The Flamingo's Are Back In Action

Well I do wish this dull, wet weather would disappear soon. I find it all a bit depressing and with no sunny summer holiday booked for myself, am hoping very much that the sun comes back to visit us soon. To cheer me up a little I thought I'd get on with a much over due project. I mention here my fondness for the flamingo. In fact my fondness was so much that I fell in love with a pair of Don Featherstone flamigos I had bought. 

After a while of them being in the garden and sadly being used as goal posts by my football loving 8 year old, their lovely long legs soon bent, broke, snapped, and eventually became no more. (inserts sad face) 

They were then destined for the bottom of a dark lonely draw and the job of finding them some new legs went on my 'to do' list. 

Well, after a long, long time in the draw, it was time for the flamingos to have their mini makeover. 

I purchased 2 long metal rods from B&Q in readiness to cut each rod in half to make a pair of legs. I could tell they were getting excited at the prospect of having new dainty legs again.

The current holes for their legs were a little too small so after a little negotiation I made them a bit bigger to fit their new pins. You can see a before and after of the holes in this photograph. 

Next up, legs in, and the lovely flamingo's are now back in action, albeit on a rather over grown lawn. Yippee...

 I shall now be keeping a very close eye on my pretty flamingos next time the son decides to play some impromptu football in the back garden!! 

X

Lovely Orchids

Well hello on this very sunny day.

 I love the sunshine and really enjoy delving into my summer wardrobe at this time of year. Dress wise, I am definitely a summer person and I especially like to grab all the colours of the rainbow to wear. 

Take this lovely floral dress from good old M&S that I bought many years ago, I still wear it often and the hot pink lace really jumps out at you amongst all the pretty florals. 

Talking of pretty florals, I also like to have the real things surrounding me and I was delighted to receive a surprise delivery of the most gorgeous selection of orchids. My looking after abilities with orchids can be, hmmm, lets say a bit hit and miss. I can have one orchid last me years and years, and another no matter how well I care and look after it, doesn't seem to bloom as well. 

I know for sure these beauties are going to get my most bestest attention and I shall do lots of research for each variety. I found three pretty pots that weren't being used and I think they look great. Most orchids cope very well in small pots so I think they shall be fine in them for now.

First up we have the Dendrobium Starclass, with its bright pink flowers and yellow centre, which grows along the stem. I think it a very elegant and charming orchid.

Then we have the beautiful Oncidium which produces dozens of small flowers at the same time. Due to the distinctive shape of the blooms carried on many branched stems, akin to dancing sprays, its no wonder this orchid is also known as 'The Dancing Lady'. 

Such a perfect sunshine yellow.

Finally, its the glorious twin stemmed Phalaenopsis orchid, a wonderfully sleek and graceful orchid and perfect for any shelf. 

I think this has to be my favourite, perhaps it's all that lovely pink! 

I have found a comfy place for the orchids inside and am keeping my beady eye on them. I may even be having a little chat with them on occasion, well they do say it helps and its been scientifically proven that plants respond to sound and it encourages growth, at least now I can't be given funny looks for talking to myself ;) X


Disclosure: Orchids were provided by Fresh Retail, for more information on orchids, please visit Orchids Info 

Lace Effect Window

Hello lovelies, long time no blog! 

My creative/blogging mojo seemed to have wandered off there for a little while but has now returned with a happy vengeance. With having lots of crafty projects on my to do list, I thought I'd get cracking with this little mini-makeover. As I mention here I was still yet to come up with a nice window treatment for the round windows in the attic bedrooms. I love the feature but just felt it needed finishing off somehow. 

Well, after I had stumbled upon this post, I thought as a pretty and perhaps temporary measure this would work. We have some square glass panes to go on all our downstairs doors, for some much needed light, so I thought at least it would be a practice run as I quite fancied this idea for the doors too. 

I thought I would do Miss. Poppins' room and here is Master P's round window. Not sure he's going to go for the lace effect (bit girly) so may have to come up for another plan for him. 

I thought the windows looked a bit dirty, so first off I gave them a good clean.

I purchased the pretty lace fabric at the bargain price of £1.50 a metre from Ikea.

I then made a template of the round window, which was a bit bit fiddly. I then used that to cut out the lace in a big circle which you can just about see here.

Then I gathered together my ingredients.

As with most tutorials I follow, I kind of found my own way, I used a little less than one and a half cups of boiling water and that felt to me like a good consistency. I was aware though I didn't really want any streak marks left behind of the glue mixture, which I do have a couple of in the finished look. Maybe next time I'd add more water to make it a little more runny. 

Then it really was just a case of painting the mixture directly onto the glass.

Then I placed the lace over it and then repainted over it bit by bit. I really had no method and occasionally the lace came away, so I applied a bit more of the mixture in that area. 

Soon the window was done, and although not really recommended for areas that get wet due to condensation issues and the lace possible falling away, I popped some on the round window in the little bathroom too. It dried perfectly and so far so good, we shall see how it fares. I love the fact it is temporary and that with just some hot water and a bit of a scrub it can come off, for now though, I think it's definitely a keeper :) 

It gives just the right amount of screening, but still lets lots of light in and it looks pretty from the outside too. 

Can't wait to get going on the door panes now!

X