Polka-Dotted Kitchen Stools

Hi all.  How was your weekend?  We had a great one around here - the weather was very pleasant  and we spent lots of time outside.

On Saturday we attended a picnic for families whose children are brain tumour sufferers and/or survivours.  Luckily, our oldest son, Bryn, falls into the latter category and is very healthy 18 months after the removal of a orange-sized cystic tumour.  

Obviously, most of the children attending were between treatments or in remission. SO- that meant that there was plenty of opportunity for a great deal of fun.  

These pictures were my favourite from the event.  They feature Bryn and his neuro-surgeon, Dr. Singh, taking part in a  pretty mighty team tug-o-war.  

Dr. Singh calls Bryn "Sunshine" and she was more than pleased to join his team when he asked.  

Of course their team won, but the best part was seeing these 2 together - our healthy, strong boy and the heroic surgeon that saved his life.  

To anyone else, it's just a picture of 2 people with a rope. To me it's a photograph capturing the love and care that one incredibly talented woman can give to a boy that was once a complete stranger, but now sees her as a life-changing hero.  

Thank-you again, Dr. Singh!

Now onto the project of the day....

Below you will find the BEFORE.

Pretty plain, eh?  Functional and it matched with my black counter-tops.  But it's time for a shake-up!

How about "Red Awning" by Behr?  

(I used it recently on our Red Basement Door makeover found here.

Yeah.  I like them.  The kids like them and they added a bit more colour to our breakfast bar.

Then one day, walking through IKEA, I found  it - polka-dotted vinyl fabric.  Wipeable, durable - SOLD!!

I bought a metre and got to work.

I stretched the fabric around the circular stool tops and stapled down the fabric using my trusty staple gun.  (Luckily the stool tops just popped of their legs - this made the job so much easier!)

Oh Polka Dots! How I LOVE thee!

TA-DA!!

Pretty darn cute, eh?? 

They add so much whimsy to our little kitchen.  I wonder if there is anything else I can cover with dots in there??

Biggest boy was spending the day at Grandma's House, so my two littler ones received  the first lunch on the dotty stools.

Yessrrieeee! That's KD and hot dogs!  That's what they asked for.  Of course I threw in the apple slices - there had to be SOMETHING healthy involved!

Thanks for visiting today!  Come by a bit later in the week.  I'll be sharing my Autumn Mantel on our new fireplace!!

Camden's Photo Wall

Happy Wednesday!  Things are finally settling in here - everyone is happily back to school and back into a routine!!  (Cue the choir of angels!)

Our oldest has begun grade 3 and is loving being back at school with his friends.  

Our daughter, in grade 1,  adores her teacher and is already wondering how long til they visit the school library and get started on "harder books."

And Camden, our "baby," has begun kindergarten - all day, every day.  He loves it, but boy is he tired!  Not just "need a nap" tired, but full-out, way-past-tired-into-the-exhaustion phase  TIRED.  Poor Little Dude.  He crashes into bed right after supper, and wakes up the next morning still a little under slept.  Hopefully his little body will get used to it fast .....or this is going to be a long year!

I tried to get the perfect "First Day of School" photo, but to no avail.  

Bryn is doing his "Chandler" smile, Afton is faking a smile because she was mad at me for making her wear a jacket and Camden refused to put down his breakfast long enough for the photo op.  Oh well.  I guess the pictures go into the scrapbook as is.  

Reality Check 2012.

I decided this past weekend that a new school year would mean new decor in Camden`s room. 

It has been decorated the same way since he was born - except that the crib has turned into a big boy bunk bed!

It was time to change this cutesy little wall vignette into something a little more "big boy."

The wall decals, as cute as they are (were), had to go.  Cam`s still a big fan of forest animals but he prefers them a little more REAL and a little less cartoon-ish.

In the before pic, you might have seen these framed pictures of an earlier Camden - maternity pictures of me at 35 weeks and he and I at 2 months.  I treasure these photos and really wanted to include them in the new wall arrangement.  

AND...... I wanted to add in a few more - all three kids together shortly after Cams' birth, a recent photo of Cam  and........

....this awesome "Camden NJ" postcard I bought from Etsy.

I framed everything up in brown/wood tone picture frames, arranged them in a pleasing manner on the floor and then applied them to the wall.  

After a little "shopping" around the house, I found a collection of objects perfect to finish off a vignette on the dresser below.  

This suitcase used to reside in big brother's bedroom, but I really like how it's golden tones and brown trim echo the frame colour.

The fern is fake, but it  adds a little taste of "nature."

Camden received these piggy banks on his Baptism Day.  He takes great joy in adding into them every penny he finds or is given.

And this little church ( Homesense deal a few years back) works wonderfully into the scene and echoes the colour that can be found throughout his room.  

Ah yes.  There we go.  Fresh, tidy, nostalgic and "grown-up."  Just what Camden the "School-Aged" boy needed.  

A Vintage Mix for the Tabletop

My dining table is well-used.  I wish it was because we host many a dinner party, but no. Most of our parties happen in the kitchen where the kids attending it  can spill on the floor and the parents can stay close by.  

