Attic24

Prettifying

If ever there was an object that was screaming out to be Prettified, this is it. This grey rectangle of metal is possibly the dullest looking thing I have ever purchased in my life. Do you know what it is? It's rather oddly called "Spontan" and is in fact a Very Useful Object. A magnetic notice board no less.

I knew as soon as I bought this useful bit of metal that I would not in any way shape or form be able to leave it alone. It would most certainly have to be tarted up, that was for sure. This morning, when I was putting the finishing touches to it, the word prettify came into my mind. What a smashing word that is!!! So much cuter than the word upcycle. I looked it up in the online dictionary just to check if it did actually exist (many of the words I use do not exist), and yes, it is indeed a real, bonafide word.......

pret·ti·fy  (prt-f) tr.v. pret·ti·fied, pret·ti·fy·ing, pret·ti·fies

To make pretty or prettier, especially in a superficial or insubstantial way.

HA!!!!!!!! That made me laugh out loud! Insubstantial indeed! Well. I am about to show you how I took the drab grey metal and did some superficial and insubstantial things to it.

Mod Podge . I bought this bottle ages ago after seeing it very successfully used in Blogland to cover hard ugly things with pretty fabric. I had thought (and do still think) that Connievan would benefit enormously from some fabric+modpodge treatment, but haven't yet got round to it. So this was a first time experiment for me, and I am happy to tell you it was a resounding success. Easy to use, and with fantastic end results, this stuff is crazy-marvelous! If you're going to try anything like this, I would also highly recommend you purchase a foam brush. I used a 2 inch one and it was just right.

You need to work quite quickly when you first spread the Modpodge onto the object, and this foam thing did the job beautifully.

So easy, did i say that already? First cut your fabric to size (I used a thin floral poly/cotton), leaving about an inch all around which you will trim off afterwards. Spread your hard object all over with a generous but even spread of MP. Lay your fabric on top and smooth it down firmly with your hands, eliminating any creases and air bubbles. It's not as hard as you imagine it to be. I recently covered Little Man's school book with that clear sticky plastic stuff and that was a holy nightmare, so this was childsplay by comparison.

I took some care over the corners and made some impressively neat tucks, adding quite a bit more MP to make sure it was all sticking down firmly with no flappy bits. Once it was all stuck down, I then coated the whole of the fabric with a thin layer of MP to give it a matte glaze finish.

Allow it to dry completely before trimming neatly around the edges with a sharp craft knife or rotary cutter. And that's pretty much it....I'll show you the end result in a bit, I need to talk about magnets now.

I bought this set of 24 magnets from Amazon cos I liked the bright jolly colours. But when they arrived, I had a little light bulb moment and decided that they would also benefit from a little bit of insubstantial prettifying. Buttons, I thought. They need buttoning.

There is no shortage of colourful buttons in the Attic (thank goodness), so I was able to set to work straight away.

I put a little bit of stitching in the centre of each button, totally unnecessary of course, but I like the extra little bit of detail. Then I went down into the cellar, unearthed my ancient hot glue gun, plugged it in and set to work blobbing and sticking.

I love them! They are fun and colourful and go really well with the fabric.

I'm going to use this as a sort of changing inspiration board at the studio, a place to keep pretty paper things. Do you like the lovely bird card? This is the work of textile and paper artist Nancy Nicholson, my latest crush. Her style is bright and jolly with a little bit of folksy fun thrown in. I really love what she does, especially the paper products, which she calls Interactive Stationery.

I treated myself to some of her Topiary Birds, and I love having them in the Attic.....

....they landed on the mantel and look very at home. You must go and have a snoop around Nancy's home....you will love it. It is amazing. Inspiring. Go look, and enjoy.

I'll be taking my newly prettified inspiration board down to the studio tomorrow. Uh-huh. Yesterday we finally finished the decorating, hooray!! It was such bliss to tidy all the messy mess away, sweep the gorgeous floor, bring in the first pieces of furniture and add some fresh flowers. There is still much to be done, but the hard graft is over. Let the Prettifying commence.

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ps I have (of course) been taking photographs of the studio over the past month as we've been working hard to get it ready. I'll be sharing the whole story with you here very soon. It's all so dreamy!

