Fabric yoyos

I am still madly in love with this Bloom Quilt by Amy Butler
 

So I decided to try making some of the fabric yoyos myself. They are so easy and I could make one in about 5 minutes. So if I do decide to make this quilt I can at least make the yoyos myself and maybe get some help with the quilt part.  Here is my attempt at making yoyos.

 

I am going to make more and use them to make a table runner for the sideboard I got for Christmas (Thanks Mum). That should be a nice and bright feature for the top and then I will add the candlesticks I painted at the start of the blog.

While I was looking for instructions on how to make yoyos, I found this great project photo on pinterest.

From what I have found it comes from here.  There is an online magazine featured there and it is on page 141. I will be making this at some point, maybe check back in about 6 months time.
Doing a search for yoyos on Pinterest certainly brings up some amazing finds such as a skirt made of yoyos and the following. 

I think this chair comes from http://threadandthrift.blogspot.com.au/, I haven't yet found it on there but it looks like an interesting site so I will be going back later to look.

I am not sure of the original sources for these but will keep looking.

I think these yoyos are a great way to use up fabric scraps. I am hoping I have enough scraps to make my table runner without having to buy anything so fingers crossed.

It looks like a lovely summer day here so I should head out to the shed and keep working on the kitchen hutch that has sat neglected over the last few weeks. I really want to see it finished by the end of January so I better get a move on.

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you had a lovely day. I enjoyed a relaxing and fun day with my family. My boys have been happily playing with their toys all day. One of my boys just adores Thomas the tank engine and loves watching home videos of children playing with Thomas trains. To make his day special, his Uncle helped him make his own quick little movie. Jack's Trains

For the rest of the day I ate far too much and then spent the afternoon on the lounge playing with my laptop. While doing so I found and fell madly in love with this quilt by Amy Butler.
 

The free pattern can be found here Bloom Quilt and the fabric just happens to be on sale today here Fabric.com. The only thing stopping me from buying all the fabric is that I can't sew. Sigh. Perhaps I should look at getting lessons and make this for myself for my rapidly approaching 40th birthday.
I also like the following pattern from Amy Butler. For a complete list of her free pattern then go here.
 


I got a very special Christmas present from my Mum today. She bought me a lovely solid side board. However I am not allowed to paint it. So I am going to have to find some lovely bright items to sit on top. The sideboard does need a re-varnish so I will post photos soon. 

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope everyone can sleep in tomorrow.

School holiday activity - decorating with fabric markers

This is another quick, easy and no mess activity for children that have short attention spans for craft.

Materials:
- plain calico pencil cases but you could also use pillow cases or cushion covers.
- fabric markers
- cardboard for placing between the fabric layers to prevent the ink from running.

The boys decorated a few pencil cases. One is for holding marbles and the other two are Christmas gifts to be used as make-up bags.

The artist at work.

 Even the Littlest Man was also having a go.

 Game Boy showing off his artwork.

 Two of the completed pencil cases/ make-up bags.

School holiday activity - Super hero capes

I am always on the look out for school holiday activities for the boys. When the summer holidays are 6 weeks long, it is always important to have a few things hidden away for when everyone starts complaining of being bored.
I found these superhero cape kits recently at funkyelephant.com.au and thought this would be a great project for little boys who have short attention spans for craft.
The cape kits are available in pink, red and blue. Each kit contains a cape,  self adhesive star, self adhesive felt sheets, shape templates and instructions.
The boys found it very easy to cut the felt into shapes and peel off the backing to stick onto capes. They were very proud of their handiwork. I was happy that there was very little mess involved. I bought 3 kits and there is heaps of felt left over to use for other projects.
The kits are currently on sale as a pre-Christmas promotion. Their facebook page has updates of any specials. They also have make your own tutu sets.

Colour Me Happy aka My Christmas Wish List

If it is colourful, quirky and fun then I am in love. So tonight I thought I would share some of the fun pieces I am lusting after.

