Home Made Christmas Bunting

I got some white felt off ebay and had a blast using split stitch to draw and rice stitch to trim :) Fun and cute!

I know everyone will be so busy at this time of year getting ready for the big day so I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we'll be seeing you all in 2015!

Best Wishes,

love Samantha and Joyce,

(and Nyah the cat!)

xox

a Teeny Christmas Tour at H for Home

Hi again, I have been busy with Mum, home earlier than expected from hospital and very tired but I have a lovely team of care workers who have been roped into helping me and I've pretty much got a fab support network for Mum and for me. They are a great bunch and really cheerful as well as being excellent at their jobs. My front door has never been so busy!
Just like you all we have had to get our Christmas food in the cupboards, and the pressies and decorations and the Christmas card list, and then adjust to the new routine of a care package, assorted medical equipment and all the new faces.
Phew!
So here are some hopefully half decent pictures of the lounge at present, I'll reveal furniture in full in the New Year as and when it all happens, but so far it looks a lot like this............ :)

The Big Blog Post, involving Lots of Pictures and Mostly Successful Craft and DIY Projects! and not much wordy bits...

So as promised some cheerful completed stuff and hardly any blabbing from me :)

In the event of an emergency start immediate embroidery!
This is a printed cushion from Bianca Green for Society 6, about to get it big style with some stitchin!
#biancagreenart  #society6

'Deer Frida' is finitio!

I am assuming everyone in the world knows that this is of Frida Kahlo right? Ok, so project 2........
remember the idea I had to use my cupboard as an office/craft nook?

Apologies for dark pics but these were all taken late at night after long days at hospital :) xx

The undershelf baskets are actually from my old fridge freezer!
 Re-purposed and hung with large cup hooks from B&Q.
 All shelves are baton fixed, 18mm mdf  under 40 quid
for all materials for shelving including the alcove up next!

A couple more wee bits too......

Same baton fixed technique but hardboard secured underneath to make them appear 'floating'.
I was planning some kind of lighting but as things got sticky this moved
from the Tick List to the Ditch List!

And ending with a Christmas note I didn't think would happen tbh.....

so what's the word count? too many no doubt lol :)

take care

S

The Traditional Pre-Christmas Blog Post but not quite.

You might expect this post to full of gorgeous little ideas and recipes to inspire your Christmas preparations but that just wouldn't be me, would it!

The truth is that my life has gone a little haywire. My lounge makeover has stalled halfway and I'm having to just heave a sigh, draw a deep breath and move along.

Unfortunately my Mum (Joyce) became very ill at the end of October, a massive chest infection which nearly killed her. So everything stopped obviously. She pulled through thankfully but it has been a prolonged hospital stay and as so often happens with Alzheimers sufferers she lost a little bit more of the everyday skills she had had up till then. She is healthy but her mobility has suffered dreadfully. I am just grateful that she is here with me today and still knows me and other family members.

I don't often mention my Mum or her illness in my blog but this has impacted more on me this time because she will now have to live with me permanently. This in itself is no big deal as we have been splitting our time between her home and mine for the last couple of years  as she has needed me 24/7. So while she has been busy getting back to good health I've been trying to pack up nearly 80 years of living into a few boxes that will assimilate into our shared home. This hasn't left a lot of time or energy for decorating! But I'll bet you would feel as I do, that the house can just sit there and wait for a day when the person I love doesn't need me quite so completely 100%.

My Mum has been given a discharge date a few days before Christmas. Once she had passed the danger point it was ok to start planning a celebration so we do have presents for each other and for family and we will have dinner with all the trimmings!

My next trick is to make myself available to the Occupational Therapists and other lovely folks who will make my home a safe place for Mum to live. Including a hospital bed, riser recliner chair and various other massively unattractive large pieces of hospital type equipment that I will be over the moon to have if it makes her life just a fraction easier and more comfortable

It will all be ok, repeat as necessary. In my case hourly at the moment :)

I have occupied myself with a couple of crafty projects, small ones that have distracted me from the trauma and helped me to stay sane! So I will post some of those little bits in the next day or two so come back and have a look . The Tick List has shrunk considerably but there's no telling when or if I'll get the last bits done and I need to find a turkey fairly soon,

Altogether a fairly poor Pre Christmas Blog Post so far.

lots of love,
Samantha
x

Why I should Win A Prize for the Most Awful Blog Post Title

Well,
just see the title above or you could skip back through eighteen months, give or take, of awesome awful blog titles. In which I veer madly between what I think sounds classy and a bit Nigela (when food related!) and the insanely rhymed. Not that I'm worried, the thing is it's my blog to wreck havoc upon the internet and unsuspecting browsers such as yourselves pretty much as I please.

So, no pics or decor updates, I haven't even had time to rejig image sizes on the last post! I am however planning a massive blog post title using many capital letters, rhymed and spreading across over three lines of text!

Till Then :)

How my Lounge Looks At Present

No words, just is.

A long slog and how its going....

The tick list....
Ceiling - done.
Coving - done.
Walls - done.
Window frames - done.
Doors - done.
Skirting - done.
Me - done for....lol!

Feeling very lowercase at the moment  hence my post title. Lots more still to do, list below....
Build display shelves in alcove.
Lay/clean carpet.
Upstyle table.
Re-upholster dining chairs.
Make 2 sets of curtains.
Assemble art for a gallery wall.
Upstyle mid century sideboard.
Make slipcover for corner sofa and footstool.
Make about 50 multi coloured mini pompoms ;).
Decoupage and paint 5 large storage boxes and magazine boxes (similar to those in the attached pics but 3 times bigger!!).
Build then paint and wax a desk and shelving in office nook.
Make an origami cushion.

Everything still going on! I'm getting to it a bit at a time.
Baby steps!
In the meantime here are some pics of a couple of completed little jobs :).
I upstyled my curtain poles filials and rings which were plain white, from Argos Value range using the decoupage technique, patterns come from napkins bought from ebay. Using this cheap and versatile method I also started upstyling my existing storage boxes from bland to bold.
Take care.
Samantha
x