 

Half a Decade

Attic24 became five years old yesterday. Inside my mind and heart the day felt momentous, yet I was unable to articulate the feeling to anyone. I told a couple of close friends and I told the Little People, but even to my ears the words sounded strange. My blog is five years old! FIVE! Can you believe it? Blog Birthdays are funny things it seems. Kind of majorly significant and totally insignificant all at the same time.

I feel a little like my blog has become another child. Actually, I feel a lot like my blog is another child. I remember the pregnancy (I obsessed about the notion of blogging for 9 months before giving birth to A24, I kid you not), I remember the fledgling newborn days (awful anxiety mixed with incredible joy). I remember the toddler days (I am running with this, full tilt, watch me go!), and the pre school days (loads of fun, how can it get any more funner? There is so much to go at, so much to do and say and learn). And now it's kind of like my baby has suddenly got all grown up and gone off to school (I am still having loads of fun, but now I want to do more-more-more).

I keep wondering if Attic24 has changed much over the years, and honestly I don't think it has. I am still inspired by pretty much the same things, still do pretty much the same things, and still share it all in pretty much the same way as I always have done. I think that's the great thing about creating something so honest and personal. It retains it's own integrity, cos it is one hundred percent genuine. I don't try to make my blog take on a particular flavour or shape or subject matter. I don't try to make it fit in anywhere. It just flows naturally as it follows the course of my life.

Often I am amazed by the way in which Attic24 has grown. It sometimes feels as if the whole thing has grown so very very big. And yet it is just Me, a stay at home Mum with my little point-and-shoot camera and my laptop. And I'm not big at all. I am just here in my home, pootling about creating things and enjoying life.

I make things and I try my very best to help others make things too if they want to. I try to fix my memories in place with words and images so that I don't forget life's wonderful little pleasures. I try to appreciate the weather and the seasons, the joy of mothering, and the fun of going places. I try very, very hard to capture all that is good, and to practice gratitude. I am a lover of life. I am a happy soul. And that's about the long and short of it.

Amazing really, this blogging lark. I've grown to really love love love it and it has become such an important part of my life. I love the sharing, I love the creativity, I love the feeling of community, and I love being a part of something which gives me so much pleasure.

I love all the words too. I love that you take time to write to me, I really do. It is often presumed (quite wrongly) that I probably don't read all my comments cos there are so many, and yet I assure you hand on heart that I do. Of course I do! How could I not? Your collective voices are so lovely, and it means a lot to me that you continue to visit and read my words and respond.

Five years then. Wowsers. That's half a decade of stuff.

So all I can say really is THANK YOU. Thank you for your friendship, enthusiasm, gratitude and creativity. Thank you for coming to visit. I don't plan on going anywhere or changing anything much around here, so expect to find me with my little Attic window open for the next half decade. You are welcome to call in anytime, I'll be here.

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My Happy Day

Yesterday in the UK we celebrated Mother's Day. We hadn't made any plans for the day, preferring to wait and see what the weather was doing. We talked about possibly taking a country walk with a picnic, but deep down I secretly hoped that the weather would be grim. Cos that way I could legitimately request an indulgent day spent pleasure seeking within the warm confines of home. Wearing my pyjamas. And guess what? That's exactly what the day became, and I was so, so happy with that arrangement.

My sweet, wonderful family bought me tulips. Lots and lots and lots of tulips. This incredible sight greeted me when I walked into the room yesterday morning and I nearly fell about laughing at the scale of it all.......so so so many flowers! I had dropped some rather unsubtle hints the day before as to the exact name of my favourite, most favourite flower. Tulips I said. Not the mixed bouquets wrapped in loads of paper with loads of foliage. No, not those. Just a simple bunch of tulips. J heard the word and remembered it, only in his typical generous way he didn't seem to think that one bunch was enough (and oh it would have been, I would have been so happy with one bunch). He and the Little People came home from the shops with armfuls, and there they stand in our giant pasta pan, filling me with love and gratitude.

After the flowers and cards and hugs and kisses, I crept back to bed with a mug of coffee, my new  book (Happy Home), and my hooky basket and I nested for a bit. I snuggled down under my feather duvet, crocheted stripes, sipped coffee and turned pages. It was bliss.



I love crocheting in bed, it provides such cosy comfort and pleasure.

