My dahlia experiment

I've been conducting an experiment this year, a dahlia experiment. When it comes to gardening I have a tendency to get over enthusiastic and spend a little too much housekeeping on plants. To save us living off beans for the summer I thought I'd reign in my enthusiasm and experiment with buying a range of different priced dahlia tubers, seeing what grows best and then stocking up on the most successful for next year.

I bought a selection of tubers from Sarah Raven, Taylor's, Wilko and Poundland, planted them on the same day in the same size pots and kept them in my greenhouse until June time where I transferred onto my patio. From there nature did its thing and this is what I found...

From Sarah Raven I bought Cafe au Lait, Henriette and Wizard of Oz. Disappointingly the only plant to flower was the Wizard of Oz but it was the first to bloom and has given me the most flowers of all the tubers.

From Taylor's I bought (from the garden centre) Golden Scepter and Apricot Star, both have flowered but not as much as I'd have hoped. Apricot Star is gorgeous and lasts as a cut flower for about two weeks which makes it worth while but Golden Scepter hasn't set my world on fire

From Wilko I bought a cream and mauve dahlia (I lost the packets so don't know the actual names) these have been so good, especially the cream one. I've had plenty of flowers and they last when cut. I really love the mauve colour and messy petals.

From Poundland I bought two packets of tubers (each has three tubers per pack). These have been a snails favourite but despite that they have still produced lots of flowers. Even though these were the cheapest I've loved unexpected the jewel colours.

So what did I learn from my experiment? Buying fancy tubers doesn't guarantee flowers, next year I'll bulk buy cheaper tubers and maybe add one or two others that I love  (I will not get swept up in buying something because it looks good on Instagram!). Dahlias need more space and water than I thought - I was so worried about over watering I went the other way. I'll start them in bigger pots next year and brave putting them into the ground so they have more access to water. I'll definitely add them to my cut flower bed at the allotment as I can add liberal sprinklings of slug pellets and generally be a little less precious about growing them. Another big lesson I've learnt is they look best in bulk so I'll stick to buying a couple of colours that I love rather than a big mixture like this year (I'm thinking crazy pinks).

If like me you're new to gardening and growing I really hope this post helps. You can't beat the satisfaction of having home grown flowers. X

Golden Gift Wrapping

Here's a gorgeous golden gift wrapping post for you all today. Stanley was having a longer nap than expected so I got a bit carried away with my ribbon box and came up with this beauty. Using this fabulous rose gold star wrapping paper I created an all singing and dancing wrap for my best friend. Its actually really simple to do, you just need a lot of different textured ribbons (most of these were from VV Rouleaux and the chiffon was from Poundland), some tassels and honeycomb balls (I used these and these from Ikea).

I first wrapped the present and then tied a length of ribbon around the centre (keeping the ends of the knot quite short). I then took a long length of the same ribbon, doubled it over and threaded under the first ribbon (in this case its the orange ribbon). Before tying in a bow I laid strips of contrasting ribbon on top of the orange ribbon - I used various lengths and loads of different textures (metallic, velvet, chiffon, etc). I then added the tassels and honeycomb balls to each of the long ribbon ends, knotted into the centre and then finished by tying into a big floppy bow.  To finish I fiddled about with the lengths and trimmed off any excess. 

I love how it turned out, sometimes more is more. Happy making! xx 

P.S - What's in the box you ask? These beautiful earrings from Alex Monroe (if anyone would like to send me some, it'd be grand!!)

Inspired, September

There has been condensation appearing on the windows which to me means autumn days are on the way. For this months inspiration I'm really enjoying these rich orange and red tones mixed with a dash of cool blue. This collection of images wasn't intentional I was clearing the pile of magazines by my bed and these came together, I'm drawn to the sense of freedom and movement each image represents. The last few weeks of pregnancy have made me feel a bit stagnant so maybe my subconscious is telling me I'm ready for a new adventure which I'm sure this month will bring. 

New baby aside, I'd like to spend a little bit of time over the next few months working on improving my photography. I'm happy with how my photos are but would like to try some new ideas as I always rely on a formula that works for me as time is tight. I'd also like to pick up my calligraphy pen again, I went on a course a few years ago but never did anything with it so would like to give it another try. 

I'm sure its going to be a busy couple of months/years as we settle into being a family of four but I intend to keep finding and sharing little ways to keep creativity in my day. Have a super month. xx 

DIY - Fabric covered bench

Despite the image heavy post I promise that this fabric covered table post is actually very quick and easy to do, this took me less than an hour and that included sharing the steps on Instagram Stories. This table was originally our coffee table and whilst it worked when it was just Dan and I it started  taking up too much room in our living now that toys are in the mix. I didn't want to get rid, so decided to convert into a foam covered bench that could be used for outside lounging. The ironic part of the DIY is that the weather has been awful so it's yet to make it outside and is now in our dining room being used as a handy table for train sets! Please don't let the British weather put you off giving this DIY a try it makes great extra seating and one day it'll be perfect in the garden, here's how to make...

