To Use... or to Lose.

Hi there....hope your week is going great...the holidays are almost over again...crikey the year is stampeding ahead isn't it....Thanks so much for the many Birthday wishes for Mum... and she's asked me to say you're all so lovely and kind to send them to her....it's really hard for her to wrap her head around the idea of people living from near and far flung places wishing her a happy birthday:-))....but she's LOVED it.



 

Many years ago hubby bought me this jewellery box which l loved at the time... but l'd grown to seriously dislike....l'd tried to sell it at markets but no-one bought it and let's face it... WHY would they...even if it WAS cheap as chips.....but my ever expanding plastic collection could use the space, so l decided to give it a makeover.

l took the glass out of the door and all the handles off to spray paint everything white, two coats were used. To give it that worn beachy look l gave the whole lot... including the foil door insert, a rough top coat of wattyl weathered wood. The glass door was covered in a (cut to size) piece of pressed foil. The handles were all returned and lightly brushed with silver paint. Finally when it was dry the edges were sanded to make it look a bit timeworn.  The before pic is at the end of this post....l didn't want THAT jarring your viewing (pleasure?) mid post....haha!!

 

 

 

This gorgeous plastic basket found at the opshop.... became the inspiration for this post, cost a staggering 50 cents :-))....isn't she a beaut...back in the day all the women carried one of these to pop their shopping into...but l hadn't seen one for years. 

  

 

Shown here with some sweet floral Cath Kidston products my Sis  gave me. 

 

 

 

l'm lovin' moving this screen around....it hides MANY sins:-)) 

 

Beautiful bedlinen...rachelashwell

This is the before and after pic.... shown with pressed foil (tray) that was cut to size and glued over the glass.


....have a wonderful wonderful week and thanks so much for your time and kind words.

Til next time,

Bron.
 

Feathered Frou.

Though l love to share a bit of pretty around... l hope too that you can sometimes find inspiration in a few of my creations as well.
This week l thought you might like to see how easy it is to make your own feather pens.

The pens are basic fineliners bought from the supermarket, l've shown an undecorated pen so you can see the type used. The end where the feather is inserted is flat and made from soft plastic. This allows a hole to be easily punched into it with a hammer and nail. The ostrich feathers were bought at Lincraft and cost $8.00. The end of the feather was simply cut to length and shape with scissors to fit the hole and craft glued into place.

Each pen tubing was with covered in ribbon...one plain and one velvet. The ribbon was wound round and the end glued into place. The black ends of each pen was finished with either a couple of coats of acrylic paint or nail polish (though the nail polish works best). Beaded lace earrings were added to the velvet pen for a bit of fun. Of course you might like to make them completely different from these but it's just the idea isn't it.

 

l've been really enjoying using my large tablecloths as bed throws... l like that they can still have a use, as some are much too big for our dining table.

 

This florentine tray is one l've had for years but l rarely used as it was RED, so l pulled out the acrylics and painted all the red bits PINK .....NOW that's more like it.

What about the 80's dress in the background...who could resist that HUGE fergie bow.. haha!!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, my mum is having a birthday so l'm guessing there'll be some eating, drinking and being merry to be had...well.. lets hope so:-))

Thanks so much for stopping by and all your lovely and encouraging comments.

Til next time,

Bron.

 

Calming Karma

 

This buddha was bought at the market ages ago for $5.00... Initially l thought he was made from resin and that he'd make a nice garden ornament, however when l went to place him out there last week l had a closer look and realised he's carved wood.... so then it just seemed WRONG to toss him out THERE.

 

 

However if he was to stay inside a BIG makeover was in order.....crikey all those colours......not exactly the picture of serenity:-))...The mirror was removed from his forehead, he was then sanded and the gap where the top is coming apart from the base (pic left) was filled with two tubes of super glue. This surprisingly worked great and finally he was given two coats of white spray paint. After he was dry the mirror was glued back in place and some of the edges sanded back to bring out the carved detail....hopefully you'll agree that he looks heaps better.

This made think of my other buddha which l found to take some pics...his big belly and happy face makes me smile:-))

 The freesias were being almost given away at the market as they'd been damaged.... l bought 3 big bunches which l popped into jars and placed them inside this large (fake pressed metal) container.

 Vintage plastic jewellery is something l've collected for many years.... l'm not yet expert enough to identify bakelite from the other plastics but usually l just buy what l love so it doesn't matter.... the bands of colours on the one shown are awesome and to me... screams 70's.

All kinds of plastic here....ruby red "lips" brooch and resin "indian chiefs".

 

So... another weekend is almost upon us and l guess for many of you...the kids are on holidays...l hope it's a wonderful time for you and yours.

Thanks so much for popping in,

Til next time,

Bron.

 

Screen Test.

l got quite excited as l wandered round ISHKA which had recently opened in the mall, as l noticed they had these gorgeous carved screens which l've loved FOREVER.....l was standing there checking them out when the saleslady came over and told me they were 50% off at the moment, which meant that instead of $795.00 they were only $390.00...so l did a little dance (ok.... so maybe just in
 my head:-))..... and thought about it for about a nano second......and it was a done deal.

 

Originally it was stained timber (apparently recycled too) which was LOVELY.....but it's permanent home is to be against a dark (ugly) brick wall in the garden room so it needed to be white to show up the amazing carving...it took a LOT of coats of paint, but eventually it was white..

 

 

On a visit to my cousins place a few months ago she generously gave me these vintage corsets which she thinks may be from the 20's or 30's....they're so tiny its hard to imagine they fitted anyone.. EVER. They're shown with my daughters old ballet slippers and elbow length satin gloves from the 20's which are also teeny...there's no way l can get my hand in them.

 

 

 

 

Favourite mags and vintage jewellery, roses both real and not so real....scented candle..... all very girlie.

 

 

This beautiful and romantic use of screens can be found in rachelashwells' latest book Shabby Chic and Inspirations.

Well another week over..... moving ever CLOSER towards Christmas..eeekk!!!....hope you enjoy your weekend coming up, thanks lots for stopping by.

Til next time,

Bron.

 

 

When White is Right.

Sprigs,Twigs and Blossom.

This week we've had some warm sunshine...... so it's been off with the layers (not enough to scare the
 neighbors:-))  and out into the garden for a healthy dose of vitamin D.

 

 

l spotted this blossom on a tree on a nature strip not too far from my house....l just happened to have some secatuers in the car, so l whipped them out and gave the tree a little prune:-))   

 

l gave the sprigs a spray with hairspray to hold the blossoms in place....worked for about four days.

 

 Old books minus their covers...lovely linen coloured pages.

 

 

a touch of colour to relieve the white.



 



 

Scrumptious table setting in pretty pastels...rachelashwell. via pinterest.

 

 

l hope you've enjoyed this post..it was great fun putting it together for you...and thanks so much for your lovely and kind comments and visits..... Hope your weekend coming up is awesome.

 

Til next time.

 

Bron.