do you remember the beautiful vintage doilies I bought back in the summer of 2011? ... I knew straight away what I wanted to do with them, but like most of my projects its all about finding the time, and a month or so ago ... I did ... I know its taken a while to blog about them, but here it is!




I knew I wanted to make them into some pretty bunting ... this is pretty simple really ... cut them in half ...


iron some bias-binding in half and slip in the half doilies ... spread them out evenly and pin them.


simply sew along so you are catching the doilies all the way along :)


it looks really pretty when up too!

we still have lots of finishing touches off to our cosy little cabin, but I couldn't wait to show you some, so I thought I would start with the bedroom as its probably one of the most done rooms!

its not a big room, but  I really love it. Its not that light as the window isn't very big, but that makes it very snug!

we knew we wanted a king-size bed spent ages looking on ebay/gumtree and facebook for one, but nothing seemed quite right ... one morning last spring I was walking to work and passed The Forces Support Shop (which was closed) but in the window I could just make out a big bed. The next day I wasn't working till later so was able to pop in and have a look. It had been made to order in New Zealand Teak and shipped over by a couple moving here, but when they got it to their new home, it wouldn't fit! We had thought we would just get a new mattress, but it cam with a brand new full memory foam mattress. Amazingly Steve was also going to be in town, and popped over to see it and liked it too ... so my lovely dad bought it for us! It must have been a lot when made as it is really solid and well made and the mattress must have been over £800 alone, but we got it at a bargain £145 :)

The floral bed cover was a £20 facebook buy ... don't think it had ever been used!


we are really needing another chest of draws for clothes, which when we find one will fit in beside the one thats there ... hope to get a TV to go on top of it too!! ;)

my chest of draws with the mirror I bought last March looks lovely in the corner and the beautiful picture I bought from the Hobby Craft Show at the NEC back in 2012, I am still waiting to frame, but its a funny size so haven't found the right one yet

this necklace is the one I have made from a broken pair of earrrings and will probably wear for my wedding :)


the rug I knitted fits perfectly down by my side of the bed and is lovely on a cold day to step out of bed onto.

this sweet little hanging owl was bought back from Germany by my mum when they stayed there last Spring ... you can also see one of the gorgeous wooden windows that we bought on eBay last summer ... I really love them!

little owl sits by one of the signs I made and behind the curtains I still A-D-O-R-E!!


this cross stitch picture my Auntie made for me when I was a teenager and I re-framed it last month. The little hanging bells were bought when I went to the German Christmas markets about 8 years ago.


I love the leaves on these wall lights ... being a cabin, I love leaves around the place :)

these love hooks were a gift for Christmas and perfect for our dressing gowns!

and the finishing touch to our gorgeous wooden ceiling is the lace lamp shade I made ... I love it when its both on and off!


the tongue and groove ceiling is throughout the cabin and there are lots of places where we still need to put beading around the edge, and this room is one of them!

oh and this was my first go at wall papering ... with some help from Steve's dad :)

I hope you have enjoyed having a nose into our little nest!

anyway, back to the shopping ... well on Easter day we heard of a garage sale type thing happening in a shop about 6 miles away. Steve's parents went there in the morning and came back with a couple of bits for us!

an electric carving knife as I had commented on how good theirs was and a sandwich maker ... we do like toasted sandwiches and now don't have to go over to his parents when ever we fancy one!!

they mentioned that there was a vacuum cleaner there and from what they could see it was £45 ... although we don't have carpets, I just sweep and mop the wooden floors, there are a couple of rugs that  are quite hard work to sweep ... especially now we have Timber and so have been looking out for a vacuum. Well we thought we would pop down and have a look ... we asked how much the vacuum was and they said £15 so we snapped it up! Later we realised there was a sticker on it saying A45 which much have been what his dad had seen, so we probably could have offered £!0 and got it ... never mind!

its a good little vacuum and all I need really as we only have a small place and I love that the handle folds down so it can hide behind the sofa (we have no cupboard it could go into) its in good condition and works perfectly (they did plug it in and try it out for us before we bought it, so we knew it worked!)

week 17 ... the trees are thickening out with leaves!!

week 16 ... early morning

don't you just love free food?! Steve's parents have rhubarb growing in their garden and on Tuesday they gave me a load and so I made a crumble :)


rhubarb
water
sugar to taste
170g self raising flour
60g butter or marg
60g sugar

Directions:
Wash and chop the rhubarb into about 1/2 inch sticks.
Simmer in a small amount of water till a mush!


add sugar to taste

for the topping rub in the butter/marg to the flower until crumby and then stir in the sugar.


layer it on top of the rhubarb in an oven proof dish and bake for about 30 mins at 170C or until golden.
 
enjoy with ice cream!
 
If you are just making stewed rhubarb then you can add a bit more water when stewing but for a crumble you don't need much at all. I love rhubarb juice, so if you add a bit more water when stewing and then sieve it off before putting it in a baking dish, pop it in the fridge and its lovely on a hot day as a refreshing drink. You may need to dilute it a bit to drink but its really lovely :)

week 15 ... the sun has been out this week and mum and I made a start on a flower bed for me :) but there has also been a cold wind so I am still wrapped up! There are buds on the trees, but I don't think they can be seen yet in the photo.

I don't know if you remember, but back in 2011 I started making some crochet squares using different stitches {sunday sampler}, well I ended up with 15 of them and came across them the other day. So this week I stitched them up and made a border and now have a lovely little blanket that fits perfectly on our arm chair :)



its so nice to finish one of my many crochet projects too!!

week 14 ... I waited all week for a lovely day to take a photo, but we had a few days of fog and the rest have been cold and wet :(