A Cream Christmas Angel ...... (Catch Up #2)

Mid-Week Greetings dear friends & readers!

I picked a bunch of my white daphne yesterday before our wild weather battered the last flowers from the bush

It smells divine 💗

When I made the White Peace Angel in *this post* I mentioned that I had made up two Angel bodies
 & would like to make a cream version 

This was also prompted by the discovery of these two items above ...  a Christmas decoration droplet & 
a vintage pearl earing ... I felt these would be perfect adorning my cream Angel.

This time round I did remember to paint the shoes before clothing the Angel!
Her shoes dried quite quickly by the fire.

I found two cream lace table mats in my linen stash which were the perfect size for her bloomers

The vintage earing became a brooch for my angel, I stitched the christmas droplet in her hands & trimmed her shoes with some braid & dainty gold roses.  I also made her a Halo but added gold sequin stars this time round, not silver.

For her wings I cut up the same bunch of glittery silk flowers & leaves as my white Peace Angel 
& fashioned her a large pair of wings

The Pattern I used is Charlotte Angel by Rosalie Quinlan Designs

Beautiful Cream Angel! 💖

I love her just as much as my White Peace Angel ... I am wondering ... do you have a favourite??



The lady that manages our local St John's Op Shop, recently asked if I would teach a few of the volunteers some painting/upcycling techniques
I told her Yes but assured her I was certainly No Professional when it came to these matters!
I have been going in most days for the past week & working on a vintage wardrobe which I will show you 
in a future post.
On Monday I bought this tatty looking shelf home with me - I decided to upcycle this at home by the fire.

Before painting I masked the 3 tile squares.
Jan had given me some grey chalk paint & I gave it a couple of coats in between doing a zillion other things

The Chalk Paint is Da Vinci's  & the shade is "Quarter Absolute"

A bit of a light sand at the end & Viola . . . . Such an improvement!
I was too lazy busy to remove the hooks but I felt they looked great with a paint & then just a quick scuff at the finish.

I had been feeding chooks & pets for neighbours that were overseas ... I liked to take Sid down there with me as he seemed to enjoy the chooks, ducks, horses & cows.
A bonus was that the chooks were laying this time round - so we got to gather fresh eggs every day!

Sid very much enjoyed his home made scrambled eggs (incidently eaten using fingers & NOT the spoon!) 
Just look at those gorgeous bright yellow yolks! 😊

Two weekends ago my daughter in law Sarah & I went to this beautiful cafe for a High Tea.
My son had gifted us both a voucher for this treat back in May for Mother's Day.
This was a first experience of High Tea for both of us & we very much enjoyed the whole process. 
You get to choose your teas from a selection of 10 different ones

First you are given sandwiches & tiny savouries & then you get a different tea to enjoy with your sweets.
Sarah & I chose Tokyo Lime Green Tea for our savoury course & then Berrylicious Tea for our sweet course.

When you leave you get to choose a handmade chocolate & a bookmark ... just delightful & such a treat! 💕

In fact I enjoyed the teas that Sarah & I choose So Much that I went online this week & purchased 
the very same teas from *this Store*
I have shared them amongst us both,  & made up a little gift package to present to Sarah as a surprise.

Thanks So Very Much for staying with me here folks,
I hope the week is treating you kindly?
I shall be back in a few days with Catch Up #3 .... if you are still with me 😉
With much love & friendship to you all,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

Painting & Papercraft ............ (Catch Up #1)

Greetings dear friends & readers & Welcome to Spring!
My absolute favourite season of them all !!

 Tho' if you could see our weather as I sit here typing this, you would surely be saying "we think Julie, perhaps you may need your head examined just a tad?!"

I have been busy with creative pastimes but have been remiss in my blogging efforts so have decided (again) 
to schedule a series of Catch Up Posts as I did back in July.
Today we have Catch Up # 1 😊

Longtime readers of my blog will know I use the French Doors at the end of my lounge as a little glasshouse to grow my babies tears in front of ... in fact all houseplants do well there.

I have been potting up lots of babies tears in old china containers to sell at my market stall in November ... I am hoping to have them well established by then.

These two wooden book racks/shelves were languishing in my sleepout for a few years quite some time.
I bought them inside last week & gave them a wash & a paint, both with leftover chalk paint. 
The left one I painted in Pale Duck Egg & the right one in Robins Egg.

I found some vintage Cath Kidston wallpaper in my craft wardrobe ... I had purchased this from my friend Catherine's online store last year.

I decided to wallpaper the book racks tho' to be honest, I was none too sure what I was doing.
I found some old wallpaper paste & tried to just use remnants of the vintage wallpaper.
Miss Pippi however, assured me she knew exactly what to do & would "supervise the task from her basket!!"

