Make do and mend Mondays

When you move to a new house, often you find that things no longer work. We had replaced a couch already before we moved but decided to decorate the living room to work well with the colors of our couches. In doing so, many of the items that we used before with a bit of old world Victoriana charm just do not fit in now.

In some cases, we sold items on but I cannot part with the brass candlesticks I have as the large one was our unity candle for our wedding ceremony and the others were a wedding gift. I decided it was time to make do with them and give them a makeover. They needed to go from fussy to a touch prim looking. And what does it better than black matt paint?

We I washed them to remove any dust and then we gave them an extra cleaning in ammonia to remove any grease from candle wax. Two thin coats of primer and two coats of black matt paint did the trick.

They now fit in again very well with my living room. I have more of my brass candlestick collection which I will be painting black as well. I love how they have come up and know I will have many more years of pleasure out of them now.

It will be nice to want to have them out once again instead of stuffed into my bookshelves since they did not really go with the living room before. After all, this is my year of use it or loose it. What about you? Do you have things around your home that you can make do with or mend?

Cloche love.....

Like many out there in blogland, I love a cloche. It makes just about anything you can think of that much prettier when seen through a glass shaped bell. I change mine regularly and often to reflect the season.

Back in Febraury, I shared these cloches with you on an old post. I decided that they look really great in my quilt studio. Being in the studio, I wanted to give them a sewing theme. After two months, they still make me smile each day.

My little mouse Boudewijn (pronounced Bow-dah-vine) is still in his cloche but this time holding a pincushion I made a number of years ago. You can see it in more detail on my old blog by clicking here. The pretty hand knitted lace was a gift from a quilt friend Albertha. Her mother made it. My handmade bobbinlace is in both cloches and I used vintage sewing items in the smaller cloche. It includes items like a card of buttons, a clothes peg with lace, an old spool of thread, a reel of ribbon and an carved ivory needle holder.

It makes me happy to see these vintage items out while I sew or stitch.

Make do and mend Mondays

This week it is mend and then make do project...


Jos is really proud of the fact that he did the Make do and Mend this week. We have spent this long holiday weekend here in Holland very busy working in the garden. While working on another project, I mentioned I thought it was time to throw out a very broken garden rack. It is wooden and just literally was in pieces.

He decided he was going to mend it right then and there! Some of the wooden pins had broken off. He carefully drilled them out and had to search for something that was the exact same size. It ended up that a bolt he had was the perfect size so he sawed it in the correct lengths for the pins to be replaced.

Before I knew it, we could start to make do with things we had to decorate a corner of the garden.

I placed items I already had on each shelf...

It is nice to not have a heap of broken wooden shelves laying around but now a rack to add a nice touch to the terrace.

What about you? Have you found anything to make do and mend in your home?

Happiness is.....

.....a summer's bouquet!

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,

And left the flushed print in a poppy there."

~ Francis Thompson, "The Poppy," 1891

Make do and mend Mondays

Sometimes it is fun to challenge yourself to do something with as tight a budget as you can. We just created a coffee corner in our garden doing just that.


Back in February, we started searching on a Dutch website called Marktplaats for a table and extra chair for our garden in our new home. We have a second terrace that is large enough for more than the one rocking chair which I had at our old house. These chairs were sold as a one time offer at a major DIY chain years ago. I was able to find a second one for which we paid only 20 euros. The original price was 99 euros. As soon as we got home, Jos got stuck in on sanding it so we could oil it with the same oil we use on the other chair.

The table was becoming a challenge. I did not want a big table but also not one too small. I felt like Goldie Locks trying out the furniture of the Three Bears. We finally found an old French bistro table made of wrought iron with a stone top. It needed work but was only 10 euros.

We scraped it with a steel brush, cleaned it and painted it black. I loved it for the pretty and decorative scroll work under the table. It came up like new again.

A few items on the table which can be seen from inside the house and our chairs sat by the table in the shade of our sweetgum tree. I rarely ever sit in the sun so this is fast becoming my favorite spot.

A perfect spot to sit and listen to the birds with a cup of coffee or tea and read a book...

This area is not finished as we have to have the terrace rebricked and I want to work on decorating the edging of this terrace but in the meantime, we can sit there and simply enjoy...

Cost of this mend so far is only 30 euros. Who does not like a bargain?

Cats and cows.....

Have you ever seen a cat asleep on top of a cow?

Dagi has smashed this pillow down and sleeps on it all the time now. It is his favorite spot. The pillow was a gift from a friend but I am not sure she intended it to be used like this. *grins*

Oops! Time to tiptoe away as we woke up Dagi and I think his look says it all.....

Make do and mend Mondays

The point of making do is not to spend money or very little. I felt I was in need of a make do makeover in my kitchen.

I love the stove top wooden covers you see online. Have you seen them? They do not sell them, that I know of, here in Europe. I had bought a wooden tray back in February (you can see it here) and found it was a good size to use on top of my own stove. We do not like this stove top but this disguises it a little. With just my teakettle and a teabag holder on the tray, it was looking very boring. I was thinking this weekend that I need to create a seasonal touch to the tray. It would be fun to change things on it regularly to give a nice touch to our little kitchen.

It is just about summer. What do I want to use to say almost summer? I went outside for one of my empty old terracotta pots. I got an artificial ivy plant, a porcelain chicken and some eggs...all of which I have already. I was thinking of the old Dutch saying 'In mei leggen alle vogels en ei...' which translates 'In May, all the birds lay eggs' although it rhymes in Dutch. *grins*

The ivy is in the terracotta pot with three eggs in the top and three on the trailing ivy. The chicken stands in front of my teakettle. I need to keep it on the tray since I want easy access to it for my daily cups of tea. It was not quite enough so I added a little tea mug with chickens on it from my collection of Brixton Pottery mugs. Cost of this makeover $0 but great value to the May touch to the kitchen.

Recently, I discovered Esther's blog when she became a follower of my own. I asked her if I could share a makeover she did on an old wicker sewing basket. It is so fabulous and you can see it here. This is what is wonderful about making do and mending...finding unique and inspiring ideas like this! Thanks for letting me share it Esther.

Is there something you can make over in your home with the things you already have? Try it as it makes it feel like things are new again.