DIY: make a bowl from a scratched unplayable record

We, (husband and I) collect records; given that these precious music recordings are often second hand and old, it is inevitable that at times we may get a record that is just too damaged to be playable.

Instead of discarding the records, we upcycle!

1. Preheat an oven to 120 degrees celcius
2. Place the record on top of a metal colander
3. Carefully place the metal colander and record on a baking tray in the oven

4. After five minutes the record will have moulded over the colander 

In oven 

5. Remove the colander and record from the oven
at this stage the record is still malleable for about a minute so do any fine tuning of shape
6. Then place in room temperature (still on colander) to set 

Cooling down

7. Remove it from the colander and you have a record bowl!

The upcycled record as a stash bowl!

.............................................................................................................. Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Challenges and Obstacles to organisation: Part Three of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

I really want to get the house decluttered, organised, beautiful and peaceful. I have been reading a lot of blogs by proud 'stay at home' people who spend a lot of time organising and making things white and shiny. (Their blog photos also show them beaming with fresh shiny faces and not one hair out of place and not a pimple in sight..yeh bitter i may be...)  From what I can tell, as they do not have 'day jobs' outside of the home they can spend a lot of time in this domestic pursuit of organising and beautifying their homes. 

Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying these people are NOT working, I am just saying that as their WORKplace IS the HOME and FAMILY fulltime, they can spend the time WORKING on making the house organised and pretty. I acknowledge that they are working and working very hard.

Additionally the How to Organise your house bloggers all seem to have large houses. One blog I read about making the laundry organised and a happy environment, had a laundry bigger than our loungeroom/dining/kitchen/bathroom combined.  Not to mention a blog I read last week about how to organise a loungeroom;  their loungeroom was as big as our house.

These blogs however are inspiring and motivate me to work out how to make our house an organised, pretty and decluttered peaceful home with what we have; and make me think of ways to overcome the challenges of making the place peaceful and organised, while facing obstacles of:

• not a lot of 'spare' cash, 
• a very small house, 
• a house that was a 'flood victim ' in 2011 with no insurance paid out, still trying to replace furniture
• working full time outside of the home with long commutes (equating to only having weekends to actually do anything in the house).

So let me look at these challenges and think of ways to work with them to success in my declutter/organisation goal.

Not a lot of cash

This means I need to be even more creative by working with things I already own as well as keep an eye out at second hand shops and ebay auctions to purchase things we need at a low cost.

I have been decorating and repurposing old cupboard boxes as storage boxes and I use them for stashing craft supplies, fabric, and stationery. You can read about  my 'upcycling' of old cardboard storage boxes here. 

We recently purchased second hand solid pine shelving unit from ebay, for $40. New it would have been well over $200. We keep an eye out for good quality storage bargains and sometimes we find great things at a low cost.

A very small house

A small house means, keep the clutter at a minimum, THINK before we buy anything (do we need it, where is it going to be stored, what gets donated/discarded to make room for it).

It also means we need to think of storing UP: taking advantage of walls and putting floor to ceiling shelves in for example, and hanging things up on hooks on the walls to clear floor space.

Lost our furniture in the flood

Okay yep I know, the flood was three years ago, but as the insurance refused to pay anything, we have got by with the generous donations from friends, family, and total strangers. We have re-stained, varnished and repurposed the donated shelves, tables, and chairs, and are doing a lot to make the items we were given look refreshed as well as useful. (it is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do)

No time

We have almost a four hour round trip each day to and from work, and then an eight hour day in our workplaces, this means that we are exhausted by the time we get home. In order to get us some time, we cook on the weekends and freeze meals to reheat on week nights. That way husband, his son, and I have nutritious meals to choose form and with the flick of the microwave are eating in less than ten minutes.

I utilise my filofax to keep me organised and allot certain tasks to certain days. I do not put times on the tasks, just assign them to block days so i know that sometime that day this needs to be done.

On the weekends we get the washing done, cook meals for the week, and do the basic housework that needs to be done. We need to be organised with our time so that we can manage to find a few hours to relax in a week.

We also assign small ad hoc tasks to ourselves: for example today I am sorting through my clothes, discarding the torn, faded clothes that are beyond repair (assigning them to car rags), and repairing the ones that need and can be fixed; adding any good clothes that i no longer want to a charity bag, and then neatly placing my To Keep clothes on the hanging device i have for them ( i do not have a wardrobe).

To conquer the 'we have no time' to declutter and organise the house obstacle we need to be in control of our time.

Storage boxes i 'prepared earlier' organised in a shelf

I would be very interested in ideas on how others conquer challenges to keeping the house organised and beautiful. Particularly if you, like us, have a small house and need to be inventive on how to organise the things you need or want to keep.

