the homemade home

The increasing trend for homemade style interiors has no sign of slowing down it seems. Thanks to programmes like Kirsty Allsops 'Homemade Home' and the tightening of purse strings caused by the gloomy economy, this style of interior accessories has gone from strength to strength. There are countless do-it-yourself kits on the market that you can buy on Amazon or from craft shops. I have given some of these a go myself. However it's not for everyone yet a lot of people still like the style itself, it's homely and cosy. There are many small boutique style shops or online stores that sell these handmade items. I myself run an online homewares store and was inspired by my love of the 'Homemade Home' along with a passion for Shabby Chic and vintage style which lead me to source affordable vintage inspired homewares.

Homemade style interiors encompasses anything from handmade quintessentially British cushions to tea cosies. It's a fun style that gives you the chance to bring some personality into your home. Not so long ago when house sales were at their peek everyone was talking about minimalistic style with cream and white interiors everywhere to make your home appealing to a potential buyer. Now with more and more people deciding to put moving on hold, houses are getting their personality back. A neutral  backdrop is a good place to start if you are a little timid with colour but make sure you add in some pops of colour with your accessories. Charity shops are another place to source great finds, just be brave in your choices and go with what attracts you and not what you think the trends may be. Remember this style is about personality & comfortable style so enjoy it.

http://www.finishingtouchinteriorsboutique.co.uk/

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Make It Monday

Yet another tutorial today with my home made home series
                      'Make It Monday'

Todays tutorial is on how to make a petal pillow

First you’ll need:

-a little over a 1/2 yard of fabric….19 inches to be exact. You can get away with a half yard if you already have it, just cut your pieces to 18" instead of 19".

- 1/4 yard felt. Buy the good stuff on the bolt and not the cheap sheets in the kids crafts section.
- a large and small cup (or other circles) for tracing, a large bowl for tracing, a pen, scissors, and cardstock to make your template.

Trace the rims of your cups onto your cardstock and cut out.

Pin the templates to your felt and cut out circles. you can cut 3-4 circles at a time by folding the felt.

Cut out roughly 30 large circles, and 20 small circles.

Now cut your circles in half.

Now your going to cut your fabric into three pieces.

1 large square 19 inches x 19 in. , 1 rectangle 19 in. x 15 in. , and 1 rectangle 19 in. x 12 in.

On the right side of the 19 in. by 19 in. square, trace a bowl or large plate marking a large circle in the middle. Leave 4-5 inches or so around the edges.

Line up the edge of a large petal along the line you just traced. As you sew the petals on, overlap the petals about a 1/4 inch. Continue sewing around the circle, adding petals.

When you get near where you started, put a petal in between the previous petals, so they overlap. Then you can start putting petals underneath the previous set.  line up the straight edges of the petals only 1/4 in. or so underneath the previous petals because to get them packed in. Again…the more the merrier and the closer they are the better it will look.

If you want extra volume in your petals, you can curve them and fold the edges as you sew to make the petals stand up a little bit. .

After you’ve done four or five rows of large petals and you’re getting close to the center, you can switch to your small petals. Again, as you get closer to the center you can curve and bunch the straight edge of the petals so they stand up a little and look like real petals. When you get to the center add a couple petals that are good and bunched at the bottom for extra volume.

Cut a small circle out of felt about 1 inch, or large enough to cover your edges. Sew down with a few stitches in the center of the flower.

Your done with the hard part…now lets make your pillow.

Finish the short edges (12 inch and 15 inch) of your two back rectangles by folding one side under 1/2" twice and sewing.

Place your pillow front and back pieces right sides together, lining up edges. Put the larger rectangle down first against the flower right sides together, then put your smaller rectangle on top if it, right sides together. Pin well.

Sew around the edges with a 1/2" inch inseam. Because home decor fabric frays easily, serge or do a quick zig zag stitch around the edges. Trim your corners and turn inside out.

Stuff with an 18 inch pillow form and your done! Yay!

Todays tutorial comes from http://www.cluckclucksew.com/

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Friends Feature Friday

Morning everyone, happy Friday & lets welcome the gorgeous Laura from Dreambox I.D whos todays featured guest writer. Laura is here with her monthly column on colour psycology.


Colour Psychology - Pink


February - The month of Love.


It seems only right that this month we take a look at the colour psychology of pink.


Feminine and romantic, affectionate and intimate, thoughtful and caring. Is it any wonder why we refer to it as the colour of love.

A fact you may or may not know, pink is a tint of red and interestingly, red is the only colour that has an entirely separate name for its tints. Tints of blue, green, yellow, etc. are simply called light blue, light green and so forth. With this in mind, pink has the power to change how you feel by simply changing the tone of the colour. The deeper the pink, the more passion and power it exhibits but a soft rose calms and reassures our emotional energies. Evokes feelings of nostalgia and innocence. 

To ensure you do not create a room which could be portrayed as immature or girlish use tones such as grey and black to create a more sophisticated room.

I hope you have joined this months colour psychology and have been inspired. Make sure you come and join me next month.

L. x

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Country Kitchen Inspiration

Here's some gorgeous country kitchens to get your pulses raising this morning.  Oh to have such a wonderfully large & beautiful space to cook in, a girl can dream can't she? In america kitchens are generally much bigger than the ones we have in Blighty, my kitchen is dinky (yet cosy)! But to have a large country style kitchen is what my dreams are made of, I love to cook & the kitchen is the heart of the home after all. 