These stripes will be the cover for my Easter Wreath. The colours are a bit strange to be honest as I am using up scraps from my stash, but as they will be mostly smothered, it doesn't matter too much.

I spent quite a bit of time in my nest yesterday. And when the Little People demanded that I came down to join them, I simply transferred my hooky activity to the Big Chair. I had a break from the stripes and made more flowers. I had a go at making some yellow forsythia flowers from this pattern, although I had to alter them to make them smaller. I then adapted that pattern to make 6-petalled blue flowers loosely resembling Glory Of The Snow.

And I made these too, which I really love love love. They turned out so well! I was inspired by the Japanese Quince flowers that grew in the garden of my previous house, they sprang forth into my memory yesterday and I just had to make some to go on my Easter Wreath.

They look especially sweet clustered together in groups of three with a little bit of greenery behind, and I'm going to be making many more clusters for my Easter wreath. They are really easy to make, very similar to my May Roses.

Would you like to make some? I've already written the pattern up for you, you can find it in the usual place in my left hand side bar, or go HERE to see.

I am sometimes a little surprised by how much of my inspiration comes from flowers, and by how much they constantly fill up my days (both the real kind and the woollen kind). I've tried many times to analyse why I love flowers so much, and it pretty much comes down to one thing :: colour. Of course. It's always all about the colour.

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Springtime Hooky

Gah, the weather here has been dreadful today, cold, blustery and wet wet wet all day. Very wintry indeed and I found myself feeling a bit miffed that the Spring weather has not yet arrived. Where is it? Where is it hiding? I had to nip out earlier to buy guinea pig food and a tin of paint and it was so yuck out there that I couldn't wait to scurry back home and settle down with a hot mug of chocolate dusted coffee and some comforting hooky.

My polystyrene wreath ring arrived in the post this morning (gosh, I do love mail order), it's a 30cm half round ring which is the same sort I used for my Christmas Wreath. This one is going to be transformed into an equally laden Easter Wreath, and today I started hooking up the stripy cover for it. I raided my stash of leftover yarns and selected some aran weight in light spring colours :: some Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe, some Debbie Bliss Aran and some Rico Merino Aran. A 5mm hook and simple rows of double crochet, 28 stitches across. It works up quickly, and is surprisingly pleasurable.

I've begun collecting a few decorative bits n bobs too, and the giddy shivers of excitement are slowly creeping in......wreath making is such a lot of creative fun! It's a lot of work mind you, and by that I really mean lots of time. Can't exactly call it work, but it is certainly time consuming. Three weeks till Easter so I hope I'll be able to get it finished in time.

I've been gently making Spring flowers over the past few weeks, a few here, a few there. But I need lots more. And lots of leaves. And pom poms. Which reminds me, I must try and think where-oh-where have my pom pom makers gone? Can't blame the former Shelves of Doom any more, for they are still relatively tidy and don't eat things like they used to. Maybe the Creative Cupboard is looking after them, I'll go for a tentative dig in there tomorrow.

I'm loving the look of all these flowers together. The daffodils and teeny tiny flowers you already know....the six petalled flowers on the left there are my first attempts at making polyanthus flowers. They kind of worked out but am not entirely happy with them yet. More work needed. Must press on...........

 EDIT to add.....I am SO going to try this pattern...(crochet forsythia!!), will let you know how it goes! The excitement is getting intense!

 

 

 

Red Nose Day Dolls

The Red Nose Day Doll project that I've been involved with over the past couple of months is coming to a very exciting finale. Being a part of this hugely brilliant, creative, fun and worthwhile project has been an unforgettable experience for me. So much talent and so much joy from such good, lovely people who have all given their precious time and considerable skills for free. It has made me feel elated, tearful (happy tears of course), thrilled, humbled.

The four dolls have really caused quite a stir. They've been talked about in some quite high up places, and have even appeared on television. Their story has unfolded across the www, via Blogland, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. They have captured many hearts, and the amazing collection of clothing and accessories has been much admired and coveted. All in all, I would say without hesitation that is has been a  phenomenal success.

The four dolls (from left to right :: Mac, Poppy, Blossom and Maizie) are now up for auction on eBay and the bidding has begun in earnest. Remember that Every Single Penny from the auctions goes straight to Comic Relief, helping vulnerable, poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa turn their lives around.

