Mason Jar Terrariums

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.

A Couple Pops of Colour

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.

Bird Mobile Progress

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.

Chelsie Decorates the Spare Bedroom

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.

Sneak Peek: Bare Bones

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.

DIY Canvas Map Art

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.

Refinishing a Dresser

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.

Knit Throw Pillow DIY

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.

Trifting and Upholstering some Mid Century Mod Chair

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.

Crafting Some Stockings

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.

 

Chelsie Style and DIY Tray Upgrades

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.

 

Like Unicorns in a Field {but not really at all….}

Yesterday on my way to work I saw a man jogging while juggling.

Driving a PT Cruiser feels like driving a sofa.

I made a wreath. I want to paint the front door, but what colour? Suggestions will be taken into consideration.

For the wreath form I used that pipe foam insulation stuff you put around pipes, pulled it into the circular form and duct taped it. Then I cut about 7 or 8 pieces of letter sized paper into teardrop shapes (kind of randomly – not all the exact same) and folded them in half to give them some volume, and used glue gun to put affix them, overlapping a bit, onto my foam circle.

Do you ever keep a list of things you’d like in your mind, and keep an eye out at thrift stores thinking one day you might just find it? Or on the side of the road for random discards…? Me too!

I finally found a chalkboard for a dollar, perfect for the kitchen. S. had been wanting one for a while. Now it is hanging in a frame collage in our kitchen. Here is a photo series of it’s transformation.

Chelsie’s Decorating Inspiration

I’m no mad genius, but I’ve slowly been decorating my house, which we moved into last June, on a budget. The whole process started about two years ago, when we started blogging, and I started following decorating and other DIY style blogs. We were living in a condo in the city when I started finding items by the trash outside (the furniture trash found outside apartments and condo’s can bring you some great free finds, just like cruising the curbside on certain garbage nights – I would probably stray from picking up upholstered goods though, unless I tore the guts out of it outside before letting it into the house). First I painted a cabinet bright green for the television to sit on, then we found an old French door, being ripped out of a condo being gutted, and refinished it and gave it the stained glass treatment and hung it above the bed as a floating headboard.

Here is what my living room looked like when we first moved in:

And this is what I living room looks like now. The biggest kick start to pulling the room together was getting new couches, editing out furniture, and bringing different pieces in (like sewing machine tables for side tables):

The rooms in my house are by no means finished, and there are always little things that get on my nerves, but my goal is to find things I love, or see potential in, and jazz them up. Like an ornate piece of woodwork you usually find on a piece of furniture, like a hutch, painted and hung on a wall.  I also cruise the thrift stores a lot, go to garage sales in the warmer months, sometimes attend auctions, and visit antique stores. And I try to never buy things unless I actually need them, and even then I check for quality first – solid wood, dovetailing on drawers, quality materials, etc.

Initially my colour scheme started with a print I acquired five years ago, modern with bright avocado green, black and white, and kind of expanded from there. Personally, I’m currently loving mid-century modern, mixed with more modern prints. I like the simplicity and clean look of a good mix of whites and soft gray shades. Sometimes though you just have to make a list (I like to keep mine in my head), mull it over, and keep an eye out. That’s how I finally found curtains I liked at Wal-Mart of all places. Other times you just have to be creative. I could not find curtain rods long enough to hang curtains in my front window, so instead of buying a more expensive extension rod, I used an extra curtain rod I had, that was a bit slimmer, and fit it in the middle of the rod that was already there.

I have been finding if difficult to find fun, bright and modern prints, so I have taken to purchasing outdoor fabric, which I have found especially great for upholstering furniture, as well as its affordability. Its magical cleaning properties should also be noted – this stuff is tough. We had a guest spill red wine on a cushion and it came right out with a light wipe! The heavier canvas texture might not be for everyone, but it’s working for me right now.

Where do you get your decorating inspiration? Artwork, magazines, blogs…? I find posting things on Pinterest helpful. Are you also addicted to Pinterest? Do you always have a multitude of projects on the go? Me – GUILTY! I’m also guilty of reading multiple books at the same time though.

Katie Style – Crafty, but Lazy

• Dress – JC Penney
• Vest – self-dyed and self-made
• Necklace – self-made
• Belt – thrifted
• Shoes – Naturalizer

I’m not very creative when it comes to altering and diy-ing my own clothing. Partially because I’m lacking in skills and resources, partially because I’m lazy. But even I can cut holes in things. Tada!

This vest started out as a large piece of fabric that I reverse tie dyed and wore as a scarf. But then it lost its scarfy appeal so I measured some arm holes, snipped away, and made a waterfall vest.

Here are some other lazy crafting exploits:

• Reverse tie dyeing
• Make a half-shredded jersey necklace
• Anthropologie necklace knock-off
• Check out our Projects, Tips, Recipes and Tutorials page for lots more DIY-ness from The Interrobangs

I got stuck…

Be sure to check out the plethora of craftiness over at Everybody, Everwear!

