Monday, 29 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Padded notice board
A padded notice board for our girls' new play/school room.
Made with some reclaimed wood, material, vintage buttons, ribbon, fleece blanket, old drawing tacks and a staple gun. I so had fun with the staple gun :)
Mod Podged fleece blanket underneath the material, and then stapled at the back tightly.
Wang a few ribbons in a criss-cross...apparently you can measure these accurately with a ruler. Obviously not my kind of style...
Ooohhhh pretty buttons...
Ta da!
Now, a wall hanging for their room.
A little bit of "borrowed" wallpaper from B & Q and a reclaimed shelf panel...
Stapley stapley...
Cool eh?
And their two antique ladies' chairs for their room. £30 for the pair. My husband is also a bargaintastic fella. (I dyed the curtains in the background from gold to lime green. The colour is fab).
And I'm spent. Far too much craftyness for one evening and now I must scrape the Mod Podge from the floor and remove the odd staple that I missed the wood with. Apparently, safety glasses are also recommended for the usage of the staple gun.
Off for a lovely 2 week holiday so enjoy your cake, drink tea and be happy. That's all.
xxx
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Beautiful toys? Oh no no no...
Beautiful hand-made cradle, crafted lovingly by Grandad Bob, and organic soft Fair Trade dolly?
Oh no no no, I much prefer...
A nappy bag full of poopy eco 'sposie or...
Just a nappy sack to carry my treasures around in.
But because my mammy says we do something called autonomous learning, she says it's ok and I can quite happily continue to be a kleptomaniac around the house and collect treasures in my nappy sack.
Oh, if you're wondering where your keys are...I probably have them in my nappy sack.
Oh no no no, I much prefer...
A nappy bag full of poopy eco 'sposie or...
Just a nappy sack to carry my treasures around in.
Lovely wicker treasure baskets and hand-knitted bags are not good enough for me, don't you know. I'm all about the nappy sacks I'm afraid, much to my mammy's chagrin :)
But because my mammy says we do something called autonomous learning, she says it's ok and I can quite happily continue to be a kleptomaniac around the house and collect treasures in my nappy sack.
Oh, if you're wondering where your keys are...I probably have them in my nappy sack.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
We Are One
For the first time this week, Pixie has mentioned the colour of people's skins. I don't know why I was so surprised really, she is almost five.
My Saturday copy of The Times had a large picture of former US Secretary of State, Professor Condoleezza Rice. Phoebe had asked why the lady had "a brown face" when ours weren't brown. I explained that because the world is so big, everyone looks different even though we're all one.
We don't live in a culturally diverse place to be frank, and we have a population of about 3500 folk in our small town. We live on the outskirts and amongst the old-school farmer types who have never left the area, therefore have not seen very much of life, in my opinion.
I have lived here, there and everywhere, so very little shocks me these days. I have friends of every creed, colour and flavour there is, but my children are not immersed with the rich cultural environment I might hope for. Travel in the future is a possibility..
Anyhoooo, do you remember the United Colours of Benetton campaigns from the 90s? I do. Passing the billboards on the school bus, splashes of the familiar green logo surrounded by multi-cultural models always captivated me.
I know people who often say "I'm not racist but..." and then go on to quote the fascist shite that is the inner workings of the BNP.
We need to raise our children to be accepting of all, but with people like the ones I have described above, how, on a international scale, can this be? It feels like there is so much hatred in the world. I suppose by giving our children the tools of preservation and tolerance, we can only hope that they will go forward in their lives and outshine any bigotry and hate that they may come across.
I recently have been reading many of the teachings of the Dalai Lama. The man is just so peaceful it has a knock-on effect. His ideology is so simple, and how he believes compassion can genuinely be achieved for all. He is a great and wise man.
I'm not even sure what I'm writing here, just some thoughts that have crossed my mind that I wonder about often. Thanks for reading :)
Here is an amazing song. I actually prefer Johnny Cash's version, but the video is great on this one:
We ARE one, but we're not the same. I think that's a strong message.
My Saturday copy of The Times had a large picture of former US Secretary of State, Professor Condoleezza Rice. Phoebe had asked why the lady had "a brown face" when ours weren't brown. I explained that because the world is so big, everyone looks different even though we're all one.
We don't live in a culturally diverse place to be frank, and we have a population of about 3500 folk in our small town. We live on the outskirts and amongst the old-school farmer types who have never left the area, therefore have not seen very much of life, in my opinion.
I have lived here, there and everywhere, so very little shocks me these days. I have friends of every creed, colour and flavour there is, but my children are not immersed with the rich cultural environment I might hope for. Travel in the future is a possibility..
Anyhoooo, do you remember the United Colours of Benetton campaigns from the 90s? I do. Passing the billboards on the school bus, splashes of the familiar green logo surrounded by multi-cultural models always captivated me.
I know people who often say "I'm not racist but..." and then go on to quote the fascist shite that is the inner workings of the BNP.
We need to raise our children to be accepting of all, but with people like the ones I have described above, how, on a international scale, can this be? It feels like there is so much hatred in the world. I suppose by giving our children the tools of preservation and tolerance, we can only hope that they will go forward in their lives and outshine any bigotry and hate that they may come across.
I recently have been reading many of the teachings of the Dalai Lama. The man is just so peaceful it has a knock-on effect. His ideology is so simple, and how he believes compassion can genuinely be achieved for all. He is a great and wise man.
I'm not even sure what I'm writing here, just some thoughts that have crossed my mind that I wonder about often. Thanks for reading :)
Here is an amazing song. I actually prefer Johnny Cash's version, but the video is great on this one:
We ARE one, but we're not the same. I think that's a strong message.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Frugal finds
Some recent charity shop finds:
A fab little book about seasons, perfect for our new project, and only 19p! Flippin' get in there!
And the complete set of Narnia books. I had the full set of these when I was little, but I think they actually belonged to my sister so thought we would re-purchase. £1.50. Bargaintastic.
And bargain of the day...
...a gorgeous Mini Boden tunic dress for Pixie: £1.20. I nearly peed with excitement and wished there was one that would stretch over my bangers, but nothing doing.
Still happily hibernating, seeing a few folk but really feeling like being nice and quiet. I organised a vaccination lecture by the very great Dr Jayne Donegan. She was brilliant to hear and it was great to have all of our research and concerns validated by a worthy source. Just the Boobs for Babes calendar to finish off - our graphic designer is currently working hard on the layout, and then I truly am having a nice break from everything.
A fab little book about seasons, perfect for our new project, and only 19p! Flippin' get in there!
And the complete set of Narnia books. I had the full set of these when I was little, but I think they actually belonged to my sister so thought we would re-purchase. £1.50. Bargaintastic.
And bargain of the day...
Still happily hibernating, seeing a few folk but really feeling like being nice and quiet. I organised a vaccination lecture by the very great Dr Jayne Donegan. She was brilliant to hear and it was great to have all of our research and concerns validated by a worthy source. Just the Boobs for Babes calendar to finish off - our graphic designer is currently working hard on the layout, and then I truly am having a nice break from everything.
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