Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘home improvement’ Category

P1130379

P1130444*see note

P1130445

P1130451

The first set of my own Valentine’s Day gifts for Trezhers Gift Shop. Felt-covered soaps with little needle-felted hearts, three different sizes. I personally like pretty things that you can use on a daily basis and/or that get used up at some point making room for new things. These soaps surely qualify for these criteria. (Note to self: in the future make soap yourself and use it for this project!)

*the mossy green felted square is a very handy needle-felting helper that I purchased from Wool Buddy, the master of all needle felters, at the Renegade Craft Fair before Christmas. It is a very densely wet-felted base to lay your wool out on before you punch away, and in my opinion beats the otherwise widely used artificial foam hands down. You can easily make your own, I highly recommend it!

Read Full Post »

P1130133

P1130131

P1130130

P1130134This is what I made out of the “pancakes” introduced in this post. Something pretty to embellish my mom’s new home. Something cheerful and practical that is not seasonal, but you actually want to have around all year long. Hope she sees it that way, too*.

I took the still wet felt circles and bunched them up around the centre of the circle, tied a rubber band around and let them dry. Once dry I cut a teeny-tiny cross in the very bottom of the flower and stuck the fairy light through. To make sure the flowers are holding on, thin copper wire secures them a little bit further.

*And now the gift has finally arrived at its destination and is appreciated in exactly the way I intended it to be!

Read Full Post »

P1130103

P1130102

P1130104

P1130108

Now that all my Christmas mail has reached the other side of the world, I can reveal some of its contents to you without spoiling the surprise for the recipients.

The best booth by far at a recent pre-Christmas Arts & Craft Show was the one by Lyn Swan. Wonderful, colorful, modern ceramics mad of porcelain clay. Oh, I would have loved to take all of it home with me – but, of course, had to make a difficult decision what to leave behind. Finally I picked out a Christmas present for my sister (the two vases), and a salt container and little plate for my own kitchen. It delights me every day to see these beautiful crisp colors and clear lines; never mind the little surprises like the red inside of the turquoise vase or the little green dot on the salt cellar…love it!

Here is Lyn’s Etsy shop address: www.clayswan.etsy.com – check it out. (Wagners: nicht fuer euch!)

And to all of you: have a Wonderful and Happy New Year 2013!

Read Full Post »

P1130128

P1130127My friend custom-ordered a lamp like this one. She asked for the yellow-greenish Wensleydale locks to add a bit more detail to the lampshade. Hope her husband likes it (it’s his Christmas gift!).

Read Full Post »

P1130077
P1130075

P1130080

P1130078

 

These are some wet-felted vessels made out of two very different types of wool for our school event at the beginning of this month . For the top one I used a Polwarth roving, the lower one was Merino. The Merino was way too soft and fragile to keep its form well, so it got a make-over with plant-dyed wool felt circles and I actually like it better that way. I imagine their down-to-earth job to be car-key holders, practical swallowers of small things on your way out of the house or on your return home.

In real time I am busy working on Christmas presents for my own and my extended family, or else I am gathering beautiful things that I will use as presents – I would love to show you some of them, but I will wait until the week after Christmas. Don’t want to spoil a surprise.

Read Full Post »

P1130034
P1130068

P1130069

P1130070

Another “pimping” project along the same same lines as the last one. A lonely little thrift store stool waiting for better days. I gave it a made-to-measure new felted* coat along with pretty upholstery nails and now it is as good as new. My Kindergarten-teacher friend thinks it would make a great story-telling stool.

* the roving I used is Romney (natural brown) from Mendenhall Wool Ranch, personally visited by me and picked from their fantastic selection of high-quality wool. Our school’s third graders visit the ranch every year to pick up their wool for learning how to spin, and subsequently crochet with the self-spun wool. So cool!

Read Full Post »

Finally I can reveal the secret project that I worked on in July. As I said, the request was to come up with something that would make the banister in my sister’s house a little prettier (they had to take off a wooden railing, so that a closet would fit into a space on top of the stairs). See what I mean?

You know what I like best about this? Every time my sister, or a member of her lovely family, walks past these felted objects they are bound to think of me!

Read Full Post »

I have been intrigued and very inspired for quite a while by an eccentric and fabulous blogger, a “Brit misplaced abroad” called Tif who blogs under the name of Dottie Angel. I finally ordered her book and last week it arrived in my mailbox. I can tell you, it is worth every cent. Warm-hearted, creative, personal, funny, lots of pictures – and it has a few crafty ideas, too.

As it happened I was in the process of coming up with a special gift idea for a very special person in my son’s life, Ms. Pattie, his aid (or more technically speaking his “full inclusion specialist”). Apart from his teacher she is the other main adult during his school day and the little boy loves her. Anyway,  as I was looking through the Dottie Angel Book I found the perfect thing:

I knew instantly that Pattie would love this! I rushed into my garage to look for empty glass jars as I set out to make a desk set for her place in next year’s classroom. Here is my version of the project:

(*In here she will find a gift card to her favorite coffee pit-stop and a set of polymer clay earrings (croissants)/necklace (coffee cup) I commissioned my daughter to make)

And guess what? She did love it!

Read Full Post »

I carry a small pocket calendar in my purse (yes, I know, other people use their phone for this, but I still prefer pen and paper). Only (!) one month into the new year I finished a new cover for it. Made out of the plant-dyed wool felt that I like using, embellished with some beads and a bookmark – now it is even more fun taking it out to add whatever is worth noting.

Since this is just the type of detailed project I love I will definitely sew more of that kind of cover for notebooks in general, not necessarily just calendars. Small and not-so-small journals, sketchbooks, that kind of thing. I will show you!

My kitchen window got a little improvement, too. With the intention of covering up shutters that nobody ever closes and adding a little coziness, I attached velcro to a leftover piece of fabric (the main part of which covers the backyard patio table during the summer months) and the corresponding velcro strip to the wall above the window – easy to take down and throw in the wash. So much nicer!

Speaking of coziness, I will leave you with a recipe for spending a happy afternoon: take a beloved sibling and a good book, add a healthy snack and a big armchair – combine all ingredients and enjoy!

Read Full Post »

The house we live in was built at the end of the Fifties and has some quaint (and lovely!) details that wouldn’t be found in modern houses. We proudly possess, for example, a real bar in the living room! Complete with dark wood, mirror-clad back wall and a sink. It is used, I must confess, as a storage place for craft materials. Another one of these things are the windows above that bring light from the family room to the hallway. Notice the structured, tinted glass panes? For a while now I had meant to make curtains to soften the edges a little. The other day I found the perfect curtain rods, since luckily this is the time of year when people are having their trees pruned.

And this happy rainbow silk is the fabric that is going to be turned into the new curtains. This week-end (I hope).

Here is the project I am working on right now, the result of which will show up in my (new and still rather empty!) Etsy shop. I will keep you posted. I am using plant-dyed wool felt and silk embroidery floss, as well as

“beans” filled with Monterey beach sand. What is is going to be?

Meanwhile the rabbits are being embroidered onto their, after closer inspection, vintage linen napkins. But someone decided that with an embroidery hoop on the head you look just like a queen!

Have a happy week-end!

Read Full Post »