DIY Fantastic: Guerrilla Gardening

I've always joked about becoming a  Guerrilla Gardener. The idea of throwing wildflower bombs over fences into abandoned lots or neglected gardens and seeing the results grow and blossom always sounded like such a lovely antiestablishment act! And let's face it, as a goody-two-shoes at heart this is about as rebellious as I was ever likely to get! 

Finally, these long-harboured dreams have been turned into reality - there's really is nothing quite like getting a foot on the property ladder to get you invested in your local community and street improvements! Ha!

So tonight, I ventured out on to our street armed with 101 nasturtium seeds, a trowel and a watering can on a one woman mission to brighten up our street! Oh and I dragged the husband along to carry the watering can! (I think he enjoyed it, at least the guerrilla part at least!) 

We planted a handful of seeds under each tree, in the scrappy square of soil around each tree trunk. Created a series of trenches in the greyness and popped in a nasturtium seed or three into each. Covered them back up with a sprinkling of soil (aka dust and twigs) and watered thoroughly before moving on to the next tree.

And that's it. We now get to sit back and wait a while and hope for more rain! Each day I'll walk to the station hopeful of seeing my handiwork start to spring out of the earth. First as a teeny seedling, then grow into a strong little bushes and eventually burst into a root of colourful flowers! Hmm...we'll see! 

It's sure going to be a test of my patience mind! By the virtue of my daily walks in sure it'll feel like they're taking FOREVER to come to fruition, as I watch them grow a millimetre a day! But with the days and weeks, hopefully they'll bring a flash of colour and life to our already cute street over the summer. 

We picked nasturtiums as they are hardy, love scrappy, poor soil (which is what they're getting!!). They are bright and fun and hopefully easy to grow with very little tending! My ma bought out the pound store of nasturtium seeds last time she visited to stock us up in advance!!

As for hazards of the job, we got down and dirty with all sorts, the cigarette buts, the bottle tops, the dried dog poop (extra nutrients?!) and all sorts of natural debris. We both wore gardening gloves for the job and were super careful. Said gloves even got a deep bleach clean afterwards and I must have scrubbed my hands about four times before I was satisfied! Our remaining natural foes will now be the council weed-killing men (please don't do the rounds soon), dogs and drought! I don't often say this, but...bring on the rain!

I'm desperately hoping to one day spot a neighbour or visitor admiring the new addition to the street so that I can glow smugly on the inside knowing that each small change like this will help make our street a better place to live. (I'll report back if we manage it!)

So, what small steps have you tried to help contribute to your neighbourhood? I'm all ears - we need our next project!

P.s. you can see more about our first step onto the property ladder here and more gardening updates here.

DIY Fantastic: Hallway Hooks

Does anyone else also have a fear of becoming a hoarder? Or is that just me?! Since visiting our upstairs neighbours years ago and finding her flat literally stuffed to the brim with all sorts of gubbins, it's been haunting me! My fear is made all the more real by my love for pretty but useless things and car boot sales! (What a toxic combination!) 

I had been hoarding these four gorgeous coloured hooks since early last, they'd always been destined for a coat rack and so it was time to put them into action! 

With no place for coats, keys and the usual paraphernalia they usually ended up as a mound on the end of the banisters or piled up on our sofa. Great for snuggling up under in winter, but not when you're in a rush to leave the house and scrabble through the pile looking for my favourite leather jacket!

So the solution was to create a hook shelf combo to come to our aid! 

We have also been hoarding (spot the trend here!? Maybe I should just give in and embrace it!) a pile of salvaged wooden floorboards from when we renovated the floors upstairs. They look super rustic here, but under that paint and grime the wood is really lovely old pine, beautifully worn and weathered! 

First we had to dry it out - which meant bringing in the damp and dirty boards into the bathroom for a few days. We then decided on a length, sawed then down to size and sanded off the grime. As you can see here, I brought in some muscles for this part!! 

'We' didn't sand them down fully, I wanted to keep some of that beautiful ageing that gives the wood texture and depth. But we did sand off the edges and corners to leave them smooth and splinter free. 

Once happy with the wood, we measured out the four spots to add the hook, evenly spaced along the plank and screwed them each in place.

The hooks I found in Tiger whilst shopping for wedding decor, ha! Tiger don't sell online (what sort of business model is that in this day and age?! Even TKMaxx, the ultimate designer jumble sale, and possibly,aherm I mean definitely my favourite shop of all time, sell online these days!) but you can see similar ones available in store here.

