Driftwood en francais

I couldn't believe my eyes when I was walking Ella and saw this gorgeous piece of driftwood washed up on my parents beach....

   

My mind went into free-fall of all the things I could do with it. Finding an abandoned inanimate object like a piece of wood, pine cone, an old bottle or a heart shaped pebble is as exciting for me as someone else finding a £20 note on the street, sad but true!!

A few weeks ago I found a stencil set in the sale at my local craft store. I had always wanted one but refused to pay a ridiculous price. This set at 99p, however, was fine! 

So together with my new craft paints that my mum found in a sale, we're a thrifty lot, this was born...

This has been, for now, placed in our new downstairs shower room. Where a beachy style theme has evolved from the slate floor and gorgeous little slate stones with a white vein running through them positioned in the floor of the shower reminding me of being on a beach in Cornwall.

(don't look at the walls though, they are work in progress!)

Thank you Ella x

Cottage Renovation

Even though I seemed to be MIA (missing in action) on the blog front I have still be tinkering with little projects and taking endless photographs, which can be seen in my slide show of images. I've also been busy with our cottage renovation, turning it from another's well loved home (i.e dark, small, avocado bathroom, green painted  living room, you get the picture!) into our well loved home (light, bright, extended, yummy bathroom, open plan living but in a cottage style, again I think you get the picture).

An example of some nice old wallpaper!

discovered when we did this.....

....knocked the back of the house down....

The part of the house on the right is all new, the sloping glass roof is where the new kitchen sits. It lets in so much light it completely transforms downstairs.

A heart shaped jug from my collection...

Coffee, Sugar & Tea canisters from my friend 'J'...

A Kilner jar decorated with ribbon and tea pot charm for my peppermint tea...

I'm very pleased with this new edition to my kitchen, an egg rack...

More Kilner jars for storage...

My new kitchen in a sort of grey/green colour with oak worktop and oak flooring. There is a breakfast bar on the opposite side to the oven which is where we all seem to gravitate to...

and finally my lovely Butler sink in the utility room, we actually have two original ones that were already in the house but they have far too many years of grime to use. They will however find a home somewhere possibly in the garden for veggies or herbs??

Rebecca x

Lovely Christmas Things

 Here is one of my new decorations for the tree this year, obviously it HAD to be heart shaped!

I've tried to be 'thrifty' this year and had a go a making my own Christmas wreath;

With home-made dried oranges;

....and bunches of cinnamon sticks;

My other major project was a fairy for the top of the tree, and I didn't pay a penny! Everything I used was just laying around the house. Here is a list of items I used believe it or not...A bamboo stick, toilet roll, copper wiring, hair pins, carrier bag handles (un-twisted made beautiful wavy hair), ribbon, feathers (yes they were just in one of my drawers), bra padding and beads off a broken braclet. Ta Da a beautiful fairy!

Rebecca x

Finally, my name up in lights!

Ok, this was our first attempt at capturing sparkler writing,
demonstrated beautifully by my mum;

I had the idea from a newspaper cutting my mum gave me, explaining how you could take photos of fireworks and sparklers creating not just an instant image of someone waving a stick around, but with a slower shutter speed you can record something way more special!

  

My hubby even had a go, showing that he can spell his name! My step daughter was more creative, starting with her name (which obviously needs to be written with the letters back-to-front), then a star with a firework in the background.

 

 And for the piece de resistance...the whole family lined up;

Rebecca x

Beachcombing for eye catching subjects....



'The Huts'



'Breakwaters'

'I'm Waiting...'

'Concentration'

'Lunch Queue'

'Ready to sail'

'Paddling'

'Flying in'

Rebecca x







Anything beachy...

....And I'm there! Here are some pics I took while my Ward family were having fun at Frensham Ponds, Surrey. A beautiful sailing lake surrounded by sandy coves and sand dunes, no heart shaped pebbles there but plenty of photo opportunities;

Rebecca x

Keeping it in Focus...

The easy option is always just to press and shoot and you can get some good pics just by doing that, but now I have a camera with the ability to focus manually I wanted to experiment with how you could make pictures slightly more interesting by blurring different parts, here is what happened that day....

                                                                                                                                                                 

Rebecca x

© REBECCA WARD 2010