31.1.14

I have gone DIY mad

With still a month to go before uni goes back, and working only 3 full days a week (Centrelink issues...ya feel me) I have a lot of spare time on my hands which has gone into the following creations about the house:


DIY Canopy

The easiest way ever to spruce up your bedroom, all you need is a large stick (we found mine in a nearby park), some spray paint (to spruce up said stick - I used silver metallic for some extra pizazz), and about 4 metres of fabric to drape (I used tulle from Lincraft at $3.50/m). Weave whatever decorations you like through it - in my case the fairy lights I had strung up outside - pop it on a wall hook, et voila! 



Fabric Letters

Super simple - buy some papier mache letters from your local craft store, choose a fabric you like (I bought about a quarter of a metre of pink plaid) and glue, or even staple, away to your hearts content! Pictured is my friend/design partner Tom's creation - as you can see his turned out a lot better and neater. Es are hard. I'll probably pop mine on my desk somewhere, once it gets a good tidy!


Fused Plastic Clutch

Really a spur of the moment thing, I was reading about fusing plastic and thought this would be a nice way to keep the Game of Thrones plastic bag they gave out free at Supanova this year. So I cut the bag into half and trimmed the half I was using into a square. I took a couple of plain plastic bags and cut them to fit the shape before ironing the pieces of plastic layered together (the GoT printed on top) between two pieces of baking paper. The iron was set on a fairly low temperature setting to prevent melting. 

Once I knew they were fused (rub the piece between two fingers and if it makes a crinkling noise it's not ready!) I folded the plastic into 3 pieces, ensuring that the third I intended to use as the closing flap was smaller than the other two thirds. I pinned the sides together, and pinned the corners of the top third into the middle of it to make it look like a clutch. Then it was time to whip out my primary school sewing skillz, and I chain stitched around the edges with pink yarn to make it look a little more interesting. The corners that were folded inside the top third I lopped off with scissors - as I'm not giving this anyone I really didn't care about inside finishes. 

So there you have it, I have both an interesting piece I can take out with me and I saved a neat bag I probably would've ended up chucking out otherwise.


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Stay tuned for more DIY adventures, as I have a heap in my head and my Pinterest activity has skyrocketed in the last couple of weeks...

22.1.14

Travel catchups: London town


My whole life I've pined to travel to one place in the world more than anywhere else: the UK. Perhaps it was due to being raised on a tv diet of gritty British police dramas (notwithstanding The Bill post-2004), or the allure of seeing iconic buildings several times older than 'Australia' itself, or even just because I like all the different accents. In December I finally realised the dream, survived a gruelling 26-hour plane trip that took me through Taiwan and Thailand and found myself inhabiting a little hostel in Shepherds Bush for a week. 

I'm not one to shy away from exploring new places but looking at the tube map in my first few minutes after arriving at Heathrow I felt a little daunted by the spider's web of train lines criss-crossing one another, but it took no time before I'd figured it out, got to Hammersmith, changed lines to get to Shepherd's Bush Market, and got my first red double-decker bus to the hostel. 

Exploring the city was tiring work but we squeezed a lot into what felt like a very short week - even seeing the Queen returning with her corgis to Buckingham Palace on our first afternoon! And I'd like to think I began to look like a local, after being asked directions several times by English people around town (and having the gall to direct one lady on the tube to Westminster - successfully!!).

London was everything I'd imagined - rainy, enormous, fashionable, multicultural - I could go on. I absolutely loved my time there and my ten year plan is definitely going to include a stint as a resident!