fancy-fied plant pots

I feel a little bogged down lately guys. It seems like quite a bit is getting done around here diy-wise (di-yise?) but actually getting things finished, photographed on the odd day when there's decent light and I have the energy to clean up and then actually blogged about is a lot of hard work. And I'm like, large and slow at the moment. Plus, it seems like all I want to write about right now is the kids, or being pregnant, and while the odd post like that is probably interesting for you guys, it's not what most of you come here for right?

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It's September!!! The start of my favourite time of year, tights, boots, fires, what's not to love? The leaves have started turning and I came home the other day to find that my mother in law had not only out out my washing to dry while she was minding the kids, but she'd gathered (and displayed!) this bunch of beautiful Autumn foliage for me.

She's a keeper.

I don't know what they are, but they came form a tree and are a beautiful, deep burgundy/purple colour. I think the add a lovely bit of drama to my sitting room.

So now I'm inspired! Last year I had every intention of making like my American brethren and making an Autumn wreath for the door, but this year I mean it, it's happening!

I found these pics on Pinterest and I'm in love with them all, so I may attempt something similar.

House of Jade Interiors Blog

Happiness is Homemade

Bren Did

Sondra Lyn At Home

Love them all!!! But the wreath is definitely happening, I'm determined. As soon as the leaves start to change around here we'll head out and the kids can help me gather some.

What do you think? Do you decorate your house for the seasons? I for one am already planning for Halloween!!


                           

diy essentials

Cute, but not helpful.

Hey everybody, how was your bank holiday? It was wet and dreary here in Limerick but we decided to suck it up and headed off to the Craggaunowen historical site where they had some great storytelling and re-enactments to celebrate the Lughnasa festival. We learned a making wool, ground flour to cook oatcakes over an open fire and rounded it off with a scone by a peat fire in the lovely cafe. It was a great day out and I thoroughly recommend it for adults and kids alike.

So todays post is about kit, basically. I was thinking how often I get asked how I manage to get projects done with kids around, and I suppose usually they happen randomly, whenever I get the time or when the mood takes me, without a lot of prep and a trip to B&Q! And I think the reason for that is that I have most of the essentials when it comes to DIY to hand, ready for me to jump right into a project whenever I get the chance, and I thought I'd share with you what they are.

In case you were planning on putting together a DIY "go-bag" or something.

It's not a long list, but if you keep these things knocking around your house then when the kids actually go to sleep on time on a day when you aren't totally exhausted you'll be able to get crap done without first planning an expedition for supplies.

So, you will need....

Basic tools

Every homeowner is going to need a few basic tools anyway, just for general upkeep, and they're used every week in our house. We use a drill, pliers, hammer and saw all the time. Add a measuring tape, a staple gun and a level and you're pretty much set for all eventualities.

We pick up most of our stuff in B&Q, they have all the basics you'll need in one place, and the prices are good. You don't need to go top of the range with this stuff, own brand works fine!

 

Once you have your tool kit assembled, start a...

Paint collection

Basically, there is always a can of my favourite Rustoleum gold spray paint and a tin of white gloss knocking around in our shed, along with the leftovers of every colour we've used so far in this house and a box full of testers. It just means that while I might not have a specific colour I'm looking for, I always have the paint to hand to do touch-ups, paint doors and skirting etc. You know, the boring jobs that no-one wants to do! But at least when the day comes that I think painting all the skirting in the hall seems like a great idea I'll be able to start the job before I come to my senses!

I also keep paintbrushes, masking tape, sandpaper and a cheap roller set in the shed for the same reason. 


And then, once you have you tools and paint to hand, sort out some...

Protective gear

Dust sheets, old sheets, whatever you have that will protect your floors and furniture from paint splashes, and something to protect yourself too.

You might think you're careful, trust me, you're not that careful.

Mine is currently a super chic ensemble consisting of a pair of too-short tracksuit pants and a t-shirt from a charity event, both covered in so much paint they practically stand up by themselves.

Stylish.

One day I'll kit myself up with some decent workwear, Engelbert Strauss Workwear have some great stuff, but until then I'll make do!

So there you have it, if you keep some basic bits and pieces to hand then you'll be able to move fast and get that wall painted on that magical day when the monsters are both having a nap and you've had so much coffee that you feel like you could paint the whole damn house in an hour. Striking while the iron is hot people, it's the only way to get DIY done with kids!

