I have been working on a few bits over the last few days, and managed to get rid of, or make useful, another 6 items. I’m now only 9 items away from by target, and I am thinking of extending the challenge. But for now, the tale of the 6 items recently removed…

3 items went nice and easily. I bought down quite a bit of furniture when I moved from Manchester, and whilst it might have been easier to just have got rid of the items before I moved, I have to admit I found it very comforting to have all my old bits around me when I arrived in the new, scary city. Now I am feeling more comfortable in the flat and London, I felt like it was time to recycle the bits that didn’t really fit, and a lovely lady off Gumtree took 3 out of my 4 items in one hit in under 24 hours. Which was awesome.

Another 3 items proved to be a bit more challenging, but I’m really happy with the results. I decided that I wanted some hanging plants in the front bedroom, but DIY option only (except for buying the plants, which I think is allowed).

Ingredients:

• 2 smallish silver bowls – counted against the 100 items
• 1 length of purple ribbon – counted against the 100 items
• Plus grey ribbon, scissors, needle, thread, string, gold spray, plants, two hooks

Recipe:  

1. Measure out purple ribbon, realise it isn’t as long as you think so you’ll need grey ribbon as well. In fact it will be primarily grey ribbon, but never mind.
2. Sew two equal lengths of ribbon into a cross, repeat so you have two
3. Glue the centre of the crosses to the bottom of the bowls to avoid it moving about later on and dropping a plant pot on your head
4. Wait overnight because you are so over crafting for the evening to allow the glue to dry
5. Sew the ends of the ribbon cross together. Massively over-stitch it because you aren’t really sure where you are going with this.
6. Measure out a length of ribbon to desired length that you want the plant to hang from the ceiling, then double the length
7. Fold the ribbon in half, and  sew the free ends to your cross thing from earlier
8. 2cm below the top of the length of ribbon (where you folded it), sew again to hold the two lengths together.
9. Realise the join looks awful, spray paint some string gold and wrap it around to hide joint
10. Add plants. Hang. Done.

Hopefully the pictures make more sense!

Step 1 – sewing the ribbon into a cross

Step 2 – gluing the ribbon to the bowls

Step 3 – sewing the ends of the cross together

Step 4 – sewing the ends of the lengths of ribbon to the top of the cross

Step 5 – sewing the folded end of the length of ribbon to keep it straight

Step 6 – wrap some string or metal around to hid the really dodgy join between the cross and the length of ribbon

Ta-da!