A No-Sew Makeover in Half an Hour: DIY Chair Cover

Here is my no-sew project from the other day: a new DIY swirl chair cover. It took me less than half an hour to come up with this beauty!

The chair works perfectly fine but the cover on it was a bit boring and not in its best shape in my opinion. So, I decided to try my hand at re-upholstering it and I must admit, this has been one of my most favourite upcycling projects to date. I am just in love with the outcome!

What I used was a staple gun, a hammer (to hammer the staples down when/if they were not in properly), a screw driver and my choice of fabrics.  (Depending on how your existing chair is assembled, what you will need to use may differ. Eg. Allen key instead of a screwdriver).

The process was quite straight forward. I simply took the screws off the backing on the seat and the back support, separated them using some muscle power, stapled the new fabrics on them making sure that the fabrics were well stretched(I chose not to remove the original cover on it), attached the back pieces back on, put the pieces together again and voila!

The whole procedure took us approximately half an hour. It is a perfect and very affordable way of adding some colour to your home or jazzing up your room.  

There is nothing like having something that has your (or your loved ones') touches all over it at home. It just is so unique and special. 

Enjoy the beauty of some personal touches in your life today!

RECIPE: Tomato and Mozzarella Stack Salad

I have recently learnt how to make one of the easiest, the most delicious and very impressively presentable salads on earth! Thank you so much for sharing the original recipe of Like a Breath of Fresh Air, my friend, Shirley. Originally, it was made using the ingredients of tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, asparagus, basil and balsamic vinaigrette, and I must say, it looked amazing in their photo but we made it using the ingredients we had at home at the time and it was still fabulous!

Here is our ingredients list for you:

- Tomatoes (I wish I could say from the garden but unfortunately store-bought just like all the others on the list)
- Mozzarella cheese
- Fresh basil leaves
- Some salt (we lightly salted each layer of tomatoes)
- Pomegranate sauce
- A drizzle of olive oil

Enjoy something delicious today!

Care Tips for when Heat Hits

As most of you have been experiencing or are aware, the heatwave has been affecting quite a few people in the Southern Hemisphere in general and in Australia in particular recently. It is not very easy to keep cool in this heat. I hope everyone is trying to look after themselves as well as others these days. Caring for others in this heat could be as easy as  knocking on the door of especially some elderly neighbours just to check up on them and also see if you could help them with anything to stay safe. 

However, we also need to keep in mind that us human beings are not the only living that feel the heat.  

Dark red dominates this image, indicating temperatures that were significantly higher than average between December 27 and January 3, especially in Queensland and New South Wales. (Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82790)  

According to this article here, the heatwave also had some deadly impact on the wildlife. For instance, 100,000 bats have died from the heat in Queensland.

Here are some suggestions that come to mind that I would like to share with you with the hope of making a small difference in the life of a living creature. My suggestions are mostly on keeping your pets and also small sized wildlife safe.

* Keep your pet hydrated. Make sure your pet has an access to some fresh water at all times. In our case, we have chickens and we leave them a few extra sources of water in their pen where they can freely access to in case one gets dirty or evaporates quickly and we don't realise it soon enough.

*Add some ice to their water source at times, if possible/applicable, as the water will warm up quickly in this heat.

*Depending on the type of your pet, you can wet them at times to cool them down.

*Try to offer some cool ground for them. It could be that you have a cool place you can keep them in, or you can put some wet sheets underneath them etc. We wet our chickens' pen as well as the ground under trees at times as they are the places they often stay at.

*Offer some green leafy vegetables if possible as they contain water and are often easily consumed by many types of animals.

*Leave some water outside for lost/homeless animals.

*Leave a shallow bucket with some sticks and/or rocks in it in your garden so that smaller animals such as ants can drink some water too without drowning as Wildlife Victoria has recommended.

Stay safe!

Busiest December Ever!

I have been extremely busy lately. In fact, this month may be the busiest December of my life. Visitors, a graduation, an orientation, a renovation, a wedding all in the same one crazy month! Before I quickly go back to my home renovation, I wish you all a very happy New Year filled with the most joyful days of your life and thank you each and every one of you for supporting and following me here on my blog, as well as on my facebook page.

Enjoy my home decor inspiration photos below.

DID YOU KNOW ...? (75)

Photo Source

Cats -like many other animals- have three eyelids on each eye, an upper and lower lid just like us, plus a third lid that looks like clear plastic. The third eyelid comes in from the side to further protect their eyes from harm such as dust and keeps their eyes from getting dry.

HANDMADE POTHOLDER

I have been pretty quiet recently as I have been even busier than usual and also had some temporary health issues. The exciting Melbourne weather continues to be surprising and it is almost inevitable to be not sick during these extremely inconsistent weather conditions. So, we have been having our share of the cold and flu as a family as well for a while now. 

I hope to write about the beautiful story of the top two fat quarters in the picture below as well as many other fabrics that will make your mouth water in another post in the future. Today, it is about a little quilting project of mine.

Since I was at home with a sore throat and was unable to do much, I thought it was a great opportunity to work on a new project to distract my attention from the pain and also do something that did not require using my voice. So, that is how I decided on working on a potholder. 

The inspiration came from the little pretty potholders by NanaCompany. Just like almost everything else she makes, Amy's potholders looked too pretty not to be inspired by. Her tutorial is pretty easy to follow even for a beginner. I changed a few details about it though to suit my needs better (made it smaller as I found the measurements used in Amy's tutorial to be too large for my liking and also used a lace instead of a ruffle. I also changed the back fabrics to calico and skipped any extra decoration as I love the blue floral fabric and wanted it to stand out). 

I don't have a walking foot to use for quilting. If you are like me, you can just sew straight lines in both directions as seen in pictures (they make diamonds) to hold the batting in place well. It also looks pretty in my opinion.

It was an enjoyable project for me. The most challenging part was adding the binding around it (not where the pocket to put your hand is, I am talking about the long one that covers all the raw edges around it).

I cannot wait to make more potholders as soon as I get my hands onto some insulated batting in the near future!

Have you ever quilted before? If yes and if you have it online, send us a link. Looking forward to seeing your quilt!

TUTORIAL: Rolled Stuffed Leaves

Just recently, I was talking to someone about what we stuff. We stuff, zucchinis, zucchini flowers, capsicums, silverbeet, dried eggplants and vine leaves. I am now looking forward to trying my hand at stuffing cabbage and leek. I wonder if there is anything else that we could stuff that we haven't tried yet.

The last time, I shared with you a tutorial to show you how you can stuff your (silverbeet) leaves in a triangular shape. To access to the tutorial which includes the preparation of the leaves, the stuffing, the cooking method and more, you can click here.

This time, I am sharing the easiest method of stuffing leaves with you; rolling. The pictures say it all but if you have any questions, please ask in the comments section below.

Enjoy!