The Interior DIYer

Uncategorized

Lovely mention – the Irish Independent

A couple of weeks ago I got a surprise e-mail from the lovely Gabrielle from the Irish Independent looking to include me in an upcoming feature; she was writing about ladies who are ditching cosmo’s for crochet hooks and getting crafty at home {for the record, I am partial to a tall, cold G&T or a healthy glass of wine}. I of course agreed {nervously}, and later that afternoon I spoke with Gabrielle about all things thrifted and handmade throughout our home. From items made from scratch, to revamped thrifted pieces, to crochet, knitting and cross stitch, we talked about it all. And when I say we, I mean I rambled on for some time.

A word of warning ladies – when you’re as pale as me, if you hold a lamp up to your face, your eyes will look like two piss-holes in snow. That is something I have now learned. Aside from that, I am giddy with excitement about my little feature and would like to thank Gabrielle again for being so cool, down to earth and for letting me prattle on about handmade stuff, and Ronan the photographer for making it a fun and relaxed mini photo shoot in my living room, because cameras terrify me and all I do is make dumb faces. 

For anyone who would like to creep the online version of the article, check it out here 🙂 xx A

p.s. I LOVE LAMP. 
Also featured – lamp revamp – fancy footstool
Uncategorized

DIY Friday – chuck it bucket*

Like most projects, this weeks DIY project started from habit. Our living room gets the most use, and therefore all of the things end up there. I’m a little bit of a neat freak {I can already hear my husband when he reads this – “a little?!“}, and if I’m sitting among chaos for too long, I can feel the crazy build up. When I gather all the stuff in our living room that’s to be redistributed back throughout our apartment, I noticed I was always dumping said stuff on the corner of our couch or by our living room door.

After a while, I started using a reusable shopping bag hanging on the door to collect said items, but to be honest, I wanted to gouge my eyes out from looking at it. That’s when I came up with the idea of having a basket on the floor which could easily accumulate our crap, and I could pick up and zip around the apartment with. Thus, the chuck it bucket was born.

I’m not claiming to be the inventor of this idea, but it’s something I’ve found immensely handy when it comes to tidying up, and thought it was an idea too good to keep to myself. But hold up, “where exactly does the DIY come into play, Alex” I hear you say. Well, I’ll tell you. I had seen Kirstie Allsopps dip-dyed basket DIY earlier this year and I had it firmly planted in my brain. When I was on the lookout for an appropriate basket / vessel, I had a plain, circular, woven basket with handles in mind. I was on the lookout for a long time, and finally found the perfect one in TK Maxx! But wait – it was too perfect. It was already dip-dyed white. Yes, I battled with myself – do I just pretend I dip-dyed it myself? Incredibly tempting, but no.

I had this dip-dye project in mind for so long as a DIY Friday, and now I can’t do it. But alas, my only justification is Kirstie’s link I included above which has thee most painfully easy DIY; just shove a basket in paint and you’re done. But, I still wanted to share my spiffy new basket. I jazzed it up a little bit by adding a mini black curtain tie-back from Home Focus at Hickeys. And lord knows, I like a little jazz.

I’ve had this basket for a couple days and already it has come in so handy just lugging stuff around our apartment. Chuck it in. Lug it around. End of story.

*Yeah, it’s a basket, not a bucket, but c’mon ‘chuck it bucket‘ sounds so much better.

Uncategorized

‘Tis the season

I asked my mom the other day if I was ever a princess for Halloween. “No, never. You always wanted to be a witch or something scary. You never wanted to be a princess“, and so it stands. I’ve always been more comfortable with darker Halloween costumes, and darker colours in general – not just at Halloween time. Case in point – I’m naturally blonde, but I dye my hair black because I prefer darker colours and I think it suits me better. Husband however, disagrees. Strongly.

I’m a firm believer in scary Halloween in my house. Not cute and bright – not to say any of those things are wrong in any way, I always find when I decorate my home, out comes the creep. All the old books, my swelling decanter collection takes the spotlight, and more stuff from outside comes in. I’ve almost always decorated from pieces I already have. I’m sure in time, when I produce spawn, the cuter Halloween will come out. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it … 

Something that irritates me to no end around this time of year is bad fake blood. It’s either believable and I’m going to faint, or it’s such a high-pitch red ain’t nobody believing that. A good few years back I came up with a recipe for good fake blood, which I use to this day. Mix a couple spoonfulls of instant coffee with a teaspoon of regular red food dye, and dilute with around 5 cups of water. You’ll more than likely need to mess with the coffee / red dye / water ratio, but it’s minimal effort for what I think to be convincing results. Keep in mind this is red food dye, so don’t be mixing it over your 3,000 count Egyptian sheets. Unless of course you’re looking to add a blood stain to a costume,  then by all means, drip away. 

This year I decorated with mostly pieces we already have. I got fancy on the shelf over our TV and taped a Blair Witch style stick man in our cloche {that movie still terrifies me. Please don’t judge}, I added some discerning labels to our decanters, an awesome skull wreath my dad found at Home Store + More {it was 50% off – and still is!}, and a smattering of skulls here and there – most of which were already out. Because in case you’re new here, I like skulls. 

So that is what I’ve added to our home so far this creepy season. I’ve been pouring all my spare time into making my Halloween costume. To go along with the creep factor, I’m dressing up as Lydia in her red wedding dress {which has about one million layers of lace that I’m sewing by hand}, and hubster will be Beetlejuice, obv. I cannot. Wait! What are you guys being for Halloween? And do you try your hand at making your own costumes? xx A
NOTE: no kittens were harmed in the making of this post.