The Interior DIYer
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A little something on the side (table)

It’s about to get romantic all up in here friends. This time last month we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We journeyed back to Dunboyne Castle, where we got married on a surreal autumn day. We of course booked a room for our anniversary, a fabulous dinner, and breakfast the next morning. We checked in and when I got to our room, this is what I found … 

Husband had been sneaking. He got in contact with the florists we used for our wedding {the lovely Dolores and Brian from Dunboyne Flowers}, he e-mailed them reminder pictures of our wedding flowers, and back in August ordered the most gorgeous hydrangeas from Holland, which were the exact match to my wedding bouquet, and had them delivered to our hotel. Gentlemen, take note. 

I never got to keep my bouquet from our wedding as the drunk girl young lady who caught it, kept it. I think that’s how the rules go, don’t they? But the romance-ball that husband is, he gave me a second chance to swoon over my bouquet all over again. 
They were incredibly delicate hydrangeas and unfortunately didn’t last very long. Since the first time around I didn’t get a memento of my bouquet, I stole a couple buds and leaves here and there and squashed them in a Harry Potter book highly respected novel for adults for a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I did a quick revamp on an old picture frame I had by spray painting it my all time fav spraypaint – Montana’s ‘winegum’, stuck on some leftover black and white ribbon I had used on our wedding boutonnieres / button holes, and framed the pressed and dried hydrangea pieces. It’s a perfect little addition of oomph to my nightstand. Yes and yes. 
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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
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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.