Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair

 

 Do you remember the dress I made for Little Miss H(4) for her birthday?  Well you can check it out here.  In that post I mentioned the rapunzel hair, well I finally found some yellow wool.

I checked out the post I had saved for this on the Weekend Homemaker. Found here. And decided to do it a bit differently. It's not as long, and doesn't use pantihose but I found it super easy to make.

After first cellotaping one long end, I wrapped it round the length of the coffee table again and again and again until I had only a short amount left. 

I used the length I had cellotaped to the table to wrap the wool and tie off the top section. Then slipped it off the table.

Now by hanging it from the tied off section I could measure the approximate head area, I tied another piece around what is the neck part of the wig.  Then plaited the rest, remembering to trim off the ends for a tidy finish.

 The finished length came to her knees and she loved it so much she wore it to bed that night.  One sucessful project, now to make another one for the dress up box.

Jen

School Holidays are over

 

For me anyway.  No more kids for me this week.  They are a handful and quite frankly exhaust me, but when they leave I miss them. They just seem to fill the house with life, laughter and of course fighting.  I remember fighting with my brother when I was a kid, sometimes with real intent to wound but it's different looking at it from the otherside.  I tend to let them work things out themselves most of the time, but yesterday I had to turn the xbox off midgame and separate them before it came to serious blows.  Keeping them busy and being organised seems to be the key, so with this in mind I prepared a project for yesterday, they of course got bored with the time it was taking but more than happy to share credit when their Dad showed up.

I would have posted these last night but my camera batteries needed recharging.

I started with a dozen toilet rolls.

 Which we started painting red.

 Left to dry under the heatpump, they didn't take long before the second coat.

 Cut into two cm slices, I painted the insides (notice I said I not we).

I tried a few different patterns and we (back to we again) decided on the following. And proceeded to glue them together with a mix of glue and red paint, so that any paint showing blended in.

For what I want it needs to be bigger, but this is a great start and gives a good idea of what the finished look will be.  The boys thought it was awesome considering it started out as toilet rolls and yes they looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them to paint them.  Now I just need to start saving up more toilet rolls. With just two of us in the house, this could take a while so don't hold your breath waiting for pictures of the finished product on our bedroom wall.

Jen

Hat's off to Parents of School Age Children

 

We are into our second week of school holidays here in New Zealand.  It's not something that I have had to struggle through before, I usually had the school holidays as a holiday myself.  But these holidays I have been looking after a friend's children, Master I (12) and Master E (9) and man are they exhausting me.  Today is their last day with me as they are spending the rest of the week with their Grandmother.  So, today I am putting them to work for me on a project for the bedroom, I'll update later with the results.
And to all the parents out there -

Jen

Friday's Finds

 

Now todays find was from a clean out at my Mother's house, I have no idea how long they had been up in the cupboard, but they were at the back of the top lounge cupboard, the room that used to be Annie's room. So probably for quite awhile.

It started out as this rough looking parcel

 But upon closer inspection or Once I got the string undone, I found these.

 Old Music Booklets.  Seven different types,  Amount of copies varied from one to fourteen.

 Plus one random writing book, never used. This has to be my favourite.

 Most of these types of books you see nowadays have very simple lettering, but check out these pages.

And there are heaps more pages, I might try to learn some of the less complicated writing for my wedding invites, placecards etc.


Jen

Budget Boutique

Today was my day at the shop.  I love going in and searching through the box's and get almost giddy when someone comes in and asks if we take donations.  I love that you just never know what is going to come out of that next bag or box.  My Mum loves to chat to the customers and do the sales, I tend to either hide out the back hanging things or looking through the shop.  I swear most people think I'm just another customer the amount of time I spend looking at the racks. 

And every now and again you find something like this!!

?????????

Now can anyone tell me what this is?



Jen

AWOL

I've been struggling to post since I finished the Made by Me May, I think it's a little to do with winter and my yearly hybernation and a lot to do with my lack of motivation at the moment.  I've still been doing some crafting but not alot.  I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by this whole idea of exposing myself to the world at large, and how I may react to any criticism, especially now people are starting to read my blog.

