A Pretty Wall of Plates

For almost 3 years now there has been some brownish, historical looking canvases hanging in the corner of our Living Room.  I love them, but it was time for a change!

Right now I am in the mood for a lightening and brightening throughout our whole home.  I've been painting furniture, changing drapes and selecting new accessories (More on that in the next few posts!).

Today I took this plain-looking corner as my latest "fix'er up" challenge:

Boring isn't it??!!

Well guess what?? Discount decor store to the rescue!!

My daughter has been taking part in "Craft Camp" at our local Michaels store so I have had plenty of time to peek around the shops in the area.  I found all of these plates within minutes of each other and I didn't pay more that $4.00 each for them.   Score! They were exactly what I needed to add some zest to the ho-hum corner of the Living Room.

To figure out the placement of my 6 plates, I laid them out on the hardwood floor (Hubby installed my floor.  Isn't it lovely??)

Once it was perfect I began adding the nails to the wall and the plate-hangers to the plates.  And up they went.

What a pretty mix, eh?  I love the  little spot of chartreuse mixed in with the deep rose and pale aqua. 

Oh! I am in LOVE with this little area of my home now!! Plates, pillows, butterflies, flowers and my reading lamp.  Could this get any better??

Greek Salad On a Stick

This past weekend I was in charge of bringing an appetizer to my hubby's family reunion in a nearby town.  I wanted to make something easy, elegant and portable.  

One of my favourite websites, Cooking With My Kid, has a ton of yummy pre-dinner treats and I picked one involving these ingredients:

Yessirreee - Greek Salad on a Stick!

To make everything fit on a standard toothpick, I found I had  to cut each item to a certain size.

1.) Grape tomatoes need to be cut in half.

2.) An English cucumber has to but cut into slices no thicker than 1/3" and then cut into half circles.

3.) Slice your feta cheese into rectangles 1/3" thick and approximately the same size as your cucumber slices. 

4.)  Start stacking!!

Cucumber + Feta

Cucumber + Feta+ Grape Tomato

Cucumber + Feta + Grape Tomato + Whole Black Olive

Done! 

Now wasn't that easy? 

 I think the rather large tray I made for the party lasted approximately 5 minutes!! In fact-  they never even made it outside - they were consumed quickly in the kitchen!!

My original plan was to drizzle some Greek dressing over the tray before they were served. However, the guests at the party found it just as easy to dip the sticks in the bowl of dressing left near the serving tray!!

I am definitely going to make these again!

Allie's Apron

My daughter was recently invited to one of her little friend's 5th birthday party.  I had plans to run out and buy something cute to give to Allie, but my daughter had other plans.

"Mom? Can you make something for Allie?" 

"Like what, Afton?"

"Can we sew something?"  (I like how she said "we." Little lady can't sew yet - what she really meant was, "Can I pick out the pretty stuff and you put it together?")

So we searched through my recently reorganized stash and came up with these materials.  Not a bad mix, eh?  

After cutting out the ONE pattern piece, I added some red ric rac trim near the bottom edge.  

On went some more ric rac around our pre-cut gingham heart. It's a nice edging between the 2 fabric patterns.   

Next step:  Binding trim around the whole thing.

Here's where we used the polka-dot ribbon - one tie on each side and 2 at the top.  

TA-DA!!!

Allie is now the proud owner of a Bronwyn & Afton Original Apron! 

Isn't it darling??

Now Allie can bake up a storm with Mommy-  and feel pretty doing it.

When we wrapped the apron we added a box of cake mix, sprinkles and some pretty cupcake liners.  Afton said Allie was ecstatic at receiving this baking-themed gift.  I'll have to keep this gift idea in mind for other little girls in our life.

Thanks for popping by!

P.S. Have you seen our New York City trip pictures yet?  If not,  you can find them here.

The One About New York City...

Hey there.  We've been home from NYC for a couple of days now but we all needed a lot of rest to catch  up from the lack of sleep and tons of walking we did.   

We had a great time and filled our 3 days with lots of "New York Minutes."   

All three kids slept in the same bed at the hotel in Buffalo where we stayed  before our 6am flight to NYC.  

"There were 3 in the bed and the little one said...."

The kids are experienced travellers now.  They are more than happy to kill time in the airport.  Here Afton creates "Airport Art,"

and Camden  keeps off the 5am sun (??) and hits the technology.

After dropping our bags off at the hotel we visited the Central Park Zoo.

Then onto Times Square where we met....

and.......

After a yummy supper at Applebees we hit the HUGE M&M store for dessert.  

How long does it take for a family of five to eat $30 worth of M&Ms??  Answer - A LOT less time then you think!!

