Confetti match books

 

 

I love confetti! But as we really can only throw organic confetti on the lavender farm i figured that if i wanted to be showered in the stuff on my wedding day then id better provide some for my guests. In addition ive saved every rose lovely BM has ever bought me (never could bring myself to chuck them!) so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to  use them. So i put the rose petals and also some (very local!) lavender in glassine bags, then stapled them to some cute match books i printed up. Im loving making all these little finishing touches for the wedding :)

DIY wedding veil

Continuing my DIY wedding theme i'm also making my own veil. I just bought a nice lace trimmed one, no comb, from etsy and bought some lovely metal combs from ebay - total cost about £12!

First i covered my comb in ribbon. This to make it pretty and so that you have something to sew the actual veil to. The ribbon is just wrapped in between every tooth.

This is the back with the beginning end tucked in

When you come to the end sew that end in place, dont break the thread and then you can attach veil straight away

I didnt want a gathered veil, i wanted a more waterfall style one so i just gathered my veil into a point and folded over the end to make it flat.

I then just sewed it to the ribbon on the comb. Above is the back. Below is the front

And the finished product! Its exactly the effect i was looking for - a cascading waterfall kind of look :)

Wedding bouquet practise

Im making my own bouquet for my wedding so i though id have a practise! I just used cream roses and purple stocks from my local super market but it turned out great!

 

 

It was really easy to make, surprisingly easy to be honest, so im definitely going to make my own. Im going to wrap the stems in some lace from my mums wedding dress, so that'll be my something old and borrowed :)

I followed the instructions over at Blooms by the Box which were fabulous - just wished then sent their flowers to the UK!

Cake Tin Shelf

  

It always annoys me when i make biscuits or cupcakes with soft icing and i can only fit one layer in a tin - its such a waste of space! So i decided to add a shelf into one if my plastic tins. I screwed 4 screws, one on each side, in the sides, halfway between the top. Then rested a bit of cardboard covered in tinfoil on the screws. Now it has double the capacity - good times!

Glitter lightshade

 

Continuing on with the house finishing touches i decided to spruce up our top landing lightshade with a bit of glitter. Totally inspired by this one by Carrie D Mader. It doesnt come out brilliantly in the photos because of the bulb, and there isnt enough natural light where it is to take a photo without the bulb but i can tell you that it looks fab, i might do another one somewhere else in the house :)

Homemde Sausage and Egg Mcmuffin

 

Lovely BM and I are partial to a McDonalds breakfast so i wondered if i could make my own, turns out theyre simple!

I squeezed the filling out of a good quality pork sausage and formed it into a burger shape. Which i then fried it along with an egg. I used an egg ring to help me get a nice round shaped egg. Pop both the sausage burger and the egg onto a toasted english muffin, top with a slice of (poor quality) cheese and its done!

They were delicious, and so much more filling that the bought ones too!

Shelf additon to cloakroom shoe rack

I finally got round to adding in a shelf above the shoe rack i built in our cloakroom. Its the perfect place for Lovely BM and I to stash our work bags so theyre out of the way. So pleased i finally did it :)

DIY drawer dividers

 

Ive been looking to buy some drawer dividers for our clothing drawers but everything i found was really expensive. Then inspiration struck! I had to shorten a venetian blind in our new house and i've been left with a load of spare slats - now arent they just perfect for drawer dividers!

 

I cut them to the right length and then, because i wanted the ends to be grippy and beause my cutting wasnt 100% accurate, i covered the ends with electrical insulating tape. I used insulating tape as its plasticy and grippy but anything similar would do

 

 

Then you can shove them in place and away you go!

 

 

Theyre not totally secure but they certainly do the job and they were entirely free so i'm happy with them!

Handmade shoe rack

Check out my carpentry skills!! Yes i made shoe rack corner shelves, with my own hands, so very proud! The corner in our cloakroom is a funny shape and i couldnt find anything storage wise to fit in it. So i decided to make my own :)

Basically the most important thing i did was make a template of the area i wanted my shelves to cover. But, because it wasnt a standard shape, rather than cutting a  template to fit the shape, i fitted smaller bits of cardboard into the shape, layering them over each other and taping them down, until i had the shape i needed. I then used this template to see what angles and length i need to cut my wood to.

 

I just bought untreated sawn timber from my local DIY store and cut everything to the correct length using a jigsaw and couple of saw horses for support. Once everything was cut i checked it all fitted and made a few adjustments.

As this was my first every carpentry project i didnt fix everything to the wall permanently at first. I used command hooks first to make sure i hadnt made any stupid mistakes

 

Luckily i hadnt so i sanded and varnished the wood and then fixed it together permanently. I screwed the slats to the supports from the bottom so the screws didnt show and then fixed the brackets directly to the wall - job done!

I think i want to add another shelf, a solid one this time, above so there is somewhere to put our work bags so i'll update you on that if i ever get round to it!


 

Floating shelves DIY

Been doing a bit of minor house renovation this week and i put up some great floating shelves. Theyre from Argos and were only £10 each. I think theyre great and finally my sock creatures get a place to live! (FYI this is what this end of my house actually looks like, in case youre wondering why its such a close up of the shelves - not exactly photo worthy!)

DIY plaited twine belt

I fell in love with this diy plaited twine belt at Say Yes to Hoboken and had to have a go at it myself. The tutorial at Hoboken is brilliant, really detailed and easy to follow. I like how my belt turned out but i think the twine i used was a bit 'hairy' so its a little bit scratchy. It'll definitely need a haircut before i wear it out!

Makes i like this week 10-Apr-12

Amazing thread installation by Anne Lindberg

Knitted easter bunnies at Mollie Makes

Star hair clips by Refinery 29

LED embroidery at the zen of making

Genius party punch wall at celebrate the big and small

Diy twists ties at u-create - why didnt i think of this!!