Instead, our table is always covered in tons of stuff.  Your table might  be the same.  My hubby often has his "office" set up on it - laptop, ipad, cell phone and  papers to mark.  Then throw on the kid's stuff - toys, books, empty snack cups and my stuff - purse, school bag, magazines....well you get the picture.  

So this weekend I begged for a bit of serenity.  I wanted that table cleared and cleaned- and I wanted to place something pretty on it instead!!

So, once the "stuff" was gone, I laid out hubby's great-grandmother's lace tablecloth (she crocheted every square inch of it and it is beautiful!) and a mirrored tray ( you can see the reflection of the chandelier in it).

Then I pulled my old brown toolbox out of storage and started adding in a mix of vintage items:  old mason jars, candles, a mix of plates, tarnished silverware and a couple of aged bottles.  

I LOVE the sparkly topper on this bottle.  

One plate is from our every day set of dishes, the other is an antique that often shows up in my decorating.  

The wooden box itself came from a garage sale.  It was pretty beat up, but a slick coat of chocolate brown paint cleaned it up very well.  

My delphiniums didn't flower this year.  Luckily I have several "faux" bunches to stick into vignettes throughout my house.  

I love the mix of textures in this small space.  And it looks so HOMEY.  

I think this vignette will work well into the autumn. Maybe if I change the flowers into sheaves of wheat.....

I have begun a table runner for the upcoming autumn season.  It is a traditional "tumbler" pattern. I used a charm pack of fabrics with pale green, aqua, peach and a rosy pink.  I think these colours may be the colours of autumn in our living and dining rooms this year.  

Keep watching for the upcoming  autumnal changes!

Corn and Blueberry Salad

Labour Day weekend has come and gone.  It was  the last breath of summer before it was time to go back to the  books.  And we took full advantage of our last days at home.

Afton and I did some of this:

Bryn, Kevin and I did a lot of this:

And because it was so wicked HOT, between runs in the sprinkler, Camden did a fair bit of this:

We also went for frozen yogurt a couple of times and lounged in our PJs til noon.  

Oh summer - how I love thee..... Why must you expire so quickly??

Sweet corn is a bit late around here due to a fairly dry summer.  Late or not, we have been eating it by the bucketful. In fact we had one meal of just fresh-from-the- field corn and boy, was it good!

On a corn theme, I'd like to share a recipe for a favourite summer salad of mine. 

 My mother laughs whenever she sees me making it. 

Why you ask?  

Because when I was younger you get couldn't get me to eat either corn OR blueberries.  I would turn up my nose at the thought of them.  

I guess my palate has become more sophisticated over time, Mom!!

• 
  

  • 4 cups corn (canned or fresh off of the cob)
  • 
    
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 
    
  • 1 cup chopped cucumber
  • 
    
  • 1/4 cup diced red onion
  • 
    
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, minced with seeds removed
  • 
    

I like making this salad for potluck BBQs.  I cut everything at home,
carry it in containers and dump it together when I arrive.  

For the Dressing:

 2 tablespoons lime juice 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

I pre-mix my dressing ingredients in my shaker ( or in a mason jar)
and carry it with me to potlucks.

And do people enjoy my salad as much as I do??

Oh yeah.  

I recently took it to a "Christmas in August" party and it was gone within minutes! I think people are intrigued by the interesting mix of ingredients.  And yellow and blue are a nice change from green lettuces and white potato and pasta salads!!

Give it a try - and tell me what you think!!

Hugs,

Bronwyn

Afton's Patchwork Pencil Case

Here it is. The last weekend of the summer. We all head back to school on Tuesday.  It hit me last week that we had never made it to the beach. So, Saturday morning I loaded the kids in the car and headed to my mother's house which is within a 15 minute drive to Lake Huron.  

We spent 4 hours on the sand and in the water.  The wind was high and the waves were huge, but it didn't stop my little people from enjoying every minute.  

My oldest is already hoping we can head back to beach one more time before the real cold of the autumn season sets in.  I guess we'll have to wait and see....

While resting on the sand I had the  realization that our daughter is off to grade 1 and in need of her own set of school supplies.  Her big brother, in grade 3,  has a plastic pencil box to contain his pencils and markers, but I knew the little lady would like something with a bit more of a feminine touch.  

So when we got home from Nana's this morning I hauled out my charm pack collection and let Afton choose her favourite fabric squares.  

We agreed this was our ABSOLUTE favourite.  Like mother, like daughter!!

I cut the squares into smaller 3 inch squares and began sewing them together in a checkerboard pattern.  

For fun I added a row of ball fringe in Afton's favourite shade of fuchsia.  

To finish it off I sewed on a row of white white ric-rac trim (the cuteness is all in the details!) and picked a pink patterned fabric for the inner lining.  

TA-DA!!

I am so glad I can finally sew in a zipper without any problems.  It has taken me ages (literally decades!) to perfect this technique.  But this one went in like a breeze!

Did it pass first-grade daughter inspection??  

Oh yeah.  I think she likes it!!

I think she'll be very proud to pull this mom-made accessory out of her backpack on the first day of school.  

Cheers to all,

Bronwyn