Craft Room Tour

August 20, 2018August 20, 20185 Comments

Craft Room Make Over I did a major over haul, over the Christmas break, (soooo long ago at this stage) of my craft room or should I start calling it ‘The Studio’ now?

I took a few pics, as we all like a good nose around others’ work spaces. Here’s a few before pictures. It had gotten very cluttered and was beginning to bug me, as there was stuff everywhere. Like many crafters, I hate throwing stuff out because I think I will need it for some project or other. So, I had to be ruthless and just bin stuff! Away I went and cleaned it all out!! I might add, the craft room was really two tiny rooms at the back of the house. ( its was a granny flat attached to the main house ) Here’s the before pictures taken at different angles. Remember this was in December so the pictures are not that great, but you get the idea.

Craft Room Make Over

Of course, me being me, I decided that I would casually drop a hint to himself ‘sure will we knock the wall and make it bigger’ and much to my surprise, he agreed. This was all decided over the Christmas break I might add, and himself was on a bit of a break, but we like a good old project, himself and myself. Sure, I wasn’t to know he would get that awful dose of flu going around, the Australia one I might add. This delayed things of course. The trip to IKEA was cut short as himself decided there and then he was in a bad way and may need an ambulance, I hadn’t even reached Market Hall yet! So I put on my best concerned face, dumped him at the restaurant, gave him fluids and raced to Market Hall and got the bits I needed. My brother met us with his van, where upon we off loaded the IKEA essentials onto him and off we drove home. Himself feeling very sorry for himself, there was lots of sniffing and croaking. Me, saying a silent prayer and hoping to Christ he would at least be able to hang a few things the next day.

Here’s a picture after the wall was knocked and it was looking very bare and sad.

Craft Room Make Over

One week later he had just about recovered, and the painting and hanging commenced! I, of course then put my back out, so more waiting and staring at said room with horror, would it every bloody be finished ?! Here’s a few pictures of the room. Oh and my wallpapered floor got an upgrade, that was one of my first posts and I still get asked about it, but sadly it had to go!

Craft Room Make Over

And finally, we got our act together. It was freshly painted, new flooring was put down, bits and bobs got hung. My Dad put the tables together after a lot of muttering about the crap instructions, me handing out tea and muttering in sympathy, whilst trying not to eye roll.

Craft Room Make Over

So happy with this little space, its lovely and bright now the wall was knocked. I can dump all my stuff here and close the door on it till I’m ready to tackle it again. The kids like to visit and himself on occasion brings me tea.

Till next time !

Maura

PS Special thanks to himself, I am forever grateful !!

My trip to Kirsty Allsopp’s The Handmade Fair

July 15, 20186 Comments

I have always wanted to go to this and finally a surprise birthday pressie made it happen – tickets to the Handmade Fair in Bowood House in Wiltshire! We headed off in June, flew into Bristol and stayed in a lovely holiday lodge in Somerset called Bath Mill Lodge Retreat for the duration of this little visit. It was self catering but there was a restaurant & bar on site. The little cabins were lovely and really clean and airy. The restaurant was only ok, food wise, the grounds were lovely and you could walk around them, really well maintained and clean.

We attended the fair on the Friday and I wasn’t sure what to expect, to be honest. It was full of tents with different things going on, like workshops & shows & a VIP area. I didn’t book any workshops, as I didn’t want to be tied down, as i only had one day there. The weather was glorious, so lots of people sitting out and enjoying the sun.

There was lots of catering vans and a good variety of them. This made me laugh, how times have changed, the queue to eat leaves and shoots was very long, they must have been very tasty!

The tent with all the stall holders was very busy. When I went in, it was stiflingly hot, I don’t know how they stuck it, to be honest. I bought a few goodies of course and shared on my insta stories. My favourite stall was priormade and the lady there was a just lovely, her work was right up my street and I bought a lovely geometric cactus pot made from reclaimed wood, she also had a range of wooden jewellery and again all made from reclaimed pieces.

Here’s a few more pictures I took throughout the day.

As we were on the grounds, we decided on a quick visit into Bowood House would be nice, beautiful house and such lush gardens.

and no I didn’t let off the alarm when I saw this guy! I was ready to pass out from the heat myself at this stage, he looked a bit cranky from it !

That was it for the day, we visited Bath, the next day and did the red bus tour, himself fell asleep as we toured all the streets, it’s a lovely city but driving and parking is pretty manic there. We also managed to fit in a trip to the Roman Baths, well worth a visit.

Thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would love to visit again, till next time !

Maura

Just a Card Week – You’re Invited !

June 12, 20184 Comments

Just A Card Week

Have you head of Just a Card Campaign ? Well, up to recently, I hadn’t to be honest. It wasn’t until I saw something recently on Twitter, that I stopped and took note.

So in a nut shell, the Just a Card campaign was founded by Sarah Hamilton and is run by a group of volunteers and in their words ‘The JUST A CARD campaign aims to encourage people to buy from Designer/Makers and Independent Galleries and Shops by reinforcing the message that all purchases, however small, even ‘just a card’ are so vital to the prosperity and survival of small businesses.’ Need I say more ?!

To read more, here’s a link to their website

And so, now onto Just a Card Week. Founded in 2015, and to celebrate 3 years, they are now going to run a ‘Just A Card Week’ from June 18th – 22nd and of course all makers/designers/artists and everyone else are invited to join in !

During the week, there’s going to be a few different initiatives, such as
*an Instagram challenge *social media tips/tricks *giveaways *facebook/twitter challenge. So during this week, get busy sharing & retweeting!! Whatever social media platform you use, just get sharing. To read more, here’s a direct link

Now for the Instagram challenge prompts. This is the one I aim to join in on. My Instagram can be found here

Just A Card Campaign

So, please support this great cause, support each other and all your maker friends, wherever they may be.

Till next time !

Maura

Note: All images are from the Just A Card Website.

Just A Card Campaign

Forest & Flock – A New Craft Shop in Bantry, Co. Cork

May 30, 20188 Comments

A short post today, and yes a second post in one week! don’t worry, its short and a bit of self promotion….. !

You may have remembered a previous post where I was involved with a pop shop last Christmas, well the ladies of Forest & Flock have decided to open permanently! I am delighted to be apart of this new shop, along with lots of other Irish Crafters. Forest & Flock are based in Bantry, Co. Cork and are great advocates of Irish design, so if you are down in that lovely area of Ireland, be sure to give them a call. They are having an official opening night on Friday 1st June from 5-7pm

As I mentioned above, a bit of self promotion coming your way! Here’s some pictures of pieces I supplied, most of these were done specifically for the shop & are not available in my Etsy, as of yet, but stay tuned.

The Messy Brunette with Forest & Flock, new craft design shop in Cork

Wishing Bernie & Maeve all the best with this exciting new venture.

Till next time !

Maura

The Messy Brunette with Forest & Flock, new craft design shop in Cork

Embroidery on Clothes – It’s not as hard as you think!

May 28, 2018May 28, 201810 Comments

Embroidery on Clothes, a quick little tutorial on how I hand embroidered onto a denim shirt

Embroidery on clothes, still seems to be holding its own on the high street. For this little project, I decided to try and embroider on my nieces denim shirt, yes another one !. You may remember, my last attempt on denim with DMC’s magic paper on this post.

She wanted something bright and I decided to go all out for this one, because if you’re ten, you can wear anything, right ?!

Here’s a picture of the shirt before I started, just a regular shirt. The denim was a soft denim and easy to work with, some denim can be quiet stiff and hard on the hands. I used a hoop to keep it taut and I hand drew the motifs, freehand, with a water soluble pen. If you are not comfortable doing this, you can always sketch out a design and then cut and trace it out onto the material you are using. Of course you can try out the DMC Magic Paper range too!

Embroidery on Clothes, a quick little tutorial on how I hand embroidered onto a denim shirt

Some progress shots of the floral’s taking shape. I used all six strands to give it some texture and make the stitches stand out. The stitches I used were mostly satin stitch and leaf stitch and some french knots were added to the mix. I used DMC floss mostly, but for the big blue flower, I used Cosmo variations in a blue/purple combination.

Embroidery on Clothes, a quick little tutorial on how I hand embroidered onto a denim shirt

And finally, the end result.

Embroidery on Clothes, a quick little tutorial on how I hand embroidered onto a denim shirt

Here’s a quick picture of my niece rockin’ the shirt.

Till next time !

Maura

Embroidery on Clothes, a quick little tutorial on how I hand embroidered onto a denim shirt

Crochet Book Review & Giveaway ! – Design Your Own Crochet Projects by Sara Delaney

April 25, 2018May 1, 201810 Comments

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED !
Winner : Sarah, please contact me with your details

Storey Publishing gave me this book ‘Design Your Own Crochet Projects’ by Sara Delaney around Christmas time and it is only now I have taken the time to sit down and have a read properly. So grab a coffee yourself and have a little looksie at Sara’s latest book.