One of my favourite online shops, Peter's of Kensington has lovely home wares and gift lines but the following are on my "if I ever win lotto" list.

                                  

Another thing I have been eyeing off recently is these beautiful pom pom rugs. This one is available at www.ministyle.com.au   though if I got one I would buy the largest size. I think these would be a great sensory addition to the lounge room. Not only would they be visually stimulating but imagine the feel of walking on them or rolling on it. I bet my 4 little autistic lads would get a real kick out of this rug.

I also love this range by rhubarb. I have the cake stand with lid and must get some more items while they are still around. These are acrylic and would be great for summer BBQ's and picnics. These are available from zanui.com.au
                                          
So what are you hoping Santa will bring you this year?

Decorating Party PomPoms

I was recently looking for party decorations and was shocked by the prices. For the tissue paper pompoms they were between $6 - $10 each. I wasn't paying that. So when I got home I googled instructions on how to make my own. There are heaps of sites offering advice. I picked one and was surprised at how quick and easy they are to make. I used the instructions on this site, http://www.polkadotbride.com and I was very impressed with the instructions. I made 3 of my own large pompoms in under 10 minutes and it only cost $6 for all of them.

These ones I made are currently sitting on a table. The string to hang them is underneath each one. I can't find my photos of them  hanging nicely. I think the editing fairy has been at my files again.

This is a very quick and easy project that children can manage easily. So if you want to put up more decorations for Christmas then this would be a good school holiday project.

New blogs for the boys

My 4 boys all have autism. I love them dearly and I am very proud of them. Some things they can do really well and other things they struggle with.  Gameboy is really good at maths but isn't very good with story writing or comprehension and retelling of stories. I have been trying to think of ways to help him and motivate him in these areas. I really wanted something that we could work on over the holidays and beyond.

So we have set up two new blogs. The first blog, Find Me Gaming is for Gameboy to share his love of games by reviewing different computer games.

The second blog will be a joint effort between Red and Gameboy. In this blog, Find Me With A Book they will be reviewing children's books.

I hope this will be a fun venture for us. I will be assisting with the writing and hopefully over time they can help too.

You are welcome to check out the blogs and leave comments for them.

Rocks in my head

I am in the middle of so many big jobs that take for ages. So I thought I would do a quick little project today. I found this bag of rocks at the back of the shed and decided that the Littlest Man would love them.

 As the Littlest Man is starting to learn his alphabet I thought I would write each letter of the alphabet on the rocks. I used a permanent marker to mark them. I would have rocks in my head if I spent ages on them as the Littlest Man will have them spread around the yard in record time. So I did very basic letters. If I was making them for an older child I would have done something fancy.

The Littlest Man played with them for a while and named the letters. Then he decided that they make good musical instruments and kept banging them together. I have already found a few stray ones in the pot plants.

Edit - I am coming back looking at my old posts and realised that I have no idea where these rocks are now. I haven't seen the bucket or any of the rocks in a very long time. It is a complete mystery. In fact I had completely forgotten I had made them until I saw the photos again. I think it is time to do another shed clean up and hopefully they turn up.

Outdoor lounge update 2

I recently started jazzing up my outdoor lounge. I had painted it white and Mum had started recovering the cushions with calico as the lining.
I had been trying to find a suitable outer fabric that wouldn't fade from the sunlight. I couldn't find anything locally that I liked or could afford. I ended up finding this one at an online American shop, fabric.com. Surprisingly adding the postage costs to the price of the fabric still made this a far cheaper option than buying anything locally. From the time the order was processed to the time it arrived to my door step was less than a week.

Here is a blurb on it.
"This outdoor solarium fabric is solution dyed (solution-dye process is when the color is manufactured into and throughout the fiber, the color is part of the finished fabric). This gives the fiber consistent and durable color that stands up in tough environments, such as sustained direct sunlight. This fabric will withstand 5,000 hours sunlight and is perfect for porches, patios, deck side, pool side and boat side"

Now I just have to wait until Mum has time to sew these for me. 

