golden labs

Picked up this $2 sleeping labrador decor piece at my favourite store Dollarama yesterday.  After priming it and giving it a couple of coats of satin finish gold paint - he's now a proper golden lab.  And he has my golden lab awfully curious...

mirrors & bows

Here's a little DIY to liven your holiday decor... craft store round mirrors adhered to the wall with StickTac in the shape of a festive bow.  Cheap and fun and high impact.

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Yes, the Santa Clause parade has come around so it's time to whip out the decorations for my favourite time of year.  Here's just a quick glance, I've gone much more retro this year than last with some coloured lights on my DIY tree.

sitting pretty

Chair number 2 is now done from this trio of pint sized seats.  Soon Alice will have her full tea party set.

painted rug version 3.0

So that time has come for a new painted rug in the bedroom.

I'm currently deciding between this gorgeous rug from Anthropologie

and this rug that I can not find the source for.

Both have the yellows, oranges, blues and creams that I have throughout the rest of my apartment and the smaller patterns will be a great change from the graphic flowers I have now.  And both are warm options for fall/winter.  Which one do you prefer?

good fortune

Added a little bit of encouragement to my entry hall this week.  I've been holding onto this fortune for about a year... now I just have to take the leap.

This is a simple art project that cost me $1 - I took a Dollarama shadow frame, some left over linen fabric and the fortune.  That's it.

most favourite

Of all the treasures and vignettes in my home, my favourite item is my photo board.  It's an oversized bulletin board that is wrapped with a taupe linen and holds a collection of black and white photos of my family.  Although in need of some updating with some recent photos, this graphic backdrop is a great way to display family photos in a cohesive collection.  It's moved from the dining room in my last place to the main wall in my living room of my current apartment and will remain a fixture anywhere I live.  That's how much I love it. Here it is in all it's glory over the past few years.

a tale of the dining room lights

Since moving in to my apartment almost two years ago I've been struggling to find a decent and inexpensive lighting solution for the dining room table.

For 6 months I lived with this impromptu option...

And the last 4 months... this DIY mess...

Enter basic, cheap and always classic paper shade from IKEA...

You just can't beat the soft light of a paper shade.  Now I'm a happy camper.  Or diner.  Or whatever.

benching it

While parking the Jeep the other night I noticed this out by the road waiting for the garbage truck: a fully intact and solid curved wood bench.

So naturally I picked it up and lugged it into my apartment.  And following a trip to IKEA and this nifty little equation,

I'm now the proud owner of a pretty stylish bench.  Which lets face it, operates more as a catchall as opposed to seating, but hey, at least the stuff is now off the table top.

what i accomplished this weekend

A cheap and cheerful lighting fixture and a DIY bench.  More to follow.

coincidence?

Is it a coincidence that the latest issue of House and Home has the exact same chair that I rescued from the curb, mind you, without the gaping hole in the seat?

alice's tea party

Remember this trio of chairs?

Well, they are 1/4 of the way to becoming a tea party set for Alice.  I completed one of the chairs this weekend.....

Alice, as you can see, loves it...

And I only have two more chairs to go and a table on the way.

metal pots

These metal pots, one aluminum and one copper pot, I restored from the fire and now house plants in my mom's garden.  The copper one is starting to patina again - and it will only get better with age.

folding stool | the how to

Remember this folding chair/stool that I posted about a few weeks ago? 

Well, I finally got around to the how-to.

So here goes.

Take one old folding chair/stool frame and remove all dust, debris and hornet's nests [yes, really] from the frame. [And please try not to be blinded by how yellow my floor looks in this photo!]

Get out your supplies - staple gun, measuring tape and good heavy duty fabric.  That's all you need.

Position the folding frame to the finished height you'd like the stool/chair to sit.  Measure the total length, up and over the frame to the underside of the other side.  Measure as well the total width of the stool.

Cut two pieces of fabric to the dimensions you just measured.

Divide the length and width into equal sections and cut strips from your fabric - you'll end up with one long set for the length and one shorter set for the width.  Since I was going to that rough edged, frayed and worn look, I simply ripped all my lengths to get raw edges.  If you're going for a cleaner look you'll have one more step that involves hemming the edges.

Staple in place a centre strip along the length to hold the frame in place.  Staple the rest of the long strips in place filling the width of the chair.

No imagine that I didn't get forget to take photos of the next step and imagine that I'm now weaving the short pieces through the long pieces. 

Once you've finished weaving simply whipstitch the edges so everything stays in place.

Et Voila!  Finished chair. 

But I have enough chairs in my apartment and wanted a small stool, occasional table, foot stool, magazine stand, remote control holder etc etc instead.  So I flipped the back down and now have this in my living room.

Perfect.