ironing boards made beautiful

The kids think I have gone mad.

I have just spent the last ten minutes photographing my ironing boards.

But this is the weird part... until yesterday I didn't even own an ironing board.

Then out of the blue, I bequeathed two.

One was dropped off by a caring friend (and a perfectionist sewer, who probably could no longer bear to hear of my making do on the kitchen bench with a bath towel)

The other, I spied on the side of the road like a stray animal.

I thought they could be friends.

But both were a tad tawdry, so I bought one new white stoppers for its feet and hacked up an old wool blanket and made new padding for both and then went all-out, and in the space of two hours sewed up two pretty new cover for them both.

One of the prints is an Amy Butler and other an old bed sheet.

The iron looks pretty happy about it and the boards look positively energized.

I found some good tutorials here, here and here.

I just noticed the iron is called "vogue" It always cracks me up when they try to brand domestic appliances by making them sound slightly alluring and sexy. It's being borrowed from my mother in law while she's away on holiday, in the hope that the iron I own (which recently fizzed sparks and smoke from it's frayed cord) can be re-wired by a certain clever man.

I also realized that it's made with Teflon which pretty much is banned around here... not that I'm going to be eating off it, but isn't there a risk of it over heating and releasing carcinogens? Anyway I prefer to err on the side of caution, except I very much doubt one can even buy an iron that isn't coated in the stuff.

...and while we're on that note, can't they make them look cool? like funky wee animals... they do have that giant mouse look to them.. have they done that yet with a computer mouse?...given them little felt ears?

The kids must be right, except they too must be going mad because they keep asking me when they can go surfing... with my new ironing boards.

I just might be mad enough to let them.