Garden Varity

I purchased the parts for these earrings after posting about my favorite spring time jewelery. I was so inspired I needed to do it for myself! I love them, I think they turned out really well.

The Best Way To Recycle!

Um... I always write my title to my blog and the regret it... or at least reconsider. In this case I maybe was a little over dramatic, but it is a way to recycle non-the-less. I think "A Way To Recycle" would not have been as impressive a title... don't you agree?
Anyway, moving on... Clothing Swap Parties! The plot: invite all your girl friends over and tell them to bring their unwanted, but still cool, clothing, jewelery and purses. Then you swap! The picture is our pile of clothes. I have done this two times now, and usually their is a lot of clothing at the end and we just brought it to Salvation Army... goes to a good cause. Now, being that it is spring cleaning time, is a great time to hold this type of event. It gives you insentive to clean out your closets... or drawers in my case. (I yurn and pine for a closet!)

Eco Friendly, Bright and Sexy Sleek...

... if only my lighting fixture was a man! (... I would set him up with my best friend, because I am happy and in love with my husband!) We purchased this bad boy from the Home Depot for about 60$, and because it is eco friendly the store man gave my this form to fill out and sent to Manitoba Hydro and then they give you a rebate on your next hydro bill. You have to ask the store for the form, but it's a pretty cool idea on Manitoba Hydro's part.
So this is step one of our desperately needed bedroom make over! Exciting! I have also ordered the wallpaper mural, can't wait for that to arrive! You know a girl is pumped when she uses three exclamation marks in a row! Make that four.

My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard

I gotta have good milkshakes because my yard isn't going to entice anyone by itself! I seriously think my yard is the dumpiest yard on our block. I have spent a lot of time making the inside of our home look pretty it is time to move outdoors! Especially with the beautiful weather we are starting to get here in Winnipeg... being outside is all I want to do anyways!

Ok, so my 3D skills maybe are not quite as impressive as my husbands. (Click here to see what I mean) But I gave it a go. Top priority is to repave the front cement stoop... my plan is to make it straight and hide the yellow foam insulation. Next on the list would be for two beautiful planters with tall spiky plants. I would love to use slate slabs to make a retaining wall for the garden... but that might be pushing it. New numbers and a new mailbox are also on my dream list. I guess we will see what actually gets done.

What A Night Of Boardom Can Create

One evening a few days ago me and my husband were at home and completely board. Like the type of board were you sit on your couch and go through the list of "what can we do"... you know, the list that always included make cookies. Well since we are planning to renovate our bedroom next month we decided that we would paint a little mural on our wall... just for fun. Because it will only be around for a month we didn't really put a lot of thought into it, as you can maybe tell. I think it looks like iPods, Jonas thinks games boys.

Here a Broach There a Broach

Everywhere a broach, broach? umm... Sorry for the lame title. My latest flare in life has been to the broach. My friends always tease me that I have a "grandma" touch to my fashion sense. It's true... I have a quilted leather purse, I wear shawls and I love cardigans. I guess broaches were just a natural addition into my life. I have bought some brand new, made a few from scratch (example: the large flower and lace one) but I love to buy the vintage broaches and embellish them. I like to wear them in normal ways like on my shirts, scarves and jackets... but sometimes its fun to stick one in your hair or mittens. I have a Christmas reindeer one that I put on my Christmas tree as a decoration when I wasn't wearing it. For storage they sit around a candle in my bedroom... kind of pretty.
If you are thinking you might want to add a little broach to your life you should check out thrifts stores and this site: Littletricia's Vintage Broach Shop.

MoonLighting

After my beautiful birthday tulips had song their last song my gray vase was empty. While I love the look of empty vases I decided to try something new.... so now my vase is moonlighting as a candle holder! And I think he looks sharp. (Hey, if my table is a gypsy then my vase/candle holder can be a man)
On a side note: check out my still green apples! (Ok... so this photo is a few days old and my husband has only left one apple standing, but it is still green!)

So Sylvie

So Sylvie is one of my favorite blogs, I love it so much I decided to do a blog profile. I figure if I love her ideas this much probably more people will too. So I will take the role of 'the introducer' and maybe I'll make a blog match! Sylvie owns a vintage furniture shop, she is an marvelous interior decorator and flea market and thrift maven. Pretty much I want to be her. I stole these photos from her blog. She has really funky craft ideas. For example, in the photo at the top, the art piece above the couch is made of a shower curtain! The left photo shows a pillow she made from a place mat from Pier 1 and on the right is a decorated tree. You really should look at her site for the close up pictures... the ornaments are so cute. Speaking of.... here is the link: http://sosylvie.typepad.com/


These last two pictures are of her store:

I Think My Table is a Gypsy!

