Our Pretty Home

Every now and again I tweet (@QueenThrift) a picture of something delicious and wonderful from around our home. I've since received a few requests for more! This is music to my ears, because I love nothing better than spending the day in second-hand shops or car boot sales rummaging for pretty thrifty finds.

Voilà! Ask and you shall receive. Here are some of my favourite pieces from my two favourite rooms in our home. The Family/Living Room and the Reading Room:

THE BASEMENT (our Family/Living Room):

Too nice to keep outside

Our 6 year old's artwork

Big fan of old boxes as storage

We <3 Studio Ghibli

Even the basement door is beautiful!

Monochrome kids dvd shelves (and some art from Cuba)

My fella is a genius! Homemade entertainment unit.

GROUND FLOOR (Reading Room):

I bought Jesus from Angel market. Haggled to £20 as he has no arms!

To think, my folks wanted to throw that telly away!

Upcycled lampshade from a colander.

Totoro's home

I made these cushion from bird seed sacks.

Toy House

Young children always seem to play with lots of small toys, as opposed to one big toy. My six year old in particular likes to play with army toys, and, as a result, has a growing number of little army men, tanks and helicopters.

In order to restore a bit of tidyness into his bedroom, I decided to make him a thrifty 'home' for these. The material I used were an old shoe box, a pair of scissors and some army tape - bought from an army surplus store (but also available on eBay).

I simply wrapped the box in the tape, to cover the pink writing. I also cut a whole into the side of the box for the men to climb in and out of. It took about five minutes to make, but looks really effective.

Handmade 2012: A Mouse House

Goodnight Mrs Mouse. Goodnight baby Mouse... Ok ok, so they're not mice. Clearly they are some kind of dog/ bear Sylvanian Family. Regardless, this a simple homemade present to melt the heart of any little girl.

To start with, you need a box. I used a small (about 4" x 4") gift box I found in my craft trunk. I then lined the box with some pretty wrapping paper.

For the duvet, I used two pieces of scrap material, sandwiched a small amount of wadding in the middle and sewed it shut. The same method was used for the pillow, in a co-ordinating fabric.

 All that is needed now is the mouse (or other animal) to live in the house. The result? A simple, thrifty gift.

Recent Thrifty Puchases

I spend most Sunday's browsing car boot sales, I check out the charity shops at least once a week and I try as much as possible to peruse flea markets and street markets.

As a result, our house is filling up nicely with quirky pieces, I'm finding many items to upcycle and gift to friends and family, and after summer I shall be launching into a new business venture concerning all things Thrifty. Watch this space....

Some of my recent purchases include:

Pretty plates - £2

Picnic hamper - £5

Old map - £1.50

Gorgeous lace doilies - £4 for 12

Adidas bag - £1

Selection of glassware - £1.80

Wooden cutlery tray - £1

 

Handmade 2012: Father's Day Present Ideas

With Father's Day just around the corner, I've been thinking of present ideas that my little one and I can make for the various dad figures in our lives. In my experience, a handmade present is always more gratefully received on such occasions as it shows more thought has gone into personalising the day. So if you're stuck for thrifty inspiration, look no further!

Earlier this year I made several superhero outfits for some of my son's friends. Why not adapt this idea and sew a cape on a tee shirt for your dad.

Simply cut your chosen fabric to size, pin on to the tee shirt, and then sew into place. You could even use fabric pens/paints to design a Superdad motif on the front. He'll love running around the garden pretending to be a superhero. You could even buy him a new pair of pants and make him wear them over his trousers!

Or why not upcycle some cufflinks? For my friend Jim's birthday recently I bought a pair of basic cufflinks fastenings and personalised them. I used a glue gun to attach scrabble tiles of his initials to each cufflink. But Lego pieces, buttons or old coins would work equally well. Poundland are currently selling cufflinks for £1 so this would be a very cheap but lovely gift for the dad in your life.

Another easy present idea would be to make them a cork notice board, using cork's from wine bottles. When I made mine a few years ago I collected corks over about two months, but I've now realised you can buy the corks from home brewing shops and online.

All that is needed is to buy a large-ish photo frame and a piece of card to fit in it. Then glue the corks onto the card. Maybe attach a photo of the two of you with a pin, as a nice finishing touch.

For a lovely handmade present from the little ones, get arty. My son has just made some Jackson Pollock inspired photo frames for friends of his. Using plain wooden photo frames, he splattered different coloured paints over them. I think the frames cost £1.20 for a pack of three from Ikea. This technique would also work well to decorate a 'man box' for dad's, to keep their odds and ends in. S.C.R.A.P blog has some useful tips for this.

Photo taken from S.C.R.AP. blog

I would love to hear about any more 'man' present ideas you've had. Drop me an email at Thrift-Queen@hotmail.co.uk or Tweet me @QueenThrift and have fun making!

Handmade 2012: Magnetic Reminder Pegs

I am forever making lists, and wanted somewhere pretty to keep them. Thus, I decided to make a batch (one to keep, some to gift) of these Magnetic Reminder Pegs.

The up-cycled pegs look pretty and are very cheap and simple to make. I started with some basic wooden clothes pegs, which I bought for 99p from Wilkinsons.

I then painted them in my chosen colours, using tester pot paints. Many moons ago, when I was into making greeting cards, I bought a few packs of rub on alphabets [similar to the ones pictured below] from Hobbycraft. These came in handy for creating the words on each peg.

Rub on alphabet

Then all that was left to do was add a magnet to the back. I like to use a sticky magnetic strip that can be cut to size. And Bob's your uncle (well actually he's my dad). Thrifty, beautiful and cheap - my favourite formula!

Our Thrifty House Purchases

Since moving 150 miles, myself and my better half have spent a large proportion of our time scouring flea markets, car boot sales and antique fairs looking for the perfect vintage (and cheap) accessories for our home. Here are some of our beautiful finds:

Left to right: a printing block tray £15, an old clarinet case £5, a 'Camp Coffee' box £15, an old trunk from WWII free, 2 bird seed bags £6, a painted fruit box £10 and a glimpse of our new kitchen table £90

Most of these items we already owned, but we bought the  pair of chairs (dating from the 1950's) from eBay for £52

We bought four apple crates for £20 each to use as kitchen shelves to display our favourite items of crockery. We lined them with vintage fabric, courtesy of my mother's fabric trunk!

The colander belonged to my late Gran. But with a broken handle, we up-cycled it to make this Ikea lamp a bit more 'us'

Possibly the best £17 we have spent so far. A beautiful set of vintage kitchen steps. With such high ceilings it is making reaching up for high up items a whole lot easier...