(Miss Pippi, who has the attention span of a flea, quickly grew bored & had frequent little naps while I toiled away)

In the end I was delighted with the finished results ... I fussy cut some of the leftover flowers & glued them on the backs of the book racks & also odd ones on the outer sides

The "Robins Egg" shade

The "Pale Duck Egg" Shade

Once they were dry I gave them a coat of modpodge to seal the papers & then waxed the rest of the wooden 
chalk painted areas.


My dear friend Sandy had this red wooden stool for quite sometime, but found as she no longer used this colour in her decor,  it was put away out of sight.  
She asked me to paint it for her & had a vision of a "french navy colouring" ... Sandy gave me a handbag of the exact colour she was visualising & I trotted off to my local Resene Colour Shop for a colour chart.

We both agreed on a gorgeous blue shade called "Bunting" ... I am always delighted when I love the names of the colours I am working with, fickle person that I am 😉

Sandy's stool got 3 coats over a period of several days by the fire ... our weather has certainly Not been 
outdoors painting weather!

When Sandy took it home I realised I had forgotten to take an "after" photo so I asked her to please send me some through when she had it in its new place.
Oh My! I was Not disappointed!   It looks stunning as I'm sure you will agree!

I confess I have been casting my eye around my Home to see what I can paint in this gorgeous Bunting shade!

Last Wednesday, while it poured with rain (again!) I sat at my worktable & cut out Tilda paper angels which I had 
had Laser copied onto thin card.

I gave them all doiley dresses & adorned them with lace & flowers ... I strung some sets of 4 up as bunting & then kept some single ... these are destined for my craft stall
I think I will package some up in cellophane bags ... I am hoping they may sell well as otherwise I am going to have alot of paper angels strung around my Home!!

Yesterday morning I drove over to Tirau to meet up with my friend & fellow blogger Sue from the blog Kiwikids
She is over from Australia to visit with her Mum who lives in Tauranga.

Sue & I met up at a lovely local cafe that we have frequented before ... Alley Cats Cafe

We had an enjoyable morning tea & the time whizzed by as it always does when we catch up ... as we were leaving Sue presented me with this gorgeous parcel of goodies - a magazine & some mouth watering fabrics!
Thanks So Much Sue ... I am still drooling over everything, you are So Kind!!

Thank you all So Much for staying with me friends. 
I will be back in a couple of days with Catch Up Post #2 
In the meantime, I will leave you with my two furry friends tucked up on the couch this wild wintery Waikato afternoon!
Cheerio for now & thanks so much for your visits,
With much love & friendship to you all,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0

A Chair for Sid

Greetings dear friends & readers from a wet wintery Waikato!

Last week I spent about half an hour out in my woodshed seaching for a bag of pinecones I was sure were out there.

I did not manage to find the pinecones but I did come across this wee wooden childs chair

Now even though I currently have a gazillion things on my "to do list" - I decided then & there I wanted to 
revamp this chair for Sid, my youngest grandson. 

I took it outside to the wintery sun & gave it a good scrub & a bit of a scrape down where it had originally 
been varnished.
It was a good solid wooden chair, built really strongly.

When painting in winter it always pays to warm the wood up first - makes for a better paint application!

I decided to stay with a black/white colour theme in keeping with the decor in Sid's home.
I purchased 2 Resene Testpots ... Wan White & Just Black
The black went on really easily & covered well ... I had some issues when I masked the black to do the white rungs 
& the masking tape removed some of my black paint 😖

Lots Some touching up was required ... I was pleased with the end result however!
Now ....  I needed a small cushion for the seat part!

This fabric in my local Patchwork Shop was just perfect as Sid is very much into farm animals & especially Cows!
Also it was the exact colourway, so I purchased a fat 1/4

It didn't take long to run up a small padded cushion which can easily be removed if desired.

I took the chair around last night to show Sid & his parents ... this photo came through later in the evening which just made me smile so much!

My dear little grandson was delighted with his new (upcycled) chair 😊

There has also been some more coathanger covering going on here at Threadbear

I covered another 4 coathangers with some vintage wool blanket scraps & embellished them with crochet 
bits & bobs from my stash

These ones (& the two below) will be used as stock for my Christmas Stall
I have never sold these before so am hoping they are well received.

The top one above is an upcycled vintage embroidered pillowslip & the one below is from a vintage tablecloth ... the other edge was stained & torn but this edge was in immaculate condition

I like to sew up a little lavender bag & attach to these dainty ones

I have been continuing on with knitting the Pot Scrubby's that I wrote about in this post
It states that one ball of Wash Knit Yarn makes 4 scrubby's so I am hoping this is accurate

These are made from a free pattern available * here *

Well dear friends, time to fill the wood basket again!
It is a wet & wild day here at Threadbear HQ & a certain little madam fairy is tucked up on the couch .  .  .  .

.  .  .  .  while Blackie has prime position by the fire & is currently wondering if I can manage to keep 
putting wood on without disturbing him too much!!

I hope you are keeping warm or cool where-ever you might be?
Thanks so much for stopping by to "visit me" here today,
With much love & friendship to you all,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x