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Shoestring Splendour - Summer

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The first ever Shoestring Splendour magazine, featuring highlights from our first year.
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Shoestring Splendour Summer2012
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Page 1: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

ShoestringSplendour

Summer 2012

Page 2: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Welcome to the first ever Shoestring Splendour e-mag!

Shoestring Splendour was created by us because we feltthat there were so many beautiful lifestyle blogs out there,but only a few which focused on how you could have abeautiful home, eat well and do fantastic things withoutspending huge amounts of cash!

Our e-mag brings together some of our most popular postssince we started in August 2011 - we hope it brings yousome inspiration and that you love reading it as much as weenjoyed putting it together.

We are planning to do one of these every six months or so,so please let us know what you think of any of the articles orthe magazine as a whole on our blog!

Page 3: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Welcome to the first ever Shoestring Splendour e-mag!

Shoestring Splendour was created by us because we feltthat there were so many beautiful lifestyle blogs out there,but only a few which focused on how you could have abeautiful home, eat well and do fantastic things withoutspending huge amounts of cash!

Our e-mag brings together some of our most popular postssince we started in August 2011 - we hope it brings yousome inspiration and that you love reading it as much as we

We are planning to do one of these every six months or so,so please let us know what you think of any of the articles orthe magazine as a whole on our blog!

Hannah and Katie

Page 4: Shoestring Splendour - Summer
Page 5: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

ContentsMake: Upcycling a Footstool 6Eat: Egg Muffins 8Visit: Crystal Palace Antiques 10Love: Making a Bridal Bouquet 12Book reviews 14

Page 6: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Ages ago Katie kindly gave me this lovely footstool that oncebelonged to her grandmother. I'd been looking for one to do upfor a while and this was exactly what I'd been looking for.

I started by stripping off all the old fabric and padding andgiving the whole thing a good clean. I found fabric I liked inFabrics Galore (Wandsworth Road, London) and wadding inThe Crafty Sewer in Tooting.

I cut the wadding to size and lightly secured it on the footstooltop with glue. Then I wrapped the fabric around it and got outthe trusty staple gun. Halfway through it was obvious that thewadding wasn't up to the job so I cut a second piece andlayered them together. I'm still not completely happy though soany tips from furniture restorers on where to find properwadding would be much appreciated. It does the job wellenough for now though so I finished stapling the fabric securelyround the top with a firm even stretch across the top.

I wanted to keep it dark wood but freshen it up, so the next stepwas to give the wooden base a good sand and a new coat ofvarnish. This was more difficult than I thought because some ofthe vanish came off easily and other parts were more difficult soit too a lot of elbow grease to get an even tone. You can still seethe grain but I like that.

Two coats of varnish and the footstool is finished. Thank youKatie!

Hannah

Make: Upcycling a Footstool

Page 7: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Make: Upcycling a Footstool

Page 8: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

I spotted this recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a go. I have beenlooking for some breakfasts that are light on the carbs and this seemedjust the thing – mini baked frittatas that go in the fridge and are eatenthroughout the week.

The full recipe is on the website link above, and I made mine by frying upa couple of spring onions, par boiling some delicious English asparagus,and then adding that to the bottom of each muffin hole. I then added 8eggs which were beaten together with some cheddar cheese, salt andpepper.

Page 9: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Eat: Egg Muffins

As you can see, the eggs rise quite a lot in the baking, so I probably couldhave got away with just 7 eggs.

The recipe recommends that you eat 2 each day, so this was done to lastme 4 days. However, I don’t eat a huge amount in the mornings, so I im-agine some days I’m only going to want one egg. As such I think it willprobably last me the full week. They are delicious too, so I’m definitelygoing to try these again! Katie

Page 10: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Visit: Crystal Palace Antiques

Having had two separate groups of people suggest CrystalPalace Antiques as a great place to check out, we had quitehigh expectations. And this four storey warehouse did not dis-appoint! It is full to the brim with antiques and design classics.

The basement is filled with lots of amazing 1950s and 60sfurniture which wouldn’t look out of place on the Mad Men set.

And everywhere else was full of interesting and wonderfulpieces that I would love to have at home.

