The Most Precious Birthday Present Ever, Ever, Ever

Hold on to your hankies, this is going to be emotional, I’m filling up already …………

A week or so before my birthday old Berts told me that if I went into his bedroom I wasn’t to look in his “library” under his bed. He’s got one of those bunk beds with a space underneath, where he asked for shelves and display boxes so he could have a library and somewhere to display his treasures, bless him. Then he said that all he could tell me was that he’d “done” something with empty toilet rolls, that was secret!

So, when I went round for my birthday there was a box on the table which his Dad told him to give me. At this point Mum and Dad didn’t have a clue what was inside either because apart from him asking for a “big box” as he wanted to do something for Nanny, that was all they knew. He sat down beside him with his little embarrassed but very proud look on his face …….. and then, from then on, it was hard to hold back the tears ………..

All on his own he’d obviously been round his bedroom collecting things that he knew I would like/love or find useful, and it all came from his heart.  There was an envelope of loose tea and a box (that he’d cut the side off for easy access) of his very finest tea bags …….. tea is another story for next week perhaps!

The aforementioned toilet rolls were for putting a few tea bags in, if/when I was out and about …… huge sniffs here, as his tea bags are so precious to him (as I said, a story for next week), this was his “invention” …….. sniff, sniff!

As my birthday fell on the Chinese New Year and he would know, there was a wooden brick that we’d made together last year. He’s fascinated by China, goodness only knows how or why. There was also a box of chalk, he thought there was a blue one in there as well, so I could draw.  I told him that when he and Iris came round next  we could draw with them in my car parking space just to annoy the miserable man upstairs, which Iris found absolutely hilarious!

Bertie knows I LOVE a notebook but apologised as although it says 72 pages on the cover, there are only 71 as the front one had come loose.  How are you bearing up, so far?

Then, because Nanny is never without chocolate ……. there were chocolate coins and a Freddo left over from his Christmas box ………

……. and finally, from his pocketmoney box, two pound coins to buy myself something! How on earth do you keep it together at this stage? Next time we are in town together I will make sure I’ve got them with me in an envelope to let him see my excitement, in The Works most probably, choosing something that I really want to spend it on.

Bert’s is six (seven in April) with such a kind heart and old mans head, goodness only knows what he’ll be when he grows.  This is the most precious present I have ever had in my life because it’s totally innocent, unbelievably thought out and packed with love straight from his little heart …….. now,  I need to find another tissue.

Jewelled Valentines Door Wreath

I can’t believe how quickly this project came together ………

It started off with a MDF wreath that I gave two coats of white emulsion paint just in case any of the wood was visible after it had been covered in jewels.  My apologies as I don’t have a clue where the heart originally came from as I’ve had it for years.

I only had one or two bits let over from similar projects, the roses and few other plastic flowers, however, I managed to gather a few bracelets and necklaces from various local charity shops, which I then broke up. The Lucite flower beads and small plastic roses were found on eBay.  The swallows came from a necklace found in amongst a bag of broken bits, I was well chuffed at their discovery.  The bee charms and brooch I found while looking for something else!

I played around with the bits at first to make sure I had enough to cover the heart before getting stuck in with the B-7000 glue.  I had to spend a little time cutting all the loops from the back of the bracelet jewel clusters where the elastic passed through, to ensure that each piece lay flat on the heart base.

It only took me an hour to cover the heart, my quickest one ever, which then had to be left unfiddle farted with overnight for the glue to really set in.

When morning came I really expected to spend another hour filling in the gaps, but no, it was fine, all I added was the cherub at the top, cutting the loop off first.

All that was left to do was paint the back white to make it all look properly finished off ……..

……… and put in two staples on the back to thread a piece of thread through to then hang the heart on my front door. Eh voila, my seasonal February/Valentine wreath is done!

Finding suitable necklaces, bracelets and the occasional earring in a charity shop isn’t that easy these days, especially when they’re often not all that cheap either, £2 is my top limit and for that I want at least 8 – 12+ good bits to break up

I always start by placing the roses first, as they always seem to “set the tone” on any of my wreaths and mirrors. I originally got them from Poundland where they used to sell bracelets with nine on. I have bought so many, but like so many good things, they are no longer stocked.  I have used the very last ones on this heart. I have looked them up on eBay, but they are now selling for £9.99 a pop, so if I ever see anything similar on my travels, trust me I will pounce!

However, as I am really in the mood to make a few more wreaths and mirrors for presents etc. I have found a seller on eBay who sells just the other sort of jewelled elasticated bracelets I’m also looking for ………..

