Time flies.....

Well how did that happen? I just read my last blog and even I didn't realise it had been so long ! So much has happened !

Firstly a Sunny update, in my last blog things were not going to plan with the fixing of Sunny and things came to a head when the deadline of the festival we needed her for was a week away and she still wasn't going ! So the decision was made to 'do up Myfanwy" instead as she was working mechanically but had no interior whatsoever and needed an MOT . We were due to leave on Wednesday, so a week before  we were due to leave  we started to take out Sunny's interior ready to put it in Myfanwy , who needed a bit of attention before we could re-fit her as she had no coverings on any of her panels, or flooring or cab mats !

[caption id="attachment_382" align="aligncenter" width="225"] a very sorry looking Myfanwy[/caption]

She had been owned by a young chap who thought it would be a good idea to cover her in pictures cut from surf magazines !

[caption id="attachment_383" align="aligncenter" width="300"] covering the window surrounds

covering side panels

laying flooring

sprucing up the cab with new seat covers and door panels[/caption]

She was booked in for an MOT on the Thursday before we left, which she failed ! Luckily we have a friend who does welding or we would have been sleeping in the car ! But this couldn't be done until the Monday, which mean't that we had Friday ,Saturday and Sunday to get the interior finished, leaving Tuesday for shopping and packing ...I like a challenge !

Saturday and Sunday were spent making curtains and covering the seat cushions while Husband tried to re-jig the interior which didn't fit straight in as the vans were slightly different inside

but she was beginning to take shape. Monday saw her away all day being welded, so we couldn't work on her interior but I made her a cover for her spare wheel

Then it was off to be re-MOT'd on Tuesday...SHE PASSED !Yay,

So now it was all hands to the pump ! We .....

[caption id="attachment_389" align="aligncenter" width="300"] curtain fabric[/caption]

hung the curtains,

[caption id="attachment_390" align="aligncenter" width="300"] seat cushion covering[/caption]

replaced her seat cushions

[caption id="attachment_391" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Myfanwys new pop roof cover, crocheted bunting and mini lampshade lights[/caption]

and just generally cosied her up !

Tuesday evening she was ready to roll

We had an awesome festival and Myfanwy did us proud



 

 

 



 

 

 

 



 

 

[caption id="attachment_393" align="aligncenter" width="225"] festival mode[/caption]

So it all came right in the end. As for Sunny, well she is looking a little worse for ware at the moment, but the good news is she is off to live in Devon with number 2 daughter who's partner is a carpenter and they are going to re-build her a new interior and give her some TLC, with a new baby on the way she will be perfect for little family getaways !

Sackcloth and rabbits!

Really it all started with a soft spot for antique French grain sacks,(of which I have a few), they are all individual to the farms where they were handmade and although the reason for buying them was to make cushion covers,table runners etc,I couldn't bring myself to cut them up ! While in France (waiting for husband to get away from the postcard chap!) I spied an old hessian grain sack, much rougher but with a motif and name of a French town we had visited stamped on it,thinking this would make a great floor cushion( an idea stolen from my good friend) I purchased it, but once home I decided instead to use it to cover a vintage Lloyd loom chair, and was so pleased with the result,I thought it would be a good idea to get more sacks for the dinning room chair cushions I needed to cover, no chance! It seems something that was as 'cheap as cheap things' in a village brocante demanded huge fortunes once they hit English shores! The remedy was I found 'new' coffee sacks, a nice man on eBay sold me twenty hessian sacks all with designs and printed with mainly South American country names ( French towns would have been nice,but beggars can't be choosers!) for twenty English pounds, so now I have chair cushions covered in 'sackcloth' without a hint of guilt.Being on a roll I decided to use the off cuts to make some bunting( something else I am quite partial to). Having cut the hessian into mini bunting size I used a rubber stamp of a hare( it could pass as a rabbit!) and a normal ink pad to stamp on the design,I had to press quite hard,more than normal,and not much of the fine detail shows because the hessian is quite a rough texture,but I think you get the idea.As for the antique grain sacks,one I used as a floor cushion,as it only involved sewing the top closed after filling it with feathers, one I use as a short table runner - the work that has gone into it ! All those neat hand stitches! I couldn't unpick them! A few more are just to look at on my linen shelf and one.. Yes just one.. I made into two sofa cushions with vintage mother of pearl buttons,and, which, I am glad to say please me very much.

Greetings from!

Husband has a thing for vintage postcards,he likes to use them as bookmarks ( he is an avid reader !). When rifling through his stash I found some far too good to just use as bookmarks,so I have claimed them,and displayed them around the house on old mirrors ( another collection of mine! ). I think my favourite is the 50's cat one, which came from a Brocante in Brittany France,where we stayed with some good friends last year. It was definitely a highlight of the holiday watching husband who speaks very little French being coerced by an elderly French gentleman into buying more postcards than he wanted to mostly of little old ladies in national costume surrounded by chickens! We had covered a large part of the Brocante before he extricated himself!!

Hello postie!

In all the excitement of setting up this blog I forgot the Postman delivered my vintage ladybird books this morning,I was planning to cut them up into mini bunting,but have had a wobble at the last moment! Now thinking I might scan and resize,so I can have endless copies( is this naughty? Technically I am not reproducing them as books!!)but I won't be rushing into anything I still have to finish making my fabric eggs ( photos to follow) and finish crochet- ing (?) a bath mat using sisal string, so many things! I think I'll just have a quick cup of tea and a biscuit.
Mimx