The Interior DIYer
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I love you to the Death Star and back

Today is a special day as it is husband’s birthday. He’s turning the ripe old age of 27. The same age I was when we got married. Yep, I’m a cradle robber. Represent. Anyways, I had a very special present in mind for him this year and I had it stored in my memory bank for some time …

Back in April my lovely friend Pat from In My Wheele House blogged a project she had done with a globe, some chalk + chalk paint and blew my mind by drawing the Death Star right onto that baby. I knew it would be a perfect home made present for husband. I found a globe in a charity shop, picked up some spray paint and I was on my way.

First I washed the globe, let it dry then I sprayed it with one coat of Iron Curtain grey paint – how very appropriate. Since it was plastic I went with spray paint to avoid peelage. And of course I went with my good old reliable Montana. I let it dry over night, and the next day I taped it off with washi tape. I used a thinner-than-usual black washi-style tape I got in IKEA. The reason I chose washi tape vs. masking tape is because it’s a lot more gentler when it comes to removing. 

I taped out a grid  of sorts {as seen above}, then sprayed with a darker shade of Montana paint {I cannot for the life of me remember its name right now}, peeled off the tape and again let it dry overnight. And please excuse my incredibly shoddy phone pic above. I was working sneakily in the spare bedroom at night – not the best for taking photos. 

The next day I used a Montana acrylic extra fine paint marker to draw in the details. I free-handed the wobbly and incredibly inaccurate lines and finer details, hoping it would closer resemble the Death Star. Yeah, I know it doesn’t look exactly like it, so if you’re a hardcore fan, please be gentle. If you squint your eyes at it from far away, it’s a dead ringer though. The perfect addition of nerd to our living room if I may be so bold.

It’s about to get sappy all up in here folks. You’ve been warned.

Happy birthday husband. You are the light of my life, always and forever. And as I wrote on your card, I love you to the Death Star and back.
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Desk days

I’ve spent a lot of time at my desk recently. I’ve put a bit of extra effort in to make it somewhere I want to sit more than somewhere I need to sit, and for me that usually means mixing things up. I get bored if things stay in the same place too long so I rotate things around the apartment. Not so fun for husband though when he’s trying to look for something. Bless him. 

I’ve become a smidge obsessed with matches recently. I think it’s because we’re well and truly into the winter months, and candles in our home get lit on a regular basis. I found these giant match sticks in Industry‘s new pop up shop on Drury Street, and they perfectly quenched my need. So this week I was on the lookout for a special match stick holder {as you do} and spotted this perfect little red shot glass in a charity shop on Saint Michan’s Street {can’t remember its name} for €0.50. SCORE.
Candles are also a great way for me to get through the depressing Irish winter {cold, no snow, grey, grey, grey, rain and grey}. If it’s going to be dark and gross out, might as well make it fancy and cosy and light some candles. If I had a fireplace, that thing would be lit from October to March. 

And above, my most random impulse buy ever. I saw these Black is the New Black pencils from MadeByGirl, and I had to have them. They reminded me of what I almost always say when I’m out shopping – whether it’s something for our apartment, or something for me to wear … 

… that or dark purple / maroon / wine etc. The darker, the better. But that’s not really reflected in these bright pictures. I feel I should say, if we owned our apartment, it would look very different. Speaking of darker, I was a bit bold and spray painted one of my faux hydrangeas yesterday. They’re originally bright purple with pink, and because of that I noticed I didn’t have them on display as much. I gave one one of them darker a light dusting of spray paint to see what it looked like, and I think it turned out not too bad if I may be so bold. Oh, and for those of you curious about my vase, I nabbed that cheap and cheerful DIY from Bethany from Dwellings by DeVore. A girl after my own heart. 

Also featured – lamp revamp – thrifted coral – faux hydrangeas
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Lovely mention – the Irish Independent

A couple of weeks ago I got a surprise e-mail from the lovely Gabrielle from the Irish Independent looking to include me in an upcoming feature; she was writing about ladies who are ditching cosmo’s for crochet hooks and getting crafty at home {for the record, I am partial to a tall, cold G&T or a healthy glass of wine}. I of course agreed {nervously}, and later that afternoon I spoke with Gabrielle about all things thrifted and handmade throughout our home. From items made from scratch, to revamped thrifted pieces, to crochet, knitting and cross stitch, we talked about it all. And when I say we, I mean I rambled on for some time.

A word of warning ladies – when you’re as pale as me, if you hold a lamp up to your face, your eyes will look like two piss-holes in snow. That is something I have now learned. Aside from that, I am giddy with excitement about my little feature and would like to thank Gabrielle again for being so cool, down to earth and for letting me prattle on about handmade stuff, and Ronan the photographer for making it a fun and relaxed mini photo shoot in my living room, because cameras terrify me and all I do is make dumb faces. 

For anyone who would like to creep the online version of the article, check it out here 🙂 xx A

p.s. I LOVE LAMP. 
Also featured – lamp revamp – fancy footstool