Another Posting Board
by Mareeyah on January 12th, 2013
filed under Budget Ideas, Homemaking
Yup. Not a cork board. It’s a cork-less board.
Recently, I have been loving stuff made of card boards. Having just moved to a new house less than a year ago, I do have some card boards from the moving boxes within the jungle of my room.
But let’s ignore the jungle for a while and take a look at these card boards…
What I wanted was another board where I can post reminders and other stuff related to my crafty projects. The cork board was already overloaded with bills reminders, petrol and library receipts, plus an outline of my never-finished novel.
This one that I’m trying to make would be just for arts and crafts. Only that and nothing more.
What do Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and J.K. Rowling have in common? Aside from being best sellers, there’s one more thing. I suppose they’d never thought that their books would be much helpful in my board project. 
Out came the paints again and my new-found strategy of mixing the colors on that surface which I was going to paint.
I really thought I was getting artistic here. So I was pleased with my work and let it rest for a few days for the paint to dry and the smell to wear off.
But much like the flower can project, it has been proven once more that a woman’s mind is as changeable as the weather. After coming home from work one evening, I decided that the painted board was not exactly what I wanted. I most certainly did not appreciate the visible wrinkles on the board, not to mention the future visible little dots push pins will be leaving all over.
A nice purple-ish-pink-ish sturdy velvety fabric to the rescue.
It’s winter in Melbourne, so I tried to imagine the board feeling cold too. Ah, dear board, you need a nice coat to keep you warm.
Push-pinned the fabric in place, so I could cut it into the right size. Why don’t I often appreciate my beautiful measuring tape and put it into proper use?
MacGyver hates guns, I know. But this is one gun that I truly love, and I believe, MacGyver would appreciate. The ever helpful glue gun!
When the fabric has been secured all over with glue, I added some laces and ribbon to make it not too plain. Though I still believe it is plain.
A matching Care Bear to the rescue!
Don’t you just make things cute, dear little Care Bear?
Satisfied. Somehow.
Making A Patchwork Skirt
by Mareeyah on November 12th, 2012
filed under Budget Ideas, Fashion
A few years ago, I was at my uncle’s house and saw something interesting on one of the magazines in the living room. There was a lady wearing a long skirt made of different printed fabrics. It gave me an idea. After all, I had so many scrap fabrics at home, from various sewing projects I’d done (and tried doing) over the years.
The first challenge I worried about, however, was how to choose the right fabrics that will work together. You see, when I was much younger, somebody taught me that when it comes to wearing clothes, you should wear either a combination of plains, a combination of one printed fabric and another plain fabric of similar or complimenting colors, or an outfit of the same printed fabric (like a blouse and skirt of exactly the same fabric). I’ve been taught that you should not wear one printed item with another of a different print, or people would think you’re from the farm, who has either no other clothes to wear or just no fashion sense.
Because of this dilemma, I tried to study the skirt on the magazine, and subsequently, other patchwork clothes in other magazines (like the gypsy-styled attire one famous Philippine actress wore to an awards night).
I came to understand that, for the prints to work, you need to choose fabrics with lots of very similar colors. In the magazine, for example, the skirt was made of various fuchsia pink floral prints. Also, you can add laces or ribbons or plain fabric of the color theme. Then, you should carefully plan how to put them together so that they will look coordinated.
Of course, after gaining confidence to try it, I went digging into my stash of fabric scraps and found some nice ones which I thought would work. Oh, and I also tried to choose fabrics which have similar textures.
Here’s what I came up with. These are scraps from my sister’s dresses. All I had to buy was the black lace, and I think, elastic for the waist.
Why do I believe that this skirt was a success? Because I’ve worn this many times (without telling my friends about its origins) and they all thought that I bought this skirt as it is from the department store. They were quite surprised when I told them later that I made it from scraps.
Bedrooms
by Mareeyah on November 6th, 2012
filed under Architecture
This post is rated G, of course, as usual. Because I’m referring to interior design, my dear folks!
What if your own home has bedrooms like these?
No clutter and a single book beside the bed. Lovely.
Black and white. Simple as that. I’d like to throw a hot pink pillow here.
If this was mine, there’d be boxes containing whatever’s underneath the bed.
