Candle Makeover

I love candles. They're pretty, smell nice and are great decorative items.

I had a few candles around the house that looked like this. They needed a little makeover!

I had a huge supply of decorative paper and decided to make a night out of it!

I cut the paper and wrapped it around the candle, gluing it in place on the back of the candle. I dug out some burlap and raffia from my craft box and tied that around the candle.

I had an empty spot on my buffet table that fit it perfectly.

Ta da!

Entryway Makeover Part 3

Our entryway has undergone a few changes over the last few months. After repainting the walls, removing the carpet, and painting the stairs, another new change was made.

If you need to catch up, view my previous post on my entryway here.

For years, we hung our coats and displayed our shoes in our teeny, tiny entryway. It was cramped, messy, and uninviting. I've always loved having an entryway table to decorate, and felt this house was missing it.

BEFORE

I had my father build a table measured to size and reused an older mirror I had stored in the basement. The table served as a perfect spot to display our "Family Rules". Since our front door has no window, the hallway is quite dark. So, to brighten things up I plugged in my Scentsy lamp, which also creates a welcoming smell for anyone who comes in the front door! I have a thing obsession for baskets and thought the bottom shelf would be a perfect home for one. It's perfect for storing a pair of mittens, keys or miscellaneous items.

This project cost me $0 since I reused all my decor from other areas in the house. Bonus.

Accent Walls cont'd

 Remember my post on accent walls ? I took the spare time I had this weekend to do something about the bare wall in the girls room. I would've loved to throw on a fresh coat of paint, but I hate painting and I wasn't mentally prepared for the chaos that accompanies it. I did cover up a few holes in the walls, and I've accepted that at least 1 wall will have to be painted. Just not today.
I still loved the idea of framed baby pictures and searched around for some stick on wall art that I could incorporate with it.

This was my end result.

I love pictures. I love black and white. I love matted prints.
I used Wall Pops stick and peel wall art. I've used them in the past and loved them. They come in lots of neat designs and funky colors and easily peel off without peeling any paint.
These particular stripes were on sale at my local hardware store so I scooped them up! Who doesn't love a sale!

My aunt took this shot of Lily
and it fully describes her entire personality.

Jessee circa 2008 getting ready for our wedding.
I've always loved this picture of her.

Accent Walls

Now that the girl's bedroom makeover has finally started. (You can check out their new floors here) Jessee and Lily decided to take down their old posters and stickers and make a few new changes to spruce up their walls. To be honest, all the walls could use some TLC. I'm still contemplating whether or not I want to fill in all the holes and repaint.

So much work.

For now I've been looking up ideas for the large square wall behind their bed. It makes for a perfect accent wall. I'm a big fan of easy and frugal projects so I'm thinking of using some leftover paint and painting like I did in Noah's room or finding a stick-on mural.

These are some accent walls that caught my attention and some cute ideas I'd like to incorporate into their bedroom.

You know I've got a thing for chalkboard paint!

Love this!

I love everything in this room. Bookshelves, baby pictures and paper flowers.

Love the personalized bulletin boards.

The floor that almost wasn't

We have 1 room in the house that is carpeted. It has served as a bedroom for all of us at one point, and now permanently houses the girls. Carpet is nice and soft on your feet and keeps the room warm. But when it houses children, and animals, it never stays very clean and I was never one to take the time to fully vacuum or steam clean it to keep it as preserved as I would've liked. I steam cleaned it once, and for some reason it had a hard time drying properly. It smelled and still looked dirty.
So one day last July, I had enough of the stinky, dingy carpet and pulled up a corner to check what was underneath. After the second layer of disco themed carpet there was some nicely shaded plywood. I thought if I ripped the carpet up, we could live with just plywood for the summer while it was warm and then plan for a floor redo in the fall. We had some left over flooring from our last flooring project and Mike and my father had installed flooring before, I was sure it would be no problem to do it again. It seemed like a really easy project.
However, as I ripped up more carpet I realized there was a thick spongy underlay glued to the plywood.

Awesome.

Days later, after hours of back-breaking scraping, spraying and sanding I was left with this.

Yuck.

