A Little Clock Makeover

Almost 11 years ago, soon after we became engaged, my now-husband and I decided to get an apartment together.  As a house-warming gift, my parents gave us a bronzey-black metal clock that has hung, ever since, in our successive kitchens (we are on  our fourth kitchen  now!).

Of course, it has sentimental value, so I'll probably never get rid of it.  However, it really needed an updating- you know, to bring it into this decade!!

So what did I do?  I hit it with spray paint!!!  Vintage White to be exact.  

But even once the paint had dried, it didn't look done.  Maybe it's too white???

So I did what any crafty girl would do ----I added some red buttons.

TA-DA!!

Yep.  Those buttons give it a ZING of colour!!

After I re-hung it on the wall, I decided the whole area needed a mini-makeover.  

How about some springy yellow tulips??

My jar of flour has been here awhile, but it's a little too white.  On went a red bow and a button accent:

And my thrifted teapot. I adore  those colourful hearts.  My youngest son calls it my "Love Pot."

And all on a white tray, covered by a fresh blue tea towel.  

There- a makeover on many levels.  

Very refreshing.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was absolutely lovely around here! The sun shone, the lilacs scented the air and many members of our family joined us in celebration.  

Each year I try to get a few pictures of me and the kids.  I'd love one with all three kids and me, but it is SO HARD to get all three munchkins to cooperate all at once.  

Luckily my hubby did capture these lovely shots.

Afton (6) and I

Bryn (7), Camden (3) and I

(CHEEEEESE!)

This my mother - the kids call her Nana - and Afton:

And this is my mother-in-law, "Grandma" to the kids:

After getting the family pics, I took a wander through my garden (still a work in progress!) and captured some of the current beauties.

My coneflower is a-flower.  I love it's royal blue and purple blooms. 

And look at the strawberry plants!  They are covered in pretty white flowers.  Each flower equals a strawberry to come, right??

Hubby prepped and prepared a delicious dinner of shish-kabobs and grilled potatoes. So, I took some time for me, out in the sunshine, enjoying my homemade iced latte and the latest issue of Country Living UK. 

 Heaven!

See the flowers?  They are all from my garden! We have lived in this home for 3 1/2 years. It is a new-build so I began all the perennial gardens from scratch!  It makes me so excited to know that I can finally cut my own flowers to arrange and decorate my home!!

Lilacs in the palest of lavender, creamy white tulips and a couple of peony-style tulips.  Oh! could they be an lovelier??

Speaking of peonies - hubby bought me two large peony plants to add to my cutting garden.  They are mere days from flowering and I can't wait to see them burst with colour!

Nana's Sign

Today is Mother's Day here in Canada and I had really wanted to come up with something interesting for my mother's gift.  So the other night, the kids and I hit the craft store and spent the evening doing this:

I cut some leftover wood into 1 1/2 foot long pieces to act as the base of our project. 

Then each of the kids took their turn covering their pieces in pastel paint.  

My daughter  Afton chose to switch into old clothes before painting.

The boys went with underwear-only painting.  No paint on ANY clothes this way!!

Camden:

Bryn:

We needed some 1 inch wooden circles to act as the centres of some wooden flowers.  The only thing we could find at Michaels were these basketballs - so they had a paint makeover!!

Little Lady put her fine motor skills to the test and carefully turned some wooden flowers into white daisies!

Once the painting was complete, each child took their turn hammering some nails into the wooden sticks.

After an HOUR of hammering, this is what we had:

Though my children are marvelous little helpers, at this point it was bedtime! Off they went, fairly easily, and I went back to finishing up.

I used a paper stencil to add some navy blue lettering to our sign.  

I don't like the little spaces left by a traditional stencil so I used a small brush to fill in the gaps in the lettering.  

The following morning day I drove the 2 hours to my mother's house and delivered her new garden decor.  

The sun was shining, her garden is already green and lush  and our sign was the perfect addition!!

Happy Mother's Day to the best mother in the world! 

 Every gift, talent and ounce of patience I have came from you. 

You are one amazing woman who has shown that her strength is immeasurable and her love for her family is both steadfast and unending.  Even after the toughest year of your life you continue to sparkle and we are awed by vitality.

Love you forever, Mommy!!

A Ball for Baby

A quick little post tonight because I am completely bagged!!

