LOVE - DIY Yarn Art

Thanks to my awesome oversupply of yarn and the joy of Pinterest I imagined up a wee piece of wall art.

Lessons learnt:
-Hammers are heavy.
-Thumbs shouldn't get in the way but mine wasn't playing ball.
-It takes a lot of nails to do this. A lot. Like more than a hundred.
-Modern Family is a good soundtrack for makings.

Like?
More word suggestions?

Sidewalk Wonders

I found a couple of faded golden rickety chairs on the side of the road a couple of weeks back. I made Dave pull over and reverse down the road to beat off some other people who had spotted the roadside stash.

In the car they went and then in the corner they sat for a week while life went on.

I still have a tonne of striped fabric left from when I bought a whole roll and re-covered a footstool. It seemed perfect for the chairs so off on the now-familiar journey of re-upholstery I went.

I did a bit of a survey on whether or not to paint the chairs white but the vote was a resounding 'keep the wood!'
Dave helped me sand the varnish back off the chairs (my favourite job-not) and I reckon they look pretty awesome!

We had a long weekend here in Canterbury and I so appreciated having an extra day to relax. We even put our Christmas tree up!

Here's to the last few weeks of the year!

{Doin' it with Dave} Industrial Lamp

Doin' it with Dave is a semi-regular segment showcasing the awesome works my amazing husband comes up with. Kudos to Sophie for the header!

Remember a loooong time ago when I very first started blogging (only the beginning of the year, it has seemed like I have been blogging forever!) I went garage saleing and scored a whole bunch of treasures?
Well Dave just transformed the old and dusty tripod into an industrial light!

This was how we bought it....

and this is it now!

Success, I Made a Dress! Simplicity 7882

 A wee while ago over at Miriam's house, I ended up trying on some of her amazing creations. She had this dress in a different colour and material and she let me borrow the pattern!

 It has been awhile since I have made actual clothing to wear (think 7th form, going back a few years now!)
so it took a bit of remembering to bring back some of the lingo.
Luckily the pattern was relatively easy to follow.

I had bought some material from an op shop a while back that was actually a tablecloth! Nice thick cotton maybe? I'm not too up with the play with my materials. But it cost $6 for about 150x150cm. Pretty good I thought.

So off I went, pinning and cutting and stitching and unpicking and then stitching again. I may have gotten a bit carried away with the length there but oh well, lesson learnt. Cut longer than you want it. Especially when you have no spare hands to put pins in the right place.

Also, the only zip I had handy was black. Tisk tisk I hear you say? Well I am not one for waiting around so black zip it is. I can live with that.

So overall I am stoked with the dress, I think it looks a little plain on its own so I shall dress it up with bright coloured cardis. I am still in love with the pattern of the material. I am digging the tone on tone look at the moment, and the flowers have a nice shine to them.

Can you spot the photo-bomber?

I like the waistband and the ties to bring it in just that little bit extra

The only disadvantage of the material being from a tablecloth? The creases will. not. iron. out.

Killer wanted in on the photoshoot

New shoes! Well, from a clothing swap, but real leather!

Have you got plans for summer dress makings?

Sold!

It seems my little hobby has turned into a bit of a small business empire. (I may be exaggerating a bit here).

My pallet art now has a wall of its own in my little cafe, complete with prices and business cards underneath. Very professional. It is very exciting to see customers admiring it and as of late, purchasing it!

So far I have sold 5 pieces, four of which were from the cafe. Out of those four pieces, one was commissioned. That was pretty exciting. A customer wanted a red pallet with the words 'faith,hope,love' stencilled on it.

I found that having the commissioned piece to do was quite difficult. Because all the other ones have been me working at my own pace, having a deadline and guidelines in place made it quite hard to get motivated. Is that just me or does anyone else feel like that? It is probably not a good idea to quit my day job just yet.

Thanks everyone for your support, I always appreciate feedback and inspiration and ideas!

Now, to break up more pallets!