New baby gift

Finally I have finished the gift for my friends new baby who is now over a month old. I am not sure what took me so long; I am normally very prompt with my new baby gifts! The delay was partly due to my indecision on what to make for her.   I have done blankets in past, this one & this crochet one and bunnies but as my friend is a good sewer and her Mum even better (she's made the baby a quilt) I thought those options were out.  I spent a week or so toying with the idea of a mobile like these I saw on Pinterest but then this pin sparked an idea....

And here it is! Not quite sure what to call it? I finished it last night so no pictures I'm afraid, but I will take you through step by step, recipe style.

You will need:

• fabric scraps
• photo frame of choice
• freezer paper
• printer
• scissors
• sewing machine or needle & thread
• fabric glue
• Fray Check

First draw and cut out your letters. I ended up doing them free hand (as you can probably see!) but you could print out a template & trace them. Coat the edges with fray check.

Work out the text you want to use in Word, I decided on birth details.  Next cut a piece of fabric & freezer paper to fit the size of your printer (mine was A4). Iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the back of the fabric. This will bond the freezer paper to the fabric and give the printer something to hold onto. Feed fabric into printer, make sure you work out which way round it has to go before you print (mine was fabric faced down). Then print text onto fabric.

I spent a little while fiddling about with the positioning of the letters then when I had it right I secured them with a dab of fabric glue before sewing them on. I also glued the fabric to the back of the frame to hold it all in place.

Welcome to the world baby Summer xx

Side table

I found this at the local Goodwill, $7.99. As they say its all about the 'form'. There were a few scratches on the top and the chip on one side which I filled with patching plaster I had by me.  Two cans of spray paint (only just needed the second) at 50% off from Joann's turned it into a sleek side table for the sitting room for a very reasonable $14.99.

Having balanced my glass of wine on the arm of the sofa way to long not to deserve a glass of red all over it I am happy to have some where to put my wine & nibbles of an evening.  What to watch now the Tour de France is finished? Oh the Olympics of course! Go Wiggo!

50 shades of grey

Our house not the novel.  It seems to be my default colour at the moment, I am envisaging the whole house turning a shade of grey even the exterior.  Is that OK?!  To me it is an easy neutral - in Connie's room it is tied with red & turquoise (see below) and in the sitting room its going to be paired with yellow & teal blue.  Grey just works! 

Another bedroom is done. Slightly more painful than the last due to the school holidays and the girls wanting to 'help' at every stage and the bad DIY 80's paint effects done by the previous owners. Curses to bad taste DIY jobs.  

Before (with potty!)

The chair rail, or rather the mess it left behind when I removed it was the real killer. It took 3 lots of sanding/filling, 2 coats of primer and some spray stuff to even out the finish.  You can still see a faint line in places but with furniture in one can't notice.

texture evened out

 I love that so much of her room is thrifted or re purposed.  The only new thing is the Melissa & Doug kitchen, the bed was new to us, handed down from Esme to Connie! 

Looking through the mirrored cupboard doors

Reading corner.  I made the bean bag nearly a year ago, didn't blog it, sorry!

The map cupboard contains her special trinkets, the 'china' cat is the current favourite! Her chest of drawers was an ebay purchase just before she was born.  

 Great to find a home for the alphabet wall, it looks so much better on the pale walls compared to the wooden cladding it was on in our old house.

Onto the next project - a quilt for her bed. Have ordered some delicious fabrics from Fabricworm, can't wait to get started!

2 down...

Esme's bedroom has been finished on the DIY front for a few weeks now (just need a chair for her desk), so I am ready to begin Connie's room.  However before I roll up my sleeves again I thought I would post some pictures.

Before

After

The walls are painted in Alabaster by Benjamin Moore; it is a chalky chamomile lotion pink/white which you can't really see from my bad photo.  The curtains are from her old bedroom with grommets punched in so they can fit the pole and the ceiling fan you can just see is Minke Aire (expensive but well worth the pennies). 

The bookshelves are Ribba picture ledges from Ikea.  The best comment was from my youngest when she saw all the books out on the shelves "Mummy it makes me want to read books & books!" Box ticked me thinks. 

These adorable little pictures were from the Rose Bowl Flea Market, the best part of the room in my opinion.

The 'washing line' is picture wire & I covered regular wooden pegs in wrapping paper.  A place to display pictures, favourite drawings & key words.

The desk is an old sewing machine table which I spruced up with a fewseveral coats of paint.  You can see the transformation on this earlier post.

And of course her quilt, which she is now happily sleeping under.

