52 Crafts in 52 Weeks – Week Thirty One

I found a small and undecorated wooden box in the craft drawers this morning.  Turning it over in my hands, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  On my list of crafty favourites, there in bold letters stands decoupage.  I love how one can take something terribly ugly such as a wooden box and turn it into something incredibly beautiful.  All you need is a little paint, some old gift wrap or scrapbook paper and podge.  Did I mention that podge is on my list of ‘must haves’ in the craft room?  And good decoupage varnish just adds such a lovely finish to any decoupaged item.

Next week Monday (the 14th) my thirteen year old sister becomes a fourteen year old.  And although I am not exactly a person who procrastinates, I do sometimes hit a blank and can't get into a crafty spirit of any sorts and leave making a gift to just days or hours before the occasion.  So although I probably had hundreds of things I should have done today, I spent a free hour or so painting, cutting and podging.  I felt like a small child; shut up in my mom’s workroom, crafting away in peace and quiet.  I even somehow managed to get podge in my hair and some over the floor.  Please don’t ask questions:-)  

I’m sure Nancy guessed what I was up to – any person with a birthday so near at hand becomes a little suspicious...

  Hopefully she’ll like her gift and use it for whatever purpose she deems fit. 

What do you do as a hobby?

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

52 Crafts in 52 Weeks – Week Thirty

 Isn’t it lovely to stock up on one’s craft supplies?  I must admit that our store of crafty items was looking rather sad, so a visit to the scrapbook and material shop was certainly enjoyed by us older girls last Monday morning.

I have been going through so many craft magazines lately in an attempt to find simple, cost effective things to try not only for this challenge but also to keep us busy on the rainy days when we can’t be outside.  

I also have plenty of Christmas cards to begin making – there are so many lovely designs I can’t wait to try.  Plus we were very inspired in our gift making by looking at all the beautiful things available in the shops:-)

But this week I’d like to show you these adorable little gift boxes I made...

I love making gift boxes – I love tracing, folding and filling them.  And these cute ones from Ideas were just delightful to put together.  You can find the template and instructions in the March 2013 edition of Ideas magazine.

Now I must just add that the reason behind my lack of blogging has not been because of lack of interest.  We have just had a few minor internet issues which are now hopefully sorted out for a while!  I hope you’ve enjoyed the sudden burst of thoughts that have been shared all in one go, though – I have been saving them up specially!  

P.S.  How does everyone like my new design?

Much love,

Kelly-Anne

52 Crafts in 52 Weeks – Week Twenty Nine

What a glorious day we woke up to this morning.  It seems the spring feelings have arrived and with them the lovely weather!  To celebrate the arrival of spring, I had two lovely friends over for a mini high tea last Friday.  And of course a tea party needs pretty decor, so my mom and I made this beautiful spring branch for the centrepiece of the tea table...

 To make you’ll need one good branch.  We used a branch my dad pruned from the peach tree a few months ago:-)

White spray paint.

Felt in different shades of pink, white and cream

Fabric glue, scissors and a pen for tracing

Flower template of your choice

Medium sized container such as a pot or tin.

Material to cover tin or pot

Beach sand

Pebbles

The first step is to coat your branch with the white spray paint.  If you don’t have a lot of paint, use a smaller branch or just paint it very roughly.  Leave it to dry.  Now trace and cut out flowers from the different shades of pink, cream and white felt.  Be creative and mix and match the shades.  Use the fabric glue to secure the centres to the flowers.  Once the branch is dry, glue the flowers to it.  Try to space the flowers evenly.  Leave to dry overnight.  Place the branch standing up in a covered tin or pot and fill with beach sand.  Top with a layer of small pebbles.  Now you have a beautiful spring branch to adorn your table!

What have you been busy with so far this spring?

Kellyxx

A Walk through the Garden ~ 27.9.13

 Dear friends, this post is a little late - just as I was about to hit 'publish' a few days ago, I saw that we had run out of internet:-( 

I just love spring gardens.  I love how, though the earth may look bare, underneath the surface where no human eye can see, there is life and activity. 

Seeds are germinating, fruit trees blossoming and crops grown through winter like broad beans and peas, start producing in abundance. 

This is the stage we find ourselves in right now.  As last year we were still in the midst of moving house and coping with my being ill which kept me (and the rest of the family) out of action for about a month, we didn’t have a ‘spring garden’ at all.  What joy to still be in the same place a full year later and ready to begin a new growing season feeling good, healthy and very excited! 

The weather has only now begun to warm up, so just a few of the seeds I planted at the end of August have grown.  

On Sunday I planted trays and trays of herb, flower and leafy green seeds.  I only planted squash, butternut, pumpkin and brinjal about a week ago and I’m still waiting for them to germinate.  When speaking to a gardening neighbour the other day, I was surprised to hear that she only begins planting summer crops after the spring equinox – it is just too chilly here to plant any earlier.  But nevertheless, the runner and bush beans are growing steadily as well as the radish (oh how I love growing this rewarding crop) and beetroot. 

In Mom’s garden, (she has a small kitchen garden to the side of the house which is made up of lots of truck tyres and wood chips to fill the walkways) there is another crop of beetroot, a bed of carrots and a bed full of Swiss chard.

My first batch of little seedlings will be ready to plant out shortly.  Spring is such a lovely busy time in the garden and most days I don’t want to do anything else other than potter about in the sunshine:-)

But now let me share a few photographs with you…:-)

 

 Beautiful beetroot seedlings…  Don’t they make you feel so happy?

 Radish – I just love crops like these!  They are dead easy to grow and look so pretty dotted in amongst other crops.  We love the radish in salads and our guinea pigs enjoy eating the leaves!

 

 Broad beans are in full flower and producing such amazing pods.  I made broad bean fritters the other day from beans given to us by our neighbor, but I’m getting quite excited about our own now.  The pods are about 15cm long already and the little beans inside are just so sweet and juicy!  If you have some fabulous recipes you would like to share, please comment!

 Who doesn’t love the sight and smell of lavender?  I love all the varieties, a lot of which we have growing in our garden.

 Nasturtiums add such gorgeous colour to any garden and act as super veggie protectors!

 This is the first time growing runner beans in the garden…  The bush bean seeds I planted a week and a bit ago are also almost all up.  Exciting times ahead:-)

My mom and I are also so desperate for lovely flowers in our garden, so I made sure I planted many different seeds.  So far I have sown Aster, Cosmos, Poppy, Foxglove, Forget-Me-Not, Delphinium, Phlox, Viola and Dahlia.  Now we just have to wait for them to poke their leafy heads out of the soil.

We made sure we ordered packets of lots of different herbs such as Red Rubin Basil, Sage, English Thyme, Tarragon, Tansy and Oregano.  As for veggies, there are all sorts to be grown!  Hopefully next time I’ll be able to share a few more photos with you!

How is your garden growing?  What crops are you most determined to successfully grow this season?

Happy gardening,

Kelly-Anne