The British Homemaker - One day at a time

If good intentions were as visible as the lack of posts here I'd have a pretty full blog! However, since the last post... all the way back to October last year (!!!) I have got lost in the fun, challenges and happenings of life. The diary I keep for this blog is still sat on the shelf next to me, loaded with things I've noted down or added to share here, but still they sit. At the moment I am working like a trojan getting orders out, preparing for my youngest to finish school for the summer and getting the caravan finished ready for us to take off on our travels. There is so much to share that I'm not sure where to start. When I started this blog I had so many hopes for it, so many things I wanted to share, experiences to lean back on and places I wanted it to go, a few years on my business has taken over much of my days, my health is up and down so I have to accredit that the time it needs to get back in control and I have a weakness for hanging out with my friend...

Life has been somewhat chaotic of late.  The biggest thing to deal with has been my moms cancer. Whilst she is now recovering and doing profoundly well I have to admit that it does still play in my mind of the usual thoughts 'what would I do without her?' So I've buried my head a little. As well as working away at the business to get it as established as I can. Then dealing with the arthritis. Plus remembering that I am a full time mom too. So in all, my attention hasn't been on this blog or the Facebook page but now I'm willing to try again to regain some momentum with it. So, I thought I'd share some tidbits of what has been created. I very much got into crocheting. We grew strawberries. Charley learned the chain stitch on one of our trips to the Midlands. We made sweet ice pops! Many, many boy camps! We made cake in a tin. I spent hours in the patio, reading and relaxing. Breakfast date. Charley an...

Working on some new projects for my business I was rather surprised how often I’m asked if I sell individually cut fabric letters. Eventually I got the message, so now I’m adding a new range to both Design my Room Uk and Design my Party Uk (website still being re-built).   So till 30th June I am offering free Uk postage, basic rate for Eu and everywhere else. These are available in sizes from 1” up to 12” in a wide range of colours and patterns and ideal for any kind of personalising, cushions, buntings, clothing, blankets and more. This offer is only available if this blog post is quoted! Hop over to the blog linked above for more information. Debs

I love being organised, I love colours so put the two together and I probably go a little overboard! I've put together a few of the simple things I've invested in that saves me heaps of space as well as time looking for things. Of course, there's the added bonus that the kids will put things where they belong, ok there's hope! ;) Cutlery drawer. Upon the insistence of my daughter, I was happy with my pretty tins on the window but I must admit, this does kinda look better :) Having just 4 drawers in my kitchen I am hell bent on limiting what goes in them, I admit I do feel the need for a junk draw but it's not this one, nope, its one full of manuals, menus and other paper products 'just in case' and I'm ok with that! This draw sorts the most used things and a teeny tiny little pot for small junk ;) I was so fed up of washing powder leaking over the worktop so I had a brainwave. This 3 drawer unit is perfect. Each drawer holds approx...

I raise this post from a couple of years ago as this is what I a working on this week. I wanted some quick and easy but effective blinds for the two front bedroom windows for my daughters room in our former home, after a few ideas I came across this style on one of my favourite blogs which hit me perfectly upside the head! I knew they were perfect. As I a considering how I want to dress the two windows in my room this style keeps jumping around in my head, only in red and white {they are my room colours} I would just swap the black for the red but the style would be exactly the same. The best thing about this style is you simply sew the two fabrics together once cut to size, add three tabs to the bottom to fold over and hook onto three stitched on buttons {I used black buttons with red flowers hot glued on top of those} Because the fabric is polycotton it is lightweight so you don't need a drill or nails double sided velcro is perfect for hanging. I would suggest, for hea...

Working on some projects a couple of weeks ago I wanted something for the head of Charley’s bed…but with little income and lots of ideas I came up with something that he now loves! From this: With just a can of blue spray paint it became this: Added 3 hooks down the side, a couple of certificates and one happy little boy loves his new bed head! Cost: £0

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try out an idea I had for Charley’s room. I was so fed up of hearing his groans when a lego kit got knocked by his friend or stepped on by me him when he’d spent hours and hours building it. Lego is his life. So off I went to armour up with the required bits. *Note! I have since replaced that narrow shelf with a proper sized one…and he’s since filled that very shelf with over 12 constructions!* I decided on a pine effect curtain pole {painted in glow in the dark paint which looks rather cool at night} the baton is added support but also as I chose a longer length I was able to add some hooks for his other bits {it’s now filled with key rings, ds cases and other stuff} The S hooks and flexi tubs are ideal for not only his odd bits of lego but for his teddies and other stuff {he’s since added 3 more tubs since this pic, how slack am I to not photo it?!!} Simple white medium sized hooks are effective enough, nothing ...

Kirsten loves animal print, specifically leopard print. She has it on everything from cups, phone cases, bedding, t-shirts, uggies and a whole lot more so it was no real surprise when I asked her to begin designing out her bedroom that this was the theme. As the house is just a few months old we need to wait a year before we can actually decorate {the foundations are settling and that nearly always means cracks that will need to be repaired} so she came up with the idea for a stencilled print border, I went in search of something but not really sure of what and guess what? I found the perfect tutorial that Kirsten I will easily be able to do. I am totally not an artistic person with this sorta thing! So, as it’s such a great and simple instruction I figured it’s only fair to name and share the method. If you click on either of the photos you can go right to the full tutorial. The nice thing with this project is you only need...