Add a Bit of Tutti Fruity to your Kitchen with these easy DIY Watermelon T-towels

I keep seeing Watermelons everywhere at the moment.  Not only do they taste great and remind me of my travels across outback Australia they are also bright and colourful.
With this in mind I thought I would show you how you can add a tutti fruity feeling to your kitchen with these easy to make Watermelon T-towels

You will need 

A plain white T-towel

Iron

2 sheets of A4 T-shirt transfer paper

Printer 

Pair of scissors.

Seriously they are so easy to make.

Firstly you need to print the watermelon designs onto your transfer paper. 

You need to cut out all of the watermelon shapes and put them into a neat pile ready to iron onto your t-towel. 

Once you have cut them all out you need to carefully iron each of the watermelons onto your t-towel in a random form.  (Follow the instructions on the packet of t-shirt transfer paper.)  I sandwiched the watermelon between the T-towel and a sheet of heatproof paper to protect the t-towel.

And there you have it a completed tutti fruity watermelon t-towel to brighten your kitchen.

 

To Tile or Not to Tile?

I have been thinking of tiling one of the walls in the kitchen.  Nothing major just a couple of courses high in a light colour.  Since moving in a year ago we haven't done anything to the kitchen.  Currently it is just painted. Re-painting it is on my list of jobs to do this summer when I can air it properly with the doors and windows open.  Until then there is nothing wrong with what we have other than I find it difficult to keep clean around the sink and the cooker area.  I also like the idea of having a tiled splash back to break the wall up a bit.

Our Kitchen as it is now.  

My idea to tile the kitchen came about after I stopped in town for coffee.  The coffee shop I happened to be in had a whole wall tiled like this.  I thought it looked amazing, floor to ceiling all along one wall.  I left resolute that I was going home to tile my wall!

I really like this tiled effect I found in fired earth.  They come in a cream colour called Fair Isle (although I am undecided if they may be a bit too high gloss.)

Providing the tiles weren't too high gloss I think they could work well in the kitchen especially with our big enamel sign on the end wall.

But here is my dilema.  I happened to mention the idea of tiling the wall to my friend who's opinion I value a lot.  She is very design savvy and has a good eye for interior design, her response was "tiles are old fashioned and the "in" thing is to have flush painted walls" like we currently have. Now I am all in a quandary as to whether I should tile the wall or not.  What do we think?

Serious Kitchen Dreaming

Ever since our dishwasher packed up last week I have been thinking about a kitchen re-design.  I often think about redesigning it but I have never actually put pen to paper until now.

Current Inspiration:

Eco House Book Terence Conran

Bright Bazaar

Living Etc March 2015

We have a galley style kitchen with units on two sides, with double doors into the garden.  The problem I currently have is the back of the house faces virtually due North which means we only get a tiny bit of sunshine in the kitchen at the height of summer.  Additionally the set up at the moment provides us enough space for a small dinning table at the end but it can make things a bit tricky if you have more than 4 people to dinner at anyone time. 

What I would really like to do is to extend our kitchen out along the back wall creating a glass box with either large doors with a flush threshold or bi-folding doors.  Hence flooding the kitchen with natural light.  I like the idea of the internal external relationship, bringing the outside inside of being able to stand at a central island in the kitchen and almost feel that you are outside.  Or being able to sit in the kitchen under the night sky.

The reality of my plans may be a bit pricey as the whole of the back wall of the house would need to be supported plus the cost implications of so much glass will probably be out of our price budget at the moment however I have a starting point from which to move forward.

Whilst I am dreaming here is some serious kitchen lusting

I love the glass roof extension on this kitchen and the way the path leads into the house as if it is all one element.  The transition from the interior into the exterior is almost imperceptible.

Azman Architects.

Here I like the industrial look of the exposed brickwork and the raw timber roof supports.

Lush Home

Pinterest 

Harvey Jones Kitchens

Azman Architects.

Interior Love Affair #5

This weeks interior love affair has been inspired by our need to replace our dinning table.  

We picked the enamel sign up on ebay for the bargain price of £20 and I absolutely love it.  It works so well in the space but being the size it is anything we put in the along the back wall of our kitchen needs to work with the sign. 

I know that this table would be far too big for the space we have available to us but I love the industrial feel of this reclaimed wood table with matching benches.  Such & Such £600

1 Vince Round Walnut Table Habitat £295 

2 Mid-Century Expandable Dinning Table West Elm £594 

3 Stockholm Walnut Veneer Table Ikea £400

4 Emmerson Industrial Expandable Dinning Table West Elm £999

Black Board Wall

Last week I finally got round to painting one of our kitchen walls with blackboard paint.  It is something I had been meaning to do for a while.

Having previously painted a section of our kitchen wall in the old house I still had nearly a whole can in the shed so it didn't cost me anything other than my time.  Although the paint is supposed to be magnetic I found that it isn't particularly strong but for the purposes of my wall it didn't matter.  I just wanted to create a wall that the girls could draw on with their chalks.

Because the paint is really thick and the magnetic bits sink to the bottom the paint needs a really good stir before starting.  Using masking tape to ensure that I had a nice neat finish I covered the skirting boards, coving, door frames and all plug/light switches.  Despite the paint being relatively quick drying I waited until the girls were in bed one evening before painting the wall.  I just knew little fingers wouldn't be able to resist touching it.

The girls love it and there is always some sort of art work on the wall.  It also works well as a family notice board and or a good place to keep a running shopping list.  The best bit is that with a damp cloth it can all be wiped away for a fresh piece of art work.