Not all of the underlay would come off the floor so little pieces of it would constantly stick to your socks and feet as you walked over it. I found myself vacuuming and sweeping daily. We threw down some rugs and mats for the girls to walk on, but it only helped a bit. Not to mention how ugly it looked. With busy schedules, budgets and zero knowledge on floor installation, the girls room stayed like this..for 6 months.

Ugh.

Then we finally bought some flooring !! Luckily we have some amazing relatives who work for beer who offered to install the flooring for us.

This room has never looked so good. I'm still on a happy house high!

One house project down.

DIY Kid's Art Display

Noah still has a blank space on his wall that was driving me nuts. He also has a large pile of crafts he brings home from preschool and coloring pages we do at home. I allow myself to recycle some things, I have to. Our fridge is becoming a display board for his work, and we're running out of room (not to mention how chaotic it's looking) So I came up with a solution for his room to display his art proudly.

I found a perfect sized board in the basement

I painted on some chalkboard paint. Please note I've had this jar of paint for 3 years now. I've used it several times and it's still in great condition.

I used a hot glue gun to glue on some clothespins.

Ta da !!

Almost Christmas Decorating

I like to take my time when it comes to Christmas decorations. Right now I bring out winter themed decor like snowmen, snowflakes, and white lights. It's my way of easing into the cold, winter season. But once December 1st hits, out come the Santas, elves and reindeer!
Here are a few cute and easy Winter decorations I wanted to share.


My aunt would make these snowflake cans every year. Unfortunately I have none left to show off, but the crafty people at Color Buzz did. Simply take an old tin can, nail in some holes and paint on some snowflakes. Toss in a tea light or battery operated votive and you've created a warm and festive light.

My no-hassle version of these cans this year is from the Scentsy collection. A gorgeous plug-in warmer that lights up and fills my house with delicious aromas.

My step-mother used to make Ice Candles for our holiday parties. They lined our walkway lighting the way for our guests and I always thought they looked so neat all lit up in the snow. It's basically a large ice cream container full of frozen water and a candle. You can find an easy tutorial here.

 How cute is this? Turn your closet door (or any door) into a friendly snowman. With a little felt and 2-sided tape my crafty friend added some seasonal cheer to her kitchen.

Every year I throw this together to create a snowy scene on our front step. I added some winter accents from Dollarama and glued on a festive bow.
Adding white battery operated lights really tops it off, and they came with timers so they turn on when it gets dark and turn off at bedtime. I didn't have to worry about remembering to plug them in, or go out in the cold to turn them off late at night. I like easy things.

Happy Winter !

Outdoor Decorating for Fall

My love of fall continues with some outdoor decor ideas! Fall is such a beautiful time of year and decorating for the season can be really fun and easy. The whole fall theme is based on leaves, sticks and pumpkins. You can find most of those outside, except pumpkins, unless you grow them, which is at the top of my list to do for next year. You can never, ever have too many pumpkins.

Here are a few decorations I whipped up this year!

I made this wreath from vines that grew in my backyard. I left some of the leaves and berries on the vines to add some color to it and I created a small embellishment out of just leaves and berries to tie on the side. My dreary barn door seemed like the perfect place to add a pop of color!

 

We have a beautiful old bench that we used in our backyard, but since the colder weather is here we aren't spending as much time back there. I moved it against a tree overlooking our front yard, and dressed it up with a few fall accents. 

I found this antique watering can in our barn (fate couldn't have been more on time) and filled it with some plants that grow all over our yard and added a little pumpkin.

Fall mums are in bloom, and full of color. I picked one up to place by my front door and continued with my love of pumpkins and added a few more!

I'll have two more posts this week celebrating my love for Fall! Then it's on to Halloween!

The office

Happy Monday!
Remember my old post on Monday Mornings? It could very well brighten up your day!

Now that Madison is in grade 4, taking french immersion she thought she should take things seriously and asked to have a desk in her bedroom. When Mike's sister moved away for school, she left a small desk I had given her and an old chair in our barn so we thought we'd move it in.
This desk used to be an old telephone table in my childhood home. It stood in our hallway and housed a rotary dial phone and wrought iron chair with a red cushion. My father removed the drawers and refinished it years ago. It bounced around to several family homes and now it's found it's way back to me. I'm a ridiculously nostalgic person, so I'm thrilled to have a piece of furniture that I fondly remember while growing up.
It's a small desk space so there was enough room to store just the necessities.