If you want to follow the auctions (and maybe even place a bid), here are the links ::

Mac  ♥ Poppy ♥ Blossom ♥ Maisie ♥ The auctions end on 17 Mar 2013 at 21:14 GMT.

If you don't have enough dosh to place a bid, you can still be a part of this incredible fund raising effort by donating a small amount of money. Just £5 will buy a mosquito net which could save a child's life.

Donating a little bit of money is easy-peasy. All you have to do is go to the Red Nose Day Dolls giving page RIGHT HERE. Paypal or card payments are welcome.

http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/rednosedaydolls

♥♥ THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for your support ♥♥

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ps I'm not in the habit of blantantly asking for cash on my blog, but I hope you know that. It's just that, well, my heartstrings have been pulled by this project and it is for such a very good cause. Thanks....that's all. I'll be off now ;o)x

 

 

Monthly Mosaics

:: January ::

♥

:: February

♥

At the start of 2013 I made a private resolution, just between me and myself. I resolved to be On Time with my monthly mosaics this year, to make them happen bang at the end of each month like other organised bloggers do. Thing is, I have to accept that making schedules for my blog is pretty pointless these days. Everything happens quite spontaneously at Attic24, and I've grown to rather like it that way. So monthly round-ups may not in fact happen at the end of the relevant month, but they will happen at some unscheduled point in time. Usually at a time when I actually have time to pootle about with my photos and create the visuals.

It's a lovely thing to do mind you, to look back at the month that has just passed and celebrate it visually. It serves to jog the memory, to capture the essence of that time in the year, to be content with the look of life's Little Bits. After almost five years of writing about my life and making these monthly mosaics (yes five years, that's sixty months!!), I still really love to do it. It makes me happy, reeeeeeeeeeally happy.

I'm looking forward to the next sixty months.

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Ps you can view all sixty of my MM's in one place if you like....you can have yourself a colourful Attic24 slideshow. There is a link to the mosaic album in my right sidebar, or go HERE to see.

Sixty! Wowsers.

 

 

 

 

A Late Winter Walk

We enjoyed a really lovely family walk today.  It wasn't a particularly pretty day with heavy clouds and low light levels, but it was surprisingly mild and very still. This is one of our favourite go-to places when scenery, fresh air and gentle exercise is called for. It's a quiet reservoir only a couple miles from the Attic, and a circular walk round it takes less than an hour. It is just enough.

Trying to get the Little People out of the house at the weekend is becoming surprisingly hard work, it's like trying to prise a limpet off a rock. They cling to the comforts of home, they protest loudly, they complain about the boredom of Walking For Pleasure. It takes determined effort to organise even a short outing such as this one. And yet.....once we arrive they really do seem to forget they didn't want to come and enjoy it very much. Lots of running, paddling, throwing, climbing, jumping. Little B is thankfully not that way yet, he is always up for an outing. He spent almost the entire time pretending he was a racing car (he did stop racing long enough to lob many rocks into the still water). I love how young children choose to run everywhere. Such energy and physical joy.

x

 

 

 

 

Upcycling

I bought these delightful little "sol d'or" narcissi from the market yesterday, it was the gorgeous colour of them that grabbed my attention (am I right in thinking that sol d'or translates to golden sun in English?). But oh my goodness, I really hadn't bargained on the scent of them, and as I sit at my desk to write this morning, there is the most incredible scent of Spring in the air. It's absolutely knockout! Thinking that three vessels on the table is possibly a little excessive so I'll be moving one of the little jugs up to scent my bedroom later. I've already got some in the bathroom....ahhh, you can never have too many fresh flowers in the house.

Anyhow....this post isn't supposed to be about the whiff of flowers, I got distracted a bit there, sorry. What I want to yarn on about today is my recent upcycling exploits. I've kind of grown to like the word Upcycle, even though it annoyed me for a while with it's trendiness. I used to think why say upcycle when it's just about giving something a makeover? It's the same with vintage and retro, which is really just a trendy way of saying old isn't it?

