What I did on my “Snow Day”

We received a foot of snow last night, which meant a snow day for me, yippee!

Back in November I picked up a large ottoman for $40. Once I removed the fabric, I found that It was in pretty rough shape. It needed some reinforcement on the legs, which I did, and then there it sat in my living room.  I had the most difficult time finding a fabric that I wanted to use. 

I was lucky enough to come upon a great deal for almost 28 metres of fabric from a young man that did an internship at Tonic Living. I got all of this for $100! I worked out what it would have cost me retail and it is $679!

 

I am sure all of you Tonic Living fans recognize many of these. Turns out, not one of them were what I wanted for the ottoman; too busy, not the right shade etc. Today when I went to the basement to reset the modem, I happened to look in my sons closet, and there it was…the fabric I wanted.  It’s a duvet cover that he doesn’t like, so I didn’t feel bad about cutting it up to use. It’s perfect, the right shade of grey/blue and textured.

Before

After

It’s perfect! Oh Happy Day! I replaced the foam, added two layers of batting and sewed down the sides of the fabric before stapling it on.

I finally got around to hanging my curtains too. I bought Ikea drapes and rods, but wasn’t too keen on any of their finials. I had a package of mercury glass drawer knobs, which worked perfectly as I wanted something small.

I replaced the light switch and changed all of the electrical outlets. I used a couple of ceramic plates and this little fish plate that I adore, to hang on the wall between the drapes.

They were hung using picture hangers and lots of hot glue, worked like a charm.

I need more snow days.

Rustic Console and other changes

I heard you, loud and clear, the blue console was too blue, too small and just didn’t fit with my space. Hey, I’m willing to share my fails too *smile*

I needed something big and bold that would hold my tv and my blankets and some decorative items. I used two plans that I found on line and created this baby. Total cost for the wood was $96, plus stain and some Kreg screws, about another $15. I couldn’t buy this for that amount.

I haven’t added the X’s to the sides yet as I don’t have a saw that can cut the correct degrees, so I have to figure out how to do it with a circular saw, another day.

Let’s have a look at the before and after, you will agree I’m sure that after is a whole lot better.

I’ve found some great deals on new to me items in the last little while…

Yesterday I was at my local Sally Ann and found this rug for $19.99, brand new. At Ikea it is $159 for this size! (CDN)

My old Ektorp sofa was bought second hand and I got 3 years out of it before I had to replace it. I found a new Ektorp sofa with a Risane slipcover for $180. I love the slipcover with it’s tailored finish and the linen colour goes perfectly with my new to me scoop arm chairs.

And finally I found this Chinese cork sculpture at the Goodwill for $4. It is so pretty and I don’t know how they are able to cut the cork so intricately.

 

I keep saying it, but one day I really will get to the painting. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the changes and the thrifty finds.

Christmas Craft #5 – Memorial plaque

I made this for my parents. My sisters sudden passing on the 1st of this year still has us all reeling. I hope that this brings them some comfort.

Christmas Craft #4 – laundry supply tub

I guess I crafted this but it’s not really a craft, it’s a Christmas gift for my youngest sister, who is a freak about doing laundry. She hates having any dirty laundry and when I call to ask her what she is doing, more often than not she will say “laundry” LOL

I found the original idea on Pinterest, but the source is no longer available.  Here is what I came up with.  I will fill it with all of her favourite laundry supplies and even if she never uses it, it was fun to put it together.

I found the tub at a garage sale this past summer for 50 cents.

I really like the colour of this spray paint which is Krylon’s  smoke grey.

The laundry images are free clipart and were found online here

I don’t enjoy doing laundry. I wish my sister lived here so she could fulfill all of her laundry wishes, forever :)

A solution to getting my boxes up

Normally I wouldn’t make an entire post on putting boxes up on the wall, but I was perplexed as to how to get them there.  I got a few opinions on how best to do it, but the one that worked best for me was to use toggle bolts.  It worked!!!

It involved math or something like that; measuring at least to get them centered and level and where to drill the hole in the box and where to drill the hole in the wall and get it all to mesh together.  I am a total dork when it comes to measuring.



Now that it’s daylight, you can see a better likeness of the Minwax special walnut stain. I will definitely use it again.

Love them.

Nested Herb Crates DIY

This is not the first time I made a set of these crates, but the previous ones were all the same size and there were only three.  This time I sourced out a set of four nested boxes and made a new set.



Thank you to Claire at A Little Something in the Meantime, she told me about these boxes that can be found at Jysk, a Canadian store similar to Ikea. They are fairly inexpensive and very lightweight.



I stained them with Minwax’s special walnut, a little haphazardly as I didn’t want them to look too uniform.



I cut out black vinyl on my cricut and applied that rather than painting them in.  As before, I don’t have a way to hang them but I’m working on an idea ;)

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Sharing at

Pretty paper lantern–paper craft

I have a new found respect for paper crafters; it is time consuming, detailed and intricate. Probably why I haven’t attempted many paper crafts in the past.

I found a paper lantern on Pinterest that was captivating and so pretty, that I thought I could definitely give it a try.  Here is my result.

I decided to use pink and grey as the main colours and the whole time couldn’t help but think how pretty this would be in a baby girls nursery.  I cut all of the shapes with my cricut and hot glued them on. Nothing too complicated, but time consuming.

My original inspiration can be found here



I'm sharing at the following places, and already I see so many amazing projects.

As seen on … Apartment Therapy

Oh my, I’m so chuffed.  Today my bamboo étagères were featured at Apartment Therapy, in the before and after section!
I wouldn’t have known had someone not emailed me to ask a question, as I don’t regularly read AP, but I will now  Ha Ha.

My original post is here and you can read the post at Apartment Therapy here.
Totally made my day!

Dessert Tray

It’s a good thing I don’t throw everything away when I go on my purging binges. Digging through my stash of things and wondering what the heck to do with an old candelabra, I came up with an idea.



I started with this black candelabra that is just a wee bit wonky.  I had to remove the cups that hold the candles, then screw the ceramic shape back in.



The center part is welded on, so I took one of the pieces I removed, turned it upside down and glued it to the top.  After spraying it, which took forever to dry in this humidity, I used Gorilla Glue to glue the plates on. The plates I picked up two years ago for 99 cents each.



Since I had all of the supplies, it didn’t cost anything extra to make it.  I wish I had some yummy treats to stage it with, but I ate them all :)



And guess what I got?  Ok, I won’t make you guess any longer.  I met up yesterday with one of my readers, Denise.  She is up here from Texas with her daughter, visiting her parents.  She brought me my sofa cover!  After paying for the cover, extra bagging fee and parking to meet her at the airport, I still saved around $100!

Denise is in the middle of a kitchen reno, and I’m trying to encourage her to start a blog to document the process. From all of the elements she has described, it’s going to be fantastic.  This woman has staying power; for two weeks she has been removing wall paper from her kitchen walls. Another reminder of why I won’t ever use wall paper.   Anyway, look at how great the cover looks, it’s like I have a brand new sofa, much better than the black cover that I had, which made the couch look like a big gaping hole that you possibly could get lost in