Category Archives: Orla Kiely

January 27, 2013

Tinkered Treasures

I’m a huge fan of Elyse Major’s blog, Tinkered Treasures, so was very happy to be sent a copy of her new book to review.

Adding charm to the everyday is the concept behind Elyse Major’s first book, Tinkered Treasures. It features more than 35 projects, each craft is designed for beginners and can easily be elaborated with, according to your own skill level.

Tinkering is the name given by Elyse to the transformation of everyday items. Through you can pick up some great ideas for embellishing, repurposing and altering using items you’ll already have.

The projects are split into sections – Tinkering Sundries, Tinkering Supplies, Tinkering Recyclables and Tinkering Bits and Bobs. The introduction gives you a quick run through of the materials and tools you’ll need, as well as a brief guide to some of the techniques used, such as trimming motifs, making pretty labels and decoupage.

I was really pleased to discover I already had a lot of the items needed to complete some of the projects. I’m not sure how I would rate my ‘tinkering’ skills so I started with an easy project, the treasure tin. My toddler is always picking up little things so I thought this would be a great gift for him. He has magpie tendencies so my handbag is full of Waitrose tokens and kinder egg toys!

This was a lovely project to start with. I picked two small tins and sanded them roughly, then spray painted them three times so the pattern on the tins was completely covered. When they were dry I glued some vintage paper to the lids with decopatch glue. The toddler loved his, and I think I’ll make a little felt toy for Little Sis to keep in hers.

The other project I’ve tried are the bottle-cap magnets as, thanks to my husband, I have a huge stash of them. I don’t really have much pretty paper so used Orla Kiely wrapping paper for the paper insert, then brushed a couple of coats of decopatch glue over it. I cut small pieces of magnet and stuck them to the back. Possibly the simplest craft ever !

This is a lovely book. The projects are pretty and useful so I know I will be working my way through them. Many of the crafts are also quite straightforward, so perfect if you need a quick fix. Tinkered Treasures by Elyse Major is published by Cico Books at £12.99 and is available from www.cicobooks.com

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January 16, 2013

A sewing room for me?

It’s official! We’ve sold our lovely Edwardian cottage.

Over the last few months we’ve been busy de-cluttering, painting, building walls and hiding as much as possible in the shed(s). Our house was on the market for a week, is now off the market, and we’re ready for a new adventure in a different part of London.

We’ve had lots of people round to view, even before the photographer had been. We’ve also been arranging our own viewings which is exciting. I’d forgotten just how hard it was to keep the house clean and tidy though. Every day I was trying to leave it in a state suitable for any last minute viewings, which with a 1 and 2 year old was difficult. I fear I may have set myself up to fail on that one, so I’m very glad we’ve sold it.

Orla Kiely box

Along with all our needs in our new house (home office for my husband, downstairs loo, storage, storage, storage, etc.) I’m hoping for some space for my hobby and craft supplies. I don’t mean the children’s art supplies, which are more or less permanently out, but my own stuff. Before children I loved to sew and make things. I’ve carried on buying craft books and fabric since they were born so have quite a stash!

At the moment everything is dotted around the house; there’s a hacked Ikea set of drawers turned sewing box here, a prettified Cath Kidston box of notions there, a drawer full of vintage handkerchiefs and embroideries under the stairs, and boxes of felt, fabric and buttons. It all adds up and I would love somewhere to put them all together when we move.

Along with sewing and blogging my hobbies have stayed pretty much the same for years now. I love to bake, research my family history and occasionally play online bingo games too. I do love these colder months where you don’t feel guilty about staying in!

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January 3, 2013

Naughty or nice?

Was Father Christmas good to you? I must have been a good girl last year as he was very nice to me. I received a years’ subscription to Ancestry which will really help me with my family history research. I want to capitalise on the creative writing course I did at the end of last year so I’m going to make time each week to work on it. I was also given a subscription to Mollie Makes. I think it’s rather expensive for a magazine but I do love reading it and now I won’t feel guilty about spending the money each month! My husband treated me to the classic 1962 Volkswagen Camper Van Lego set which I’m itching to make and I also received a rather lovely new Orla Kiely handbag for my collection – the Daisy Stem print in yellow from the Spring 2013 collection.

I love my new bag but I think it will be my last. My Orla Kiely handbag obsession has lasted 8 years which is a long commitment for me but my latest bag isn’t of the usual quality, it’s not even lined but was the same price as previous ones which were. Not sure it will last too long but Little Sis has plenty to choose from if she likes them!

This year I want to spend more time being creative both with the children and in my free time for myself. I think I spent a little too much time blogging last year. According to my end of term report my blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2012 and I wrote 447 new posts, which grew the total archive of my blog to 1,248 posts. That’s a lot of posts and I dread to think how much time I spent staring at the laptop screen. I’ve started a new blog for my baking obsession, baking counts as creative, right?

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