Candlestick Makeover

Told you I had the bug, yep more painting and more transformations.  The weather is helping mightily and I hope it lasts.

Gold coloured metal candlestick, nice enough but I don't really do gold in my house

As with the birdhouse first coat was a pale grey.

Sanded lightly to reveal some of the grey underneath then waxed and buffed to a sheen.

The candlestick to the left was originally clear glass.  On this one I painted off white first, then the grey over the top and just sanded lightly, no wax applied to this time.  I may end up waxing it but for now am liking the flat mat contrasting with the other candlesticks.

Off to do some more painting.

Lolo xx

Birdhouse Makeover with paint

Hi all, what glorious weather we've had this week, is it really still March?  Perfect for tackling my long overdue projects involving sanding and paint.  So outside I went armed with a ton of newspaper, some paint and fine grade sanding blocks, oh and plenty of cups of tea.

Crazy patterned bird house purchased from my local charity shop for a pound.  Been stuck in my cupboard for like an age.

First coat of pale grey, already looks better.

Finished with coat of white to the roof and then waxed.

I loved doing this little birdhouse and plan to hang it from my garden shed for the summer.  I've never really used wax before but love it.  So much easier to use than varnish and gives a real lustre to your items. It really didn't take long at all and has spurred me on to tackle more projects around the home.  

Be sure to check back for more makeover reveals.  

Lolo xx

Rain Bonnets

They have been worn by royalty and in particular our lovely Queen Elizabeth, the Diamond Queen.  Some of my fondest memories of my nans and her friends are of them wearing these plastic bonnets over their wash and sets. So you might be forgiven for thinking these rain bonnets are, lets say, not for those under 70.

Great retro packaging

But umbrellas aren't always practical and if my bag is small the umbrella gets ditched.  So on said umbrellaless days if I get caught in a rain shower I end up grumbling to myself and desperately trying to pull my woolly snood over my head or worse still my whole coat.  This never really works and ends up with me looking more like 'kenny' in Southpark and getting strange looks from passers by.  And the scarf just ends up getting wet so pretty pointless.

Now if I had a rain bonnet in my handbag I could avoid said kenny syndrome, be hands free and keep my hair from turning into a frizzy mess.  I've found a few companies that are making slightly more fashionable versions which look pretty stylish I think. 

These come in cute little tins to keep in your bag

Now she doesn't look too bad in hers does she?

Oh dear this is a look everyone should avoid!  She should have had a rain bonnet in her purse.

Hmmm, but can I stop myself from looking like this with one on.

What do you think ladies, would you be brave enough to wear one or do you already strut your stuff in one when it gets wet out there?  Well I've taken a gamble and ordered a couple of non designer white dotty ones to see how I get on, it's only a £1 so what the heck.  They should be here in a few days, if I am feeling brave I might even post a photo or two, with my dark glasses on mind.

Till next time.

Lolo xx

Gotta Love TKmaxx

For having some great things at great prices.  Quick trip the other week resulted in this....

£4.00

and these metal letters for £3.00.

Yes gotta a lot of love for TKmaxx.

Till next time.

Lolo xx

Cake Decorating - Issue 1

It's pink, there's gingham and spots and it's all about decorating cakes, what's not to want, oh and it's only 99p!

So would you like a peek inside.  This is such good value I'm not surprised it has been flying off the shelves, I got the last two at my newsagent, one is a pressie for my sister.  Last of the big spenders lol!

Cutest butterfly cutters that are metal, some glitter and pretty cake stand

Yummy butterfly cookies made with cutters, the instructions are written well too.

Or how about a victoria sponge, one of my personal faves.

Dinky butterfly toppers using the small cutter

Look at all the yumminess to come!

Ordinarily I wouldn't be suckered into taking the subscription route, however I might just bend that rule slightly for this mag.  You actually get some pretty useful gifts with your first 7 issues, am particularly liking the pink cake tool storage box and the cake caddy. Oh and the alphabet embossers, yep decision made, am off to their website www.mycakedecorating.co.uk to subscribe. 

Till next time....

Lolo xx

My Card for Mummy

Hi all, been a while I know, time sure does go by fast these days.  On Sunday I was doing what most of the country were, spending time with my wonderful mum.  We trotted off to a garden centre for lunch which was soo busy, don't know why I thought it wouldn't be.  It was lovely seeing all the flowering plants and with the sunshine that eventually came out it really did start to feel like spring.  Just think next week it will be light till 7.30pm, woohoo!

