“SAANICH — Two university students were arrested Tuesday after a report of a burglary on Foul Bay Road.
A woman, alone in her home, heard people in her garage and immediately called police.
Investigators discovered two women in their twenties nearby. The two were intoxicated and had walked into an open garage to steal Zellers brand BBQ potato chips.
The open bag of chips was also found in the area.
Police are recommending charges of break and enter against the two women. “
Apparently I’m getting married soon (when did it become August already? When?!?), so I thought I’d share a peek at our invitations, designed by Interrobangs Anonymous’s own fancy pants Chelsie!
Seriously, she’s one talented lady.
Front:
Back:
On my computer the color looks seafoam-y green, but it prints out a beautiful turquoise. And both The Rocket Scientist and I love them – thanks, Chelsie!
Home Depot had a couple lamps on clearance and thus I thought, what better time for a lamp fashion show?
Couple #1: The Originals
Found languishing in a small town pawn shop, these silver foxes were headed for a world of hurt as they languished unwanted, only to be discounted by another 50% moments before I saved them from certain doom. The original contenders, they first graced the living room before being doomed to the bedroom. If they don’t make it past this round, their future could lie in the ominous, ‘basement’.
Couple #2: The Steampunk Duo
This oil bronzed pair look like they belong in a Restoration Hardware catalogue. With their dark intentional lines stand out from the rest of the pack and give the bedroom a modern meets historical edge? Or will their light shine too bright?
Couple #3: The Grey Towers
This graceful grey duo have sleek necks and blend nicely. Will they fade into the background? Or will their drum shades bring them to the top?
Only time can tell, and in there can only be one winner (or three pairs of losers, two pairs being relegated back to their store). What do you think? Cast your vote.
P.S. I have had a couple people ask why the door is not centred over the bed. Because of the nature of it being a door, the top and bottom are not exactly the same. The placement is intentional since it must be anchored on the studs, while the bed is centred in the room, with the light. So that is why the door lacks symmetry over the bed.
While we were out in cottage country a couple weeks ago I saw these cute mason jar terrariums on the windowsills at a little coffee shop. I liked that the terrariums were filled with local plants, such as mosses, as opposed to the more airid desert type plants.
You can get a general idea from these pictures. These would be really simple and cheap to DIY.
Posted in Chelsie, DIY, gardening, Inspiration
This summer I’m finding myself drawn to pops of bright colour. Here is a quick look at some things I’ve been up to.
First off, our yellow front door. The front side is complete, the back… not so much. The fresh coat of yellow really brightens up the front of the house, and we scored this glass screen door for $15 at a yard sale last month. Apparently it’s worth about $300. I prefer the crisper, and less distracting look of this door over the previous wood screen door that had more ornamentation.
Of course it isn’t just the exterior doors we’ve been painting, but the interior doors as well. One down, a bunch more to go! I wanted a dark eggplant colour to give some contrast with the light walls. The house is small and doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight, so the lighter wall colours really help reflect the light and make things appear larger and airier. We added some paneling detail to give these old hollow wood doors give them some style.
I had to show you this vintage game of Sorry! I found last week at the thrift store for $0.50. The funny thing was that this vintage game was half the price of a newer version. The box is awesome, and the cards look really cool too. It might make a nice art piece.
A friend was tossing out this old rocking chair. It’s too bad I didn’t take a before picture. It was bright purple and had been living on a cottage deck exposed to the elements for a couple years and was caked with layers of old paint that just chipped right off with the help of a putty knife. This is what it looks like right now after taking it all apart, scrapping off the old paint, a complete sanding and a couple coats of paint. It’s still in progress.
I found a place for the bright wool area rug I got during our Interrobang reunion in May. I found a steam cleaner at a yard sale, with a bunch of attachments, and it cleaned up nicely. It’s pretty much one of the first things you see when you walk into the house and I’m loving the vibrant hues. It gives this room a bit more colour. This room gets the least amount of light of all the rooms in the house (save the basement), and was previously painted dark grey. It took priming and 4 coats of paint to lighten the walls. I choose a beige colour because the room was so dark before that I wanted something that was polar opposite. I changed up the curtains in the bedroom as well with some panels that I had in the basement. The dark raspberry really contrasts well with the beige walls and the area rug and works well for now.
I finally succeeded in getting this hook put up the bedroom. Three years later. Progress.
