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!

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Christmas Craft # 3 – Merry Little Christmas sign

I’ve wanted a sign like this since I saw them at Barn Owl Primitives (you can get one there), but it’s not exactly something I can afford to buy, not now, well maybe not ever.  A lot of work goes into making them, so the cost is well worth it.



I made my own version using vinyl which I cut out with my cricut (natch). Once I had it cut, I weeded out the letters and placed it on to my already painted white, board. I burnished it really well to the wood with a credit card then painted in the lettering. Once the lettering is dry, the vinyl was removed. A wish and prayer was said as I removed it, hoping that there was no bleeding. There wasn’t, thank goodness.



Once all of the vinyl was removed, I sanded the entire thing to make it look like it was a little aged. Now I have my own sweet sign.

Christmas Craft #2 – Nativity Scene

I originally saw this nativity scene on Pinterest. I followed the source to Classy Clutter’s Etsy shop that sells the vinyl to make your own sign.

Of course I have my own cutter, so I found a nativity scene and created the same thing. I painted my 24” x 6” board white to begin with, then painted dark blue over top of that. I sanded it down to achieve variation in the blue, just as you would see in the night sky.



And just so you don’t think I have gone Christmas crazy, here are some photos of my african violet.  I kill most plants, but these have done really well. They were a mother’s day gift from my kids and they haven’t stopped blooming for more than a week or two since I received them.

Christmas Craft # 1 - Advent Calendar

I know it’s a little early, but once December rolls around, I’m busy every weekend with my entertaining biz. If I’m going to get anything done, I have to do it now.

I made this with supplies that I had on hand and a downloaded pillow box file from Birds Cards. If you haven’t been to her site, you will be happy you do if you are interested in paper crafting. Oh, and all of her files are free!



I cut the numbers out of the middle of the snowflakes, added some brown kraft paper that I cut in strips, attached some burlap to a piece of wood from the garage, and pounded in some nails.



The hardest part was lining up the nails.  I have zero math skills so I use a piece of tape to mark my holes, then move it down to the next row for a perfect match. Lot’s of trial and error on where to place each nail, but once I got it, I didn’t have to measure for the next rows.





My kids are too old for this, so it’s going to my great nieces that are 5 and 3. I can’t wait to fill each box with little treasures.

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Uncle Billy’s dresser–it ain’t what it used to be

My sister was given this dresser from her partners uncle many years ago. It was a little dinged, cherry wood chest on chest, a little bland and very 50’s.  I was sure I took a before picture, but I can’t seem to find it, but I’m sure you’ve seen a hundred of these.



I painted it white, but that was a complete snore fest. I had to come up with a temporary way to dress it up. I say temporary because I change my mind, a lot. If I had painted a design on it, I would have to change the whole thing when I changed my mind about how I wanted it to look. In comes vinyl and my cricut.

I had read that you could spray paint vinyl, so I gave it a shot. I was undecided on what colour I wanted to use, so I sprayed three colours; copper, gold and silver.



I then traced the allium with SCAL, made a few different sizes and cut it out.



When I put the transfer tape on, it pulled some of the silver off but it turned out to be just what it needed, at least I am telling myself that.



I like the design and will hold on to it as is for a while, until I get my next hair brained scheme.



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New kitchen faucet

The faucet that I had was leaking and rusty.  I knew it needed to be replaced, but it was not a job I had done before. I armed myself with a whole bunch of video instructions, waited for a sale and bought a new faucet for $84, which was $100 off the regular price!

It only took an hour and a half, which would have been reduced by half an hour had I had the foresight to charge my drill first. doh!

It was quite simple, so I’m not sure why I was so scared to do it. I had to drill a new hole because my old faucet had two holes where the faucet handles were. I borrowed a cut saw and other than that it’s basic tools; a couple of wrenches, a screwdriver, some plumbers putty and tape and a light source.

If you need a new faucet, tackle the job yourself, it’s pretty easy.

A pinteresting day

I’m bored today. I have a whole bunch of things that I should be doing, but I can’t seem to commit to any one thing.  There have been a few things that I found on Pinterest that I thought would be fun to do.

I used a cork fitted with large paperclips to display some photos in candleholders.  That was easy.

I also found a pin that gave instructions on how to make bookmarks from scraps of fabric. I don’t have lots of cute fabric, so mine may read a little dull, but they turned out ok. My method differed in that I used plastic in the middle and sewed them together using the zipper foot.

Back to reality; must get the grocery shopping done.   Have a great week.

Velvet pumpkins

I have been smitten with the fabulous velvet pumpkins that I have seen.  I made these for my BFF (hopefully she is busy in the kitchen and not on her ipad reading this!) as a thank you for hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her home today.

Happy thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! We have so much to be thankful for!

Updated teen bedroom

I know that it wasn’t too long ago that I did my daughters tiny bedroom, but she asked for another book case in her room, and therefore I had to rearrange it to fit, and that led to another thing and so on and so on and so on…  We all know how that goes.





The last time I did her room, I had her stamp of approval, but this time I wanted her to decide on how it should look. She dog sat our neighbours dog for a week and earned the money to buy new bedding. From that she decided that the walls should be white and the accent colour orange. 

Painting over the black stripes was a nightmare!  Many coats of primer and paint later, I finally got it covered. Here is how it used to look, which I loved. But it’s not my room :(



I plucked the gingerbread corbels from the front of my house to use to make her a laptop desk.  The stool was picked out of the garbage at work, I just removed the back of it so that it didn’t take up too much visual space.
The bookcases we already had; they are Markor bookcases from Ikea and to my mind, were the best bookcases they ever made.



There is still lots of space for more books. She doesn’t have a dresser in here, but I have added shelves to her closet, which once it’s painted I will show you. 

All we have left to purchase is a carpet, or maybe I will reuse her old floor cloth and make something else with it.

A headboard in the dining room, with a change

Thank you to all of you that gave me so many great ideas.  There were a few that left some awesome opinions but didn’t provide any way for me to contact them to say thanks, so thanks.

I would love to add drapes, but it’s a really small dining room and I am also counting on the wall to hold the headboard up, since I have no way to attach it to the bench.

Anyway, I painted it white, no surprise there eh? lol  And you know I love my green accents, so I added those back in to the room. I brought up my wool rug from storage since it is now fall. I love this rug, but wool rugs shed so much, that I have to vacuum all the time and that is definitely not how I like to spend my free time. Ha ha.  I bet you don’t either.



With it painted white, I was able to move it to the right a little more and the legs are not so obvious and it’s closer to centered on the window. It will still drive me bonkers, but it is what it is.



I like it best at nighttime.

I am still slugging away at my daughters room, but I'm almost done. I have had a couple of really tough months this summer and haven't gotten to many projects around the house. My mum was sick and in hospital for a long time, while she was there she had a stroke. She is doing much better and has been transferred to a rehab facility.  Now my dad is not well and it’s frustrating to get him the help he needs. I've also been extremely busy at work, working lots of overtime.  Hopefully things will be back to normal soon, whatever normal is.

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