Vintage rattan bar cart

I spied this beauty a few weeks ago at the GW for $15.00 and knew that it had to come home with me. Even the glass was intact! I also knew immediately that it was perfect for my girlfriend, who is celebrating a birthday today. She’s in Atlanta today but will be home this weekend so that I can help celebrate her 39th birthday, again :)

She has an oasis for a backyard and this piece will fit in wonderfully. Not to mention, that she loves to entertain, me, not so much.

I gave it a few coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint, buffed up the castors until they shone brightly and finished it off with a couple of coats of poly.

It went from this

I had to dig deep to find any booze in this house, I don’t usually have much

To this

 

  And it looks pretty good next to this one for $995.00!

Found here

Happy BD, CL!

Patriotic flag

On July 1st, Canada will be 144 years old!  I’ve never decorated for our celebration before, so I wanted to start with something small. (ok, so probably the only thing I will make :)

I started with this sign from the thrift store for $3.00, which I thought was highway robbery, but I knew it would work for what I wanted it for.

With some spray paint, vinyl and lots of sanding I came up with this sign.

 

It looks like it’s been dragged down a dirt road from the back of a pick up truck, I’m still learning how to distress :)  It’s not real wood, so it wasn’t easy to get it to look like it is.

Sharing here

Upcycled: skirt to tote bag

I picked up this skirt at the GW for $3.50 because I really like the fabric. I am in need of a new tote for back and forth to work, and this fabric is so pretty with it’s beads and sequins.

I cut off the bottom to use as handles. The top of the skirt became inside pockets.

I didn’t have any coordinating fabric for the inside, so I used some left over drop cloth.
Now I have a stylin’ tote for $3.50 and a little bit of time.
It reminds me a little of my Nine West purse, that I picked up last summer at the GW.

Sharing here

Sunny Sunday and a truth

It’s such a lovely and bright day today, I was inspired to add some sunny yellow here and there. I raided my fabric stash and found some yellow that I had previously used to sew one of my costumes.

I made fabric flowers and added a few to my stencilled lampshade. Since I don’t want them there permanently, I used glue dots to adhere them. Another piece of fabric was added to the bottom of the tray, again, just temporarily.



I added some to a cushion too, and they can easily be removed.



And yet another sign, but this time I tried a different method. I used my cricut to cut out the letters. The sign was base painted white, the letters put on and then I painted over top with some black and grey.  I then removed the vinyl lettering and distressed the entire thing.

Most people know that I don’t enjoy cooking, so I thought this sign was totally appropriate for me :)



Sharing here

Right out of an L. L. Bean catalogue – knock off art

I fell in love with these latitude and longitude signs from the L. L. Bean catalogue and knew that I could make my own version. I couldn’t figure out how to get the text to curve in Toronto, but that’s a minor detail.
If you would like to make your own, I found a website that allows you to type in your city and state and it will give you the coordinates.  Go to Satellite Signals to get them. How cool is that!

I used vinyl and cut out the lettering with my cricut. The font is Garamond. I really wish I had a better camera because some weird colours are showing up that are NOT on my sign LOL

Here is my inspiration

 

Useful chart for the kitchen

Katie at Welcome to Newcomb Home shared this useful weight and measurement chart, and I knew immediately I needed one instead of running to the computer to look things up as I (rarely) cook.

Since I have no idea how to use photo shop to dress it up as Katie did, I used some butterflies on the frame :)

fabric crush: bella porte by dwell studio

A couple of months back, Barbara of Hodge:Podge introduced me to Tonic Living, a fabulous resource for fresh and modern fabrics that are available to us Canadians, at a decent price. I paid $18.95/metre and the exact fabric is available at InVu Drapery for a little over $35/metre!  That’s not to say that InVu does not have some great choices at good prices, but this particular one was pricier there.

I was immediately taken with this fabric and promptly ordered two metres. Well, it sat, for a while. Tonight I finally decided to recover my old chairs. 

Before:

And now:

I hope you can help me; Is there something I can use to cover the staples on the curvy backs, other than gimp?  Gimp is readily available, but I want something less obvious.

This is what I mean by gimp, for those that don’t know what it is :)

Chippy junk

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my thrifty finds, so today is the day :)

I found this pedestal stand for $2.00. I liked the old, chippy worn look of it. The cloche was found last year some time, for cheap, but I can’t remember how much now.



So that led to me painting an old metal tray that I had stashed away forever. I am no expert on creating a chippy look, but I think it turned out pretty good.  And just look at that lovely little scalloped milk glass dish…scrumptious.



Then I headed down to my craft room and guess what I came up with after 2 hours of flitting about? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch.  I think my creativity has taken a holiday and forgot to tell me :)

Do you ever feel like that? Want to see some fabulous creativity, then head on over to...

diy hanging light

With very little money, I came up with a new light for my daughter’s room.

I went to the dollar store and purchased two wire domes, the type for covering food outdoors, $1.50 each. Then I purchased a hanging light kit from Ikea for $6.00.

I cut out a hole just big enough for the light socket to fit through snuggly.



A quick coat of spray paint and I inserted the socket



Next, I glued the two domes together and added some beads to help disguise the seam



A simple light for $9.00




I thought of other ways to dress it up, adding flowers or butterflies, but that’s not who my daughter is; she likes simple and is not “girly” at all.

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Zebra floorcloth

The best part of this was that it was zero cost!

I started with a piece of vinyl flooring, left over from my bathroom reno. It was then base coated with two coats of white paint.

I nailed it into the wall in my mad science lab, aka as my craft room, turned the projector on and traced the image.

Since it was a nice day, I set up in the garage. Using paint that I got from the recycle center, for free, I did my best to match the blue ocean breeze spray paint that I used on the rest of the room.

Close enough :)

Then it was just a matter of painstakingly painting it in.  It’s dry and has received it’s first coat of poly.

And in my daughters room. 

Some of the detail was lost as I enlarged the image, but you can still tell that it’s a zebra head, right? lol  I would have liked it to be a little larger, but I worked with what I had.

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