Black and White

This year's twin niece birthday has just been. At too late point of the last month did I realise that the day was near and hurried to ask my sister-in-law to make enquires of what the young ladies might wish to have. R wanted to have two new cushion covers for her new black and white room to be. L wanted to have a nice cloth covered notebook. I had a bit of poppy fabric left from my previous poppy dress, which was fine, but otherwise I had to pop into Funky Needlework Studios to get some black and white stuff. This was no hassle, the owner Josie is extremely nice and one can browse to all of one's heart's content without feeling a nuisance.
R had mentioned that a bit of colour was ok, so I chose to lift the monochrome scheme with an orange zip. You can also see that the poppy cushion's back has a different fabric, a chance to change the looks on the bed!

L's diary is covered in the same fabrics

Inside I made a title page, taking a punt, as I had forgotten to ask what she intended too use the notebook for. (Luckily my guess was correct)

Ooh...that glue splot totally distracts me. it wasn't as visible in reality. I also added some nice coloured fineliners in the front pocket

And voilá, two pressies done. I am not going to entertain you how much blood, sweat and tears went into those  cushion covers, which in theory should have been a walk in a park...I got to a point where I had to admit that I need a new seam ripper tool, mine is SO blunt after this project.
Any interesting/blood thirsty/sweat inducing projects your way?
Today I just say: "Happy Unbirthday L&R!"

Green things

 I had the luck to get some pretty fabrics from my very local quilting studio. The talented owner Josie runs classes and sells also fabrics. She is online as well here and is situated so close to my front door that I don't even need a jacket to go and visit. Luckily the studio is not open daily, it is tempting enough as it is. Josie had two day January sales and I went to see if there was anything I could see immediate use for. Actually I was after a dress fabric, but alas, did not find one. The fabric above came home and I am now thinking what I am going to make out of it.

Similar colours in this fabric, which I decided to use as a table cloth. I had a trial run, the cloth unhemmed, just to see how I liked it. I did like it and as it was a tad short, I made a border out of some hand dyed batik from Africa.  I even did the border in double , so no raw seams are visible and the cloth stays put a bit better with more weight around the edges.

Another green craft; a bookmark. Very simple, a leather thong with some big wooden beads. I have used it a lot and might just make another, as I always have more than one book on the go.

 Apart from sewing in green, I have been busy supporting the local Green Party. I might not agree on every policy the Greens have, but their ethics and most of the policies coincide with my personal ethics and wishes. I cannot see how the mankind will survive if we don't make quite many drastic changes on how we live on this planet. (And that is just looking at some pretty recent reports on fauna/flora/climate changes we have caused). The changes need to be both individual, local, national and international. I also like the fact that they don't campaign by rubbishing others, but by telling how they would like to do things.

You could see what policies/parties align with your thinking here. "Vote for policies, not for personalities" online questionnaire is a great tool to narrow down the party/parties you might want to have a closer look at preparing yourself for the voting in parliamentary elections in May. 

On the creative front my mind is awash with all sorts of projects and I might even make a note of them as I don't think that I manage to get them all done before the mad gardening season begins. At the moment it is very cold though and the wind has blown a hoolie both yesterday and today. In my sleepy state yesterday morning I thought that a jet was flying past us, until I realised that the noise continued be there and that I was listening to the waves crashing on the seafront, not far from our house!

Bags for rags and laundry

I have a slightly bigger project going on...it's a smallish house project and this is going to be part of it. I made some gifts for house before we moved. This is sort of continuation of that. I have a bag for our "kitchen laundry"; dishcloths and napkins. I have used a tote bag for the purpose, but now I wanted to have one, which would go with the others.

I use rags in the kitchen and I wanted to have a bag for them too. I found a really cool tea towel on a boot sale and didn't want to use it as such, as it is one of those lovely vintage linen ones, which are not made any more. It was made to commemorate the coronation of the Queen.

