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!

Why buy new?

I love a great thrift find, as you may have gathered by now. Seriously why bother buying new flat pack for three times the price when you can get something previously loved? To me its a no brainer.  What is more enjoyable; rummaging around a thrift store finding a bargain, thinking how you can make it your own when you get it home or fighting your way round Ikea?  As someone who fought their way round Ikea on Sunday (BTW got a lovely new bathroom sink!) I know which I prefer.
So this chest of drawers is now part of our family.  It was 50 bucks from our local thrift store.  All she required was a new draw knob from Home Depot, a wash down and buff up with beeswax and orange oil.  Isn't she pretty? 

It is beautifully made with so many great features.

Gentle bowed front

Warm patina

dovetailed joints

Simple claw feet

I can't decide what the wood veneer is (it has been stained and is a beautiful dark walnut colour on the inside) or the age. Any suggestions?

Strawberry jam

2lb's of strawberries for $1.99, crazy!  That means only one thing to me, jam.

Strawberry Jam

4lbs of strawberries, better slightly under than over ripe

3lbs sugar

juice of 2 lemons

6 jam jars

6 disc's of greaseproof paper

I like to wipe the strawberries clean (mainly because Delia says so, water can dilute pectin apparently) and cut to desired size.  If they are small enough I like to leave them whole however these were hand sized brutes so required some chopping.  Some people like to mash them...Your call.  Put a small plate in the freezer which you will need later.  Put the clean jam jars in a low oven to warm.

Put strawberries and sugar in to a large heavy bottomed pan, all the better if you have a proper preserving one (I don't), and heat gently.  Once the sugar has dissolved add the lemon juice and wack up the heat to bring the mixture to the boil.

Do not be concerned about the scum.  Some recipes say to skim it off at the end, I don't bother. A lot of it dissipates by the time you get to putting it in the jars.  Now the next stage requires patience and stirring.  You need to stay by the pan (once you've had jam boil over you won't leave it again!) and keep stirring to prevent it catching on the bottom and burning.  It takes about 25-35mins for it to reach setting point and to get to a temperature between 209-220F.   Mine took a little longer than 35 minutes and was up to 220F. I would like to say I can look at it and tell when its ready, or judge by the consistency but I can't.  This is where the plate in the freezer comes in.  Put a blob on the plate and if it wrinkles up when you push it (after its cooled) its ready.  Strawberry jam can be a soft set, so in this instance the 'wrinkles' were very slight on the surface of the jam.    

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in a knob of butter, this helps get rid of the scum.  Leave the jam to cool for about 15 minutes before decanting into the clean, warmed jars.  I use a jam funnel and ladle for this process.

A few hours later make yourself a piece of toast and sample the fruit of your labour!

Octonauts Party

I'd like to use the excuse that its taken a month to recover from the birthday parties - but that's not strictly true.....Although there is no denying a full on kiddie party is hard work!  It was  all worth it, to see my eldest squeal with delight to have her friends at HER party.  It was Octonauts themed as requested, most ideas stolen used from Pinterest.  
I hung blue streamers from the archway to create an entrance way into the underwater world.  As kids arrived they went straight to a craft activity, making either jelly fish (from paper bowls, streamers & googly eyes) or fish from paper plates. I would recommend having an activity to hand as people always arrive in dribs and drabs.  

They then played 'Pin the patch on Kwazii', unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of this. I order the poster from Etsy and Mr Maker printed off a super sized version at work.  
Speaking of Mr Maker, his mornings preparation for the party was the map for the treasure hunt. And what a creation that was! (one would hope so as it took him 1 1/2 hrs to draw, yup, really).  The treasure hunt was a great success, and took longer than anticipated which was a bonus.  He put the kids in teams for 2 or 3 and gave them an empty party bag each.  The hunt started when each team was given a picture clue. At this location (e.g. inside washing machine, BBQ etc) they found their beautiful map which was marked with red X's - the treasure bags.  The treasure bags were marked with a letter and contained 'goodies' which they all took, one of from each location.   After visiting every treasure bag they unscrambled the letters to make the word, and win the treasure hunt!
Anyway, enough games onto the food....

The table

Menu

Cheese straws

fish sandwiches

Goldfish (obs!)

carrots & toms + dip

hot dog squid

strawberries

clam & pearl biscuits/cookies

Captain Barnacles cake

fish sandwiches on seaweed

Octopus dip

squid

Pearl clams

My personal favourite are the clams, aren't they cute?!! I bought the biscuits (cookies) and made some butter icing which I coloured pink.  The pearl is a yoghurt covered raisin and the eyes are dots of black icing. 

Captain Barnacles cake

And here is the man bear himself.  Phew, glad the parties are all over for another year! Happy 5th year to a gorgeous girl xxx