Personalized Hooks

I'm scheduling this to post on Monday the 28th - the day we move! I'm not sure when I will be in the land of the living/crafting again (hopefully sometime in the next week or so) as we get settled into our new place. I just didn't want to leave my 29 followers without a post this week!!

Remember these hooks that I picked up? Lovely bears, don't you think? Well, I had to do something with them, they certainly did nothing for me, and I didn't think they suited my two boys. My oldest is almost 4 and totally into cars and my youngest is 9 months, and already showing that he likes his older brother's cars and such.

I tend to lean toward black for decorating, I think I always have - and lately it's been no exception. It was my first thought to paint these out in black, but then I thought that I should lighten up a little.

I removed the hooks from the wood, and put those aside. I decided not to paint them, as I liked the bronze-y (is that I word?) patina to them. I primed them out in white, and they already began to look better. It took quite a bit of primer to cover that bright teal paint that was used on it! After that, I used some of that trusty heirloom white spray. Soooo much better. Screwed the hooks back in. Wow, what a change, but I still wanted to do more!

I opened up SCAL and found some pictures on the net that I liked, suitable for my boys. That's the awesome thing about the newer version of SCAL - you can find a shape that you like on the net or wherever, and trace it in your program! I also typed out their names. Printed these out in vinyl, and voila! They are just adorable! Dontcha just love them? Ooooh, wait - I did distress them a little. I am fairly new at this distressing thing, but I think they turned out ok! What do you think?



One more look - I am so loving them! They'll be hung at kid-height in our new place! My oldest son can recognize his name, but this will be great for our youngest to start recognizing his own name and his brother's. We can tell him to hang up his coat on his hook - we can tell him by name, colour or picture. Love it!


Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

Saying goodbye to the old

Our 'old' house, that is.

Ann Marie over at La Maison LaFortune, posted today about selling houses and how one can capture the personality of your home through photos much better than a realtor can. See her post here. It started me thinking (even more) about our home, and saying goodbye.

We moved into this house in 2006, 2 months before I had my first son. We were anticipating it greatly..it was a new build, and we got to choose all the finishes, it was so much fun!
But, amongst some troubles that we had in the neighbourhood, and most people having BBD syndrome (Big Black Dog Syndrome - we have a big black dog), we craved more privacy in our home and more TREES. Being in a new subdivision doesn't provide that. In our backyard, we can count windows from about 20 different homes.

So, we went on the hunt and have found a perfect home for us, that I hope to post some pictures of in the future. Moving day is Monday, so it is kind of bittersweet that we say goodbye to this old house. Bittersweet because it is the only home our sons have ever known. Bittersweet because we are so excited to make new memories in our new house.

I thought I would share with you pictures of our current house...goodbye, house! It was nice knowing you.

On hold for a while...

The Cricut's packed away, my vinyl is gone and all my little crafty things are away, too. We're moving on Monday! 4 more sleeps, as I said to my son.

So even though I know I have to pack the stuff away, I am itching to do something!! I even went to Value Village today just to BROWSE. I swear, I wasn't going to buy anything! Ok, well, if I saw something that I absolutely had to HAVE...maybe.

The good thing about moving and crafts is that now I will be able to haul out of boxes all the great little things I did before I started the blog, and share it with you!! I probably won't have before pictures, but I am sure you will get the gist of it!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and I will see you next week (I hope)!

My first award!

Wow! Tara from Just Devine Style gave me an award!! Here it is!! My first award!!



I am honoured she would think me worthy of such an award!! To accept it, there are 3 conditions.

1) Thank the person who gave me this award.

Thank you, Tara! You like me, you really like me!! :) Go visit Tara's awesome blog at Just Devine Style.

2) Share 7 things about myself. Sheesh! That's a lot!! lol

Here they are!!

- I have been a teacher for 10 years, 8 of which has been Junior Kindergarten. I love that age!!

- I love secrets - not in relationships!! lol I love secret drawers, doors/rooms and hiding places.

- I believe in ghosts. Yep.

- I can just eat peanut butter out of the jar. Yum.

