Out with the new, in with the old!

~ hannahmontana1978 ~ Leave a comment

So I am thinking that none of the furniture that we had at our last house seems to really ‘go’ as it were in the old cottage here… There’s only one thing for it.

Out with the new, in with the old!

As lovely as this is, and we’ve had it for 10 years, it stands out like a sore thumb so onto eBay it goes! In the meantime, I managed to pick up a shiny orange pine television unit for £7. Now you’re going to have to bear with me here unless you have ‘the vision’ or you with think I’ve gone utterly nuts. Although you’d be right, but that happened quite a long time ago.

Everyone remembers this stuff. It’s proper wood, solid as you like, just not perhaps to our taste now. But I love a bit of repurposing, and this little chap is definitely in need of a new lease of life. Remember the Valentine’s Day sander I mentioned? Well it’s very much needed as you can see. So away I go…

He gets his top well and truly sanded, then it’s a quick buff all over to ‘key’ the surface ready for painting. I’ll be using Grand Illusions vintage chalk paint.

So regarding the painting, people keep asking if it’s easy? Well yes I think it is if you are careful and you spend time on your prep, the same as decorating walls in your house. I prefer a small foam roller for most areas, just using a brush in the internal edges, then roller over so you have no visible brush strokes. If you’ve prepared your surfaces well then you don’t need a primer with this paint, you’re straight in. Three coats should do it.

If you’ve got any drawers on a piece, be sure to take those out and remove the handles, and just paint the exposed front surfaces or you’ll end up with a messy finish.

Oh and don’t paint in the sunshine, it will dry far too quickly. If you want to hurry it along, you can use a hairdryer.

A couple of new handles (purchased from my favourite place Screwfix) and we are almost there. Speaking of which, when did I fall out of love with Top Shop and in love with Screwfix? No seriously, when exactly did that happen?

A couple of coats of clear wax are needed to protect your hard work, three on the top (an extra one for good luck!) applied in a circular motion with a polishing cloth and then buffed. The surface is still pretty fragile to start with but after a month or so it hardens off. Over time, expect to get the odd chip from day to day living, but I honestly think that this only adds to the beauty of a repurposed piece.

Job done. I think around four hours start to finish with coffee breaks. You need to let the paint dry well between coats or it will pull off the previous layer which is infuriating. I know, I’ve done it. Patience is a virtue, but it is not something that I am blessed with in abundance I will confess.

Can I have a drumroll please for the final photo? Taaaaa-daaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! And all for the princely sum of £7 plus a bit of paint and wax and good old fashioned elbow grease.

I’ve seen similar things to this in shops for literally hundreds of pounds. Not mentioning any names… Sparks & Mensa. But seriously, as well as the cost saving (actually I’m up a fair bit on this project as I sold the old one for almost £80) the sense of satisfaction is enormous creating something yourself for your own home rather than going out and buying something that Joe Bloggs down the road has too. Go on, have a go. You can do it.

Do you wanna shorten curtains?

~ hannahmontana1978 ~ 1 Comment

Sing the above to the tune from frozen 🎶

Ok… So made to measure are out of my price bracket, especially when you’ve just moved and you need four full length sets, that would seriously need a second mortgage. Especially from La Ashley. I’m thinking four figures, multiples thereof.

How hard can it be?

So here they are before.  Two sets for the lounge. Actually they did come from LA in their 30% off sale, with another 10% off as a new customer and I’m sure I’m owed some cash back from good old Quidco. But not looking great. So I wonder, ‘how hard can it be?’

My mum says to me ‘shorten from above not below’ and whilst I know she is a proper sewing bee who actually made her own wedding dress, this truly sounds like utter sorcery to me… But then when a 75 year old patient at work who makes curtains for her local church tells me the same I must confess to thinking that mumsy might be onto something here.

And so I begin… (This doesn’t work with eyelets, I’ll save that for another day)

Once you’ve pinned to the length you require, work out exactly how much you need to cut off. Then fold over the TOP, header tape and all, by this amount. Then pin again. And iron.

Then offer up to make sure you’ve not gone batty and got something very wrong, and unpin the bottom, you should now have the correct length…

Once you’re happy, carefully unpick the header tape and pin it to the newly folded topline of your curtain. And sew! With a machine, one straight line just at the top edge.

When you’re happy and feeling brave, cut off the excess underneath making sure you only take off the bit you don’t need, about an inch or so from the top.

Then fold in your corners!

And then sew each side (or you can leave these edges free to tuck in your strings once pulled to the correct length) and the long length to fix your tape.

