Birthday Badders

When L and I first got together five-ish years ago, we had a very balmy summer of getting to know one another. During that time L moved to my town, about 18 miles from where he lived at the time, into a very large old Victorian house..this house had a VERY long and large old Victorian garden, all overgrown and magical.  That summer we drank cloudy pink lemonade and cooked homemade pizza in his new oven and ate it outside under the apple tress, we flip-flopped off to the local charity shops and bought vintage badminton rackets and played each evening. It was a lovely time which seems to have been remembered by me in a glorious sun-bleached kind-of a way.

When L moved out and in with me, he wanted to bring the rackets with him but these lovely old badminton rackets were left out in the garden by L's housemates and went to ruin...we never saw them again. L was gutted and felt like he had let a nice reminder of a happy time pass him by.

This year, it seems only right that we ought to play badders in our own very long and large garden, and with L's birthday coming up next weekend I couldn't think of a better time to go charity shop hunting for more old badders rackets. You see what with having a baby, buying a house and getting married all within a year, we haven't got much cash..so here is what you can do with little money and lots of fun.

This morning Baby F and I dropped his Big Brother off at school and pootled our way round the charity shops looking for some replacement rackets...no luck. We pootled some more and had just about given up by 10am as it was sweltering hot and we still had two whole miles to walk before getting home for a drink (Baby F deemed this unreasonable in such a hotty heat day)... when...There they were! Sitting quietly in the darkest corner of the window of the RSPCA shop was a funny little basket full of old blankets and sporting goods! Of course, where else would they be! And at a very reasonable £2 each!


We bought the best two, the most retro and seriously cool looking (with a little work) and we walked home, very pleased with ourselves, diving happily in an out of the shade created by each parked car.

By the time we finished darting and smiling at the summery flowers, Baby F had given up on staying awake, he decided he'd rather fall asleep on his Christmas book. I gently parked him in the coolest part of the lounge and began unravelling the grotty old handle of the first racket..

It made me feel a bit :S blerugh... but I carried on.

Then, hugely inspired by Lucy at Attic24 (I LOVE HER! - who doesn't!) and her stunning blog post about her May Rose Wreath, I began to hook up some yummy stripes just long enough to wrap around the handle.

Some time later..enough time to watch lunchtime's Chelsea Flower Show episode, I wrapped up project prettify handle and sewed it up...

YEY!

Here is is.....

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Not bad huh! MUCH cheerier!

So, on to the next. If you fancy having a go then please do pop over to Lucy's Attic24 blog and have a jolly good read of her pattern, then just modify it to fit your badminton racket/ cricket bat/ tennis racket..etc!

ps..these are old squash rackets..nearly the right ones!
xxxxx