So would you like to see the card I made for her, it was very much inspired by the lovely blog that is Pink Petticoat and uses her background papers.

The background paper is from the Pink Petticoat brocade range in silver which I overlaid in Photoshop with some text and then printed out on A4 white paper.  This was then cut to size and stitched to a kraft card using my machine.  I used white cotton but looking at it now I think I would go with a slightly darker shade of thread next time so it shows up a bit better.
A border for the envelope cut out using one of my new Anna Griffin punches which I must say really do punch well, much better and cleaner than my Martha Stewart border punches.

I chose these duck egg blue pearl domes to co-ordinate with her lounge.

Inside finished off with a printed insert.

I really liked the way this card turned out and it was so quick and easy to do. List of supplies used:

Kraft Square Card - Papermania

Brocade Paper Silver - Pink Petticoat

Stitching - own machine

Pearl Domes Blue - Create and Craft

Seam Binding Ribbon Cream - Create and Craft

Twine - B&Q 

Be back soon talking about cakes.  Keep well and hope you have plenty of sunshine where you are.

Love Lolo xx

Tim Holtz and American Craft Day QVC

It's gone midnight and I really should be tucked up in my bed, instead I am sat on my sofa watching Tim Holtz on QVC.  To some people I might be seen as slightly barmy, and who can blame them, but the crafters out there will understand my madness.

So far a couple of items have gone into my basket, I had good reason they are on special pricing for today so would be rude not to.

Missed out on this set a while ago so was glad to see it back on a craft day price of £13.32, designed by Anna Griffin.

Another Anna Griffin set less than half price at £10.42.  I'm looking forward to using some of the smaller scrolls stamped onto american seam binding ribbon

.

There's Tilda!  Oh how I adore anything Tilda.  Own most of the books and frequently flick through them drooling over the gorgeous images.  Am seriously tempted by this kit, it is £30 so not cheap, might check around first.

I also noticed a promo for a new cake crafting section being aired later today, will have to sky+ this, got to work which is a bummer.  Wish they would have their craft days on a weekend.  Then again maybe that is not such a good idea for my bank balance!

So there you have it, I am outed as a midnight shopping channel watcher!  Anyone else burning the midnight oil this way tonight?

Hugs, Lolo xx

Ingenious idea for shoe storage

Okay so I'm going a bit Pinterest mad with my posts but I just keep coming across such amazing ideas I have to share them with you all.  And this one is genious!

Source: duitang.com via Claudia on Pinterest

We all have that dead bit of space at the bottom of our wardrobes, you know the place where we just chuck our shoes in a heap.  With the fixing of a little pole and these modified wire hangers it can now be organised heaven.  This also means that I have now found a use for all those wire hangers I end up with from my OH's dry cleaning, which normally I frown at and just throw in the recycling.  Not anymore, bring them home honey ;o)

Lolo xx

A new way to label my Ikea Jars

As part of my kitchen re decoration I've been slowly stocking up on SLOM jars from Ikea for all my baking ingredients and dry goods as I now have two tall shelf units to display them on.  Currently I use my home made chalk labels to show what is stored in them .  If you would like to read my post on how I made these just click here.

One of my main reasons for using these chalkboard labels was so I could add the use by date of the contents onto the reverse of the label coz once decanted I would have no idea.  Now I do still like this idea but find that the labels look rather big and cumbersome, especially on the smaller of the jars.  However I need space for my ugly handwriting so can't really go much smaller!  Well now I think I have found a wonderful alternative.........these.

Source: thepaintedhive.blogspot.com.au via Christen on Pinterest

They look so cool don't they!  I love that they are in the style of dictionary entries, very professional looking.  I hopped straight over to The Painted Hive to investigate further, she uses Decal Transfer Paper which I've never heard of before but am in love with already.  A quick look on ebay shows it at around £1 per A4 sheet which is less than I thought it would be.  I would still keep my chalkboard tag for the date but it could be much smaller now which is better and could also have a pretty design on the front instead of a label.  I should invest in a good quality chalk pen as old fashioned school chalk is not the easiest thing to use for small writing.

