I’m still here…

I have run out of motivation to do any real work, and instead have been enjoying the wonderful weather. I’ve attended a couple of parties, helped two friends stage their homes for sale, entertained two of my sisters and generally have had a grand ol’ time :)

I did manage to capture a few of the little things that I’ve done lately.

I added some lace trim to a pair of shorts, for my daughter.

Picked up a few things while junkin’. Anyone know what this is?  My son thinks it might be the Buddhist symbol for fire.

An Ikea frame, ho hum, but the prints inside are adorable.

I bought two of these Toronto Maple Leaf plaques from the dollar store. They are already ready to hang, I just added some paper and elephant cut outs.

So that’s it. Enjoying myself and hope you are too.

I thought I was lucky

There are three things that I have been looking for that I refuse to pay retail price for; a camera tripod, a mailbox (mine was damaged by the mailman), and some swivel casters to make a furniture dolly.

I went to a few yard sales yesterday, which is not my favourite thing to do, but it was a good way to pass an hour. I found a tripod for $5, my luck was beginning   Hopefully my photos won’t be so blurry from now on, except for this one of course LOL

Then I went to GW today and found the swivel casters that I’ve been looking for, for $4!

Lastly I went to the grocery store to pick up some pina colada mix for the pool party I’m going to this afternoon, and realized that at some point I’ve lost my debit card   My luck has run out.

I came home and checked online to see where was the last place I have used it, and it was at the same grocery store that I was at already, so now I have to go back and hopefully it is there.

Ah well, there is a wonderful party waiting for me in an hours time. Happy Sunday all.

*updated to add, I found the card at the grocery store*

It’s a zoo in here

Recently I’ve been thinking about the many different types of animals that I have displayed in my decor.

I came upon this post by Kate (Centsational Girl) for BHG and decided to document my menagerie.

All of my animals were collected over time, with intention. I like them, not because they are trendy, but because they remind me of this magnificent world that we share.

This family of wood toads are my faves. Although they look grumpy, I don’t think they are. My mother in law gave these to me years ago, and she had them years before she gave them to me. Made out of some type of wood, I was encouraged to rub them by hand so the oils from my skin would make them shine.

 

Paper butterflies in a gradient

 

Mounted deer antler

The first one I found while Junkin and mounted it on a plaque originally meant for a spoon collection, the second one was given to me from a young man at work.

 

I have a set of these ceramic book ends. They were originally mint green, but a coat of glossy white took them from yuck to wow.

This brass partridge was a junkin find for a few bucks and I love it.

More brass birds. I think they are in love

And even more birds. This was cut out of vinyl using my cricut.

This fat bottomed hippo planter is the bomb!

Then there are the once living animals

And the most loved of all, is my standoffish cat, Ash. He may look mean, but he’s a sucky.

 

What about you? What critters do you have adorning your home?

Trouble pinning from Blogger blogs

Earlier today, Linda from It All Started with Paint emailed me to say that she tried to pin from my blog and received the following message:

I sent an email to the Pinterest team, but haven’t  received a response. Since then I’ve done some investigating and have found that I cannot pin from any Blogger blog!  If you are trying to pin from a Blogger blog, are you experiencing the same problem?

card catalogue wannabe

I love the look of card catalogues, but the price they are going for is way out of my league. And really, I don’t think I can cram another piece of furniture into my house.

I was watching t.v. and looking at my dresser turned media/storage unit and thought that the pulls, while nice enough, could use a boost.  I ordered a package of 10 plates from a U.S. company for $20, including shipping.

I have received a few emails asking where I bought my hardware;  you can find the plates at Woodworkingparts.com

The one's that I ordered are 3 1/2" with screws, nickel plated.  I bought the pulls/handles at Rona a couple of years ago.

I love the way they look and made my piece a little more contemporary and closer to my style.



We have a long weekend here to celebrate Victoria Day (that’s Queen Victoria lol) and I’ve taken two days off as well. I hope to get some things accomplished, but I’ve been so busy lately that it seems I get nothing done.  The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm, perfect for painting.

I drive by this sign on my street at least once a day.  I didn’t pay it much attention, I knew that it mean to slow down, children were playing in the area.



My son, who takes things quite literally, read it totally differently; slow children playing.  Cracks me up.

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Small change, big difference

I have had this picture frame for a long time, I remember that I got it at the GW for $3.99 and it’s from Pottery Barn.

The photo is of my daughter at Disney World back in 2009, when I took her for her 11th birthday. I love that picture and I love the frame, but the matting was boring.

I have never covered a mat before, but saw instructions in several places, so I gave it a try and it turned out great. A small change that cost a few pennies. 

By the way, Canada is eliminating pennies from their currency this year :(  What ever happened to the old adage “look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves” ?

New name signs

My good friend Dawn has two little girls. I feel horribly that although we don’t live far from each other, we don’t have time to get together.  I want to visit her family and didn’t want to arrive empty handed, so I made them each a sign for their rooms.
These were made with a 16” x 16” piece of wood, with the wood cut out where the frame is. The paper in the frames is temporary until they put their own photo’s in. I did each one in their favourite colour, blue and purple.


Who doesn't love brown paper packages?  I wrapped them in jute and added each of the girls names in scrabble tiles.

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Package Pals–from C.R.A.F.T

I am participating in a craft exchange, hosted by Jami at C.R.A.F.T.  A girl after my own heart, she likes to create things for free :)

My package pal is a young woman that lives on the beautiful island of Victoria in British Columbia. She is a math wiz and teaches school.

I put together this lined, burlap tote, with some burlap flowers, which she can use for her lunch or shoes or whatever.

She told me that she loves giraffes, so I cut out a bunch for her to use and put together some gift tags for her as well. I also included some butterfly cut outs that I made from paint chips.

I have a bunch of scrabble tiles and I thought it would be cute to put them on a bracelet with her name, if she is not a bracelet kind of gal, she can take them off and use them somewhere else.

 

This week I received my package pals package from Lisa!  Oh my goodness, this girl put me to shame!  She wrote me the sweetest letter, and I wrote her a tag that said “enjoy!”.  I’m glad to see that young people are more courteous than my ol’ butt. LOL

Lisa sent me such thoughtful things. Some fantastic and funky papers, some photo mount strips, a gold pen, two pop-up cards that she made herself and HAND WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS to make my own!  How incredibly thoughtful of her. There are also some paper flowers and a small canvas with acrylic paints; apparently I forgot to tell Lisa in my introduction, that I have zilch ability when it comes to painting or drawing Ha ha .

Thank you to Lisa and again to Jamie for allowing me to participate in this fun exchange.