almost Jubilee - another 'My Monday'

how did 3 weeks fly past without me noticing??? ... 

well, lots has happened here and I've mainly been very distracted with a very poorly pooch... who after developing pyometra, ended up having an op on Friday & is now wearing a 'cone of gloom' as she refuses to keep the comfy soft swim/donut ring collar thing on!!!..silly dog... but she's on the mend again now so I can breathe a sigh of relief!

 anyway, in between looking after my beloved furbaby, I did do a little bit of work & saw it all come together today when it was finally the day we re-did the shop window at my friends shop :D

& it seemed only right with the upcoming Jubilee event to set it out to celebrate the event, and go a little over the top in good old fashioned Britishness!

starting with flags & bunting

   

I made all the bunting by trying to stick to the 'make do & mend' ethos, whilst trying to make it all look vintage-y and got lucky by only having to buy a small amount of distressed union jack fabric which went a long way! The hessian and checked material were both leftover from other projects and the denim was recycled from jeans (that after losing 2 stone) I never want to be able to fit into again!

My friend is a stockist of 'Sewing World' magazine and so we decided it would be nice to try and make some of the little projects that we'd seen in the recent mags, the pincushion cakes were of course a 'must do'.... I just wish I'd managed to find the time to make cloth Tea-cups too as that would have looked so cute!

 

we dressed up the shops mannequin 'Pat'

 

made some pvc shopping bags, shoved my cushions in for good luck,
 and put my old 50's utility Jones machine in with as many vintage notions as we could find!

we then sat down with a cuppa and made (what seemed like) miles of old fashioned style paper chains to decorate the inside of the shop and felt quite nostalgic & very pleased with it all when we'd finished.

Is anyone else out there in Blogland planning or doing anything to celebrate the Jubilee? if so I'd love to hear about it.

My Monday

I do love Mondays! a busy weekend over, family back to work / school and I get the house all to meself ! this is when I have MY equivalent to most peeps lazy Sunday... so that means Ive sort of had 2 Sundays this week as I got a day to meself yesterday as well and went off to the Creative Craft show at the Bath & West showground with one of my best friends. 

I didnt buy much, I'm really trying hard to be good and only buy 'stuff' that I need to finish other 'stuff' so just bought a few buttons and fq's (for things on my 'To-Do' list, honest!), and some strange bobbly vintage furry looking fabric.. but then I found a man with a whole roll of the now discontinued Ikea blue paisley rosali fabric! ... I squeeled!!! (If you havn't already guessed, I sortof  have a major thing for this rosali collection!) I then had one of those rare OMG palpitation hotflush shopping moments followed by a very girlie giggle LOL and then spent the last dosh in my pocket buying enough to satisfy me for quite some time :D 

... my friend did chuckle & claimed it was like a comedy sketch watching me, but seriously... it felt like I was the one that found the last willy wonka golden ticket!!! I wasnt in the slightest bit bothered either at having spent my budget with hours of the show still left... I was satisfied in a way only a fabricoholic would ever understand!
The friend I went with to the show, has an alterations / 'make do n mend' kinda shop and we've been planning her new window display to reflect the upcoming Jubilee & Olympics so I made a couple of cushions for her to go in the window (or on her comfy sofa in the shop) I havnt been brave enough to cut into my beloved rosali yet tho LOL.... 

I was quite pleased how they both turned out as I sort of made it up as I went along LOL I have some bunting planned too, (thankfully thats much quicker & easier than applique cushions) and have been cutting what seemed like about a gazillion triangles out ... but I cant show that yet as some of the fabric I wanted to use hasn't arrived :((   I do hope it hurries up as I'm getting very twitchy and impatient!!

Anyways, thats it  (for now) I'm trying to ease meself back gently into this blogging lark, and I'm not even sure if there's many peeps out there that are even reading my waffle LOL but hello and welcome if y'are! :D

 

new oomph!

I have been awol for a while as we've had big refurbs at home... but now the dust has finally settled (quite literally!!!) ... my clever hubbs built my cutting table and I now have the crafting room that I've been dreaming of for simply ages!!! :D

 the drawer boxes came from ikea, some new, some very old ! they're really good value storage drawers, but they are soooo plain and boring looking so I decorated them with ordinary household emulsion paints, then scanned & printed out some of my fabrics onto paper and glued the papers onto some of the drawer fronts, this is probly best done with a pritt stick as pva can cause some paper to stretch and go a bit wrinkly... yeh I found out the hard way LOL

  the quilt on the bed is one I made about 7-8 years ago for my daughter but she's into lime green & purple now, so it's all mine! :D I have a ton of cushions planned to cover/bury the bed under LOL and a lot of other finishing off bits but I'm getting there slowly! I DID however finally finish off the 'decopatch' button shelf I started last year! 

Ta Da!!!!

credit where it's due, this upcycled spice rack idea I pinched from Yvonne over at BoxofTrix, its taken me nearly a year to collect enough empty spice jars to fill it mind you, but I'm really pleased with it ... I need to cover all those lids tho as they're a bit...??? just not 'me'!

I now have curtains too :D... I had a dim lightbulb moment & had a good rummage in my laundry cupboard and found these vintage beauties that are just the right length, that I have had for years, yet they have never managed to fit any window in any home I've ever lived in...until now! :D  I knew there was a good reason I never throw anything out!

 there is still LOTS to do in there, like painting a big cabinet I bought from Ebay to store my fabric in... which I really must be getting on with, so, bye for now & see you soon.