Just 4 Fun

The quickest little up-cycle job for a spare moment... really! Now, I have to admit for this little bit of house loving & up-cycling, I originally thought you needed a very cool, simple, vintage piece to start with... which I did happen to stumble upon {!!} ...but in hindsight, I actually think you could do this to any little sidey-table piece and it would look a fab! I dropped a few bags off to our local *Vinnies*...(Oxfam, Red Cross) and thought I'd have a quick lookie in the furniture area, as they had just had a huge delivery of stuff! I'm always on the lookout for small tables...anything that can be glammed up a bit, and plonked next to a sofa or chair, bed or bath tub! This was just off the truck, with a wonderful solid piece of glass on top, and a lovely old-holiday-house-by-the-ocean-shape to it. The lovely old guys hauling from the trucks out the back gave me a grin, and told me to take it, and love it...for a fiver! Five bucks! Done! I took, and loved, and ...

morning all from the gorgeous Australian coast... we're bathing in almost Easter sunshine here...Autumn at it's coastal best...clear, blue & warm... as it's nearly Easter, i thought to day we could share a some of the *Make-It-Monday* goings on  in our little beach house... an Easter-Make-It-Monday that is sweet enough to have in the house over this holiday whether you have bambino's or not... a bit of egg styling ... this is a little idea we came across via Martha- some times she strikes on a bit of lovely that is right up my doily-loving alley... lace-printed eggs for Easter... they are stylish enough for the mama's in the house & bright enough for the kiddos in the house... thank you Miss.Stewart... with simple pantry ingredients & a carton of fresh eggs- this was an after HW project in our house...     tools of the Egg styling trade here are: carton of eggs hard boiled food colouring white wine vinegar doilies or old lace off cuts elastic bands e...

OK...Easter Crafting... If you were around here at Christmas, you'll know that I love me a good month of crafting before a holiday! Easter, being late this year...gives us all plenty of time to share ideas and a little *Cool Craft* together. I'm blessed with two of my kids having birthdays around Easter- my eldest was born on Easter Monday and we remind her each year that she's * even better than eggs* ! So...I get to share *Cool Crafts* for Easter and birthday's! Yep...happy days here! Righto... *Cool Craft For Easter- Day 1* These little gift jars are *da bomb* for all ages! They are simple, inexpensive and soooo flipping cute! They take no more than an hour or two to sort, glue and spray paint...and then you get to fill them- the really fun part...and just stand and look and love them! I've seen them on a few pinterest boards- and decided to give it a go with my girls at home- we winged it, and they were super easy on the wallet and the skill level...but we...

A quick...cool...fab looking D.I.Y for any room! We are on the edge of leaping into the renovating pit...well an awesome big extension I hope! And the house is being cleared of any *extra* stuff that apparently we can live without...hmmm!? Can I really live without *stuff*? This will be the making, or perhaps the undoing, of my Bower Bird ways. We'll see. So far I'm loving the empty walls. But I'm keeping one feature wall of *stuff* above the sofa's. {I can't do total  cold turkey  decorating...} You know empty walls reflect sooooooo much lovely light! Yeah so did I...but I've been choosing to ignore that! I'm loving that light! Anyway... As the sitting room and kitchen are starting to be stripped bare- I'm sorting all the bedrooms so the kids can spend more time in there, doing things they may have done at the dining table or kitchen bench- seeing as we'll be a few months without either. We spent a very wet Sydney weekend re-aranging rooms, and ...

styling a supermarket eco bag into a gorgeous french-looking market tote... an eco bag with good bones...a strong handle & lovely shape & size... i am not a plastic bag person by any stretch of the imagination... i can't stand to use them at the supermarket...i can't stand the kids to pack anything in them & take  them to school...i can't stand that they have holes in the bottom of most & therefore cannot be  justified even as bin liners... so we just don't use them! with all my experience of eco-bags...this one is a particularly great one! so... tote ready- any labels removed with a cotton picker or pair of scissors... simple... i have raved about these french letter stencils before- when i stencilled steel buckets {here} & when i stencilled a vintage ladder from our village in England {here} i have always wanted to stencil a tote-& as my sewing machine is still in transit- enjoying the  sea air on it's voyage to Australia- i am us...

Everyone needs a Floral Easter crown... This Easter craft is super quick...and CRAZY cute, once you have all your *bits* together. We are making this at Audrey's 9th Birthday with her *bestie gang* from school. I'm going to have each place sorted, and set up with all they'll each need to make their own. I can't wait to see how they put their's together...undoubtedly I'll be sitting on my *helping hands*!! I'll be thinking balance and they'll be thinking *go-for-it-fun*! The girls sweet-as crowns will have a creative energy, that as party-planner,  mine will not! What you need: -fabric flowers...all sorts, go as simple or indulgent as you like! -craft wire for the actual head piece {I found some in our fabric store covered in soft white fluff stuff!} -garden ties What to do- building that crown! -remove all the fabric flower heads from their stems, leaving a small green end to tie onto the crown keeping the flower in firmly in place. -measure your craft ...

With the school hols coming up in a week in my neck of the woods, and with many of my friends up in the Northern Hemisphere on Summer hols- I thought it perfect timing to share a quick lovely kids craft or two. {Perfect is over-rated with kids craftiness!} Simple fun projects that you can build on depending on the age of your child. Basing them on the age of our youngest {she's primary school age} I'm sharing crafts that I do at home with the kids, and crafts that our eldest {year 10 High School} takes to a whole new level. This *Rain Drop Cushion* takes no time at all- and is SUPER cute! It can be easily sewn by hand, or on a machine {depending on the age of your kids}. You can add sleeping eyes...a sweet little yawning mouth- or leave it as is. The less perfect it is, the more your child has actually worked on this lovely project- us mama's who love a little craftiness ourselves, really truly need to let imperfect be the catch cry on this one! Believe me,  your babi...