That, or giving them away for a few days. Thanks grandparents!!!

*this post was sponsored by Englebert Strauss Workwear

personalised cork board

Keep your eyes peeled people, the playroom reveal is coming this week! I've decided that I'm never going to do the couple of things I've been meaning to "finish off" in there so this is a good as it gets. I'm just waiting for the gods of good photo's to bless me with a bright day that happens to coincide with the room being tidy and I'm golden!

So basically don't hold your breath.

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my picks from H&M Ireland's new online store

Metal tray €14.99

H&M has finally given me access to their homewares by opening an online shop for Ireland! Finally! Now I can stop being jealous every time I see something amazing on a blog with "H&M home" under it. 

I had a good perv at all their offerings and I've gathered a few of my favourites together so we can lust after them together. Enjoy!

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amazing free download-able art!

Amazing free printable alert! My husband called me over to "show me something cool" this morning, and that usually means he's found either a picture of an animal so weird it should not exist or an epic Ron Swanson meme, but today what he had to show me was really worth the trip across the kitchen....Click here to read the rest of this post »

things I wish I'd known when I started doing up my house

                               


First of all, let me just say congratulations! Buying a house is a big step, and whether you have already moved in to your little piece of paradise or have just made the decision to start looking, it's a big step to take and I commend you.

If you've read the "about me" section of this blog you'll know that my path to house-ownership was far from a smooth one. Sometimes no matter how prepared you are things just don't go to plan (i.e. sellers can be absolute d*cks) and you find yourself gigantically pregnant a year after you thought you'd be in your new house, sneaking past the bank backwards lest your mortgage adviser behold your gravid state and retract your mortgage offer and desperately making bids on anything that even comes close to meeting some of your criteria! "Hey, who needs windows anyway? I personally don't even like natural light."

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easy diy geo diamond plant cage/ornament thingy

So yeah, I made a thing, out of straws, that I believe is quite pleasant and decorative!
It could be a sculptural, ornamental piece, you could turn it into a lamp shade pretty easily, you could use the same method to make wreaths etc for your wall, but I've opted to use mine as a....plant cage? Is that a thing? I feel like that's a thing. 
Whatever, I've got a tiny plant trapped in it, it's a frickin' plant cage as far as I'm concerned!

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Christmas tress for the space/cheer challenged

Mother o' gawd the weeks are flying by! I know it's been quiet around here of late but between taking a much needed little holiday away and getting my Christmas on with the mini monsters there just hasn't been a lot of time for photo editing and post-writing!

The natural habitat of the toddler is not tidy, and therefore not photo ready

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DIY Christmas mini marquee sign

Lighting is amazing. It can totally transform a space in seconds, and getting your lighting right is , in my opinion, the most important thing you can for your home.

That said, I am a sucker for a good lighting DIY, so when the lovely people at wayfair.co.uk approached me to see if I would like to create a Christmas craft tutorial for them (and I was like "hell yes!") it took about 0.00003 of a second for me to decide that this was what I would do. 

I've made one of these before and I love it so much that I really wanted a Christmas-specific one, plus I didn't do a proper tutorial first time round so this gave me the opportunity to remedy that.

The tutorial is live over on the wayfair site now, so if you want to find out to make this really cheap, easy and effective little sign then click the link and head on over ;)

http://www.wayfair.co.uk/Inspiration/Festive-DIY-Marquee-Sign-E10112

Disclaimer: I was given some items from the wayfair website free of charge in return for providing this tutorial but all opinions are, as always, totally my own. I only work with companies I really love and I think you will love too! Thank you for supporting the companies that support Make Do and DIY.

"This is why we can't have nice things", or, how to have small, fluid filled children and a beautiful home AT THE SAME TIME!!!

Wayfair gifted me this rug but all opinions are !00% my own. I wouldn't mention it if I didn't love it!

We have a lot of "accidents" around here. A "mostly potty trained but not always" little girl and a "thinks it's funny to fling food" little boy live here and they keep me pretty busy just running around after them making sure the place is just about clean enough so that they don't catch some hideous disease. 

Despite this, I am not willing to give up on having a beautiful home that reflects my taste. I just need to be a bit creative when it comes to the items that take a lot of abuse around here, and I thought you might be interested in hearing about what I found ;) 

So in no particular order, here are some of my life (and sanity!) savers:

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you know how you can pretty much paint anything?......

