Pillow gets a makeover

Little fishes favourite pillow (called rock for some reason) needed a bit of sprucing up. The Dorothy cover was looking a bit old and grotty so we decided to give it a makeover. We found some cute fabric and set about making a new cover that would bring a bit of zing to rock.

Instead of adding a zip around the edge like Dorothy had we simply overlapped the back pieces cause that was much easier and I had no zip anyway so it all worked out quite well!

She was quite taken with the new cover and rock is back on the bed where it/he/she belongs.

Littlest fishes new bed

Littlest fish recently graduated from a cot to a toddler bed and after spending a few nights with a bed rail in the open bit in case she fell out, I thought we could try and pretty it up a bit. So down came the rail and in its place is a nice bit of fabric (I guess it's a bumper of sorts) that ties to the bed to make a little barrier.

So far so good, which means she hasn't rolled out (yet!) She can climb over to get in and out but it seems to do the trick and keeps her in while she is alseep which was the main goal anyway. Plus looking a whole lot nicer is always a bonus.

Yay little fish! Next job will be painting her room and new curtains so stay tuned for some makeover fun!

Before and After

I found some photos on the computer recently that were taken before we bought our house (I think we got them off the property listing online when we were looking) and was amazed at how different it looked. I sort of forgot how apricot the walls were and how much varnished timber there was in the kitchen. So I was very happy to find some pics that showed the changes we have made (and are still making). The apricot is gone and part one of the kitchen reno is done, we can't do much of part two until the extra room out the back is built then it will be all systems go! So the point of this post dear bloggy friends, is make sure you take some photos every now and again of your house (and garden) to document the changes that have occured because they may seem like small differences when they're happening, but the end result can be huge! Happy photo taking!

Drift, driftin' away.....

Okay, so I haven't been doing much sewing but I did make something instead of painting another piece of furniture (you can hear Mr Fish breathing a sigh of relief in the background). I saw a gorgeous mirror with driftwood around it in a Better homes and gardens mag a while ago and kept it in the back of my mind. After about 3 trips to the beach recently we had a bucketful of driftwood (had to be fairly straight bits) to get started. First I painted a square canvas that was lying around a brown colour, do you think I can remember what I originally bought it for!?

Then I stuck a mirror that used to be in littlest fishes room in the centre with double sided tape. It's one of those cheap mirrors from the warehouse so I wasn't worried about wrecking it if things didn't work.

And then I started playing around with how to put the sticks on. I had in my mind a round looking shape (a bit sun like) but quickly decided that required to much fiddling with angles and was a bit tricky so I went with a simple square shape instead. After snapping a few to fit them in the gaps I glued them down and added a few more pieces to the sides when the top was dry.

The finished mirror came out pretty good and you can't really see the canvas unless you're really looking for it. Being on a canvas it's not as heavy as it would have been on a piece of mdf or ply.

(the picture you can see in the mirror is on the opposite wall, I thought it framed the painting nicely!)

Posted on My house of giggles

This could get addictive

I found a new place to put a table runner the other day. They are very handy for moving around and making little displays on. The little white thing in the front is an oil burner that you put those wax melt things in, I bought a lemongrass and a honeydew one and they smell divine. I'm a bit slow with these things, I know they've been around for a while but til now I've been a 'put a few drops of scented oil in some water' oil burner kind of gal. So I'm starting to catch up now. The cupboard everythings displayed on is from a garage sale a while back and I don't think it will get painted as it's in really good condition and I'm a bit scared to change it. (this was a bit of a posh garage sale) But after painting the cabinet in the last post I thought the side table in the lounge room could do with a makeover. It's another tender center job (in case you don't know, a tender center is sort of like a second hand shop where people bring things in and you go and bid on what you might like and the highest bidder wins! It's mostly junk but sometimes there are little gems up for grabs). Anyway this little table is made from cane and a bit of chipboard and was looking a little worse for wear so a paint job was just the thing it needed.

I have learnt through trial and error that two decent coats of primer make a huge difference to the finished look of the paint and would highly recommend priming first when painting furniture. I used zinnser 3 in 1 primer (after a few people suggested it) and it is amazing! As long as the surface is clean and free of flaky bits you can paint it on just about anything. Can you imagine how much sanding this table would have required? Why bother when you can paint the primer straight on and get to work. So it got two nice coats of zinnser and then two coats of semi gloss and that was it.

So now we have a nice little side table that looks pretty and can stay around for a while. The inside of the drawer was looking a bit sad as it is made of some cheap chipboard/mdf stuff so I painted it as well and then glued some paper to the inside to spruce it up a bit. It's just scrapbooking paper and I used some spray adhesive to hold it down.

So there you go, another cheap and cheerful makeover. I wonder what will be next? Maybe I should go and do some sewing before the whole house gets painted!

TV cabinet transformation

This is what we bought home from the tender centre a little while ago. (The broken glass panels were removed straight away as the little fishes like to touch everything). Apart from being filthy and covered in dust and grime and having a missing door handle and the broken glass, it was in suprisingly good condition. So after a few coats of primer (after being scrubbed clean) and some paint (antique white USA) it was looking a lot better. Add in some MDF pieces with grooves routed in them (do you think I could find any beadboard!!!) and the transformation was nearly complete.

After buying some new magnetic closure thingies and deciding to stick with the original hinges all that was needed was some new knobs so a trip to Vast (interior) was in order. And really, who actually needs a reason to go looking there! I found some lovely off white knobs with a bit of silver in them to finish things off and had a good look around as I managed to go without the fishes. Honestly I could just live in the store they have that much nice stuff in there.

I bought a bamboo placemat to put under the tv so it has something to sit on and looks pretty and protects the lovely new paint job on the cabinet.

So there you have my project from the long weekend, now all the wooden furniture is starting to look like it wants some paint. Next might be a little side table, I'll let you know!

Easter at the beach

Things are back to normal now (almost) after having a 4 day long weekend for Easter. We went to the beach a few times over the break as the sun was out (sort of) and it hasn't been raining. Oldest fish was delighted to see her park was almost back to normal after being trashed by the cyclone (tree fixer people and swing fixers must have been working hard) and apart from feeling like the roof is gone because the canopy that shaded the park has been stripped pretty bare it is all good. It was a bit overcast when we went but that was great because it wasn't blindingly bright. Littlest fish had a ball playing in the water and tried to put all the sand balls the crabs made in the collecting bucket. We did some drawing on the sand and found lots of driftwood and bits of coral. All in all it was nice to go back to the beach after all the wet weather.

Homemade Artwork

After spending a bit of time lurking around Etsy and some other sites looking for some artwork to go in our bedroom after I give it a makeover (don't worry, it hasn't happened yet) I came to the conclusion that a lot of the prints I liked were fairly doable and thought I'd give it a go myself. The first two prints are ones I made up in paint shop pro and were very basic. The home one is just a simple quote that is sweet and true and the other one is a bit unique.

Anyone with an interest in home design mags and websites will know that the old bus/tram rolls are in big demand as artwork. I've seen a few around that have a London theme as well as Sydney ones so I thought I'd borrow that idea (I like the layout and look of them) and make my own with a twist. Instead of doing bus stops I did a list of places where we have lived since we got married. So It's a one off unique list that no one else has! And I love the coloured background instead of the black that the bus rolls have.

The beachy pics were done when it was a bit overcast and not so blindingly bright. The sand heart was simply drawn near the water and the shell one was done with some cowrie shells from home (collected on a previous visit) and arranged nicely on some drier sand.

So there you go, a few pieces of easy to do art that will be a bit special and unique so all I have to do now is print them! Oh, Happy Easter everyone!