I have been impressed by the fantastic example a close friend of mine is exibiting in her own recently started blog about her struggle with depression and raising her daughter.  I have my own struggle with Depression, which I have not mentioned up until now.  I have lived with this my whole life and kept it to myself most of the time up until recently, I love my friends and family but have a hard time communicating and staying attached to them as I feel I am constantly disappointing them and so tend to distance myself.  Knowing that I am not alone in this is helping me so much.  I've also been spending some time with the kids in my life, they always bring me back down to earth while lifting my spirits at the same time. I am going to live by her example and remain true to who I am and be open and honest in all my posts.  I am who I am and I don't think that's such a bad thing.

Now the good news is that I'm back and I have some great projects in mind. Keep posted for tomorrow's Friday's Findings plus a new refashion.


Jen

Friday's Finds

I love patterns, not that I always use them, but the shop had a great selection of kids patterns in, so I had to grab them.

Plus these gorgeous womans patterns

As well as some cute pillowcases to add to my ever expanding selection.

Jen

Friday's Finds

Check these out!!

I found seven of these jars at the Salvation Army.  The two in the back are plain white and cream, but the five in front are great,  I love the labels.  I haven't seen these before and with all 7 for $5 I wasn't going to risk them going to someone else while I thought about it.  I think I'm going to use them as decorations in our wedding, that at this stage is going to be in December.

This one is definitely my favourite, along with the........that's right.........green one.  I'm so predictable.

Jen

P.S.  Sorry about the blurry photos

Made By Me May - Day 31

It's the last day of Made by Me May,  I'm quite impressed I managed to last, with a few small hiccups, but still I made it.  I have shown you almost everything I have photographed of my mades but barely tackled me. Luckily it doesn't have to end here,  I look forward to many more posts and themed months.  I thought I would finish the month with a photo of me, thus far I haven't felt brave enough,  I don't particularly like having my photo taken and putting it up for the world to see is a bit scary, but if I want you to know who I am, you need a picture to put with the words.

This Is Me

I'm wearing an old hat of my Gran's that hangs on the lounge wall of our house next to the Mr's Granfather's old hat.


Check out this cute ladies top,  I liked the material and thought a small change would turn it into a little girls dress.

 The straps were shortened and I cut off some of the length, then I made a cute ruffle for along the bottom and all done.  Quick and easy.

Now check this out, quite possibly the ugliest, most astounding thing I have found, but the material interested me, and it was free, my favourite price. Keep an eye out for the transformation coming soon.

Jen

Made by Me May - Day 30

I just noticed all my posts were scheduled to be posted next month, so I have changed that now and hopefully gotten it right this time.

I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world,  I took typing all the way through high school but in the last year computer studies became compulsory.  I lost six months work and even the teacher couldn't figure what I had done.  I didn't touch a Computer again for years until a flatmate bought one and he showed me how much easier they had gotten.  Initially I got quite addicted to chatting and had friends all over the world.  When I say 'quite addicted' I mean full on kick me off the computer and I will stab you crazy.  I had to go cold turkey and didn't touch a computer for a few years.  I'm definitely not addicted now, I'm not going to start cyber stalking you or anything.  But I may ask you to be my friend on Frontierville.


Now, the Mr. has insisted that I add this, as it is his favourite of my sewing projects.

It's not really a refashion or recycle as it is made from felt, but I did buy that felt at a second hand shop. It was made with a lot of love for the Mr's little brother for Christmas (It's his favourite saying).  The Mr and I designed it together and I made it.  It sat on our television for quite awhile before it made it to it's new owner, and it was proudly show to all that came to the house.  By the Mr. not me, you'd think he had sewn it himself.

Jen

Made by Me May - Day 29

 

You got a brief look at my jewellery boxes in yesterday's post, but this one is my favourite.  Made for me by my Dad it also has a matching smaller box that I use for rings.

I love the inside of the lid when it's open.  He now sells these along with many other items here at oz timber treasures.

And here is a quick refashion

 Aren't these just the cutest, I saw a version online somewhere and had to make some,  I used the tank top below to make the shorts and ribbon and lace from my collection.  I've nearly finished another pair and am sure I will be making many more.

Jen

Made By Me May - Day 28

Moving Day - Well moving back into the bedroom anyway.

Our Bed - New duvet and my great aunts green velvet bedspread, which I think is approx 70 years old.

My new reading corner.  I bought two of the footstools for $10 on TradeMe with the view to recover, but I actually like the colour.  Maybe because it's green.

My Bedside - The birdcage stand was in the garage when we moved it, not sure where I'm going with that yet

My Duchess -  That lamp needs some serious help,  but in the meantime I love how the frames on the wall turned out, may add some material to the inside of the white frames.

