TV corner beautified

This is a fun project I finally finished. I've been meaning to do this for ages, because I'm always inspired by pretty painted boxes I see on Flickr. As you may have guessed it started out life as an IKEA box, that has five smaller boxes for drawers.All I did was prime the box, paint it white and then add decorative paper covers for the drawers. I used some vintage wallpaper I bought from this shop on etsy (it was a gorgeous collage pack - so much fun to get and sort through the bits of fabric, ribbon and paper) and glued the paper on using PVA glue from an art shop.Also in the picture is a little quilted coaster I made from bits of fabric from the workroom fabric swap. I really do use the little bits of fabric I find here and there!

I'm not sure where I'll put the box, as I had originally planned to mount it to the wall beside the bed. That way I can have a book and my water bottle next to me since we only have room for one bedside table (and it's not on my side). But then I took the picture here on our white cabinet that has the t.v. and I really like the way it looks there. I just wish the boxes were big enough for the remotes, that would be really useful.
But practical or not it brightens up the spot so I think it's staying.

p.s. the water bottle is from The Japanese Paper Place, I bought it because it the design was so pretty but it turns out it's so great, because it's the thermos version and it really keeps my water cold, and tea hot!

Green booties

Every now and then I go to a knitting group with some friends and it's the best place to get ideas for new things to knit. Especially as I haven't been knitting much at all lately, and haven't really been thinking about it. At the last one my friend Sarah was making the cutest booties ever, so I asked her where she found the pattern.

It's called Saartje's booties, and you can find the pattern here.

I made a little change in mine, I did the main part all in one colour, then blanket stitched in cream all around the edges. The cream was used for the loops that go around the white buttons too. I don't think I used the type of yarn the pattern called for, I just used the softest yarn I could find which was kind of fluffy but not too dense and they worked out to what seemed like a nice size.

In case you're wondering, I'm not hinting at anything, these were for my friend Jaimie's baby shower!

The reluctant anglophile

I don't know why, but when I'm thrifting so many things that I'm drawn to turn out to be from England. I see a pretty cup and turn it over and lo and behold there it is. Made in England. No exception was this picnic set that had me immediately smitten. I was in the middle of weeks of clearing things out of the house, determined not to bring home anything that wasn't really necessary. Or at least really useful (and preferably pretty as well).
While I do love a picnic, I already have a picnic basket. That pie carrier I posted here. Except now I know it's a pie carrier and not a picnic basket so I could delude myself into thinking I still needed a picnic basket. Right?
So when I got it home and gave it a wash, I took an interest and looked up the name (Coracle) and found out a few things. Firstly, that Coracle made custom picnic baskets for posh shops such as Harrods of London, and that the cute apple green cups and plates were made of a material called Bandalasta and are quite collectable. The plates say "Made in England" but the cups also say Bandalasta in script font, which helps to date the set. Not that it matters but it's nice to know I have good taste in vintage picnic baskets. And all for $3.99!It came with the pair of nice green lidded tins but I suspect they're not original to the set. But they're nice and clean and the green colour is perfect.Once I had it cleaned up I decided it needed a few additions. I made four napkins from fat quarters of Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric - each fat quarter trimmed into a square. And also a green polka dot tablecloth from fabric I found at the Textile Museum sale. The napkins are nicely hemmed but I decided to just pink the ends of the tablecloth and leave the selvedge as finishing for the sides. Then, in the interests of being really obsessive I gathered up all my green Tupperware for exclusive use in the picnic basket. And now it's done!

Except someday I really should repair the leather clasp.. but a love of vintage always requires that little tolerance for the imperfect...

Tiny update

Sorry I haven't been posting much, but I'm starting to catch up with work so soon I can show you all the crafts and decorating projects I managed to squeeze in here and there but didn't have time to post.

I haven't been there to cheer you up in the morning and maybe even make you laugh but luckily I've found someone else who can. I've been reading this site lately and it always makes me laugh. After my friend Jaimie sent me the link I just went ahead and read every post.

Just one more thing I wanted to mention, for those of you who've been coveting the secretary desks (it's come up). There's one on craigslist right now that I had my eye on but I've had to resign myself to the fact that two are enough for anybody. I think it's a really good price, but you'd have to be handy (or know someone that is) because the upper shelves are missing. It would probably be easy to get glass ones - even custom made - but I think wood would be nicer. If you do like it, I suggest calling as the email didn't work for me.

Keep up the doodling

This is just a glimpse of some of the work I did recently for a series of whimsical educational picture books... which I can't really show yet because I haven't got the published books yet...

A friend living in Greece emailed me a link to this artist in Buenos Aires, ah the wonder of the internet. And I just thought it was so brilliant I had to mention it. It's fascinating, "an ambigous animation painted on public walls" by an artist named Blu.

It kind of reminded me of some of the sketches I used to do in high school except infinitely more talented and evolved. Luckily I don't have to compete with this kind of artistry because as you know I now spend my days drawing things like the one at the top of this post. And this.