Painting

I've been having a few technical hitches with the photo's but these are fixed now. Meanwhile, I have been decorating the conservatory. I use this room a lot as my workroom as the light is so good, but it does get a bit (lot) untidy, so I gave it a good springclean. I cleaned the windows, washed the blinds and repainted the few bits of wall that it has. I also sorted out the furniture something that I have been meaing to do for about a year. Last year a friends mum died and he asked me if I wanted her sewing box, so I said yes. It contained quite a few treasures, but the box itself was an old oak veneer type which didn't really go with the other furniture in the conservatory (or anywhere in my house). So I have finally painted the box and stencilled roses on the front. It now houses sewing paterns in the actual box, knitting and crochet patterns on the shelf below and there is a little draw that now contains my knitting needles.



I put up a shelf to house some of the items I have glass painted over the years and also to hang the picture my daughter made me when she was recovering from appendicitis.


And remember the dress in the last blog, well when I finished it I still had some material left that I had cut off the skirt - from the skirt itself and the lining. I combined these with a few other bits of material, some ribbon (from the shrug) and some lace that I inherited from my nan and had two new cushion covers for my chair.



I'm really rather pleased with the finished look, but I do wonder how long it will stay tidy once I start sorting out the materials for new projects.

I'm just starting on a posh top and culottes for my daughter, she has a presentation evening and a ball to go to in the next few months, but she refuses to wear a dress so I've sorted out a top and culottes pattern for her. They will take some adapting as the smallest size they go to is a womans size 10, my daughters only eleven and so doesn't really quite fit into womans sizes yet. I have some nice blue taffeta that was given to me many years ago by my mother-in-law, it's electric blue which is a really suits my daughters colouring (and also appeals to her hatred of anything to 'girly' as it's not pink!). As she has quite short hair, I'm trying to convince her to let me make a covered alice band with a little bow to match, but I'm still working on that one.