The Interior DIYer
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2012 – in review

This year has been quite a big year for me. I pushed myself and concocted some more tutorials – some simple, and some not so much. I experienced a roller coaster of emotions that comes with planning a wedding, and experienced some unusual illnesses thanks to stress. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I learned how to better deal with the glory that is stress. We tied the knot, and we’ve gleefully fell back into our old routines, and now that Christmas has come and gone, I can concentrate on cracking out a few more projects at home. Bring on 2013!

I blogged about tips and tricks on how to organize a bookcase {this piece was actually featured in Handmade Living UK magazine, but they went into liquidation shortly after. I would love to share it with you but unfortunately I still haven’t gotten the PDF’s or a copy of the magazine. Massive sad face. C’est la vie}.

The beginning of 2012 kicked off with a healthy dose of DIY’s – attacked with tape, how to kitsch up your kitchen, and my himmeli tutorial. All of which I still adore and have on display, and haven’t gotten bored of any of them one bit.

Our engagement story got into the wonderful Irish wedding magazine, Confetti. That was a fun one since we may have been the first ones to get asterisks into such a dainty magazine. Most excellent.

Using scraps of wallpaper, wrapping paper or other off-cuts as a background, I did up a little tutorial under the title of lovely layers, about jazzing up your framed delights.

In April of this year I bought ‘hydrangeagirl.com’ and made it my own. That was a big step for me, and I felt like such a grown up. HG then turned 2 in August. She’s come a long way baby … 

I love, love, love getting e-mails from folks who have tried out my tutorials. One example, the lovely Robyn e-mailed me her  spin on my deceptive DVD covers. Complete creative winning. It makes all this typing worth while. 

With our wedding fast approaching, some DIY wedding stuff snuck in there too. First up a tutorial for the boutonnieres / button holes I made for the groom and groomsmen, followed by a write up about our flowering wedding favours. A  bit of a labour of love.

And of course, hubby and I got hitched in October, and flew away to a mind-boggling romanitcal honeymoon. Both of which I will be blogging before the new year – I best be getting my ass in gear then. I’m in the agonizing process of choosing which photos to share, without going over the top and boring the hell out of you.

UPDATE: you can see our wedding deets here, and our honeymoon pics here. 

And in November I kicked off Project Less 365 thanks to Laura Howard, and I’m proud to say even though I only gave myself 60 days to drop 365 things, I think I may have reached my goal already! I can for sure say this clear out process is clearing not only our home, but my mind of clutter too. Less is more, peeps. 
xx A
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Tis the season

Happy St. Stephen’s / Boxing Day! I hope the festive season is treating you well. Although Christmas has come and gone, I like to think we’re still in the thick of the season. It can’t all be about one day. Pour example, hubby and I always have our own mini Christmas, as we’ve always spent the day itself with our own families. He spoiled me with some truly thoughtful surprises this year.  
Serious brownie points for a personalized present, even if in pen, and even if it’s only on the box. A hydrangea tiered cake stand. He makes my heart sore … 

At times I can’t look directly at the fabulocity of this present – a Royal Albert tea set also from husband. Dainty to the maximum. 

For me, you can’t go wrong with massive smelly candles, especially in scrumptious hues. They’re one of my simple pleasures. Candles make me feel fancy, as silly as that sounds, but there’s nothing wrong with the things that make you feel shiny on the inside. 
Plus some good coffee table reading, also thanks to the parental units – A Girl’s Guide to Decorating, by Abigail Ahern. Om nom. 

And from my broseph, some yummy skull goodness. It is perfection, and is now home to a moody spot on our shelves. Look at that furry face. I couldn’t not include it. Juniper kills me sometimes. 
On a side note, can someone explain to me why this time of year brings so much eating? I feel like I’m failing at Christmas if I’m not constantly shoving food in my mouth. But on the plus side, it’s making me look forward to kicking my ass in 2013.
Happy holidays homies 🙂 xx A
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Custom Christmas colours – part 3

Skulls, hydrangeas, tea cups and bling – that is what our Christmas tree and apartment are wearing this year. In tones of burgundy, aubergine, metallic and hints of lilac, this year I went with a custom Christmas to suit our living space – not our previous fire engine red and winter green. And I enjoyed nerding out by personalizing what we already had {check out some Christmas decoration revamp ideas here in part 2}.

Husband was very proud of himself when he pointed out the “mini bell jar is full of bells” … 

Thanks to the surplus of tea cups from our wedding this year, I had the idea to hang some dainty numbers from our tree with pretty ribbon. Note: I’d advise you only try this if you have a fake tree where you can bend the branches completely back on themselves to make sure there are no porcelain victims. This is especially vital if there are furry paws lurking.

The only decorations I didn’t revamp were my trusty, old seasonal switch place covers. You can check out my tutorial here on how to make them if you’re curiosa.

You can barely see it above, but this  pinecone garland deal is going on below our shelf this year. God bless Pinterest. 

And it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t get some hydrangea action going on this Christmas. These babies are made as simply as the picture shows below. No instructions necessary. I whipped up 6 of them in 20 minutes. Thanks again to Press Gang Supplies for the ab fab ribbon. Getting some seriously good use out of it.

Faux stag head from Marks & Spencer gets an honourary faux garland, and a close up of some of the delights on our tree. 

Yesterday we went to Farmleigh’s Christmas Fair where we royally stuffed our faces with the most incredible food, and I couldn’t resist picking up 3 of these decorative cabbages. These babies are 3 feet long. Each. It was quite the task mashing them into a vase last night. I must post a picture of them as they are incredible next to the faux stag set up going on on our shelf. 
Last but not least, below is a pic of our Toshi inspecting the Christmas tree. Now that I look at this picture, I realize how many baubles are now missing from this area … 
I hope you are all prepared for the Christmas season ahead! I can’t wait to do some serious baking, sleeping in, movie watching and general messing about the house. HURRY UP, CHRISTMAS. 
xx A
Custom Christmas – part 1, part 2 and part 3.