Children's desk from sewing table

I wanted my daughter to have a desk in her bedroom as she is starting Kindergarten this year and will have homework to do. I bit of P&Q in her own room might be just the place to do it!
I would have liked this one from the Land of Nod but $599 for a kids desk is really way to much money for me.

Land of Nod Desk & hutch

I took to Craigslist and found a few possibilities.  I nearly parted with 100 bucks for a desk a similar style to the one above, but then found this ugly duckling, and secured the deal for a mere $40. 

It was an old sewing machine table which had been 'done up' - black spray paint & a brown faux fur plastic cover top put on. Nice job, NOT!
Mr Maker kindly took the nasty brown top off, and the original top of the table (with the hole for the sewing machine in it) and topped it with a piece of MDF which I'd got cut to size at Home Depot. 2 coats of primer & 2 or 3 coats of paint later Esme had her desk.

Please excuse the Verizon box in the pictures, very bad feng shui for you or I, it goes with out saying Esme doesn't notice it.  We have yet to find the right seat, she currently uses a stool that doesn't quite fit the colour scheme so didn't include in the photos! 

Quilt

I have made my first quilt.  It really was easier than I thought, although saying that lovely Nancy did the actually quilting part for me. Hope that is OK for quilt purists?!

The fun starts with choosing your fabrics.  I had accumulated mine for nearly a  year.  The bunnies were my bedroom curtains as a little girl (which my Mum made), she says the fabric was from Conran, although they do not do fabric's any more.  The ditsy pink flowers are a gorgeous Liberty tana lawn print (True Up gives a great list of stockists) which I got last summer when I was in the UK.  Several are Innocent Crush by Ann Marie Horner and the last fabric is the third curtain from her old bedroom which was no longer needed.

First job is to cut out the squares. I did 8" squares as recommended by my friend's Mum (thanks Colleen!) with 5 across & 10 long.  Then lay out the squares in your desired pattern, which takes a bit of jigging around to get the look right.  

Sew the rows of blocks together first with 1/4" seams. It was easier just to lay the fabric together rather than pin, it sat flatter.  

Press the seams to one side then join each row together to make the finished quilt. I did pin the rows together as you need to be as exact as possible.  I understand that other quilters unpick if their joins are off, the bodger in my didn't bother!

Nearly all the corners are like this...

The odd one is like this...

I decided to give the quilt a border which I squared off at the corners. I would have liked to mitre the corners but I didn't have enough fabric.  This was 6" wide as that was all the fabric I had.

The front, batting & back fabric was magically quilted together by Nancy whilst I made up the bias binding.  At her recommendation I made it 2 3/4" wide which I pressed in half (good sides out).  Machined sewed it to the front then pressed.  I used hair clips to hold it in place (it sits flatter) while I hand stitched the other edge to the back of the quilt.

 Yay! Finished!  It was used for the first time last night, hopefully the first night of many more. Sweet dreams Esme!

Camping Heaven

We are a family of happy campers and even happier since we've been camping in California. The whole process is easier than in the UK; from the packing up (crates in the garage straight into the boot of the car vs. grovelling through the loft space down 2 flights, walk down the street to the parked car then into the boot) to the packing up at the end of the trip. No wet tent draped over the banisters.


If you are not a camper I urge you to try it, you'll like it!  My friend Nicola at A Pip & Peach has a good list of camping essentials.  Here are some pictures of our latest trip to El Capitan State Beach.  A fantastic spot next to a lovely long sandy beach with rocks for rock pooling.  We even had a swim by of at least 20 dolphins frolicking in the waves. Amazing. As you can see from the map its snuggled up to the freeway; enough beers and you don't notice the trucks any more...

Girls like to climb trees too!

Supper time

Beach action

Camp swing

Compulsory camp food in the USA is s'mores (a biscuit sandwich of chocolate & toasted marshmallow) but we decided to break the mould one night and make chocolate cake baked in oranges. It was worth it!  It was really easy as it uses a packet cake mix (not something I would do at home but very convenient for camping)


First up scoop out the inside of the orange and give to passing child to munch on.

Fill hollowed out orange with cake mix. We filled ours about two thirds full (we had 6 oranges for one box of cake mix) of chocolate mixture.  Put the 'hat' back on the orange and wrap in tin foil.

Put orange parcels directly in the fire & wait! I can't remember how long they took, best to check by opening up one.  

Some exploded out and made light fluffy cake, others were deliciously gooey and uncooked.  Next time we'll rotate their placement in the fire...

Happy Camping!