New Year Malaise

This post is a bit of a departure from the norm. I’m not sure whether it’s an attempt to excuse myself for the lack of blogging or whether I’ve created a brand new syndrome. Either way I’m sorry to tell you that I’m suffering from a bad case of ‘New Year Malaise’.

My life has been a bit crazy, wonderful and scary the last few months. There’s been operations for more than just myself, several house moves, big life decisions and all manner of situations that make you go ‘Whoop! Whoop!’ and ‘Aarrgghh!’ with equal measure. A huge tangle of sublime scariness and wonderful change.

The end result, life has finally calmed down and I’m ridiculously happy in my new home but….. I haven’t really recovered from everything that went before. My routines are all over the place, nothing ever seems to be done on time and by the time I get a moment to think about the blog I envisage tumbleweeds rolling on by, without the energy or inspiration to get beyond the first few lines of a post. I’ll get back to these half-finished entries in time (if I can actually make anything half decent out of them) but for now I decided it might be far more cathartic and honest to just write about what’s been going on. You may have seen little snippets or pics if you follow me on Instagram (incidentally how about following me once you’ve finished this post 😉 )

In Progress

In Progress

I’ve developed a new found love of Chalk Paint, specifically Autentico. Our new home had a fireplace that was suffering a bad case of the 90s and after a couple of weeks I could stand the weird Faux Cherry wood effect no longer. ½ tin of paint and wax later and I’m much happier with the surround.

Fully painted at Christmas

Fully painted at Christmas

I’ve also taken on my parent’s old dining room chairs, I’ve loved them all my life but their tasteful finish and tapestry fabric just wasn’t going to fit in a kitchen. They’re a work in progress as I’m minded not to rush their transformation and make a mistake. For now I’ll just post this little taste of their new paintjob.IMG_0685

In other news I’m feeling very enthusiastic about seeds! Our garden was somewhat unloved and we’ve already started to rip most of it (primarily weeds) out. We have plans for the coming Spring and Summer but for now it’s all prep. I’m sure there will be lots of failures but hopefully some successes too. I’m just annoyed that I can’t start planting anything yet! The snow was glorious the first time around, now I just want spring to appear 🙂

So I’m officially starting this year all over again, with a paintbrush in my hand, a cake by my side and a packet of seeds begging to be planted.

Next up on the blog should be a fabulous craft project (when I finish it lol) so check back for that one and have a wonderful and happy weekend whatever you are doing (I’ve been plodding along a canal)!Abi Day

My Festive Fireplace!

I thought it fitting to write a small post on this the last day of 2014. I know I have been rather quiet of late but hopefully with the new year we’ll be settled comfortably into our new home and I’ll be able to find some more time 🙂

We’ve had a wonderful, if slightly chaotic Christmas complete with a heavy dusting of snow on Boxing day, which is still with us (much to the children’s delight). I’ve decorated around boxes and wrapped around suitcases but slowly everything has come together and Christmas day itself was actually very relaxed. We like to celebrate the full 12 days through and have built our own set of traditions around various days. A new tradition this year though has been gathering around our fireplace after playing in the snow and coming inside wet through. We never actually had a fire of any kind at our previous home and it’s been a very welcome addition.

Unfortunately the fire is rather old fashioned and not quite to my personal taste, I’ve already managed to paint the surround that was originally a deep cherry colour but really I’d like to replace the whole lot completely. I’d love a multi fuel burner, or a limestone surround with granite hearth. I heard that Cast Fire Places were running a festive competition and I couldn’t help but give it a shot. They wanted to see a photo of my festive fireplace, so here’s mine by Christmas tree light complete with Dalmatian admiring the tree. Fingers crossed they like it and I can show you all a lovely new fire soon 😀dogfiresmall

For now though I’d like to wish you all a very happy new year and may 2015 (gosh that doesn’t sound real, it may take me a while to get used to writing that!) bring you much happiness and peace.

Festive Fire Competition Entry

Christmas crafts with Bostik!

Christmas crafts with BostikChristmas is nearly here! The tone of that statement and whether it strikes fear or excitement is often directly correlated with just how prepared you feel for the festive season. Many of us find ourselves flooded with obligations both pleasant and stressful, but if there’s one Christmas tradition I always make time to fit in it’s crafting, especially with my children. So in an attempt to bring a little normality back into our chaotic home (see my previous post!) I bring you our Christmas crafts with Bostik!

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As usual our box was jam packed with creative goodies:

Bostik Glu Dots and Blu Tack

Pipe Cleaners and Pegs

Polystyrene Ball & Star shapes

Cardboard Cone

White Foam and Coloured Card

Gift Bag

Ric Rac and Ribbon

Glittery Stickers and Pom Poms

Gift tags

Decorative paper

Small brass bells

 

What we made:

Christmas Angel

Christmas Angel

The cardboard cone could have become many things but as we had a new Christmas tree sadly lacking a winged friend to adorn the top, an angel was the obvious choice.

I started by cutting the wings out from white foam.

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Next I made a hole in the polystyrene ball and pushed it onto the top of the cone to give the angel a head. I painted the head using a mixture of chalk paint colours which gives a lovely soft matt finish, it also dries really fast! It is more commonly used to paint furniture.

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Once the paint had dried I used the Bostik glu dots to stick ribbon around the base of the cone (or dress).IMG_0567-1

This was further accessorised with silver ric rac, also stuck using the glu dots.IMG_0568-1

Next her wings needed to be attached. If you want to test to find the best height then use a little of the blu tack. Final adhesion is achieved using the glu dots once again (they really are useful to have at hand).

Finally I used a gold bell (so she can ring out the good news!) looped onto a ribbon to give the angel a pendant. This is attached at the back using yet another glu dot.IMG_0583-1

Gift Bag

My youngest was in charge of the gift bag decoration and chose to use a selection of sparkly stickers to create this festive wonder.Christmas Giftbag

Gift Tags

All three children were given free reign to cut paper, stick pom poms, stickers and anything else they fancied onto our gift tags. We were given two pre-cut tags, but we also used the cardboard to cut more out.

Gift tags

Peg Princess

My daughter made a Peg Princess using ribbon and off cuts from snowflake stickers to make a tiara.IMG_0587-1

We had a wonderful time listening to Christmas music while crafting away and I wholeheartedly recommend it!