Corner Cupboard -  Where we keep all of our linen and my shoes.  I have my jewellery stands up here and three of my jewellery boxs (I have alot of jewellery) the other is on my duchess

Mantle -  I love the red on the fireplace tiles and had to add some red around the room to match.  I think the splashes of red really make the room, I need to add a few more.

Bench painted red below the freshly painted windows and new curtains.  I'm on the lookout for some more material, possibly in red to lengthen the curtains.  I still have a bit of dressing to do,  will be playing around with things for the next few weeks until I'm happy with the placement of things.

And this is Theodore Edward Bear or Ted. E Bear, he was a gift from a very close friend of mine when I was 21 and always has pride of place on the bed.  I've even taken him on travels with me, he's been all over New Zealand and once to Sydney, Australia for a bit of sun. 

Jen

Made Me May - Day 26

Wow, almost finished the month already. 

The one thing that drives me mad is text language.  I love the written word and have a huge respect for the English language.  So, when I get a text or a message on facebook that looks like a random selection of letters and numbers, it truly breaks my heart.  And it's not that I don't understand them or even use a few of them myself when necessary.  I like everyone else love a good LOL. I don't know, maybe it's a sign of getting older, complaining about what the younger generation are doing, I will just never be able to accept it.  All the young ones out there will just have to accept that I respect correct spelling much like I got used to my gran's insistance in using cursive writing (or joined up writing). She used to make me practice for hours, and along with ironing her hankies and polishing her spoons, is something I will never have fond memories of and was quite happy to drop from my daily life.  Not that I want everyone to get the silver polish out again, but maybe somethings shouldn't be kept.

Here is a granny style nightgown I got in a bag of throw aways.  It's hard to tell but it is a lovely pale purple colour.  The only reason I could see for it being thrown out was the ripped lace across the front.

Before - Nightgown

I used the pants pattern to cut these little girls size 2 Pajama's with a simple gathered top, I recycled the binding for the top.

After - Little girls Pj's

Jen

Made By Me May - Day 27

We spent the night at a friends place last weekend.  They have three gorgeous girls Miss H(15) Little Miss H (4) and Miss B (15months).  Such a great way to spent the night and day today, they are so amazingly entertaining.  I've know Miss H(15) since she was 5 and I love the awesome young woman she has turned into.  Her Mum DS was showing us the Wii and the Just Dance game when Miss H came into the lounge and turned it off half way through a dance claiming "Mum, stop that now!, you are embarrasing yourself, You have guests!"  I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.  I took the girls some things I had gotten from the shop for them including a little bridesmaid dress in size 12 months I thought Miss B might like to dress up in as Little Miss H has alot of dress up clothes but when I got up the next morning Little Miss H had decided she was going to wear it, and with some persistance she managed it.  It skirt only came to her knees but she loved it.  I had actually taken her an infinity scarf I had knitted for her, she is always stealing mine whenever I visit.

I had been given this scarf by a friend, and although there is nothing really wrong with it, I decided to unravel it and start over.

I wound it all around a picture frame and was left with a tail, it was the perfect length for a bracelet, so I wore it.  No waste, tick.

Close Up of Tail

I ended up making an infinity scarf for myself as well as a matching one for Little Miss H.  Perfect for the cold as we start into Winter.

Jen

Made by Me May - Day 25

"So how is the bedroom going?" I hear you say.  Well since you asked.  I have now finished painting the furniture and am pretty happy with the result.

My Drawers before paint

After one coat

The Mr's Drawers Before

I've had my draws since I moved out of home, they were my mothers before that.  I remember when she bought them, I think I was 8 or 9.  So, they are approx 30 years old.  Two bedsides and one duchess are all that remains of a large bedroom suite.  I hated the look of them and have been wanting to paint them for an extremely long time.  For the time being they do not have the new handles they deserve, but hopefully they won't be too far off

Mr's Drawers After

Where did everything in the draws go to?  Well that would be here

Plus some bags of clothes in the spare room.  That chair in the corner with everything piled on will make it's way in to the bedroom as well.

Here's a quick wee look at my new bedside light.

A really really large jar I got from the shop one month filled with two strings of christmas lights.  I can turn on one string or two depending on how much light I want and can even get them to blink if I want, although I'm not sure why I would want.

Jen