Rocking Chair - Because One Day I Will Be A Nana

Hey guys,

I have a secret, I love rocking chairs, I actually love to sit in my rocking chair and knit. it's totally a Nana thing to do but there is no place I feel more peaceful than in this chair knitting.

Even better I got it for free, it was my Mum's but she had no where to put it and unlike me she's kinda short and her legs didn't touch the ground.

It was scratched and dinged up so I gave it a chalk paint makeover. Also check out the tapestry in the background. My Mum did that for me when I was about 5 and it is still one of my most favourite things ever.

I'm loving the fresh white paint perfect for the new craft space.

DIY Delight or Disaster? Well I was going to add something else to it but I sent a picture to Susan of Simply Vintageous asking advice and she said it was perfect, given she is the furniture makeover queen, I decided to quit while I was ahead. Now I can pretend to be a Nana until (hopefully) in a decade or so I actually become one. Delight!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Trestle Table

You know that feeling when you're in a store and you see something and immediately fall in love with it. You must have it no matter what the cost....until you see the actual cost and then start either laughing hysterically at how overpriced it is, or cry because it was never meant to be.

Well when I was in Freedom Furniture this desk was my dream for my new craft room. I wanted it so badly Julian was all ready with the credit card so I could have something special in my new craft room (I really shouldn't tease him the way I do, he is actually a keeper, shh don't tell him I said that.).

source

I lovingly looked at him, then rolled my eyes and said "Are you serious? It's $449 I could make that for about for less than a quarter of the price!" So I did.

Two trestle legs from Ikea for $25 each, in hind sight I could have made them for about $10 but you know what, sometimes it's just easier to have it done already and $28 for the door which just got a couple of coats of paint.

Then she was done for less than a quarter of the price and not on the credit card, which makes me love it more! Also just to break up the all white you can see I added a pink grain sack pattern to my $2 thrift store chair that I made over a while back.

DIY Delight or Disaster? Oh man it's a delight for me, so much cheaper and honestly I like the black legs for contrast which is why I didn't paint them and it is around twice the size for much less than a quarter of the price, total delight!

Gallery Wall - Had To Give It A Try

I've never done a gallery wall, and I really wanted to start small with one above my desk.

I shopped my house I found these pretty pink vintage style pictures.

This mirror came from my Mum. It belonged to my Nana, who passed away a few years back, she received it as a gift just after they immigrated to Australia from Ireland in the early 50's. It was the first thing she had here that wasn't an "essential" item.

I also added a cork board I had covered in fabric gifted Heather at The Beating Hearth had sent me & my corset key hooks, aka the boobs. 

DIY Delight or Disaster? I like it, I'm not sure if I ticked all the home decorator boxes with it, but it's making me happy so it doesn't matter if it's wrong. Shopping the home, mine and Mum's total win, delight. Oh and more on my new computer desk tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Bookend Makeover

Morning All, 

Remember those awesome awesome bookends I thrifted?

Well they got a makeover with some chalk paint.

How freaking awesome are they!! I love that I can stash my stationary in there as well. Note the cute houndstooth notepads, my gorgeous friend Amy at While Wearing Heels, sent them to me in a box of goodies she collected. Does she know me or what??

DIY Delight or Disaster? I might actually do the unthinkable and throwl in a squeal...nope can't do it, but I am pretty darn happy with these babies, LOVE 'EM, delight!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

My Boob Job - I Love it!

Sometimes I think we really need to give our boobs a little makeover....

Obviously a) I personally didn't have a boob job and b) if I did I certainly wouldn't be blogging it.

But remember my boob key holder I had in the entry, I decided I wanted her to have a makeover in black.

So easy I just coloured it in with a black sharpie, and now my boobs are proudly on display in my new craft area.

DIY Delight or disaster? Delight I just love it and I might still be a little high from Sharpie fumes. Plus the look on my kids faces when I told them to check out my boob makeover...priceless. Horror, like I have never before seen on their faces and relief when they realised I was talking about my key holder, seriously as if I meant anything else, I am beyond prude LOL

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Fold Out Craft Desk

If there was one thing I knew I wanted in my new craft room, it was a high workbench where I could comfortable work standing up. However, I also knew it wasn't something I would be using every day and I really didn't want to sacrifice a huge amount of space.

So I decided to try my hand at building a fold out desk.

I already had the wood for the desk top out in the garage which was 120cm x 90cm so I bought some wood for the legs and the fold out bit and cut them to size.

First I made the swing out leg, it needs to be as wide as the table top.

