Vintage Aprons.

Spent the day today running between Pinterest and making aprons! Really need to get a grip on the whole pinterest addiction, you know its bad when you look at your most recent pinning session and it tells you that you pinned 1 hour ago, 2 hours ago and 3hours ago!!! 

There was a 75minute telephone conversation that went on somewhere in between all that pinning and laundry was done too. Have I managed to justify it yet! I don't think so!!

Eventually got round to my task for the day which was to make some aprons for the Shambags new line of  vintage home linens. They won't be for sale for a while yet as we are hoping to do some work on the site and come back all new and revived with not only tote bags but aprons,table runners,tea cosies and some fabric gift items. This does however mean that I need to spend more time in front of the sewing machine and not the computer.

Here are the first line of Aprons.  As they are made with original vintage fabrics they will be a limited amount made and once they have gone then they have gone.

Half Apron with a single pocket with frill.

As this fabric was quiet busy I didn't want to add to many frills.

Full Apron with extra wide waist straps.

Wide waist straps always make for a good solid bow.

A close up so you can  see how vibrant the colours are.

This would look fab in a traditional kitchen or look equally as good in a modern turquoise colour scheme ( all the rage on pinterest).

More apron making tomorrow.

God Bless You.xx

Another party invite over at Nuthatch!

Joining in with another Party today.  http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2012/02/inspiration-around-blogland-welcome-to.html

Link parties.

My first time at link parties

Furniture feature Friday

and

Show and Tell Friday

Hope you enjoy looking at all the other blogs aswell.

God bless you.xx



Job Done!

Finally we have all the painting work done. Jasmine and I managed to get the stairs and landing done in one afternoon and without to many hiccups ( sorry Mr J there are a few blue spots on the carpet! Have you found them yet?).

The stairway has quiet a high ceiling and usually Mr J gets the big folding ladder/ scaffolding thingy out and does that bit but as he was away working Jasmine and I would have to come up with another way of getting to the high places. I was not willing to climb on the ladder and Jasmine just wasn't willing to fetch the ladder!

As you can see the professional decorators we are we always make sure things get covered and protected, NOT!

A nice close up of the 'Shepherd' cross stitch I did many years ago.

Now valspar being the generous paint company that they are (note free  stirring stick in last blog post) leave a little area on the lid of the paint can for you to put a little dab of paint on so you know what colour paint is in your can. As you can see we won't be needing this free gift from valspar,think we will be able to tell what colour is in the can.  thanks for the thought though.

Now back to those high places. We came up with the genius idea that if we frog taped the cutting in brush to the end of the broom handle we may be able to reach the coving at the top of the stair. This worked , not the best cutting in I've done but i will probably be the only one that ever notices it. Although all that visit after reading this are now going to be looking! After the cutting in we just attached the roller to the broom handle and we had the job done. Women's logic, no messing for ages getting the folding ladder thingy at the right angles and heights and then still having to stretch to get to the top.

Blinds back up and pictures back in place and everything just looks a lot fresher and ready for spring.

Oh silly me mentioning spring! This was how our journey to school looked last Friday. Beautiful while it lasted. Although I am now looking forward to those first days of spring when I can hang my washing out on the washing line.

Since we had a new colour on the walls in the entryway I felt we could do with an update on some of the pictures. Had seen a few ideas on pinterest that I thought I could make so printed out some word art but wasn't happy with them being printed on just plain coloured card and thought about printing them onto patterned scrap booking papers. only wanted to print a couple of picture so didn't really want to travel all the way to swindon to hobbycraft to get paper so thought I'd try printing on wallpaper. Now in England DIY stores allow you to take up to 1m of wallpaper for free to try at home to see if you like it before you commit to buying rolls of paper. Off to local DIY store to find some paper samples and came away with two samples of damask patterned paper one was a flat shiny paper and the other a raised flock paper. Had no idea if this would work but it was free so no harm in trying.

Cut the papers down to A4 size and into the printer they went. This was the flocked paper and a free printable from  http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2011/05/filler-print.html

Sorry about the picture quality on this one. This was the shiny damask which you can see through each of the letters. This was a free printable from 

http://weheartit.com/entry/8765214 .
Wall painting has finished at Nuthatch for a while I think but furniture painting will be next on the agenda.

God Bless You. xx

1 Roller,1Brush and 2 Women!

I know I know we all thought the painting jobs were over! Since Jasmine is home from Uni I thought best use the opportunity and get a big job done.

 Our hallway and landings were all painted about 2 years ago and since we now have a dog they were looking a bit sorry for themselves, there's only so many times you can use the magic sponge on your walls before it starts to take the paint off.

Before

The colour was Farrow and Balls day room yellow. I loved the colour but it turns out that yellow is an acquired taste and not many people have quite acquired it yet.

When I decide to do a job I jump in with both feet, as you can see here no painting pieces of paper and looking at them for a week to decide what colour we want! Straight onto the wall with the testers. we tried Dulux 'First Dawn' and 'Mineral Mist'. Jasmine preferred the darker first dawn and Ariane like the lighter mineral mist. It then transpired that Aynsley liked Day room yellow!!!

Left them overnight to completely dry and decided that Mineral mist was the one we were going to go for.

Off I go to B&Q in Swindon to purchase said paint only to find they have started to do a full range of Valspar paint. Now being a blogger and a pinterest  and  Houzz addict I 'd heard a lot about Valspar and how good it was supposed to be. So once again jumped in with both feet and without even buying a tester decided I liked 'Merry England' so went ahead and bought a 5l can.

Only a little more expensive than Dulux but worth it just for the fact that you got your little stirring stick to go with it!

Knew our shoe cabinet was not going to look its best against 'Merry England' walls so got Jasmine to work on that with a little Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in old white.

Before

After

Loving the Merry England colour and how the shoe cabinet turned out. Great Job Jasmine.

Will be looking for some new handles for the cabinet as these really aren't in keeping with the look. Along with new light fitments to. Looking for small chandies I think.

From Yellow to blue in one afternoon.

The above picture really shows how random the camera I use is, no photo shop tricks here this is how the camera pick up the light in the shot. Pink,green and blue all in one shot. Random!

This is more of a true colour of the walls

Just the stairs and upstairs landings to paint tomorrow. Then maybe I can get my stairs gallery hung.

Of course Bonnie helped! Where from and how she got paint all over her muzzle I do not know!

God Bless You. xx