A customised post card for Father's Day

At last, I have made something. I haven't been in the mood for making of late. My new job is zapping all my energy both physically and emotionally. My brain is full of German and there just isn't any space left for creativity. However, with Father's Day only a week away, I thought I should have a go at a simple make.

I used a large postcard that I bought in a pack of 5 at Ikea the other year. I really like these vintage sailing ship images. To pep it up a little, I put a blue pennant on the mast, some glitter, a felt heart and some seagull ribbon on the top corner. It will be making it's way from the Czech Republic to the UK tomorrow, with any luck.

I didn't make a gift for my Dad this year, but I did find some lovely presents for him in the Highgrove online shop. If you want something a bit different on the gardening and homeware side, take a look!

What are you making for Father's Day?

Sail away with me

At the end of the summer I was wandering around one of my favourite shops: Natural Edge in Leigh-on-Sea (UK) and they had lots of lovely things in there, as usual. I bought a couple of little wooden boats at very reasonable prices. However, I was attracted to a larger wooden yacht and found myself thinking, "I could make one of those!" and so instead of forking out £28, I set to making my very own sailboat.



First I took an ordinary piece of pine and using a belt sander shaped it into a hull. I'm sure you could use an ordinary hand held electric sander or even sand paper if you cut out more of the shape with a hack saw. It will just take longer! I used a bamboo skewer for the mast and boom and my Dad kindly made the little stand and cabin from wood off-cuts lying around in his workshop.

Although I thought the natural wood looked lovely, it wasn't quite right for my sail boat, so I decided to give it a lick of paint. I found some nice matte acrylic paints in the sale in my local art shop (Graphigro Strasbourg - huge range of materials for all your crafting needs!) for ony €1 each - bargain!

Time to start thinking about the sails. I did some research online into what shape the sails should be and then sourced some great stripey fabric from a cute little shop in Bath (UK) called The Makery. They have an  online shop too. As well as a range of lovely fabrics, they also have a basket of scraps in store, which was just what I was looking for to make my little sails out of.

I cut the scraps into triangles and turned the edges over and sewed them on my sewing machine. I then threaded some twine through the seam and tied them to the mast and boom.

I then added the finishing touches of a name and home port to my sailboat.

The good sloop Homespun was then ready to sail away with the trawler and mini sailboat.