- I love talking to elderly people and hearing stories about how life used to be, how the city has changed, etc. Soon, all that great history will be lost, it should be preserved!

- I am what I call a cereal freak. If I don't have my bowl of cereal every day, I feel deprived. It doesn't matter what kind: high-fibre, sugary, oatmeal, etc. I NEED it.

- I have big feet. They run in my family. And I am pretty sure that after two kids my feet went from size 10 to 10.5. Lovely size, no?

3) Pass it on to bloggers that I have recently discovered. Here goes!! Ladies..the stage is yours!

Jess at Frugal with a Flourish
Ashley at Make it and Love it
Emily at MLE'S ABC'S
Krista at Craving Some Creativity
Angela at A Mama's Two Cents Worth...While They Are Napping

These are all new blogs to me, and they have some wonderful ideas!! Please go and check them out, if you don't know them already!!

'Family' Frame

Found this great frame a while ago at Value Village. I think it was $2.99. I love the beautiful wood frame, it is so smooth and the colouring is wonderful. No painting for this one. But it really was an odd shape for a picture frame...I guess it's meant for panoramic photos, but I don't really know anyone who prints those out. lol I thought it perfect for a vinyl word. Wheeeee! Are you surprised? lol


So I opened up my trusty SCAL (love that program!) and typed out 'Family' along with some pretty damask dingbats. I am totally loving damask right now. But I digress a little.


Got out my trusty transfer tape - ok, it's not my transfer tape - in my zeal for packing, I packed it away, oops...now I can't find it. Truth is, painter's tape works just as well as transfer tape! That I had on hand.


Added the vinyl to the glass, and a lovely piece of scrapbook paper to the inside of the frame and YAY! A great new piece of decor for my family room! Sorry all the final pics for my projects are pretty much taken on this shoe cabinet - or in other uninspiring spots - my house is in such disarray right now it's the only non-messy spot to take pictures with some pretty decent light!



Linking up to:

Fabulous Finds

Here's my recent thrift store finds:

Ok, so maybe this find isn't so fabulous, but I was excited to find it - an elevated rack thingy for the pantry cupboard. $2



Too lazy to rotate this image and post it again, lol...found these great wall hooks - both exactly the same...watch for a future project using these! $4 each



I love this little basket just the way it is. Don't know what I am going to do with it, but it was too cute to pass up. $0.99



I was super excited about this find at Goodwill the other week - a beautiful 'Rustic Platter' (or so it says on the bottom, lol). It's from The Real Canadian Superstore, I think...but it was only $4 and in perfect condition. I think it's so pretty and in my colour scheme that I might just display it.



Have you found anything great lately?

Photo Box to Mail Box

I found this practically perfect in every way (think Mary Poppins) photo box at Value Village the other day. I mean, there are literally BARELY any blemishes at all, and I love the colour of it already!! It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's kind of pearly white. Dontcha love that? When you find something that barely needs a change? To top it off, it was from Hallmark - so it probably cost somewhere in the range of $20 or more originally...I got it for $3.99!


Of course, I wanted to change something about it - after all, it was missing the hanging photo thingy (for lack of a better word).

I thought, hmmmm....mail. I don't really have a place to put incoming mail in the new house (I have always put it in a basket) but this might just be a cuter way to do it! lol! And who wouldn't love a cute thing to put all those nasty bills in? ;)

All I did was remove the original pictures, and trace them out on a piece of scrapbook paper (I chose green, one of the colours I am decorating with).

I then opened up SCAL and wrote out 'Mail' in the font I just love...Coventry Garden. It's the same font I used for my Floating Frame. I also found some lovely dingbats and made two of them (love them things!) and proceeded to cut them all out.

After cutting, I applied them to the paper - not to the glass because I might want to change it out and use it for something else one day - and voila!! A cute little place to drop your mail!

I'm thinking I might distress the edges a little...but I am keeping it this colour (for now, anyway), and can't wait (funny as it may sound) to put some mail in it in our new house!




Linking up to these parties this week!!

My first feature!

