Hang a Basket Upside-Down for a ‘Pretend’ Lampshade

Home Decorating:

Last week I was very lucky to be able to attend a local Basket Weaving Workshop - it was run by a visiting artist by the name of Harriet Goodall. Amazingly enough, we all went home at the end of the day with a basket that we’d made!

I can’t really tell you here on our blog exactly HOW we were shown to make the baskets (that would be giving her workshop’s secrets away!), but I can talk about how I have used mine since I brought it home.

Recently I set up this little sitting area on my verandah – it’s nice here in the sun all day. I used two metal chairs that my parents dug out of one of their sheds (I wire-brushed and painted them), and had the cushions re-covered in hardy material from Fab Outdoor Fabrics. I do like yellow at the moment! The scatter cushions are also made from the same outdoor material. 

You can also see that I still have lots of projects yet to do! (Check out the tatty chair on the right in the photo at the top!)

I will be changing the artwork fairly regularly in this spot, so I’ve just simply leaned this picture, one of my black and white squiggle designs up against the wall.

The little table in between the chairs was tiled by my husband when he was about 12 – nice to finally use it somewhere, and the ‘pretend’ lampshade is the basket I made at the workshop! I simply strung it up using a long strip of material and hung the end on a cup hook.

All very simple of course, but it all helps to make it a lovely place to sit with a cup of coffee (or three)!

Happy decorating!

Emma

PS Don’t forget that Mother’s Day is only a couple of weeks away! My project for next week will be a cheap and easy gift to make, but in the meantime, you may like to check out my Mother’s Day projects from last year for some more ideas...

Birdie and Egg Canvas

Collection in a Jar

A Meaningful Gift

... and here are a few more of my projects to give you ideas for REALLY SIMPLE gifts to make for Mum

Baby-wrap Bedcover for a king-sized bed

Packing Tape Picture

Blue and White Mobile

Simple Bird Mobile

Little Birdies

Sewing:

The pattern for these little birds is from here - they looked so sweet, but I have to say their cute size is slightly deceiving in the fiddly work that is involved (or I’m just not very good at sewing).

It was Friday night and I was just itching to start something new - I’d recently bought this book for making quick little gifts and thought I might whip up a half dozen while I watched a bit of Friday night TV.

I’m not sure if I went about the whole thing in the wrong way (I have a propensity not to read instructions fully), but I just struggled making these birds:

1.  all the same size (my first bird looks like I has eaten another one!);

2. from keeping their tiny seams from busting open;

3. ‘undercarriage’ looking neat; and

4. looking anywhere as delicate as they do in the book!

But my whinging aside - I do love them and they will look ever so pretty hanging from a mobile if I ever have a little girl!

Caity x