Making an Anniversary card

This year MOH and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary while we were away cycling in the Loire. As space was at a premium we decided to leave swapping cards until we were home. That way not only were we saving space and weight - not much admittedly, but it meant that the cards wouldn't get damaged either.

So now we're home I wanted to share the card I made with supplies provided by Create and Craft TV, who broadcast on Sky and Freeview as well as online. You can see what's on in their TV schedule.

So back to the card.  The card blanks were fancier than I usually use and that meant I needed to adapt my card making. My bold simple blocks of cards which I usually default too, didn't really fit with these shaped blanks.

I used the ribbon as my inspiration, the brown and pink colours reminded me of the colour theme at our wedding. I knew though that this significance would be lost on MOH, not because he isn't interested, but because he genuinely hasn't retained that information.

I decided to use the ribbon as decoration and cut a slit in the fold of the card and threaded the ends through and secured them with washi tape. Although I like the ribbons I wanted something more so I cut a piece of scrapbook paper and inserted that behind the ribbon. It's amazing how much difference it makes.

Next I added some golden "pearls" on the ribbon and a pretty tag in the bottom right.

Next to make it an anniversary card!  That was done by adding a pre-printed message, and so it wasn't quite as white I coloured the background card with a pale brown pencil.  

On reflection it's perhaps not the card MOH would want to receive, but it's perfect for him to send to me. See what a great wife I am!! And to me, it has a feel of an Edwardian Country Lady - what do you think?

* This is a collaborative post with Create and Craft TV, but as usual all words, opinions and creative ideas are my own

Let's talk beds. And headboards.

I thought now would be as good as time as any to talk beds. I mean after returning from our cycling tour holiday of the Loire valley I'm well placed to talk about beds and how they complement our decorating styles, as in the last two weeks I've slept in eight different beds as well as my own at home. The others were all hotel beds, and the rooms we stayed in had a mix of traditional and modern styles.

So it got me thinking, do our beds influence how we decorate our bedroom?  Or do we choose a bed to match our decor, I wonder which happens most.  Anyway I've been looking on the Carpetright site at their bed collection and I thought it'd be fun to see what kind of theme they inspired, so let's get going.

1. Metal bed frames

There are, of course a multitude of designs available and many are more exciting than having bars top and bottom. The bed below invokes a pretty and romantic tone and I think it's well suited to a country style theme.

CORRINNE METAL BED FRAME
Photo credit: Carpetright

Alternatively if you think a country-themed bedroom is just too twee and cloying and not for you, then this bed would work equally well in a chic French-style apartment look.  With crisp bed linen I think it would be easy to make this bed work for two different styles.

We have a metal bed frame at home and I love it. Unfortunately it's more of the bars top and bottom kind but for a hot person like me it's great as when I overheat (often overactive thyroid related but not always) it's nice to have the cool metal frame against my skin!

2. Wood bed frames

The bed below has hints of a Shaker style doesn't it? I think it works well with the pale blues and greys shown in the picture and makes for a calming bedroom. But I also think that this style of bed would work for a more boldly coloured bedroom.  Imagine that white just standing out against a cerise, orange or lime green background.  The bedroom would have an entirely different vibe wouldn't it?

TUSCANY WOOD BED FRAME
Photo credit: Carpetright

Wooden beds do, of course come in more natural finishes than white and they too would provide the opportunity for a different style of decor.  Imagine a pine or ash bed, that would fit straight into a neutral, earthy scheme giving a natural and no nonsense look to your bedroom.But switch the wood to a dark walnut or even black finish, and you might be contemplating an exotic feel to your bedroom.  

Isn't it fascinating how one item and its style can influence your style?

3. Fabric bed frames

For me, the bed pictured just screams hotel style decor. Think indulgence and neutrals all at the same time.  It's a luxurious feel and I think it would make sleeping in a complete treat, but only with the right bedding.  This look needs crisp white bed linen, for me a flowery duvet set just wouldn't be right.

