Chalkboard paint wall

Taa-dah…..finished the wall…OTT? Probably- I’m good at OTT!! It looks a million times better than when it was previously a giant white wall with 6 ugly doors. After I had painted it all black, see here, Jerry was calling it Satan’s wall -scarey -I was a bit worried it would scare the kids at night having a pitch black wall but now that the white drawings are on it it doesnt look so dark. My favourite chalk drawings have to be the tree drawn by my son, the cuckoo clock on the tree, the frames and the mushroom house again drawn by my son. Best thing is when they get tired of this we can just rub it all off and start again but the blackboard paint is a winner!

Not your average Christmas tree

My lovely friend Kathleen from the Netherlands sent me the christmas issue of 101 Woonideeen magazine. Take a look at this christmas tree made out of lampshade frames. The coolest! Its another one of those projects that may take you awhile to amass your basic materials but well worth the second hand shop scouring-I have 3 lampshades so far-hopefully will finish this project in time for next christmas!

This vibrant quirky knitted tree is from Club Geluk’s Flavourites Live Stall -Its motivated me to take knitting classes next year -I could happily make a giant knitted tree for my living room! What a wonderful gift these would make for the special little ones in your life. I’m planning 20 years ahead for my future grandchildren I look forward to knitting them all giant trees for their bedrooms.
I really like the tall stacked crates idea as well with all the pretty papers displayed in the back of each crate -pretty! I would like to do something deconstructed like this as open clothes storage on my bedroom wall. Drawers look so boring these days these look cheerful and practical and its a project you can DIY without paying a tradesperson!

Here are a few pics of our christmas morning…….and my favourite 2 handmade gifts this year-so sweet!

Milk deco no.5 book

My copy of Milk deco no 5 arrived a couple of weeks ago. I instantly feel in love with the wall mural on the front cover. The wallpaper is by Nathalie Lete and is called Foret Noire. It is absolutely stunning – a bit out of my price range -but still such a lovely piece of art to grace any children’s space- Id happily hang it in my own bedroom if my husband could agree to waking up to deer, toadstools and rabbits every morning….probably not going to happen! So Ive come up with a DIY way to capture a similar look and feel for a fraction of the cost. I painted an uninteresting wall with 6 ugly doors in blackboard paint -it disguises the doors really well, I purchased some Nathalie Lete wall stickers here and the kids are going to draw a forest on the wall in white chalk. Here are the before shots I’ll post some pics in a couple of days of the kids handiwork. I am quietly really excited about it-I think it will be even more special because its the kids interpretation of a forest and theyre such a creative trio. Exciting!

Deer goodness!

Hello everyone I’m back, I took a break from the internet for a couple of months. I decided that my daily use of the internet had become a bit compulsive. I was frequently checking my email and bouncing around on favourite websites, links, flickr, ebay you name it. It began to seem to me as if I was doing this to avoid dealing with all of my work responsibilities. So the break has been good and it confirmed I spend too much time on here!

Here are a few pics of some of the things I’ve been doing around the house.
I repurposed one of my deer tapestries into a cushion for my daughters bed. Hung pompoms from the wall. Made lots of retro pillowcases from an unused 70s sheet set. Made a deer bag for my kitchen to put my plastic bags in. Painted some 70s deer plaques yellow, put more deer around the place.

I confess I cheated a few times and jumped on the internet at the library and came across Isabelles lovely kitchen in Stockholm. I’m about to install a long wall cupboard in my kitchen -Its a secondhand unit with tin punched cupboards that I’m repurposing and remodelling. It was a prop from a tv series here and cost next to nothing -cant believe my luck. I’m going to paint it white and paper the inside of the cupboards with the same paper as Isabelles. The paper is actually wrapping paper by Hanna Werning. I love the mismatched white tiles puzzle Isabelle made for her splashback. So unique -its more like an art instalment on her kitchen wall – just plain awesome.

Fabric bird houses

Hello friends. I’ve been having a nice quiet spell with the kids on school holidays. Its freezing at the moment so lots of days watching kids movies in our pyjamas on the couch.

Just finished my bird houses -they’ve been sitting around for awhile. I’ve zhuzzed them up a bit -looking a lot better don’t you think. You can find them over in my etsy shop.

New Cuckoos, bird houses and deer

Hello bloggy friends I’ve been working on some new cuckoo clock designs and came up with these -Its been great -hard not to be cheerful working with these patterns and colours and the lovely kitschy deer and rabbits that I love so much. Not quite finished but will be in my etsy shop soon. The bird houses are coming up sweet -this is my first attempt -liking the pompoms on the bottom, like clock bellows, will make the next batch brighter….

Lovely Brittany from A Handcrafted Home blog mentioned my felt cuckoo clock on her cuckoo clock roundup. See the whole post here.
These hand drawn clocks are clever 1. Kate Sutton; 2. Decoy Lab; 3. Paper Cuckoo.

Lastly a few pretty pictures of Nikki’s deer collection. If you love design, vintage, handmade and a lot of deer check out her cute blog Liefgeval.

Making things

I’m so pleased I finished my thread art and it has that happy kitsch look that I like so much. It took two attempts to get it right -First time I did it freehand and after an entire day of hammering nails in the board -talk about disappointment -It was altogether crooked, and the letters were unevenly spaced and misshapen. If you’re going to make your own thread art it helps to rule lines and draw your letters out with pencil onto your board-Then hammer your nails around your letters.

I found the lovely prize rosettes on ebay -they look good anywhere and on just about anything. I’ll have to make these en masse and plaster a curtain or cushion or something with them. I feel like I won a prize having these all around the place.

This pretty mess is what my work table looks like today. I’ve been making hedgehog houses and lots of purses. I had a little play with the hedgehog house before I sent it off.

Colourful Living

I feel so lucky to be able to sit at my computer screen half a world away and peek into the homes of the artists and designers who stimulate the creative industries.
Marie Claire Maison shares some recent images of Charlotte Gueniau’s lovely home. I also posted about her here.

While over on Bolig MagasinetI came across another original home, overflowing with colour and inspiration. For a complete house tour of this colourful home be sure to check out the full article on Bolig Magasinet.

Down to the woods

Is it just me or does there seem to be deer, rabbits and mushrooms everywhere in interiors and product design at the moment -I’m not complaining! This is my son’s gnome lamp the glow is a bit freaky at night -if you ever watched horror movies when you were little like me with dolls with glowing red eyes you know what I mean. My husband thinks my tastes are completely weirded out. So glad to see that other grown women enjoy these sorts of things as well -Check out Down to the Woods.

Remember this post -I bought a frame clamping kit this week and got a bit carried away with it-I framed up 5 of the tapestries I got from ebay-I especially like the way these 3 turned out.

ixxi: Make your own wall art, mural or room divider

Yvestown and Decor8 blogged today on the release of an amazing new product by a Danish Company called ixxi . ixxi is a modular connecting system which allows you to create your own art, wallpaper, wall murals and room dividers. You can upload your photos and choose how large your photo enlargement or photo collage should be OR find images in their online image bank. I was doing little leaps for joy inside at just how plainly awesome these are. Best of all it is very affordable and doesnt come with a designer price tag. I wanted something a little less conventional than a tiled splashback for behind my oven. I like all the blues in the patchwork birdie this could work.