Wallpapered Magazine Holders

Having slight 'Magazine-holic' issues I always feel I need to find good storage for them. So with the new office almost finished I was on the look out. Bless Martha and her fantastic idea's. In July's Living I spotted the tutorial for Wallpapered Magazine Holders.


My new fab Mag Holders

So of to B&Q I went to buy my selected wallpaper. But when I got there you could tear a bit off for free to take home (and test against your wall I imagine). So that saved my almost £20. I took my scrap home and bought four KNUFF Ikea Magazine Holders at £2.99 each. After some crafing the result is quite stunning! If you want to do the same this is how you go about it:



Wallpapered Magazine Holders




You will need:
4 Magazine Holders from Ikea.
Wallpaper scrap
craft glue
pencil

First choose which part of the design will look best. I placed the wallpaper right side up on the table and used one of the magazine holders to roughly see what part would work best. If your scrap of wallpaper is quite large mark where the top and bottom of the magazine holders will be, taking an extra margin about about 2.5 cm (1 inch) and cut.

Turn the wallpaper right side down and trace around the Magazine Holder with a pencil four times. Match each side line up, so that they fall on top of eachother. Cut exactly on the lines.



Pick which end you want to start with and lay the wallpaper out in the right order. It's not a big deal if you mix them up as you can simply switch the Magazine Holders around at the end to reastablish the right sequence.



Take one of the strips and dot some glue on the back. Spread it around with a brush or scrap of paper making sure it's evenly spread out.



Position the wallpaper RIGHT SIDE UP on the back of the Magazine Holder. It's an easy mistake to place them upside down, so pay attention.



Make sure the wallpaper is alligned with the sides and no wood is showing. If you do see wood, lift it back up and shift it around a bit until it's in place properly.



Once it is in place, press down and smooth out from the center to the edges to avoid any air bubbles showing. Repeat the whole process for each folder.



All finished!!


It took me less than half an hour so it's a quick and easy project that brightens up a livingroom, bookcase or office in a cheap and fast way.

Magical Wallpaper

There are people inventing all sort of strange and wonderfull things. I'm not sure how usefull some are, but I must admit I like the idea behind them. Two examples are to do with wallpaper.


Flowers appear out of nowhere...

First there is this heat sensitive wallpaper designed by Shiyuan that I spotted on The Style Files blog. This normal looking leafy wallpaper starts 'growing' flowers when you turn on the radiator. Not at all functional, but very magical. Especially in childrens bedrooms or so.


Wallpaper that lights up a room...

Also very remarkable and rather more usefull is Wallpaper that emits light. Yes it's a lamp! I spotted it in a video about new design, it's in Dutch but the effect doens't need explaining. The wallpaper part start at 2:23 min and is quite short. It's designed by Jonas Samson.

Style for the home

As a beginning Buddhist I try to give up clinging, attachment and things like that, but I find this concept rather difficult when I visit my one of my favorite blogs: The Hostess Blog.

I mentioned this blog before and will do so often I can imagine. You see I might be young, highly educated and happening, but I’m a homely sort of girl. I love things like gardening, cooking and not to mention knitting. I’m a fan of Martha Stewart for pete’s sake. With the word fan I mean that I like her magazines, books, radio programs and tv shows and can handle hours of the stuff a day and not at all be bothered by all the ‘Martha-isms’. She is I might say my example. A woman who loves her job and smart (and lucky) enough to build a whole imperium out of it. Anyway enough about Martha. The point to this all is that I love entertaining, even though I don’t do it.

We just moved house and are now in the posession of a house that is fit for entertaining. The old house was just too small to even invite family to dinner. All that I’m waiting for is:
A. the work on the house to end (they are working on the electricity now, next are the radiators.
B. My financial situation to balance out

Once those two points are cleared I will be trying to slowly ease my boyfriend in inviting family and friends and see how he takes it. In the mean time my Life Philosophy (aka Buddhism) is suffering every time I drop a glace at the before mentioned Hostess with the Mostess blog. I tell you they have them most gorgeous finds for all things entertaining here are a few I liked A LOT. (Wanna have!!)




All things Elum are fantastic. I want it all: pretty cards, nice note books... sigh. Go to the site for more eye candy. You won’t be sorry. :D




Next up are these super Hanna mugs. I love them. They are from Rörstrand. And if I see them in the shop I’m sure I would be in some real danger of buying it.



And last these great prints you can give a mom to be or use for a baby shower party. They are from Turtle Papers, who also do these cute little tees! Ahhhh, can you tell my best friend is pregnant?? Haha.



All photo's are from the Hostess Blog

Blinds

Finally they are up. The blinds I've made from the Laura Ashley fabric I found ages ago. It took quite a bit of work, mostly because I never made blinds before. Second because of bad luck. This happens sometimes in crafts. So I set the project aside midway through as I was becoming so irritated I was about to throw it out. So I took a break and then with fresh spirit finished it. They are now hanging in the hall way looking quite posh. See for yourself:


Blind bottom of stairs


Blind top of stairs

I might write a tutorial when I make a blind for the bathroom. I tried taking good pictures with each step this time, but they didn't work out. So next time I make one I'll try again and use them for the tutorial. Until then I must point you to these blinds on Martha Stewart.