I seem to often decorate my table in a gypsy style of way. I can't explain why, I think my table must be a gypsy. With rich plum, hot pink and orange colors and glass beads, black stones and candles my latest display is no different. I love the look of the patterned fabric in the vase, it's funky and textured but still tidy. The plum fabric and the pattern fabric I just found at the thrift store, everything else I had from before.

Stick Bouquet

Most of my creativity this month has come from some dire urge to fill all my vases. This blog is no different. I had an empty glass vase, well more of a bowl, and decided it needed to be filled. I came up with the idea of a stick bouquet. I've seen it done before, usually in a taller arrangement with less sticks. The funnest part of this craft was getting the supplies. I took my dog on a walk and collected sticks in a bag as I went. Since my dog is a puppy, and a cute one at that, we attracted a lot of kids. My favorite was this cute, kind of chubby girl with a t-shirt too tight and a juice stain on the front... but still totally adorable. While she was holding Polly she asked me "Why do you have a bag of sticks?" I told her I was making a bouquet, except instead of flowers I was using sticks. She looked at me a little weird for a second, but then went back to playing with Polly. All in all this was a fun craft and totally free to make!

Butcher? Baker? I choose Candle Stick Maker!

I bought myself another pair of candle sticks and candles. I think I might be addicted... as I sit here at my computer I can see four pairs of candle holders. (which are not my new ones) But in my defense, I did not own a pair of candle holders that were glass and for thick candles. I'm sure with that case the judge will not find me guilty.
I bought them for our bedroom, but I think I will wait till after the renos to move them in... it'll be more dramatic that way. They are perched in my bathroom for now.

Apples. People have been doing this for years!

I know this is not a new idea by any means. People having been using fruit to decorate probably since Adam and Eve... but I thought I would share my take on this timeless decorative display. Although, I don't know how smart keeping fruit on the window sill is. Luckily it's still pretty cool out and we don't get too much sun through our front windows... so hopefully they'll stay that bright green for a while!

My Summer Aspirations

My husband is a talented 3D artist and apparently is in love with me enough to sit down for an hour and model my hopes and dreams for our bedroom. It was lots of fun actually. We want to make the white cabinets, since we have no closets this storage space would be lovely! We want to do the wallpaper mural idea I posted about a few blogs ago and then paint the other three walls. We also added a cool drum light fixture to model. Modeling was so fun because it was easy to play with different paint colors. We are still in limbo about which we like best... any preferences? Or completely different ideas?

Thank You Junk Drawer!

I was doing a little spring cleaning slash rearranging and decided it was time for a new center piece. The vase in the center used to have a fish in it, but that didn't end well so the vase was not being used. The black rocks and the glass beads were in my junk drawer and so was the candle. A little trip to Urban Barn for the black place mat and coasters and voila.... center piece!

If This Were An Advice Blog....

I'd advise you to go out and buy yourself some flowers. (Or tell your loved ones to buy you some!)
I just had my birthday and so my house has been decked with cheer for the past week.

Spring Time Jewelery

The past few weeks I have felt like primping myself up a bit, putting a little bit of bling on... I blame it on the sun-shiny weather. These are a few etsy finds that have caught my eye. Click on the picture for the link to the seller.

Inspiration From An Unlikely Source

My top five websites I visit are my two email domains, facebook, this blog and the real estate website. I love looking at homes for sale! I like to dream about how I would change and renovate a house. But occasionally I find great ideas from homes that are for sale in winnipeg:



I love the staircase, french doors and the white painted sun room with a gazillion plants. The pictures below are all of kitchens. What a bold move to paint the cabinet yellow, but with the black table and black and white backsplash and photo and red dishes it looks awesome. I like the backsplash in the second photo too. The third kitchen is amazing! I can't believe it's a house in Winnipeg!




These last few picture show the power of painted cabinets. The old dingy brown stain that so many house for sale have just dates the kitchen... honestly, just paint it.
The last picture just cracked me up.... umm where can I get that coffee table?

Happy Easter... My Cheeks Hurt!

The other day me and my friend, Lindsay, got together and decided to participate in a common Easter festivity: painting eggs. I bought a $2 kit from Zellers and a couple cartoons of eggs and we were on the right track. Instead of boiling the eggs we decided to hollow them out. So we pricked them on one side I tried to shake it out. After about 15 minutes and no progress I started boiling water, but Lindsay wasn't giving up. Since I remembered doing this a child, and it wasn't this hard, I thought I'd call mom for some advice. Apparently this is how it works: you poke a whole on either side of the egg and then blow in one side and the egg come out the other. So much easier, although after 7 eggs (one broke) my cheeks started to hurt.
It took me about three hours to create this master piece:
But we had a great time doing it, and lots of scrabled eggs afterwards!