Succulent Love

Ever since I saw this picture on Pinterest i have wanted to do something similar and put it in the kitchen or living room.

So I have been keeping an eye out for a suitable glass container to star my succulent collection, checking my favourite place for glassware TK Maxx quite regularly

Well it just so happens I was in Ikea (shock horror!!) and I spotted this little beauty for the princely sum of £6- and it has been sat on the kitchen sideboard for nearly 2 months...

 It's a bit shallower then I would have liked but nevertheless it does the required job.

Next was a trip to the garden centre to pick up 3 succulent plants (absolutely no idea what the actual name is for them- on Pinterest they are called succulents!) and some decorative stones. The plants cost £1.99 each and the stones were £1.99 also! We already had some mud in a bag in the shed (not sure of actual gardening term) because that's just what homeowners do- they own random gardening products. 

Then quite simply I took the plants out of the plastic pots, arranged them in the glass bowl and filled around them with the mud. I probably shouldn't have done it on the dining room table - but i did clean it afterwards!

Then i just topped the mud with the stones to make it look more pretty! Only problem being that when i put the mud into the bowl I got quite a lot on the plants which made them look messy :( Alas i worked out that when you water the plants with a watering can the mud washed off them and they are pretty again! 

So now we have a nice new plant feature in our living room, for a total cost of about £14.

I think it could make quite a nice gift idea- relatively in expensive and you could tie a nice bow around i :)

Making a Draught Excluder

A few months back i was visiting my friend who has just bought her first house and admiring the place when i noticed she was using a scarf to block the draught from the cellar door and so i kindly offered to make her a draught excluder! Having never made anything of the kind it was bit of a trial and error approach, which thankfully didn't end up with too much error!

Items needed- fabric, fabric marker, scissors, tape measure, wadding, and sewing machine or needle and thread.

I measured the width of the door and added 2 inches to the length to allow for seams. The fabric width was about 20cm -I took the fabric and folded it over inside out to start sewing

secure the edge to be sewn with pins

I just used a simple stitch on the machine and sewed two of the 3 sides, then turned the fabric the right way out

The i filled the whole thing with cushion wadding. I did read a tutorial online which said fill with rice. Whilst I'm sure that would have been better in terms of weight- i don't think i could afford enough rice to fill the whole thing and it would be too heavy to carry!

Finally i just sewed up the end and it was finished! Whole thing took 1 hour maximum

Wedding Gifts

So the last post was all about the interior inspiration we picked up on our recent honeymoon in Thailand. Of course before the honeymoon came the wedding!

Our guests were more than generous with their gifts, we have decided to save all of the gift vouchers we received for the house- to put towards furniture and accessorise when we finally get round to the renovation of downstairs next year. 

But one gift in particular is making a big impact on our house. You may remember this painting in our bathroom, it was painted by our friend Jason who sadly couldn't make the wedding because of a relocation to Cornwall falling in the same weekend!

Anyhow he more than made up for it when this arrived by courier the day we got back from our honeymoon...

 

After about 20 minutes i managed to get it out of all the protective cardboard and bubble wrap and reveal the amazing picture he has painted for us! We then spent the next hour carrying it round the house trying to decide where it should go.

First option was the hallway...

After considering it- although the picture really works well with the existing colour scheme, we already have a lot going on in this space, with the wallpaper, the radiator cabinet and the big mirror just opposite.

So we tried various places in the kitchen...

To be honest our scabby old kitchen didn't do it any justice whatsoever. And we didn't think it went here in the dining room either..

Finally we decided on a spot on the upstairs landing. It looks fabulous here, really tying in the colours of the dark dresser and blinds with the green of the plant. It also complements the white frames running up the stairs on the other side of the bedroom doorway.

So after a trip to B&Q to get the relevant heavy duty picture hanging kit and lots of nagging of my husband we have finally hung the picture :)

Absolutely love the picture there, i really think any artwork adds instance interest to a previously boring corner!