A Thrifty & Vintage Bedroom

As I was tidying my daughter's room (AGAIN!) this morning, it struck me how much of her bedroom is old, re-made, home-made and re-used. I grabbed my camera and took a closer look....

Here is a shot of one corner of her room - the sleeping section. Girly - pink, purple, patterned- perfectly girly!

See the medallion on the wall? Thrifted and spray-painted. The heart pennants - handmade by me! The bed - thrifted (it used to be an ugly shade of wood), now painted a pale grass green.

And the pillows - all made by me. The one in front was made to match the drapes in her newborn nursery. Though the drapes stayed with the old house when we moved, the pillow will stay with us forever! The striped one - made to match the drapes in her current bedroom. And the pink one - made from a thrifted sweater. I sewed on several old mis-matched buttons for an extra bit of detail.

This is her view when she lies on her bed. I made 9 of these for her 5th birthday party last year. They took hours to complete and were not going in the garbage after the party - so up they went on her bedroom ceiling.

Just left of her bed is this vinyl wall decal. I picked it for 9 bucks at a local discount decor store. I like how it has a patch-worked feel to it with its mixed patterns.

Here is her nightstand. This was a garage sale find. When I found it, it was dingy and grey. the woman selling it thought she was over-charging me when she asked for $2.00!! SOLD! A couple layers of white paint and an antique knob and she was perfect!!

I found this clock at Value Village. A whopping 6 bucks! No batteries in it yet. My little lady can't tell time! Hee, hee.

I love the bead detail on this lamp. Once again a discount store find. Look at those beads and the "crystal" on the base.

Aren't these the prettiest purple flowers? I found this bowl at Goodwill for 99 cents. It is perfect for corralling my daughters barrettes and jewelry. Otherwise they get tossed on the floor beside the bed!

Now the quilt. My mother made it for my youngest sister 30+ years ago. It has been packed away in her belongings for years. One day last year, my daughter, my sister and I were perusing a flea market and darling daughter fell in love with a $350 vintage quilt with just this dolly design on it. Of course, the $$$ made me gasp and shout NO! My sister quickly came to the rescue and improved my daughter's mood by promising her the use of the family-made Dolly quilt currently located in my sister's storage locker. And here it is - it gives my little lady (and me!) great joy every day!

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Using Up Those Scraps!

I use quilting charm packs quite often for small sewing projects. I love working with charm packs because each package contains 20-30, 5"x 5" squares all in perfectly coordinated fabrics. It lets me use tons of lovely patterns all at once.

Lately I have been sewing lunch-bags, makeup bags and the tops of dolly quilts. But every time I complete a project, I have lots of little scraps left over from each charm pack. And I CAN"T BEAR to throw them out!!!

Recently I was left with a bunch of these:

Each piece is about 1 1/2" x 5" and pretty useless. Or are they??

Nope. Not to an expert patchworker like me!! ( Ha, ha!- Aunt Mary - if you are reading this, your skills make me look like a patch-Slacker!)

Even little strips can be used up! Here is my simplified "Log Cabin" quilt block. I had to wing it a bit because by the time I got to the outside rings, my strips were too short, so I sewed a few together to make the correct length.

My plan was to make this patched square into a pillow top so I had to add some edging to increase its size. I went with a row of white and then a thin edge of coordinating pattern.

There she be. Not bad, eh? Considering I used very small scraps and it took less than 45 minutes to put together.

And here it is, backed and placed onto a pillow form. I love how it adds a little bit of zing to my mostly green and aqua living room. Maybe I'll lean towards some more of these colours as I spruce up for spring. Hmmm......

My new owl wanted to get into the photo action, too. I grabbed him at a discount decor store just after Christmas. Love him to bits!

Thanks for the visit on such a cold January day. I hope you are seeing some lovely snowfall in your neck of the woods! Please leave a comment and BECOME A FOLLOWER! I'd love that!

Yellow & Graphite!!

This is the "art" I had hanging in my powder room duriung the Christmas season. I finally decided it was time for it to come down.

The walls in my powder room are a lovely butter yellow. I love this shade - sunny, cozy and warm. In the past I have accessorized it with green, turquoise and pink. But this winter I needed a change. So..... I looked to a fellow Canadian for some inspiration.

This is Sarah Richardson's farmhouse bathroom. Look at that yellow tub!

I LOVE the mix of warm yellow and every shade of grey. What a modern mix - yet with a vintage-y flavour.

Can I create this feeling? I'll give it a try!

How about changing my scrapbook frames from Christmas papers to grey and yellow ones from October Afternoon.

What do you think? I love this pennant one - and the colour combo is perfect for my new colour scheme.
And the towels- switch'em to grey!! Excellent with my nickel fixtures.
New rug - cloudy grey - CHECK!!
And here is my little medicine cabinet. I found it years ago at the Christie Antiques Fair. I gave it a good cleaning, spray-painted the rusty hinges a nickel-colour, and replaced the broken glass with some yellow and white gingham.
And added an antique glass knob. Perfect.
Quick powder room transformation - COMPLETE!
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Wrap, Pin, DONE!

You take one grapevine wreath - on sale at Michaels for $2.99.

Grab a cozy looking scarf from Goodwill ($1.99!)

