Make London

I've only recently become aware of The Make Lounge - they run craft workshops in the capital as well as supporting local craft fairs and other events like Urban Knitting. I'm looking forward to going to the We Make London craft fair in Covent Garden on Sunday, which will mostly feature sellers from Etsy. All great stuff, just makes me wish I had more time to concentrate on crafts! Check out their blog for upcoming events.

P.S. Mostly for my reference, to-do list for the near future:
- Re-do my craft site
- Get new prints ready (got new printer today, squee!) and up on the store
- Re-do portfolio
- Threadless ♥ lomography t-shirt design

Ceiling cat is watching you...

I love lolcats - my life has been made infinitely better since adding the feed to my blog reader. Now you can download and fold your very own Ceiling Cat from right here. Super cute!

DIY drawers

On the way to the pub last Saturday, we saw this darling little chest of drawers abandoned on the pavement outside our flat. I fall a bit in love with anything abandoned, but the lovely embossed metal handles on this chest especially appealed to me. We decided that if it was still there on the way back, we'd pick it up. Lo, it was, and after a strong cider it seemed a great idea to hike it up the stairs and try to pack it into our already-crowded little flat.

Since I was ill all weekend - I get strangely pro-active when cooped up in the house - I gave it a lovely little makeover, inspired by all the wonderful before-and-after projects on design*sponge. Behold:






(What's that sitting on top of it? Oh, just my prints that are available on etsy right now! ;)

What did I do? Just sanded off all the old varnish, painted it white all over, covered the top, sides and drawers with some lovely paper from Paperchase, and gave it a spray of matte varnish to finish. Super easy, cost under a tenner, and it looks so delightful. Now to find some space for it to live..

Post script: As I was clearing it out, I found two nice surprises inside: i) the original manufacturer's sticker saying it was made in 1960 (practically an antique! perhaps i shouldn't have butchered it), and ii) a fat envelope stuffed full of postcards, photos and drawings. I wonder who would throw out a cabinet with those things inside..?