Recycled Galvanised Jug

Once again in my eagerness to get on with the project I forgot to take a photo of the original state of the jug but it doesn't take much imagination to see it for what it was. I was inspired by John at Recycle Reuse Redesign with his French Flower Market Bucket.

The flower is from The Graphics Fairy. I chose to decoupage it because painting amything galvanised can be a hit or miss affair as the finish can reject paint unless you do a lot of preparation.

On the back is a texture also from The Graphics Fairy with a French proverb that I think you can read both in French and English. Having an enormous amount of twine (rescued from one of our barns) I put it to some use by covering the handle making it nicer to hold.

Simnel Cupcakes - Guardian recipe

Omitted the glace sugar icing as I thought it may be too sweet and I think it was the right thing to do, these are little cakes with mixed dried fruit and a layer of marzipan in the middle of the cupcakes with a layer (in the shape of a bell) on top with a dark chocolate moulded shape using Menier chocolate. A little too substantial for my tastes.

The intricacies of the French language

With the holiday time approaching, one thing is sure; the French have a different idea of travel to the rest of us. It’s deeply engrained in their culture and of course in the language. Here are a few examples to show you what I mean. Let’s start with the verb CONDUIRE to drive. In French conduire is used to describe how you drive the vehicle…but never where you’re driving to, you can’t use cond…

http://www.survivefrance.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3339392%3ABlogPost%3A118018

Box for Mum

Covered a box with a collage I put together in Picasa of my Mum when she was a young woman. I rather like it and hope she does too but you never know!

Calico curtains stencilled using a stencil from The Stencil Library, made loads of curtains at very little cost for my daughter. 



The calico came from Whaleys Bradford Ltd

April Garden, tulips, tulips and more tulips

The pictures speak for themselves, we have had a beautiful March and April and the garden has benefited from it. The winter was early but not severe, however we did loose some plants - lavender and lavateria spring to mind.

Little stencilled table using the Stencil Library stencil

This is the table revamped after a false start and rethink using part of the stencil from The Stencil Library that I used on the double doors.

As I had the stencil and the colours the cost was about 10 euros.



The bottom was rusty and the original top was chipboard and rotting, wish I had taken a photo of it to compare. The new top is wood (the top of an ikea lazy susan - the other bit used for another project).

Stencilled Doors

I did this stencil some time ago from The Stencil Library and loved it. Brilliant site but so many options it is difficult to decide what to choose. Currently deciding what to stencil on a small wrought iron table I rescued from the barn. It has been sanded and spray painted but still plain at the moment!

The angle is awkward as I have to stand on the stairs to get any sort of picture, once the lounge is finished I will put a picture with the doors open. The base paint is Farrow and Ball French Gray, the stencil is car spray paint in metallic green, gold and the roses are stencilled with a brush using a metallic non-spray paint.