Two big creative projects

I've done two big projects this week... the first was to decoupage the grotty old (scratched, paint-laden) craft table that I've been using ever since we were married (a friend gave it to me for free because it was so beat-up)... I put a plastic tablecloth on it to cover up the marks and called it all good, but it finally occurred to me that I could do something much more permanent (and elegant) with a bottle of mod-podge and my scrapbooking supplies. It took a day to do the initial work, and it's going to take a few more to put the top coats on it but I'm very pleased with it.

The second project was recovering my three-wheeled walker with some lovely pastel duck tape, and then decorating the basket with ribbon and flowers. It took a full week to get the tape applied because it was a heck of a lot more fiddly and difficult than I'd expected, but I love how it came out. Today I decorated the basket with a vintage ribbon and silk flowers that I assembled with my glue gun. I didn't want to put any glue on the ribbon because it IS vintage (practically antique) and I might want to take it off again, so I sewed the ribbon onto the basket and then I rigged up wire fastenings for the flowers with wire so that I can remove them again by cutting the wires. I tried all sorts of fasteners for the flowers, but what worked in the end were long thin pipe-cleaners - the wire's more flexible than floral wire and far less pokey because it's got the coating on it. Again, it was fiddly but I'm thrilled with how it came out. I like it a lot more than my other walker... at some point I'll probably get more flowers and redo the lavender one too, but not right now! The best thing about both of these projects? I used almost entirely supplies and materials I already had on hand. I only had to buy the mod-podge and the pastel tape. Everything else was in my craft collection waiting to be used. :)

Now for the photos...

I had tons of the flowers, so while I had my glue gun out I whipped up a couple of decorated hair clips (I made the red one a few weeks ago with temporary gluedots, but I wanted to make it permanent with the gluegun...)

Beribboned walker, and mystery plant

The mystery plant in our front garden bed has grown by leaps and bounds... still no idea what it is, but it's obviously very happy in that garden bed, and it's better than the barren wasteland that the yard crew made of the rest of our front yard last week when they came along and 'pruned' everything into non-existence, including chopping all the bananas off at ground level. I know the banana trees will grow back, but it's awfully bare out there right now! Anyway here's the plant...

And this is the other plant struggling along in that bed.

And now you've seen the mystery plant, here's something a little more creative... I have to use a walking aid to go any distance, and I just bought myself a lavender walker which had a plain black back rest and basket. The plain black part was just begging to be decorated, so I bought a rainbow of voile ribbon and went to town.