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?

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... 

Happy Halloween!

Leaving the Flat today the air felt eerily warm. Leaves rustling in the wind, all the mayhem driven youths still quietly tucked away in their beds... And you know without a shadow of a doubt all hell will be breaking loose in Liverpool tonight.

But enough of the monologuing for now... Its time for Museful Mondays! It being Halloween of course there has to be a corresponding theme of pics but not the traditional orange and blacks, ghouls and goblins. What about things that are empty, deserted, rundown, old, or just plain creepy?? Here are some of the creep creep things I see in my day to day about town.

(Yes people that is Heidi Klum...)

Click to view more pics of her costume

And well being a lover of crafting and all things creative, I thought it necessary post this cute tutorial I found on Craft Gossip on how to make pretty painted pumpkins

Click Pretty Painted Pumpkins to go straight to the tutorial

The Power of the Cloth

I have always loved fluidity. The graceful movements or natural elements, shapes, shadows... It has always been about contours and, and things becoming alive right before my eyes, dancing and existing in space. So of course at one point I would be drawn to fabrics. I think I have always been interested in fabrics but I never know how to use them or even in which way I wanted to use them. I assumed because I am an artist that i would do something quite sculptural and installation like. Alas, I was wrong. I am making clothes instead. I don't want to become a fashion designer or anything. I am merely exploring new contours and ways of movement throughout space. Of course these new movements and shapes are created the body. It is only me wearing the clothes, thus exploring my own movements... Becoming one with my creations... (I think)

I have posted couple pics on www.burdastyle.com

http://www.burdastyle.com/profiles/aliiume/my_studio

time to start creating fabric flowers.

I am tired these days... This weekend at work was a horrible experience, one that I had hoped to avoid. I now feel physically and emotionally drained.

There is quiet peace coming from the smoke of incense.

Ben and I are watching this show about people that get themselves into a serious amount of debt from buying unnecessary and ugly crap. oh society.

the web

My husband is creating our website... its nice too see that we are finally getting somewhere...

golds and amber

2 weeks left.

I need there to be a bit more freedom.

I don't know what to do with the things I create..

I would like to own one of those machines

things are vague

creating to the surface of things.

Today I feel more free.

Its started again..

A new idea is coming to the surface..

Something new to create..

I think I want to quiet the colours down again.

beginnings

Now there may be time to get one's own life together...