My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket

September 1, 2015

A while back now I bought an IKEA HOL storage table with the intention of converting it into a laundry basket. When it arrived MOH set to work putting it together, and he did a great job.

And it soon made it upstairs and filled the space in our bedroom, the one that if our bedroom had been a hotel room then it's the place where the suitcase rack would be....

And for a while, that's how it stayed. For quite a while actually until I remembered that one of my aims for this year was to master my sewing machine. That prompted me to dig out my sewing machine and finally get around to sewing a liner. And in case you're wondering the picture that's resting on it in the photo above now hangs above it on the wall, and is a good match for the colours we have in our bedroom.

On a trip to the large orange DIY store I bought these brackets and some dowel to rest in them. The brackets are actually for a wardrobe but they work just as well here. The dowel was cut so it's easy to lift it out of the bracket.

The liner is made from cream lining fabric and is in essence a rectangular box. I measured and measured and then cut the material to size - one of these days I'll advance to using a pattern I'm sure!

I added three tabs with contrasting stitching to thread the dowels through and to ensure the liner stays in place. Using the pinking shears gives a nice finish and ensures the material won't fray either. As it's easy to slip on and off the dowels it means if it gets a bit smelly then I can easily wash it too.

And so, there you have it a fully functioning laundry basket - photographed thankfully sans dirty washing!

How to you adapt your IKEA purchases?

Our Ride London

August 3, 2015

Our day started early with a 4.30am alarm but although neither of us had slept that well we were up and out of bed pretty sharpish. Our early start was different to those get-to-the-airport-to-catch-a-plane-at-silly-o'clock-mornings as this time there was breakfast that would fuel the ride and of course there weren't any suitcases. But there was a flight, of sorts.

By 5.30am we were pushing our bikes out of the house and heading to the cable car in Greenwich. And we weren't the only ones. As we reached the Royal Standard just around the corner we tagged onto a group of cyclists heading the same way. The roads were quiet and the only traffic was either buses or cars transporting bikes and their riders towards North Greenwich.

It was a beautiful morning and before MOH caught his flight on the cable car and cycled to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to prepare for the start I got him to pose for a photo, wished him well and reminded him to take some pictures along the way.

As I cycled back home from my earliest starting cycle ever (a record that's unlikely to be broken tbf) MOH was queuing to deposit his bag and then prepare for his 7.36am start time. He even remembered to take some pictures!

Back home and recovering from the early start and the early cycle I suddenly realised I'd better get myself shifted if I was to get to The Strand on time to see MOH cycle past.

I made the 7.22am train from Blackheath with two minutes to spare and so arrived in Charing Cross with plenty of time to spare. The RideLondon app - aka the Husband Tracker - was up and working and showing MOH's progress along the route.

There were plenty of cyclists to cheer while I was waiting for him to arrive. Teams, individuals and a few in more unusual cycling outfits!

Then at 8.15am, this happened.

With MOH spotted and looking comfortable (well as much as you can on a saddle) I set off for Kingston to see him around the 22 mile mark. I had twenty minutes to wait for the next Kingston train. Armed with a second breakfast - well it was 8.45am by now and I'd been up for ages - I got the train, ate breakfast and continued to track MOH.

Just as the train approached Wimbledon I saw that he'd already passed Kingston station, so there really was little point continuing. But that meant I was in Wimbledon much earlier than I'd planned and in fact I was there before the first cyclist too. After a wander around, thinking about a third breakfast and thinking better of it, it was still only 9.18am.

The first cyclists arrived in Wimbledon just gone 10am and shortly afterwards I made myself comfy half-way up Wimbledon Hill on the right. If you know Wimbledon, you'll know there's some grass verges well I was there and let me tell you there's not much grass on them right now. I'd brought a sarong to sit on so I was feeling particularly smug and sat down to enjoy the event while MOH took a planned break at Pyrford, at just before 40 miles.

The Husband Tracker was working well and I could see that MOH had reached Newlands Corner, where he had another planned stop in 3 hours 16 minutes. His average speed had slowed to 21.8 kph from 26.5kph at the first timing point, but it was still good and fast enough to complete the course in the allocated time and avoiding the "Broom Van" which would sweep up people that hadn't reached parts of the route by the cut-off time.

The next time I looked he hadn't moved very far at all. And he didn't move very much for a while. Quite a while in fact.

Then my phone rang and it was MOH to say there'd been a crash and everyone had stopped and was backed up. Sadly as we know now it wasn't caused by a crash but by a fatality, our thoughts are with this rider's family.

After an understandably lengthy stop, MOH was underway again. On Wimbledon Hill there wasn't a break in the riders passing by and we think that's because some of the later cyclists were diverted around this part of the course.