I am busy preparing 27 classes of elementary school students (grades 1-3) for our Spring Concerts next week.  The singing, dancing and acting is hard enough, but put on top of that the ticket distribution, letters to parents, gym decorations and  broken xylophones - I am one tired lady!!

I'd like to share a quick little project that I put together this weekend.  I found it in my favourite (and newest) sewing book and I knew it was the perfect gift for a friend who recently delivered a bouncing baby boy!

I have an obsession with charm packs right now.  I am not sure if it is their size (5"x5") or the fact they come with a tremendous mix of gorgeous prints and patterns. I'll admit, I am very guilty of usually buying charm packs that contain pretty, pinky, girly prints. So, when I saw this charm pack and fell in love instantly, I knew I had to buy it!!  Red, orange, turquoise, yellow, green - gender neutral, but also boyish enough for some boy-baby projects!!

My other obsession lately  is English-style paper piecing.  I've been doing a fair bit of hexagon work, so these pentagons were a nice change.  

I had stitched 6 seams and already I was in love with this project!!!

Ta-da!!

After stuffing this soft, squishy ball, it was definitely a challenge to stitch that last pentagon in place.  Thank goodness for straight pins acting as my extra hands as I struggled with my yellow thread to close this baby up!!

I really hope my friend (and her new baby!) love my little handmade gift.  I think I may make another in a slightly smaller size for baby's little hands.  Perhaps he can grow into this slightly bigger one!

Now off to bed - not to sleep right away, but for a few minutes of downtime checking out my new magazine.  Have you seen this before? Is it  a one-timer or a new series??  I'll let you know what I think of it.  If the front cover is any indication it should be gorgeous!!

Adding a Shot of RED!!

My kitchen has apple green walls and lots of blue accents - the curtains, the placemats, the dishes we use and the dishes that hang on the wall.  

But it needed something.....

So I emptied my display shelves (which still held Easter decor) and gave myself a blank slate:

I then dug through my bins of favourite objects and pulled everything I had that was:

1.  Blue

2.  White

and.....

3. RED!!

Yep.  That's what my kitchen needs.

I tried to mix the three colours all over the shelves.  You'll see that the 3 shots of red are balanced throughout.

Here are the top 2 shelves:

I bought these red candlesticks at Christmas last year.  I love their shape and shine. 

My mom bought me these gorgeous pitcher.  She saw it and knew I had to have it!!  Look at those delicate flowers!!

I bought this jug at the thrift shop a few years back.   So pretty and it reminds me of the forget-me-nots that grew around the house that I was a toddler in.  

This red bucket was  a thrifty find too.  It held glittery balls back at Christmastime.  Now it holds some silk daisies.  (Not much longer until my REAL daisies bloom....  C'mon summer!)

Isn't this lovely?  I found this during my most recent Goodwill visit.  I am sure it is  pot used to deliver flowers to hospitals or something, but I love the raised flowers on it.  

Filled with fake geraniums, it is the perfect balance to the red candlesticks and bucket. 

Ta-da!!

There! The perfect bit of zing for the breakfast area of the kitchen.  Now what needs sprucing up next??  Yes....over there.....

See you soon!

Powder Room Pennants - WASH!!

While at the craft store the other day I fell in love with these papers from LilyBee.  I love how they look like patchwork.  (If you look over my last few posts you'll see that I am REALLY into patchwork these days!)

Right then and there I knew it was time to change the scrapbook paper in the the 12x12 frames that hang in my powder room.  These frames change seasonally.  I had a grey and yellow theme going there for awhile - but it's about time for a spring-time freshen up!

So in went the papers, but the room needed more.  So off to my fabric stash I went and I found these:

Perfect match!  It creeped my hubby out that I could go to the basement and come up with just what I needed.  He wonders what I hide down there!!

With a snip, snip of my scissors - 5 fabric pennants.

Now they need a theme.  Perhaps a slogan.  Hmm....what do my kids need to be reminded to do CONSTANTLY???  

Red felt from my stash turned into free-cut letters and a cute little heart.  

They need something more......

Ah-ha!

A little hand-stitching and they were perfect!

At this point my sewing machine joined in the fun. Some twine and some zigzag stitch and these babies were ready to hang!

Man.  It's hard to get a good photograph with the lights on - but without them it's way too dark in my windowless powder room!!

A few more touches to add to the colour palette:

 A green towel:

A green and white bath rug:

And some red posies on top of the medicine cabinet.  

I LOVE this little ZING of colour! 

A perfect powder room -- until I change it again in a month or so!!