Please feel free to comment.


______________________________________________________________________________

About Me:
I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers
............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Organised chaos? Part one of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

Looking at blogposts and Pinterest images of super organised rooms, amazingly organised handbags, shelves with everything labelled... makes me sigh!  I would love to be so organised that I knew where everything was, and everything was labelled, and it all looked artistically pleasing. I have read books on how to declutter, I have bought filing systems, I have bought well crafted organisation boxes. All to no avail.

What am I missing here? Am i destined to always be a person whose creativity outweighs my ability to actually keep things organised?

I look around my study/computer room/craft room/hang out and am so depressed by the clutter and chaos around me.

The only thing that is organised is my filofax!! Why can't everything else be as under control?

I have had enough of the mess in this room!
I have had enough of the disarray in the pantry!
My clothes (I don't even have many!) are stowed away untidily.

Time to start operation 'Organise and Beautify'

Stay tuned for the next episode in my aim to organise myself! (I manage to keep my filofax organised, functional and pretty... so hey i can do this!)

In the meantime please view these blogs from very organised people:

• Label me organised: blog by a lady who is studying, working, and blogging, and is also extremely organised.

• I heart organising : blog by a stay at home parent who manages to create beautiful and organised rooms, shelves, things .. while maintaining a home and being a good spouse and parent.. please check her blog out!

Feel free to post a comment: hints , laughter...anything


............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

How do we support cottage industry?

One of my goals for 2014 is to be more active in promoting and supporting cottage industry, small family businesses, arts and crafts, and markets.

I have set up a page on facebook to help me with this goal, the page is called Support Cottage Industry (ironically..)  but trying to get people to help me support them seems to be rather difficult!  I ask them to share to help the page get more fans, to add their links and promotions to the page, but it is like getting blood from a stone.. or like getting chocolate out of my hands...

Many of the people i have invited to use the page to help promote their wares, are the very people who oft complain that nobody supports their handicraft endeavours..yet when i try to support them.. they do not seem motivated enough to help me to help them.

Not all businesses that deserve promotion are on facebook, so on the page i created  I also add information about bricks n mortar stores, places I have been to that are quality home grown amazing stores, to help to promote them.  

To keep cottage industry alive we all need to support them, buy from them, word of mouth promote them. Let us not be the ones five years from now who look with melancholy at a piece of handiwork we bought at a market years ago and say  ... ' of course they dont do craft markets anymore, everything is mass produced these days'.....

Post by Empressbat's Emporium.

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: L is for Lace, ribbon, fabric!

Today i am writing about ideas to use up one's craft scraps. I have the week off work for the holiday period, and we are sorting the house out, that includes my study of art and cra supplies! While sorting stuff out i noticed a huge box full of tiny scraps of ribbon, lace, and bits of fabric. Just about to throw the lot away, i had a thought, why not use these scraps!!

Firstly i did a stock take of what i had, from the mess in the box, i divided it firstly into colours, then subdivided them into type. The colours were mainly red, black, green, and purple and after the sorting I realised there was quite a lot of usable lace and ribbon there.

What did i make?

(I will post pix another time)

ROSE HAIRCLIP With some scraps of red velvet ribbon i fashioned a fabric rose, i attached some green satin fabric, cut into leaves, to its base, and adorned it with black lace. I then hot glued the rose i had made onto a hair clip!

LAVENDER SACHETS I had scraps of fabric netting, i cut them into neat circles, added some scoops of dried lavender, and gathered the edges up, and tied the lot up with lace and ribbon! Shoved in the drawers of my dressing table they look decorative, smell lovelyl keeping the contents of the drawers fresh, and keep insects at bay!!

HAIR BOWS with matching lace and ribbon i formed bows, sewed them so they didnt undo, and then attached them to snag free hair ties.

LACEY SOCKS i sewed lace edging to brighten up some of my socks, and added little ribbon bows to the lace!

Ok i could rave on and on here, but the point is, before you throw stuff away have a look at it, work out what is there, and use it! Use, reusue, upcycle and recycle!!!

What do you do with your crafting scraps? I'd love to hear your ideas! Please feel free to add your comments and share your ideas!

 

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ALPHABET BLOG CHALLENGE: J is for JEWELS for your hair

Up to J in my alphabet blog! Today's blog is about JEWELS for your hair!

MISS SKELETON'S HAIRBOWS AND ACCESSORIES is a home based business based in Queensland Australia, run by the very talented Samantha, sales are made via her facebook business page.

Samantha often puts up fabric images on her page to ask for interest in them before she makes up bows, i recently expressed interest in bows made out of a particular fabric, and within a week she had ordered the fabric, made the bows, and sent them to me!