Classic Roman Blind
Casual Sheer Blind
Formal Classic Blind

New house

And I'm back!! With the first few picks of my new home. Hahaha and here it is:

tatatatataaaaa:


The kitchen with the breakfast bar

Notice that the bar stools are way to high, but my bf didn't like the lower ones.. the ones that would be just right. The ones that are just high enough so you don't eat your cereal and cover yourself in milk trying to get the cereal to your mouth, which is miles away. It's a discussion point I might make anytime soon. Moving is a stressfull think and I thought it wise not to mention it yet. Not to mention that we now have a breakfast bar that I still can't use as it is no improvement from sitting on the sofa and eating my cereal. I want a table and chairs. Or lower bar stools. Stubborn men!!


The living room, well part of it.

It's still a bit bare, but we only just moved in. All our furniture is tiny because of our old house. It sort of drowns in this house. Haha a good reason to go shopping, wish I had money. lol.


The back garden, still looking a bit wild.

The gardener in me can't wait, but bf likes grass so I can't do a lot. Very discouraging. So I will focus on the inside of the house and slowly build up the outside. Men and their bloody lawn. I don't mind a bit of grass. It's always nice to have a green bit, if and when it is framed my a lovely garden. A bit of lawn on it's own looks like a field where gypsies might park their caravan. There is nothing wrong with that in the slightest as long as it isn't in the back garden. Bah! Ah well, just give me time. I'm sure I can work on it.

Moving house

We will move into our new house on the 4th of June. So this week I shall not be doing anything except packing boxes and knitting the two projects I will not pack. One small so I can still knit on the train to work and one big, but that shall be it. And next week I hope to be so much occupied with the new house as not even to think about blogging. So it might be a while.

NO MORE STUFF

I’m in a throw everything away mood. This was inspired to a trip back to The Netherlands. I had to clear out my old house and tons of stuff from my parents house and my brothers basement. And it was a lot. I’m 28 years old but I had enough stuff for someone who is nearer to 80 years of age.

Most of my family members are horders and I think I never learned to clean or throw away when little. There where and still are always excuses to keep stuff. It will come in handy then or for that purpose. And so we keep and never throw anything away. And when I say anything I mean ANYTHING. What I’ve learned this weekend in the Netherlands is that stuff is evil. To have too much stuff is bad for your health. Both mentally and physical.

Anyway I sorted out my stuff. Many many magazines where thrown away. I have a weakness for them. I try to limit the amount I buy now. My favorite is Living from Martha Stewart. It has a bit of everything I like: gardening, crafts, cooking and general homely chit-chat. I buy that every month and I can buy 1 or max. 2 extra ones that month.

My stuff is now sorted. Here England I don’t have much, but I want to nip it in the bud this time. Me and my boyfriend will move soon and then I will have the space to give everything we own it’s own place. I shall get folders for the paperwork and make sure that our house can be decluttered in an hour. That way it can be cleaned without trouble.

You might say I’m a bit too strickt and someone once called it anal. Which I can understand. But you might not understand, and she surely didn’t, where I come from. Back home that weekend on Saturday the 24th of March I saw how I would end up. Like my parents. They have a tiny house that was build after WWII and it’s stuffed. A bit like a Turkey at Christmas might be. The house is very small even without stuff in it. But they put stuff everywhere so much so it’s hard to move and not bump into things. It’s the kinda house where you can open a door into a room and then step in but not walk. You are surrounded by stuff. I tried to throw things away. On a shelf in the dining room cupboard I cleared about ¼ of the shelve and ended with 1 big binbag full of junk. The cupboard has 5 shelves, so that is 20 bin bags if I cleared it all out. I didn’t have time, else I would have. I also cleared out a storing unit that they placed in the hallway upstairs. The hallway that is not very wide and yet they crammed bookcases and other stuff in it. You almost have to walk sideways to get through. Very claustrophobic. And that unit had gloves and hats and scarfs that have been kept for years. I found my brothers old rain trousers. They would fit his arm now instead of his legs. 20-year old stuff everywhere.

I tried to get my mom to do 1 shelf a week a year ago. She hasn’t ofcourse. And most storing units are hard to reach anyway because of the stuff in front of it. And that is usualy stuff she wants to keep. So the old stuff behind the new stuff can’t get sorted. Nothing has it’s own space. It’s junk upon junk. The stuff has multiplied over the last 20 years and it has now taken over my family’s house. It’s a shame I don’t live near by. I would take a week off work order a skip and throw so much out as to fill it and maybe order a second. The house must be emptied.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, after only being in the house for 1 night, I felt very odd. I felt depressed and sad. Then when I got going with sorting my own stuff out and some of my mom and dads I felt better. Throwing away things you don’t need or use is good. It feels as if you are creating space for you to be yourself. And less stuff clearly helps.

It’s quite a boring story, but I had to get it off my chest. NO MORE STUFF.

Help is at hand for people with similar clutter problems:
Clutter.co.uk

Picture from the Zenroom Website