See - it's Jacob Jr. I would have paid at least $25.00 at the Jacob Store!

Then,

Wrap,

Pin -

DONE!!

Easy as that. I love when things come together so quickly!!

My black star wreath hanger adds a bit of jewelry to the look. Love it!

And there it is - hanging on the front door. I figure this a good look for a few weeks until I dig out the heart-shaped Valentine wreath.

What do you think? I'd love it if you left a comment. And NEW FOLLOWERS are always welcome!!

Work in Progress Wednesday

After the kids head off to bed, after tomorrow's lunches are made, backpacks are filled and the kitchen is clean, this is what I look forward to putting my hands on:

Yes! My ripple afghan. I have been working on it for just over a week and I am in love!

Row by row, colour by colour, I watch its cozy warmth grow. I average one colour an evening, more if my bed-pillow isn't calling too loudly!

Look at those pastels! Oh, they make my heart sing. I never get tired of them. Don't they look like a glimpse of spring on these cold Canadian winter days??

I hope to have my blanket done by Valentine's Day. That is the goal I have set for myself. If I keep up my rate of crochet I should make it easily!

What do you think? Do you "ripple?" I'd love to hear from you. And please, become a follower!

Cam's Pinwheels

This is Cam.

Actually, he would correct you and say, "It's Camden-Alexander -John."

He's pretty darn cute and he's three.

And he's got a pretty darn cute bedroom, too.

I'm going to show you a small section of it today.

This is what you would find on top of the large shelf unit in his room:

I tweaked the vignette a little today after doing some dusting.

These wooden words have hung in various places in his room since before he was born. I found them in a discount home store back while I was pregnant with him. They went perfectly with the yellow and green colour theme I was putting in the gender-neutral nursery. The stars have been everywhere in our home, but are now a permanent fixture in Cam's big-boy room.

This blue-ticking bear is from Pottery Barn Kids. You'd think I pain$30+ for him. Nope. Cam fell in love with him while visiting a local Goodwill Store. He was $1.99 so he came home with us!!

And what is he leaning on? Well, after horizontal-striping the bedroom walls, I needed some way to camouflage the ugly air-return vent near the ceiling. I had purchased the tall orange bucket on a whim months earlier, but even it's height couldn't hide the vent.

Then one night lying in bed, it came to me - I needed to make a half-dozen paper pinwheels that could stick out of the bucket at a height and block the vent.

I used several coordinating scrapbook papers and several buttons from my crafting stash. I hot-glued each pinwheel to a thin bamboo dowel and then shoved them at different lengths into some floral foam inside the bucket.

So what do you think? Cam has finally stopped asking to play with them - he'd love to give them a blow and see how well they spin. Unfortunately, they don't spin at all. Too much hot glue. But they look good, right??

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A "Pretty" I Can wear!

Before Christmas, I was dressing up for a concert at the school where I teach primary music. I was dressed in a black suit, with a red sleeveless shell underneath. Hubby said I looked lovely, but something was missing. I really needed a shot something light and feminine. But as I looked through my very large collection of scarves, necklaces, brooches, nothing seemed to be the "perfect" accessory. I settled for a red and silver scarf and walked out the door, making note, that I needed to fill this accessory "void" as soon as possible.

So when I had a minute, during the Christmas holidays, I grabbed my crochet hook, and a ball of white yarn wound with a silvery thread and whipped up this "pretty" in a jiffy!

I love this little pattern. I had crocheted a bunch of these in pink to make my daughter's wreath back in November.

I can whip one up in about 10 minutes, and really, you get a lot of flower for very little time!

Hmm...pretty - but I need more glamour. How about one of these:

Yep. That's the ticket!

Here I am, modelling my handmade flower. Hubby took the pictures. (One of my resolutions for 2012 is the BE IN more photos. I'm off to a good start!)

What else does a girl need? Red lips, a flattering pose and a pretty little flower!

I've worn my brooch several times already and many of my friends are hoping for one, too. Maybe this weekend I'll get started on a few. I'll sit by the window and watch the snow fall, sip some orange pekoe and do some pleasant crocheting.

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My New OLD Lantern

We moved into our newly-built home just over 3 years ago. Of course, the builder included the UGLIEST light fixtures throughout the house. So, I am constantly on the prowl for lovely new light fixtures to replace the old. At this point, I have replaced 17 of 21 fixtures. I am getting SO CLOSE to being done!

Recently, I stopped by the ReStore for Habitat for Humanity in the small town where I grew up while visiting my mother. I never know what I am going to find there, but this time I SCORED:

Okay. In this state, it's pretty ugly. Actually, it is probably uglier than the glass ball currently hanging in my laundry room. But I looked deeper and saw some potential.

And look at that PRICE! Even if didn't work out, I hadn't wasted a ton of $$$$.

Now, we all know what a can of spray paint can do and I was hoping it could work its magic on my wooden lantern.

Ta-da! So what do you think? Not bad for $15.00, eh?? It's already hung in my pink laundry room - the next step in this room's transformation. I know - the bulb is kind of ugly, but I like the energy-saving bulbs. And really, when the lantern is on, there is just a sunny glow and you can't see the bulb anyways.

I'd love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment and think about becoming a FOLLOWER!! I love logging in each day and seeing so many new friends stopping by!