Finally, finally I am getting around to talking about the curtains for Max's room. It was a really easy and effective diy that I've been meaning to share for a long time, and the main hold up is basically that I'm a really crap amateur photographer and I couldn't get a decent picture of them. So I finally figured I'm not going to be buying a decent camera or taking a photography course anytime soon so I may as well make the best of what i have and just get on with it! So here we go....

*disclaimer ~ not only am I a crap photographer with bad tools but these photo's were taken pre-blog, in that scary time when I didn't know you shouldn't take photos at night!

I knew I wanted curtains with some sort of a print that would tie in with a woodland/camping theme, and after months of browsing fabric online and checking ever shop I came across that looked like it might have something suitable I accepted that I wasn't going to find anything that would cost less than €100 for the amount I would need....and that just wasn't happening! 

~ my entire spend on Max's room came to €101 in the end, so you can see how much expensive fabric just wasn't a possibility for me!

Honestly the patterns I was finding weren't really what i wanted anyway, so faced with the problem of coming up with modern, patterned, full length curtains to tie in with Max's room and with no possibilities (and no money even if there had been!) I did what I always do....I went to pinterest! I typed in "diy curtains" and lo and behold there were a million tutorials for painted curtains.

~ I did this project before I did the painted rug for Em's room - this was project 0!

I already had a few pairs of cheap curtains I had gotten last year in Guiney's (they were €5.99 a pair but they were Laura Ashley so I presume they're seconds, there isn't anything wrong with them that I can see so I snapped up four pairs to add to my hoard!) so all I needed was a pattern....and a way of applying it.

I settled on arrows as my image. I've seen them all over recently and I really love them. I originally thought I would cut a stencil and paint over it to create the pattern, but then I realised that seeing as my image was so simple it would be easy to make a stamp...and that would be waaaayyyyy quicker when it came to painting, and more accurate too, win/win!

With this as my plan I picked up a piece of foam from a craft shop, cut my arrow shape out of it and stuck it to another thicker piece of foam (you could use thick cardboard for this too)

I had a tester pot of paint in my chosen colour all ready to go.

~I've mentioned it before, but Valspar testers are really generous, there's more than enough for most small projects. I used less than half a pot for the curtains, and I've painted my whole fireplace with one in the past-two coats!

I added fabric medium to the paint to make sure I could wash them.

Then I tested out my stamp...

And off I went! I applied the paint to the stamp with a brush to make sure I didn't get too much on it. It took about two hours to do the whole thing, and then I let them dry overnight before ironing them (to set the fabric medium) and hanging them up.

                  

I must say I love them. They're exactly what i wanted and they cost me less than €10 all told!

What do you think? Would you ever paint a pair of curtains?

                                                 Linda xx

                         

Max's room reveal! Finally!

I did it! I finally finished a frickin' room! In it's entirety!!!

*pauses to wait for applause*

Thank you, thank you, yes, I'm very proud of myself ;P

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adding some colour to the garden (when you can't grow flowers!)

This summer has been a total bust. 

To give you a visual of how much of a bust it has been...as I write this there is rain pounding down so hard outside that it is actually crushing the couple of flowers I did manage to grow, grrr!!! Bloody Irish weather! 

I had visions of spending our first summer in this house sitting out in the garden, surrounded by flowers, having barbecues, you know, generally enjoying finally having some outside space after living in a seventh floor apartment for six years! But alas, it wasn't to be.

So I wasn't going to get my colourful, sunny garden (this year at least), but I still wanted to jazz up the area and add a bit of colour any way I could. I spend a lot of time looking out at that garden so I want it to be cheerful! 

This is what we had to work with....






So, when I saw some little bird houses in Dealz for €1.49 each I bought a bunch of them (I used two in Max's room) and painted them seriously bright colours that I got testers of from Valspar (in B&Q) when they were having a promotion and selling the testers for €1.60 each, bargain!


                   







                 



These little pops of colour, along with painting the wall and the shed, really brightened up the place.

                     


So until next year, when I have another chance at getting my fantasy garden up and going, these little beauties will brighten up the place and give us something pretty to look at when we're standing at the kitchen sink ;)



                          


So that's my little solution to the "Irish summer blues". Things have been a bit crazy here for the last week, big things are afoot in the kitchen! I hope to have a post on that asap, but in the meantime come and follow me on Facebook or Instagram, where I put up "in-progress" photos :)

P.S: Anyone else sick to the back teeth of this weather? 

*sigh*

                                                 

 Linda xx

creating (or curating) a great* gallery wall

*if I do say so myself

So it would seem that this week is gallery wall week here at make do and diy! I don't plan my posts, things just happen when they happen and then when I can muster the energy I blog about them, so it looks like I've been in picture hanging mode here recently seeing as I finished two last week!

There was a big blank space on the wall over our ikea hack dresser in the bedroom that was crying out for something to dress it up (I didn't take a picture, this was a late-night, impulse project). I had considered a large piece of art, and had bought one that I loved (this one) but when I hung it there it just didn't do it for me. So, back to the drawing board, and I decided on a gallery wall (based mostly on the fact that I have a LOT of frames hanging around this house).

I had collected a lot of pictures and items that related to our wedding and the kids that I had planned to build up until I had enough to fill a really tall blank wall at the top of the stairs, but what I had was perfect to fill the space in the bedroom so I decided to put it there for now instead. 


           


In all honesty we will probably have to give in and put wardrobes in this area eventually anyway (I had been holding off because I thought it would make the room look much smaller) so the stairs gallery wall will probably still happen some day! 
I'm just learning that I need to work with what I have right now, not with some potential future layout in mind, because who knows when that will happen? And I'd rather have a house that's decorated to make me happy as it is for the time being. Holes in walls are easy to patch!!

So I gathered up what I wanted to use on the wall and played around with the layout on the bed until I had something I was happy with, and then Gavin and I spent half an hour holding things up (him) and standing back to make sure it looked right (me) before using a combination of nails, command strips and blu-tac to put everything up. I started with the large gilt frame with our initials in it and then worked out from there, balancing the larger and smaller pieces, as well as the gold and black, making sure they were all quite evenly distributed.

Does that make sense? It's hard to describe something like this as it's really subjective. What looks good to me might look terrible to you!

*sidenote ~ I'm an eyeballer. Lifes too short to measure distances between frames!



And here's the finished product in all it's naked-baby celebrating glory! 





I love it, it's nice to see all those reminders of when I was skinny and the reasons I am currently...less skinny ;)

The gilt frames are from charity shops. You can nearly always pick some of these up really cheaply if you look at the frame, not what's contained in it - bad art can be removed! The large one was €5, the smaller one was €1. 

The canvas of naked Emilia was a beautiful gift from friends of ours (who also took the photos), and the pics from our wedding were taken by them as well-I recommend having a talented photographer for a friend ;)

That little painting is Emilia's first ever commissioned artwork-I gave her the colors I wanted and let her go to town!

This is the topper from our wedding cake....

Naked Max-not to be outdone by Emilia.







I didn't have a suitable mat for this one so I just stuck the photo directly onto the glass with double sided tap and I love it, makes the old-fashioned gilt frame look modern. 

Also, mustaches on babies - always hilarious.


       


I picked these frames up for €4 each on sale in Heatons. I buy frames cos I like them and they're cheap, I rarely buy them with a specific place or photo in mind. When I need one I just go to my "collection"! I generally stick to gold/white/black/wood so they fit in anywhere in the house.

I'm afraid she may have inherited a chronic case of RBF from me.

I kept the colour scheme to black and white images and black and gold frames, which ties the whole thing together. I think it's important to pick some sort of a theme and carry it through to tie your display together and make it look like a cohesive piece rather than a random collection of things....my theme for this was obviously "look at my awesome family!", which is why I kept it in our room so as not to be too obnoxious about it ;)

I picked up the mirror on sale in Heatons for €4. It was originally silver, but that never puts me off, spray paint is cheap!

I left a gap at either side cos I have a bit of a crazy idea for a diy for two lights to go go there, something like this gold one....

Trendhunter

      

But if that doesn't pan out I'll extend the gallery right up to the wall on either side I think. Thoughts?

Yes, that's a mirror ball and a reindeer plant pot, I don't discriminate when it comes to decorative items!

I genuinely, 100% love hearing from you all in the comments...talk to me!! :D

Linda xx




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