had been there for years since my 'primitive' decorating phase.

A new curtain had to be made and of course, it had to be white.

(Here's a hint for you, whenever I'm browsing through op shops and I see white sheets of fairly good quality or thickness, I snap them up.

I use them for slip covers, cushions, and of course, curtains.)

So out came the sewing machine and up went the curtain, adding instant lightness to the room.

I was very happy.

But it needed something more.

I make bunting for friends and to sell but realised that I didn't have any in my own house.What!?

So I raided my stash of vintage fabrics and made some bunting just for me.

Look at that delicious prettiness!

I love bunting, it is so cheery and festive and it's amazing how something so small can change the feel of a room.

Of course, looking at the photos you can see how horrible the paint is.

Well, that's in the process of being changed right now and my spare time is once again taken up with scrubbing walls, filling gaps and sanding to get them ready for the light blue that's to come.

Rosie's Room is Done!

After long last, I put the final coats of paint on the sleepout last week and I've been painting furntiure and moving all of Rosie's things into the room. And seeing I love before and afters let me give you a short history of the sleepout.

This is what it looked like pre-cleaning and painting, when it was my sewing room. Neat, but look at those awful walls. Looking back, I can't believe that I lived with it for so long.

When we moved in, the floor was "carpeted" with fake grass. Beautiful.

That immediately went, but the floor below was painted green and covered with bumpy glue.


So in the meantime, we put down carpet from elsewhere in the house.


Rosie chose a really pretty pale spearmint for the walls. We were going to go for a shabby-chic look BUT halfway through Rosie decided that she wanted an Indian themed room instead. A darker green would have been better for this new look, but the paint was bought so we stuck with it...and it went well anyway as you'll see soon.

Walls painted...I now needed to tackle the floor. Paint stripper didn't work too well so I turned to my beloved hot air gun.

It wouldn't get all the glue off but rather spread it out, but that didn't matter too much as I just wanted it smooth enough to paint  white.

I LOVE white floors.

I painted the furniture a glossy black (which was Rosie's idea) and it holds the room together really well.

The bed was pine

The bedside table was white MDF from Aldi which was painted and papered
(I just used scrapbooking paper glued on with PVA and covered with two layers of clear varnish)

and the dresser was one I picked up for $15 from an Op shop which also got the black treatment and new glass handles.

I still have a desk to paint and paper and I'm making curtains out of saris bought online to add some more of the Indian feel, plus I was also going to add some picture frames painted black  and lined with Indian paper.

The furnishings and decorations were chosen by Rosie.

This has been such a fun project to put together and I'm amazed and so pleased by how well it turned out.

I think Rosie has an excellent eye for deisgn and has really sophisticated taste, especially for a 12 year old.

So again, before......

and after.

  

I'm joining in show and tell parties on The Shabby Nest and My Romantic Home.

vintage pillowcases

It seems that lately I've taken to collecting vintage sheets and pillowcases.
You know how these collections creep up on you. You buy one by chance, then another, then before you know it, that's the section of the store you go to first. You see a floral corner peeping out from behind an ugly '80's quilt and you realise that your heart just went pit-a-pat.

(Why vintage 60's and 70's patterns now when a few years ago I would have groaned at their ugliness? Who knows? That's worth a whole other session on the couch.)

If you're a collector like me, you'd also know how rarely you find them.
So you can imagine my delight when two weekends ago I stumbled not just on one or two, but piles of pillowcases.

I showed restraint and bought just two piles of them for $3 each. That's twenty pillowcases, in one spot, for 30c each.

The colours, the patterns....be still my beating heart.

Of course, some went straight on my bed.

Some others, I'm keeping to cut up and make banners from.

The mirror I also got from the same garage sale for $3, but that's another story.

Going green in a pretty way

I found some pretty floral curtains in Vinnies the other day for $2 that came straight home with me. No, I didn't need new curtains but the material was great for a little project that had been stewing away in my mind.

Like most people I try to use green bags shopping but don't have anywhere handy to store them, except for chucked in a corner of the laundry area. Let's face it, they're ugly, I don't want them where I can see them....so of course I always forget to take them with me because out of sight,out of mind.

But I thought to myself, "What if they were so cute..so pretty that I'd be looking for an excuse to take them out?"