A couple coats of yellow paint to some old black frames adds a pop of brightness to this wall.
Posted in Chelsie, Decorating, DIY
Yellow front door.
Garage sale finds.
Interior door upgrade and door knob painting.
Flower photo taking.
This one is for Katie. The same material as Tiger Couch’s partner in crime pillow. As seen at the hospital last week. (I don’t have the pillow anymore, and you already knew the fate of Tiger Couch…)
I wore this outfit last week to go and visit a newborn baby at the hospital.
Basically just a cheapy dress I got in downtown Toronto from a store called Katie. Katie noticed the store last time we were all together in Toronto and liked it, because it is called Katie. The simple things sometimes. I should also metion that all the clothes in this store are one size fits all. I paid in cash.
Anyway, this dress is a bit of a moo-moo if unbelted, so belted it. I was quite drawn to the pleats and polka dots, and the cute shoulder tie. A dash of colour with this emerald scarf via Katie (the person, not the store), and my $2 sandals I thrifted with Katie (the person, again) last month – brand new!
Since I last posted (cough, a while ago, cough), you can see how far my garden has grown. Those raspberry bushes have a mind of their own! And we are just starting to get tomatoes. They are green mind you, but they are a smaller variety, and will be purple soon.
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style
I was paging through an online gift guide in late November hoping for some Christmas gift ideas when I stumbled upon some cool looking shirts from Bark Decor. I bought one for my brother and one for S.
I gave this one to my brother because where he lives there are many bears, and a bear bicycling with a fish in it’s mouth seemed kind of funny. Everyone liked it.
Cut to a month or two later. My brother Skypes me and explains that while he was at the bar someone commented on his shirt and asked why he was wearing a shirt with a bicycling bear that had a human arm in it’s mouth. My brother gave him a funny look, looked at the shirt, and realized it was indeed a human arm. Now the shirt can be a discussion point and he likes it even more!
Maybe I should have figured out this out earlier, seeing as the name of the shirt is Commandeered By Wilderness and the description says “This bear is in the business of stealing bikes and eating arms! Be aware, he’s fond of Schwinns, streamers and delicious body parts!” Clearly I did not read the description at all!
Awesome.
Hmmm… my bottom birds are upside down.
I will let you know when I figure it out. I know 3 people having babies in the next couple months so this should be a good gift. Link to the project and pattern for the birds here.
After months of slowly picking away at it, we have finished decorating the spare bedroom – complete with bed. I started by removing everything from the room, relocating most of it to the empty spare bedroom in the basement, and painting it a very pale lavender-gray.
The bed frame was picked up at a yard sale last summer for $10. Originally brass, I spray painted it this bright blue. I made the duvet cover out of two King sized sheets I thrifted last summer and followed this tutorial to make a pin-tucked duvet cover. It was fairly labour intensive to mark out all the areas. My sewing machine broke at the beginning so I did a couple pin-tucks by hand (which I would not recommend), until I got up the gumption to figure out how to fix it. I’m quite happy with the results.
The throw at the end of the bed I picked up when I was in high school. The navy in the blanket works nicely to mellow the bright blue and ikat is oh-so-trendy right now – or was that last year?! The print was acquired from the living room, and the side table was another thrift find that I painted last summer and sprayed the handle to match the bedframe.
Of course the bedframe only came with the headboard and baseboard so we DIYed a frame with scrap metal and an old door. The old door we got for $5 at a yard sale last year and cut in half. It comes almost to the top of the mattress and takes away the need for a bedskirt. I’m sure you’re noticing a trend of getting things last summer. Apparently I don’t work fast – and I accumulate things slowly over time.
At the end of the bed is the dresser we got at an auction a couple years ago that I refinished. Here it is with the new knobs affixed. The canvas map of Paris is a DIY project from a couple months back and fills out this wall nicely. Big pieces of art have a way of making a small space feel more open somehow. The hooks were a Christmas gift and the four frames are from Ikea.
The chair is a placeholder for the chair that we are currently reupholstering. The colour of the placeholder chair matches perfectly – this was unplanned. I remember when I got this chair in university from Ikea with Millie and Katie, Millie and I were seriously lugging our awkward to carry loot back to our residences afterward!