I added two legs to the board that is mounted to the wall for extra stability

Then with hinges I attached the the swing out leg to the leg that sits against the wall.

Then with another two hinges I attached the table top to the board that attaches to the wall.

Using L brackets I attached the board and the legs to the wall.

Swing out the leg and lift the top when you need a desk

And swing it back in against the wall when you want your floor space back

This took all of about 4 hours to make, and that's from me, all by myself, who really doesn't know anything much about woodworking. It's sturdy and stable.

DIY Delight or Disaster? DELIGHT!!!! This is now the best thing I have ever done. I love that the kids can come in here and play on the floor if I am knitting or working on the computer, but when they're not around and I want to craft, up it goes it a couple of seconds. DELIGHT, DELIGHT, DELIGHT! Also it cost me less than $30 to make, how awesome is that!!!! Also did you notice the carpet, god bless my neighbour, the carpet layer, he gave me some carpet he had taken up at a job he was doing, slightly too small to lay in this room but pretty much covers the floor, looks nice and is soft and warm for the kids to play on.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo Linking here

The Great Wall of Storage

Without a doubt, the hardest thing about being a crafter/diyer/hoarder is having enough storage. So in my new craft room I knew without a doubt I had to have a lot of it.

In my old craft room, I loved the peg board door, so when we put up the wall dividing the lounge into two rooms, I told Julian on this side I wanted pegboard instead of wood panneling. Lucky for me, I recieved gift cards for the hardware store and it covered the price.

I wanted houndstooth but wasn't prepared to paint it. I had all that cheap vinyl that I got a couple of years ago. It's really see through and only good against a white background I started using my cutter to cut them out but found it was quicker to just draw the pattern and cut it out with scissors.

Here are my "helpers" Yes Max had just finished lunch which he wears so well over his face.

I didn't have enough of the one pink so I decide to go with two tones of pink. then the boxes from my old room on the floor. The tops looked terrible.

So I bought 10 wooden fence pailings at 90 cents each and made a wooden bench. It gave me more space and looks better.

So much storage and plenty of room for more....that grumble you just heard was Jules, apparently he doesn't think I need more supplies or tools.


DIY Delight or Disaster? Total delight, I love that all my sewing and dies for the bigshot are in reach and I can see them without having to dig through. Plus check out the mitred corners on that frame, I totally kicked mitre saw butt!This is awesome, delight!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Stencilled Clipboards

Once again in an attempted to be the organised person I want to be, I thought I would make something to keep all my craft manuals together. Enter the stencilled clipboards

Magazine files

Welcome to the most boring makeover yet, but it is a hint at the colour scheme of my NEW craft room.

Yep I have a brand new room and it's getting all sorts of love.

Well there are worse things you could be doing with your time like

1. Playing Golf
2. Folding Laundry
3. Cleaning out the Shower Drain
4. Making House Hold budgets
5. Rereading the Twilight series (Sorry but that was boring)

I got some of those wooden magazine files from Ikea.

Then I painted them in shades of pink.

So in case you didn't guess, the new craft room will be all pretty and pink. Seriously I told you this was a rather boring makeover, but they're still it was an intro to my new room!


Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Vinyl Chair Makeover With Chalk Paint

Hey Guys,

Remember those two infected snot coloured chairs I got for $2 a piece? Well they've had quite the makeover!

I was worried about how painting would go but I figured if iut was bad I could always make a slip cover. The paint felt quite hard once it was painted but it was amazing what the wax did. It really softened it up.

By the way is it just me or is applying wax kind of romantic?? I don't know what the best method is meant to be but I have found the best way for me is to apply it with my hands and really massage it into the paint. Jules took one look at me applying wax and said "I suddenly want to be a chair".

DIY Delight or Disaster? Romance aside I would so do this again. The chairs look amazing and everyone who sits in them is like, $2?? No Way! Oh yes way my friends, yes way. Also I am loving the fact that I kept the wooden legs, total delight!

Any crafts get you thinking of romance??

Mel xo

Computer Cupboard or the one Where I promise I don't hate anyone named Amy

Have you ever had that project where everything goes wrong? Well this is without a doubt the worst one for me ever!

Winter Is Coming!

It sure is, it's starting to get a bit chilly at night in this part of the world.

So are you a Game of Thrones fan? If you're not this whole post is going to mean absolutely nothing to you, including the Winter Is Coming title apologies for that.

Spice Rack Bead Organiser

G'day.

I rarely get to do a bit of thrifting, but lately I have been stalking every single one looking for spice racks. I've seen countless pictures on pinterest where spice racks have been used for craft supplies and since I use spice jars for my seed beads it got me thinking.

