Kim Archer | Mindful Living

a little tutorial

We gave my mum a magazine subscription for Mother's Day and because the notification arrived by email, we didn't have a little wrapped up present to give her on the day.

So, I spent some time on Mother's Day morning making a pretty fabric flower hanger thingy to hang in her study, by her computer, to make her smile - and it smells pretty good too.

Here's how!

supplies

• fabric scraps
• access to a sewing machine + bright red thread
• tiny buttons
• small scrap of cardstock
• a little bit of wadding or toy fill
• something to scent your flower - I used some fragrant wax chips
• length of ribbon for the "hanger".

how to

1. Choose a FIVE fabrics roughly about 12x14cm. Use all the same fabric, two types fabrics OR a different fabric for each of the five petals. 

2. Fold each piece of fabric in half WRONG sides together.

3. Head over to your sewing machine and stitch a very rough petal shape through both layers, leaving the lower edge free open. Stitch three times around your shape.

I prefer a random, shabby, uneven and imperfect flower SO I didn't make a petal template beforehand. BUT if you prefer a neater finish, by all means, create a petal shaped template on paper first to trace around for uniform shaped petals.

4. Once you have stitched your petal, use scissors to carefully snip around your stithing, leaving a narrow border.

5. Stitch all five petal shapes and snip out ready for assembly.

6. Cut TWO rough circles from fabric for your flower centre.

7. Type up a sentiment strip onto cardstock (or computer journal onto a strip of cardstock)

 

8. Machine stitch each end of your cardstock sentiment strip to your fabric centre.

9. Pin each of your petals, sandwiched between your TWO fabric circles.

10. Head back to the sewing machine and stitch all layers together ONCE, leaving a space for where your LAST petal.

11. Leave the opening where the last petal will go, open for now, so we can softly fill our flower shape with wadding.

12. Softly stuff your flower centre with some wadding/toy fill.

13. I added in a few little scented candle chips from my scented candle mishap. But you could add some lavender seeds or a cotton ball fragranced with a few drops of essential oil.

  
14. Finish off by sandwiching your last petal into place and slip a length of folded ribbon behind your petal, stitch all layers. Continue stitching, adding about three rows of messy stitching.

Trim all your threads and give yourself a BIG CLAP, gift wrap and give to someone special. Hang your little fabric flower from a drawer knob, door knob or add to a wardrobe to lightly scent your clothes.

School hols, catching up and meet Dex

Well I can't believe SIX days have gone by since I last blogged. I was being so good there with my daily little posts and thought maybe one or possibly two days had gone by but the times flown and I was shocked when I checked and realised its almost been a full week.

Its been busy here in the Archer household.

Brandt's well and truly moved back in. We're all settling back quite nicely into a routine for a family of five again. Term 1 has finished already and we have officially kicked off school holidays. We're getting measured up for carpets tomorrow morning and I am *almost* finished painting the bedrooms - just some glossy white trim to go in Brandt's room. AND our new leather lounge is arriving on Tuesday. Its been a LOOOONG wait and I hope the sofas are as nice as I remember way back in February when we ordered them!

And I bought this little guy.

Meet Dex. He's on his way to us from Mardi's lovey new Etsy shop Dudley and Grace

more decorating

Continuing on with my little home renovations, I decided to give this old side table a facelift.

We've had this little table for YEARS and to be honest, I've never really liked it.

I bought it raw from a pine furniture place back when Brandt was a baby (19 years ago!) I had had the grand idea of staining it myself, trying desperately to copy the lovely colonial style, golden stained Freedom Furniture version I had wanted to buy but we couldn't afford at the time.

And I was pretty bad at staining furniture. It looked uneven and terrible and never looked "right"...it always bugged me but over the years we still used it and it was practical, if not pleasing to the eye!

But a lick of antique white glossy paint, some sanding/distressing and some varnish and it now looks so much better and sits in our front loungeroom.

Now to muster up the courage to paint our coffee table!!!

Feed Your Soul

How wonderful does that sound?

Feed Your Soul.

Thanks Mardi for the link to the Feed Your Soul website which offers some beautiful downloadable and best of all FREE artwork from some amazing designers/artists/illustrators.

Check out Mardi's blog for what she did with her free downloadable artwork here.

And I couldn't wait to get printing and framing.

I chose this image and a white shadow box frame I have had sitting here for a while. I printed the image onto glossy photo paper and it printed up beautifully.

It is gracing my little shelf in my Studio for now but will eventually find it's way onto the wall in one of our newly painted rooms. Which one? Not sure just yet.

little pillows

I loved this article on de-cluttering written by my favourite Uplevel Your Business Coach, Christine Kane which you can read here. And I especially love the quote she used by William Morris.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” 

I remembered Christine's article when I was reading Mardi's blog the other day. Mardi was writing all about her Mini Cushions - teeny, fabric cushions of lovliness...and her family's reaction to them. Her family wanted to know what they were and more importantly, "But what do you DO with them??"

And as Mardi said, not all things have to DO something. She asked the question, "Sometimes I wonder....Why is it that everything needs a use? Can't they just be.... totally useless?"

I agree with Mardi..YES we can surround ourselves wth things that are useful and have a purpose as well as things that are beautiful. Things that make us feel happy. And make us smile.

And my little Made by Mardi Mini Cushion certainly makes me smile. Every day.

Read Mardi's blog post here.

Namadji

I love how a paint colour can totally change the look of a room!!!

We're doing a little painting and redecorating to our home including a few new pieces of furniture, new carpet and new white timber blinds in the bedrooms over the coming months.

While "resting" and having my break I continued with some wall painting in the house.

Room by room I am painting all of the house in Dulux Sandy Day with Dulux Naural White glossy trim which will replace the very yellowy creamy tones the previous owners painted this entire house years ago! And it's a big job so I am pacing myself and doing sections at a time. I hate half finished jobs and the mess that painting brings so I am refusing to move onto the next room until I have finished the first.

And I'm throwing in a feature wall colour here and there.

It's making such a difference already and I've only painted our entry, hallway and Brandt's bedroom.

Annnnyway, I had painted a feature wall in Aqua a while ago in our little entry and I do LOVE the colour (it's repeated as a feature wall in our family room), but it was the wrong colour for the entry.

So I toyed with what colour I would go with and decided I really wanted a charcoal coloured wall. It took me some time to work up the courage to paint it charcoal as it seemed SO dark but after googling images of black walls I knew this was the right colour!!!

I chose Dulux Namadji.

I must admit when the first coat went on I thought what on earth am I doing!! I'm going to wreck the entry!!

BUT I LOVE IT!

I am so, so happy with how it looks. It's better than I imagined and I am now looking around for what other walls I can paint charcoal!! (Taken on my iPhone so not all that clear and a bit "blacker" in real life)

 

And I especially love my little original Kate Mason work of art now sitting there at the top of my photo collection. I want to add in a few other frames too eventually.

I'll share other rooms and things as they come together too.