Christmas Craft # 1 - Advent Calendar

I know it’s a little early, but once December rolls around, I’m busy every weekend with my entertaining biz. If I’m going to get anything done, I have to do it now.

I made this with supplies that I had on hand and a downloaded pillow box file from Birds Cards. If you haven’t been to her site, you will be happy you do if you are interested in paper crafting. Oh, and all of her files are free!



I cut the numbers out of the middle of the snowflakes, added some brown kraft paper that I cut in strips, attached some burlap to a piece of wood from the garage, and pounded in some nails.



The hardest part was lining up the nails.  I have zero math skills so I use a piece of tape to mark my holes, then move it down to the next row for a perfect match. Lot’s of trial and error on where to place each nail, but once I got it, I didn’t have to measure for the next rows.





My kids are too old for this, so it’s going to my great nieces that are 5 and 3. I can’t wait to fill each box with little treasures.

Sharing at

Uncle Billy’s dresser–it ain’t what it used to be

My sister was given this dresser from her partners uncle many years ago. It was a little dinged, cherry wood chest on chest, a little bland and very 50’s.  I was sure I took a before picture, but I can’t seem to find it, but I’m sure you’ve seen a hundred of these.



I painted it white, but that was a complete snore fest. I had to come up with a temporary way to dress it up. I say temporary because I change my mind, a lot. If I had painted a design on it, I would have to change the whole thing when I changed my mind about how I wanted it to look. In comes vinyl and my cricut.

I had read that you could spray paint vinyl, so I gave it a shot. I was undecided on what colour I wanted to use, so I sprayed three colours; copper, gold and silver.



I then traced the allium with SCAL, made a few different sizes and cut it out.



When I put the transfer tape on, it pulled some of the silver off but it turned out to be just what it needed, at least I am telling myself that.



I like the design and will hold on to it as is for a while, until I get my next hair brained scheme.



Sharing here:

New kitchen faucet

The faucet that I had was leaking and rusty.  I knew it needed to be replaced, but it was not a job I had done before. I armed myself with a whole bunch of video instructions, waited for a sale and bought a new faucet for $84, which was $100 off the regular price!

It only took an hour and a half, which would have been reduced by half an hour had I had the foresight to charge my drill first. doh!

It was quite simple, so I’m not sure why I was so scared to do it. I had to drill a new hole because my old faucet had two holes where the faucet handles were. I borrowed a cut saw and other than that it’s basic tools; a couple of wrenches, a screwdriver, some plumbers putty and tape and a light source.

If you need a new faucet, tackle the job yourself, it’s pretty easy.

A pinteresting day

I’m bored today. I have a whole bunch of things that I should be doing, but I can’t seem to commit to any one thing.  There have been a few things that I found on Pinterest that I thought would be fun to do.

I used a cork fitted with large paperclips to display some photos in candleholders.  That was easy.

I also found a pin that gave instructions on how to make bookmarks from scraps of fabric. I don’t have lots of cute fabric, so mine may read a little dull, but they turned out ok. My method differed in that I used plastic in the middle and sewed them together using the zipper foot.

Back to reality; must get the grocery shopping done.   Have a great week.

Velvet pumpkins

I have been smitten with the fabulous velvet pumpkins that I have seen.  I made these for my BFF (hopefully she is busy in the kitchen and not on her ipad reading this!) as a thank you for hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her home today.

Happy thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! We have so much to be thankful for!

Updated teen bedroom

I know that it wasn’t too long ago that I did my daughters tiny bedroom, but she asked for another book case in her room, and therefore I had to rearrange it to fit, and that led to another thing and so on and so on and so on…  We all know how that goes.





The last time I did her room, I had her stamp of approval, but this time I wanted her to decide on how it should look. She dog sat our neighbours dog for a week and earned the money to buy new bedding. From that she decided that the walls should be white and the accent colour orange. 

Painting over the black stripes was a nightmare!  Many coats of primer and paint later, I finally got it covered. Here is how it used to look, which I loved. But it’s not my room :(



I plucked the gingerbread corbels from the front of my house to use to make her a laptop desk.  The stool was picked out of the garbage at work, I just removed the back of it so that it didn’t take up too much visual space.
The bookcases we already had; they are Markor bookcases from Ikea and to my mind, were the best bookcases they ever made.



There is still lots of space for more books. She doesn’t have a dresser in here, but I have added shelves to her closet, which once it’s painted I will show you. 

All we have left to purchase is a carpet, or maybe I will reuse her old floor cloth and make something else with it.

A headboard in the dining room, with a change

Thank you to all of you that gave me so many great ideas.  There were a few that left some awesome opinions but didn’t provide any way for me to contact them to say thanks, so thanks.

I would love to add drapes, but it’s a really small dining room and I am also counting on the wall to hold the headboard up, since I have no way to attach it to the bench.

Anyway, I painted it white, no surprise there eh? lol  And you know I love my green accents, so I added those back in to the room. I brought up my wool rug from storage since it is now fall. I love this rug, but wool rugs shed so much, that I have to vacuum all the time and that is definitely not how I like to spend my free time. Ha ha.  I bet you don’t either.



With it painted white, I was able to move it to the right a little more and the legs are not so obvious and it’s closer to centered on the window. It will still drive me bonkers, but it is what it is.



I like it best at nighttime.

I am still slugging away at my daughters room, but I'm almost done. I have had a couple of really tough months this summer and haven't gotten to many projects around the house. My mum was sick and in hospital for a long time, while she was there she had a stroke. She is doing much better and has been transferred to a rehab facility.  Now my dad is not well and it’s frustrating to get him the help he needs. I've also been extremely busy at work, working lots of overtime.  Hopefully things will be back to normal soon, whatever normal is.