Unpin, and you’ve done it. Seriously. It’s that easy. I told you, sorcery. Four (or possibly just the two) straight lines to sew, that’s literally it.

And here they are hung. Triumphant!!! Go on. Have a go. You can do it.

Knitty McKnitterson at your service…

~ hannahmontana1978 ~ Leave a comment

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was (thinks back…) perhaps four or five. And then I kind of forgot about it.

Then my grandmother had a heart attack and when she was in hospital, started to knit me a bottle green scarf. We laughed and joked about me trying to remember how to do it myself. She was getting better. But then on New Year’s Eve, we had the phonecall to say that she had had another huge heart attack and passed away. I was devastated, more than I could ever put into words. Through the tears and sorrow and grief that followed, one of the things that gave me some comfort was the fact that I was going to finish that scarf. Silly? Perhaps. But it made me feel connected to her still. So I tried and tried, and got myself into all sorts of knots, kept ending up making extra stitches, dropping stitches and having to unpick and restart my rows. And then something just totally clicked. Lightbulb moment. PING. I was away.

Then my mum came to visit, and as a knitter herself, finished the scarf for me. And I treasure it. My three generation scarf. You can totally see where each person’s tension is just a little bit different too and it means the world to me.

Having mastered the art of the scarf, all of my friends and family now have at least one I’ve made for them. Cushion covers? Check. I had rather a fear of knitting around corners though until my mother bought me a teacosy knitting pattern for Christmas. It took me days, literally days of huffing, and naughty words. The air was quite blue in fact, in between the jingle bells. But I did it, totally mastered everything. Am now uber confident knitter.

knit1

So I think – hmmmmmm a delightful blanket would be nice – and I investigate how I go about this – do I do squares or do I go LARGE?  I decide on the latter and having struggled for over a month to find any kind of pattern, I made up my own.

The wool is Drops Polaris in off white which I bought online. There are several options with places to buy but it depends who has what you need in stock at the time. I love Wool Warehouse as they deliver your wool in a beautiful organza bag, it’s like Christmas when the postman arrived. The needles are size 15mm circular Pony brand.

Is there a pattern I hear you cry?! Well, this is as basic as you like. Can you cast on? Can you knit? Can you purl? Well that’s it! Boom Bangabang. Knit four, purl four then repeat on each row for this delightful chunky rib pattern. You just need to remember to cast on a multiple of eight so that you always start with knit four and end with purl four. Simples! This one I cast on 80.

knit2

It did take a while, I’ll be honest, but totally worth it. I took it on a couple of long car journeys (as a passenger, rolls eyes…) and then did a few rows each evening. Got there in the end and it’s totally worth the effort and hours spent I can promise you. It took 16 skeins in the end, I guessed at 12 but half way through realised that I’d need some more so did a little top up order of another 4.

knit3 

It’s so lovely, hubby asked for one of his own… So I purchased more wool and decided to knit this one on 20mm needles for a very slightly looser finish.

Ironically I think I might actually get this beauty finished just in time for the longest day of the year which is rapidly approaching us lol! Desperately trying to finish him before I get all carried away with a new hobby as I’m booked on my crochet course on Wednesday (tomorrow) night…

This particular one is done with Drops Polaris taupe mix, cast on 64. It drapes really well around you for maximum coziness. Rather satisfying to make too as it grows fairly rapidly (providing you don’t just sit and look at it) 16 skeins will give you a really great size blanket to cosy up with sitting by the fire…

Go on, do it do it do it! Have a go. Watch a little tutorial on YouTube, get a book, ask your Nan to show you. There’s something so much more lovely about curling up under one of these than one you’ve bought, I totally and utterly pinky promise you 😉

Hello world!

~ hannahmontana1978 ~ Leave a comment

Rightyho… as per the umpteenth request – a blog is born! Hard to know quite where to begin but perhaps it really is a good idea to have a place to share the great learning curve of buying our little farmhouse built in 1625… From someone who should frankly have joined the Womens’ Institute at 10 years old rather than the Girl Guides, I will bring you recipes from the farmhouse kitchen, knitting patterns for busy people who are never going to be master knitters but want to have a go, and my learning to grow vegetables like a proper grown up rather than just in a couple of grow bags out the back of the house. Sewing, yes there will be some of that too – we should all be able to do the basics, oh and flowers and gardening for busy people, yes that’s important. Then there is the furniture restoration (DA sander will remain the very best Valentines’ present in the history of the world – thankyou dear husband who knows me so well), decorating and furnishing our almost 400 year old farmhouse as well as finding out about it’s history, life story and other general madness along the way. All whilst finding the time to go to work as well. What can I say, thank you for following me on the journey as it begins…