Home Sweet Home

I've been looking out for some of these Children's alphabet blocks for a while and I was lucky enough to find some at the Car Boot yesterday. Yeh!

My DIY test tube vase

I stained my test tube vase base at the weekend. This piece of wood required a lot of sanding but I love the finished look with the visible wood grain. I used Liberon Tint and Wax in Dark oak. It goes on so easily with a sponge brush and doesn't have a horrible smell either. I've used it before when restoring my singer sewing table. Now all I need is someone to buy me some flowers to fill the vases with!

After the success of my crochet baby blankets my understanding of how crochet works has led me to experiment. As I have already mastered circles I wanted to see what other shapes I could do. Can you guess what I'm going to make out of these triangular shapes? As I still don't understand crochet patterns this was something I made up through playing around.

How too vintage floating shelf

I have been loving all the floating shelves that I've seen around in the interior blog-o-sphere recently but haven't found any that go with the granny chic (aka vintage charm) look I have going on in my living room. So, I thought I would have a go at making something. I started off with an old wooden box I picked up from a car boot sale for £2, bargain! I'm not sure what it was used for previously but I know my brother in law used something similar to store tools in.

I gave it a quick wipe down and I was good to go. I used two medium mirror plates and four screws that were long enough to go into the frame of the box securely, about an inch deep. These are to go on the each end of the box.

I then measured to the middle of the box sides and placed the mirror plates so I could mark where the screws would go. I put the mirror plates aside and then used a bradel to start off the holes to make it easier when screwing in the screws.

Once I made the guide holes I placed the mirror plates back and I was then ready to screw the plates on using a screwdriver.

If you have done this then congratulations you have just made a floating shelf. Now you are then ready to fix your new floating shelf to the wall. You may want a friend to help with this part. As I wanted my shelf to be centred to a picture I already had hanging I measured the centre of the picture and aligned the shelf. I check with a spirt level to see if it was straight and marked a couple of guide holes where I wanted to drill into the wall. You will need two screws and two raw plugs suitable for the screws and make sure you have the right sized masonry drill bit. It makes all the difference! However if you are attaching the shelf to a plasterboard wall make sure you have plasterboard fixings. 

Once I drilled the first hole, I put in the first raw plug and attached the shelf loosely so I could check that the other guide hole was in the right place and the shelf was not at an angle. I drilled the second hole attached the other side of the shelf to the wall and I was done. A very cheap project and a great way to display your treasures. Mine currently holds a little wooden village I used to play with when I was a child.

Car Booty

Here are a few pictures of the goodies I came away with from my local car boot at Cheltenham racecourse. I love this car boot and recently it has been worth giving up my sunday lie ins. This week I managed to pick up a lovely collection of vintage mother of pearl buttons, at least an inch wide. I'm going to use these as center piece for my vintage button necklaces. I also picked up a couple of old family photos of a wedding. These were only 20p and i felt very sad that someone's happiest day of there life has ended up in a car boot! Hopefully i can give them a new lease of life in one my ephemera collages. 
I also managed to buy a couple of wills, one is dated 1803 and I think the other one is dated earlier looking at the handwriting but I can't seem to see any date. The handwriting on the will pictured below is fantastic. The will has been slightly damaged due to age but style of handwriting is stunning. No one ever writes like this any more. However I think I know why....... I have found it almost impossible to read. I'm not sure what i'm going to do with them but I just love the writing.
The second will belonged to a Rev John Bell again amazing handwriting and legible. It's quite strange reading someone's will but you do learn a lot about someone from it
I will keep you posted on what I do with all my goodies.