made a button bouquet!

After being sooo inspired by THIS button bouquet I saw at a wedding and seeing all THESE beautiful bouquets made by the same lovely lady I decided to have a go at making my own button bouquet.  My mum had a stash of buttons that she was keen to be used up and I had a pile of wire left over from the table settings at my wedding, so I though why not give it a go (according to Google analytics they are a rising trend!!).  I looked up a tutorial for how to make a stem then just went from there really, I made 50 in the end and then stopped.  So for about the past two months I have had 50  of these stems lying about the house and finally this week I bundled them all together and finished off the bouquet with some pretty lace and tulle netting.  What do you think, not bad for a first attempt even if I do say so myself.  Which is why I have put it for sale here, and here and here.  Who knows, if it sells I might even make another one!
What do you think?

Mid-Century Modern furniture with a contemporary twist

A few weeks ago (before the little Mr arrived) hubby and I were out and about on the lookout for a piece of second hand furniture to use as a changing table for the nursery.  During our search through Reading we came across a lovely man selling upcycled, restored retro vintage furniture in his studio/workshop 23 Chairs and I was in love.  Sadly the pieces were out of our price range (but only just, and they were well worth the price he was asking) so all I could do was drool over them and share them with you!

Restored dining table with pain detail on top,

 Restored sideboard with paint detail on the front, love this,

 How amazing is this? Do you love it? I think the paint work is brilliant, makes it really contemporary,

 Love the colour of this formica chest of drawers and the curved lamiante wood.

You can check out more of this guy's furniture on his website here.

Hope you are all having a good week my lovelies.

"Bon Voyage" card

Before I had baby Orren and had time for things like craft I made this card for some friends who were travelling to America to live and work for 6 months.  I was really pleased with it as were my friends so thought I would share it with you.

I began by creating a background with brown parcel paper.  I placed small strips of masking tape in places on the packing paper to make the front of the card look like a parcel. Then I cut out three circles from vintage maps to give them impression of globes.  Next I stuck on some stamps I had saves, some from America and one British one.  Then I cut out the words "Bon Voyage" from brown paper, written with black pen and stuck them on top.  Finally I stitched a line in black embroidery thread on the sewing machine with a drawing of an aeroplane at the end of it so it looked like the plane was flying round the globes (or something like that!) I liked it anyway and thought it had a bit of a vintage feel to it.

What do you think?

New item in the shop - Mini book!!

I have seen a few mini books floating around on the Etsy market and with my stash of vintage paper building up in my spare room to quite ridiculous proportions I thought I would give one a go to try to reduce my stash, and expand my little online business in the process. I loved making it and am definitely going to make more, I have loads of ideas for making a travel version with all my vintage maps, and a Christmas version.  I have put this one in the shop but have also made another for myself so I will be posting my own finished version in a few days (check back soon!) complete with photos and journalling.  I called it the "English Country" mini book because I included little things like doilies, pages from an old Enid Blyton book and floral Cath Kidston style paper which I felt gave it a feeling of eating cream teas in a pretty rose garden.  Let me know what you think:

Front:

Back:

All the pages:

Especially pretty pages:

Hope you are all having a great day x

Vintage suit in Etsy Shop

Hi all,

Just wanted to share with you that I am selling this beautiful 1950s/60s suit in my Etsy shop.  I was gifted this gorgeous item from my Grandma-in-law with the understanding that I would be selling it on to a more suitable owner, however, after trying it on I really fell in love with it a bit:

Still if I am honest with myself I know I wouldn't ever actually wear it, so I am happy for it to go to someone who will love it as much as my Grandma-in-law did.

New Items in the shop

Hi all,

Recently I have added some new items to my shop, all made from vintage paper that I have acquired.  As I am sure yo know, I love working with vintage paper, it gives everything such a lovely feel.  Here are the new things; if you click on the image it will take you straight to the item in my shop:

Hope you are all having a good week, I am weary this week, looking forward to a restful weekend.

Inside my Parents House

So as you know I was in Wales for the past few days visiting my lovely Ma and Pa, helping them around the house and with the ponies, but more importantly SHOPPING!  Yes we had a wonderful time in the YMCA shop, several fantastic and huge pound shops and of course a range of charity shops.  I got many bargains including some rather wonderful vinyl number stickers for my recycling bins featuring some fishing gnomes!  What could be better?
Anyhow while I was at my mum and dads house I observed some of the lovely artefacts they had round the house and thought it might be lovely to share some of them with you for you all to enjoy.

This is a painting by an artist friend of my parents called Terence Clarke,they have a few of his paintings which are all really beautiful:

An Orchid that I moved to the work surface in the kitchen:

A selection of old artefacts inherited from mu grandparents:

A vase of poppy heads and two small ceramic vases/pots that I made and gave to my mum as a present:

Hope you are all having a good week, I will hopefully have a tutorial for you all to enjoy tomorrow.  Anyone doing anything exciting over Easter?

 

Falling in love with Mid-Centry Modern

It has only been since I started blogging that I have developed a taste for Mid-Century Modern interiors. My interest has been sparked in part with thanks to the likes of Dottie Angel and sfgirlbybay and thier beautiful homes, but I also think it is something to do with being my age and being able to look back to things from my childhood in a new light.
Yesterday my lovely mum and I went thrifting and visited the YMCA shop in Swansea.  Can I just say AMAZING!  If I had a bigger house I would definately have left there with some fantastic pieces of furniture, at the very least a sideboard, a dressing table and some chairs.  As it stood I left with two glass jugs and a hair band!

Take a look at these gorgeous photos to whet your appetite for Mid-Century Modern:

Oooh yeah

What do you love?

New stuff in the craft shop

I have been so moved recently by the terrible disaster in Japan.  I have been literally weeping in front of the TV, the place is totally devastated, and seeing the horror of the event on TV just makes it so real.  I want to do something to help, donating money doesn't seem like enough.

All other news seems so insignificant compared to what has happened, but here, life must go on, so I am sharing with you some recent makes that are in the shop.

Made these lovely envelopes and confetti recently for the craft shop. I love vintage paper so much:

If you feel moved to donate money to the help the Japanese Red Cross please click on the link at the top right hand side of the page. (You would actually be giving money to the British Red Cross, who then pass it on to the Japanese Red Cross, any money that is not needed by the Japanese Red Cross remains with the British team for other humanitarian aid causes.)

New stuff in the shops

Actually made myself do a painting today, it was pretty painful to be honest, I really had to squeeze this one out. Let me know what you think, as ever:

I have been quite brave and put it in the shop, will have to gauge opinion by number of views etc.

Also, I have something in the craft and vintage shop that I picked up at the flea and collectables market I went to on Sunday, check these two out:

How cute?