The room is not finished yet though, I have big plans for this ceiling light to be replaced. I’m thinking of DIYing an artichoke-like light fixture like this one. I still need to find a doorknob for the closet door. We replaced the original solid door with this brand new door we picked up from the Restore. There is also one wall that lacks any art, but the wall vent probably makes up for that.
Posted in Chelsie, Decorating, DIY, Interior Design, Repurposing, Thrifting
Pretty indoor flowers on a Saturday morning. Getting ready to plan our garden today. What are you doing this weekend?
I always have trouble styling this really bright shirt because it is a total scene stealer. People always comment on the bright orange, and always in a cheerful way. I think navy is probably it’s prefect companion, and I’m pretty sure this is a navy skirt which I acquired for free from a friend’s closet. I like that skirt has a particular shape, almost bubbling out slightly after the waist, and then narrowing back in. It also has pockets and belt loops! I think the belt finishes off this paring well.
I love these neutral gray tights, but alas they have been retired. With the cooler mornings and warm afternoons, I’m going to need to increase my collection of lightweight tights… and scowl more menacingly at my car for it’s decision to quit gracing me with the presence air conditioning.
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style
I thrifted this silk shirt and skirt at the same time without trying either of them on. To be fair, I knew the colour of the shirt would be good, and silk is forgiving in fit. The skirt however is a different story. I don’t have any other maxi length skirts so I wanted to try out this trend. My main intention with this skirt is to make it into throw pillows for the spare bedroom. I thought I would try it as a skirt first. This skirt is HEAVY! It’s wool. I hand stitched the hem up by 5 or 6 inches (I’m not tall), but I did not want to cut off the fabric since I am still planning on using the fabric for pillows. I know it works as a skirt, which I had not planned on, but I figure I have enough clothes that I can wear it once or twice more and it can be reincarnated into a life where I can admire the pattern every day! That decorating project is still in process anyway.
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style, Repurposing, Thrifting
Slowly starting a new chair reupholstery job. Right now it has been stripped clean and the legs are being sanded.
The fabric will be navy and white stripes and it will be a first foray into tufting.
I just switched up the lampshades in the living room. The previous shades I had recovered in grey fabric. I like the white shades and these are also a bit smaller, which I like.
This is what I thrifted today.
Posted in Chelsie, Interior Design, Thrifting
Just before Christmas I decided it was time to get new chairs for the dining room table. My first instinct was to go for Parson chairs.
I got 6 of them. I liked them, but I could never get past the pleather wrinkling a bit and how heavy and dark they looked. We live in a smaller 1950s house with a main floor and basement. You can see the break in the flooring where the dining room used to be the third bedroom on the main floor but was removed by a previous owner to enlarge the living space. I could never get over how high the backs were on these chairs and how they made the space feel a little claustrophobic to me. We kept them for almost two months and then I caved and returned them. The store has a 90 day return policy, which was great, and they were no trouble to return.
Back to the drawing board I decided I wanted something a bit lighter and more in keeping with our current aesthetic. The other thing about the Parson chairs is that they didn’t seem to go with the decorating vibe I wanted. So I decided to go with something a bit more modern. Enter Ikea’s URBAN chairs. Yes,they are modern and a bit riskier, but they can be used indoor or outdoors. The way I thought about it was that they are easy to stack and store, easy to clean, and if I decided to go with a different look I could easily use them as patio chairs around the outdoor table (our current outdoor chairs should probably be decommissioned and the price is comparable to other outdoor chairs). For $50 a piece I bought 4 chairs. I will be keeping an eye out for two nice accent chairs to add to the ends of table to seat 6 when we have guests.
I’m glad I went with these chairs. They look so much lighter, smaller, and cleaner around the table. They feel durable, and I have already had a toddler incident with red crayon. I must admit it took a bit of scrubbing, but the crayon came off and the chair looks no worse for wear!
A couple months ago I found put this image onto Pinterest from this Design*Sponge house tour.
I thought it would be perfect for the upstairs spare bedroom that we are slowly decorating. We also saw a bunch of similar maps when we went to Restoration Hardware.
A full wall map would have been ideal, but the largest size I found to print was about 4 feet by 5 feet. I got the print done at Staples in their largest format. It was too big for them to print in store, so they had to send it out. I had converted my map to black and white which saved a LOT of money. The print itself is on normal everyday letter weight paper and cost $15. A print in colour would have been on a heavier poster weight paper, but would have been closer to $75-100. This project was a bit of an experiment and $15 was a much easier hit to take if the project did not turn out.