Then I stumbled across this little beauty for $2, so excited and I am pretty sure my parents had one of these back in the 80's.

Anyway as much as I love Masterfood's I was after a different look. So I broke out the chalk paint and painted her up.

After I painted I kept thinking it needed a graphic or something, but once I put the beads in I think they give her a little sparkle and I'm glad I didn't add any extra.

DIY Delight or Disaster? Well I think it's a delight and I like having the beads sparkling I'm all about seed beads, cheap but pretty.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Bejeweled Bread Box

Hey Peeps,

So in love with this I could seriously gush and swoon...but I'm not really the swooning type.

So about a year ago I posted that I had thrifted this bread box, but I had actually bought it in November 2012 and it promptly went into the garage much to Julian's horror. He loves when I bring things home and store it in the garage (yeah right!)

Anyway, continuing my chalk paint love I decided that I needed to paint her up. After I finished painting, I knew I was terrified of trying a transfer methond didn't want a graphic but she did need something. Anyway I had these ruby coloured glass knobs and I thought that would give her the vintage glam look that I wanted.

I LOVE it. I love how the glass reflects against the white wood, way better than the original wooden knob. I just think she is so pretty now, in fact too pretty to put ion my kitchen and have the kids maul her so I think she's going to stay in my craft room as storage, then again I may change my mind.


DIY Delight or Disaster? Oh she has delighted me more than words can say. This I have decided, is the look I want, white lots of white, white, with a little wood, bling and glass. It only took me a year and a half of blogging to find out what I like and I'm loving it, we have been doing some serious DIYing in the house. Oh man how I do LOVE Autumn! I'm loving red as an accent colour but I also love that I can swap it out any time I like.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Craft Room Caddy

Even though my craft room is finished, I still need to add to it from time to time.

I needed a little caddy to keep all my seed bead jars together and a while back you might remember that I made this one below for fathers day but never got around to finishing it.

Thread Holder

Well every sewer needs a place to store their threads, and what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't include some sort of monogram? So here it is!

Craft Room Reveal

Woot it's finally done!! Okay so I'm going to gush a bit because I'm in love with this room, but before i do I have to tell you about a little song. Prior to having this room for myself my craft area used to change positions on a regular basis. This of course meant my stuff could be found in every room of the house, therefore Samuel and Julian used to sing the following ditty:

Craft area, craft area, where will you be today?

Sounds innocent enough but became really annoying, really quick, okay onto the room.

First here's the before shots







And now here's what it looks like! Also here is where I hate myself for not having a decent camera or any type of real photography skills.









I hope you all noticed how I vacuumed the floor for you.

DIY Delight or Disaster? The room took a lot longer than I thought, however I'm glad! I'm glad because I learned that patience results in something you love. There were times where I didn't quite have everything I wanted, rather than make do I waited. There were times where I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I waited and I'm so glad I did. Popping into this room brings me so much joy and this room is a result of all the skills I've learned as well as the patience, something I rarely have.  Delight!

Craft area, craft area, where will you be today?

Here and I really can't believe it's the same room, and that it's all mine!


So, what do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Turn Your Door Into A Planner

There are days where I do things or say things and Jule's looks at me with such a skeptical expression, usually followed by an eye roll, that I start to wonder whether or not I am doing the right thing...then I think I'll prove him wrong, sadly for me he knows me quite well. This planner was one of them.

I have had both computer and camera issues so you may note some posts a little lacking in pictures, for a little while, although this is pretty self explanatory.

By nature I am a little more go with the flow, I crave to be one of those super organised people and every year I buy a diary with the promise that this year I won't be the mother buying a packet of chips for the Christmas party because I forgot it....and every year I fail.

Once a year I make a fabulous menu board with the idea I am going to meal plan and be really good about these things, I used to do it, but for some reason don't any more, sadly after about 3 weeks they go unused, I currently have two on display mocking me.

So when I told Jul'es I was running up to Bunnings for some chalkboard contact paper he said, do we really need another planner, I wonder the same thing. You can also get it from Amazon here

Sticky Back Chalkboard Contact Paper Roll 17.75" X 29.5" -Great for Walls

Turns out I like this one, I may or may not keep it up but, with the craft room being attached to my bedroom I have to see it every morning before I shower, hopefully that will be great motivation.

I just cut out some shapes by hand so no cutter needed, although I did use my Zing for the lettering, and I like it it.

DIY Delight or Disaster? hmm well I like it but asked me in 6 months if I am using it, then I can give you the answer, for now I like it so Delight!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo