Moving on

New place and new name...not a blog but still a record of what I'm up to and a chance to buy some of my makes....

Hop over to Facebook and search for "The cat's mother" - my hand crafted nice things page.   It would be great to see you :)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cats-Mother/244828332359036

Living in the clouds

I took this, this morning, how beautiful...the cliff edge is at the end of our road and we do get the most amazing cloud formations.

5 things that made me happy today..

1.  Soggy kitten cuddles at 6am

2. A breezy walk along the cliffs, it was bleak but beautiful.

3. A bowl of scrummy homemade chilli.

4. A couple of hours with my crochet hook.

5. Cosy evening on the sofa with a crackling fire and some lovely smelly candles.

Posh kitty

Earlier this year Lulah was extremely poorly with cat flu, we had a couple of very sleepless nights at its worst and sat stroking her and keeping her company not really expecting her to pull through.  But she did! She was down to 1/4 of the weight she should be and we were having to force feed her fluids every hour or so to keep her going (we wanted her home with us rather than stuck in a cage at the vets).  We did our best and she rallied.  She's now fighting fit, back up to the weight she should be with a gorgeously soft and fluffy coat.  

She wasn't a "people" cat before, preferring to sit away from us and play with the other kittens but since all the close contact every hour with her meds, she's changed, she now follows me round like a little lamb and comes to wake me up with a cold nose every morning.  She purrs like a tractor and we love her to bits.

You can see why.

Making waves

Thanks to Lucy over at Attic24 I finally learnt how to "ripple", how amazing is this? It's my new favourite, so cathartic and it grows quickly!

Yay!

Reupholstering newbie

How hard can reupholstering a chair be, I wondered.......let's just say I now have a new found admiration for professional reupholsterers.  It's a tricky beast but I got stuck in and had a go.

I was offered a 50's arm chair on Freecycle, described as a "wooden rocker that needed some attention" I was expecting a traditional rocking chair that maybe needed a bit of a rub down or fixing but no, we were faced with a bit of a nightmare.

Once I'd had a really good look at it I realised what a beautiful shape it was, very unique and full of potential.  

I stripped it back to its bare bones, trying to take photos at every stage so I could rebuild it properly.  All the wood was sanded back to rid it of the horrid varnish and the frame was glued and screwed back together for added strength.  I gave the bare wood a couple of coats of antique pine wax just to deepen the colour.

The upholstery side of things was more difficult, but after sourcing all the required seat webbing, back elastic, foam and wadding, I set to.  It was a real "work it out as you go" job but It came together.  

I didn't have enough of any one sort of fabric to cover it in and after spending a small fortune on the foam and sundries I really didn't want to go buy any thing else.   So I settled for a hotchpotch....the dark green velvet cord on the main chair body and back was given to me years ago and the fabric for the seat cushion was an end of roll from Dunelm Mill (normally £28.99 a metre but reduced to £2.99 as there was only a metre left on the roll).

The patchwork cushion is made from odds and ends from my fabric stash and I'm making a whole load of different ones for the main sofa (well that's the intention)

I love the finished result but won't be rushing to do it again.

The final curtain (well, blinds acually but you get the gist)

It's done.....

(well, I just need to hem the door curtain but you can ignore that, ok?)

 

And now for a rest!