I bought this last weekend, on a complete whim when I went out to buy eggs. Instead of going straight to the butcher, I detoured past the second hand shop and saw this quirky little (vintage? retro? old?) wire veggie rack sitting forlornly on the pavement amongst the second hand furniture. It called out to me, begged me to take it home and love it. And for the price of £6 how could I refuse the call? So I came home to the Attic with half a dozen eggs, a bunch of daffodils and a wire veggie rack tucked under my arm.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to have a precious child-free day and the weather was gorgeously bright and sunny, so out into the back yard I went to put my upcycling plans in motion. First stage, a good ol' rub down with some hot soapy water.

Second stage, lots of newspaper and a can of spray enamel paint bought in the sale from a local discount shop. Teal Treasure indeed. My favourite colour of all time (although I prefer to call it "Tiffany"). I don't have any experience of using this spray stuff, and truthfully I didn't do a very good job. I didn't listen to the words on the can and was a bit heavy handed with it. So it dripped a little, and also the can ran out before I had truly finished covering all that wire. So the upcycling is a little bit patchy and blobby. But the colour............oh the colour!!! Look see.......................

......isn't it lovely? So much more appealing than mucky old cream.

I do believe I managed to transform this unwanted item into a colourful thing of beauty. A real treasure. Useful too....can you guess what I'm going to use it for? What do you suppose those wire baskets will be crammed with? Of course......yarn, glorious yarn!!! Yippeeeeeee for the thought of a whole colourful rack of yarn that can be maneuvered about on dinky little wheels! I will of course bombard you with pictures when I've got around to filling the baskets, it'll be a visual feast.

This was my other spontaneous upcycling project this week, yesterday to be precise. Another impulse buy, this (vintage? retro? old?) wooden cutlery tray was sitting in the window of the Oxfam shop as I walked past, price £2.99. I do happen to like aged wood, but I am not too keen on the colour brown. So after lunch yesterday, I set to work with my upcycling plans. I have a modest stash of Decopatch papers left over from previous projects, so I trimmed some to size and finally managed to wrestle the lid off the top of my decopatch glue. It worked a treat...the decopatch papers are very thin, a bit like tissue paper, but the magic glue transforms it. Not only does it easily stick the paper down, but it provides a very durable finish, making the whole thing very hard wearing and practical.

So this old wooden tray has been successfully upcycled and repurposed at the same time, how about that? I'm going to be using it as a desk tidy, to hold essential bits and pieces on my new " Lovely Shabby Chic Solid Pine Farmhouse Kitchen Table with Farrow and Ball Painted Legs!"...haha, LOVE the dramatic Ebay descriptions with Lots Of Capital Letters! Yes, I have a new piece of furniture being delivered later today after a frantic, nail biting finale to an Ebay auction a few days ago. Oh the drama of those last 30 seconds!

The farmhouse kitchen table is not going to be living in the Attic though. Nor is the upcycled wire yarn rack, or the upcycled wooden tray, no no. They are all destined to go and live in my new studio. Studio. St-u-di-o. Oh that word!!! Makes my heart flutter, it still seems so dreamlike and unreal! I am desperately desperate to tell you the whole tale, but whilst we (my studio buddie and I) are busy renovating the room we will be sharing together, I feel inclined to keep it under wraps. There will be an overexcited post all about it very soon though, as soon as we have finished the dirty work. There has been much hard graft going on. Lots of cleaning, scraping, sanding and oiling (the floor), and now lots of filling, sanding, priming and painting (the rest of the room). Soon though.

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Edit to add :: Interesting article HERE about defining antique/vintage/retro (be sure to read the comments!).

I think the rough conclusion is thus ::

Antique = at least 100 years old
Vintage = 20-99 years old, from the era it represents
Retro = newer, but made to look like an item from the older era.

 

 

 

 

Crocheting Daffodils

This little jar of Spring has made me ridiculously happy today, I've been smiling at it adoringly and drinking in it's sweet beauty.

The pussy willow came from a local nursery who've been selling buckets of it this week, I got a whole bunch of big branches for £1.50. It is incredibly soft and reminds me of my Mum and my childhood.

The little mini narcissus came from the pots on my mantel. Some of the stems had grown tall and leggy and had begun to flop over, so I snipped them off to stop the pots toppling.

Aren't the flowers beautiful? I love that they're so little compared to normal daffodils, the petals only measure about an inch across. And the colours are wonderful too, so vibrant and happy.