Sharing at

Barn board coat rack

A young man at my work comes from a rural farm and often visits home on the weekends. I asked him if he had any barn board and he looked at me like I had gone crazy, wondering why I wanted any. He has an endless supply and if I think of anything that I really want to make, I have it at my fingertips.
I decided to start out slowly with a sample piece that he brought to me. He figures the barn is at least 100 years old!

I did nothing to it as I thought it was perfect as is. I found a package of 5 cast iron hooks at the thrift store, which made this project $3. Now we have another spot in our limited storage area to hang stuff.

A headboard, in the dining room?

I am working on redecorating my daughters bedroom, and I had the headboard that I used in her room up for sale. As I brought it downstairs to go to it’s buyer, it struck me that it might work behind the bench in the dining room!



Maybe a different colour?  It’s a little wide for the bench, so the legs are visible, and the window is not centered on the wall, which drives me bonkers, but what do you think?

Stop paying for cable tv, here’s how

In order to work on my home and diy projects, I have had to cut out some expenses. Last year at this time, I said goodbye to cable television and saved myself about $75 a month.

Trust me, as someone that grew up on cable, it scared the pants off of me. As a family, we weren’t spending much time watching tv, instead favouring our computers and Netflix.

Here is something that most people don’t know: Advertisers pay for the programs you watch on tv, not the cable companies, the cable companies only bring the signal to your home. With the switch to Digital programming, getting tv programming for free got a whole lot easier.

This is what I did to get free tv shows.  I purchased an indoor/outdoor antenna. and since my lcd tv is an older model and did not have a digital tuner in it, I also purchased a digital tuner.

If you can see past the dust, you can see just how clear my tv picture is. And it’s in High Definition.







All I had to do was connect the converter to my tv via a coaxial cable, then another coaxial cable to the antenna.

Total cost, $70! It paid for itself in one month!

I get digital (many of the stations are in high definition) tv for free!  I love how free feels :)  

There are several factors that will determine how many stations you will receive, such as your proximity to digital over the air signals, and where you place your antenna.  I am not an expert, I only know what has worked for me. 

There is an excellent article on how you too can get your tv programming for free here

Let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer (leave an email address if you don’t have one attached to your profile). I hope that I have been able to save you some money.

Update: Some of you asked which model of antenna I have, but you did not leave your email address to respond to.

This is the model I have, but there are lots and lots out there!  Go to your local electronics store and you will easily find them in all shapes and sizes and price ranges.

Eaglestar PRO Digital Indoor / Outdoor HDTV Antenna

HDTV Indoor/Outdoor
Passive Antenna
Anti-UV coating and waterproof design lightweight. Compact size and easy to install with dipole in-built for the excellent UHF and VHF band signal reception

Frequency Range VHF: 174-230 MHZ, UHF: 470-862 MHZ
Antenna Gain VHF: 30 dB, UHF: 36 dB
Impedance 75 Ohms
Noise Figure ≤ 3.5 dB 

Chalkboard wall countdown

I want to share with you what my daughter made for me, for my upcoming birthday. It’s a big one :)

This is the chalkboard wall in my kitchen.

When put in this perspective, I feel old. LOL 

My friends are hosting a birthday party for me this weekend. The last time I had a birthday party was when I was 40, so I’m pretty excited.

Wishing you a great weekend.

spoon chrysanthemum mirror

I was inspired by Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating, after seeing her amazing spoon mirror, figured I would give it a go.

I am an impatient crafter and really don’t have a lot of time, but I should have taken the time to be a little more careful with this.  It got a little wonky but I kept working away at it :)  Good thing I’m not a perfectionist.



For the instructions, visit Addicted2Decorating

Where has the month gone?

It has been 2 weeks since I shared anything with you all!  I think that is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting. I’ve been so busy and it’s been so hot.  The projects that I want to work on involve being outside, and the weather has not cooperated.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my daughter this month. She is so much fun to be with; she sees the world as such a wonderful place, she is quick to laugh and smile, her light shines.  I’ve been driving her back and forth to her volunteer job at the church, working as a counsellor in training. Just for fun we decided to document the emotional roller coaster of a 14 year old. LOL

We also took a trip to the beach with her best friend.

The beach is Wasaga Beach. It is the worlds longest fresh water beach. Absolutely gorgeous. You can walk out forever and the water will still be at your waist.

We also went to a family picnic that got rained out.  Torrential rain. Lightning touched the ground right next to a friend. Eek!

Three of my nephews, the one in the middle is the eldest son of my sister that passed away in January. He is still in so much pain, but is trying his best to move on.  The other two boys are my great-nephews and are absolutely adorable.  My family is multi-national

I did manage to find a couple of thrifty treasures.  This camel teapot from Anthropologie was missing it’s lid, so the next logical thing to do is make it a flower pot :)

I found some fabric remnants for $2 that I couldn’t resist. One cushion has been made, a couple more to go.

Have you heard of Jumping Clay?  My sisters friend is the distributor to Canada and passed me along a sample package of the colours.  Clearly I am lacking any sculpture skills, and I hope you can figure out that this is (supposed to be) a mushroom. LOL

So that’s it.  The month has flown by. I’ve been able to read the blogs I follow and am always inspired. I have a dresser that I’m going to be working on. I might finally get out the spray gun that I bought 2 months ago, but haven’t been able to use because of the horrible weather.

Mel

I am sharing my thrifty finds at my favourite thrifty party.