Small Seat Revamp

So as all of you probably know by now I love anything and everything that has to do with DIY. When we were living in our old apartment a little closer to the center of town I stumbled across this old footstool bench type of thing that someone was throwing away. It was covered in horrible dark green/blue paint and upholstered with vinyl that had plant pots all over it. Absolutely terrible, and the worst part was that when I was taking it apart I noticed that who ever used the vinyl and horrible paint was also trying to revamp it by covering an ever more horrible dark green paint and cover! Yikes! With a bit of sanding and some fabric scraps I was able to turn this frown of a stool up side down! Ideally, I'd like to share the before photos, but those are stuck in a sim card and I have recently upgraded to an iphone which as you may or may not know has its own sim card. So I need to find a way to get the photos off the old sim card so I can load them to this post! In the mean time though I will show you the brilliant after pictures!

So what do you think?! Not too shabby huh?

How to Make a Toilet Paper Holder

DIY

Who's feeling crafty today?! Why not try this great tutorial for a handmade toilet paper holder? I got the idea simply from the lack of having one in our bathroom. Because we live in a rented apartment, we are pretty limited as to what we can do in terms of putting holes in the walls. So instead of going to the whole process of getting permission to drill from our landlord, I thought it might be a better idea to make a holder than doesn't have to be screwed into anything. 

So lets get started!

Materials

Dowel Shape (e.g paint brush, parts of a chair, tree branch, thin curtain rod...Be creative!)

Strong glue

2 hooks (can also be made from wire)

2 ends (door knobs, draw knobs, styrofoam balls) *If you can try to use something that is small enough to fit through the toliet paper roll

Sandpaper

Varnish or paint (optional)

Tape measure or ruler 

*If you don't have one handy you can eye ball it our check out vendian.org for a printable tape measure.

Step 1

Measure and cut the rod/dowel to the desired size.

If you are doing this tutorial before you've done your weekly shop and don't have a loo roll handy the size is just shy of 11cm.

You want the dowel to be at least 14cm so there is wiggle room and so that there is enough space at each end of the dowel to slide into the opening of the draw knob.

*If you live in an apartment you may not have an area suitable for sawing. So what you can do is use your kitchen chopping board. Your counters and tabletops will thank you!

Step 2

File down each end to a dull point. This is so each end of the dowel fits snug in the hole of the draw knob. *A metal file tool speeds up the process quite a bit.

Step 3

Once your satisfied with the length and fit you can sand down the rest of the dowel so its all smooth and even. Make sure you wipe the dowel with a clean damp cloth to get rid of any residue. 

Step 4

Now its time to paint or varnish if you wish. When choosing a colour, try to think of the theme of you bathroom. Your making a custom piece so you can use colours that aren't available in shops. For example bright green or polka dots! I have chosen a dark varnish (Jacobean Oak). I love having bright colours and rich dark woods throughout the apartment. 

*Remember when using varnishes it's important to allow for the proper drying times to achieve the best finishes (I had to wait 3 days for a 14cm dowel!)

Step 5

Once the paint/varnish if dry, glue each end of the dowel into the draw knob and let dry. Gently put the glue in one drop at a time until half of the hole is full. Then place the dowel in the hole and push so it's nice and snug. You can use some point with a pointy edge to help you. Alternatively you can drop the tip of the dowel into the glue, just make sure that you don't go down too far or things can get messy. 

Step 6

Its time to assemble our creation! Depending on what you are using for your hooks there are a few different ways you can put your piece together. As you can see from the hooks I used, the knob just slots into place. 

*You may need to use your wire so create a loop for the knob to sit in. 

Enjoy your new bathroom accessory!

Raspberry Lemonade Muffins

         

I have never really been one to watch what I eat. I  love all food (especially anything sweet) and I'll try just about anything once, twice maybe even three times! Given the choice between full fat and diet I ill always go for full fat. I have always thought that diet products lacked taste (I do however tend to steer clear from processed and fast foods). Anyway, it's probably best not have too much sugar everyday, but if your like me and need to have a little something sweet everyday why not try this great recipe for Raspberry Lemonade Muffins?!

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup Flour (180g/6oz)

3/4 cup Caster Sugar (180g/6oz)

3/4 Unsalted Butter (180g/6oz)

2 Eggs

1 heaped tsp Baking Powder

4 tbsp Milk (add more if too thick, 1 tbsp at a time)

Zest of a Lemon

Juice of a Lemon

1 1/2 cups Raspberry (fresh or frozen)

Cupcake/muffin liners (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius 

*

Place the cupcake/muffin liners in the muffin tray. If you are not using cupcake liners than use a bit of unsalted butter to grease the tray.

*

Mix all of the ingredients except for the raspberries in a large mixing bowl until well combined. The consistency should be so that the batter will drop softly off of a spoon. If the batter is to thick as a bit for milk one tbsp at a time

*

Put the raspberry into a separate bowl and crush them a bit with a fork. Only crush them slightly because you want the majority of the raspberries to be whole. 

*

Gently fold the raspberries in with muffin batter. Be careful not to overmix at this point. 

*

Spoon the mixture into each of the cupcake/muffin liners so each liner is a little more than 2/3 full. Pop in the oven for 10-15 Minutes

*

Leave to cool for for about 10 minutes then brush or squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the top of the muffins.

*

Enjoy!

Welcome to Elu!

Hello all you creativity lovers! This is the first post as Elu and I want to welcome you all. Elu doesn't officially launch until the 1st of September but after much thought I decided to start blogging a little sooner so I can share the progress of the shop and blog from the beginning!

Today I want to share some of the things that I have made and inspired me this year while I have been creating Elu.

Slow and Sleepy Saturday, Sunday, Monday

This weekend was as slow as you can get without going backwards... I think I took about a weeks worth of footsteps in the wrong direction, thus leading me further and further into the consumingly cave of crafting ideas.Which then of course led me to make lists upon lists upon lists of new projects I am determined to start and most importantly complete!! Consequently I have been googling non stop for the past 72 hours

The cause of all of this brain stirring activity is from the sweet little gift of a major cold from a dear friend of mine who has been staying with us for a while whom of which conveniently disappearing to his mum's house for the weekend which i suspect was to escape the shame of spreading germs!!

So now that I've vented I would love to share with all of you great diy tutorials, music, and inspirational finds I've stumbled across during my weekend adventures through the world wide web.

First up this a wonderfully simple tute on painting horrible laminate furniture. And if you are a new couple just starting out or a single guy or gal in one of their first few flats I'm sure you will have plenty of cheap furniture laying around that you can play with.

Take a look at how Delightful Dwelling revamped their old book shelf to something new, pretty, and one of a kind!

Click here to find out how they did it.

There is no limit to how many ways you can upcycle something!

 Click here to see what these ordinary doors were turned into...

Of course because it is Museful Monday I have to post some of the things that inspire me.

I will admit that The Smiths are not exactly my favourite band in the world. They're just a bit to slit-your-wrists for my taste, but this song is one that I absolutely love. I wonder if my relocation to the North West of England had anything to do with it???

Grizzy Bear is a fantastic band from New York that is a little more Jaztastic if I do say so myself. 

This is slow but in my defense it has been a very very slow few days...