A window display trying to tempt you in with promises of knitted beards and disembodied knitting hands appearing from a woven basket? What more could you ask for?
Fabrications is one of London's funkiest shops which is many things: an independent gallery, a yarn shop and a place to buy all manner of crafty and creative things. Tucked away in East London on Broadway Market it can be a bit of a trip to get there but it's always worth it.
The shop also doubles as the studio for designer-maker Barley Massey, who has been upcycling and recycling craftwise for years.
Last year I made the trek to the shop to pick up some amazing Rethink Rubbish craft kits kindly donated for a Stitch London raffle prize. I came away wishing I'd had more time to browse as the shop is a little bit of handmade heaven in Hackney.
Their recent blog post on their Katherine Eaves window display is truly inspiring stuff.
Visit the online shop if you can't make it to East London.
If you're like me and books have taken over your humble abode then any kind of book shelf craft is going to turn your head. It's even better if the shelf is upcycled from something less useful. A book shelf from an old door sounds rather magical. Bring it on.
Kim Werker is a bit of a craft hero of mine as she writes, crafts, blogs and created the Mighty Ugly Project.
Her Upcycled Old Door Side Table is rather lovely. It is created from an old door and a few bits of spare two-by-four.
It puts me in mind of Professor Yaffle from Bagpuss, as if it's about to march off with whatever you put on it. Love it.
There's a little Cookie Monster in all of us. Who can resist the humble crumbly cookie? Certainly not me.
If you're a cookie maker then you're going to wind up getting a little bored of the same old round cookies day after cookie-making day. Lucky for you I've found the perfect way to recycle your rubbish and give your cookies a shapely make over.
Once again Instructables come through with this cool little Flower/Clover Cookie Cutter tutorial, from Instructable member Grafio.
Finish up a tin of beans or soup or whatever your tinnned food of choice is, then rather than throwing away your empty tin you can turn it into a quirky little cookie cutter. Grab a pair of pliers and a ruler and begin bending.
A cool way to keep your cookies interesting and you're saving the planet a bit by not adding to the trash pile. Go you!
I can't be held responsible for you adding to your waistline with all those pretty little cookies though...
Fancy adding a bit of flower power to your run-of-the-mill clothes? A little bit of colour can go a long way to changing the shelflife of a comfy but dowdy wearable.
I came across the easy four-step Petal Tee tutorial on Ruffles and Stuff recently and thought it was the perfect way to inject a bit of summer into your clothes.
The petals can be cut from the smallest remnants of some of your favourite fabrics or bits of clothing you love but are falling apart.
Then all you do is lay them along the neckline of the garment, zigzag stitch them in place and voila! Fabric flower power.
Festival season is sloshing towards us in our wellies and crowds of excited festival goers are trawling camping shops in the hope of finding a waterproof home they can call their own for a long weekend or two. Why let someone else manufacture your tent when you can make your very own tent with your own fair hands?
Yes Instructables do it again with this step-by-step tutorial on How to Make a Tent.
Ambitious you may think but if you can sew and you can get your hands on the remains of lesser tents (which can be snapped up for a bargain at boot sales or on free recycling sites) then you're all set to build a tent-like palace of your own devising.
The final design even has three doors in case you need to "flee bears". Hey, it could happen. Glastonbury watch out.
Beads turn people into a bit of a magpie as the shininess of them lures people in. Making your own beads means you can have as many shinies as you wish.
Even better you can recycle while you do with a cool how to from Cut Out and Keep.
The tutorial, by crafty Cut Out and Keep-er DIS.AR.RAY, helps you to create the beads from the humble plastic bottle, some marker pens and little bit of heat. This means you can design your beads from the inside out.
See the full tutorial with easy-to-follow pictures here.
Get sipping the last of your mineral water and start creating your own stash of beady goodness. A new life for your empty plastic bottle and some chic accessories for you.
Giving new stuff that shabby chic look is growing ever more popular these days. Gone is people's desire for the shiny and modern. We want a bit of age and we want it now. Starting in the boudoir how about adding a bit of vintage to your bedside table?
Cut Out and Keep usher you gently through their how to helping you create a Vintage Night Stand with nothing more than resin, stamps and a worse for wear bedside table.
It's also slightly amusing that, EVEnl , the maker of this vintage-style creation admits that some of the stamps she uses may be collectors items and then goes ahead and pours resin all over them anyway.
Who needs stamp collecting when you can have style from the past?
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