… from a piece of vintage crochet
… without doing any damage to the original piece!

You probably won’t remember, but some time ago I fashioned a sweet little shrug which people got pretty excited about. I said at the time that it was total fakery & that made me look much cleverer than I really am.

I haven’t found any of the square tablecloths at the op shop for the longest time & then a few weeks ago I got lucky (& found four in one store).

Obviously someone’s gran has spent countless hours on the hook working up the table cloths & I think it’s a crying shame to leave them languishing in the op shop. This little how to is totally non destructive as we are utilising the holes made by the original crochet pattern. So, at any time I can snip the line of chain & use the cloth as … wait for it … a cloth!

Please note…this garment is sized “one size fits some”. You’ll need to trial the shrug as it depends on the size of the original cloth etc.

So you know how I blathered on a couple of weeks ago about how much I was in love with Instagram? I wondered if something good would come of it…well it has!!!

Always looking to change things up I fashioned a macro lens for the phone! I got all excited over on instagram about it & now I’ve made a how to so you can do it too. Hooray for that I say…so I have saved the mind blowingly good content for the blog eh?

Anyway … I used more bits of broken lens from the camera lamp affair (lucky I don’t chuck stuff out). The corner was fashioned using a product called Sugru. I found this product via Swiss Miss last year & frankly anything with the slogan “hack things better” is a product I need to have. It’s brilliant brilliant stuff. So thank you Swiss Miss & thank you Sugru.

So off you go & make a macro lens corner for your phone – it was a quick & easy project. Maybe I’ll see you (& your macro shots) over on instagram @kootoyoo. xx

It’s our best ever tree!

I think it looks like something that Dr Suess would have dreamed up. Completely invented on the run by me in a last ditch effort to avoid the goat’s vomit (my friend Rach says this & I’m totally claiming it) trees of the last couple of years.

The kids & I made it together (in about 10 minutes) from stuff we had lying around the house. Totally inspired by the how does your garden grow idea we’ve hung our only felt decorations on the tree. These gorgeous mini stockings were made by & gifted to my kids by my sister a couple of years ago. I’m heading out to Spotty now to buy more felt so that we can fuzzy felt the entire tree.

How we did it…

-Cut a semi circle of fake turf & form into cone shape.

-Hunt our a couple of mailing tubes & a broom stick. Insert the broom stick into the base tube & fill the base tube with something heavy (sand maybe? – we used metal shot). Make sure your broomstick is roughly centred. Place the other mailing tube (or tin can perhaps) upside down on top of the broom stick & then place your cone of turf on top.

-Mad dash to your nearest craft store for felt to make decos.

I’ll be sure to take pics once the decs are finished.

I made this calendar on the weekend from stuff we had at lying around at home … & you can too.

I just used paper doilies in varying sizes. I folded each doily in half & trimmed half the “lace” off so that they looked more delicate when pegged to the line. I printed the numbers 1-24 on an A4 label sheet & then cut & stuck them to the face of the doily.

I printed off a list of advent (or just for fun) activities & cut them into strips. Then each activity was folded & glued into the little envelope. I used hot glue because I’m all about the speedy quick.

I just strung up three lines of string & mini pegged the little envelopes of love to those. Best of all the outlay for this project was zero dollars as I had everything in the craft cupboard!

I really love this idea for a “guest book” at a wedding. Little paper wishes for the future…& private too…for them to open when the excitement of the day is over.

How does your garden grow?

These little activity packs are being given to all the small people on the nice list this year.  Each activity pack contains a circle of artificial turf, 12 squares of colourful felt & a pair of scissors.

It’s a bit fuzzy felt isn’t it?  Just a super cute gift idea that I thought you might like to have a crack at too.

You don’t need a “how to” … it’s really just a shopping list.

You’ll need to buy…
mailing tubes (I used 60mm x 420mm)
scissors (test they fit inside the tube)
A4 single page labels so that you can print the “artwork”
felt (I bought mine from Winterwood & cut the squares to size)
artificial grass (you want the cheapest nastiest stuff they have so that it grabs onto the felt)

You’ll need to print…

how does your garden grow (link to original for print)

&

grass (link to original for print)

Knock yourselves out.