Small Makes and Big Improvements.

Handspun wool, crochet, felted balls and vintage glass buttons.

I did make new things during the past season, you know.
I'll start filling you in on some of the details.

Here a little cuff bracelet to start with, using my own homespun merino, from a soft purple space dyed sliver. I made up all the patterns, it's easy with crochet once you know a few stitches.

A warm, soft cuff bracelet.

There are also felted balls wrapped with silk thread and beads, and some of my vintage glass buttons from my collection. Everything was sewn on to the cuff, and small beads for sparkle were added.

Loop and ball closure.

Because I used fine merino, it doesn't itch, and is soft and warm to wear.

I wear it often, as it goes with several outfits.

My spring inspired art yarn with fluffy curls, plied with lavender blues.

I made several of these skeins, but I haven't finished the batch yet. And that was due to severe tiredness and pain in my shoulder all the time during spring and summer. I could not spin.

I found out I was really low on iron after some blood-tests from our doctor. So that was easily fixed, although it took about 7 weeks before I felt energetic again.

I have a weekly massage from a Thai lady with the strongest hands in the southern hemisphere, for nearly 2 years now, and she has fixed some major stiffness and aches in my neck and upper back. Getting a massage ( often not pleasant...) is one of the luxuries in our lives, my man has one every fortnight. So good for his back.
But this shoulder pain would not go away. Radiating into my right arm.

Really annoying to say the least.

Taking off the inside walls.
Oh look, no insulation...

In the meantime the living room D.I.Y. improvements were steadily carrying on. The ceilings were sanded and professionally replastered. The man of the house then painted them and repaired the decorative cornices.

He then started on the walls that were outside walls, by ripping all the gib boards off the walls, as we knew that there was no insulation at all, apart from some builders' paper. It's one way of getting rid of the old beige wallpaper!

Insulation fitted, an extra powerpoint added (good thinking), then new gib boards up. He did one wall at a time, so that it was easy to shift the furniture back in place during the week, until the next weekend of d.i.y.

D.I.Y. David Trubridge lamps. Supermodern!

He did find two (now world famous from down the road at his Whakatu workshop) David Trubridge lampshades for sale at $50 each. He spent a pleasant afternoon putting them together.

The 1st strip of wallpaper up!

We had come to a decision on which wallpaper we wanted, and it was the first choice my man made when we started looking through all those books. A white background with painterly aquarelle type flowers, subtle grey shadows in botanical shapes, with a soft silver shine.

It was in one of the newest collections from Europe. 

Absolutely love it!

And the light blue of one of the flowers echoes the aqua blue of the dining room.

Oh yes! There's a hint of silver in the design.

With all the black leather seating, shiny black surfaces of gas heater, t.v. , sound installation, and cool aluminium and glass touches, the soft florals seem to balance out the masculine feel of the living room. Well, that's our reasoning anyway!

Now it was starting to feel we were in our own room, not still someone else's.