thrifted dining room (a work in progress)

We've been super busy with life stuff around here, but one of the things I've been working on is my dining room. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures so instead I'll update you as I go, and I'll put it all together once it's all done. 

I posted about my new table here, and now I'm sprucing up the rest of the room. 

I bought a pair of lamps like this from the Thrift store recently. 

I didn't like the shades but I figured they were easy enough to change. 

The lamps were just the right size.

I had hoped to find drum shades but settled on these ones from Ikea. I'll keep looking though (which is why I left the plastic wrap on!). 

I didn't mind the white lamps, but wanted to add a bit of punch to the room.

So I painted them yellow. I used Americana acrylic paint (Moon Yellow). I also painted some of the brass with a metallic silver paint.

I haven't decided whether to glaze them to make them look old, add varnish to make them shiny or just leave them as is. But I do like how they pop against the blue walls.

The mirror still has to be hung on the wall. Right now it is just resting on the hutch that I also bought at the Thrift store a few months ago. More to come on that later.

A new runner is in the works too.

So little time, so much to do!

Thanks for stopping by.

airplane themed birthday

Evan is turning 4 next month and has requested an airplane-themed party for the big day.

I have a lot on my plate right now so to ease the workload I've rented out a location for the party.

airline ticket invitation

Now all I have to do is put together a few of the minor details.

Stay tuned!

table makeover - part 1

I've been looking for a pedestal table for our dining room for some time now. 

And last week, I found one at the Thrift store. 

It needed some TLC but was only $149, had two leaves and 6 chairs! I couldn't believe my luck!

I brought her home.

This is the only 'before' picture I have. It's disassembled but you get the idea.

I started with the table, and hope to paint and distress the chairs in the near future.

So I sanded. 

And sanded.

And grew big muscles.

Then I stained:

And varnished:

And today, we finally ate our first meal on our new table.

It was wonderful. 

And shiny.

Hmmm now let's see...

Yup, good enough for dancing on :)

welcome

I'm at a point in my life where I find it hard to make new friends. Sure I meet new people who I'm friendly with, but they aren't usually people I would necessarily consider close friends. And I don't think I'm alone when I say that it's much harder to make friends and meet like-minded people once you've hit your <ahem> thirty-somethings. I guess that is part of the allure with the blogging world - for me anyway. I get a chance to see what great ideas other moms are doing for their children, what people are crafting or sewing up, decorating or even baking. There's so much inspiration on the internet and I truly love having my blog. Although I 'check in' on my favourite blogs just about daily, these people aren't in my 'daily life'. 

A couple of years ago, I met a mom through my work who seems to share the same interests, ideas, parenting views and even tastes. I considered her to be much more like a friend than a 'client.' And I'm happy to have Natalie in my life as a friend now.

Natalie blames me for getting her 'hooked' on reading various blogs (tee hee) and recently made me this beautiful wreath; inspired from the one on the blog Made. She knew that I had been wanting to spruce up my front door and this would be the perfect addition. It is so rare to receive handmade gifts and they mean so much to me. I love it!

A vibrant red wreath made of lima beans! 

It's adorable but the door wasn't doing it any justice, so....

...I painted it.  

Much better, don't ya think?!

Even better :)

A freshly painted door with a new wreath to welcome friends new and old. Perfect.
Thanks Natalie!

holy smocks!

(sorry I couldn't resist)

Okay so Blogger was down yesterday and deleted my last post.

Here's a condensed version of what was here before...

I am in the process of making smocks for my son Evan's preschool. 

It's a cooperative preschool, which means parents pay a lower fee by volunteering to help out in the classroom each month, cleaning the school, etc.

This particular school is a really good one and has been around for quite some time.  

I offered to help out with any sewing they might need and they gave me some bright yellow fabric to make some new smocks.

The teacher wanted a panel of flannel on the front of them - I'm not quite sure why but I'm guessing for extra absorption.

The fabric isn't really fun to work with and bunches really easily so the next smocks I make will have bias tape edging to give them some needed weight.

What do you do to help out at your child's school?

happy mother's day!

I'd like to wish all moms, moms-to-be and nurturers of children a happy mother's day!

Here's a little peek at what the kids and I made this week for their moms.

We had completed these earlier in the week... that is until I watered the plant! That's when the hand prints started to wash off!! I had white washed just old plain terracotta pots with acrylic paint but the hand prints were put on with washable (water-based) paint. So as soon as I watered the flowers, the paint came off. <sigh>

We redid the hand prints in acrylic paint and then I sprayed them with a clear gloss to protect them even further.

I included this cute little poem that I've used for a few different hand print crafts over the years. It's one of my favourites. My apologies that I don't know who wrote it or where it comes from exactly.

What did you give your mother today?

a dress for barbie

Malcolm is attending a classmate's birthday party so I needed to come up with a gift. 
My favourite thing to give - especially to a child - is a book. But I wanted to include a little something for play as well. I was told the birthday girl loves anything Barbie, but I figured she likely has lots of Barbies already. 

Every girl likes a new dress every once in a while, right?
So here it is, Barbie's new outfit:

I searched the internet for a pattern and found this cute one here. I altered it a bit by skipping the straps (for a more formal look), and by stitching the back closed - about halfway up from the bottom. I stitched in just two snaps on the top (at the back) and made a rolled hem with my serger.

Of course, a girl never has enough accessories either so I made Barbie a handbag as well:

Barbie's Handbag

I didn't need a pattern (just eyeballed it). I made it out of leftover vinyl and some coordinating cotton fabric for the rosette. And voila.

Barbie is ready for a night on the town.

framed

Here's a fun, personalized little gift I made recently.

decoupaged frame

I bought just a plain old shadow box - but really you could do this with a regular frame. 

Just be sure to choose a frame that is flat, without much detail, such as this:

It's also a lot easier to work on if the glass is removable (mine unfortunately was not). 

I picked up some scrap booking papers and printed off some images from the ole internet to glue onto the frame. Since I was giving this frame to a little boy, I chose images of some of his favourite things such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Cars, monkeys, robots and spaceships - ya know typical boy stuff.

Once all of the wood was covered, I added two coats of Modge Podge to seal it. Then I mounted a 5 x 7 picture onto some coordinating paper and inserted into the frame. Nothing too busy though, as the frame itself is busy enough. I felt it was important to visually have space between the actual photo and the frame, such as a matte or just a paper backing.

This is a fairly simple gift idea but one with big impact. It serves not only as a reminder of a moment in time, but also of a little boy's favourite things during that time.