Wednesday 31 October 2012

An Awesome Spider

Really??? A Spider - Awesome???

If you know me well (or even not so well) you will know I'm an arachnophobe of note! I have an abnormal fear of spiders - ABNORMAL I tell you  - and I have no shame in saying, that I am instilling that fear in my kids too - Nope I cant even pretend!

My dear husband takes great joy in teasing me with "rescued" spiders that he is removing from the house, usually dangling from his fingers by their creepy thready things....shudder.....
So a few months ago when getting into the car for the school run - something dropped onto the car door! 

If I had seen it was a spider I would have run inside the house screaming, leaving the kids to deal with it (don't judge me!)

But it looked like a bug....

Look.....LOOK!!!!

Have you ever seen anything like it? Really??


So yes I raced inside, but it was to grab my old camera, so I could have proof of this strange beastie...

The kids and I were fascinated, discussing back and forth if it was a bug or spider.... it had 8 legs after all....

Then it WEBBED..... and dropped down the inside of the car, and we screamed - okay so I screamed and the kids squealed..... and it landed on the ground!

Eew eew...crazy dance ( I looked like I was doing the highland fling) Kids loved it!

We were late for school so I promised the kiddos I would rescue it if it was still there when I got home....

Umm....I may have squashed it in my hurry to run away get to school!

There was a spidey sized splat when I got back home.....

Of course it was the first thing asked of me when I picked them up 6 hours later! Seriously? They thought about it that long?

But I did research the spider - and it was at least a 2 hour search!
 Just before I gave up, convinced it was probably just a bug - I found it....Its a Two Spined Spider

Poecilopachys Australasia
Okay whatever its doing with that spindly black leg (shudder) its freaking me out!

I'm not the only one talking about unusual spiders at the moment either .... check out Debbie's (from Debbiedoos), garden spider. Its cool - but I would not get past the garden gate with that monster residing there! 
Sorry Debbie, but I hope you're sleeping with one eye open!!!

Happy Halloween Everybody...

Be safe

xxx
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Tuesday 23 October 2012

Beachy Side Table

Hey Everyone,

So...We are headed into Summer here (YAY), and what better time to show you my beach inspired table makeover...

 I had this awful bedside table for ages. What to do with it? Well I painted it blue because I thought I would use it in my bedroom and have a blue, white and brown colour scheme. What was I thinking?

Anyone who knows me would wonder why I didn't paint it white? Because lets face it - I'm pretty predictable with my love of everything white...
 

And I decided I didn't need it in my room after all, but we do need it in the living room.

So of course it would be white!!!!And beachy...

I got hubby to sand all the blue off and we got right back down to the wood. Once that was done I painted a quick coat of charcoal coloured paint over the whole table. When it was dry - I ran a candle along the edges and corners.


I totally forgot to take a picture of just the white table - who does that?? 

But I did take a photo of how the white paint just flakes off with the candle wax. I love it - so easy. I took a piece of scrap cloth and gently rubbed along the edges.

 
   To do a shell theme to match my barstools , I used the shell from My Wonderful Walls. I enlarged it and printed on to cardstock , then cut it out and used it as a stencil. 
It looked a little plain, so after much deliberation as to what words I would add - I settled on Sun, Sand and Seashells. 
I used 3 different fonts from Picmonkey, printed onto card, and cut them out to make a stencil.

Using the same charcoal as the base coat of the table - I carefully sponged the paint over the stencil. 

It worked - sigh of relief...


Once the stencil was dry, I sanded the whole table lightly and distressed the top again. I wanted the stencil to blend in with the white. Then I polished and polished the whole table to protect the surface.


Hubby also added a new drawer pull , and I popped in a wicker basket for added storage.
 

I'm really loving it in the sitting room. The drawer and basket are full of kids things and that's cool too. 

It's cute and functional!!


Take care

xxx

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Boogieboard Cottage



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TDC Before and After

Thursday 18 October 2012

My Spring Garden


I've been neglecting my blog, I'm really sorry - but I will be back!!!!

I'm really busy getting ready for the craft market next month and that means building up stock and I'm up late into the night working so my poor blog is taking a bit of a back seat.

Last night, Gabe needed some images for a school project about his back garden so I put together the above collage for him. I've been so busy I havn't really noticed that life is beginning to come back to our garden - yay!

Our family of hedgehogs are back into the bin bags left outside and the flowers are in full bloom....not to mention the millions of birds that seem to love our garden...


 Hope you are all having a great week

Take care

xxx

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Thursday 11 October 2012

The Forest Floor - A Bracelet


Hey Everyone,

I am very excited and nervous to be exhibiting and selling my jewelry at a Craft Market next month. More nervous than excited to be honest!

I have decided to run 3 lines in my collection, Beach, Earth/Nature and Bohemian.

You have seen most of my Beach range and few items from my Nature range. Today I wanted to show you my latest memory wire bracelet from my Nature line - The Forest Floor! 

I used glass beads, seed beads and wood beads to achieve this look.

I'm really liking it, its different - what do you all think?
 

Here are a few more items from my Nature line...


Have a great day and be back soon

xxx




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Sunday 7 October 2012

Silver Ring Makeover


For those of you who've been around my blog a while, you'll know how I love to recycle or upcycle my  jewelry, making new pieces out of old....

Look what I got my Sean to make for me last weekend.

Sigh.... is it not gorgeous???
 

First up let me tell you that Sean was very, VERY skeptical when I proposed my plan to him. But he eventually agreed that if I didn't kill blame him if it all went wrong then he would do my bidding...

I have a wide band Sterling Silver ring that I love but it was in need of a makeover or a good polish and an odd earring that I don't think has ever had a partner.
 

 So.... Sean drilled a teeny tiny hole in the ring with his special drill bit. 

Note how he made the hole on the dented side of the ring - just in case it looked awful. He was really surprised how hard silver is to drill through.

He applied some E6000 glue to the underside of the earring and pushed it through the hole and left it to set. Once that was done, I snipped the long bit off the back of the earring and Sean polished the inside of the ring with his drill thingy again, so that it wouldn't scratch my finger.


Now I have a beautiful new ring....I just love it!
 

I think it may actually be my favourite piece of jewelry ever...



Happy weekend everyone

xxx

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