Have any of my lovely readers used this Decal stuff before?  Is it as easy as it looks?  Any hints or tips would be much appreciate.

Hugs, Lolo xx

Paper tape from wrapping

I've been on the Pinterest trail again and found this neat little idea.

Source: countryliving.com via KT on Pinterest

I have some old cotton reels in my stash that would be perfect for this.  All I need now is to go out and choose me some pretty wrapping papers.

If you would like to see the instructions hop on over to Country Living by clicking here.

Lolo xx

Comment Moderation Frustration

Morning all!

I've been doing my usual round of catching up on my fave blogs this morning, I love reading what everyone has been up to, or made and always like to leave a comment or two.  But today I am feeling a little bit frustrated.  The thing that is causing this frustration, moderation.  You know the one where you type in your comment, press publish and then are faced with entering some random character combination into a box before it can be submitted.  It's been around for a long while I know, but lately it seems the characters are getting harder to decipher and sometimes after a few failed attempts I admit that I do give up and hit the cancel button which leaves me feeling more frustrated.

Even more frustrating is when I do actually manage to read the jumble of letters to then be told that my comment still won't be published until the blog owner has approved it.  Is it just me who thinks it should be one or the other?  Stopping unwanted spam automatically appearing on blogger can be managed by both methods, so using one method would be sufficient?

I have been a victim of blog spam in the past and I fully understand the need to moderate comments.  The way I like to do this is by using the blog owner approval option in blogger.  This means that my readers can happily type up their comments and without the need to decipher some sort of code.  It means a lot to me that you all take the time to leave a comment and I want to make the experience as seam free possible for you all.

Well that's my rant over for today, it's not something I do often but it just got me today.  Am I in the minority here?  Anyone else out there struggling with jumbled characters or does it not really bother you.  Maybe it's just me, maybe I need my eyes testing, but I do love it when I can just type my comment and hit publish.  I will of course keep leaving comments on all my favourite blogs, jumbled characters or not, I love you all!

Lolo xx

I've had enough now

It's currently doing this outside again.

Well I've had enough of this now and all I want to wake up and see is this.

Mr Snow can you go away and not pop back until, say mid December, thank you.

Lolo xx

Magnificant Madonna

Love her or hate her, I'm in the LOVE camp in case you were wondering, you cannot deny the fact that she is super talented, super fit, made her way from the bottom up, no 'we'll make you a star' programme in sight and her concerts are nothing short of spectacular.

Here she is performing at the recent Superbowl to the highest half time viewing audience ever, nuff said!



Lolo xx

Ikea Bedding

My love affair with grey continues into the bedroom inspired by a recent trip to Ikea.  I fell in love with this set and had to purchase it.  It shouldn't really be on the bed yet as I need to decorate, but I'm always too impatient.

Generally I tend to go for plain white bedding but this pattern just attracted me straight away.  Yes it's an all over pattern but it is also subtle.  The large rose flowers on the pillows were from a Primark sale last year, they were a £1 and wish I had got more of them, they co-ordinate perfectly as do Primark's grey pillow cases.

This shot shows the colour better and also shows the crinkle blanket from Ikea which fell in the trolley with the quilt set.  I've been wanting one of these for ages and on many a trip it has gone in my trolley then out again, my sister will vouch for that as it drove her mad at my indecision.  This time though it made it to the car.  It has also inspired me to have a go at making my own in other materials as all it is is shirring elastic sewn in stripes about 2 inches apart.

After all that faffing around in the bedroom my belly was in need of some fodder so I tucked in to the loaf of bread I made earlier.  It actually came out alright.  I'm going to try soda bread next after watching the Fabulous Baker Brothers make it the other week, no rising you see, brilliant.

Lolo xx

Cat Nap

Look who I spied cat napping on my bed, Alfie.  Too cute!  It was all I could do to stop myself snuggling my face into his fur, I have to confess that I did give in a short while after this picture was taken but he soon nodded back off again.  All that running around in the snow earlier clearly took it's toll on him!

Lolo xx

Snowy Sunday

Did you all wake up to snow this morning?  When I went to bed last night it was snowing but the flakes were really small and I thought, that's not going to amount to much.  Oh how wrong was I.  Look what I woke up to.

