A weekend round up: cards, cloths and vintage buttons

Hello,

I've been a little quiet on the old posting front, not because I've not been creating, just nothing has seemed worthy of a whole post to itself. I've been painting my furniture to brighten up my living room (duck egg blue if you're wondering). I've sewn a table cloth (you can see it in the background of these snaps), but that's not terribly exciting to blog about, is it. I've also finished my second Rooibos, but I still need to decide about which (if any) buttons/embellishments are going on the front before I post it here.

I mentioned in my last post that I was creating a silly, googly-eyed valentine's day card for Matt - well he obviously had a similar idea because this morning he presented me with a handmade card too. We don't traditionally celebrate, so this was a nice surprise. Perhaps he'd been noseying on my blog and saw I was making him one! Here are some snaps:

two exciting looking envelopes!

who's that peeking with the googly eyes?

it's a chimp!

my hilarious card from Matt - inside it has a lovely pic of me haha

We did quite a bit of vintage browsing this weekend too - firstly at the North London Vintage Market in Crouch End where I picked up these buttons:  

It seems a shame to take them off the card somehow, but it'd also be a shame not to use them! Does anyone else have this dilemma?! I also picked up this sequinned appliqué piece that I'm thinking of making into a headband:

I can't quite work out what it's meant to be (floral? I think it may be upside down in this pic) - answers on a postcard! This was the first North London Vintage Market, but hopefully it won't be the last - there was tons of interesting stuff, a lot of which was vintage fabric, lace, buttons and other sewing bits and bobs. I could have spent a fortune, luckily I'd only taken a limited amount of cash with me. 

We also went to The Old Cinema in Chiswick for more browsing (no buying unfortunately, all far too expensive). It's such a fantastic shop though, I'd definitely recommend it. They obviously take a lot of care with the displays and the way the stuff is laid out. We came across this delightful pair:

It's a set of 50s night lights - I don't know about you but I'd have been scared stiff if this was my night light - creepy! I also rather liked this scientific equipment, I'm not sure why. I was picturing it filled with fabric remnants and buttons! Sadly its £150 price tag meant it stayed on the shelf (much to Matt's relief - he prefers a minimalist approach to décor whereas I'm a junk shop hoarder).

I'll be back in a few days with my latest Rooibos, and potentially another dress too - I have some lovely red fabric (courtesy of Seamstar, whose speedy service impressed me greatly) that is crying out to be sewn up. I have Butterick 5305 in mind - a simple dress that I think will look good in a block colour but could also look amazing with bolder fabric choices. Now I'm off to Google Reader to see what you lot  have been up to over the weekend.

Cxx

More Christmas wreaths

I've mentioned previously on this blog how obsessed I've been with wreaths this Christmas. It all started here when I fell in love with the felted wreath on the Pickles blog. I promise this is the last wreath post (for this year at least). Unless I come across any more brilliant ones.

My other half doesn't like anything too twee or 'country cottagey' so I've steered clear of anything using branches and berries, although there are plenty of tutorials for those online if that's your thing.

I decided I wanted a bauble wreath but didn't fancy the price tags on the ones I saw in Paperchase, plus they weren't quite what I wanted. I stocked up on little glass baubles, grabbed a wire hanger (those things are tougher than they look!) and came up with this:

I have to say, threading baubles is extremely therapeutic following a day of tube strike madness in London - can anyone beat a 2.5 hour morning commute (bearing in mind I live less than 5 miles from work)? I could have walked it quicker. Anyway, I digress. I threaded the baubles straight onto the wire for a more 3D effect (yes I know life is 3D, I guess I just mean it looks the same from the back), so it took a LOT of baubles! You could probably use less if you used wire to keep the baubles round to the front. I made the flower using this tutorial from Marie at A Sewing Odyssey.

It's currently displayed in my fireplace along with lots of other magic and sparkle!

I blogged last week that I'd fallen in love with this tinsel wreath that I saw on the Creature Comforts blog. I hunted high and low in Crouch End for tinsel to no avail, but finally came across some in the Alexandra Palace garden shop - yay! Here's my interpretation:

It looks a little brash in this photo, but when all the fairy lights are lit it's gorgeously twinkly and festive. I may switch the crocheted heart for a flower at some point.

If you're looking for more inspiration, EZ at Creature Comforts posted a fantastic round up of the best DIY wreaths. The Channel 4 website also have a few good ideas here. 

I'm off to sip the rest of my red wine (it'll soon be time to mull it, I LOVE the smell) and play about with the crocheted snowflake wreath I have in progress. Stay cosy everyone. 

Cxx