We have been slowly decorating our spare bedroom. I took pretty much all the furniture out of there, moved the twin bed into the basement bedroom (which now actually looks nice and completed… perhaps one day I’ll show you. It just needs some pictures and a mirror hung up). We are planning on getting Queen size bed into for this room for guests. It was painted a very fresh green by the previous owners, but we recently painted it a very pale lavender. The colour flows nicely with the light gray in the living room, dinning room and hallway, as well as the off white in the master bedroom. It also looks a lot brighter, which is saying something because this is easily the room in our house that gets the most light.
I must have been mad to start this project in the middle of the heat in August. Well, the project really started two years ago when we went to a New Years Day auction and brought home this dresser.
A year and a half later I finally began the process of refinishing it. I donned the breathing apparatus, goggles, big gloves and long sleeves, and took paint thinner to this bad boy while listening to an audiobook on my ipod. Of course you want to know the name of the book don’t you? I was listening to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It took me two days to get all the paint scrapped off. Mostly because you have to paint on the paint thinner, wait for it to bubble off a bit (takes about 2-3 minutes), scrape it, repaint it with paint thinner, scrape it again, etc. Each surface has to be done about 5-6 times, and there was only one coat of paint on this dresser. The paint was pretty old. I’m pretty sure it was lead based. It took me two afternoons. Mostly because it was really hot outside, and you just got bored of painting and scraping and sounding like Darth Vader.
Then I filled some gauges in the wood with wood filler, and after that was dry we took the palm sander to it. I sanded about half before my hand got terribly numb, then S took over and finished it off. We sanded once with the more abrasive sandpaper, then with the fine stuff.
Next step was staining it. Of course I chose my favorite stain colour, Dark Walnut by Minwax. The great thing about buying a house is that sometimes you get free stuff. There is a giant mirror behind our shed, a dehumidifier was left behind, and we got lots of paint amongst other things. We also acquired this can on stain, among a couple others, and some polyurethane. I gave it one swipe of stain, letting it seap for about two minutes before taking a rag and wiping off the excess.
The next day I started polyurethane coats. I gave it three coats of polyurethane, with a very light finishing sand in between coats.
Here is a sneak peak of the result.
The room colour has since been changed, and I just picked up some knobs for the drawers over Christmas. They have not yet been affixed.
I don’t usually wear my skinny jeans to work. Actually, I never wear them to work, and I generally don’t wear jeans on a Friday either. I figured today would be a good day to bend my rules a bit, with it being the last day before holidays.
Voila – the Jessica Simpson skinny jeans. And to class it up a bit, and perhaps make it look a bit more professional, a blazer. But wait – the $2 garage saled 100% unknown fiber jacket…?
Though you cannot tell from these pictures, I got an eyebrow pencil yesterday night. I’m not sure what I think of it. My eyebrows look so dark to me, but I bet no one else notices. It’s kind of fun to play around with.
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style
Too bad you can’t see how shiny/sparkly this skirt is. It is wrap around and has a sort of drape going on in the front. Of course it was thrifted for $1.
I love the gathers on this shirt and the light lime colour. Oh, look! My shirt matches with my lime green ornaments!
I have all my gifts wrapped and it has been a busy week of relaxing, holiday visiting, and tea, desert and gift giving. Maybe I will pick up my toboggan next week. Maybe one day there will be snow…
One more full day of work before the holiday week begins! What will you be doing at work tomorrow? Eating lots of baked holiday treats I hope! Anyone have the day off, or a half day?
Any holiday lovers? Any haters? I like to just kick back, drink some hot chocolate, with a little Baileys, and read a good book, and eat great food with great people. Happy holidays! (…or happy birthday, if you run out of Christmas paper…)
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style
I thrifted this big cable knit sweater last weekend. It was $5, above my usual sweater thrifting quota, but I really wanted to make a throw pillow, there was a lot of cable knit in this, and the buttons were nice. Thus, I hacked it up.
My pillow interior is down filled and 18×18, and this sweater was more like 16×16, but the knit was able to stretch enough. Really it looks more rectangular here, which is true, but it worked out. I had to take the sides in an inch on each side because you can see that I had to hack the top a little above the armpits.
