Sunday, May 1, 2011

Bunting bonanza

Can a girl have too much bunting? I've tried, but have not yet found my limit.

When we traded up our bursting-at-the-seams 1 bed London flat for this home counties house with 3 nano bedrooms my first urge was to decorate the kids' rooms (when Ginger slept in our London living room we weren't so keen on kiddy decor). Little Sis bore the brunt of my new found nest-feathering which - you guessed it - took the form of bunting. I have very little natural talent in the craft department but it turns out any fool can bunt(?):

1) Take one pair of crimping scissors, a triangular paper template, several metres of ribbon and a collection of rags from your local charity store (chosen for their patterns and complimentary colours, not wearability).
2) Trace triangles onto fabric with a soft pencil and cut out.
3) Repeat until you can stand it no more.
4) Attach to ribbon
5) (optional, for extra Proud Mummy Points) Iron your bunting
6) Drape artfully across child's bedroom, but be prepared for them not to notice the transformation (now consider blogging about it to ensure someone appreciates your efforts)

Great fun. And fairly thrifty... It turns out eBay is rife with home business bunting makers who don't charge much more than I spent on materials but money can't buy that 'I made this myself' feeling and rooting round selvedge bins for great fabric was dangerously addictive.

And now Britain's gone bunting mad for the Royal Wedding and the early whiff of summer. We spent Will&Kate's big day at a friend's garden party complete with flags, union jack jelly and life size cardboard cutouts of the happy couple. Best of Blighty heaven.

To top it all I came across world-record quantities of bunting bedecking the Royal Festival Hall today, plus cute-as-you-like beach huts/ artists' studios along the South Bank waterfront. I think it might be summer :)



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