Jikana Damaru

Kitchen baking utensils

I love everything to colour co-ordinate, like my cute kitchen cupboard, so all my baking and kitchen utensils are mainly in pale blue with hints of pale pink.

The tray above was my first purchase from Cath Kidston, over 10 years ago, from her first shop in London’s Holland Park. I fell in love with all things Cath Kidston that day!

On the tray is a lavender bunny cutter and a pink floppy bunny cutter. The small whisk is from Nigella Lawsons Living Kitchen range, which I love as she does lots of kitchen accessories in pale blue. The measuring cups and spoons I picked up in Woolworths in South Africa because I thought they would match my colour theme. The pink spatulas are from Marks & Spencer, but sadly they only stocked them in that colour for one season. The pink and white spot muffin cases and edible shimmer powder I found in a local store.

If you are looking for pink kitchen utensils then you have to check out Pink Princess (all items above).

Nigella Living Kitchen and CKS kitchen utensils

If it's pale blue you're after try Nigella Living Kitchen range (top row) and CKS (bottom row).

Luxe loungewear

I received my new Hush Summer '09 catalogue last week and wanted to share just how lovely their stuff is. This year I am definitely buying the beach bag!

Easter bird houses

As it's coming up to Easter, I thought it would be fun to make myself some Easter-themed decorations. I'd already made some Easter birds and Easter mushrooms, but I also wanted some place settings for the table.

Thinking about the place settings reminded me of some mini wooden bird feeders that I'd bought and decorated for Christmas a few years ago. But that's another story, and one that I'll come back to later in the year.

As birds are synonymous with Easter, I bought another six of the bird feeders thinking they'd be perfect as the place settings. So, here's how I went about decorating them...

The feeders come in a pack of six. I ordered one box as I wanted one for each table setting.

I removed the rope from the top and painted each feeder in a water-based white wood primer. A couple of coats were needed.

I decided to paint the roofs and bases in colours from my Easter sketch book. I took it with me to the DIY store, and found tester pots in the following colours: Woodland Glade, Willow, Ice Pink, and Amethyst (all Focus matt emulsion).

I painted the roof and base of each feeder a different colour, and masking taped the areas I wanted to keep white.

Continuing the bird theme, I found some mini birds nests, which I attached to the centre of each house with PVA glue.

For the tops, I made some new hanging loops using ribbon. I knotted the ends together and PVA glued a bead in place to stop the ribbon slipping through the hole at the top of the feeder. After feeding the ribbon through the hole in the feeder, I glued it in place.

Finally, I filled the nests with mini foil covered chocolate eggs and, Voila!

Now my place settings are ready for Easter. I can't wait to decorate the table this Sunday!

Easter tree

I finished making fifteen of the Easter felt birds today. Having already gathered twigs in a nearby wood, I arranged them into a cluster and then wrapped silver wire around them to hold them together. To hide the wire, I covered it with a pretty striped ribbon. The 'tree' sits in a white enamel bucket, filled with pebbles to counterbalance the top-heavy tree. Green straw and chocolate foil-covered eggs hide the pebbles to complete the look!

Easter table runner

I had been looking for a pretty white table runner for a while now, but all the ones I found were out of my budget. Instead, I bought a plain linen one and hand stitched broderie anglaise down each side using embroidery threads. To finish off, I threaded some of my leftover ribbon from the felt birds through the broderie anglaise trim on each side. Now I have a table runner that matches the rest of my Easter decorations!

Easter door

With Easter just a week away, I hung my Easter egg wreath from John Lewis on our front door today.

Welcome!

I started posting pics on Flickr just over five weeks ago and since then I've had a few questions asking where I get some of my things from. As a response, I've started this blog to let you guys have a few more details, such as where I've bought the items or how I've made them.

In the near future, I hope to add more of my own projects and purchases, but I also want to highlight some of the amazing design and craft ideas I admire from others.

I hope you like the blog and please let me know what you think. Enjoy...

Toriejayne