………. who, when I put a bundle together on my watch list, offered them at a discounted price of  £1.50 each (where they would normally ask around £1.99 plus in most charity shops), so I think this will be my main source of jewellery, supplemented with whatever I find when I am out and about.  The seller says he has thousands, so is now looking out for ones made up of single flowers, roses and daisies in particular, that I can again use to split up. Happy days!

Cabinet Of Curiosities Part 2

I am sooooooooo cross with myself you wouldn’t believe, I got so into my cabinet project that I forgot to take any pictures along the way, in particular the papering process, I kept meaning to do it and then got completely absorbed, what am I like?

However, after I posted last week I continued to add the tea/coffee stain inside and out until the cabinet was quite dark and almost unrecognisable from the clean and shiny one I started out with, it smelt quite lovely too!

I was ready to paper the sides, back and door, but when the first four doors were covered, they looked so drab I didn’t think they would entice anyone, especially little ones to look any further, so I decided to opt for some more colourful paper instead …… but then went over them agan with the tea/coffee mix as I still wanted the cabinet to look as if it had some age to it. 

Next followed layer upon layer of Wilko, quick drying, clear, glossy varnish, including the inside of the doors. I know a satin varnish would have been more subtle but I like shiny! Varnishing the doors was a fiddle and I know I need to do quite a bit of sanding around the edges where a varnish has strayed causing some to stick when opening and closing. I did whizz round the insides with the varnish too, but as it’s not going to show, it was only a quick flick.

Off and on the varnishing took me three days until I was really happy and this is the stage I am at now.  I need to spend some time sanding now before I can start to embellish.

I did originally stain the knobs in the tea/coffee mix, but then I thought I would go all out for gold instead, to add a sort of faded splendour to the cabinet, which I may also use on some of the embellishments I am planning to put on the sides of the cabinet and fronts of the doors …….. we shall see……….

Hobbycraft Wooden Christmas Decorations

As I always say, a bargain isn’t a real bargain unless you use them, so with so many new bits and pieces wheedling their way into my stash, I really ought make a start on working my way through them, so my apologises as this is a Christmas related post, so soon after the big day!

Firstly, I can’t believe how such simple things could take so long to complete, either I am just getting slow or I faff and fiddle a little too much!

I don’t think I originally included these wooden decorations from Hobbycraft in any of my earlier haul posts, but they were reduced from £2 to £1 each.

I decided to give the decorations a lick of Wilko satin, quick drying varnish to help prevent the risk of any pen used bleeding into the wood.

It was at this stage I discovered that the layers of the decoration could be separated, something I wasn’t expecting, but a very welcome bonus, making the colouring, glittering etc. much easier.

The first stage of the decoration was painting the front layer, background trees, snowflake and snowman white and then colouring the house with brown Sharpie pen.

I covered the windows of the house  over with a tiny patterned yellow paper to add a little more colour to the decoration and give the illusion of a light being on inside the house and then always conscious of what everything looks like from the back, painted over paper scraps white too.

I added snowy details to the front of the house using white Ranger Enamel Accents, a little doodling using a white acrylic paint pen and translucent glitter on the roof. 

The background trees were glittered with a silver ultra fine glitter, and the Christmas tree at the front with green. The snowman given a hat and scarf using  red and black Sharpie pens …….hmmmmmmm.

It was time to put the decorations together again, sanding them lightly beforehand because of the added layers of paint.  They were then glued together and put under a 2lb weight to help fix and flatten them.

At this stage they still looked a little lacklustre, so I added white Tulip Slick around the edges and the bottom for snow, followed by a sprinkling of translucent ultra fine glitter, but the snowman just left me cold, he didn’t look right, so I was going to give his the Ranger Glossy Accents treatment, adding tiny, black, flat back gem eyes and buttons ……… but then ……..

……. I received a wonderous parcel from my friend Diane and in amongst all the treasure were these resin snowmen ……… they were perfect and seemed to add an air of cosiness to the scene.  They weren’t an exact fit, but I think I’ve made them work.

I may have then gone overboard in adding the wooden sentiment and poinsettia but  hey ho!

Although seemingly simple, they were on my desk for a whole week ……

……. as I constantly seemed to be waiting for something to dry ………..

They certainly feel and look more substantial and not  as naïve as they originally were. I am not 100% with them at the moment, but they are now put away safe until November, when no doubt, my opinion of them will probably have softened.