Tea Towel Cushions

Now that little Elliot has moved himself to a 4 hourly feeding routine, I am getting a bit more time to work on a few projects around the house, which I am really enjoying!

This week I found these two great cotton tea towels from Bed, Bath and Table. I loved the bright colours on the plain white background and I thought they would be great to add a bit of colour to Rosie's bed.

Best of all, tea towels are MUCH cheaper than buying fabric by the metre and given our limited budget and my passion for updating our cushions more often than needed, this was a great option.

For several years now, I have seen lots of people make cushions out of tea towels in all my favourite home magazines. I always planned to do it myself, but never seemed to have the time to really look around for some that I liked.

I am increasingly finding myself drawn to bright colours lately, but am too scared to commit to anything permanent, like painting walls in bright colours! Instead I am trying to add more 'pops' of colour around the house instead.

If you are planning on making tea towel cushions (or any cushions for that matter), I strongly recommend you prewash the fabric first. This was a tip I learned from my sewing guru, Karen and she was right. The finish is far better when the fabric has been washed as often shrinkage occurs, especially in cotton.

I pulled out my sewing machines on a beautiful sunny afternoon during Elliot's sleep, and whipped these up before the afternoon school pick up. Every time I make something on my machines, I am filled with such a sense of satisfaction at creating something, that I wonder why I don't do it more often.

I made the triangle bunting tea towel into a small rectangular cushion by folding it in half and adding a zip. I wanted a standard square cushion out of the leaf fabric, so had to use some plain linen fabric I already had for the back.

Rosie was thrilled with them when she saw them and I am already on the search for more tea towels... :)

Nursery Progress: Driftwood Mini Hanging Wardrobe

One of the challenges of creating a gender neutral nursery has been finding the motivation to tackle some of the projects I had in mind for the room. I really enjoy hunting for bedding and special touches for a specific gender and in the absence of this knowledge, I have held off committing to anything other than plain white and grey, which I admit is rather boring.

Our driftwood hanger.

A few months ago I was browsing one of my favourite blogs, The Happy Home and came across an idea I fell in love with. The talented Belinda had created a super cute driftwood hanger to hang her new baby's clothes from and I vowed to keep an eye out for something similar on our next trip to the beach.

Fiddling with fishing line to get the height just right.

When we visted Rangitoto Island as a family after Christmas, we found a few pieces of driftwood that we popped into our backpacks and then promptly forgot about for a few months.

Voila! Driftwood hanger complete.

A couple of days ago we finally got around to this little project (the nesting instinct has now kicked in!) and my patient husband was super obliging and hung my driftwood hanger for me. Isn't it cute?

Cube storage

The best thing about this little DIY project is that it costs virtually nothing! We just used fishing line and a couple of little screw in metal eyelets in the ceiling. I wouldn't like to hang anything too heavy on it, but it is perfect for baby clothes. :)

Belinda's nursery picture that inspired me so many months ago.

The Block

Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you the obsession that I have with this fantastic show! 

Rather embarrassingly, I am a reality TV fan from way back and have had a long time love of the DIY genre in particular. No surprises there.

The way that calm is created out of chaos really appeals to me and this show has a bit of everything I love...drama, DIY, fun and of course, beautiful rooms!

This year The Block is set in Richmond, Melbourne and there are four couples working on the most dilapidated worker's cottages you have ever seen. Each week they complete one room in the house (and on occassion, two!) and are judged. The winning team gets extra money to help out the next week and by golly, it is good TV.

Josh and Jenna's Spare Bedroom..love the pallet bed!

I love all the couples and their rooms are fantastic. I particularly love Josh and Jenna and Katrina and Amie. Their styles are rigt up my alley and each week I drool at what they come up with.

Sigh, I want an office like Josh and Jenna's

 Our whole family loves The Block and even Rosie and Harry will sit down and watch it for a little while and offer their opinions on who will win that week.

Dream big!

In fact, this show has got us so excited that we are thinking of replicating a similar approach in our own house to boost the motivation. :) Obviously we can't finish a room a week with our working shedule but we are thinking a room a month 'might' be possible. Downstairs has been neglected for the past year (due to the water issues we faced) and has been stripped bare. We are in the middle of getting the new drainage laid and there are no more leaks so now is the time to get moving.

Katrina and Amie's winning lounge

We have three rooms to sort down there. A study and two bedrooms, one of which we would like to make into a kids TV and playroom. The bathroom is semi complete apart from the 1970's shower but it is still the preferred shower of most of the people who stay with us! Our goal is to tackle the painting of all the rooms first, while the flooring is up and paint splatters on the ground won't matter. I am under intructions from Taff that I must choose the colour by the week's end. Given that it took for several months to decide upstairs, I really better get moving. :)

Centsational Girl

Prepare to be inspired! A few weeks ago I discovered a new favourite blog...

Centsational Girl.

This woman has the most amazing talent and I am in love with all her ideas, especially her Project Gallery. As the name suggests, this blog is all about maximum style on a budget and reinventing old neglected pieces and giving them another life. 

I loved this Project Art Gallery Wall that she created for her children in a blank space in their home. Her aesthetic really appeals to me and I love the way she used what she had and turned it into something special.

She painted the mismatched floating shelves white, she covered the desk with fabric and jazzed up a plain white lamp. Art from her children added colour and I love the finished product!

One of the best things about her site is the advice she gives on how to prepare and paint almost any surface, including plastic and glass! Do check it out if you are in need of some DIY inspiration. :)