I own many clips, bows, and hairbands made by this talented lady, they are well made, bargain priced, and sent super fast! She makes old fashioned 50's style type head scarves, bows on clips, gorgeous fabric frilly hair accessories, hair clips, and is happy to take on custom orders!

If you or someone you knows likes to use gorgeous hair accessories, then please visit her facebook page today!

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

 

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Alphabet Challenge: Happily Handmade Handcrafts

Up to H in my alphabet challenge blogs, and today's post is about Happily Handmade items, beautiful things made by clever artists.

Beaded Webs

There is an amazing artisan creating as Beaded Webs, who makes the most delciate and decorative wire and bead creations! Based in Queensland Australia, she works from home and sells from Facebook.

Starting off with wire sculpting and hand beaded web shapes, she has since branched out (excuse the pun) into tree of life shapes, as well as owls, bats, and cars. Her gorgeous bead and wire art is created in a variety of sizes such as large hanging decorations, pendant or keyring sized and medium sized beaded decorations.

I have purchased a purple, as well as a red and black beaded web from her and they are gorgeous! I also have two gorgeous bat beaded decorations that she made to order for me!

Beautifully made, and unique items, her online store is worth a look, and why not buy yourself something beautiful from her today!

Below are some pictures of her great pieces

.

 

Alphabet challenge: crochet

Blog post brought to you by the letter C as part of my Alphabet blog challenge.

My Mother taught me how to crochet when i was about four years old, i remember making massive metres of chain out of yarn! As i got the hang of the whole crochet thing i started making clothes for my toys and granny squares for cushion covers. I enjoy crocheting and recently made myself a scarf, fingerless gloves, and matching beret out of dark sage green yarn. I don't usually bother with patterns and tend to make things up as i go along, or just use the pattern as a guide.

As well as making my own crochet pieces i like seeing the crochet made by others. There is an amazing textile artist on Etsy, ScarletRabbit, who makes the most delicate elegant fantastic crochet accessories, and i have become a fan of her work, having the honour of owning several of her fingerless gloves and wristlets, many which i have custom ordered.

Ruth, from the etsy store ScarletRabbit, is extremely talented and artistic, as well as crocheting, she draws in pen and ink, and also makes beautiful jewellery.

The fingerless gloves I have purchased from ScarletRabbit are delicate fine crochet created with 100% cotton yarn. The designs are unique, and the crochet is perfect; the lacey crochet design makes these fingerless gloves an absolute delight to see and to wear. I also have a delicate lace crochet and ribbon choker that i bought from ScarletRabbit!

My most recent purchase from ScarletRabbit was a custom order of a pair of purple fingerless gloves and a pair of emerald green. Absolutely beautifully made, they are gorgeous and so comfortable to wear! (see picture of them above)

If you appreciate elegant unique hand made crochet, please visit ScarletRabbit !

Support unique artists: say no to mass produced!!

Dear Batlings,

Today's missive may be nothing more than a feverish rant, but i do believe it has some merit: say no to mass produced tawdry trinkets, and start supporting the artisans who put heart and soul into producing beautiful hand crafted items! We will lose our artisans, the skills to create and the option to obtain unique work if we do not support the hand crafts industry!

• Mass produced is cheap
  
• everyone has one
  
• plastic
  
• poorly manufactured
  
• Land fill
• Lacking original thought
• Heartless and soulless

Even those websites advertising themselves as places to buy and sell handmade goods have become prey to sellers offering mass produced, made in timbuctoo, plasticky rubbish!

Personally i love hand crafted things. Unique, quality made, creative items made by those whose joy of imagining and creating shines through the finished product.

I buy many hand crafted things from a variety of artisans from all over the world, and i am the proud owner of such a gorgeous selection of unique accessories as a result of this. I also make a lot of things myself, from jewelery, to clothes, to toys, to bags... I keep some things for myself, i give some away, i sell some.... Beautifully made handcrafted items are rich with the souls of their creators.

• What happens if we stop supporting handcraft artists?
  
• What happens if we want the world Andy Warhol sartired in his famous pop art?
  

Many artisans rely on the sales of their wares to purchase more raw materials to keep creating wonderous things. Others rely soley on sales to make a living and put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Nothing kills a muse of creativity faster than the stress of not being able to pay the bills!

There is a place for mass produced, yes indeed batlings, it has its place, but not at the expense and ultimate death of hand made quality!

Artisans! Stand up for your rights to be heard and to have a place in the merchandise of the 21st century! Support each other. Motivate each other.

Spread the word that not supporting artisans ultimately means that one day the world will be a sterile plastic environment where nobody recalls how to make anything anymore.