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Make It Monday

                                       How To Make A Lampshade

With my love of the homemade home I thought today I would share one of Kirstie Allsopps tutorials from Kirstie’s Homemade Home http://www.channel4.com/

You will need


wire frame rings
pvc backing material
fabric (velvet,
double sided sticky tape
braiding

 

Step One: Stick The Fabric To The Backing Material

Choose your fabric depending on what sort of light you want your finished lamp to give off. Material with red and yellow tones will give a warm glow. Greens and blues will give off a cold light. I chose a purple fabric that has some gold in it to give it that all important warmth - and also goes with my lamp stand.

The backing that we're using can be bought online. Search for 'lampshade material' and look for semi-transparent, rigid, self-adhesive backing material, which you can buy in various thicknesses.

Make sure you iron the fabric, if it's creased. Then you can begin to smooth the backing material gently over the fabric.Start by pulling a few centimetres of the self-adhesive backing off your backing material and place it on the fabric. Slowly, continue to pull off the backing, pressing with your other hand and making sure you keep it smooth. If you're doing this for the first time, it's easier to get someone to help you with this step!

 

Step Two: Make The Wire Frame

Your lampshade wire frame has two rings - the top ring will be where the light fitting will go, and the bottom one is plain. Measure the circumference of the rings, then add 2cm for the overlap. This will be the width of your material.

 

Step Three: Cut The Material

Cut the material to the width required (taken from the rings' circumference in the last step). The height you need to cut will be the height of the backing material, plus another few centimetres. This extra material will be wrapped around the frames in the next step, and tucked in at the end.

 

Step Four: Prepare The Material For Attachment To The Wire Frame

Now attach the rings to the material using special fabric double-sided sticky tape. Again, this is available online or in a lampshade making kit.

On the top and bottom edges of the material, in those extra few centimetres above and below the backing material, put a thin piece of tape along the width of the fabric, with a thicker piece on the outside edge. The thinner part will be for the wire to attach to, then the thicker part will be folded over and be tucked in.

 

Step Five: Attach The Material To The Wire Frame

Again, if you're doing this for the first time, it's easier to get someone to help you with this step. Put the wire rings onto the thin lines of sticky tape on your material and carefully roll them along so that the material attaches to the frame. Use pegs to hold it, if you need to, as you go along. Where the fabric overlaps, use double-sided tape or a glue stick to secure it.

Now that the two rings are attached to the fabric, you'll see that the shade is really taking shape.

 

Step Six: Tuck In And Tidy Up

The last step is to finish the shade by bending the thicker line of sticky-taped material over the top of the wire frame, as neatly as possible. You might like to finish off the top and bottom with some braiding or bias binding.

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Relaxed Kitchen Style

Check out these gorgeous kitchens from over on Elle Decor, haven't they got such a wonderful feel to them. Very relaxed with a taste of the exotic. You can imagine the sun shining brightly outside & waves crashing not far away.......   
From the first image with the warm wood cabinetry against crisp white walls, with the relaxed feeling of open wall shelves to the more contemporary of the second image with sleek white kitchen units, walls & flooring with the stunning bench feature they all have a fabulous & fun vibe. 




Enjoy your weekend
Sarah x

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Friends Feature Friday

Happy Friday everyone & welcome to this weeks Friends Feature Friday guest writer the lovely Tracie from Fishtail Cottage, enjoy xxx


One of my most favorite plants ever is the bleeding heart…You can take your pick of pink or white with green foliage. There are a few varieties of this plant, but I honestly like the two featured below.







The bleeding heart does well (in Washington State) in full sun or in deep shade. If planted in full sun this plant flowers earlier than other seasonal perennials. If it is planted in the shade, it blooms later and longer sometimes throughout much of the summer. The websites say it needs rich loose soil that is evenly moist – however in my garden, much of my soil is clay and moist & does fantastic everywhere I plant it.

One special aspect of the bleeding heart is that when the weather warms up and the plant begins to die back. You can cut the plant back to the ground and don’t have to have dried up foliage in your garden. I have heard that these plants will self-germinate if left undisturbed – but I have never had such luck. It will grow back the following year with a vengeance!



I love planting the bleeding heart throughout my entire garden…it is a fantastic filler and brings a spot of color to an otherwise bare spot in the garden. It is not invasive by any means and compliments many other plants around it.



It does not spread by seed but you can propagate it quite easily! Below you can see the plant who has returned from last season… If you look closely you can see the plant coming up almost in sections.







To break this plant up and spread the beauty around there is no need to purchase more from the local nursery. I will show you how. Just place your shovel strait down in the ground between the plant to separate. (you may even hear a snap – like a carrot). Then from the other side, gently loosen the soil to life up the fractured segment.





You can see when I just did the one section, it ended up breaking up the plant enough to give me three new plants. See below:







Simply place the root in the ground with the same amount coming out of foliage that was coming out of the dirt before & you will have new growth above and below dirt. This new plant will start its own new root system and will spread over the coming years.







By summer time the newly transplanted bleeding heart plant should be a great filler in your garden too!

The picture below was taken May 7th of last year which is just a couple months after I transplanted the bleeding hearts starts (like I showed you above)…what a difference a couple months makes in the garden.







Hope this helps you spread the beauty of the bleeding heart too! xoxo, Tracie

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Real Homes Tours- Shabby Chic Loveliness

I saw this gorgeous snug little home for sale recently & totally adore the shabby chic loveliness of it all, its adorably gorgeous! I think my favourite room is the kitchen its beautifully designed. Take a look its something to swoon over...

...next week I have a stunning barn conversion to share with you & the very lovely home owner Tracy has shared an interview with me too so keep your eyes peeled for next wednesdays Real Homes Tour

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