Proper snow!  Lots of lovely white fluffy snow.  Best my car has looked in a long time!  The cats weren't quite as impressed as I was though.  I love how a blanket of snow makes it so quite, it's really rather magical.  Proper winters Sunday, fire on, tv on, soft glow of white coming through the windows and a warming casserole in the oven.  Perfect.  A shame it's Monday tomorrow as Michael McIntrye would say "there's going to be chaos" lol!

Lolo xx

Great little shelf idea from Ikea

I've been mooching around pinterest again and found this neat little idea.  Very handy, would look lovely painted in Annie Sloan Paints.

Source: flickr.com via Kerstin C. on Pinterest

Lolo x

White and Grey

My oh my, have been a bit lapsidaisical with the old blog lately.  But then January is always a funny month for me, I just want to get it out of the way and get on with the year ahead.  I have been busying away in the background though, decluttering like a demon which always takes hold of me this time of year as I am sure it does a lot of people after the excesses of Christmas.  Craft room is having a much needed makeover with some new shelving purchased from the big blue store along with copious amounts of their clear storage boxes, I kid you not I now own 40 of the things!  There'll be some piccies when it's done, which knowing me will be a while longer yet.  Speed is not my strong point.

Today was a good example of my dithering, when I should have been building said shelving I instead found myself slobbing on the sofa surfing.  It wasn't long before I was on Pinterest looking at all things white and grey.  I've always loved grey for clothing but for home interiors I fell out of love with it when it was always being teamed with baby pink.  Thankfully it has taken on a much more dreamy and classy look these days.

Source: weheartit.com via Lolodesigns on Pinterest

Please can I have one of these at the bottom of my woodland garden where it meets the stream bubbling past through the bushes.  I wish!  It'll will have to go at the bottom of my little terraced garden and I will imagine the rest when I am sat in it with my glass of wine.

Source: ozmaofodds.blogspot.com via Lolodesigns on Pinterest

Beautifully crafted flowers out of cashmere, very classy.

Source: shabbychicgirls.blogspot.com via Lolodesigns on Pinterest

Okay this one has pinks in it but it was too pretty to miss out.  I would actually love washing days if my drying area looked like this.

Source: ordinary-fairytale.tumblr.com via Lolodesigns on Pinterest

Definitely a me outfit.  Scarves are a big thing of mine and you very rarely see me without one on, even in the height of summer.

Source: socutethings.tumblr.com via Lolodesigns on Pinterest

Someone had a very steady hand to do this icing.  It is truly beautiful and would make a lovely alternative to the traditional red on valentines day don't you think.

Oh well enough time wasting, I really must go and do some more sorting out in the craftroom.  Thanks for popping by.  Are you counting down the days of January like me?

Lolo xx

Beginning of January - Resolution Time

Whether we go in for them or not new year's resolutions are hard to avoid.  They are everywhere, in magazines, newspapers, tv, and radio.  They are also the main part of conversations in the workplace as we all go over how we need to improve our lives, homes or careers.

Now I've avoided jumping on this bandwagon for the past couple of years but this year is different.  You see I got on the scales after Xmas and had to jump right back off them and check they were working properly.  Surely not, that can't be right.  Back on I got and yep, damn things were right, it was official, I am fat!  I didn't really need some common bathroom scales to tell me this, my clothes had been doing a good job of it over the past few months.

So, like many others around the globe I am now officially on a New Year diet with some exercise thrown in every now and then.  Well a girl has to take it easy in the first few weeks so as not to shock the system too much.  Achieving my goal will be done in the privacy of my home and I certainly won't be doing any of this, and they ask you for £6 a week for the privilege!

Tried this route a few years ago, and yes it did work, but each weekly visit involved the ritual of turning up having not eaten since the night before and about ready to pass out at any moment.  Dashing to the loo, along with many others, to squeeze out the last bit of 'pee' coz that's really gonna make a huge difference, not!  Oh and as you get closer in the queue to the actual weighing part you start stripping off your clothes to the minimum you can get away with without being arrested, because we all know our clothes weigh a good half a stone don't we.

So my journey to becoming thinner has begun, this is my 3rd day of not consuming enough calories to keep a small football team going!  So far it's not been too bad and on the plus side my body is now getting some good nutritional fodder in it.  I also have a great little app on my iPad to help me along, www.myfitnesspal.com and my trusty digital scales.   Anyone else out there on a weight loss mission?

Lolo

xx