My reading corner…

I had some time to get things tidy yesterday and I am so glad I did too! It is very frustrating to want to live in a nice house but not enjoy it because you can’t keep up with the masters of mess and mayhem, my kids!  This corner of the house is our reading corner. It is lovely in the afternoon when the sun shine filters throught the sheer curtains.  The nice soft light is ideal for craft/creative work as well as reading. This is usually the messiest place in the house with playdough and paper cutouts but today, it is the tidiest!

The chairs were thrifted as well as the fabric I used for the cushion cover.  The vase I got for my birthday many years ago. There is a lamp with shade at the corner for quiet evening read.

School holiday soon!

School will end tomorrow and I hope I will survive weeks with my children together. They currently behave like cat and dog. My little 23-month old girl does actually fight back and she knows how to use her weight and body mass to make her point. Anyway, I plan to engage my son in productive earth friendly activities such as nature photography, paper making and gardening. I hope I will be able to stick to my plan and continue to be sane :]

He just turned 5 by the way and we did it in several stages so he got to open presents almost every day in the week. He seem to enjoy it – he is now planning on his thank you cards which I think grandma will approve.

Bad weather just makes me depressed but I am glad I am now a confident driver and I have my crafty hobby. I am able to implement ideas and projects without bothering other people.

I’ve been productive lately and am able to stick to my Eco-Friendly project. I thought that another way to contribute to helping the planet is to reduce wastage from my crafting. So I thought I’d make use of every single bit of material no matter how small or ugly and transform it into something nice and useful. One of the outcome is this cute cube purse. The final adjustments to the pattern is now done and I am commencing the commercial production. With my new need for supply, I am so glad to have asked one of the charity shops down the road if by any chance they have crafty supplies and to my surprise- they do! I am able to buy 300 pieces of assorted zips at bargain price and at the same time, helping the charity.

I have other product ideas for the Eco-Friendly project and I hope they will come out beautiful and useful. I will post details here soon

Trifted finds for the day…

A stroll to the local charity shops down George Lane was productive today as I fell for the dining table seating 4-6 people and two chairs, two chairs for the reading corner and some vintage patterns and fabrics for my crafting.

The table with 4 chairs only cost me 25£ with free delivery, they are sturdy and I am not afraid to work on it. For immediate use, I just scrubbed it and washed it clean. But I am planning to use the metallic brush on it , sand it, cover it with protective wood  coating and some varnish. It will look terrific! Two of the chairs will stay in the kitchen as head chairs, I’ve scrubbed them clean too.

I moved our round table to the living room close to the front window, I call this our Reading and Activity area. The bookshelves are close by and it is well lit in the afternoon.  The other chairs I found today will go with the table, I will work on the upholstery though because the original fabric is torn in places and I want it to look new. I have some fabrics already in mind for this and I am also working on cushions!

I also got some fabrics and discovered a box full of vintage patterns some never used and these patterns are only 20p each so I guess one of these days I will go there again and look through them all!

Trifted finds

Today, I had a stroll to main road to pass the time. The charity shops there are already open so I got inside and I am glad I did because I found this beautiful vintage fabric and it cost only a pound!

I already thought of what to do with this – make totes! I have a new design I am working on, so when I finally get it right this will be used to make the commercial versions.

I also found square scarves for a pound each and they are new! I love the colours and the texture. A couple of these will be used to accessorize handmade bags while one will go to my mum. The yellow scarf will be for personal use- it’s so gorgeous and I only have black scarves to match my outfits. These are tied/hung around my neck to keep the cold away – a la française!