Here you can see that lovely texture  of the wood, yummmm!! 

We drilled a few holes along the wooden back. Think we opted for 3 or 4 to keep it secure. Measured out and drilled matching holes in the wall and then up it went!

Not entirely sure why we used the spirit-level - I swear there is not a single straight line or 90 degree corner in our house, it full of all sorts of curves and crazy angles!! Thank you London clay (but it is marvellous for the roses!).

We used the second plank to add a small shelf up above the hooks to keep the dust off our coats and add some plants and pretty things! We used simple black brackets and followed a similar process to adding the hooks. 

And there we have it, four big and bold hooks that bring a little (more) colour into our hallway! I bought these loooong before adding colour to the stairs, but by adding colours in a similar palette at the other end of the hallway, they tie things in very nicely.

On the shelf we added some car boot sale treasures and framed art - including a print I bought Mr Fantastic as his wedding present. I'd been lusting after this print by Clare at Tiger Food Press for months, the quote is brilliant and the mustang is one of our inside jokes!

For the meagre few pounds I spent on hooks, we now have a bespoke fixture that adds oodles of character to the hallway. I particularly love that the wood we used may even have been the original flooring when he house was built back in 1890, it certainly had enough layers of paint!! And now with a new lease of life, it can continue to contribute to the house's history! (Blimey, getting a little over sentimental here - got to remember this is a just plank of wood I'm harping on about here!!) Plus we now have somewhere to hang all our layers as we enter the house. Pretty AND practical - WIN!!!

DIY Fantastic: Houndstooth Bean Bag Cover

Today I am sharing a project that has been in the works for, ahem...years!!! In all honesty once I knuckled down to the sewing last weekend, it was done in a day. There is nothing super complicated about it, lots of long straight lines of sewing, so quite straightforwards. But it just took me time to drag the pieces out from behind the sofa and just sew them together, you know! But am I glad I did, this is the perfect addition to the living room and is such a cosy spot to sit and read or get the prime spot in front of the tv for the winter olympics!

Now we were lucky to inherit a huge bean bag from a friend years ago, thanks Saff! It's super comfortable for lounging around on or as an extra flexible seating when we have friends over. But, it is made of black pvc, so a little bit bachelor-esque! I found some really fun upholstery fabric with a bit of stretch back at a Design Guild warehouse sale some time ago which I though would be perfect to cover it. It's quite a busy pattern and not to pale - important given it's going to be on the floor!! :s

What you'll need is...

1. Fabric - chose anything you fancy - the brighter and bolder the better! I used a thick upholstery material from the Design Guild. I'd recommend something durable, with a little bit of stretch and enough pattern to make it less delicate!
2. Needle and thread and a sewing machine
3. Fabric scissors
4. Newspaper or other paper for creating the pattern
5. ....

Oh and of course - a bean bag! Although while I say that, it's actually not necessarily true. In fact you can get the polystyrene balls that the are made of and fill your own bag up with them. Just have to make sure there are no holes for the polystyrene balls to get out of!

First off we had to make a pattern. The original bag was made up of 5 long panels running all around with a large hexagon for the bottom and small one at the top! We used newspaper to trace the panels of the beanbag and cut them out in the paper. A bit of experimentation to ensure we could get all the sections to fit from the material we had and off we went with the cutting. Here's the dream-cutting-team in action, thanks Mum and Izzy!

Next we actually overlocked all the way round each panel. The fabric was quite prone to fraying so we overlocked it to keep it all together. But this isn't essential, it totally depends on the material you squirrel out! We then pinned together each panel and sewed them together, adding one panel at a time around the small hexagon and finally sewing together to create the final shape. At the end I added the two panels that made up the bottom hexagon, overlapping slightly in the middle to create a flap and an opening.

 Then all it remains for you to do is turn the whole thing inside out and stuff the bean bag inside. Now I don't have any pictures of this stage as to be completely honest I needed four arms to get the bean bag stuffed in. It's not coming out in a hurry! I used some velcro patches on the base of the bag to close the gap and plopped myself down to enjoy the view!

It also turns out that bean bags are ridiculously hard to photograph, it's almost impossible to stop it from looking like a large pile of fabric dumped down in the corner. You'll have to use your imagination for the rest!

