painted tile floor-no really!

First off, can I just say a HUGE thank you for all the positive feedback for the kitchen reveal? It was so great to hear how much you all liked it. I mean, I knew I liked it but to hear all of your kind comments really drove home to me how right I was to go with my gut and just jump into that makeover....even though people looked at me like I was crazy when I told them what I was doing!

So today I'm going to go through the process of painting our kitchen floor....and the pros and cons of taking on a project like this.

€200. One week. Full kitchen makeover!

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Yes, you read that right. We re-did our entire kitchen for under €200. Floor, cabinets, counters, hardware, the lot! And we did it in one week* without losing our minds or ruining our marriage. 

shameless touting for votes!!!!

By some miracle I have been shortlisted for the Blog Awards Ireland! 
To say I'm delighted is a serious understatement, this little bog has only been going for a couple of months and get this kind of a pat on the back is hugely uplifting. 
Sometimes it can be really tough when you compare yourself to other blogs that seem to be doing so fantastically. It can often feel like no-one but my family are actually reading my posts, so I'm taking this a sign that I'm doing something right. And I'll try and remember that the next time I'm lamenting the fact that no-one is commenting :)
This round of judging is 30% down to a public vote, so if you have enjoyed reading about any of my little adventures in home improvement (or if you just like being forced to look at photos of other people's children and that's why you keep coming back) I would be ever so grateful if you could take a moment to click the link and vote for me. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PZ88979

It's quick and painless, I promise!
p.s: you can vote from anywhere in the world ;)

I've been shortlisted!!

I've been shortlisted for the Blog Awards Ireland and I am freakin' ecstatic about it! I haven't been doing this for very long and I'm still finding my feet so something like this is a real boost for me :) 

Even if the I don't win I'm really proud that my little blog has gotten this far....and I'm definitely taking the chance to head to the awards and have myself a night out!!

Thanks so much to whoever nominated me, and I'll be looking for your help with the public vote soon so get ready, I will of course be offering bribes for votes ;)


                                                Linda xx

you know how you can pretty much paint anything?......

Finally, finally I am getting around to talking about the curtains for Max's room. It was a really easy and effective diy that I've been meaning to share for a long time, and the main hold up is basically that I'm a really crap amateur photographer and I couldn't get a decent picture of them. So I finally figured I'm not going to be buying a decent camera or taking a photography course anytime soon so I may as well make the best of what i have and just get on with it! So here we go....

*disclaimer ~ not only am I a crap photographer with bad tools but these photo's were taken pre-blog, in that scary time when I didn't know you shouldn't take photos at night!

I knew I wanted curtains with some sort of a print that would tie in with a woodland/camping theme, and after months of browsing fabric online and checking ever shop I came across that looked like it might have something suitable I accepted that I wasn't going to find anything that would cost less than €100 for the amount I would need....and that just wasn't happening! 

~ my entire spend on Max's room came to €101 in the end, so you can see how much expensive fabric just wasn't a possibility for me!

Honestly the patterns I was finding weren't really what i wanted anyway, so faced with the problem of coming up with modern, patterned, full length curtains to tie in with Max's room and with no possibilities (and no money even if there had been!) I did what I always do....I went to pinterest! I typed in "diy curtains" and lo and behold there were a million tutorials for painted curtains.

~ I did this project before I did the painted rug for Em's room - this was project 0!

I already had a few pairs of cheap curtains I had gotten last year in Guiney's (they were €5.99 a pair but they were Laura Ashley so I presume they're seconds, there isn't anything wrong with them that I can see so I snapped up four pairs to add to my hoard!) so all I needed was a pattern....and a way of applying it.

I settled on arrows as my image. I've seen them all over recently and I really love them. I originally thought I would cut a stencil and paint over it to create the pattern, but then I realised that seeing as my image was so simple it would be easy to make a stamp...and that would be waaaayyyyy quicker when it came to painting, and more accurate too, win/win!

With this as my plan I picked up a piece of foam from a craft shop, cut my arrow shape out of it and stuck it to another thicker piece of foam (you could use thick cardboard for this too)

I had a tester pot of paint in my chosen colour all ready to go.

~I've mentioned it before, but Valspar testers are really generous, there's more than enough for most small projects. I used less than half a pot for the curtains, and I've painted my whole fireplace with one in the past-two coats!

I added fabric medium to the paint to make sure I could wash them.

Then I tested out my stamp...

And off I went! I applied the paint to the stamp with a brush to make sure I didn't get too much on it. It took about two hours to do the whole thing, and then I let them dry overnight before ironing them (to set the fabric medium) and hanging them up.

                  

I must say I love them. They're exactly what i wanted and they cost me less than €10 all told!

What do you think? Would you ever paint a pair of curtains?

                                                 Linda xx