Katie Style – Someday Seagulls and Mutant Pac-Man

• Dress – thrifted
• Drapey vest – self-dyed and made
• Cardigan – Mama’d
• Belt – thrifted
• Necklace – truche via The Rocket Scientist
• Shoes – Target

There was a thunderstorm today, so you get to see the blank wall above one of my many bookshelves. It won’t be blank for long – soon a (hot pink) flock of seagulls will be there, hopefully not running so far away.

If they flew away, they might look something like this:

I made this vesty/drapey thingy out of the material I reverse tie dyed eons ago. Just referenced a blazer for arm hole distance, snipped away, and viola!

Behind me, for those interested, are such exciting tomes as Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience, Evaluation in Organizations, and Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation. Actually, that last one is pretty exciting, especially if you’re an Australian redback spider (see “Chapter 6: How to Make Love to a Cannibal”).

But the real star of today’s photos isn’t a book on the sexy sex of animals, but my necklace.

Can you tell what it is? It looks like a mutant Pac-Man, but it’s the outline of Germany and the heart is where The Rocket Scientist is. It’s my early birthday present, and TRS even signed up for an Etsy account to get it. Collective “awww” on three.

In Which Millie Paints an Umbrella and Doesn’t Think it Through

So I bought a better umbrella than the flabby collapsible purse size one that I’ve been slinging for the past year or so, and I got one with stiff arms and a pointy top. You know, a proper umbrella. It’s clear, which is nice for visibility purposes, but it had a border around the bottom of thin zebra-y print black and white, which just did not look right. But it was on sale, and I thought “I’ve got fabric ink at home! No problem”, and after getting it home, promptly painted the zebra print border with plain black ink. It looks miles better now, except I realized after I’d painted the whole thing that screen ink needs to be set with heat, and I’m not sure how hot I can get the umbrella fabric (which is typical umbrella fabric, and feels nylon-y to me). Then I checked the instructions on the ink, and it says don’t use it on nylon. Clearly this needs to be waterproofed before I use it, but I’m a bit stumped. I can try to heat set it, but I’m not convinced it’ll work. I thought about coating it in a good pose of clear nail polish (of which I have lots), but again, not sure of the durability (or the stiffness issue — the fabric needs to bend when the umbrella is collapsed) of it.

So, internet, any bright ideas?

Adventures in Chair Reupholstering

Want to see how this:

Became this?:

Me too! More after the jump.

Chevron Madness

I have been obsessing over chevron patterns for the past couple months, but other than pinning pillows I like over on Pinterest, I just couldn’t figure out a way to incorporate the sassy zigzags into my house without adding more furniture. Enter the Seussically coloured armoire in need of a makeover (previously a bright purple with grey/blue framing), and it’s makeover back to white and terrible attempt at glazing (I wanted to give it that ‘antiqued’ look, but it went soooooo wrong!). Needless to say, I won’t subject your poor doe eyes to that atrocity, but instead regal you with my three day, 8 hour endeavor into the chevron armoire makeover!

Calculator and ruler – check! I measured and drew on this grid. After starting to tape the first half of the chevrons my arms got tired. I was also about 5 hours into this project and there was a lot of bashing in of walls upstairs, but the noise stopped, so I thought it might be safe to go upstairs.

The next day. House intact, no large holes in walls upstairs, but new wiring for entrance inside light going well, phew! Finish chevron taping.

Now on day 3. Paint in the lines my pretty silver chevrons. Silver paint from dollar store. Paint 2 coats, wait about an hour.

Taking off the tape while it was still damp I got some pretty clean lines. In some areas small amounts of silver paint peeled off, but those were easily touched up. Now that the paint is cured that silver paint is not going anywhere.

I may still have my grid in these pictures, but I used a white eraser and scrubbed all those marks off. I really like how it turned out. It’s still simple and elegant, not too busy as I feared. I wouldn’t want it to become a circus!

Step 1 in my basement spare bedroom decorating missing completed! Step 2? Painting the brass bedframe we found at a garage sale last weekend a delightful and happy peacock blue. Next step after that, finding a bed.

It has been a busy summer of home projects, and furniture makeovers. Currently our shed holds these projects: 4 antique doors, 2 chairs to be reupholstered, 1 bedframe, 1 frame… and I’m sure there is more.

Do you have a DIY fever? Chevron fever? Taking on too many projects? Busy upcycling, crafting, or addicted to Pinterest? Tell!

Garage Sales are my Summer Thrifting

I can’t get enough garage sales in the summer! I have picked up furniture (chairs, tables and mirrors), home accents, clothing, and small appliances. For success you just have to have a bit of a creative vision and a rough list of things you are looking for. Pretty much like thrifting, but the findings can be so diverse.

