Welcome to the Jungle

The devil makes work for idle hands, apparently. So, y'know, cross stitch. Saving souls since the Middle Ages. There are a lot of cool designs out there via Subversive Cross Stitch and similar, but given the small people I live with, this kind of design is still out for a few years:

A great housewarming gift for childfree couples though, eh?

My version is a cross-stitched QR code - those unique 'fingerprint' designs that marketing departments stick on posters etc in the vain hope that consumers will zap them with a smartphone app and 'engage with further content' from the brand. Anyway, you can make your own for free using a QR code generator, and link it to whatever URL you fancy. If you print the resulting code out on A4 paper and draw a grid over the top, you have an automatic cross stitch pattern. 

I picked the YouTube link to Welcome to the Jungle by Guns n' Roses. 

Not very complicated really, but essential to keep count properly, as any mistake means it won't work and it will be a right arse to work out where you went wrong! 

Being very childishly pleased with myself when it worked, I went on to make one for the kitchen which takes you to this classic line from Withnail and I

It's by the wine rack of course.

Lakota x

Ta-dah! Tuesday - How to remove glitter polish - without losing your mind

If you're a polish addict or regular reader of nail blogs then you'll know the secret already, but if you're just a casual user and only indulge on weekends - yeah yeah, you can give up any time you want  - you might want to read on. Glitter polish - a sparkling celebrity party the night before; the devil's own come down the morning after.

Seriously, you will be surrounded by drifts of cotton wool in your bathroom, crying with frustration and acetone fumes as you waste 45mins of your life trying to get the damn stuff off. The polish part dissolves, leaving the now colourless glitter seemingly attached to your nails with super-glue. [DO NOT be tempted to avoid nail polish remover altogether and pick it off in chunks using your teeth whilst watching Gossip Girl, men inexplicably seem to find this an unattractive trait. Also, it's not something you want to be ingesting].

Anyway, all you need is that same cotton wool and polish remover*, but you want to soak a separate piece for each nail.  Position each bit of cotton wool onto the nail, and then secure it with a strip of tinfoil folded into a parcel around your fingertip. Watch some telly for 10 minutes, and then remove the foil and cotton wool from your first nail, by firmly pressing down on the foil and twisting the cotton wool over the nail as you go. You'll find that the polish comes off pretty much entirely in one go, and any glitter left at the edges is no longer welded on, but can be simply wiped off.

The props department for 'Edwina Scissorhands' were working with a tight budget

Ta-dah!

Now you've got an extra half hour to play on the internet and ignore your offspring make the world a better place. Add your world enhancing links below. [and please don't forget to link back here]

Lakota x

*I use Cutex, from Boots or Superdrug.

Printer's Tray to Earring Display

Hello. Sorry I've been a bit quiet for the last week, it's been a busy one. I'll catch up with all your blogs soon. Incidentally, yesterday's Silent Sunday post was my 100th - I'm amazed I've made it this far. Thank you to  everyone whose comments and feedback have made it so much fun.

Anyhow - remember the printer's tray (or type case) I bought recently? It's far better made than a lot I've seen, with dovetail joints and a solid wood back rather than plywood, but it had several years' worth of filth and dead spiders which needed removing before I could do anything else with it. It was a harder task than I'd anticipated cleaning each little compartment - 95 of the grimy things in all. Dust and dessicated arachnids removed, I gave it a light sanding and then applied a couple of coats of Danish Oil with a paintbrush. The colour came up beautifully.

Mr FHCS manfully took on the task of attaching two 'screw eyes' (closed loops) to each compartment save the tiniest ones; not an easy job. We discovered the best way was to part hammer in a thin tack to make the initial hole, then get the screw eyes in place by holding and twisting them using needle nose pliers. Strangely he's not thrilled at the idea of making any more and going into business on Etsy, muttering darkly under his breath about callouses and where was his tea? A couple of decades later, I screwed some fittings to the back and it's ready to be hung on the wall.

Here's the finished article, with a selection of my finest earrings hanging happily from it. I had thought about backing some of the compartments with vintage map paper, but I'm not sure it needs it. Another option would be to back a few compartments at random with mirror cut to size - I've seen this done and it adds definite glamour, but it might look better against darker wood?

I've put in one pair per compartment, but you could easily fit one pair per loop in most cases.

And here's a reminder of what it looked like before - pretty good transformation don't you think?

I'm really quite in love with it now, and it's my Flea Market Find of the Year. Anyone want to come over and play jewellery shop?

Lakota x

Linking up to

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