Saturday 13 June 2015

Furniture Makeovers with New Handles

Hello

Well, what a surprise.  Got an email out of the blue from the lovely Alice at http://www.trinca-ferro.com/  asking if I would like to choose 6 of their beautiful cupboard and drawer knobs and then do a review on my blog. Wow, how exciting.  Took me ages to pick out my favourites, they have loads to choose from.

Had to have the bee one, as they are one of my favourite creatures, they buzz around while I am working taking no notice of me, they are such gentle creatures.  They soothe my soul!

Here it is on my regency table.




Then I couldn't leave out the butterfly one, butterflies must be having a hard time this year, far too cold for them.  Used this on my sewing basket which holds vintage haberdashery.  The lid is a tight fit so something to get hold of is just the ticket.




I bought this vintage desk off Ebay last year.


Painted it with contrasting colours.  Didn't do a blog post on it as I was looking for a new handle for it.


Now after looking for ages, I am spoilt for choice. Two great glass ones.  Which one do you think?






Going to put this mother of pearl flower one on my vintage Singer table but need to take the old one off first and drill a hole.  There lies a problem, my partner is in charge of the drill but he has rearranged the bones in his shoulder falling off his motorbike so won't be drilling anything for a while.

It's beautiful, reminds me of my vintage buttons and you know how I like buttons.  It's so much prettier than the original wooden one.



The other glass one will go on the lid of this recycled wooden box, it holds treasure (well, my Singer sewing machine attachments). Again, waiting a hole to be drilled in it.  Would have a go myself but am too afraid of not getting it right.  

Here's the before

And the nearly after.



Last but not least, this gorgeous ceramic flower. Put this on my 1930's metal cupboard, this was a swine to do up, took ages to strip the old paint off it, then it started to rust through the new paint despite using eggshell paint that said it was OK on metal.

Before 


After, the handle brightens it up.



A big thank you to Alice at http://www.trinca-ferro.com/ .  So enjoyed the experience of reviewing some of the collection.  The quality is outstanding along with value for money.   They arrived super fast once they were ordered.   Going to save up to replace all the handles on my kitchen units, I need 24!

PS - they have great little hooks as well, ideal for hanging scissors and tape measures on next to your sewing machine.

Cheers
Sharon


Sunday 7 June 2015

Vintage Dress Shopping and an Art Exhibition

Hello

Gosh, yesterday was an eventful day.

Arranged to go to the Richmond Station (http://www.richmondstation.com/) to see an Art Exhibition featuring the lovely Fi at http://marmaladerose.blogspot.co.uk/.  Wanted to see her gorgeous felty pictures and the Station cafe has great coffee.  Met my friend Julie there but we were both late.  I had to turn back and go a different route as some poor souls had crashed into each other and the road was blocked.  Julie was delayed due to road works and then police chasing van drivers, apparently a van was pulled over by the police and then occupants legged it!  When we finally got to Richmond, there were Emergency vehicles all over the place and the market square was shut off, there had been a big fire early morning and 5 shops had burnt.  Don't think anyone was hurt thank goodness. See life in North Yorkshire isn't quite the quiet as you thought!

So we were both ready for a sit down with a large piece of cake and coffee.

There is a interesting vintage shop (Lost and Found) at the Station so had a bit of spend.

A great vintage summer dress (if summer ever arrives), might have to take it in a bit under the arms.  Super colours, sweet little buttons on the back.  Not sure how old it is, the fabric is very swishy and the skirt is lined.



Also bought this vintage looking new tray.  You can never have too much storage.  It will make a great projects holder,  its  "holding"  the start of my next quilt made from scrap strips of fabric.  I save all my off-cuts from my sewing, the box I keep them in was full to overflowing so I had to either discard (horror of horrors) or find a way to use them up.


Fi's pictures were lovely, so much detail and glorious colours.  Got a couple of her yummy cards, one with a hansom chap on it and one with the sweetest mouse.  The hare card is by her friend, Sue https://www.facebook.com/sueorreygoddenartist  her pastel paintings are outstanding. They were sharing the exhibition space.




The staff at the Station were very kind and helpful, well worth a visit if you are anywhere near.

Cheers
Sharon


Monday 1 June 2015

Patchwork Tilda Fabric Tins

Hello

Had a bit of a crafty afternoon on Sunday, couldn't bring myself to do my garden!

This old toffee tin in the summer house was looking scruffy so thought I could make it look prettier.



One of the ladies at the Sewing Circle gave me a bag of tiny scraps of lovely Tilda fabric, thinking that I might find a use for them.  Ummm, took me a while to come up with an idea.


Got out my vintage pinking shears and cut small shapes out, there was a good selection of fabrics.  Covered the tin with a patchwork of yummy fabric using book binding glue.  This is a PVA glue but it seems to be stickier than normal PVA, ideal for this.  I used a small brush, had the pot of glue open and little dish of water, kept dipping the brush in the water then into the glue, this made it easier to spread the glue on the tin and fabric.  On the edges of the tin just used the glue without watering it down so it stuck better.



Then I up-cycled a treacle tin as well.  Finished them both off with vintage lace edging and some narrow pink ribbon on the toffee tin.



Will do the other two tins another time.  Its a great way of using up the tiniest scraps.

Cheers
Sharon