A Day With Dad.

Hello happy readers!

What a lovely week I've had! I took a much needed break from work and went back to Malmesbury, England, for an indulgent week of home cooked food and (surprisingly) sunny days. Its been over a year since I last made the trip to England and was really the right moment for some quality time with my family.

One of my favourite days was spent with my dad.

Mum was at work and dad had taken the day off so we could hang out together. We were having a guys day out with our cameras down at the 'docks' in Bristol. My dad recently bought a new camera and I hadn't really used mine, so it was great fun playing around with them and trying to create some 'artsy' shots.

 

 

 

Normally full of colour, but today I decided to shoot in black and white. The docklands made for some interesting shots.

 

Taking pictures out in the fresh air made for some pretty hard work and before long we were both in need of refuelling. In true father and son style we grabbed a greasy egg and bacon butty and a hot mug of coffee from a little cafe. It reminded me of when I was younger and we would go out for the day on dads motorbike, we would always stop off at a road side cafe for a 'bacon sarny'.

Bristol had some very interesting parts. Even though I was born In Bristol it had been a very long time since I had visited these parts. Many things had changed, but it was really nice remembering some of the places I remembered from my childhood.

I enjoyed the docklands, but I also enjoyed walking around the city. I found looking at some of the street art and graffiti very interesting.
We came across one of the graffiti pieces by Banksy, Bristol's famous street artist.

I loved the idea of this street art. It was made by cleaning the dirt off of the buildings as opposed to adding paint. I like that idea and think that the stencils look pretty cool.

 

 

  

Once again we ended the day with talk over a comforting hot coffee. I loved what it said on the inside of the mug. Made me smile :-)

 



A lovely day out together. A time to catch up and put the world to right. I loved it!
I hope you're all having a lovely week?!
Matt xxx

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A home for my "Bits 'n Bobs"

Hello GORGEOUS people!!! I do hope your all doing marvelously?!
I'm awfully excited by the fact that I've reached the 1000 subscribers mark. I remember not long ago when there were just 12 of you faithfully following my crafty endeavours!
A MASSIVE thank you to each end every one of you! You encourage me daily with your lovely comments, it really means the world to me :-)

Over the past few weeks I've been having a major sort out of my apartment. I've been ruthless to say the least! I've taken many many bags full of clothing and household bits and bobs to the local charity shops. I've given the apartment a fresh coat of paint, old pictures have come down and new pictures are going up.
I've even sorted out my yarn collection!!! I filled box upon box with yarn I'd been stashing. I sent some of the yarn to a couple of ladies I'd messaged through facebook and the rest went to charities that make clothing and blankets for people in need. I now only have the yarn from my current WIP blanket and a couple of spools that I bought at the yarn factory sale earlier in the year. I am virtually stash free...and it feels good!

Even though I've sorted everything out, there are still some things that clutter up the place. Little things that are needed, but don't really have a home. With that in mind I decided to use some of the old boxes I'd saved from Christmas, plus a treasure chest (4 euros from the craft store) as new and fancy storage boxes.

I'd seen some gorgeous gift boxes in a local store. They were covered in vintage fabric and looked really quaint. The problem was they were VERY pricey! Solution: I decided that I'd make my own version with some of the vintage style fabric I had at home, plus a couple of extra pieces I bought in the city.
Here's the fabric I decided to use for my 'bits 'n bobs' box makeover:

What do you think? I'm loving this style of fabric, I find it very 'dolls house'. Super cute and a little kitschy.

With my fabric at hand, a nice milky coffee and my favourite tunes playing, I got to work on my boxes.
I simply spread a nice thick layer of hobby glue on the surface of the box and then covered the boxes with the fabric. It felt a little like I was wrapping Christmas presents.
I really had a lovely afternoon creating a lot crafty chaos and singing along to my music.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm really happy with how they turned out!!! Something pretty to hide ugly bits and pieces in.

I was so happy in fact, that I decided to also cover the boxes that I keep all of my "boring' papers in. Not so boring any more!!!

My newly decorated boxes are going on my bookshelf. Organised and pretty, Who'd have thought?!

An inexpensive makeover and it really works wonders to hide clutter in a fun way. Why not give it a try? Maybe buy some fabric and go a little crazy in your office area? I'm sure many of your husbands/ partners would love that!!! :-)

Have a fun filled weekend!!
Matt xxx

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!