The Interior DIYer

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Blog Awards Ireland 2013

It’s getting real all up in here ladies and gentlemen. This years’ Blog Awards Ireland has been launched, and my little blog has been nominated in not one, but three categories. I am totes excited / nervous / a whole range of emotions / scrambling / et cetera. I took a couple of hours over the weekend to sit down and make little changes to my website that I’ve wanted to do for way too long. It’s been my perfect excuse. Also, please excuse the mess if you happen upon my site mid-fiddle. Lord knows it was a hot mess this time yesterday. 

Hydrangea Girl has been nominated for …

BEST DESIGNED BLOG
BEST LIFESTYLE BLOG
BEST CRAFT BLOG

All of which makes me feel like this. Incredibly excited, plus a mixed bowl of nerves as well. I’m not a competitive person, so my confidence goes down the pooper the moment the word ‘competition’ is mentioned. But luckily, the Blog Awards Ireland isn’t a popularity contest so once you’re nominated, that’s it. I was dreading the idea of having to ask people to vote for me, and luckily for you guys, you don’t have to!
If you’re a blogger here in Ireland, have you been nominated yet? If not, check out the nominations list here, and get in there like swimwear. The closing date for nominations is the 31st of July. Exciting stuff, and I hope to see you there on the night! xx A
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DIY Friday – blackboard shopping list

I will start off by saying I’m not claiming to have reinvented the wheel. This weeks DIY Friday is not groundbreaking, but it is something that we’ve had in our apartment for a couple of years, is painfully simple and gets use every day. For those very reasons I can’t help but share our blackboard shopping list … 

Way back in 2011 I fell for the
blackboard fad, and I fell hard. I bought a tin of the black stuff, woke
up early one morning and attacked our living room with it. I was in love for a couple of months, but all that black began taking its toll. I Brazilian waxed our blackboard wall and trimmed it back to a strip above our shelf, but it wasn’t long before I painted over all of it. 
But one patch survived; the patch I painted in the kitchen. We’ve found it so useful. We’ve gotten in the habit of snapping a picture of the list whenever we head out so we know what to pick up on the way home. It’s really been worth its weight in paint.
Let’s be honest here people, tonic should be on the top of the list. 
Exciting stuff will be going on all up in here next week! I think I’ll treat this weekend as the calm before the storm. All that’s going on next week will be a massive bouquet of excitement, fear, and a big bow of stepping outside of my comfort zone. But all of which a step in the right direction. Light a candle for me folks. xx A
p.s. Today’s DIY Friday was going to be a little something involving washi tape but the fab and uber creative ladies at A Beautiful Mess beat me to it. Mad props ladies! My hat is off to you. So is the life of a blogger.
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A la carte

This is a story about a sad bar cart, laden with trinkets, looking for love. Our eyes met in Debra charity shop last weekend, and despite sporting no price tag, I brought this baby home for an absolute steel at €10. A good scrub and she was good as new. And may I say, I am pleased as punch it’s a part of our home. I feel like such a fancy grown up. 
As I wrote before, I’ve had a hankering for a bar cart recently. I was so very close to giving up my charity shop search and in fact was close to buying the IKEA Raskog kitchen cart, but I wasn’t willing to part with €60 for it. As they say, patience is a virtue. 

When it came to styling our new cart, I found it a bit of a challenge. When I first started, it kept looking way too feminine. It did look lovely and pretty, but that wasn’t what I was going for. I appreciate all things dainty and pink, but I can only handle a certain amount of it. I found a happy medium by making it as monochromatic as possible, while including a couple hits of red and plum to fit in with our living space. One of my favourite details – our mini skull cocktail skewers placed in a clay pigeon memento from when we went shooting years ago. All I’ll say is I am worryingly good with a rifle. To which I can probably thank our PS3. 

I’ve tried getting my head around what colour our cart is. I think it’s half way between a rose gold and silver. It’s definitely not straight up gold or silver, but it’s a perfect neutral hue that compliments both gold and silver accessories.  
It’s exactly what I was looking for and couldnt’ve been luckier. So much winning with this thrifted find. I can’t wait to decorate it for the different seasons and as Janine suggested, a tea cart. I have so many dainty porcelain pieces waiting to get all up on it. Keep your eyes peeled. xx A