Wooden trolley makeover

I had this wooden trolley that came with a set of shelves my husband and I bought years ago.  It was totally unfit for purpose because it was supposed to slot in between the legs of the shelves under the bottom shelf and it was too wide. The shelves became a shoe rack and over the years the trolley has served many purposes.  It now takes on a new guise as a toy box for our baby's bedroom.
You might remember these test pots of paint that I bought from B&Q to match in with our colour scheme?  Well I used them to create a sort of colour wash over the bare pine wood.  I am pleased with the result, it is now bright and cheery and much more appropriate for a child's bedroom.  It was a bit difficult to do because I worked on it on the bedroom floor and all the getting up and down was a strain, not to mention the bump getting in the way!  But I did it!  What do you think?

Before - boring old pine

 After - bright and colourful

Maternity leave days ten to fourteen

The baby's room is coming together.  I spent literally hours trying to sew a ruffle for the bedroom curtain, after much swearing and two broken needles I finally made it!

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I took them on my little camera. 

Basically I had the curtain already and I simply appliquéd some coloured fabric onto it and onto the tabs at the top.  That part was really tricky actually, but I am pretty pleased with the results, although they aren't perfect, but then neither am I.

I also strung up some bunting that I made in co-ordinating fabric, I got the colour way from the Jamboree range at Mamas and Papas:

On Friday I picked up some sample paint pots from B&Q that matched in too.  I have a small wooden trolley/toy box that I am going to paint with them, and maybe some picture frames too.

Hope you have all had a good weekend.  Even though I am not going to work tomorrow, I still have that Sunday evening feeling.  I think it is because Paul is back to work tomorrow, so I will be on my own.

Maternity leave: Day four

Thought I would share with you some artwork I have done for the  baby's room today.  Do you remember this post, of images from the Jamboree collection at Mamas and Papas, in particular theses paintings?  Well I loved them so much but just couldn't justify £22 pounds a pop.  So...I decided to imitate them on canvases I bought from Hobby Craft for about £5.00.  Do you like?  I am really pleased with them.

Today I continued the big clear out, nearly there now, made some soup for freezing so that when baby comes we have some easy nutritious meals at the ready and added a few more things to my hospital bags.

What are you up to?

Baby's bedroom

We went to Mamas and Papas a few days ago and I fell in love with their Jamboree range.  It is cute and fun and seeing as we don't know the sex of our baby yet it is fairly unisex.  I like the jungle animals theme and love the colours.  Here is some from their range:

Sadly we can't afford to buy all these delicious things so we are planning on buying a few key pieces like the wallpaper and then choosing fabric in co-ordinating colours and making a few matching items like curtains and a blanket.  I put together this colour way to make it easier:

I will take some pics of what I make...if I manage to make anything!  Stupidly I didn't photograph ANY of the Christmas presents I made but I might make some more things that are similar and put them in the shop.  Here are the things I made for my family:

Dad - bought three packs of nice and unusual coffee from Whittards, a cardboard (shoe box sized) box from Hobby Craft which I decorated with pretty vintage papers and some small jars which I filled with maple syrup, some nice hot chocolate and some demerara sugar that I infused with vanilla and made pretty tags for them.  I put verything in the box with some raffia to fill in the spaces.

Mum - Made some moisturiser by melting shea butter, jojoba oil and wheatgerm oil together and pouring it into a tin and letting it et, I then made a label for the tin with a piece of pretty scrapbooking paper.  Also bought a kilner jar which I filled with melted wax and a wick.  To make it more interesting I added some lavender oil for a nice scent and some shells and driftwood.  I tied the top of the jar with raffia, a shell and a piece of driftwood.

Brother - Felted a jumper and made a pair of mittens (much harder than I thought, lots of swearing involved), and I made him tie from some tweed that had some sparkly bits in which i thought was quite festive. (Again much harder than I thought, again, lots of swearing!)

Sister - Covered a small note book with pretty fabrics, lace and buttons, bought a hot water bottle and made a patchwork cover with pretty co-ordinating fabrics, some vintage.

Sister - Made some bunting with flowery fabric and bought some cheap towels which I embellished with some lovely Cath Kidston fabric along each end.

Everyone seemed quite pleased with their presents, although my brother less so because his mittens were about 3 inches too long for his fingers!!

Did you make any presents this year?  What did you make?  Did they go down well?