I wanted to embroider "rags" on it, as I know that otherwise the rags and the contents of the laundry bag will get mixed up. When I had done that, I could not stop, but had to add "to riches". The text on the tea towel makes it to "RAGS TO CORONATION RICHES". Not that I think that ER II was exactly poor before her coronation!

The back of the bag mentions the year.

Have you re-purposed vintage textiles you love to something else?

Mushrooming and the satisfaction of hanging pictures

I changed the picture in the heading, just for the fun of it. There is much less chance to go mushrooming here than in Finland, I decided to make some of my own. The mushrooms were modelled in Dass modelling clay and I stuck them in a scouring pad (happened to be out of florist's oasis) inside a little wooden box. I covered the pads with lichen, which I had gathered in Finland. 

I have been thinking about how to hang our pictures downstairs. The process took over a year. Admittedly some of the walls were not painted before the autumn gone and it made it more difficult to visualise. We have been debating what to hang above the sofa; I have wanted the Tingatinga paintings up again, but Elf husband had other ideas, which did not really come to fruitition. I had an idea of maybe hanging a group of smaller pictures there and was going to buy picture ledges from IKEA, when I suddenly had the INSPIRATION I had been waiting for so long. I needed to hang that group of pictures, but not in the living room. We have the perfect spot just in the foot of the stairs. There is a big white space, which I now call my gallery.

The livingroom got two of the Tingatingas and a pot plant called Triffy Trafalgar (she is greeted every morning and we stroke her gently from time to time).

We also had an extra little reading light installed for the little sofa.

I also wanted to show our new stone sculpture; we found it on the beach with the ancient forest. and it is decorated with fossilised marine creatures. It sits like a huge dragon egg on the window sill. 

 Have you found any decorative pieces from the nature lately?

My Inner Nun is Pleased

with the white walls and the strict old school wooden chair with a candelabra and an icon and the simplicity of this one corner of my home. (Yes, you are right, I am obsessed with this spot).

We managed to paint the hallway during the autumn. It doesn't seem such a big job, because in my head there isn't that much floor space. Lots of it is taken up by the staircase. In reality, it is possibly the room with the largest wall surface area. Not enough with that, some of the walls are up in heights where the air starts to thin out.

I  did chop the job in three; the stairs, the downstairs hall and the walls up along the stairs. Still, it took a looong time and if I am honest, is not entirely finished as yet. We still need to build the under the stairs storage area and the floor still needs its last layer of wax-oil.

I am planning the pictures on the walls. We need to buy two picture ledges to go on the wall, so I can have changing exhibitions of pictures and small objects.  I have pictures to go to the upper landing, but I am planning to paint three for the lower end. Watch this space.

We are now officially on our Christmas holidays, or nesting days as I like to think about them. I restrict consciously the "going-out" and being social aspect of the holidays, so it becomes more of a "feathering my nest" holiday;  I can read books, eat nice food, go for walks and do crafts. We are not recluse, still get visiting and such, but it's not a whirl wind of activity kind of time for us.

Hope that you have a lovely, suitable for YOU holiday ahead of you as well!

A beam of light from the crack of the door

...and she tiptoes into the dusty room, where the blinds have been shut for so long time. The room is familiar, but unused and dusty. It is time to open the blinds, throw the window open and let light and air into the room and begin cleaning.

That is how coming back here feels. I often think of writing, then am too tired,  too busy and also too ambitious. The pictures are bad, don't know if I have anything interesting to say, there are so many better/funnier/prettier blogs on the net...But being all those things is not why I write. I write to remind myself of times which otherwise would be buried in the stream of days, which makes months, years. I write to show my family and friends who are scattered all over the globe what I am up to. If non-family members, friends I have never met, also read, it's a bonus. I need not to live up to an imaginary editor's expectations. This is my diary. So be it, possibly umpteenth time that I resolve to blog a little and often.

While I haven't been writing I have been busy. There is a virtual stack of photos waiting to be shown. I am sure some of them will make it here. At the moment I have time, the winter cold has forced me into resting, despite the things I want to start, finish, get on with, ready for Christmas...