We tend to go out around 8 on a Saturday morning and make the rounds nearby local towns and countryside. Afterward, as we are running errands or visiting people throughout the weekend we will stop by at random sales we spot along the way. It always seems like the most unlikely places that provide the greatest finds. On Sunday evening at 8pm we spotted a yard sale on a rural road and picked up an antique chair! You never know what you will find.

I found this side table painted dark brown and gave it makeover, my offer of $2 was accepted. Never to be the solidest or heaviest table, but I love the front cutouts. The ceramic horse is missing an ear and had normal colouring, but a coat of glossy yellow Tremclad gave it a fresh modern look. This horse left it's country home for $0.50.

Reasons to love garage sales:

• You can barter for lower prices
• Later in the day = better prices, so don’t feel bad for sleeping in
• Cheaper prices than thrift stores
• You never know what you’ll find!

Do you live for the garage sales in the summer, or do you prefer to sleep in on the weekend? What is your best garage sale find? Do you have names for different kinds of garage sales? (We assess and drive by Kids Crap sales) Have you picked up furniture from the side of the road? Let’s have it!

How to Take Over the Ottoman Empire

No, we are not fighting the Turks, but celebrating the completion of the large footrest and coffee table that is now filling out the giant gap in my living room.

I can not claim all the glory of creating this piece of furniture, but I can accept most of it. I did find this treasure on the side of the road and convince S. to pick it up.

I did successfully pester S. to make it into an ottoman and was the creative director and visionary of it’s new form.

I did do some sanding. Keyword, some. I offered a lot of creative direction. Creativity is everything!

I stained this sucker.

Then applied two coats of polyurethane to give it this glossy look, sanding between coats.

And I sourced the fabric and lead the upholstering process.

That is the story of how our new ottoman was made. I know you are inquiring minds, so yes, the wood is maple. I know, you’re in awe.

Thrifted Lamp Makeover

About a month ago I posted about these trophy style lamps I bought, and I’m pleased to say, my DIY transformation is complete!

I took off the old accordion shade, leaving behind the frame and the inside of the the shade, then I gave the shade new life and shape with this gray fabric I picked up from a local thrift store. The lamp base was sprayed with white glossy Krylon. I am really enjoying the look and feel of these lamps. They are providing a much brighter light than the previous living room lamps, which though very nice, have now been relegated to the bedroom.

And now for the inferior before picture.

Millie will be happy to see that I’ve finally settled on two new fabrics for my next living room decorating projects. The first one will be for the ottoman/coffee table, and the second for the sofa pillows.

I have really been drawn into decorating lately, and thrifting and garage sale hunting for the home.

A final note to Canadian eyeglasses wearers, Clearly Contacts is giving away 10,000 pairs of free glasses tomorrow. You’re welcome! (I got mine two weeks ago when they had the same promo).

Getting Crafty – Lamps With Feelings

I saved these lamps from the thrift store, and they will be receiving new life. The biggest draw was the trophy like body on these, and don’t be mistaken, they are quite solid. And heavy. Let’s see what they looked like before.

Brassy!

Those accordion shades had to go. I ended up cutting them off and leaving the lining intact. I liked that the shade was nice and simple, basically a drum. Actually the circumference of the top is two inches smaller than the bottom, and after the shade makeover, they do look a little more curvy than they did with the accordion shade. The accordion fabric was pretty sketchy after I cut it off, dust galore!

These lamps are pretty large, and I have not yet decided if they will live in the living room (and compete with the dining room pendant lamp), or the bedroom.

Getting Crafty – Chair Covers

My first crafty feat of the summer has been accomplished. Hear ye, hear ye, lo and behold: canvas chair covers.

P.S. The white line in front is made of soap, and has already washed off with the rain. Soap is good for fabric marking.

Chelsie’s DIY Endeavors

It is starting to feel like summer, so I’ve decided to start some DIY projects around the house. Here is a selection of what I have in store, and may blog about.

• 2 table lamps – Painting and new shades, possibly DIY fabric (but not the green tea grow it yourself variety)
• 1 Armoire – Painting, distressing and adding shelves
• 2 Canvas chair covers (for a neighbour)
• Painting the trim in the house (I will not subject anyone but myself to this one)
• Painting the master bedroom?
• Construct a bed frame?
• Lots of thrift and garage sale trips (I do those myself, right?!)

Also, I have been finding it easy to keep up a good style that has made me feel confident and good about myself, but I have been linking it to work, but not always dressing my best on weekends. I think I may have to make an effort to link dressing stylishly to everyday, regardless of going to work. I have found that by dressing up I feel better about myself, and my interactions with others. This summer, I will challenge myself to dressing my best everyday, while still keeping comfort in mind.

Upcycled Bicycle Tire Drum Pendant Light

This is the story of our DIY dining room pendant drum light.

It began with two tires found on the side of the road.