I would really like to hear other's views on this.

Please feel free to post your comments!

<end rant>

Favourite gothic etsy stores (part one)

It is a rewarding experience becoming a part of etsy. It isn't just about selling items, it is about meeting like minded people, finding etsy stores that sell things I really like and usually have to make for myself if i want them as they are not commercially available, and seeing all the great ideas and artwork of other people. It is a huge global community of artisans and I really enjoy being a part of it.

I created a team on etsy called goth n gorgeous, and we have really great active, talented members on board.  I am the 'captain' of the team, and have appointed some cool etsians as leaders to help support and motivate the team.  The leaders in the goth n gorgeous team have really funky shops please have a look at them: there is Jynxx;  ghostgap,  Lady Nocturna, deepmidnightbathery and UlZaorith.

All members of our team are encouraged to be an active part of our virtual artisan community, and we encourage and support each other in our handicrafts and art.  Our team doesn't bow to egos, as our common goal is to promote each others work, provide inspiration and encouragement, and to have a fun time while doing it.

In today's blog I would like to share with you all some of my favourite etsy stores.
This list could go on and on and on, but here are just a few , please check these guys out, they make some very cool things.  Have a browse in their stores, make a purchase or three.

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ghostgap:
The owner of this store, Julia, is a very talented lady who makes the most imaginative and cute creations.
She also chats to me over etsy mail and keeps me occupied while im on train journeys to work.. which i find a great distraction to my almost two hour commute to work each day, because she is in USA and I am in Australia she is usually settling down for an evening of relaxation as I am venturing out on public transport of a morning trying to avoid the feral humans spitting on the train ....

With a Halloween twist, her items include such greats as : a pirate trinket box, a miniature Halloween house, and a black cat necklace.

Julia is friendly and approachable and committed to excellence in customer service. Her second etsy shop is angels and crafts and there you will find an array of gorgeous angel themed items, and gentle accessories like this sweet barrette. I personally like her birthstone angel for November (because its all about me.. well my birth month anyway!). I have recently ordered a custom made trinket box from her, Julia is happy to accommodate custom orders.

Her work is high quality and you can see that she is passionate about what she does. Please visit her stores and make a purchase, ideal for gifts for whatever holiday you subscribe too!

....................................

Moira Coon


The items in this store contain such treasures as reproduction Victoriana ephemera, I am particularly fond of the pendants that are made to look like vintage poison bottles. My favourite being the arsenic bottle pendant. I am also impressed that the store owner tries to use recycled packaging wherever possible.

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Moonie Tricks Designs


This lady is an inspiration. read her profile on etsy and see how she has motivated herself after facing adversity.  I personally admire her for her positive attitue and her self discipline and her very attitude is inspiration and motivation to others.

I have purchased one of her items, a gorgeous bat lanyard clip, and use it at work all the time. It is high quality, looks beautiful, and is very useful. She has so many beautiful hand made items to sell in her shop, you need to visit it to see for yourself!  I am a happy customer of her store and can vouch for her high quality items and wonderful customer service.

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Jynxx Designs


Jynxx makes the most inventive, amazing, charm bracelets I have ever seen (and hey I make my own charm bracelets, and hers are FAR superior to anything I could make!) I have purchased a rat inspired charm bracelet from her and am excitedly waiting for its arrival in the post! You really need to have a look around her etsy store to see the amazing jewellery she has created. A halloween bracelet she has made that features spiders, cats, witches and other amazing beads and charms looks so beautiful and is so well made you would expect it to be selling for $100 or more, but she keeps all her prices fair. I also really like a black cat bracelet she has made, and am secretly hoping nobody else will buy it yet, as I want to buy it for myself as soon as i have some cash!!

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deepmidnightbathery

Catrianna (Cat) is a perfume artisan who concocts amazing unique and ethereal fragrant fantasies!
I have recently ordered one of her sample packs so I can decide which ones i prefer to buy as a larger vial.  Cat respects animals and her products are vegan, scores BIG POINTS with me!

Cat is a highly skilled artisan, she is friendly and helpful, I contacted her to ask for suggestions for which of her perfumes she thought I would like and she provided a thoughtful, honest and quick response to me. She is well schooled in alternative therapies and has an eclectic collection of formal qualifications and her products reflect her knowledge, imagination and amazing abilities, please note that her products are kind to the environment and kind to the humans that use them being both Pthalate and Paraben free.  

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Please note that this is PART ONE of a series of reviews I am writing regarding etsy shops that appeal to me, stay tuned for more. Feel free to comment on any of my postings i welcome feedback and ideas.

<end transmission>