Practical Magic.

I'm post night shift so some of what I say may have an element of delirium about it, I do have a point and it will make sense however, so bear with me... Life at the moment is gloriously intertwining my two passions- Surf and vintage. 
In a matter of weeks I'll be off to Cape Town to go work on the Gap360 surf project which is a prospect I'm majorly excited about and under prepared for! In the meantime I'm at home building up my vintage collection, in the hope of eventually establishing an online boutique with my best friend Jemima.   

My other current obsession at the moment, is deciding what pet to have. Ardent follows of this blog will know that for a long time this was all about getting a dog. Well if I was eight years old I'd still be harping on about that, I am unfortunately 25 and fully aware of the level of responsibility. For now its on the back burner until I fully know my schedule at university, it would break my heart to leave a dog alone or day, or worse still have to re-home it. There's also my family dog Jack who is the apple of my eye, it would be unfair to force a puppy on him knowing his cantankerous nature. 

Instead I'm looking into a big cuddly bunny or a friendly parrot, something I can take with me to the care home and work as a therapy pet, as well as cuddling at home! 

Any who I'm digressing, today's title is in reference to a little craft project I have for you lovelies. Here are a few pics from Le life and then I'll get practical and show you how to upcycle a lamp, oh here it goes....

 I suddenly remembered I had this tea set, so yesterday waded through spiders the size of kittens to get it out of the shed again! This was purchased from Penrith farmers market back in the old university days ahhh memories. 

My hair typically is very low maintenance (let it grow, forget to brush it) but lately I've been trying the whole blow drying malarkey and I quite like the straight results. 

 I was walking the dog to go buy wine so a really classy outing for me here. The dress is another vintage treasure I recently found whilst rummaging in my fav shop. The filter I used on this picture totally doesn't do the vibrancy of the red justice...must try harder next time! 

I'm getting excited about going to Cape Town so found myself reminiscing last night about Africa. This is one my favorite photos I've ever taken. I was working as a yoga teacher in Ngor Island Surf camp, Senegal. Mammiko the little girl on the left I got to know through her mom Haddie and this is a traditional clothes day at nursery that I had the privilege of attending. How cute are they!?!   

How to upcycle a lamp!

You will need:- 
- 1 lamp 
- scrap material
- scissors 
- pencil & paper 
- tape measure
- ribbon
- buttons 
- felt  
- glue gun

1. Get down to your local charity shop and buy yourself a lamp. My fully functioning lamp was a mere £3.50! The material was all scrap from charity shops that cost a grand total of £2. 

 2. Depending on your lamp shade, measure the panels and decide what size squares of material you want to stick onto it. As you can see below I roughly gauged the size, which I first drew on paper as a template. Pin the paper to the material and start cutting. 

3. Warm up your glue gun and when ready start gluing the pieces onto the lamp. Its a steady process and sometimes the squares don't stick perfectly, persevere because it will look good eventually!

4. Now for the fun part! Start customizing at your own leisure, I stuck ribbon up the seams of the lamp and added everything from buttons to felt. If you want to add felt get creative and make shapes, it was ridiculously easy to draw a cat face and stick it on. 

                                                                 

5. Voila! Your very own shabby chic lamp. I gave this one as a present, which may seem cheeky when it only cost a grand total of £5.50 but this one of a kind and lovingly crafted, time not money people! 

Until next time...

Stay strong, surf well

Love