Man's Best Friend

Things have  been a little hectic around here for a little while. Lois (my daughter) has had her room decorated. She told me from the offset that she wanted none of my 'vintage stuff', she wanted a modern room. All white walls and woodwork with touches of black. I was a little worried that it would all be too stark and severe, so we agreed on adding a few splashes of red and a sunny yellow. I found a canvas of New York with a lovely yellow taxi and we used this as our starting point.

I painted a small blackboard on the wall and stuck blackboard stickers down the side and wrote the days of the week on them. I got the stickers as a giveaway from the lovely Samantha at The Nest.

Samantha makes the most wonderful cushions from burlap with great wording on them, and sells them on Etsy.She also has a marvellous eye for interior design and doing up old unloved furniture, and turning it into something gorgeous.

I made a little collage of her room on Picnik, probably my last visit  there, as they are closing shortly (boo hoo!) Well Lois is very pleased with her new look room and has even managed to keep it tidy, which is unheard of. You may have noticed that dogs feature rather heavily, Lois is, and always has been dog crazy. Her dog Sparky, has been to the dog groomers, and those of you who have met him before, just won't recognise him......he has been scalped!!

When we had that lovely spell of weather my husband and I bought a lean-to polypropelene greenhouse and attempted to errect it (in our kitchen).Well........all I can say is, it was a real test of our brains, bodies and our relationship. Thankfully, apart from a few nasty slices to our fingers all else was spared. It took a little bit of time and great patience, but hopefully, once the lovely weather returns (ahem), it will all have been worthwhile.

Tulips are cropping up everywhere in the garden, even though I planted them really late. My clever husband surpassed himself by making a lovely deep raised bed and a potting bench. It is my job to paint them next.

I apologise for the poor quality of these photos, I took them through the window with a shaking hand as I had to move quickly. This is the 'loveshack', a little birdhouse my husband made a few years ago. It was really made as a decorative item, we never thought a bird would actually nest in it. We have been watching a pair of bluetits fly in and out carrying little bits of moss. One day, after washing a quilted mattress cover and hanging it on the line I noticed the bluetit pulling the stuffing out. I was starting to get cross, but then could only marvel at the birds ingenuity.

A few days ago when the weather was very windy, the birdhouse fell off the window ledge, we were horrified. We quickly put it gently back and wedged it between two window boxes, but thought we wouldn't see our little friends again. Amazingly,they were back the next morning. I do hope they will be able to nest sucessfully and have a little family in our birdhouse.You might just be able to see the birds if you enlarge the photos.

You may remember in my last post I showed you some furniture I had painted for a client. She rang me back to say she didn't think it was 'earthy' enough. I had already sealed the furniture with 2 coats of a water based varnish, so I had to put my thinking cap on to think of some way of darkening it down without repainting the whole lot. I decided on an oil based wash (using eggshell paint, darkened with some black oil colour, and thinned heavily with turps). It worked, and my customer (who is King) is happy. I actually do prefer it more earthy myself, but tend to lean on the cautious side, as a lot of people would be horrified by an 'earthy' finish.

I had a little bit of fun one day and made these little dresses out of paper. I had seen the idea on  Pinterest and thought I would try my hand. Afterwards I thought, that although lovely, what use have they? So I attached a scented sachet, and then they could be hung in the wardrobe, or the airing cupboard, or shoe cupboard or whatever! There is something very appealing to me about things made out of paper that shouldn't be paper.

I also made (successfully), Christa's flapjacks from the delightful blog Emilies Daughter. She lives in Switzerland, and her blog is varied and interesting and her home is beautiful.. I have never been able to make flapjack's before, even though I like to bake, I just could not get the texture of these right. There is a down side though, they were sooo delicious that I could not stop eating them! So thank you Christa, these will be going in my recipe folder.

As you can see I haven't been sitting with my feet up, slacking, it is all going on around here!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter break, and are feeling refreshed and relaxed, and I look forward to finding out what you have been up to. Thank you for popping in, I really appreciate it, love Linda x.