But ah, doesn't that look like an appealing spot for a rest, a cuppa and a little read? You'll know where to find me when I've gone missing! :)

               

DIY Memory Quilt

This was a lovely project my cousin's friend co-ordinated for her 30th birthday - a memory quilt that brought together the memories of all her family and friends and creating a single homemade quilt with the results. The final piece was an absolute gem and went down a storm at the birthday party!

To contribute to the quilt Izzy and I created a series of three squares. We set on three of our favourite memories of times with Rhian and then raided my fabric box for three key colours that each concept could work with. We found a series of materials, a cream wild silk, a pink jersey cotton and the green upholstery fabric. We used the combination of the three to create three separate but co-ordianted patches.

First off - a family holiday in Corfu where Rhian and I were instructed with the task of purchasing a watermelon. With eyes bigger than our stomachs we naturally chose the biggest watermelon on the stall, it was a beast! Great value for money, right?! We were totally stoked with our choice, until the walk home...up a steep hill...in the midday sun....at 40 degrees! Even taking it in turns to carry the beast we were exhausted and dripping by the time we got it back to the flat. In fact, I distinctly remember putting our faces in the fridge to try and cool off! Needless to say, the watermelon was faaar too big for our tummies and by the time we left we still hadn't quite managed to finish off the whole lot. Gutted!!

We used the cream silk as the base and appliquéd the watermelon using the pink and green. We did all the stitching by hand as I couldn't work out how to get the zig-zag stitch going on my machine!!! :s Hence the rustic vibe! And finished it with sequins for the pips. 

Next up was our more recent Huw's Hike up Mount Snowdon in Wales. We did this with all the family and friends in aid of the St David's Hospice in South Wales which looked after my uncle and the family in very difficult times. It was a magnificent event and a tough climb for many of us, but the support we had was phenomenal and we made some lovely new memories with the family. 

For this one we used the pink background as the base and then the green and cream silks appliqued on top! See what we did there?! The jersey cotton wasn't exactly the ideal base for the patch in all honesty, it kept rolling up and was blinkin' tough to work with!! :) But we created a mini Mount Snowdon with a white cap.

And last but not least the fantastic monkey puzzle tree. Rhian's family had a fabulous monkey puzzle tree in their garden growing up. It was the first part of their house that you'd see as you drove up the road toward the house and we always got super excited when we finally saw it after the long drive from West Wales! It's one of those strange trees, they look majestic and beautiful, but at the same time they look very spikey and terrifying. To be honest I am ever so slightly in awe of them! And whenever I see one I am immediately transported back to the Joneses and family new year's eve parties!

For this one we also used the cream silk patch, you can see from this picture how much it was fraying as we worked on them! I was worried it'd end up smaller than the required 5 inches for the quilt!! :s We used a cross stitch in a green embroidery thread to create the monkey puzzle branches and appliquéd on  trunk.

Dear Jayne then received the individual patches from everyone and managed to pull them all together into this fabulous memory quilt. No mean feat!! It included squares made from old clothes, flags of many of the countries they had visited together, squares crocheted by Mrs Jones, squares decorated with messages from the kids.

What a wonderful idea by Jayne and a lovely keepsake that I'm sure Rhian will treasure for the next thirty years!! :) 

DIY Fantastic: Rose Petal Confetti

Here we go...the first of what I expect to be a veritable flood of vaguely wedding orientated diy instalments for us. Brace yourselves folks. I can barely call this a diy, it's more of a just do this and this will happen sort of post. But still, I am so excited about the results I simply have to share! :)

A bunch of roses Ben brought home the other day were starting to look a little sorry for themselves. To be honest some of them were starting to get crispy! This is what gave me the idea...rather than bin them, to keep the drying out process going and dry all the petals for confetti. So, the only thing you really need for this diy is a sorry looking bunch of roses and some patience!

I simply gently held the rose in one hand and pulled the stem out from the back of the flower. this helps loosen up the petals. Then I gently slowly peeled each petal off one by one and unravelled the layers. I placed each petal carefully on a bamboo mat keeping them as flat as possible and flattening out any kinks, especially in the inner petals.

From there on in it's uber simple. I just left them out until they were dry and crispy! Each day I gently turned the petals, flattened them out and unravel any rollers. Once I was happy they were fully dry I popped them in an airtight jar for storage with a little bit of tissue and hey presto!

