Winners . . . .

Yvonne de Bruin

Amy Bright

Congratulations to you both. I hope you'll love this product as much as I do. Thank you so very much for your on going support 

Madeleine  x

Ps. I'm very sorry that the competition site was having a bit of a mental day yesterday and I hope that everyone who wanted to enter was able to. Watch this space for some other great give-aways and great blog posts too of course. M xx

It's All Good natural deodorant cream

The wonderful folk at Ecotanka approached me and asked if I wanted to review a deodorant cream so I was keen to give it a try. I was happy with my current deodorant but it does come in an aerosol can which I can't recycle in my local area and I'm all for trying new ecofriendly products.
When the deodorant arrived it was in a small recyclable pot which is interesting as I'm (as I'm sure most of us are) used to compressed cans or roll on sticks. I have the lavender one as I'm such a lavender girl; the cream smells great in the pot and has a nice faint smell once on. The It's All Good deodorant might come in a small pot but boy I think it'll last for ages!! It doesn't seem to go down! I love that this product is made from completely natural ingredients and made by a homeopath in Nelson which also means it's not tested on animals.        
Mr Ecochick and I have both been using this product for the last few weeks and we're both very impressed with how well it works. Being pregnant I find I'm a bit more sweaty than normal (or maybe it's just my pregnancy sense of smell?) and this little product packs a bunch and has been keeping me smell free. Mr Ecochick thinks it works well and keeps a stinky boy at bay.  The cream is so easy to use simply run your finger through the cream and rub some on the other fingers then rub onto your underarms. 
Since this wonderful product is a brand new product to the market I am very happy to announce that I have two wonderful deodorants to give away; one lavender and one lemon and bergamot. This deodorant is in a few stores but if you'd like to stock this product or would like to buy your own you can email your order to sales@ecotanka.co.nz
All in all, I love this product and will be using and buying it from now on. I love that this product is made from completely natural ingredients and doesn't contain any nasties. Most importantly I love that this product works!! I mean really, really works! It's All Good natural deodorant cream gets the NZ Ecochick seal of approval. 

 Open to New Zealand only

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Madeleine  x

Cloth cupboard backboards

I love making things look pretty and wrapping everything in amazing cloth fabrics or pretty paper are a great way to do this. I first did this on my lovely bathroom medicine cabinets and then my dinning room lamp; the list goes on check out my projects page for more cloth covered love. So when I bought my new laundry cabinet I knew I wanted to cover the inside of the cabinet (it wasn't in great shape) but I wasn't sure how to do this until I saw an easy tutorial on pretty handy girl. I mean so easy!!! It's amazing how a coat of paint or some fabric can completely transform the whole look of an item.

What you'll need:

a piece of MDF or a board of some type

spray adhesive

fabric

you can also use masking tape if you like 

Remove the doors and shelves of the cupboard if possible. 

Measure the inside of your cupboard and cut your board to fit very snuggly leave a small amount of space for the thickness of your fabric but you still want a tight fit.

Once your board is cut cut your fabric to size leave about 2-5 cm of extra fabric all the way around your board. 

Spray both the board and the cloth with spray adhesive.

  

Cover the board with the fabric. I hate this step as it's so hard to get the fabric even all the way around the board - mine generally isn't; just make sure there is enough fabric to go around the edges of the board. I basically pick up the cloth and drape it over the board. Not easy when both surfaces are sticky! 

Smooth down the fabric from the centre of the fabric to the outside.

Once the fabric is smoothed down on the front of the board turn it over and pull the edges of the fabric and stick down. This may require some more spray adhesive. Run your hand along the edges of the board to get rid of any bubbles. Cut the corners of the fabric to reduce to bulk of the corners. Once the corners are stuck down you can add masking tape if you like.    

Now your board is finished. Wow so easy I love quick easy projects!!! Now slide your board into your cupboard. Since we made the board fit tightly it wont fall out and the shelves in front will help keep it in place as well. No glue required.

If you can't remove the shelves simply make two boards. Just repeat the process and pop the boards in one at a time. You have to make sure these fit really tightly. I had to bend mine slightly to get them in place. Oh and remember to label which board goes where as these are not easy to get out!

Admire your brand new cupboard! Wow they looks so pretty and if you want to update the look pop out the board and add a new fabric for a whole new look.

 Madeleine  x

Linked to Liz Marie blog, a night owl, blissful and domestic, crafty scrappy happy, house of Hepworths, your green resource, delightful order, handy man crafty woman, my merry messy life, 

Bunny day cage

When I got our new bunny (wow she's a year old now!) I fully intended to have her as a free range bunny but she's a digger! She dug a huge hole under the fence and has got out a few times. Naughty bunny! Also I guess I just didn't work with her enough when she was a baby to have her be a free range bunny or maybe she's just a naughty little waggums. He he. 

So we have a day run for her as well as her normal cage. Her day run made up of bits I picked up from a scrap pile that someone was going to throw out; it's made from an old fire-guard and a dog cage that I've tied together with wire. For a while we didn't have a cover on the cage but Nijntje jumped out a few times! Impressive! Mum gave me an old roof rack cover she had lying around the garage so this clips onto the cage now. We also put a piece of plywood over the cage to offer some shade as the weather is so super sunny at the moment! Wonderful.

Obviously I always give her extra food and water as well. Now that I have the extra cover over her cage I've even left her in the cage while I've been out all day. Normally I put her back in her normal cage. I'd love her to have more room so I think she'll live with the chooks when we get some as I want them to have a huge area. John and I love having a bunny friend. 

Madeleine  x

New laundry cupboard

I wanted a "new" cupboard for my new laundry but the space wasn't a standard size so I couldn't buy an off the shelf product. Also I don't like that most cupboards are made out of chipboard or other poopy nonwood with no end life except the for the tip so I wanted to buy a second hand cupboard to paint and do up. I found this cupboard with solid wooden doors on trade me. I'm very happy with the result as it didn't look like much when we bought it.  

I sanded the doors and Mr Ecochick scraped the edges of the cupboard to remove all the varnish and outer trims. I gave the doors two coats of sealer to protect them. Then I lightly sanded the doors and gave them three coats of white paint. I first used a water based paint on the doors but since I was using a brush rather than a roller the paint marks were really visible so I did a top coat with enamel paint and the brush marks disappeared.  

We put the cupboard up in the laundry. We had to pack out the walls a little to make the cupboard fit perfectly. I then painted these white to match the doors.

 

We added the cupboard doors and put some new handles to match the kitchen. Wow looking good there in all its white glory!

It's so nice to have a cupboard in here with lots of space to store my glass jars, some appliances and my natural remedies stuff. We also added some great cloth backboards to the cupboard.

It's so wonderful to have everything so tidy and out the way!

Madeleine  x