• Honey Bee embroidery
    crafting

    Makebox – Bee Kind embroidery Review

    I’ve been seeing Makebox advertised for a while and when I saw the Makebox Bee Kind embroidery kit, I knew I wanted it. I was super happy when I got it for a birthday present and could get started. The kit contained everything needed to make 2 embroidery pictures, one of a large glittery bee (Honey Bee) and one of a posy of flowers (Rosey Posey), including felt backing and string so these can be hung on the wall in their hoops. There was also a sweet Bee Happy postcard to embroider. The instructions were short and straightforward. The charcoal paper was easy to use to transfer the picture to…

  • mosaic splashback in white and blue
    crafting,  upcycling

    Mosaic Splashback

    After my son smashed one of my favourite mugs, I couldn’t bear to throw the pieces away. So, I began to collect any broken crockery that I particularly liked, mostly in blue and white with the thought that I’d do something with them some day. That day came when discussing what to do about a splashback. Here was an opportunity to use up my beloved smashed cups and plates and create a unique mosaic for the kitchen. First, I cut an offcut of plyboard to size to fit the space between my cooker and the extractor fan. Next, I started to place pieces of ceramic on it and soon realised…

  • upcycled lampshade with teal wool and pink pom pom braid
    crafting,  upcycling

    Upcycled lampshade

    This make was a quick upcycled lampshade after I managed to get a great lamp base from a freecycle group but wasn’t happy with my plain lampshade. I wanted a quirky lamp for my craft room and cream wasn’t going to cut it! So I took a small existing lampshade I already had, some wool from my craft stash, some pom pom trim in a gorgeous hot pink and my trusty glue gun to transform from drab to fab. First I glued some wool from my stash (similar to this in teal) to the inside of the lampshade. Then, I wound it round and round the shade until it was…

  • crafting

    Crochet Rainbow

    I’ve always wanted to learn how to crochet and decided that lockdown was the perfect opportunity to try. After much um-ing and ah-ing, I decided that a rainbow was the perfect project to start to add some colour to our neighbourhood while we couldn’t go out. I followed this video by Crochet by Bev and, after one restart, soon got into the hang of the double crochet, increasing stitch pattern with the result: one colourful rainbow and a small amount of my wool stash used! I then chained some crochet strands in the top colour (red) to hang on a stick from the garden for a rustic look and it…

  • crafting

    Appliqué Lampshades

    I have been meaning to recover 2 plain lampshades I had for our gym for a while and recently got round to doing it. I knew I wanted a mountain-scape as eventually I want to paint a mountain motif on the wall and I challenged myself to use only materials I already had.