Happy Hanger

How to make LED lights look softer

I posted earlier about my cold blue LED Christmas lights, and how I'd learned that the trick to warming their light colour is just to apply some nail polish in an orange or yellow colour. Recently I was at the mall and spotted some horrible orange nail polish. After wondering to myself why anyone would paint their nails that colour, I remembered the lights.

When I got home I tried the polish on the garland in my hallway and to my great excitement, it worked.

Before.

After. It's subtle, but they are much less garish.

The (slight) downside is that when the lights are off they are orange coloured. But no one really looks at Christmas lights when they aren't on, anyway. I'll be painting my other lights after I take the tree down.

(I'm kind of curious to get other colours of nail polish and try them out... you could have a whole rainbow of lights!)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and safe and happy new year to all x

A big thank you to each and every one of my lovely customers, your support throughout the year means so much!

Looking forward to a fun filled 2013

♥ Leah

Christmas decorating

I didn't restrict myself to just a Christmas tree this year. I've also decorated several spots around the house including this shelf in the kitchen. It's difficult to photograph because this room only gets a little bit of early morning sunshine coming through the back door, or else in the late afternoon it beams right through the windows you can see here. I tried my best with the early morning light...

The string of beaded lights is battery powered so it's easy to drape over a shelf.

I used flower frogs to display some Christmas postcards.

The tall green tree has a white organza ribbon at the top. It's disappeared into the background here...

Displaying baubles in a glass is a good way to add a pop of colour.

I'd love a proper Christmas village! For now I'm using my little houses and some bottlebrush trees that I need to glitter or paint or something.

This is the window overlooking my garden. I painted a branch white and suspended it upside down by a ribbon.

These are some handmade ornaments I received in swaps.

I love my decorated kitchen this year. All the extra Christmas cooking is much more bearable with pretty things to look at! Have your decorated your kitchen?

December flowers

This month I'm making the most of the early summer stunners. The peony that I grew from a tuber dug from Mum's garden has finally flowered! It was in bud forever, at least 2 months I would say. Then suddenly the flowers opened, and in a few short days they were finished. They still did better than my shop-bought tuber, which put out some lovely leaves but no flower buds.

Some late aquilegia are still blooming. And the miniature gladioli have burst into colour. I like the compact size of these little plants, the colours are so vivid that I wouldn't want them any bigger.

As the weather warms up, every day I go outside and something else is blooming. I love this time of year so much. Summer days forever!

As usual I'm linking up to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Christmas, yay

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. Some years I'm into it and can't wait to decorate, and some years I'm a grinch and just want it all to be over. This year it's Christmas, yay. I put my tree up in the last week of November and have been enjoying it ever since. I went with a blue, pink and silver colour scheme, mixing it up with cheap shop-bought balls and my favourite handmade decorations from previous years.

Last year I bought LED lights thinking they'd last longer than classic fairy lights so it would be a good investment. When I got them home and plugged them in I really wasn't too fond of the cool blue light they gave off. This year, I notice LED lights now come in either cool blue or warm yellow tones, but I'm not going to just buy a new set. Thanks to blogland, I've learned that the trick to warming up your cold LED lights is to simply paint the bulbs with nail polish in an orange or yellow shade. Of course, I found that out a couple of days after I'd set up the tree, so I'll wait till next year to try that one out. At least the blue fits in with the colour scheme!

What's on your Christmas tree this year?

Snowman thru the season! Our Saturday Sampler will include each month a snowman scene and a pieced block. You have the choice of making only the pieced block which is a 12 1/2 inch block as always. The applique block will be sold for $15.00 each month. The pieced block will be free when you make your last block, and attend a what's new at the Cherry Pit 20 minute session. Drop by and take a look at the first 5 months and sign up today! The pictured block is January.

March snow persons are having kite flying fun!

This is May and gardening is beginning.

February and love is in the air!

April Saturday Sampler. Easter Bunny hiding in the wind blown umbrella. Boys watch as they wish the rain would go away and baseball could begin!

Weird Cat Behaviour #7

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #7

Killing a bird and eating it under the Christmas tree.

I killed a bird, I liked it!

The taste of that chewy chaffinch.

I killed a bird, just to try it

I hope my stomach don't mind it.

It felt so wrong, it felt so right

I'll throw it back up tonight.

I killed a bird, I liked it!

I liked it!

(Weird human behaviour: writing alternative lyrics to Katy Perry songs. I didn't do it all on my own though... thanks to my mum for being as silly as me!)

Weird Cat Behaviour is an occasional series on my blog. For other weird things my cat has done, click here.

Gladys & her glee...

"what will be, will be"

said i, to me,

as i stood back to see...

Gladys and her glee!

The Silly Season is Upon Us!

Hello,

our household has been full of silliness over the past few weeks!

We will attend our final market for 2012 this Saturday 8th Dec in Bendigo at The Square.

Here is a quick pic of some decorations that I have been making outside in the shed! These will be for sale on Saturday, please pop in for some Handmade Christmas shopping if you are in the area

;) Leah

easy peasy shop bags...

yesterday i spent the morning making

'handy dandy key tags'

for Gladys' jolly pop-up moment later in the week,

(having spent the day before that,

making granny chic pins and charms)

and in the afternoon i pondered...

my pondering thoughts were along the lines

of bags for putting purchases in.

i have yet to go down that road,

for on etsy, i would wrap everything

in recycled magazine tearouts

and happy coloured yarn.

but it would be nice and dandy, i told myself,

(being the owner of a vintage eclectic trailer pop-up shop now

and taking my responsibilities tres seriously),

if indeed a customer or two were to come my way

if i had a nice little bag to pop their purchase into.

i recalled when in mexico last month

how the local stores would use newspaper folded and stapled together.

i found this just as thrilling

as the purchase i had made...

i could not bring myself to throw away

those little bags of handmade newspaper

such was their peachiness

so i took a pile of tearouts and set about folding.

i made two sizes, super duper easy peasy.

the large size involved two pages laid on top of each other

three of the sides folded over and taped in place.

you could use fancy tapes in alsorts of colours and patterns,

i chose to use good old masking tape

in a rather 'au naturel' palette of cream

for the small one,

just take one magazine page and fold in half,

then fold over one long edge and one short edge

and once again tape down in place.

and voila!

some rather peachy looking shop bags

which could be used for gift bags equally well.

i would even consider if 'a gifting' you are doing

perhaps the magazine page to be a recipe

or indeed an interior shot matching the tastes of the recipient.

and further consideration to be,

upon stuffing the recycled bag with contents,

fold over top, punch a hole and tie a little bit of yarn

to keep everything in check.

Tif

footynote: i would not consider these little bags

to be of use if the content is of great weight

or indeed fragile. it might just be you would lift

it up and the inners would drop straight out of the bottom.

best use these little sweeties for light weight gifting me thinks

little olive, yesterday & today...

yesterday little olive was feeling

tres sorry for herself.

and quite rightly so...

no playing

no jumping

no running

no illegal parking

no fun

no, nothing.

today however,

on her 'happy, take it all away' meds,

she appears to have forgotten

our frank conversation

late last night under the glow

of a jolly lite tree.

a conversation all about

'no, nothing'

for a very long time

for today whilst tucked up in bed

glazed over,

she claimed to me,

she was quite sure she could fly

if only i would let her try...

Tif

gladys & a few joyful days...

come rain,

come shine,

come one,

come all,

me and gladys will be waiting for you

granny chic, rachelle and the country living fair...

yes indeedy! my fabby book writing buddy Rachelle is packing up her little vintage suitcase, filling her mode of transport to the brim with books, granny chic finery and her partner in crime, 'the lovely Tracy' and heading to the Country Living Fair in Harrogate this week.

i am so proud of all the hard work she has been doing over the past weeks in the name of Granny Chic and our book... preparing goodies for the Granny Chic stall and prepping for her class on how to make Liberty wrapped baubles (not just for christmas but for any day of the year) which she will be demo-ing in the theatre every single day at 2:00pm, sharp as a whistle.

yes indeedy, just looking at the few snaps on her instagram feed (some of which i have kindly borrowed to share here) has my granny chic knees all weak and my crafty heart pitter pattering... surely if ever there was a stall worthy of a ganders at a fair such as this, t'would be this one for sure. if you are looking to purchase our Granny Chic book, Rachelle will have some and of course, if you already have one but fancy a bit of scribble in it then be all means hoppity skippity along to her fabby stall where upon she will get out her most spiffy of markers to do a spot of scribbling on a page or two, specially for you.

now i know the Country Living Fair is tres large and its easy to get lost or sidetracked or pushed out the way by another more intent shopper, but do not let that distract you from your path, no sirree! keep focused, head down, and move steadily like a salmon up stream, determinedly pottling towards all that is granny chic and goodly. you will find Our Rachelle alongside her fine right hand buddy Our Tracy, on stand M5 in the first hall. please do stop by, say hello, give my fine and dandy granny chic companions a hug or two and take in the wonder of Granny Chic via Rachelle's perfectly peachy surroundings she has created so brilliantly!

wishing i could tread the path with you, but i'll be there in spirit and will certainly be dressing in my best Granny Chic finery across the pond, in support of the besty book writing buddy i could ever have wished for

Tif

footynote:

all photos in today's post belong to Rachelle from Ted and Agnes, if you wish to see more then may i suggest you visit here and do like i do most days when visiting, be inspired...

The potager in late spring

Late spring, almost summer. I love this time of year. It's daylight all the time, almost. Early mornings are a joy.

The potager is a tranquil sea of green and purple. Pansies are still turning their cheerful faces to the sun. Even though they are smothering the lavender I let them be.

I grew all my dwarf lavender from seed since I want to use it to edge the potager. I sowed a few plants in spring last year to see how it went, and then sowed a big tray later in the summer. The spring-born plants are well ahead... bushy and covered with flower heads. The little seedlings I planted out in autumn have struggled a bit, and the ones I grew on in pots in the glasshouse and planted out this spring have done better. Hopefully this time next year they will all have filled in and be flowering well.

Chives edge the main path. Bees love the flowers. I'll have to cut them back soon, or they'll self seed everywhere, and baby chives are hard to pry from between bricks!

This is a sea of Desiree potatoes. They won't be far off, I hope. The carrots were sown last autumn, and have now decided to flower.

Soon the season will heat up and things will start to brown off. I'm enjoying the freshness and cool colour palette while it lasts.

Something is eating my strawberries...

... and it's not me! I see no evidence of slugs or snails and birds don't go in the glasshouse. Earwigs maybe? Those little buggers are difficult to eradicate. I had a quick spray with pyrethrum and topped up the neem granules, so I hope that works. Whoever is scarfing these berries is not even waiting until they are fully ripe, so they are getting in before I do. And it's making me MAD!