Day 366 - A 365 patchwork table wearing leg warmers.

Here it is, my last project, with the other one of my free nest tables. It is a tribute to my 365 project, and comes with woolly legs, for the chilly Bendigo winters.

What an awesome thing to have done. I have loved doing it, learning new skills, trying things I never would have tried, and getting a huge buzz from completing things I never imagined making.

My new blog is here. http://avintagecraftyadventure.blogspot.com.au/ Not set up yet but hopefully I will get a chance to do that over the next couple of days. You can keep following my ramblings if you want to.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me over the past year and kept me going. Special mention to Joyce, I've loved your comments and appreciation.

I'm off to have a cuppa now, with Little A at kinder for 2 hours, I get a tiny bit of time a week where no one is talking to me. Now that's what I call bliss! x

Day 361 - Hot air balloons with messages inside

This is another anniversary present for my hubby for our 10th wedding anniversary. I had the idea of making some hot air balloons with messages in them a while ago, but wasn't sure how I would do it. Then a couple of weeks ago these string lanterns stopped working, and it occurred to me today that they would be perfect for making mini hot air balloons. There are even ten of them, for the 10 notes I had planned.

Lanterns.

I got the lanterns, some cardboard icecream cups, and some string I recycled from packaging.

I tied strings to the bottom of the lanterns.

Then I punched a hole in each side of the icecream cups, threaded the string through and secured the string with a bead on the inside of the cups.

Then I wrote some notes.

Rolled them up and tied them with string.

And buried the notes in shredded paper, recycled, from a birthday gift.

Here are my balloons swaying in the breeze outside.

Day 350 - Repurpose an old table to new foot stool

I inherited 2 of old nesting tables that have been sitting in the shed for a couple of years.  As of today, one is now a cute foot stool.

Here's what I did.

Used a square piece of cardboard to draw patchwork squares on fabric scraps and cut out squares of fabric.

Lay them out the way I thought they looked nice.

Sew them into three strips and then sew the three strips together to make one panel.

Old table.

Found this old sheepskin seat cover for padding on the top of the table. If I was more organised I would have used wadding or foam, but this is what I found today in my house.

Stretch the fabric over the table, with the sheepskin underneath, and hammer in some tacks to secure it.

Day 348 - Vintage plate cup cake stand

This morning I did some lovely leisurely op shopping on my own. Bliss! Needless to say it was difficult to return home. Although once home I was inundated with cuddles. And of course I managed to bring home lots of op shopped books for the kids, which made me even more popular.

I found these lovely plates. The larger one is hand painted.

Here I am with my drill. This is my first time using an electric drill. Quite chuffed I was! (A practice plate in this picture).

I bought this screw set on ebay for a few dollars. And here is my adorable new cupcake stand.

Day 346 - Chalkboard wine glasses

Something for the adults this time. :-) I've run out of chalkboard paint so I guess this will be my last chalkboard post for a while.

As you can see, Mum needs the larger wine glass....

Day 344 - DIY lace earring storage solution

Every since Juliet and James made me copious amounts of earrings for my birthday I have had a storage crisis with my jewellery. It's all cheap stuff and is spread everywhere and can never be found when I want to wear it.

I decided to create this today in my walk in robe. I just attached some lace and ric rac to the wall with drawing pins and the little holes in the lace are prefect for getting the earrings in and out easily. Pretty happy with myself really, this is very practical and pretty too. Looking for stuff all the times drives me completely mad!

Improving my life one step at a time. ;-)

Day 255 - Paper string of pretty.

Well summer doesn't officially begin for another 2 days but we are heading for a 40 degree (google tells me that's 104 degrees for the Celsius challenged) day here today and it's already very hot at 11am. I shall be lying low for the day.

I got a head start last night on cutting out the pieces for today's craft. I loved my decorations from yesterday so much I decided to make some others.

I still had one book page left from the meg and mog book used in Day-230-meg-and-mog-love , and I love the colours of the illustrations. So began an idea. I combined this with a coffee bag and some shape cut outs left over from a birthday party pack.

I cut circles from the book page and stars from the coffee packet.

Used a long straight stitch on my sewing machine to sew them all together. (You could glue if you don't sew).

And here is my string of pretty.

 I would hang it on the tree but we don't have one yet, so here it is.

I think these would also look great hanging from the roof.

Day 235 - DIY Stencil Wrapping Paper

We have so many kids parties to go to lately and I prefer to find alternatives to wrapping paper for presents. Today I made some wrapping paper using this giant roll of white paper we have had for years and use for kids painting and other crafts.

I made a stencil by cutting out a row of diamonds. This stencil was paper but cardboard would be heaps better for using again and again.

Then I used a roller and some kids paint.

Then tried some more with another stencil we had at home.

Day 69 - DIY bookshelf

Still had some visitors around until about 3pm today but after they left I was very excited to start this project for my little Aidan.

Mum got him this cube storage shelf from target and I was very proud of myself for being able to follow all of the diagrams and put it together. I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment.

Then I got a vintage duvet cover from my stash and stretched some over the top of the shelf and one square of the back. Next I cut a couple of pictures I liked from the duvet cover and stuck them on to the back of the 2 remaining cubes that have a back. I love it! I think the fabric is so cute and the vibrancy of it really suits my happy go lucky little man. He loves it too. When my kids are happy I'm usually pretty happy too.

Hope everyone has had a weekend as amazing as mine. What will I make tomorrow?