Oh Spoilt Me

By now, those of you who have followed the blog for a while will realise I have a serious "thing" for house decorating, I dabble in simple craft and love finding a good bargain at an op shop. Well I also have some amazing family who also like to "dabble" in using their creativity to make lovely things.

This past Christmas I was given a stack of amazing gifts and these are some of the hand made ones that were particularly impressive. Most of you no doubt think you have the best husbands in the world, but I have to say, mine is AWESOME. He scours my decorating magazines just as astutely as I do, finding ideas for furniture and accessories that he can recreate. Next thing he's in the garage, whizzing and whirring (and I'm banned from setting foot in there for weeks on end) as he chops and puts together these lovely little presents.

This one is simple but so so lovely. He sourced some old fashioned wire hooks from a favourite online store of his called Mulbury Gallery. For $5 each (they come in white, yellow and blue) he had them delivered to Tassie (from Geelong), and backed them onto some recycled timber which he'd sanded and oiled. I got a coat rack with eight hooks which now lives, pride of place in the beach shack hallway. It gets lots of use with all the hats, towels and bags we have for the beach.

He also made a giant 1.2 metre square mirror in recycled timber for the beach shack (it got a present for Christmas too!) To keep costs low he purchased a mirror from Bunnings Hardware (for approx $50) and then built the frame to size around it. It took him several weeks of an hour here an there after work but the result is amazing. We've just hung it in the beach shack lounge room.

This was another Christmas present for me. It's a simple rustic square box (shadow box?) which hangs directly on the wall as a bedside table (yet to be hung there but I've put it into position so you get the idea). The Raggedy Ann book was an op shop find of mine for $2. It's in perfect original condition from 1960 and I love it!

Ewan also got spoilt. His Poppy (Roger's Dad) joined Roge out in the garage (actually "Poppy" is Yoda and Roge is Luke Skywalker in that Trev (Poppy) has been teaching Roge all his woodworking and trade skills over the last 7 years since Roge started showing an interest in renovating/woodworking). Trev made Ewan this fire truck. It's truly perfect and Ewie loves to sit in the back and get pulled along.

Last, but not least, here is a special vase that Roge made me. Bonnie and Neil the Australian designers were the inspiration for this one although Roge's interpretation of their design is a lot different than their product. With a left over piece of timber he has made a 3 sided box, cut four large holes in it and put 4 glass bottles through the holes to hold the flowers. The little jars are old liquid paracetamol bottles that get discarded from the local hospital once the product has been used. Roge collected a few before they went into the bin and gave them a new purpose. So clever!

Needless to say, I feel like one lucky lady to have received such thoughtful gifts, all of which I love for many reasons. They were made with thought, love and purpose. Plus they were inexpensive to make and used recycled elements, perfect!

Note: Last week I promised a completed beach shack pergola. Well it's not quite finished so I've decided to wait until it is to do the "big unveil" so you'll have to wait until after Saturday when it should finally be done :)