For breakfast each morning we enjoyed muffins, croissants and bagels from a local bakery right near our 74th Street hotel. Mmmmm....

After breakfast on Day 2 we took the subway down to the Chelsea District and walked the High Line Park.  Here is our first view of the railway line turned tree-lined park:

Afton enjoys a snack of fresh raspberries before she....

... runs freely through an outdoor theatre in  the park.  

For lunch we walked to Greenwich and enjoyed food from PB &Co.  Everything they serve contains peanut butter.  Here Afton enjoys her "Fluffernutter" sandwich - PB and marshmallow fluff.  

Once lunch was done we took a taxi down to the South Street Seaport to catch a 1-hour boat cruise around Manhattan island.  

Work continues on the new World Trade Center.  

And of course, this fine lady stood watch as we floated by:

We took this family trip to NYC on request of our oldest son, Bryn.  He has faced some gigantic health issues in the last 18 months and we always try to remind him  that everyday is a gift. We have no way of knowing if his issues will return so we try to spend as much time together as a family, living every day to the fullest.  We were so glad to able to do this trip with our happy, healthy 7-year-old boy.  

On the last morning of trip, we visited the New York City Museum.  Frankly, it stunk!!  But I did manage to capture a few artsy pictures of its interiors.  

Before heading for the airport, we spent some additional time in another area of Central Park.    The kids ran around, climbing rocks and chasing birds while I snapped a few more pictures.

Overall, the trip was a great success.  Our older two children have fond memories of the Times Square and the Statue of Liberty.  Our youngest may have been too young to really absorb all of the things  he saw and did, but I think he enjoyed the time with his family.  

Kevin and I are pleased with how well our kids travel.  In fact people are always telling us that they are impressed with our kids at hotels, in restaurants  and in airports.  I guess we are raising them well - they grow in patience, goodness and curiosity everyday.

On Our Way...

Kevin and I are bravely taking the kids to New York City for a few days.  We've booked a suite near Central Park  and we plan on checking out the zoo, the Staten Island Ferry, the Old Seaport, the Peanut Butter Restaurant and Times Square at night.  See you all on Thursday!!

Ready For Take-off!!

Hey there! Busy day ahead so here is a quick post about my latest "makeover" project - an airplane lamp that I picked up at Goodwill a few weeks ago.  

The base was quite scratched, the wooden plane was nicked and  roughed up, the piping on the shade was faded and  several stains could be seen on the shade

So I went to work in my newly organized craft area (more on that another time!) revitalizing the whole lamp so that it could be placed happily in my youngest son's bedroom. 

Instead of repainting the whole airplane and base, I chose to repaint only the worst areas (the base & nose). Then I taped off the faded blue piping and added dark blue paint to liven up the colour.  My son's room is accented with orange so changed a few areas of the plane into this cheery colour.  The rest of the plane I roughed-up further using a fine-grain sandpaper. Now the plane looked deliberately aged - with "patina."

Even after all of the touch-ups, the shade still screamed for more.  So out came my Cricut and  cut these words to edge the bottom of the shade.

Done and done!

Not bad for 1 hour's work!

And my littlest boy - what did he think?? 
"Awesome, Mommy!!"

Pirate "Purse"

Hi all! What a lovely weekend we've had here in my part of Canada.  I took tons of pictures during our Canada Day celebrations but I need a few days to edit them.  I'll show you them all in my next post!

One day last week I needed a few things from the local garden centre so the whole family loaded in the car to make the journey.  The kids love going to this particular place because not only do they have plants for sale, they also have a gorgeous pond and fish centre that seems like a mini-aquatic zoo!

Here are a few pics we snapped outside the water centre. No pictures from inside the centre - way too dark!!

Now onto the project part of the post!

We took the kids to Florida and Walt Disney World in March.  

This is one of my favourite photos of the trip - all three kids riding the ferry back to the parking area,  keeping a close eye on a nearby ferry using their newly purchased "Pirates of the Caribbean" telescopes.  Since then, our youngest, who is 3 and a half, has been on a real pirate kick and rarely goes anywhere with out his 'scope. 

So when I told him I could make him a Pirate themed carry-all for his blanket,  transformers and telescope - he was ecstatic!!

Ta-da!

I had purchased a charm pack of mixed pirate fabrics a few months back, unsure of what to make with it. But with our littlest boy off to kindergarten in September, I knew he needed a bag to hold his extra change of clothes in his cubby.  What little boy wouldn't be proud to have a "Pirate Bag" for his extra underwear and sock loot ?! 

Now if I could only break him of the habit of calling it his "Pirate Purse," we'd be all set....