Chilling in Jamaica

I'm into day five of a week long vacation,  a much needed break from the same old same old

There are a few pieces of furniture I wish I could bring back with me,  like two of these chairs.

Back to. Reality soon.

Bookcase Railing DIY

I have had dreams of removing my ugly wrought iron railing in my dining room for eons. I knew what I wanted, but had no clue how to go about getting it done. That is until I read a post by Carol at Elephant Buffet!

Using her simple method, I was ensured that this would be solid and never move, even if sat upon, but why would anyone do that?   I have left it open to allow the light to pass through. It does make my small dining room appear smaller, but that’s the price I had to pay to realize my dream.

It is primed and ready for paint. The build itself took me a couple of weekends. I tend to move a little slower these days. Menopause sucks, ladies! take it from me.

 

 

I used mdf because it was more affordable. I found the most amazing guy at Rona that cut everything down for me without a whimper, unlike the guys at HD who refuse to cut anything smaller than 7” in width. Pffttt to you HD!

My entire house was topsy turvy for 2 weeks. I don’t understand how working in one room makes the entire house a mess?

It was caulked and the nail holes were filled with wood filler. Painting underneath is so frickin hard, probably why it’s still not completed. Maybe tonight.

A huge thank you to Carol, for posting her method and for the great advice (some of which I didn’t take, like painting before adding the shelves). Next up is installing the new flooring. At least I was smart enough to remove the old flooring before the install of this. LOL

Creating DIY art

Sometimes you just have to wait patiently for inspiration to hit. As was the case with this large frame that I’ve had for a long time.

A while ago when I was feeling less than inspired, I painted this with diy chalkboard paint, and there it sat, unadorned and bland. Last night while drifting into sleep, I pictured an impressionist painting, with blues and greens and copper.

I used paints that I had in the house and a 3.5” sash brush, that’s it.  It’s just the right amount of colour and depth for my taste.

 

And of course, a before and after. Happy Valentine’s day to me.

Starting a collection – Blue and White ceramics

Thrift stores provide an abundance of items that allow you to start a collection at little cost. All of these pieces were found within a two week span, the most expensive at $6 and the least expensive at $1, if found on 50% off day at the GW Boutique.

This is the largest piece and the most expensive (ha ha) at $6. It measures 16" tall and is one of my favourites.



Plates in all sizes are usually a buck or two. My hope is to find enough to create an organic wall display someday.



I found a set a five pieces with the same pattern, originally from Pier1. I thought it was a little unusual that there were two canisters, one with a mismatched lid, a bowl, a soap dish and a bathroom cup all in one set; not sure why you would have matching items in your kitchen AND bathroom.




There are some vases, plant pots and other pieces that were  few dollars each, but nothing too special. They will serve as filler pieces in the future. What I need are some bigger pieces, like large urns, an umbrella stand and I would love to find a pair of ceramic garden stools.

 
For less than 40 dollars, it’s a good beginning. A trip into Chinatown in Toronto is planned for the spring. Until then, I keep my eyes open when I troll the isles of thrift stores.

The ceiling that nearly killed me

I am not exaggerating when I say that I will never, as long as I live, scrape popcorn off a ceiling. It was a disaster from the minute I started, but once you start you CANNOT GO BACK! It did not remove easily as my darling friend told me it would, the ceiling ending up being gouged, ripped and some parts didn’t come off at all.

 

Now what the heck was I going to do with this mess? I got a quote to have it skim coated and it was way out of my budget. Then I remembered about bead board wall paper. A perfect solution, nope, but I’m going to make it work.

I am quite sure I have have spent at least 10 solid hours of work on this crap. I wanted to cry when I was taking the popcorn off and my arms were burning. I wanted to cry when I put the wallpaper up (have you ever wallpapered a ceiling? Don’t do it).  And then, I decided that I was going to tackle crown moulding. Major failure. Wasted money, wasted time, frustration, anger and feeling like a failure.

So I am now stuck, because I don’t have the money to hire someone to install the crown moulding for me.  I am just going to move on and start the painting, if I can ever decide on a colour. I have gone through several paint samples, a ton of paint chips and still am no closer to a decision.

