The Heydays were the best days!

 For anyone who LOVES vintage fashion, specifically from the 40s and 50s, you will LOVE this! I came across a fabulous website recently, called Heyday! They offer beautifully made vintage-style clothing. All I can say is, if I had two pennies to rub together, I would have spent them on this site already. Below are some of my favourite pieces. 

I think the high-waisted trousers are gorgeous, especially in red!

  

It's definitely worth popping over there and having a look.

Happy browsing!

xxx

Be still my ruffled heart!

  I spent a rainy day last week having a go at making a ruffled heart cushion using this tutorial. There's quite a difference in my outcome and theirs but I altered the instructions in places and the fabric I used for the heart was very silky, so harder to manage. 

Even though mine looks different, I'm still thrilled with it! I used a lot of stuffing for the inner cushion so it's nice and cosy and very much hug-able!

My outer fabric was a lovely pink and white striped seer-sucker that has actually come all the way from New Zealand! It came from an old duvet cover I made over there a few years ago, which I chopped up because it no longer fitted my duvet. Gotta love recycling :-D

I used three pink buttons from my button box for the fastening, as you can see below.

I love it :-) It's very soft and comforting. What do you think?

xxx

Saturday is DIY on Tumblr Day!

Today is Saturday which means it's time for part deux of DIY on Tumblr! I'm going to make this a weekly thing, mainly so I'll have a genuine excuse to while away the hours on Tumblr!

Here are my finds from this week:

Teacup clock-http://collegelifediy.com/2011/08/20/inspiration-teacup-crafts/

Recycled tape measure mat-http://www.holycool.net/2010/10/tape-measure-mat.html

Tripod lamp-http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/diy/diy-idea-convert-a-tripod-into-a-lampthe-painted-hive-147493

Vintage tennis racket mirror-http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/crafts-recycled-materials

Globe lampshades-http://pinterest.com/pin/127570586/

A clever way to sort your thread-http://www.festotu.com/blog/blog_eng/tutorials/family_tutorials_how_to_thread_rack/

Ruffled shower curtain-http://www.adventuresindressmaking.com/2010/09/diy-waves-of-ruffles-shower-curtain.html

A great way to make use of old leather belts!

Re-purposed lawn chair-http://www.greenisuniversal-reuse.com/home-decor/vintage-aluminum-lawn-chair-re-webbed-with-western-belts

Jelly mould lights-http://www.re-foundobjects.com/product/view/169?cat=22

I love this idea, using old spoons as coat hooks! http://www.etsy.com/listing/61942638/1-personalized-spoons-coat-rack

These are all great ideas that could easily be replicated with a bit of crafty know-how. I especially love the jelly mould lights-they'd look fabulous in a kitchen!

I hope you enjoyed today's dose of DIY. Check back next week for another chapter!

xxx

DIY On Tumblr

I spend FAR too much time scrolling the vintage and DIY sections of Tumblr. There are many hours I'll never see again because of my addiction, so I thought I'd put my surfing to good use and share with you lovely readers some of the best DIY projects I've found on there :-)

Some of them have tutorials with them, if you click the links, but not all of them sadly :-( Although, I bet you could work out how some of them are made fairly easily!

Lettered vase-http://fontcrafts.com/?p=1712

Stacked book lamp-http://www.hgtv.com/accessories/stacked-books-table-lamp/index.html

Book shelves-http://www.realsimple.com/

I totally want to make this!! So clever!

Doily lampshade-http://www.moredesignplease.com/moredesignplease/2011/3/4/diy-doily-lamp.html

Absolutely gorgeous!

Teacup lamp-http://www.designsponge.com/2011/03/diy-project-sarahs-china-teaware-lamp.html

Suitcase chair-http://gabbyfrodobaggins.tumblr.com/

Book clock-http://www.curbly.com/diy-maven/posts/11060

Such a sweet idea :-) Teacup bird feeder-http://fightoffyourdemons-.tumblr.com/page/2

Cork bath mat-http://erinraye.tumblr.com/

I hope I've inspired the crafty sides of your minds today :-)

I'm tempted to make this into a series, maybe once a week, showing my finds for you all to be inspired by. What do you think?

A Tour of Historical Horsham

 As promised in this post , I went out and photographed my favourite part of Horsham today. I was planning on going yesterday, but it was cloudy and overcast, and rain was forecast (though it never actually arrived!) so I delayed until today. I'm SO glad I did because the sun was shining and we a had fantastic blue sky-much more camera-friendly!

This area of Horsham is rich in historical architecture and features. The buildings range from as old as the 12th century all the way through to the 19th and 20th centuries.

I'm going to take you on a little tour, if you'd care to join me? :-)

This wonky church steeple always reminds me of a witches hat!

I could walk up and down this road all day :-) It's just so lovely if you like old architecture! My favourite place in Horsham.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Sad old box gets a new lease of life!

Just a simple decoupage project using stamps.
This used to be a jewellery box and I've had it tucked away in my wardrobe for absolutely ages, where it's been gathering dust and not doing much else. My poor sewing box has been overflowing recently so I've re-purposed this as another sewing box.

I've used my hoarding of lovely stamps with fast-dry PVA and acrylic gloss varnish. A super easy project but I love the final outcome so I though I'd share it with you all :-)

Before:

 Positioning the stamps (although I did shift them around for the final "stick-down"!):

After:

I hope you like! It's just a bit more interesting than it was before.

 I might go for some extra decoration around the sides, but I haven't decided what yet. Do you have any thoughts? :-)