Are you making the connection?  Nice, strong curtain material with a lovely vintage-esque print (when does something really become vintage? Does being second-hand and not obviously new make it vintage? I wanted to put vintage in the post title but wouldn't want to mislead anyone. I could just hear them say, "Vintage? Scoff! My mum has those curtains in her kitchen etc.")

Anyway...Nice, strong curtain material with a lovely vintage-esque print becomes trial bag number 1. I made it to the same dimensions of my current green bags so I could use their removable stiff bottom and I purposely made the seams on the outside for a bit of frayed goodness.

The only drawback that I can see is, unlike the original, the sides are all floppy, hence the posing with the fake groceries. But I can live with that. Now to make bag number 2 with the leftover fabric. And if you listen carefully you'll hear Rosie's horrified cry of, "Oh, no, Mum, not more granny fabric. Please don't take that out in public."

Market Finds

Sunday morning is market morning although I haven't been for a while. I was going to get some plants from my favourite plant seller but I was lucky enough to also find

this adorable pink teapot (just the right size for one) for $3 and this blue bowl for 50c.

I have a pastel green bowl and teapot that match them perfectly.

They'll be great for when I put out my pastels which should be soon, now that it's Spring.

I also found this vintage children's story book.

I love collecting them for their quaint pictures and bright colours and their retro language.

Earlier in the week, I also scored this Marks and Spencer tin for 50c. I'm not so fussed about the flower on top but I love the spotty sides.

I also got this jar for my pantry.

I'm going to paint the wooden top red and store my muesli in it.

And lastly, this great crocheted blanket in my favourite colours, red and light blue.

I love it.

A quick stool makeover

I thought of making a silly toilet-humour joke to tie in with that heading...but thought, musn't, I can act juvenile at home but not out in public. Good breeding and all that.

Anyway, I always look in the furniture section at my local St Vinnies but come away discouraged as everything is too hopelessly vile or else they've taken to redoing the pieces themselves (NOT in my style) and charging a pretty penny for the end result. I wanted something small that I could easily smuggle home and hide from Mitch (I know we don't need more crap in our house), cheap so it doesn't matter it I mess it up and simple to redo as I have a short attention span.And it has to have definite potential. So when I saw this stool for $2 my eyes lit up.

It was gross. Rusting brass finish, plastic ends on the legs and a blue fluffy cover that was so disgusting that after removing I had to de-germ my hands immediately.

But after a light sanding, some powder blue spraypaint and some pretty new material, I was rather pleased with the result.

I'm not totally satisfied with the fabric, (actually some toile and black spraypaint could've looked rather sophisticated) but that's easily changed if I find a better replacement.

I love the blue spraypaint. Usually I would go for white, but I've been thinking about painting our fridge blue, so thought I would give this paint a go. I think I'm onto a winner.

P.S. I just realised it's been a year since I started blogging so I'm due for my first giveaway. So stay tuned, I'll be having one in the next week, as soon as I can work out what to give away. Any suggestions???

Soft furnishings on a budget

I wanted a bunch of blue, pastelly cushions for my lounges without too much effort or cost, and I just happened to hit the paydirt at St Vinnies. No, not cushions, but pillowcases for 50c each. That takes care of the cost and as they're already sewn with just a bit of tweaking to do, that takes care of the effort as well.

Of course they're a bit long and the tinsiest bit wide so I just cut them down to size along two sides, sewed them up again and whoila. Total time...about 10 mins per cushion.

I love the embroidery detail on these ones. I just kept the part of the pillowcase that had the folding opening and cut off the top.

I thought this floral pattern was very cottagey and I added some blue ribbon to hold them closed.

These ones were made using offcuts from the other blue pillowcases (the ones with the embroidery) and some leftover material and and lace that I had.

I also made some with a back opening from a tablecloth with a blue sprig pattern that I picked up for $2. It made some cushions for this lounge...

one for this chair...

and a chair pad for my rocking chair.

I needed to change the curtains to match so I bought a white single sheet for $2 which I cut up and added some lace and ribbon for some cottage prettiness. (Just don't look at how dirty the walls are. The crisp whiteness of the material really brings out the grime.)

And here's my oven mitt that I made out of the cot sheet that I found earlier from St Vinnies. I actually made two, and also a pot holder which I haven't quite finished.

Total cost excluding the ribbon, lace and cushion inserts which I already had.....$6.50. Not bad.