I was lucky enough to find a couple of mid century modern dining chairs
on ebay, but the covers were dull as ditchwater and needed replacing. I found a
great upholstery fabric at https://www.craftysewer.com/
that gives more than a nod to mid century. I loved the colours on the underside
of the fabric so I have used it reverse side up.
You will need
Screw driver
Fabric
Stapler
Scissors
Tape measure
Step 1
Unscrew the seat from the frame.
Step 2
Place seat on fabric, and cut out the fabric including a 4in overlap.
Step 3
Staple on the fabric at each of the 4 corners, as shown in the picture.
Step 4
Fold and turn the edge fabric over each side of the chair and staple
into position. Screw the newly covered seat back onto the chair.
Hessian, Fringing and all things textural
are still going strong as an interior trend. So I thought I’d buy some fringing
and upcycle an old lampshade. I am very pleased with the result.
You will need
Lamp Shade
Glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors
Roll of Hessian Fringing
1.Wrap the fringed hessian round the base
of the shade and add an extra centimeter and then cut.
2. Stick the first band of fringing to the
bottom of the lamp so the edge of the fringe is parallel to the edge of the
lamp.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 sticking the
fringing so it just touches the row below.
Do this until the lamp is covered in fringing.
4. Pull away the cord that holds the
fringing together on all the rows and then put it on the lamp base.
If you’ve been reading the press recently,
you may have seen the headlines about how many Christmas wrapping papers are
none recyclable. So we waste lots of resources on something we then cannot get
rid or reuse. So apart from it being fun why not print your own Christmas
wrapping paper and save the planet at the same time.
You
will need
Cutting board
Kitchen knife
Tape or string
Acrylic or poster paint
Potatoes
Kitchen paper
Spare sheet of paper to practice on
Brown wrapping paper
Lid of a food storage box
½ inch Paint brush
Instructions
Step 1
Using the kitchen knife cut the potato in half and then score and cut out your design from one half. Choose a simple design such as a star or a stylized Christmas tree.
Step 2
Press your potato onto to kitchen paper to get rid of the excess starch. Pour some paint onto the lid.Using a paint brush apply paint to the stamp you have just made. Try the design out on a piece of scrap paper. Print on the brown paper.
Step 3
Leave the paper to dry and then wrap it round your parcel, tying it with stringand adding a bit of foliage as decoration.
You need this book if you are doing any of the following:
You regularly buy things to
replace items you already own because you can’t lay your hands on them right
now.
You regularly lose your
glasses, keys, phone and tv remote. Or if like me recently, when the night
before I was to fly to Armenia I couldn’t locate my passport. It was 2 hours of
anxiety and turning everything in the house upside down before I found it.
You have said any of the
following in the last month:
‘ I have to go through those‘ ‘Someone might need that’ ‘It’s still got wear in it’ ‘It might come in usefulone day’
Unlike other books on this subject, Debora
does not expect you to totally readjust your world to minimalist living. She
offers practical advise including allowing a certain amount of time to clear
up. She suggests buying a kitchen timer and using it. Decide how much time you
can spend on a task on any given day and just spend that amount of time and no
more. She suggests keeping a diary of what you wish to achieve and offers tips
on what you need to do daily, weekly and monthly and even how to clear up if
you only have a spare ten minutes.
She gives information on how and where to get
rid of useful unwanted items. I have made so many visits to charity shops
during the last month!
I am a craft author and run workshops so I
am a great one for collecting all kinds of tools, materials and ephemera. ‘Oh
that will come in handy sometime”. Reading that Debra writes on cookery and
gardening I realized that her pile of stuff probably bears a resemblance to my
own. So I am even more impressed.
What this book does, is encourage you to
create new habits that will enhance your life.
I knew this book was good because as I was
reading it, my friends kept asking if they could borrow it after me. Well it is
a great book based in reality and full of practical advise and No you can’t
borrow it. I’m keeping my copy and authors like Debora deserve people to buy
their words of wisdom. So go out and buy your own copy, you won’t regret it.
I was recently given some enormous, if somewhat bruised, windfall quinces. So as a great lover of cheese I decided to make some quince jelly, sometimes known as quince cheese. Suffice to say as soon as I wanted to make the jelly I couldn’t find a recipe. Then I found buried amongst all my other cookery books a slim volume called WI Book of Jams and other preserves written by Pat Hesketh and published in 1984. It has over 100 recipes tried and tested by the women’s institute.
So I turn to the page for Quince Cheese, on the same and facing page were recipes for cumberland rum butter, apple butter, marrow orange cream and bramble cheese. Fruit butters are a softer consistency than cheeses and are usually spiced and should be hermetically sealed. They are usually served as a spread. Cheeses are cooked to a stiff consistency and set in small moulds so that they can be turned out for serving and cut into wedges.
Quince Cheese
500g quinces chopped into roughly 1cm pieces
500g sugar
water
Instructions
Wash the quinces and cut up into pieces
Place in a pan and barely cover with water.
Cover and cook until reduced to a pulp.
Pour through a sieve and weigh the liquid. (discard what is left in the sieve).To each 500g of liquid add 500g of sugar.
Cook over a low heat to dissolve the sugar.
Continue cooking until a thick consistency is obtained.
When a spoon is drawn across the base of the pan, it should leave a clean line.
Pour into prepared moulds. I used small glass pots used for ‘Gu’.
Make some fabric tops by cutting out circles with pinking shears.
Dunelm have pulled out all the stops and come up with some lovely home wear product for the end of this year and going into next year. They are even selling artificial cacti, flowers and plants. They had a very personable and enthusiastic Anna from Jar and Fern running a terrarium workshop, although she admitted to me this was the first time she had used fake cacti. The results looked pretty impressive.
Steven Rowe the head designer describes of home wares at Tesco describes spring /summer 2019
“In Fox & Ivy , the focus is on artisan, with watercolour illustrations, chunky weaves and hand-painted decals elevating the finer details. It’s finished with flashes of matt and shine lustre, alongside a colour palette that’s decadent while remaining light, fresh and floral for the season.”
