My baby girl is growing up

Tonight my daughter celebrated her graduation from middle school.

She is such a joy; bright, articulate, funny and inspirational.  She hosts a Tumblr board full of inspiration for her friends, as she put it “she want’s everyone to be as happy as her”.

While all of the other girls put on beautiful dresses and wore high heels for the first time, my daughter begged for a new pair of Converse high tops.

She thinks for herself and is not easily influenced by what others are doing. She graduated with honours, both terms.

She is a joy and I am incredibly proud of her. My wish for her is to experience all that life has to offer, but keep your head

Night stands updated with diy chalk paint

The night stands in my bedroom are boring. I bought them at a grocery store many years ago.  I like that they are high and reach the side of my bed easily, where traditional night stands are too short.

The problem was that, against my dark wall you couldn’t even see them. Now you can see them and they look a whole lot better.

Here you can see how they just blended in to the wall

I bought some foam core from the dollar store and wenn through my fabric stash, to make an easily changeable table top. I used tuck tape to secure the fabric. This is the stickiest tape ever. Totally amazing stuff.

Before

After

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Abstract and funky art–thrift store score

Last night, my daughter and I stopped at the local GW Boutique and spotted this amazing acrylic on canvas triptych. They wanted $10 each, which was out of my league, but I knew that today was going to be 50% off day.

Lucky me, they were still there when I went today.

My daughter wants them in her room once I grow tired of them.

I love how moody they are, and because of all of the colour, I can add some more colour to my dining room. I’m thinking orange!

What I wouldn’t give for a wide angle lens. My dining room is small, but even a regular lens can’t capture it all. If I backed up any further I would fall down the stairs.

I have 5 different projects on the go right now, and can’t seem to finish any of them.  I’m just not feeling inspired. I’m going to chalk it up to the incredibly hot days we have had.  I bet there are lots of you that think it doesn’t get hot in Canada….huh!  With the humidity it was 44 C, converted that is 111 F.  I had cankles, for pete’s sake!!!

Have a great weekend.

Ektorp sofa cover – the price difference

I am looking to get a new Blekinge White cover for my Ektorp sofa.  I know that here in Canada it is $179. I happened to look at the Ikea USA site today and am blown away by the price difference; see for yourself.


Canada

USA
Yeah, a $130 difference!  Since the Canadian dollar is at or close to par with the US dollar, for the same amount I could purchase 3.65 covers in the good ol’  U. S. of A.

Unfortunately, there are no Ikeas close to border cities around me. Canton, MI is the closest.  Hmmm…maybe someone can ship one to me ? :)  Even if shipping is $30, that is still a far cry from $179!  Anyone? 

Woo hoo!  UPDATE:
A generous reader has offered to bring one to me, right in my city!  She (Denise) is travelling from Texas and  flies into the airport that is a 15 minute drive from my house.  I am overwhelmed that a complete stranger would do something so kind for me. A thousand thank yous to Denise.

Making a box cushion

I would like to preface this post with a request; Don’t ever allow me to attempt this again!  I followed the instructions, but I am not so good at following them. If I think I can make it easier, I will. That was my first mistake. I started this project at 10:30 this morning, and didn’t finish until 5 PM!!!!!  I can sew ok, it’s measuring that gets me, every single time.

I used what I had around the house, digging through my fabric stash. I knew that I wanted something neutral, something without a pattern, so I chose black with white piping.  I made the piping using the instructions from Sew Mama Sew, and as crazy as it looks, it works.
I was supposed to add piping to the bottom piece too, but I said fagedaboutit after 6 hours of sewing. Other people make it look so darn easy.
I still have to paint out the storage bench in white, and that will have to do to make it look like the bottom of the cushion has piping

forgive the crappy photos, I’m too tired to haul out my other camera

DIY chalk paint–my experience

My sister asked me to make her a storage box out of a cutlery box, as I did for myself. Since it was a small project, I thought it was the perfect time to try making chalk paint.  I am going to share how I did it, and what my thoughts are on the whole hoopla :)

I started with a cutlery box that I bought at the Goodwill on 50% off day, so it was $4.04. There was a small crack at the front, but nothing that some wood filler couldn’t fix.

I used some grey paint that I had on hand and followed the instructions posted on Alchemy Fine Living. I had read of other tutorials to make your own chalk paint that used plaster of paris, and I tried it but it was a miserable failure. These instructions said to use baking soda!  Huh.
I mixed 1/3 c. baking soda to 2/3 c. paint. mixing BM silver fox with a little bit of cottage white. So basically a 1:3 ratio, but don’t quote me on that, as math is not my strong suite. The final paint colour was almost white and I wonder if the baking soda was responsible for turning the grey, white?

I mixed it really well, and it didn’t take much effort to make it smooth.  This stuff is thick!  I held my breath and went for it, what did I have to loose?

This is the first coat. It went on pretty grainy, but I knew that it would be sanded back.  One issue that I found was that if you are not careful, the edges where your brush stops can get pretty built up with paint.  I sanded it back once it dried pretty ferociously, and there are still some areas with build up.  It’s probably because it’s so thick, added to that the fact that I’m a pretty lousy painter :)
This is after two coats, then some distressing.  It did sand back pretty smooth. I then used two darker shades of grey for the stripes and the laurel.

I replaced the knobs with something a little more feminine, although they are a little on the big side for this piece.
Overall, I liked the chalk paint, but with the amount of sanding I had to do, I could have just as easily primed and painted this small piece with regular paint. I can see its appeal if you are working on a large piece of furniture, as you will avoid the pre-sanding and priming.

The one I made for myself can be found here

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vintage wood cafeteria tray

So, I’m playing around with my gallery wall, yet again. This time I wanted to add some natural wood and lo and behold, I found a vintage cafeteria tray
.
I was going to do a reverse stencil, but once I got the vinyl on, I really liked the look as it was. I cut the peacock out of vinyl, tracing the image using SCAL.



I used the back side as the front was a little messy, with a cigarette burn and cup ring stains.  I decided to leave the stamp that says “Made in Sweden”.  I can’t help but wonder if this was originally an Ikea tray?  It is made out of wood, not plastic.

Anyway, I added it to my gallery wall and I like how it looks.



I actually laid on the floor to take this shot (the things I do for my blogging friends lol), hence the blurry. It looks really small next to the anchor piece, but it’s not that small at all, definitely bigger than the trays they use now. The tray was $2 at GW.



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Anchor Yourself – diy art

I am not a huge fan of displaying motivational phrases in my home, but when I saw the Anchor Yourself poster on Pinterest, it had special meaning to me.

To me, it means to hold on to what is right in your heart, to keep yourself grounded, to rely on my faith, and keep my family in high regard.

Here is my inspiration. I am not able to find the original source.

I started with a wooden anchor that I bought at the thrift store for $2.00. It had some peg hooks that I removed.



I gave it a couple of coats of spray paint, cut out the lettering with my Cricut and used the frame on my gallery wall.



So that’s my $2.00 update. What do you anchor yourself to?

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