Making Mondays: Shelves - A Very Simple Before and After

When we moved to Istanbul, we thought that we would just try out living here for 12 months (it's now been almost 3 years!).  That and the pure ease, when you need a household worth of things quickly while shopping with a small baby in tow, meant that we have a lot of Ikea furniture!

So, a little while back I wanted to make these Expedit shelves, that we had picked up in the Ikea 'bargain corner', a little more interesting and put them in Yashar's room.   So I used high gloss enamel paint (a mix of white and blue) to paint the inside of some of the cubes.  I painted them carefully, making sure to wipe off any paint that got on to the front of the shelves, and making sure that runny drips didn't form in the paint as they dried.  I let it dry for a few days.

And that's it!  Finito!   A perfect home for Yashar's favourite toys and books (I secretly wish his collection of 70's matchbox cars were all mine!!)

Sale!

A little while back I posted here about how I was changing the size of all the prints in my shop.   Well that meant that I had a small amount of stock that was in the old sizing, so...it's sale time!   I have reduced the prices on these items a lot!....much more than my usual sales.  The sale stock is very limited - to see what's available click here and I hope you don't miss out on anything you have had your eye on!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Some making this week

The Pasha is finished and I've moved on to The Jane!

The Pasha was very straight forward - despite the lace pattern.  All I had to do was make sure I didn't lose where I was up to and it was easy! I haven't managed to take any good photos of it yet - but will soon.  But the Jane is even easier!

The pattern is also by Jane Richmond.

And these are the notebooks I made over the weekend for my sister's bricks and mortar shop Emily & Leo in St Kilda, -Melbourne, Australia.  (psss - she's having a little online sale at the moment!)  I posted about the prototypes here.   I was so happy with how they all came together. 

I've been thinking of offering personalised notebooks for the shop...what do you think?

New Work

Feeling wintery here.   This is a new personal piece I just finished this minute!

Have a great weekend!

V
xo

Making Mondays: The Pasha in Progress

Almost done with the Pasha hat I posted about on Friday! Hopefully I will finish it tonight...so more photos coming soon!

And these are some crochet squares that I was blocking last week for a custom order

...luckily I had a very helpful assistant!  (Don't worry -he's very careful with the pins)

Crafty Gatherings: Wintery Knitted Hats

Now that the cold weather has really hit here and we have a snowboarding trip planned (yeee!) I thought I might try knitting myself a hat.  I actually only rarely wear a hat a winter hat - the only time I wore one last year was when we had all that snow here - I think beanies always make me look slightly ridiculous!

So I went in search of a pattern that I hope will suit me!  I finally settled on this one:  The Pasha by Jane Richmond  I found it via Ravelry and bought the pattern there, but I now see that Jane has a etsy store here.

It's a lace pattern - which I haven't done much of before so fingers crossed.

Here is a photo of the Pasha and some others that made it to the shortlist (images are from the respective designers except for the Selbu Modern): 

The Pasha - Jane Richmond
The Jane - also by Jane Richmond

He Said She Said - Chic Knits
Selbu Modern - Kate Gagnon Osborn (image is by A Shrill Caramel of the hat she knitted - I love the colour combination she chose)

Mixed Tape

A mix of things to tell you about today.  The first is a new illustration I just finished working on (above).  The first result of my new year's resolution to work on my portfolio, spend time developing my technique and just creating!  Here is a little close up on the butterflies.

This is a gorgeous blanket that Sevim crocheted for a custom order that I sent out last week.  I love the colour combinations!  Poor Sevim has been in and out of hospital this week -  she accidentally breathed in some very toxic fumes.  So please send all your warmest thoughts to her!

A lovely lovely customer recently asked me to make my 'To' sticky address labels (that I use for all the orders I send out) available for sale.   After some very nice encouragement I thought 'why not!' So many of them are now making their way to her and I am off to list some more packages of them in the shop now.

And, finally, I spotted this tape via the Thompson Family-Life blog (love that blog!) today...isn't it gorgeous! - Image is from the Thompson Family Life blog.   The tape is from Sassy Talk Cafe - an etsy shop full of supplies from Japan and Korea - cute!

Making Mondays: Valentine's Day Cards

A quick little bit of making today for Yashar and I today...it involved glitter so of course Yashar loved it!

To make them:

1. We used the new valentine's day printable cards I just put in the shop which makes it easy to make lots of these - but you might have a suitable image or perhaps draw something yourself on some nice card stock.  (I printed ours on some lovely textured card stock).

2. I painted some craft glue on the heart using a paint brush.

3.  Yashar glittered!   I like these shaker style glitters we have at the moment - a little more controlled for when a certain 3 year old shakes out as much glitter as possible!  Be sure to put a piece of paper underneath to catch the extra glitter so you can use it again.

Finished!  This was quick, fun and simple - perfect because there was quite a few to make.

Notebooks for Emily & Leo

These are some notebooks I designed for my sister's beautiful new shop in Melbourne - a flagship store for her label Emily & Leo - I'll have to get her to send some photos to post here!  I was lucky to get her Stripe Shoulder Detail shift for Christmas and have been wearing it all the time...actually I am even wearing it now!  I've been wearing it with black tights and my grey suede boots to drinks, and with jeans, boots and my grey military jacket during the day.   I love it!

I have also put them in my etsy shop here.

Of course, with my coffee addiction, I couldn't resist a caffe latte colour for some of the notebooks!

Making Mondays: Deer Party Pencil Case

I hope you all had a wonderful break and are full of fresh ideas and creativity for the new year!  I have been focusing on my goals for the year and hope to make it prolific!

This was a little gift that made it under the tree for Yashar.   When ever we go down to our local cafe I ask Yashar which toys he wants to take with him - often a colouring/activity book (like this beautiful one) and a pencil case full of pencils make the cut.  So I thought this might be appreciated- especially now that the cold weather has really hit - so trips to the park are few  - the cafe is the preferred and cozier destination- look at the cold crisp light in these photos...brrr!

I made it using the deer party fabric I got printed via Spoonflower (remember I posted about the sample here and wondered what I could make with it?)  The back is a lovely linen and the inside was tartan from a shirt of mine.   I used a free tutorial I found online...and now can't find again!  But if you google you should be able to find one easily enough...

This photo makes me think of a frog's mouth!  Please note the covered zipper ends...this is about as complicated as my sewing gets!  The sewing machine and I are definitely not the best of friends  :)