Kitchen hutch - I have started

Oops I am been absent for a while. No, I don't have a note from my Mother.

I had computer dramas and had to delete my cookies. Then I couldn't automatically log in and I had forgotten both my password and my google email. I am not, and probably never will be, a computer expert.

I have finally started on the hutch. Woohoo.

Here is another BEFORE shot.

 The black patches on the paint are mold stains. EWWW

The inside was very dirty. The Contact Paper that had been stuck on was very hard to remove and I nearly pulled the cupboard on top of myself a few times. Without anything inside it is very front heavy and easily to unbalance. In fact the entire thing fell over from a gust of wind when I had it outside doing the sanding.

The picture below shows the cupboard stripped of all doors and the contact paper. It took about two hours just to remove the hinges and latches as they were so rusty.

 As the hinges and latches were rusty, I made the expensive decision to replace them. Trust me this was EXPENSIVE. It better be worth it in the end. I ended up buying them online from hardware.net.au as they were the cheapest online shop I could find.

I need to replace some of the plywood on the bottom shelf. I am not very good at cutting anything so this will be interesting. The damaged piece looks to have 4 straight sides so hopefully I can cut it without too many dramas.

You can't see it in this photo but I have already sanded the sides of the hutch.

I am still unsure if I paint the inside or use wallpaper. I think I might be leaning towards painting. Mainly as I have paint and need to keep the costs down after what I have spent on new latches and hinges. I really wish I had a paint sprayer, it would come in handy for a job like this.

My next project - Kitchen hutch

I bought this cabinet because it has potential. I know it is hard to see past the peeling, mouldy paint and the feral inside that looks like it was a cockroach motel for many years. But I see a beautiful piece of furniture, but I know that it will take a lot of work to find the hidden beauty. 

I bought it weeks ago and haven't started it yet. The main reason is because I can't move it by myself. I usually work outside and really think this piece should be sanded outside as it may be lead based paint. I don't want particles of that in the shed especially as the kids play in the shed. But by posting this here, that this is my next project, I am hoping to shame myself into making a start. 

I am just dreading the sanding part. I really hate wearing a face mask when sanding but will have to for this project. 

I was thinking of painting it mint green with antique white doors. But I really like the blue that I painted the table. This was featured in my last post. The deciding factor is that I have enough blue paint left without having to outlay any more money on paint. I think the hutch will make a lovely craft cupboard and the table in the last post would be a good craft table. They would look nice together if I paint this blue.

Outdoor Lounge Part 1

This outdoor lounge is very sturdy but was drab, faded and dated.

I painted the timber in white outdoor gloss paint. Then my darling Mum took the feral covers off and replaced them with Calico. Boy typing it like that makes it sound like it was an easy quick job. Don't be fooled, those timber slats on the chairs took ages to paint.

I bought the calico as lining. There is special UV resistant fabric coming to cover the cushions. Those will be included in the Part 2 edition.  I have ordered the fabric from the USA and have to wait for it to arrive. But for now the calico looks much nicer than the old faded red fabric.

Blue Table

I bought this table very cheap, it had been knocked about a bit, from a furniture store. It then took me a couple of years to notice that one leg was very different to the others. I was using the table as a craft table so it really didn't matter.  It was sturdy and strong and that's all that matters. But I got sick of the boring brown and it was time this table got a makeover too.

I gave the table a light sand and then painted it in an exterior paint that has an undercoat built in. I am not sure if I am going to distress the table and if I do then I don't want an undercoat showing. The colour I picked is a Dulux exterior paint colour called Template.
This table is very heavy and very difficult for me to move by myself so unfortunately the "after" photos aren't very flash.

I really like the colour but haven't decided if I leave it as it is or if I distress it. Either way I still need to do a very light sand on the top to remove some of the paint brush lines.
I do like the colour and can just imagine how nice it would look set up with an afternoon tea spread of nice china, scones and cream, and a jug of iced tea.