A quote from Dalai Lama has made its way to my life several times this year. It was one of the things starting this year and it is certainly there in the end as well. It was read to me in a "work" context, just as I needed it very badly. You see, I often feel guilty about having my lovely life. I grew up in the culture that told me that one had to expect the life to be hard and the work to be a burden. My work is great, I enjoy it and it aligns with my ethics. It does not earn my living though. I am dependant on my husband's income for that. And there we go again: I was brought up with a thought that one needed to be independent, have their own income, it would be silly and dangerous to trust anyone that much as let them be the breadwinner. It has taken me years and years to accept that the partnership can have equality in other ways than this. I don't mean that the ways were unfamiliar to me, but to feel that they truly are as important and that is what makes the partnership. And as you might guess, I still need reminding. Not in mental level, but emotional.

The quote, which is so important for me, is this one: 

"The planet does not need more 'successful people'. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. It needs people to live well in their places. It needs people with moral courage willing to join the struggle to make the world habitable and humane and these qualities have little to do with success as our culture is the set." -Dalai Lama

I need to hang it on the wall to be reminded, I think.

I have been on a cushion cover kick this year. This is how these things work; I make a present to a family member. They like it and then the next one asks if they could have their version as well. I then continue producing the same type of gift to everyone who either wishes to have one or could be thought to wish one.

This is the pair I made for my MIL.

 One of the nieces got "feminist" cushions:

 

The left one has an (incorrect) Virginia Woolf quote saying:
 

 
Although the quote is incorrect, the sentiment in my mind is right on many levels.

The right one has a little funny snippet on it's "washing instructions" label. I typed it with an old-fashioned typewriter and it says:
 

If it is too hard to read it says:
"balls are weal and sensitive. If you wanna get tough, grow a vagina. Those things take a pounding.

The backs of the cushions looked like this:

She liked them a lot.

Now my head is still ponding, but my tummy is empty, so I better make a plea for some food...or at least have a snack. See you soon!

Extra TA-DAH for bathroom

We managed to hang the blind today and I decorated the window sill with a jar with shells.

So now we are really finished with the bathroom!

Bathroom Remake Ta-Dah!

 TA-DAH! Here it is. The bathroom. We used all the two weeks of our Easter Holidays to get it functioning and a bit of time each side of the holidays to prepare and do the last little bits. This was not a simple cosmetic revamp, but a total "rip everything out and put it back again" -job. And what's more, it was redoing bits that had been done badly. We had few hitches, but it was a learning experience and we now have a lovely working bathroom.

We did it in MOMO spirit - Modest Modern. Partly because we had a modest budget, but also because we did not feel that a full blown "luxury hotel suite"-style would have suited the house. Ours is a modest Victorian terrace and we wanted the bathroom to mirror it.

                      BEFORE                                                  

                     AFTER

 
The toilet has been changed to a normal, traditional white one instead of hugely wide beige throne. This has made cleaning around that corner easier, it was a really annoying job before.The little radiator with a towel rail above has been removed and replaced by heated ladder style radiator-towel rail. The walls are now white rather than magnolia-cream-something. The floor is essentially the same colour, although even the "before" floor was installed by us as an emergency measure instead of a smelly carpet.

                                                     BEFORE                                                                                                                       

   
                      AFTER

The bath was changed from a beige plastic monster to a plain white enamelled bath. The screen is now a folding one, which makes climbing into bath/shower easier. Before we practically had to stand in the toilet to make it. The mixed tiling was changed to one style, sand beige-grey big tiles and we did tile whole of the bath area.

Again the cleaning is SO much easier because I don't have to have my heart in the mouth while the screen is hanging outside the bath or banging against my legs and bottom in order to access the shower end of the bath. The old screen was actually not intact either and it was hanging wonkily. I had all sorts of ideas of having some natural pebble tiles, but realised that the amount of grout would mean that the cleaning would be a nightmare. Although the look might have been nice, I want to my everyday life be easy and simple.

