Orla Kiely at Tescos

Look what I just found at Tesco.  Completely off my radar that these bags were on the horizon!  My little budget doesn't usually stretch to Orla proportions, but for £4 I snapped it up in an instant (and even treated my Orla obsessed best friend to one). 

Dare I say they are nicer than the Cath K ones from a couple of years ago, as they are Jute rather than that plasticy feeling fabric.  I tried to press the assistant for more info, but she was clearly not an Orla fan and oblivious to the treasure at her fingertips.  I imagine like the Cath Kidston bags they will be released over a period of several months....making my nearly daily trips to Tesco just a little more exciting.

Just a little bit of crafting...

 

It's good for the soul a little bit of crafting.  I don't really see myself as a crafty type, but when I do get round to making something, well, it makes me rather happy.  I have bored my colleagues at work showing them this crochet purse (that I keep my security pass in!), so I thought I'd now bore share with you.

There is treble crochet in that purse there!   I am 2 weeks into a crochet evening course and this was last weeks 'homework'.  A lot of love went into that purse I can tell you....and look even a buttonhole too.  I can't believe I made it - last year I spent a week lost in You Tube videos trying to teach myself without success.  So this feels rather miraculous to have made something.  I did felt it afterwards in the washing machine to hide my rather large and unruly stitches.

I made this little wall hanging in January after getting this book for Christmas.   I can remember making this vividly as my poor eldest and The Queen of Clean were trying to watch the film, Inception in the same room.  I was over at the dining table with the sewing machine trying to master this stitching technique and saying lots of bad words.  I think I kind of ruined it for them.

I was inspired by a family tree thing I saw in a Soulemama book - that trunk is a swatch from our leather sofa.

Anyway the technique described in that book was a little too high brow for me, so I decided to go my own way.  And adapt it to make it a little easier......

.....this is the result, a little butterfly that I appliqued onto a table mat.  The wings are made from two different blouses of mine.  Eventually I want to do a table mat for everyone in the family with a butterfly made from their own clothes.  May take forever to get round to, but that's the plan.  At the moment this one is all alone, and lives under the fruit bowl on the white barley twist table.

 

And finally, not my creation, but Yoyo's.  Her real name begins with an 'S'.  She was itching to do something whilst I was making her Katie Morag costume.  Bless her. 

We're not sure what this will become yet, maybe we'll stitch it onto her PE bag, or applique it onto a cushion.  For her the fun is most definitely in the making....I think as I type she has probably forgotten she has made this!

What are you making (or thinking of making) at the moment? 

Update on the Taupe room

 

Our Taupe room is finished!   Sorry it's taken an age to get these photos, but I had this brief moment when things seemed remotely tidy so took some snaps.  Above is the dining end of the room which I don't think I have shown you before.  You can see my salvaged white barley twist table there in the foreground.

And here is the view from the other end of the table.  We updated our old lampshades with the ones shown above from Ikea,  it was a strangely satisfying process building those.  A bargain also at £13 each including the light fitting itself.

This is the view from my leather chair with the Love cushion on it...where I can often be found!  Do excuse the sheet hanging over the door - that's how I dry my sheets, not very Martha Stewart eh?  Just pretend it's not there.  Some of the doors in this house are on a diagonal angle including that one above if you are struggling with the perspective.

And here is the shelf in the alcove that The Queen of Clean built, loving how the white frames and light seem to pop out at you now.

So all in all we're pleased, it was good to be a little daring with this.  However curtains are in an issue, the current ones seem to be jarring a little.  I am either going to go for a plain cream or something like this Sanderson pattern below which I love, but seems to be everywhere at the mo....your input is most welcome!