I do: declutter (day 5&6)

After yesterday restoration course I managed to clear out our bedroom. I still have to clear our bedroom storage, but most of the bedroom is done. Some clothes, few handbags, some "nice but useless items" left our bedroom (in the charity bag).

Today I cleared one of the kids bedroom. This room is also used as a guest room and my friend is arriving today. (Can you see the connection of choosing to clear this room today? :) ). Old toys, books, clothes- all this is on their way to the charity shop and bits, missing pieces, broken toys, pieces of papers, non working felt tips... are in the bin. One huge bag!

All this is for charity shop.

Not sure if I manage to do any clearing tomorrow and on Tuesday, as my friend is here but I must say it feels so good to have decluttered rooms! (Well, some of them :) )

List of areas:
- living room (including books, DVDs, CDs)
- kitchen- cooking area
- kitchen- eating area
- under the stairs storage
- kids room 1
- kids room 2
- bathroom
- bedroom
- bedroom storage
- porch
- hallway
- my craft room (oh good luck with it!)
- garage (oh super good luck! :D )
- garden

I do: declutter (day 3&4)

I haven't stopped decluttering my house but some days are more tidying up and sorting. (and of course throwing away few bits here and there).

On day 3 I cleared our porch. It was full of donation stuff (which no one managed to take to the charity shop for 2 months!!), 3 bags of cardboard boxes (our council doesn't pick it up and surprise surprise- it doesn't walk itself to the recycling point). Now it's it's all cleared and welcoming :)
(photo to follow)

On day 4 I hung up mirror in the hallway, added some more picture frames, cleared shelf where we keep our keys and removed piles of shoes.

So apart of donation stuff on day 3 (3 large boxes) I haven't got rid off that much stuff but there aren't many things in the porch and hallway :)

List of areas:
- living room (including books, DVDs, CDs)
- kitchen- cooking area
- kitchen- eating area
- under the stairs storage
- kids room 1
- kids room 2
- bathroom
- bedroom
- bedroom storage
- porch
- hallway
- my craft room (oh good luck with it!)
- garage (oh super good luck! :D )
- garden

I do: restoration

I booked myself for a furniture restoration. It's something I never done before but always wanted to give it a go.

I decided to re-do our coffee table which we bought at car boot sale for £5 and it already had heat/water marks.

stained and scratched table

during striping off

Lesson lasted only 5 hours so I though I'll manage top desk only but then I decided to do whole table. So I unscrewed side wings and striped off the whole thing.

it's original varnish

striped and cleaned with white spirit.

I managed to stripe off the whole table and clean and sand paper the top desk. 

Then I have to decide how to finish it. 

Any idea? 

I do: autumn wreath

In front of our house is a huge cherry tree with beautiful colourful leaves. (I'm not mentioning my blisters on my hands from raking them twice a week).

So using these lovely leaves I made this wreath with a little pumpkin. No idea how long it will last before all the leaves turn brown as our front door isn't sheltered.

Sorry for this rubbish photo- it's already dark outside. And that white pin must be replaced!

I do: declutter (day 1&2)

I love nice things, I like things with a history, I love bargains, I keep everything as it may be useful once and I collect EVERYTHING. And result of all of this is one happy person surrounded by nice things (me) one annoyed person (my boyfriend) and one cluttered house.

So I decided to get rid of some of my stuff as part of declutter november which is being organised by Louisa at The Really Good Life (which I found via Swirly Thoughts).

Day 1: Clothes from my wardrobe
- old clothes for the charity shop- 2 full bags
- 2 pairs of shoes (yes! 2 pairs of shoes!)

Day 2: Kitchen- cooking area
- 1 advert mug which I can't stand
- 24 piece Chinese Tableware Set (never used)
- goldfish accessories (our goldfish died 4 months ago but still got all the food, cleaning products, plastic plants and filters)
- broken kettle waiting far too long to be repaired
- 3 of 5 peelers

List of areas not to be missed:
- living room (including books, DVDs, CDs)
- kitchen- cooking area
- kitchen- eating area
- under the stairs storage
- kids room 1
- kids room 2
- bathroom
- bedroom
- bedroom storage
- porch
- hallway
- my craft room (oh good luck with it!)
- garage (oh super good luck! :D )
- garden

That's it. Easy peasy :))

I do: enjoy living in Godalming

I love this little town Godalming, UK.
I have been living here (and surrounding areas) for one third of my life (well, with a 3 years break). 





People are nice and kind. 
I especially enjoy summer, where there is a band stand every Sunday.








Bring your picnic and enjoy the music.


Some other things to do in Godalming:
Watts Gallery, reopened in June 2011.
Winkworth Arboretum (I never know how to pronounce this!!!) the National trust park, most beautiful in autumn.
Farncombe boat house for a day (or week) out.

I did: celebrate my birthday

Everything went well and as I planned.

My dress arrived day before the party. It fitted perfectly even without trying it on.

Lovely friends, sunny weather, yummy food and drinks. 

I did have a photo booth. Everyone had a go, everyone loved it. Idea from Red red completely red (thank you!)

Happy summer days everyone! x

I do: grow my own

Madly.
Badly.
But with a passion.

{photo by me}

Strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, some radishes, some sweet peas, some salad leafs.

I do: bake cupcakes

For my boyfriend's birthday.

{photo by me}

Happy Birthday my dearest! x x x

I do: plan my birthday party

My birthday is in 10 days.
I'm planning fresh, bright, summery, 50's style party.

{source}

With my dearest friends.
And hopefully with a lovely weather as it will be in our garden.

{source}

With a lovely food and drinks.
And rock'n'roll music.

{source}

I do: changes to this blog

18 months blogging break, time for a little change.

Enjoy... :)

I'm still here!

It has been loooong time since my last post in here. But I've been blogging almost daily. Really.

My biggest passion at the moment is my 'secret' obsession- my Teddy. I planned for years and years to make a book about him but I simply don't know how. So I'm happily taking photos of him and his home and I think over the years I got him, I created his own personality, style and character. He has got his own Facebook profile, Fan page, Flickr, twitter, email address and even an account on etsy :o)

In his blog I write about his travel adventures and about places he visited.

(to be continued.... I just realized that it's almost 1am and I have very early start tomorrow!!!)

salt dough

I just found this beautiful tutorials and have to share it with you!



Thank you Katy!

+ see my right side for more Christmasy Ideas.

How to: Organic garlands

These garlands will cost you nothing. They are made of organic sources and all you need is a needle and strong thread.
For my garlands I have used orange peel (but you can also use grapefruit, lemon, lime peel for different colours), rowan berries (or any red non poison berries will do) and beechnuts. These garlands are very simple and easy to make- maybe your children can help (only beechnuts are quite hard-so adults help will be needed).

You can cut or tear the peel and then just simply put it through the needle. Leave small gaps between individual pieces so the peel can 'breath' and wont go mouldy.
They smell nice, they look nice, they are easy and they are free. :)

Going Green Crafters and Artists

I've been invited to contribute to Going Green Crafters and Artists's blog! Well- it has been couple month ago when I was invited but today I wrote first post! Woo Hoo! Come and see my post about recycled boxes:)

17th November

20 years of freedom for the Czech Republic. I'm going to celebrate to Trafalgar square tonight.

2 new members...

... of our family are Bagira and Stanley. 2 six months old black male cats.
We adopted them about month ago and I can tell our life has changed. I had to move all my plants on a window sill to one side, so THEY have somewhere to sit and watch the birds. I had to move my aloe vera plant because that was the most tasteful thing in our house. I can't leave any of my craft tools and materials around because that are the best toys. We cannot sit on our bean bag because it's THEIR sleeping place. Our towels are warmed up because they love to sleep in the draw under the bed. Everytime we turn the tap on- the cats are there because they love to drink running water. We have to keep the toilet lid down all the time as they love to drink water from it.

It took us about 2 weeks until we remembered which cat is which as both are completely black.
Here is Bagira, nicely wrapped in a blanket. (We renamed him from Bart as we weren't too keen on that name)
And here is Stanley (we didn't rename him) staring at my friend's dog.
Here they are, our cats :)

When I was little...

When I was little I wanted to be an illustrator. I was fascinated by books and nice pictures. My favourite book called Anicka Malirka (Little Anna-the Painter) and it was about a little girl which loved to draw and paint and thanks to a magic cat she gets into the world of her drawings. That book was like my bible!
So today I'll mention just few of my favourite illustrators:

Jenny M.'s beautiful pictures are full of love, playfulness and colours.
This picture is my favourite ever as it looks like portrait of me!
And I can't get enough of this 2010 calendar!
Oh, I'm so going to treat myself this Christmas :)
For more images see Jenny's flickr or visit her cute website.

Italian based illustrator Simona Sanfilippo would be my number one choice of children's book illustrator..
Her images are so friendly, relaxed and beautiful For more images visit Simona's website.

And last but not least- London based illustrator Kate Wilson. I love her birds SO much!

I just love her style and great sense for details! For more images see Kate's flickr or visit her website.

Well, I'm not an illustrator, I went from 2D into a 3D (I have a degree in sculpture) but I still adore illustrations, graphics and paintings so much.
But maybe when I grow up, I may be an illustrator as well....

Personalized touch

✿ A while ago I made these cats. I made about 15 of them but never put them for a sale on Etsy. They sat in my wooden box for about a year, occasionally I took them to a craft fair and sold one or 2. Then my Flickr photo album has been discovered by a 10 years old girl and she wanted 6 of them for her friends for her b'day party! I added personal touch- I embroidered names on a pockets and added little jingle bells. I'm glad these cats doesn't have to sit in the box anymore! And that 10 years old girl is my youngest customer so far :)))

✿ A few years ago I found a birthday brooch with a flower fairy and number 4. I loved that image but it has been loooong time ago when I was 4 so I added a simple sticker saying- 20 years ago (and next year I changed it to 21 years ago. Now I can add a quarter of century ago :))) ) But this gave me an idea to make personalized birthday badges.
This was made for my friend's 30th birthday:

And this one for another friend:

I offer these badges in my Etsy shop. All I need to know is the real age, the number/age shown on the badge and I do the maths :)

✿ Then I had an order for personalized Mr. Snail. It was for 1 year old boy called N. I always find gifts for boys more difficult to find and/or create. I wanted some simple ornament to stitch on the snail as a bow is too girly. But car and a rocket seems too big and too complicated to make. (See- for a girl: bow, heart, flower, butterfly... Simple!) So then I added a sherif style star with a big N and voila!


✿ Then I wanted to add a personal touch to this blog. I found great free templates and uploading wasn't that hard either. I made a copy of the old template (LUCKILY!!!!!!) then there was some warning that I'll loose some items- such as fb fan page, list of favourite links etc. I didn't care so I uploaded NEW template and it was DISASTER!!!!! All pictures were squashed, endless text as long as roll of toilet paper, half of my items on the right side were missing... Quick action and I uploaded my good old template back. But I lost my list of favourite links and blogs...
So. No personal touch to this blog :))

what a week!

So far I had fantastic and very creative week!

It started like this:

♥ Last minute calls and bookings and I'm attending 3 Christmas Fayres!
First Fair is on Sunday 22nd November at St. Peter's Catholic School, GU1 2TN from 12-4.
Second is on Saturday 28th- It's Godalming Town Day and the High Street will be closed to traffic and packet with stalls. Because of my last minute booking I'll be 'out of the high street'- in Angel Court. Still good!
And third fair will be at Barrow Hills School in Witley on Sunday 6th December from 2-4pm.
So if you're from around Guildford area come to say hello!

♥ Then friend of mine ordered 20 Christmas ornaments!


♥ My Vespa has been featured in Etsy treasury:


♥ Then I listed a limited offer of 10 ornaments on Esty and it sold within 24 hours!

(10 ornaments still available on Folksy, otherwise collections of 5 are available on both Esty and Folksy as well as individual items)

♥ And then I receive an email that my Christmas ornaments has been featured on Found on Folksy!

♥ Now I just checked Craftopolis and I'm featured in Etsy Holiday Guides!



♥ UPDATE. I just received a message that my Little Robin is featured on Designs by Vanessa.

I'm thrilled!

You should see me right now- I'm still all smiley and happy :)