Prices vary but overall they seemed to be quite reasonable.The more modern furniture seemed to be more expensive. I’mnot sure whether this is because it was made by a well knownfurniture designer or just because it is so much more desira-ble these days. Very unique furniture was also, unsurprisingly,fairly pricey. But most things were only slightly more expen-sive than IKEA – certainly less expensive than somewherelike John Lewis or M&S for really well designed, well madefurniture. Plus it is an absolute JOY to browse. Well worth thevisit.

Crystal Palace Antiques is on Jasper Road, Crystal Palace.You can also follow them on Facebook.

Hannah and Katie

Page 12: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Love: Making a Bridal BouquetStart by cutting off all the extra leaves, keeping only theones you would like to include in the final arrangemnt.Hold them in your hand with their stems crossed andthen add 5 stems spray flowers in where you want them.

Tie them with a string to make the ribbon tying easier.You definitely need someone to tie the string around theflowers – I don’t know how you would do that on yourown. Then wrap around 3/4 of a metre of ribbon tightlyaround the stems, where you will be holding them.

Pin the ribbon closed and then cut off the bottom of thestems. Next time I would leave more green between theend of the ribbon and the end of the stems on mybouquet. I don’t seem to have a photo, but I don’t knowwhy I cut them so short – there is no green after theribbon, which will likely result in the ribbon coming offduring the course of the day. NOT what you want to bethinking about!

Next I created a test for the bridemaids, using stocksand the same spray. I used another 5 stems of spray.The stocks and spray together cost £9 but I had enoughstocks for two bouquets, with 5 stems each.

I absolutely loved both of these! I like the colours andthe combinations. To be sure, if I was a professional I’msure these would be more neatly fastened, and lots ofthe bouquets seem to have 4-5 varieties within them,but I think they look beautiful. Plus they were really easyto do – they took around 10 minutes each.

What do you think? Do you know anyone who has madetheir own bouquet? How did it go?

Katie

Page 14: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

Book reviews

Nail art is huge at the moment,even royalty are doing it (PrincessEugenie had Union Jacks on herfingernails at the Epsom Derby onSaturday!) but who better to bringout a book on the subject butSharmadean Ried, the founder ofWAH Nails.

Sharmadean opened her firstWAH Nails salon in Dalston inLondon in 2009 and the brand’spopularity soon caught the eye ofnational retailers, leading to a popup shop in Selfridges and a

The Wah Nails Book of Nail Art by Sharmadean Reid

permanent space in the OxfordStreet branch of Top Shop.

The book takes the WAH style andshows you how to do it yourself.There are 25 projects, starting withtheir original leopard print design,.each with a step by step illustration.

This comic book style is one of myfavourites.

The cover gives the impression thatthe book is aimed at teens but thedesign inside is a funky scrapbookstyle which I think has wider appeal.I’m dying to give some of theprojects a go but need to invest insome nail-art pens to do the moreintricate parts of design. I’ll share theresults when I do.

The WAH Nails Book of Nail Art is avery cool book which teaches youthe WAH techniques and designsand gives you the inspiration to startdoing your own nail art.

Thank you to the publisher@hardiegrantuk for sending us acopy.

Page 15: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

The great part about A Girl’s Guide to Decorating is that,as well as being full of inspirational pictures, there is

also real, practical advice. One of the things I worriedabout when we moved into our new flat was that I

wouldn’t be very good at the practical things. Painting Ican do, but what about drilling holes and hammering

stuff? That seemed way out of my grasp. I’ve learnedthrough doing (after essentially being forced to help by

P!) that most stuff isn’t that hard, and this book is agreat book for anyone who is worried about where to

begin.

There are also really great ‘room analysis’ pages, whereAbigail looks at why certain elements work in a room

and what brings pieces together.

And there are some fun DIY pieces, including this,which I really want to try out – on how to make your own

stair runner:

I will definitely be looking out for Abigail in the future!Thanks to Quadrille for sending me a copy for review.

You can pick the book up on Amazon here.

A Girl’s Guide to Decorating by Abigail Ahern

Page 16: Shoestring Splendour - Summer

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Copyright Katie Johnson and Hannah Robinson


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