This book as mentioned is written by Sara Delaney, some of you might know her from Craftsy and author of ‘How to Crochet’. If you want to try and start designing your own crochet makes, then this book will help you get started.

Book Review & Giveaway - Design your own Crochet Projects by Sara Delaney

The book has fill-in-the-blank templates and a stitch dictionary, here’s a little sneak peek of one of the pages …..

Book Review & Giveaway - Design your own Crochet Projects by Sara Delaney

Sara has broken it down into designing for scarves, cowls, hats, fingerless mittens, mittens, gloves and socks. So lots to get you started. There is a stitch dictionary and a metric conversion chart all included. Did I mention the book is spiral bound? Which is great, as it lays flat for you. She has included some of her original patterns along with the formulas she used to create them. I particularly like the scarf and hat patterns. The hitchcock scarf is one that I have ear marked for the winter months, I can but hope we will get a summer, as I type this !

If you would like to win a copy of the book, just follow the blog and let me know in the comments section, what was the first crochet item you every designed and made. I will pick a winner next week and publish on the blog. Its open internationally too !

Till next time !

Maura

Please note, Storey Publishing supplied me with the book, all opinions/comments are my own.

Book Review & Giveaway - Design your own Crochet Projects by Sara Delaney

DMC Magic Paper Kits – Have you tried it yet ?

April 16, 20182 Comments

Hello hello ! Its been a while but hey, busy busy and all that jazz! If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this on my stories. I just wanted to put it on the blog as well, as I got a lot of questions on it. So read on !

When DMC contacted me to ask, if I would test out one of their new products ‘Magic Paper Kits’ of course I said yes !

You may have seen some of these kits floating around on social media, as various stitchers have been trying them out. I did a live Instagram stores (my first eekk!) with the lovely Tash from HatchlingMakes trying it out and generally chatting all things stitchy with her. Side note! please do pop over and have a look at Tash’s lovely makes, if you are a big fan of animals and geometric designs, then you will love Tash’s work.

To re-cap, this is what you will get in the kit. I picked the floral pattern, but there are plenty of other patterns to choose from and there are cross stitch versions also.

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits The little kit contains the pattern itself, which is printed on the magic paper, some embroidery threads and a needle, everything to get you started ! There’s a few instructions on the back but you can use whatever stitches you want. You can find the different kits here.

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits

To begin, you just cut the pattern part you want to use, and peel off the backing paper, then stick it on your piece of fabric. In my case, I used my denim shirt. I have been dying to try some stitching on an item of clothing and this was my chance.

Here’s a picture of the shirt all hooped up and ready to go. You can see the pattern design on the paper. Its sticks to the fabric and you just stitch through the fabric and paper. I used a hoop on the denim, as it was a soft denim, but depending on the item of clothing you are using, you may not need a hoop.

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits

I used back stitch, stem stitch and satin stitch to fill in the flowers. Here’s a few pictures to see the progress.

Once finished you just rinse off the paper in warm water. Yes, the paper is water soluble and it will rinse away. I left it in the sink for a few minutes and swirled the water around. You can see it dissolving in the next picture.

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits

Next I gave it a good rinse, to make sure all the paper was gone and then let it dry. In my case, I left it until the next day, I then ironed the shirt, protecting my stitches and hey presto !

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits

I haven’t seen these in the shops over here just yet, but you can find them online. I know CloudCraft are supplying them at the minute and of course try DMC

For a quick fun project, and if you want to try out some embroidery on your clothes, as it’s all over the shops at the minute, these packs are a good start. I shall try and update with a picture of the shirt actually on me but I cant quite manage a shot on my own.

Till next time !

Maura

Please note, although DMC supplied me with this kit, all comments/opinions are my own.

Testing out the new DMC Magic Paper Kits

How I upcycled my chest box using stain

March 9, 20188 Comments

Another chest box that I upcycled, this time using stain. Seriously beginning to wonder where the heck all these boxes are coming from. If you want to read up on my other chest box revamp, have a peek here and here. This one is for all the timber, himself has been chopping away for the winter months.

Here’s the before picture, don’t ask what I was thinking, but I went through a phase of painting everything in red at once stage! I used my sander to get most of it off but I had to use some paint stripper to get more of the stubborn paint off.