                     BEFORE

                                                                 

                     AFTER  

 

The sink area was very dark and was fitted with a sink with a gap of 2mm between the sink and the wall. Why is that important? Well it's big enough to have muck gathering, but nigh impossible to clean. I leave the result for your imagination. The mirror was ok as such, but I was desperate to have space for all the tooth brushing stuff and such easily accessible, but hidden, so we bought a cabinet. I am now hopeful for the sink area to keep tidy. you can also see the patterned tiles in action. They are slightly lighter coloured in reality.

I bought a metal soap holder for the wall, but in the end didn't like how it fitted into the space. The walls surrounding the sink make it a bit tricky to dress this corner.At least we have a light fitting above the mirror cabinet. The soap dish was something I had already in the house. I filled it with some smooth pebbles, so the soap keeps dry. It works and looks nice.

                     BEFORE                                                                  

                     AFTER

The stand under the sink had a cupboard with two doors and a shelf. One of the doors actually came off, because the cabinet had been soaked due to the leak inside the wall. When I removed it, I also found a mushroom growing out of the cabinet wall. Charming! As the bathroom is narrow, I wanted draws under the sink to maximise the utilised space. IKEA had the most reasonably priced units. I was totally amazed what some firms were asking for similar cabinets. And no, the materials were no better... I also like that the sink is just a part of the moulded top. It makes it easy to clean. You should think I am obsessive about cleaning, but actually I don't like it, so anything which makes it easier/quicker is good in my book.

                     BEFORE                                                                       

 

 
                               AFTER

The old shower looks unusable in the picture, but in the reality, we had just taken the head off to use with our emergency shower arrangement. Our "luxury" was to buy a new shower with a nice big head and a separate hand shower utility. The only bad thing about it is that it is too good. Eh?!? We stand far too long under it as it is so lovely! We also have bath taps in the same end, so when in bath, nothing drips on your head. The bath taps are a modern take of Victorian taps, again very plain style. The good thing about them is that they are easily turned with toes.

If you peek on the right of the picture above, you can see that the door glass is covered by a blind inside. It was an ok idea, but I found the blind looking really out of place, heavy and big on the door, so did not want to replace it with a new one. Instead I went for a granny option; a curtain wire and a curtain made of a lovely vintage table cloth. I am so happy to have found use for this piece of loveliness in my house. It looks sweet from both in and outside. This is how it looks from the hallway, coming up the stairs:

 

Yes, the hallway and the stairs are our next project. As this is my favourite door at the moment I need to show you the effect closer by:

 

I love it! It's like a fine old lady and makes me smile every time I see it.

Well done if you made it to the end of my bathroom report. Anyone else having a show and tell of bathrooms? Leave a link if you have, I would love to see!

Tinga Tinga inspired Cushion Covers

 

This happens to me nearly every year. My sister-in-law's birthday creeps on me and suddenly it is the day before. True to the tradition I was up early to finish off her present in order to put it in post and hope for the best. In most cases I ask her what she would like to have. She is very obliging to wish for handmade things. As you might know, I am not much for buying things. I hope there is still scope for a few years of presents and surely then we can start from the beginning as the first ones wear down...

This time she asked for a cushion cover for her sofa. Of course I can only make these things in pairs, so she was gifted with two. She said that she would like to have reds, oranges, maybe pinks and even blue. Now I know that the picture hanging in her living room is very similar to this with a bit of pink instead of blue and it was a sort of "known" point in the scheme.

I made the bird cushion using the painting loosely as a model for my bird.

We have another Tinga Tinga painting which I used as a starting point for the beast. I didn't go an see the painting, just used my memory of it in order to let my own imagination work. I think I achieved the same as the painting; you cannot really tell whether the beast is a leopard or hyena or maybe a spirit animal.

For the edges and backing I used some lovely handmade batik from Tanzania. I had this in my stash and although I did not need to, I decided to patchwork it to add a "folky" touch. I also wanted to do the top-stitching in the colour of the background in the middle.

The animals were machine stitched onto the background, without bondaweb or such. I then hand embroidered the embellishing. The bird has some recycled beads on it. Bear with me while I am drowning you with my pictures!

