Learn to weave with cupcake cutie

So we all know about my obsession with faux taxidermy, well I have another love in my life too....WEAVING!

My new passion for weaving is all consuming and I want to share all my tricks and tips with you so you can get your weaving groove on. I have set up a dedicated instagram account for my weaving at @cupcakecutieweaving where I will be sharing works in progress and any tips I have learnt so far.

I will then add all these handy tips to my new Weaving page (see page tab above) as a handy reference for you.

I can't wait to get started!

Kim
xxx

Win an Ice Cream Splat Narwhal

WIN, WIN, WIN.....you can win one of my ice cream splat Narwhal softies .......

....and lots of other cute goodies over on the Twinkie Chan blog as part of her June sponsor giveaway...

Look at those little happy pills, so cute! Enter HERE to win. Good luck!

And while you are on Twinkie's amazing blog check out her quirky crochet, it is so cute. Her patterns are a great incentive to hone my crochet skills.

Kim
xxx

           

Dolls house makeover: The kitchen

So the dolls house makeover is finally complete...well there is always room for more but at a certain point you have to stop so your poor children actually get to play with it before they are teenagers!

I thought it would be easier to show one room per blog post and today it's the kitchen.....

I started with a bit of a cactus theme in the kitchen and papered the walls with some fun digital papers from Light Breeze Boutique on Etsy. The amazing bird feature rug is actually a decorative paper that came in a Mollie Makes magazine. Fridge, units, stove, dining table, white chairs and tiny food items are from Lundby.

Kitchen sink, pots, plate and boy are from Lundby. Giant bread on the table and retro clock over the sink are vintage finds from the local market. The stunning weaving on the wall is made by me using a tiny loom made by The Creative Muster . I will post a tutorial soon on how you can make your own.

 Plastic greenery in the window box is courtesy of the local $2 shop!


Next up is the bathroom...

A random Unicorn Sale....20% off

I love a random sale. For no reason at all I am having a sale of all Unicorn related products in my etsy store...

...no code required as the 20% has already been deducted. It includes everything shown plus the Unicorn faux taxidermy pattern.

Here is the link.

Happy shopping!

Kim
xxx

Vote for me and my taxidermy and you could win too!

I am very excited to announce that I have been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in The Clever Creations Project. Here I am on page 33 of the latest issue of the NZ Your Home & Garden magazine.

This is the front cover.....

.....I have to say there is nothing more exciting than seeing yourself in one of your favourite magazines. My 3 year old daughter and I were in the book store on the floor madly flipping through until we found the picture of 'Mummy'!

This is a bit of background from the Clever Creations website outlining what it is all about...


"The Market NZ and Your Home and Garden have been searching for new creative talent in need of a helping hand to grow commercially – and look who we found! We had so many exciting entries, which the judges have pared down to the 12 talented finalists below. The winner of each category will create an exclusive collaboration with The Market NZ, all costs covered, and be featured in the September issue of Your Home & Garden."

AND HOW YOU CAN WIN.....

"The People’s Choice award is selected by you! Get voting to be in to win one of 10 x $100 vouchers for The Market NZ or one of 10 x 1 year subscriptions to Your Home & Garden. One lucky voter will also win the entire Clever Creations Project collection. That’s a product from every category winner. Voting closes July 15th"

So if you could please take the time to vote for me and my menagerie HERE then we both have a chance to be WINNERS!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I have all fingers, toes, legs and everything crossed so wish me luck.

Kim
xxx

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Dolls house makeover: The Bathroom

Next up in the Dolls House Makeover reveal is the Bathroom....

First up I started with this amazing Pink Flamingo wallpaper which I downloaded for free from Jennifers Printables. If you have the time and patience to wade through all the advertising and navigate yourself around there are so many wonderful patterns to choose from on this site.

The pink polka dot curtains are actually strips of washi tapes that I overlapped on slight angles onto light card and then cut out to look like curtain shapes. The pink and white checkered floor is from Alice Apple on Etsy. The donut detail on the floor is a free decorative paper that came from a Mollie Makes magazine.

The toilet and vanity are from Lundby. The flamingo picture is a vintage paint by number which I found on Pinterest and I made a hama bead frame for it. The tiny pink toilet roll holder which you can just see is from Tiny Things are Cute which is one of my favourite shops as it is full of tiny gorgeous things that you never knew you needed. The wee vase and flowers on the vanity is a vintage op shop find.

The wardrobe and wee blue seat are a vintage find from the local market. The shower and the bath (with rubber ducky) and little bottles are from Lundby. My daugther has broken 2 pieces of the bath already which I have taped back on with sellotape!

Don't you just love the light switches you can see through the window!!!

The felt zebra and donut cushions I made as well as the enormous Zebra rug which is an adaption of my Zebra faux taxidermy pattern.

Next up on the dolls house tour is the cloud room...

Playhouse Makeover

A bit of playhouse inspiration for you. Nothing like an injection of bright colours to lure the kids back in and get them interested in playing in it again.

This is before where it is all boring brown and very uninviting. The kids had a great time slapping on the white undercoat.

And then the fun began....the candy coloured stripes. I just chose any bright colour that appealed to me and only needed 2 large test pots of each colour.

It's like a giant licorice allsort in the back yard! And I got so excited about colour that I decided to paint the whole back fence bright orange too. Luckily my hubby likes any excuse to go to the hardware store and as long as I did all the painting he didn't mind what colour I chose.

I had already painted the mural on the inside previously but decided to splash some yellow paint on one wall...

...and a bit of blue and pink on the other walls....the type of place where you need to wear your sunglasses inside!

It is a tiny playhouse but we have it jam packed with goodies...a little stove with flashing and beeping elements, lots of plastic cups and plates and all the felt food I made a few years ago (you can find the tutorials for the felt food on my blog). The black doily rug on the floor and framed square on the wall are painted with chalk paint so we can do lots of list making and drawing.....

...and a wee table and chairs for serious tea drinking (with at least 6 teapots to choose from!) while admiring the view of the bright orange fence out the window.

Now we just have to wait for Spring again so it is warm enough to go outside and play in it.

P.S It never looks this tidy. If I took a reality shot of it right now it would be carnage with the floor covered and the place basically trashed but hey that's how kids play!

How to cross stitch on a chair

I love stitching on furniture and when I found this chair at The Warehouse (in NZ) I knew it was crying out to be stitched.

I dived into my wool stash and picked out a few bright colours and chose a large tapestry needle.

I decided it would probably look best with some kind of geometric pattern so I whipped up a cross pattern using cross stitch software and started stitching...

The wool I had was only 8 ply so I doubled it to get a nice chunky stitch. This was a bit fiddly as I had to make sure the 2 lengths didn't get tangled but it was really fast to stitch and so much fun to do.

I think it only took about 2 hours to finish stitching the whole thing. It was one of those projects I was desperate to see finished so no procrastinating on this one!

And the finished chair which matches my little sewing desk perfectly.