Come in and stay a while...

While I’m WIPping together Miss Mouse, let me invite you in for a visit

Here’s the entry hall. How very neutral, yes? Must keep it tasteful for the general public. But you, my dear new friends, you are a creative lot, full of life and imagination, so please, let me welcome you to other rooms

Now that’s more like it, isn’t it? Well, except that I’ve invited you straight into my girls’ bathroom. Not as cosy as the sitting room, but hey, this is where I’ve been most creative, so I just had to show it off first! We’ll go downstairs later and be grown up.

With my children, I feel I can be free and silly and creative with abandon. I would never paint a sitting room bright turquoise (well, not unless I lived in Miami), but here it just was fun and happy. Anyway, I kept the suite and tiles white so we can paint it more neutral shades later if we want.

The crochet bunting was the first project I completed. This was from Nicki Trench’s lovely ‘Cute & Easy Crochet’ book, which is a must-have if you’re relatively new to crochet and love pretty projects!

The bunting colours led me to the cabinets

These were white and oak Ikea cabinets from my early married days, back when my dear hubby and I had a teeny flat in London and no children. So simple Scandinavian chic, but so *boring* on the bathroom walls of my girls’ loo! So a few sample pots of Dulux paint, a spray of varnish and voila! Matching towel rail and loo roll holder, cheap and simple.

What else in these pics? I started to learn to sew with the basket liner, in gorgeous Tilda fabric, but I’ve only done one basket so far (I remembered the other basket when taking this photo – add it to my WIP list!).

I know what you’re thinking. The rug. Ah, the crocheted rug. The meadow with flowers. I think I went off the deep end on this one, but I use the little ones as my excuse. It was just so funny, I found it in an old crochet mag and thought it would give the perfect kitsch note to the room. It worked, don’t you think? Mad! I think I’ll be doing a patchwork bathmat in the near future to bring my feet back down to earth...

Here are my very first embroideries. I was inspired by Aimee Ray’s ‘Doodle Stitching’ book, which made an ancient craft so very accessible and fun. I matched some of her designs with some songs I sing with my girls. This was a fun way to learn basic stitches (though French knots with gold and silver thread, ack!).

Oh, I do tend to ramble on a bit, please beg my pardon, I will let you go back to your day. We’ll get to other rooms soon enough, and they won’t take nearly as long to see.

Before I go, I want to say an enormous, heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone who viewed and commented on my first post. I wasn’t sure how or if my blog would be interesting to anyone – I felt like I was arriving late to a big party. But I was so very happy to see that so many at this party have welcomed me so immediately and warmly! I do think I will stay a while...

It’s always easier to arrive at a party with a friend already waiting to greet you, and my biggest thanks goes to the super-creative and talented Jooles, who led so many of you here. Thank you, my friend, we’re going to have so much fun!

Thank you all so very much for stopping by!

Happy crafting,

Chrissie x