Bright spark

I've mentioned before that I'm uncomfortable using paraffin candles. Wasn't expecting to find a viable natural alternative in the toilet spray aisle of Woolworths.

I picked up two candles yesterday and found that the ugly labelling on the glass vanilla soy candle would take about half a second to remove and that the pillar candle was made with palm wax sourced from sustainable regenerated forests. Which is good as not keen on killing orangutans for the sake of some evening sparkle. So in the trolley they went.

The pillar candle is slightly too orange for me to buy again but the soy one is working out nicely sitting among my perfumes. It may not be Diptyque or Jo Malone but, at $7 for 23 hours of burning time, I'm more than okay with that.

Coffee break

I love pudding bowls. I have them in all different sizes and use them for everything from mixing cake batters, eating breakfast cereal, yoghurt and berries, as well as for dips and crackers when friends are over. My favourite use, though, is for my mid-morning coffee.

The smallest size is around $5 from cookware shops and the perfect size for coffee and, because they really are pudding bowls, contain the heat so are not hot to the touch.

Where's Wally?

The Child and I couldn't find The Cat. We called, we checked all the favourite places, we just about gave up. The Child sat down at her desk to do some homework while I continued to look.

The Cat had gone to sleep in the basket the Child uses for paper recycling and had been either completely ignoring us or in a deep sleep. Possibly both, knowing cats.

Fringe benefits

I bought this tablecloth a year ago, but it had never been quite right. Nice grey linen but it looked strangely formal every time I put it on the table. So I took to the edges with scissors and created fringed edges. Much better.

I don't usually do this with proper tablecloths but have used the technique on large pieces of linen I've picked up in the past at No Chintz and Mokum sales. By cutting off the selvedges, it's easy then to just pull threads out from all four sides one by one until you get a deep fringe. No sewing required.

Tip: Pulling threads out individually is easier than trying to do several at once as they tend to become tangled.

Feeling the felt

Stumbled across a great shop after dropping the Child off at school this morning. Calico & Ivy in Balmain has been open for only four weeks and I can see it's going to become a favourite haunt of mine.

Thanks to the beautiful modern vintage styling and full of fabrics from the likes of Liberty, Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner, the best selection of craft books I've seen in one place at the one time and a large array of Rowan yarn in the most delicious, colourful shades, Calico and Ivy is a crafter's dream stop. Feels a bit like My Place in Bowral.

As I really did just find it by driving past, today was just a quick pit stop to check the place out. I did leave with a square of dark grey Heather Bailey felt for $4 (again, comes in lots of colours from jewels to naturals) to solve a little problem I'd been having with my credit cards.

Before Christmas, I'd picked up a raffia zip purse from Country Road. Exactly the right size for notes, I could also throw my phone and keys in. Only trouble was the four cards I need to have on me (have a whole other pouch for all the store cards) as they would rattle around in the purse. Not any more.

Came home, cut two lengths of felt and then sewed them together using a big, red stitch. Problem solved. Shop found. New problem created as I suspect I'll be pulling out the new credit card pouch quite often in Calico & Ivy.

Ikea fabric find

I've become slightly addicted to Ikea's Ragna fabric. It's a 56% linen/44% cotton mix that's 45cm wide and hemmed at the sides. And it's just $4.99 per metre.

I first bought two 1 metre lengths in the white and natural colourways and then hemmed them to use as hand towels in the bathroom. Loved them so much went back and bought a few longer lengths to use as table runners. Today I dipped into a one metre length of the light blue for a third towel.

Would also make great placemats and napkins. If ever there was a beginner's sewing project, this is it.

Hanging around

I used to throw away the wire coathangers that came back with the drycleaning. Then I started covering them with strips of fabric, which serves three purposes:

1. Thin-strapped clothing no longer slips off coathanger;
2. Reusing stuff = less landfill;
3. They look good.

These are so easy to make and takes about 10 minutes max. Good front of the TV job. Here's how:

Cut fabric into strips of about 1cm.

Apply a spot of craft glue to coathanger and wrap fabric strip round the glue quite tightly a couple of times. Just hold in place for about 10 seconds or stab with a pin or attach a peg. (I've used a pin so my hands weren't in the way but I usually just hold it in place.)

Keep wrapping strips tightly around the coathanger, being sure it overlaps each time. When you come to the end of a strip, attach it to coathanger with another spot of glue and start a new strip right over the top of that.

(I hadn't come to the end of a strip in the pic above but had to use pin as the strip would have unravelled as I was taking the shot and you would have thought I was just silly...)

Keep going all the way around and finish with a spot of glue and hold, or peg or pin, in place till dry.