Nautical Cushion

I had some patchwork pieced together and left over from a recent baby quilt I made. It was a big enough piece to be used as part of something else, so I decided to make it into a cushion cover.

I love this nautical themed fabric. It came from Trago Mills for the bargain price of £2.16 a metre! Such a great place to get fabric.

The cushion is a simple slip cover style. I think it's pretty gender neutral too with its red and blues.

Bunting!

 Bunting is a great way of using up scraps of fabric. I had promised a friend some personalised bunting for her daughter's room, and then I got another bunting order through my Facebook page (look me up! Vintage Bee!) so an afternoon of bunting creation commenced!

I couldn't resist making some Vintage Bee bunting too - currently this is hanging in my sewing room, but when I do craft fairs it will hang on the front of my stall.

Lap Quilt

Our house is pretty cold most of the time as we have no heating apart from a log burner in the front room. Therefore I thought it was high time I made a lap quilt for snuggling under while watching tv. 

The design is just simple patchwork squares in gold, mustard & blue. I particularly love this 'Lady Sybil' Downton Abbey fabric:

The back is a tablecloth I picked up in a charity shop for £1.50 - bargain! I've quilted it in a 'sunbeam' pattern using free machine embroidery. 

As with most things in our house, Bronwyn now thinks it belongs to her!

Recovered Cushions

When I was little we had these big floor cushions in the house that my Mum got from Habitat in the 1970s. When I moved out she gave them to me and I've moved them with me to each house I've lived in. Recently I finally admitted they were on their last legs - both had rips in them & the stuffing coming out, repaired with gaffer tape!

I recovered both cushions with a gorgeous dark blue fabric printed with bugs that I got in Ikea. Once I'd covered them the rest of the cushions in that corner looked scruffy, so of course I had to recover them too! 

The last cushion I made a patchwork cover for and embroidered it with boats, reflecting the fact that both Ash & I are kelpie children from a seaside town. Once of the boats has an A for Ash, one has a B for Becky and one is HMS Bubbs for Bronwyn - cheesy but cute!

Arabella's Nursery

My best friend Claire recently gave birth to her beautiful daughter Arabella. During her pregnancy she said she wanted a Mr Men theme for her nursery. As honorary auntie I was happy to make a nursery set her Arabella. Claire ended up buying Mr Men duvet covers from M&S for me to cut up as we couldn't find any fabric that we liked as much. 

I made a quilt cover, cot bumper, thermal blackout lined curtains, and a seat pad & cushion for the top of the toy box. I also embroidered her Mr Men & Little Miss pictures to hang above the changing table. 

The nursery is now such a lovely light & bright room, perfect for a beautiful little girl!

Bathroom Makeover

Shelf unit from Ikea

Our bathroom makeover was finally finished this weekend. Last year when we returned from holiday in Italy we came home to a wreaked bathroom - the ceiling had fallen in due to water damage - nightmare!

Canvas print made from my original photo of St Ives

The original bathroom was a hideous peach colour. Once we'd replaced the ceiling and painted it white the rest of the bathroom needed freshening up too. We used tile paint to create a fresh white high gloss finish, and went for plain white on the walls as well. 

The blue mosaic laminate flooring came from B&Q.

The white drawer unit provides storage for towels and toiletries. It was an unfinished wood Rast chest of drawers from Ikea. I painted it in the left over white wall paint & replaced the handles to make it look a bit more vintage. 

Home Tour - Bedroom

Chest of drawers on left: Glastonbury Reclamation Yard. Chest of drawers on right: Charity shop. Shelving unit & baskets: Ikea

Bedframe: Homebase. Curtains: Dunelm Mill. Bedside chest: antique, from Notting Hill market. Bedside cabinet: antique, from a house clearance in Cornwall. Carved hands on wall: market in Morocco. Klimt canvas: Dunelm Mill

I know bedrooms are usually where people really go in for matching fabrics & patterns, but I'm not a 'matching' person, so while mine has a lot of florals going on, none of them match.

When I first bought my house this room was painted bright orange. As in 'you've been tangoed' orange - the least restful colour ever! It took several coats of white paint to cover that monstrosity! I then painted the accent wall in my favourite colour green, the paint came from the Crown 'Fashion for Walls' range.

Watercolour: Steve Broadway. Coatpegs used as jewellery storage: Ikea. Lamp: TKMaxx. Ceramic orchid plate: Dartington Cider Press Centre 

The wallpaper was a later addition again. I love the 'boudoir' look of the bedrooms in National Trust houses, particularly Castle Drogo, so I knew I wanted to add a floral paper to the room, and I looked for ages for one with birds on it as well. This wallpaper came from B&Q, and I love it so much I have it up in the hallway too.

Lamp from B&Q. Book from The Shire!

Lamp: Ikea. Love canvas: Dunelm Mill. Flower lights: Covent Garden market. Knitted rabbit hot beanie bag: present. Antique embroidered cloth: Glastonbury Reclamation Yard

Jewellery case: Matalan. Green ceramic ornaments: handmade by Jennie Scott. Vintage handbag: Glastonbury Vintage shop. Pink artwork by Josie!

Most of the furniture in the room is second hand. Because I wanted dark wooden furniture it was easy to find second hand pieces as it's not 'fashionable' at the moment - all the better for my wallet! The bedframe was new from Homebase, and the slim shelving unit came from Ikea. Everything else was secondhand from charity shops, reclamation yards and ebay.

Blue bedding: Asda. Throw pillows: Dunelm Mill.

The bedding in the photos came from Asda (yes, really!) in the sale, but as I have an obsession with pretty bedding it changes frequently! And despite what Ash thinks, you can never have too many pretty scatter cushions!

these are all either photos we've taken ourselves or cards that Ash has given me over the years that I've framed up

Marilyn mirror: antique, present from Mum. 'Comic' print: picked up in a market in France. Shells print: Tavistock market

Typewriter picture: Ikea. St Ives watercolour: Steve Broadway

Shoes print: Hannah Broadway. Nude ink drawing: by me. Signed Simon Drewe print: Dartington Cider Press Centre

I like grouping pictures together as I have done in this room as I think it makes a great focal point. A lot of these pieces are original artworks I have collected - I've listed the artists under the photos.

Hopefully you like the vintage look of my bedroom, perhaps it's given you some inspiration - lets face it, as the weather keeps chuking rain at us all, bed is the only sensible place to be!

Moroccan Blue



The bunting is homemade, the string of solar lanterns came from Asda, £10



Old furniture being given a new lease of life in the garden! This is a great storage solution for me, and looks pretty too

Table and chairs from B&Q. Cushions homemade

As the weather was glorious this weekend I spent the whole of it in the garden, getting all those annoying little jobs done. I painted all of the fence work – while I know the vivid blue is not to everyone’s taste, I love it. It reminds me of being in Morocco & the wonderful gardens there.

I also moved some bushes that were threatening to take over the flowerbed after being left to do their own thing for four years – and of course that left gaps, so I just had to go and get some new plants to fill them!

It was hard work, but I love how the garden looks now – as you can see Bronwyn approves too! I even managed to enjoy Sunday evening, sitting beside the fire pit with a book and a glass of wine – that’s the life!