I did do something that made a nice difference, the one bright spot to two entire weeks of hard work; I put up an electric fireplace (albeit a tiny one, but hey, I’m working with a tiny budget).

 

Before

After

 

That is all I have to show for my hard work. C’est la vie.

amaryllis and freezing rain

I managed to kill my amaryllis after 3 years of managing it; I transferred it to a new pot and it did not like it, not one little bit. I bought a new one and it has five blooms!

 

 

For the last few days we have had freezing rain and while it is difficult to drive in, it sure makes for a pretty picture.

Baby name art and my Christmas decor

I have wanted to try the split letter names on coloured card stock for a while. The opportunity arose to make a gift for a baby boy’s nursery. I love how it turned out.

The frame is the Virserum from Ikea, the cardstock is a beautiful blue which may not show up well on the screen; not too dark and not typical baby blue. In the white frame it’s stunning.

 

 

This is the entire extent of my Christmas decorations. Bah Humbug.  I have to let myself be ok with not being able to do everything. I don’t get to spend all of my time being crafty and decorating how I would like to, so I have to let it go, take a deep breath and let it go.

Gilt faux bamboo tables

Earlier this year I went back and forth, emailing a woman that had some vintage gilt faux bamboo tables for sale. She ended up selling them to someone else and I was so disappointed. 

Lucky for me, I've found another set, this one is even better!  The set was in a city about 250 km away, but I thought it was worth asking if they would be willing to meet me halfway for some money to cover their gas.  Well, they brought them all the way to a neighbourhood in Toronto that I used to live in. The moral of this story is, if you don't ask, you don't get. The couple were asking $75 for the set of three, with delivery they were $135. I am still pinching myself.

 

The coffee table is the perfect size for my long and narrow living room. 

There are two side tables.

I did some online searching and found one of the end tables at Chair Table Lamp for $495 (eek!) and a set of 2 side side tables att  Sheelin Wilson Gilding Studio for $2400 (what!). Some other stores like CircaWho have had them but they have sold already.

When the weather warms up, which will be several months from now, I am going to paint my Chippendale faux bamboo chairs for the dining room. Since I have a few pieces of faux bamboo, I thought that blue and white accents would be a wonderful addition.

In one week I was able to find several pieces of pottery. Although nothing to write home about, they will look fabulous in a collection. I'll be keeping an eye out on my thrifting adventures for more pieces.

Christmas is just around the corner and I am not prepared, at all!  I decorated my mantle, but that's the extent of my decor. I am so put off by the commercialism of the whole thing. I would prefer to spend time eating and enjoying friends and families company than spend my hard earned money on presents. What a huge marketing ploy!

Updated ottoman

I’m so glad that Target has come to Canada!  They always have great home decor items and the prices are reasonable. Finding decent and modern fabric here is difficult. The best source I’ve been able to find, other than shopping at the ultra expensive decorator fabric stores, is Tonic Living.

Target to the rescue when you don’t have time to wait for the mail. I bought a shower curtain to recover this ottoman, using a very simple method of sewing up the sides and then stapling it to the bottom. I should have ironed the fabric first to take the creases out, oh well.

Of course I didn’t notice the bag under the ottoman until after I took the photos. Now the sun is going down, so I can’t do a retake.

I started pulling out some Christmas items too; I’m uber excited to decorate my mantel, but now that I’ve seen so many great ideas, I’m frozen as to what to do with it.

My thrift store mirror that I found last week for $8 needed a little bling and looks fabulous above my faux fireplace. I used antique gold rub and buff, I love that stuff.

I hope all of my American friends had a fab Thanksgiving. Let the holidays begin!

Faux fireplace part 2

There is actually another phase to this project, involving repainting the entire living room, so for now it will stay like this. Painting is a job best left for the boring and long winter.

Today I finished painting and hung a mirror over top temporarily. I am looking forward to actually having a mantle to decorate with each season, yay!





last night my bestie and her husband came by for a cup of tea and a gab, and I asked her to pose next to the mantel for a perspective on its size. She is going to kill me for posting this picture, tee hee hee.



anyway, that’s that out of the way and the painting will wait until the holidays, when I will have 14 days off in a row!

I hope you are having a great weekend.