I did a 3 length zigzag stitch for the seams. Knitting goes through the sewing machine pretty slowly, so I think it’s held together quite well. I did all four sides, and the buttons are on the middle of one side of the pillow for opening/closing. I ended up tacking and hand sewing between the buttons because there was a bit of gaping due to stretching the material, but now you can not tell.
P.S. The pillow is on the living room couch now.
We found this old chair at the thrift store about a month ago. I always keep my eyes peeled for these. Sometimes I find them and then think, I don’t really need another chair. But chairs are useful. You can sit on them. I can put them in the basement. They are easily re-arrangeable for larger gatherings. You can make them look cool.
I told S that we should get a shopping cart and cart it around while we shop. He thought I was crazy. Lo and behold, some lady started stalking us throughout the store admiring said chair and quizzing us on it. I gave S a ‘see what I mean’ look, and he realized I was right. Sometimes it takes men a little longer to clue into realizing we are right, but this was nice because it was immediate gratification demonstrating my accuracy.
Here is the little metal plate with the chair maker name. Their history is found here.
And thus, I reupholstered it, and here is the result. I wanted to get rid of the upholstering on the back part, but it was riddled with nails from what I believe were previous recovering jobs. The wood is a bit beaten up, but still in good shape, so I opted not to refinish the entire thing (S wanted to).
Right now it is sitting against the wall in the kitchen. We are kind of making a sort of gallery collage on the wall. You can see the chalkboard I gussied up here on the top right.
I made some stockings for Christmas gifts. These are the results. Fully lined. I think they turned out nicely.
I had a bit of a fight with my sewing machine at first. The stitches were not coming out even, and the thread carriage kept getting all bungled up with thread and scratched. I finally figured out what I was not using a standard needle but a heavy duty needle (thus the trouble). They really should make the numbers on those easier to read. They kind of all look the same! I will definitely splurge and get the colour coded ones next time. It will save me frustration and time (lots of time).
The solo stocking below is for one individual baby. I gussied it up with some black lace after. The three others above are for S’s cousin (I was going to write Ss, but it looked too much like SS), and his wife. I might still gussy them up with a faux fur around the top. They are going to have a baby in June, so you can’t really buy anything baby yet, so instead we made them a triad of stockings.
I got new glasses, like 6 months ago. A while back I noticed that Rebekah of Jaunty Dame had similar glasses. Since I have been more involved in home decorating schemes lately, I had not posted them on the blog. So here I am, in all my glory, in the cat eye wing tipped glasses. They are actually very comfy, and so stereotypical librarian. I find it funny to wear them to work.
I love the structure of this dress. It is sleeveless though, so winter + work = cardigan.
Today I wore:
Posted in Chelsie, Daily Style
I was always keeping an eye out for a high waisted skirt, but they were always either too cheaply made, or the shape was not flattering. I found this skirt and shirt on the same shopping trip to my local Salvation Army. It is nicely lined, and structured with strong stitching supporting the waist form, and is made from a nice sturdy but soft almost jersey knit. The make is Sandwich and it is quite comfortable.
I find the skirt pairs well with more vibrant button downs that might be more risky on their own. Sometimes just throwing a cardigan or vest over a bright shirt works better than it might have solo. I also like the impact of the strong red paired with the bright purple tights.
I have not been thrifting as much lately because it doesn’t fit as well with my new schedule. Before I could hit all the thrift stores in town during my lunch hour, or during the summer when I was working part time, I would do the rounds after lunch. Now I get home at 5 and all the stores are closed and the Salvation Army is not even open on weekends and closes weekdays at 4!
Luckily I have a bit of a backlog of projects. I got these pretty trays this summer. I wasn’t keen on the dark grainy wood look (this picture makes them look nicer than they were), and was initially thinking of keeping the gold. Unfortunately, a) the metal was looking a bit rough and scratched up, and b) trying to tape it up to avoid spraying it was just too tedious. Thus I sprayed it all. Spray painting took me approximately 2 months – I know, sad.
I was a bad spray painter. Sometimes my coats were too thick. Some days were too windy. I ran out of spray paint for the underside and did not feel like taking my bike across town to get more. Eventually they all dried and I brought them inside. These trays or super handy for putting books on, arranging on the ottoman to make it a more solid coffee table, or setting out snacks and drinks for guests.
Posted in Chelsie, Crafty, Daily Style, DIY, Thrift
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