MASTER BEDROOM: Sunburst Mirror (maybe I can make my own)

I have been dreaming after a Sunburst mirror for quite some time now, but they are so so expensive. I may have found the answer...making my own!

I have found this wonderful how to on a called Isabelle & Max Rooms. They go from these materials...

To this gorgeous Sunburst Mirror....

I am truly inspired to give it a go!

KITCHEN: Updated art...

So I already have a frame I love which I found in TK Maxx for around a tenner. I had printed off a poster which I liked to frame but it wasn't that great print quality. So I decided to frame some of my own art...

... this is a Gill orginal  made with ripped out colour  from magazines one night at Brownies, we made them with the girls but this was my effort and I just love it in this frame 

BACK GARDEN: Project Wheelbarrow!

So just to remind you, this is what I started with...

....an old rusty wheel barrow which was left by the previous owners of our house and had been used for bonfiring. I was determined to upcycle it into something pretty.

So this is how I went about it (with help from my very lovely friend Marie I must say, after the painting)...

Step 1: I painted it....

Step 2: I bought some suitable plants from the garden centre...

Step 3: We lined the bottom of the wheelbarrow with crockery...

Step 4: We collected some top soil from the bottom of the garden...

Step 5: We filled the wheelbarrow half way and arranged the plants accordingly....

Step 6: We filled up the rest with potting compost and gave it all a good water....

PROJECT COMPLETE! - just lovely - so happy with the result. Can't wait for all the plants to fill out.

Whilst we were at it we decided to sort out the strawberry planter, which we had got as a housewarming gift from Adam's lovely Aunty Chris...

Looking forward to lots of yummy homegrown strawberries this summer :)

SHOPPING: Originate Creative Craft & Vintage Fayre, Flitwick, Bedfordshire (Saturday 30th April 2011)

Yet another gorgeous looking vintage fair is coming up this weekend, this time in Flitwick, Bedfordshire.

Here is everything you need to know:


ORIGINATE Creative Craft & Vintage Fayre

This is our second event, of which we celebrate local handmade crafts, products and artwork, along with vintage pre-loved items. Free admission to approximately 30 stalls selling a range of vintage and handmade items. Home-made refreshments on offer all day with seating to take in the great atmosphere. You will receive a friendly welcome, so please come and have a look round.



Time: 11am - 4pm.

Admission: Free (to the public and free parking on site with wheel chair and push chair access).

Location: Flitwick Village Hall, Dunstable Road, Flitwick, Bedfordshire MK45 1HP

FACEBOOK PAGE


Hope to see you there....

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Lovely collection of little stalls but didn't find much to buy on the actual day other than this lovely patchwork lavender heart...

...which I bought from a lovely lady called Naomi @ Sparkly Pink Designs....who I talked to for ages and had a lot in common with as she is also in the process of doing up her own house whilst making and selling a whole bunch of gorgeous things. My advice would be, whenever at a vintage or craft fair or event, even if you don't buy much, pick up peoples cards. Most have them on their stalls these days and most are on Etsy, Folksy or Notonthehighstreet or Facebook so you can look them up at some later point. I picked up this one and the two below up this time...

Little Mole Crafts

Rose Tinted Vintage

FRONT GARDEN: Magnolia Tree...

I have my heart set on having a magnolia tree in the front garden. I just think they are so lovely! We went for an initial look round the garden centres today and any tree of a decent enough size that it was in flower was around the £70 mark! So home I am, and online I go to try and find a better deal. I have just come across a great looking website called Mail Order Trees and they are doing this Magnolia soulangeana 'Lennei...
:

...the height of which is approximately 0.8m-1m - which sounds pretty good to me - and similar to the ones we were looking at in the garden centre - for £29.99. 

EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE: Paint update....

So I was quite set on the Wickes colours which I had picked and thought that one of them would be our final choice, but then we went DIY & garden shopping today and came across a great deal in B&Q which was just too good to mix. They have 3 for 2 on all paint and wallpaper this holiday. We found this Devon Cream Masonry Paint and just fell for it. So decided to bite the bullet and purchase.  


 

Now just to prep all the walls and then paint....getting quite excited now - it's going to improve the whole look of the property so much! It's probably the most dramatic change we have made so far! Wish us luck - I will keep you posted with photos of progress.













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1/5/11
We started the task of the painting of the outside of our house this weekend. It does take time, but we can already see that it is going to look amazing...

FRONT GARDEN: Fence Progress...

This is how our picket fence currently looks...

It definitely has renovation potential but needs some work to get there. All the supports need re-securing (this is going to be mainly an Adam job) and the whole thing needs painting (which is going to be my focus) and I hope to start today!

The colour which I really like is called Willow in most brands... here I the brands which I will probably choose from:

One thing which we have already tackled this weekend is the removal of the dead bush in the corner, which I would really like to replace with a magnolia tree like this:

So we went from this....

and...

to....

 and....

ah..... much better.... now we just need to remove the root and buy a magnolia tree and we'll be done!

EXTERIOR OF THE HOUSE: Trying out some paint colours + doing up planters at the same time - why not?

Our house was painted a very red kind of red by the previous owners (see below)...

We both like the idea of repainting it something far more subtle and natural and think that it would actually make the place look a lot more Dutch cottagey and less glaring 70s red. I will spend the next 10 years asking over and over again "why?!" with the previous owners decisions, but at least as things, are quite extreme in a lot of ways, when we do change it and make it our own you really do notice a massive difference and it is the most rewarding work which I have ever done as every little bit really does make a difference.


So how to get started... Well you might have gathered by now that when it comes to paint Wickes is where I tend to go first, they are owned by Travis Perkins, which besides being the same name as my Adam, is one of the best builders merchant brands in the country so I feel you can trust that their products are quality ones. I was also impressed that they had paint samples for exterior paint as most places only have paint samples for emulsion, which I never understand as surely you need samples of every type of paint in order to make the right decision, but there we go! Anyway, back to where I was, so I picked up the two colours which I liked the most when I was in there the other day in sample form:

Sandstone

Cool Grey

 

I wanted to do sample patches outside to see which one would go best, but rather than just painting patches on the wall, which would look very odd on an outside wall, whilst we we deciding I thought, why not do up some old planters instead...

These are some planters which the previous owners had left us, along with an old wheelbarrow, which also has some serious up-cycle potential:

So I went from this...

To

To....

From...

To...

From....

To...

And finally from this....

To...

This will eventually be used as a planter, not a wheel barrow in case you're wondering

To be honest I can't see that much difference between the colours now they are on, though the wheel barrow and the smaller chimney planter were done in sandstone and the other two planters were done in cool grey. I think I would be happy with either as a paint colour, though I do feel slightly more drawn to the cool grey. I'll do another posting when we start actually painting the walls, though there is a lot of cleaning prep work to do first I am hopeful to get started this week as we both have the whole week off work- whoop whoop!