Do you remember last week I had a go at crocheting a daffodil? It's quite a hard flower to get right and I ended up re-working it a number of times, making small changes each time until finally today (fifth attempt) I got it spot on.

When I design a pattern, I always try and make it as simple and user-friendly as possible, even if the end result looks quite complex. Cos I always have in my mind that I will be sharing the pattern, and my wish is that everyone will be able to give it a go no matter what hooky ability they possess.

Creating effective, beautiful designs that are simple to work is not always easy, it's quite a challenge actually. But ohmygoodness, I love doing it sosoosososooooo much! When an idea comes out of my mind and into reality, and I feel it right in the pit of my stomach that it's a success, well, that feeling is amAZing. Like a shot of pure joy. And it's why I continue to do what I do, to share my patterns freely and with love.

The idea for making these daffies came about as I'm beginning to make an Easter wreath. And everyone knows that Easter wreaths absolutely have to contain daffodils. And eggs, yes they must have eggs too. But I thought today that this little daffodil would also make a lovely Springtime brooch, and would add a little shot of handmade yellow loveliness to a garment. Plus I've been told that tomorrow is the 1st of March and is Saint David's Day, where it is the done thing to sport a daffodil on your lapel.

Oooooooooooo sweet little hooky daffies, I really am smitten by you!

I dug deep in my stash and unearthed a very, very pale yellow baby cashmerino which I bought by mistake ages ago (I ordered it on line and it was far too pale when it arrived). It's the perfect shade for a daffie though, and in real life I love those very pale yellow ones with bright yellow centres.

So this morning I had the luxury of a bright sunny day + some child free hours and I managed to perfect the pattern and photograph a tutorial. I'm about to go make a big mug of tea and get cracking uploading the pics and writing the pattern for you.....will post at the bottom here to let you know when it's ready. I'm right on it.............................

x

Whoop-whoop! THE PATTERN IS READY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go HERE to find it. Happy hooking my friends, I hope to see lots of pretty yarny daffodils blooming very soon!!

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Lengthening Days

This is a lovely time of year in England as we near the end of Winter and welcome the very gentle feel of Spring in the air. Today was bright and sunny, with a beautiful light that most definitely looked and felt like Spring rather than Winter. We are on the cusp of changing seasons, and it feels really pretty good.



It's still very chilly here in my my patch mind you. The clear skies have led to freezing cold nights, and despite the sunshine the canal was frozen when we walked to school this morning. It still feels good to be cosied up indoors, although this afternoon I did have a mild thought about spending time planting up my disgracefully dead hanging baskets. The thought was very mild and lasted about 4.5 seconds before I shivered and scurried back inside. Home feels so cosy and lovely, no need to play outside just yet.

My time spent at home with Little B is a pleasure actually. After the mornings activities out and about, we generally have three hours together at home in the afternoons. These hours consist of lunch, followed by some time where we each do our own thing (train track fun for him today and catching up on emails for me), followed by some time spent together (we baked today, a batch of buns, followed by a tray of flapjack). I am still lighting the fire in the late afternoons as like I say, it is still very chilly here.

Oh but the lengthening days are soooooo welcome! I love that we are eating all our meals by natural daylight again, it feels wonderful. Our evening meal is at 5.30 and is always one of the highlights of my day. I enjoy my solo time with my apron on cooking in the kitchen, singing along to the radio. I enjoy setting the table with cutlery and glasses and waiting for J to come home. And I very much enjoy the family time we have each evening with us all eating and chatting around the table together. I made satay noodles for dinner tonight, we ate them out of bowls and they were rather mmm-mmm.

I put my hand in my coat pocket earlier to find a tissue and out came a handful of beach treasure from last week. It made me smile and made me think about holidays. We've been pondering over our holiday plans for this year and so far are still undecided quite what to do and in which order to do what we're not sure about doing. We have a family wedding to go to in the late autumn which we are are thinking about turning into a weeks holiday (the venue is in Kent somewhere, so a long way for us to travel from here for just a few days). Currently we are undecided whether to return to Northumberland again in the summer or to try somewhere completely different. And then of course we have our Connievan trips to think about and plan...oh joy! I'm going to go and visit her at the weekend to see how she has come through the winter. Seems an age since our last Connie-jolly. Can't wait for the next one. Roll on Spring, we are ready ☼

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