And by all means, don't think I am bragging, because I am one of the most humble, even self-deprecating people you might meet! lol

But I am truly honoured to have my Floating Frame & wreath featured on Someday Crafts! Michelle's blog was one of the very first that I happened to stumble upon a mere 2 months ago, and it was so inspiring, that here I am today - writing a blog and being featured!

Thank you, Michelle...and thank you to all my followers...you sure know how to make a girl feel good. :)

Floating Frame

What's that you say? You want more vinyl? Ok, another vinyl project coming your way!

Remember the cheap frame I got to make this chalkboard? It was only 2.99, so I picked up two of them. Hmmmm...maybe I should have gotten more, but in the interest of saving myself things to pack, I stopped at two.

I took apart the frame, glass, matting and all - and painted the frame out in black craft paint, then distressed it just a tad. I covered it with a clear satin coat on top to give it some extra durability and shine.

Once dry, I put the glass back in the frame, but not the matting or the backing. I also added a dab of hot glue in each of the corners for added stability. You also have to make sure you push those little clips really tight against the glass so it doesn't have much room to move.

I had recently purchased a bag of 2 small wreaths for $3 at Value Village. I took one of them (don't know what kind of wreath it's called), and some black grosgrain ribbon that I had lying around. After measuring out the ribbon, I hot glued it to both the frame and the wreath, so that the wreath hung down over the glass. Here my project stopped. UNTIL I GOT MORE VINYL!!! YAY!

I drafted up the word 'home' in SCAL, and even added a little flourish that I put in the middle of the 'O' in 'home'. Cut it out, put transfer tape on it, applied it to the frame and voila!! I am just in LOVE with it, and can't wait to hang it in our new house!! Total cost for this project? $3 for the frame and $1.50 for the wreath = $4.50! Everything else I had lying around. SCORE!



Linking up to:

Coasters with a bit of Vinyl flair

Remember these coasters i got recently? And remember I said I finally received my order of vinyl? Woo hoo! Talk about an exciting combination!! ;)

I opened up the SCAL (Sure-cuts-a-lot) program and starting choosing some swirly fonts - I was going to do some Monogram coasters (or so I thought) - but then I kind of got tired of that idea. I am planning on doing a few other projects with our initial, so I wanted to do something different here. Again, blogland comes to the rescue, and aided me with some inspiration! I have seen among lots of blogs lately many things adorned with numbers! Numbers, numbers, everywhere! Me likey!! So, I scrapped the idea of 'M' coasters and went with numbers.

I chose a font that didn't give too many frills - what worked for me was Champagne & Limousines - perfect! Printed it out on my new black vinyl, weeded the vinyl, applied the transfer tape (in my case, green painter's tape because I have been over-zealous lately with my packing - but that's another story!!) and applied it to my coasters. Easy Peasy!! Here they are, aren't they beautiful??

Before:



After:




Linking up to:

Fabulous Finds!

My two sons and I popped over to Value Village today - I hadn't been there in well over a week, and I was itching to go. Is that weird? It's a different feeling for me, that's for sure.

I trolled the aisles for some finds - and saw a lot, but am trying to keep the cost and quantity down - especially the quantity of things because we are moving in less than 3 weeks! The more I buy, the more I pack.

Here are my fab finds...I just love them!!

I got my first piece of Fire King Oven Ware! I have seen a few pieces in blogland, in people's vignettes and such, and I love it! I must say, 3 months ago, I would have passed this by...now I was drawn to it, like a moth to a flame! I looked on the net, and my piece is probably from the 1950's. COOL!!! The price? $3.99! Is that good? lol


I was going to make some coasters with some old tiles that we had and some cork, but I saw these for $2.99 and snatched them up. I don't know what kind of material they are made out of, seems like a smooth stone. I love the lines on it. I am going to do up some vinyl (maybe a monogram?) and pop it on there.


Ok, so maybe I am a bit of a copy cat - or, shall we say - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? I've seen the Ampersand symbol floating around blogland as well, and when I saw this, I had to have it. It's ceramic, and kind of a pearly white. I'm not sure what colour to paint it - white or black? I might have to wait until we move, and then I can see what colour strikes me. Oh ya - it was $1.99.



Did you find anything fabulous lately?

Linking up to: