I’m all for recycling, so when a close friend asked me to make some bunting from an old, tired cushion to brighten up her daughter’s bedroom, I was more than happy to. The cushion had originally been made from a lovely pink, spotty fabric left over from the curtains in the room. It was just a bit unloved and she wanted to add a touch of colour to the white walls.
The small, soft cushion and colourful bunting I made have really brightened up the room, pulled the scheme together and put a smile on a beautiful little girl’s face. It’s amazing what a bit of recycling can do!
I had lots of fun a couple of weeks ago taking photos of my friend’s beautiful little girl sitting on a gilhoolie beanbag and pouffe (with some bunting in the background). Thank you so much Sandi, I may ask again if that’s okay!
I know the model looks gorgeous but I’m also hoping these photos show my products well enough to start selling on-line now. I must admit I did get a bit carried away and didn’t always manage to get the whole of the beanbag in shot, oops! Ah well, I still have lots to learn. Thank you also to James for playing around with the photos in Photoshop; I think they are very professional and just the look and feel I was going for.
It’s taken a bit longer than I expected to set up my folksy shop but I think the photos are incredibly important. I’m going to take some more of my lampshades this week too as I’m not happy with the ones I already have. When you work for yourself it’s easy to not set deadlines and just go with the flow but I promise these will be on folksy by the end of the week, cross my heart and watch this space for details!
I’ve been busy making things to fill my stall next Thursday and I think I’m nearly there, thank goodness. Here are two of the gilhoolie pouffes. The bright one on the left is made from Amy Butler fabric (I have some left over so will probably make a lampshade with that) and the one on the right is made from fabric I already had from our hall curtains and cushions. I’d like to be able to make them from the fabrics I have in stock for lampshades as well as bespoke to match an existing colour scheme, perhaps in a living room or child’s bedroom.
gilhoolie bag
Also, some of you will be pleased to hear…. I made another gilhoolie bag. This time I went back to the simpler design but I incorporated some of the details from the Tabitha bag I made last week with a coloured trim and patterned inside of the handle. I had a play with making flowers and bows to decorate the bag but ended up going back to the covered buttons to keep the look simple. The bows and flowers are always an option though as they did look pretty.
Now that’s all done I’m ready to start putting some things on folksy ready to sell, well almost. I just want to finish off the birds and hearts I started making last week and some bunting to decorate my stall, oh yes and a gilhoolie sign. We had lots of fun at the weekend, James cutting MDF and myself and the boys painting the boards with chalkboard paint; they even have one each for their rooms, one in the shape of a car and one a guitar!
We decorated the boys bedroom a while ago but it was a bit plain so I decided to paper a small section with pages from a Tintin book as an alternative to wallpaper or stickers. This was so easy and the effect was great, I love the muted colours of blue, green and orange. Just shows what you can do with a second-hand book, if you can bear to cut it up!
