A very clever light shade

I've been looking for a slightly retro inspired lampshade for the living room for a while now. I was about to accept defeat and head to ikea when I came across the iq puzzle light. You can buy these ready made but a quick Google search told me you can make them yourself! Never one to turn down a challenge, I got stuck in. 15 printed pages and a sore thumb from cutting out later, I had a pile of paper pieces and no clue how to get a shade out of them! I now know why it's called a puzzle shade-it took me a while to work it out! I'm pretty pleased with the final result though!
You can find instructions and templates here:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=231484.0

Do it yourself mama

We've recently moved house, and although we have lots of space for mini pip to run riot, there's quite a lot to do to get it looking spot on. Among the many interesting 'details' left to us by the previous owners was the rather hideous bathroom. A sink shaped like a clam shell, tiling done so badly its funny and a disconnected bath over flow pipe, only discovered when i stepped into a puddle of bathwater one evening in the hallway below...
It'll be a good 12 months before we can replace the whole lot, so for the time being we are trying to make it a bit more livable on a small budget. So out went the nasty wire rack and wee sodden lino (bleurgh...) and in went a couple of simple cabinets and some new grey vinyl tiles. Nothing fancy, but it's kept things neutral and feels much cleaner. I was rather pleased with my tiling effort-granted self adhesive tiles aren't rocket science, but still! Now I just need to hit up ikea for some grey towels and bath mat and it'll be almost bearable until we can rip the whole thing out and start again!

Thank you cards

Here is mini pip's first foray into card design...with the help of my trusty alphabet stamps and lots of blue poster paint!

Vintage craft smock!

We are embarking on some creative thank you card making so this seemed like a great opportunity to use these gorgeous 1960s smocks bought at a table top sale. How cute are they?

A-pull

My one year old daughter has learnt how to say apple. A-pull. Everything is apple. The cat is apple. A recent conversation...

Husband: mini pip say mummy.

Mini pip: mama

Husband: now say daddy.

Mini pip: apple.

You get the idea! This is where apple mama came from, and this is my opportunity to document life with my toddler, whilst trying to maintain my love of baking, crafts and all things creative! I hope you enjoy it!