And this was a lot of fun:

It was also a lot of mess to clear up, you don't think we got that sequence on the very first try do you?! Rather bizarrely our first attempt turned out to be the best, but we didn't realise that until we'd cleared up this mess a fair few times!!!

So now Ben has an excuse to buy me roses every time he pops to the shops, win-win!! :)

DIY Fantastic: Watercolour Greeting Cards

Ever find yourself caught short just before an important event, a birthday, an anniversary? No? Then maybe it's just me. Because I'm afraid I always do. But, my go-to back up in a situation like this is to whip out my card stock and some paints and rustle up a quick watercolour card.

Sometimes watercolours get a bad press, they can be difficult to manage because everything dries so fast! Plus they are very different from other mediums such as acrylics and oils that you can re-work over and over, they often have a life of their own and the dry result can look very different. But for me that's the beauty of watercolours, the speed makes it unpredictable and means you get a different result every single time. Plus it's great for a busy gal since it's so fast, free and fun! There are absolutely no barriers to entry you, all you need is watercolour paper, watercolour paints, a fine brush, water and some inspiration:

I used A6 watercolour such as this and drew a gentle line down the middle, using a ruler, where the crease would later be made to turn it into a card. I used half of the paper for my illustration. In this instance it was all about fishing vouchers for the family, so I set to it armed with a wikipedia's Brown Trout page for inspiration. :p I very roughly sketched out the shape in pencil, mostly to get the proportions right and then I cheated a little by using black ink to create an outline and add some detail.

However, to be honest there's not so much detail on a fish, so launched in with the colours pretty swiftly! I must admit to being a little free and easy with the colour interpretations of the so-called 'brown' trout. But who wants a card with a brown fish on the front??! ;) I didn't want to feel restricted by the black lines, that just makes it all a bit cautious. So I took relish in going outside the lines, quite liberating in fact!

I tried a couple of different perspectives and even got a bit adventurous and branched out from the brown trout to something a bit more exotic! 

What do you think? Why not give watercolours a whirl? Anything goes and the more interpretive the better! And if at first you don't succeed, try try and try again! (Practice really does make perfect with these bad boys!!)

DIY fantastic: hand lined envelopes

Bit surreal there, we went from high summer in Ibiza to full on winter Christmas mode. Hope that wasn't too much for the senses! Anyway, December in the real world was super busy as usual. We've been beavering away working on our save the dates for the wedding, which we wanted to double up as our Christmas cards, and hence had to be dispatched asap! I shall be sharing all the details of the cards themselves and how we made them shortly, but in the meantime here's part of the story for today - the cute kraft paper lined envelopes we made!

Quite a simple project really. Well in theory it is, until you multiply it by 60 times and then it's a whole lotta envelopes to prepare!!! :s

What we needed:
1. Kraft paper, or any other decorative paper that takes your fancy. For this one, I used kraft paper with small sparky trees on it, for a Chrismassy vibe. But you could easily pretty papers for all other times of the year.
2. Plain coloured envelopes
3. Glue stick
4. Scissors
5. Card to create a template. I used a magazine cover, hence the lovely lady sporting the sparkly dress! :)

To create a template I used a process of trial and error until it was just the right size to fit within the gummed edges of the envelope flap and then on the body of the envelope side was big enough to cover the whole visible area. This was basically the hardest bit! Once you've got a template you're happy with you're as good as done! :p

Steps 1-3 below: Take your template and place it on the face up paper aligned in accordance with the print e.g. to ensure my little fir trees were growing upwards and not down! Draw around it and repeat, aligning them in order to maximise the usage you can get from the width of the paper.

Steps 4-6 below: take an envelope and kraft paper cut out, using the stick glue, cover the back of the envelope an the flap with glue. Carefully slip the cut out into the envelope and align it carefully to leave the gummed area on the flap free. Press down the kraft paper and smooth it out to give a clean wrinkle free finish. Finally flip the envelope over and create a crease to close the envelope.

And that's it, you have your gorgeous hand lined envelopes at the ready for all your snail mail! This could be done with any combination of colours and patterned papers, matching or contrasting, just get experimenting! It'd be cute for personalised greetings cards, thank you letters for all those lovely Christmas pressies you or in preparation for a valentines day cards - to make someone feel that little bit more special!