Above the desk I hung a cork and memo board combo. It's great to write reminders for herself, and she has her school calendar posted so she can plan her week.
I absolutely love Alphabet Photography. I had purchased this frame at Dollarama months ago not knowing what I would do with it, and finally I filled it with letters spelling out her nickname "mads".

I used a cute basket I had purchased at Dollarama to hold her pens and markers. She had a princess tin that she liked that she uses to house extra notepads and tacks. A desk lamp was our choice for this space because it's small and has a moveable neck so she can adjust the lighting. Of course, what's a desk without a family photo!

She now has lots of room for her books and schoolwork. She has an organized area for pens and markers and she can stay up to date on her school happenings. It's also a great spot for her to be creative and write stories, which she loves to do!

I'm no Martha Stewart, I basically just threw together what I had to create a quiet space of her own. Here are some inspirational Kid's desks that put mine to shame.

Beach Memory Jars

On Fathers Day we took our first family trip of the year to the beach. At bedtime Madison called me into her room to thank me for the wonderful day we had, and told me how much she loved the beach and couldn't wait to go back. That made such a lasting impression on me, and I didn't realize how much it meant to her. It was Noah's first real experience, since he's only 2, he's always been too little to really enjoy it.We visited the beach more frequently than most summers, and our kids made some lasting memories.

Throughout the sunny season I collected sand, shells and rocks whenever we went to the beach. Now that the beach weather was slowly coming to an end, I decided I would finally put the rocks and shells I collected to good use. I created memory jars of our beach trips that everyone so enjoyed, so the kids could remember what great memories we created.

I bought a few jars from Dollarama and layered the sand, rocks and shells. I chose a jar with a top that could stay tightly closed and would be difficult for the kids to get off. I tied some craft straw around it with a label that read "Beach Memories 2013". I made one for each of the girls to have in their bedrooms.

They loved them! This a great keepsake or gift idea.
Decorating with sand and shells is easy and cheap. Who doesn't love a little reminder of hot summer days throughout their house.

Here's a few other beach inspired jars I love that you could make for kids or just to decorate your home.

Happy Holiday Monday!

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Arranging Flowers

Summer is the season of picking flowers. My kids love to run around the yard and gather handfuls and I love to have them displayed in my kitchen. Nothing brightens up a room like a fresh vase of colorful flowers.
Here are a few tips on displaying flowers and helping them to last longer.

1. Pick a vase and thoroughly clean it. Anything can work as a vase, the more unique, the better! I love to use old mason jars, or clear glass vases. You can use other household items to house your flowers like an antique teapot, a fancy glass or a large mug.

2. Prepare your flowers. Cut the stems under luke-warm water, once the stems are cut they immediately suck up all the water. Make sure to cut at least 1" from the bottom of each stem and remove any leaves that will lie below the level of the water in the vase as this will help to keep the flowers fresh. Try cutting at an angle, with the scissors slanting up or downwards. This allows the flowers to receive more nutrients.

3. Add water and flower food. Partially fill the vase with room temperature water and add any flower food you are using.

4. Arrange your flowers. I received a few tips from a florist friend. She suggests arranging the outside flowers first and make them a bit shorter then the rest so it becomes a dome shape. A neat hint is to make the arrangement as high as the vase is tall, then it will look proportioned to the vase.
You can be creative and add some sand, pebble rocks, or painted stones at the bottom of your vase to add color and decor.
Or simply place some flower petals or in a bowl of water with some floating candles to create a serene arrangement for a bathroom.

I love that all these flowers were freshly picked from our gardens!

Of course there are so many different kinds of flowers that you can mix and match patterns, colours and flower types. Even just a tall, clear vase with 1 flower can look just as beautiful as a vase full of arranged flowers. Here are a few inspirations I love.

What are some of your favourite flowers to decorate with?