Happy Birthday S!

Painting Naturally

Helloooo! After having disappeared into a plughole I then metamorphosed into a mole to dig the allotment. It looks far better now, although I am still behind and need every minute of the day to run the house/work/decorate/garden. Cleaning and such has to wait, I hope my family won't find this too disgusting.

 In our renovation, we have aimed at using the environmentally and human friendly paints and surface treatments where possible. In my latest foray on the net I have found even more manufacturers. My focus has been partially on the care I want to give us, living in the indoor climate we create and partly on the manufacturing in this country. So, my list is again quite UK biased, with a good reason behind it.

In the latter years the EU has tightened the VOC (volatile Organic Compounds) rules for the paints. This has lead to an improvement on this account of many mainstream brands. It's not by any means the only thing , which counts. Many of the big makes market their paints as "green" although I would look closer, before I believe.

Also a paint manufacturer, who might use linseed oil in the paint, would actually rack up some VOC count. So everything is not as plain as it seems. There are a lot of other factors, which I am not going to go into, but will tell you what my experiences are. There is an excellent article about the ins and outs with a list of manufacturers and suppliers here.

We used "Nature Paints" for our walls last summer. They come in powder form and are clay based, tinted with the finest colour tints available. They are relatively easy to use and it is delightful that the component, which is easily available ie. water has been left for the user to add. The production of the paints is located 20 miles from the clay pit, where the main ingredient comes from.

Like the blurp says: You can sleep immediately after painting in the room, you could sleep while painting, if you wish. This is a paint, which you could smear on the walls without a twinge for your soul while your baby was napping in the same room.

This paint does not need a primer and can be used on wood as well. We painted a newly plastered living room with this  and had to use 2-3 coats. I think we could have done with only two, had I not allowed the Husband to paint! Anyway, the paint wasn't just sucked into the fresh plaster, which I have heard can be a problem. (It could also be the skill of our plasterer, he left the surface just right, polished enough for not being thirsty, but not so polished that paint wouldn't hang there). EDIT: I have now used it in a wall I plastered, very amateurishly, and it still doesn't so the disappearance act.

Cons: Well, it takes some effort to mix it. If you buy one of those mixing bits for your drill, you should be laughing. I made do with a hand mixer from my kitchen. Totally doable, just a bit slower. You have to use the paint you have mixed in a week. It does not have any preservatives, so will go off. On the other hand the extra powder is easy to store. Again no water, no trouble. Also the paint has a clay smell. It takes some time to disappear. It is not unpleasant, just earthy.

When it has been painted and has cured for two weeks, it is hard to tell any difference to a bog standard emulsion. (Actually could not tell after the painting either). I would hazard a guess that an emulsion could withstand more rubbing with an abrasive sponge, but I have removed stains from our walls without a problem. (And equally had paint come off, when a wall was painted with a "normal" kitchen emulsion).  I would definitely recommend this brand.

For our bathroom I chose another excellent British paint called Ecos. They have a largish selection of colours and can even colour match for you, if you wish. Their selection includes both normal emulsions, bathroom and kitchen eggshell, wood paint and outside wood treatment products. (And many more). Their website is well worth visiting.

I found that their printed colour chart was more accurate than Nature Paint's. Both places send tester pots/envelopes and I always use this service as it is difficult really to see how the colour will work before you have tried it in situ. Nature paint also allows you three paint chips with every order. They are bits of card with the actual paint on them, so as accurate colour rendition as you would get.

The paint was like any other paint to work with, maybe a bit easier, as it is not as thick as some of the modern paints. The 5-litre pot comes with a fastening ring, so no need for screwdrivers to open the lid. Oh, there was one difference; it does not smell. At. All. BLISS! Another after-thought here: The smell is no indicator for the harmfulness of the paint; a paint can be odourless, but still fill the air with harmful chemicals. Likewise an eco-paint can be smelly, but won't harm you. All three of us are quite smell sensitive, so Ecos Paint being odourless was a great bonus.