My vantage point was around the 90 mile mark and half-way up the last hill the riders would encounter. Some just breezed by, others put thier head down and pushed themselves to the top. Just up from me was one of the BHF cheering stations, and they really did work giving their riders a much needed lift, as you can see from the photo!

Some though needed a bit of a helping hand up the last hill, and this lady wasn't the only one.

I counted six tandems as I watched the race go by, but didn't manage to catch one on my camera at all!

At around 3.15pm MOH cycled past. With ten miles to go I knew he'd make it as he still looked relatively fresh and was going a good speed.

Now to get to the finish and find him, but first an ice cream - it'd been pretty warm work supporting there for the past five hours or so!

Green Park was busy when I arrived around 4.30pm, with people everywhere. I was glad of the advice from the organisers to pre-arrange a meeting place and set out to find the tree labelled with an S. Around 5.30pm MOH wandered by, so it was some time for some post-event photos with his medal. And there was just enough battery life left in my phone to do a final post of Facebook.

It was great to hear his views on the race and on the course sitting there in Green Park. High points were cycling on car-free roads although it was weird to cycle past work in Docklands so fast; the sun on Westminster Abbey making it look even more stunning as he left London; the view from the top of Box Hill and the pretty village of Abinger Hammer and raising £450 (so far) for Get Kids Going. Lower points were the hold ups along the route which were frustrating, especially at Leith Hill where it took 9 minutes to walk 400 metres and impacted on his time, running out of phone battery after not turning off wifi (something I suffered from too!) and being fed up of bananas!

And the answer to that all important question - would he do it again, is yes because "it's not a difficult ride." The ballot opens next Monday, just in time for the pain and soreness to be a rose-tinted memory!

After relaxing a little - using his fleece from earlier as a impromptu cushion to sit on - it wasn't long before we headed for Charing Cross and a train home to a more comfortable seat with plans for some pizza and perhaps a glass or two of red to toast a great day at Ride London.

Oh, and to watch the TV coverage. It seems though that everyone in Greenwich had the same idea to order pizza and ours didn't arrive until 10.20pm, by which time we were more than a little hungry and more than a couple of glasses had been consumed.

Here's to a successful ballot and to next year's event!

A coat of paint and some new cushions

July 22, 2015

A while back I bought some wrought iron garden chairs on eBay and knew they needed a bit of TLC. I also knew that I didn't want to repaint them white either, but I wasn't sure which colour to choose. We already had an old iron table in Antibes Green - another eBay purchase which needs some work - and I was keen to keep the table the same colour, but was struggling to find the colour I needed and I absolutely refused to go the Hammerite route. I mean there's nothing wrong with Hammerite but i) they didn't have the colour I wanted and ii) I still wanted the table to retain its character, and some of its rust much to MOH's dismay.

Anyway I've discovered that Annie Sloan's chalk paint comes in exactly the colour I want and although I haven't bought it yet, or started to tackle the table I knew that whatever I did with the chairs, they had to match the table I was planning. When I saw that Farrow & Ball had a new yellow colour in their range I went to investigate. It is a bright yellow and has the fab name: Yellowcake - so with a name that includes two of my favourite things I was sold!

Before any painting could start the chairs needed to be rubbed down and a rust treatment applied and MOH set about this with gusto. I think he'd rather I'd bought new chairs as there was "years and years of paint on these" but I was less keen. So painting them became my job, so paint them I did.

Bright yellow. Yellowcake yellow.

In fact they're not as yellow as I'd hoped! But I am pleased with them. I like that they're bright and cheery and I don't mind that the paint finish isn't smooth as a new chair would be. And most of all I like them because they're yellow and quite unexpected!

They're the sort of garden chairs that need a cushion and when I saw this material I knew it was perfect for my pre-loved chairs. So I bought some quizzing the lady in John Lewis about how much I'd need and checking my instinct on how to make the cushions I had in my mind - you know the sort, the sort with neat piped edges. I had it in my mind that I'd make these cushions and overlooked the fact that I'd never done anything quite like this...

So with foam inners that were cut to fit the seat of the chair I was running out of excuses so I set about finding a tutorial on how to sew the piping and get sewing.

It turned out the lady in John Lewis was right when she said she wasn't much of a sewer as I've more material than I needed - which I don't mind as it's lovely - but quickly ran out of bias binding so came to a halt until more supplies arrived. It was quite a timely pause as it gave me time to work out how to do the next bit and to get some tips from my dressmaker mum.

When the additional bias binding arrived I was flying and both cushions are now complete:

I added ribbon ties to the back of the cushions. I considered making ties from the bias binding but then remembered I had this grosgrain ribbon with the same yellow and liked the contrast it gives.

And here they both are together

I'm really pleased with how both the chairs and the cushions turned out, and they look great at the end of our garden. They're comfy too - now I just need to get the French table sorted, and perhaps a smaller side table for everyday use, as it's always nice to have somewhere to my gin and tonic (or cup of tea!)