You'll need -  a sturdy table/bench/stool, 3" thick piece of foam cut to the size of your table (I bought mine locally but there are plenty of places online - I paid around £30 for a 60 x120cm piece of foam), cotton fabric, patterned fabric, staple gun and strong glue.

Step 1 - Using a strong glue, stick the foam to the table making sure the edges are flush.

Step 2 - Drape your plain cotton fabric over the bench, leave an approx 2.5cm boarder from the bottom edge of the table top and remove the rest of the fabric.

Starting in the centre of each side of the table, staple and pull the fabric tight to fasten. You want to staple on the underside of the table so that the staples can't be seen.  Then work your way around the table stapling every 10 cm or so. 

To finish fold the corners neatly onto the shortest edge and staple to fasten. 

Step 3 - If you're using a patterned fabric lay the pattern over the table to choose the best placement (I realise this isn't the most economical way of using the fabric). Once happy, staple into place like the previous step. 

Step 4 - To finish fold the corners into the centre of the shortest side and staple into place. Then cut off any excess fabric, or tuck under and staple so there are no raw edges showing.

(You could also give it a quick iron (I wish had!)

Flower dyed fabric

I wrote about wanting to try my hand at flower dying in my Inspired, August post and over the course of the month I've been doing just that. In between getting ready for my new arrival, finishing home renovations and of course looking after Stanley it's been a very pretty slow project to immerse myself in. I tried bundle dying based on a tutorial in the book - The Modern Natural Dyer - that I bought last year. I used silk habotai as my fabric and then used a mix of strong magenta and orange flowers from the garden to dye with. I didn't follow the instructions to the letter so perhaps could have done with leaving the fabric bundles to sit a bit longer and maybe used a mordent to fix the colours (?). The overall result produced really soft delicate colours which always work so beautifully on silk. I ripped some of the fabric into strips as I plan to use as gift wrapping ribbon and as an extra experiment I couldn't resist adding a little gold and silver leaf to some of the ribbon strips for added sparkle (I'm now thinking of all sorts of different ways to embellish these ribbons). Next time I'd like to give flower hammering a try to see if I can get a stronger colour but until then I'll leave you with these floral images to feast your eyes on! 

If you would like more flower dying inspiration, then take a look at this gorgeous instagram account - _thewayoftea_

Mollie Makes - Statement Necklace

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you'll know that statement necklaces are a real favourite of mine to make. This beaded beauty I put together for the latest issue of Mollie Makes is no exception - I went with a soft palette of pinks, greens, grey and yellow using beads from Bijoux Beads . I haven't been making as much jewellery as I'd like this year but I can assure you it's a favourite crafty past time of mine and hope to get my pliers out again soon!

For the full tutorial make sure you pick up a copy of Mollie Makes issue 83 , happy making! x

Guest Room - Before and After

Today I'm sharing our guest room renovation which I think might just be one of my favourites. Each room in the house had a distinctive feel to it when we moved in - from overall depressing (see dining room) to just plain creepy (Stanley's room). This room in the roof used to give me the shivers, I would only ever go up there in the day with all the lights on! It was dark, dingy, boiling hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. It was left an unloved dumping area for three years whilst we saved up enough to get the roof insulated, apart from the initial fitting of kitchen and bathroom this was the biggest and most expensive job on our renovation list.

The whole of the top floor of the house was sealed off as the builders took down all the ceilings, filled between the rafters with insulation and then rebuilt the walls. Whilst the walls were down we decided to make the room bigger (!) by taking the wall right back into eaves creating a perfect sleeping nook and also adding an ensuite bathroom. We created accessible storage around the sides of the room, complete with lights and adult size doors (I can't tell you the difference this has made to storing things away easily). We also replaced the broken window and added spot lights. 

Due to the age and higgledy nature of the house the project was a relative unknown (the rooms are deceptively large) by the time we'd reached the end of the work we'd reached the end of our budget. When it came to decorating I kept it simple and with the exception of the side lights and some bedding I used everything I already had. One of the builders painted the room white for us (as I just didn't have the time with Stanley in tow) but I sanded and painted the floor (see Craft Room for details). Its funny how white works in some rooms but not others, white didn't work in our bedroom but here its been a fab blank canvas for all my colourful collections (having lovely smooth walls also helps). I wanted this room to feel cosy, uplifting and calm but most importantly clutter free. We already had the furniture so it was a case of putting it into place and adding a few accessories (some I already had, others I'd be storing up from charity shop runs).

I love this how this room has been transformed and get so excited whenever someone comes to stay. I'm determined to keep it this way for as long as possible or even move up here myself! I've added a few links below if you're looking to recreate similar. 

Bed - Wilton Bed Frame, John Lewis

Lamps  - Angland Lamp, Ikea

Yellow cushions and big rug - TK Maxx

Mirror - Laura Ashley  (no longer online)

DIY Patchwork cushions 

DIY Nailed edge shelf 

Bookcase painted by me years ago

All other details either secondhand or gathered over the years