RIA FABRIC BED FRAME
Photo credit: Carpetright

And of course the fabric you choose also influences our decor. Faux suedes, leather and linens would all work well for the hotel look bedroom, but choose a flowery patterned material and once again the look immediately changes. I recovered an old headboard in my previous house in a pink and green flowery trellis material. I loved it, but there was no way I'd pass it off as hotel style.

But what about headboards?

Headboards are ideal if you already have a bed and don't want to replace it but want to give your bedroom a new look.  There's plenty of options for metal and fabric headboards, but wooden ones seem harder to come by so you might need to be more resourceful if that's what you've set your mind on.

SOFIA HEADBOARD
Photo credit: Carpetright

The metal headboard above works in all the ways the metal bed frame does, and the fabric headboard below works well if you're after the hotel style of bedroom.  And I think you'd be surprised by how different your room would look if you added either of these. 

PEARL TUFTED DEEP BUTTONED FAUX LINEN HEADBOARD
Photo credit: Carpetright

All of these beds - and headboards - are part of Carpetright's bed collection, it's a place that clearly does a lot more than carpet!

This is a collaborative post with Carpetright, but all opinions remain my own.

Fox-proofing my greenhouse

Before we left for France as well as getting as many plants as we could planted in the allotment - it took at least two hours just potting them out! - we also needed to rig something up to make my greenhouse fox proof.

This wasn't on a whim, but because I wanted to leave the door ajar but as our neighbour has four fox cubs living in her garden I knew I'd need some kind of barrier.  Looking around in MOH's shed I found the chicken wire I was looking for and some random bits of wood he'd sawed for, actually I'm not sure what for.  But they were both commandeered for my plan, along with our staple gun and MOH.

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to achieve and MOH set about stapling the chicken wire to the blocks, which I hoped would act as a weight at the bottom of my chicken wire contraption.

And once it was in place, it looked as if it might work.

Now we needed to work out how much chicken wire we needed, we did that and added a bit to be safe,  MOH cut the wire and added a further block of wood to the top edge.  I'd hoped to be able to use the fixings of the greenhouse to attach it, but that wasn't to be as on closer inspection they were rivet-type things, not removable screws.

And with it assembled, in true workman style MOH downed tools. Most likely with permission as I'd yet to ready the greenhouse for our holiday. I sowed some squash and courgette seeds, hoping they'd germinate while we were away and so far six of them have and if I'm lucky there'll be some more yet.  I also upended plastic bottles full of water into my greenhouse bed so that they wouldn't be entirely without water for the two weeks (if you try this, don't forget to pierce holes in the lids otherwise it won't be much use).

With the greenhouse ready it was time to hang the chicken wire contraption. We stuck the ends of the chicken wire around the greenhouse fixings and used some extra wires to attach it to the left-hand side of the door.  On the right-hand side I hooked it over the handle twice and that seemed to secure it.

To be extra sure - because I don't trust those pesky foxes - I put a couple of bricks on the wood at the bottom of the door and strategically placed some pots to make it awkward for them if they wanted to try and to provide and extra barricade and make it clear that there was really "nothing to see here."

Was I being overly cautious?

It's true the foxes (cubs or otherwise) hadn't tried to get into the greenhouse before, but they have increased their forays into our garden as they've grown. The advice to deter foxes is to make things tricky for them, and this certainly did that.  We're often in the garden of an evening and at weekends and our presence is a deterrent, with the garden empty for two weeks I had a feeling they'd be making use of the extra space so I wanted to be sure that my cucumbers in the greenhouse and other seedlings didn't come to any damage. Once you've grown plants from seed you have a feeling of responsibility, don't you?

So did it work?

That has to be a resounding yes! It was still in place when we got home on Saturday and there was plenty of evidence of the foxes in our garden, yes that and they'd started to dig small holes in the lawn - which MOH wasn't too impressed about. 

Infact it's worked so well it's still there!  It's a bit more awkward to get into the greenhouse than before but knowing I can leave the door open is well worth that.

Do you have trouble with wildlife in your garden? What measures do you take to deter them?