What would I do without a good cuppa?

I love nothing more than a good cup of tea.  In fact some days all I drink is tea.  Before I can even function in the morning I need at least two cups of tea.  I actually think I am a bit of a tea addict.  The first thing I do when I walk into work is put the kettle on for a cuppa.  It has become a bit of a joke and I was awarded a medal for the amount of tea I consume.  Not only do I love a good cuppa I am very picky about the mug it is served in.  If my (long suffering) husband makes me a cup of tea (despite being told countless times) in the wrong cup I will pour it into a different mug.  I almost feel like I can not concentrate properly at my desk unless I have a cup of tea to hand.  At the start of the year when I was on my "New Years Resolution" get fit eat more healthy routine I started tracking using myfitness pal how many cups of tea I was consuming a day. I was shocked to discover that on some days it was 10 + cups.  Now that is a lot of tea!!!!

A while back I managed to smash the lid of ceramic tea pot on our tiled floor and I have been on the hunt for a new tea pot ever since.

1 My Teapot Yellow Howkapow £47.50

2 ARNE JACOBSEN TEAPOT DesignLifeKids $112

3 Pantone Teapot Selfridges £50.00

4 Pip Studio Selfridges £54.95

5 Enamel Teapot Blue & White Howkapow £18.95

6 For Life Stump Teapot Heals £32

For the love of baking.

When I was little I loved spending time in the kitchen learning to bake with my Mum.  I remember standing on a stool or a chair being allowed to lick the spoon once we had finished.

Now 20 odd years on and it is now my turn to teach my girls to cook.  It is one of their favourite past times. They are always on my case about baking something.  

However I only have one of most things which means we have a lot of arguing, but who owns more than one rolling pin??  I seem to have inherited a lot of my kitchen equipment from various places and I think it is about time I spent some time and money updating my kitchen utensils.

1 Personalised wooden spoons Auntie Mims £5.50

2 Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer £379

3 marimekko kukkuluuruu Tea Towels £30 | Oven Mit £17 | Apron £39 Heals 

4 Paddle Cutting Board and Utensil Set ForTheHost Etsy £19.41

5 Asterisk Star Glass Tumbler Cath Kidston £5 

6 Mason and Cash Colour Mixing Bowl Slivermushroom £12.99

7 Ceramic spoons Cath Kidston £8

No baking session is complete without being able to climb up to the work surface.  When I was little my Grandma had a lovely red painters ladder/stool which we would climb up to the work top on.

These stools would make the perfect companion for my little ones.  Ikea £14

What would be on your list of items to buy?

Organised Love #1

An area of the house that has really been bugging me for a while now is the general state of dis-organisation we bumble along in.  I feel like there are mountains of clutter building up everywhere and my head is just full to bursting.  Now the problem with clutter is that unless it has a home it just gets shifted from one place to another like a nomad.  Something always disappears as we are about to leave the house sending me into a mild panic, not only this but I am fed up being the only one who seems to know where anything is.  It is almost like everyone else has stopped looking and automatically just asks me.

I have found that when the house starts to feel like this it can become overwhelming and all consuming.  A relentless task of tidying up and moving the clutter about in the vague attempt to add some order to the house.  With Spring approaching and the idea of the traditional spring clean, magazines are packed full of ideas and tips on how to achieve the tidy organised house.

The dilemma I have is that our lives and expectations have changed dramatically since the origins of the annual "spring clean".  I don't know about most people but the idea of housework and spring cleaning definitely does not feature anywhere near the top of my to-do list.  In fact that is part of our problem it just does not feature on my list of jobs I want to do EVER.  I see it as a chore which I resent.  I accept however that we really need to try implement some form of structure and order into our lives whilst being kind and honest to myself.   I don't want the kids to grow up not knowing where anything lives and then having to deal with me stressing out because nobody tidies up after themselves or we cant find anything.

I need to acknowledge that it is a project which will take time and not happen over night but once sorted will help the house run more smoothly and free up our spare time to do the things we want to do.

Just like the article I am reading in Elle Decoration A Tidy Tradition I find even the thought of tackling our disorganisation and mess a daunting task  However as Lisa Messenger sets out in her book Daring and Disruptive I can choose to change my mindset.  You are never too old or too young to implement change.

My first organisation project is one of the kitchen cupboards which has been bothering me ever since we moved in.  In all honesty I am not sure what has been squirreled away at the back.  The reason I picked this cupboard first is because it is full mainly of cooking staples - tinned products, oil, pasta, rice etc.  I am constantly rummaging through this cupboard and shoving stuff back in again, stuff keeps falling out and I never know what I have in there.  This constant searching and rummaging is costing me both time and money.  I often end up doubling up on stuff or running out of bits and having to run to the village shop to pick something up.

I started off by picking up some curver medium baskets.  I got them from lakeland but they are on special offer at Ocado until the 17th March.

Then once the girls had gone to bed I literally tipped everything out of the cupboard.  I threw away anything that looked like it had past it's best or anything I hadn't used in months.  I re-filled the containers (one of my previous attempts at getting organised) and washed the cupboard out.

Then I allocated one basket to tinned products and the other one to bottles.  I also brought a smaller basket which I put the hot chocolate and tea bags in.  I used my label maker to label the plastic tubs.

In all it probably took me about 45 minutes to complete.  Just think of all the time it will save me by not having to look for things all the time.

I can't tell you how good it feels to open your cupboard and be able to see everything straight away.