Snowy Little Houses

I've been slowly working on a snowy village to decorate our mantel. I was at the dollar store with the kid and picked up some cardboard houses with ugly pictures on them. I picked the pictures off with an exacto knife which was a pain the a**because, of course, they wouldn't come off in one big piece but in a zillion little bits.

Once the images were peeled off, I cut windows out of each house and painted them white with regular acrylic paint. The fact that I butchered the cardboard trying to get the images off added a nice "stucco" a-la-greek look to them.  I put little fake LED candles inside and looks like some gnomes are home eating dinner. (I unknowingly bought candles that flicker which I'm happy about). A few trees from IKEA and a full moon and presto; a snowy Christmas scene!

ugly boxes

scrapped and painted

(I wish I was good at thinking pictures in the dark-but here they are-a glowin'!)
 

 Snowy village

Kicking Off the Season with Homemade Wrapping Paper

I saw an advertisement on television the other day with a supremely plastic family shopping for their holiday decorations. They were standing in front of a giant wall of matchy-matchy decorations; rolls of wrapping paper, gift tags, bows, ribbons, boxes of balls, garlands, bobbles, icicles, ornaments, and Christmas tree lights all in turquoise and silver. All ready to go and in this worry free color combination sure to match any home decor. BAM! Insta-Christmas!

Not my kind of Christmas. Yup, we're busy during the holidays, but so what?  It's a perfect time of year to get creative and to try to minimize our time at the mall. The key is to start early. Okay, not right after Halloween kinda of early, like some manic businesses who need holiday based decorations at all times, but you know, about mid-November.

Every year, I love to invent my own wrapping paper. I use left-over paper, stickers, string, paint, whatever I have on hand. Here are papers I've been working on with my boy:

Collage Wrapping Paper

The kid's craft station and our recycling bin is full of leftover bits of papers, stickers and string which I collected and glued together on a large piece of paper. Then I covered the whole thing with lots of white glue. To finish it off I ran it through the sewing machine, going through it in random directions to give it strength. I think it turned out really festive!

Tons of glue is the key- brush it on with a paint brush.

Wait until it's completely dry and use a wide or decorative stitch

I also collect our coffee bags because they are non-biodegradable and the only coffee company that takes them back is way out in Burnaby, so I decided to re-purpose them.

I cut them open lengthwise and washed them out

I sewed them together piece by piece like making a quilt

I added more colors of thread and zigzaged all over it

My kid is modeling the new coffee paper

I cut the paper and sewed pouches

I can't decided which I like best, the silver lining of the printed side

Artistic Challenge Heating Up

It's the middle of July, one sinus infection, a sun burn and some glorious sun and my artistic challenge is going well. I made a tourist rabbit for a one year old neighbor, some snack packs for a friend, bought an umbrella and rearranged our patio, and made new crayons.

Party Hats

Rain, Rain, Rain, Sun, Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain. That was this week's forecast. We were invited to a birthday party and every time I mentioned it, the kid said: "Where's my hat?", so on the one sunny day, the kid and I rode our bike to Urban Source and filled a bag with fun crafty things. Urban Source collects remnants, bits and pieces and thing-y-majigs from 100 different industries and serves it up in giant bins: stickers, lids, tubes, papers, stamps, lettering, postcards, photos, string, rubber bits, etc..I love this store because it gives your creativity a big jolt without breaking the bank. Our hats certainly brightened this rainy morning!

Kitchen Play-Act 2

Just finished the first coat of paint on the play kitchen yesterday. It's starting to look pretty fancy- dancy if you ask me! I used some leftover gray and beige paint from our storage and spruced it up with an orange front. I still need another coat of paint, knobs, doodads and the backsplash- ohh la la! On va cuisiner comme des vrais chefs! I sure hope my Babe digs this kitchen as much as I do- he might just use the oven as a garage for his cars, and if that's the case, it's all good.

I've been on the look out for kitchen accessories and scored today in China Town and at Value Village! Yes, I know, I know, I can hear a collective gasp from mothers out there thinking "What about the BPA?" Children toys generally do not contain Bisphenol A- so I think the plastic veggies are okay. We will probably end up replacing them as my friend Meggie felts some for us. (hint, hint.) As for the few spatulas I bought, as long as we don't microwave them or suck on them a lot, I think we'll be fine. So I'm super happy. We're almost there- stay tuned for the final reveal!

I got a huge bag of food for $3. Once I discarded the french fries, potato chips and donuts, I was left with lots of fruits and veggies and some cans. I did find something curious. The flash on the camera gives it that "mysterious" look doesn't it? Can you guess what it is?

Stay-at-home styling

Honey? Wouldn't it be nice if we could knock down this wall, paint the doors bright orange, redo the floors, plant a patio garden, make new curtains and paint a mural in the living room?

I'm not sure if this is the case with all stay-at-home moms, but for me, the longer I stay indoors the more my inner interior decorator wants to get very crafty. "Crafty" beyond my abilities (and budget). A few weeks ago, I revisited www.apartmenttherapy.com and I can say I've caught the interior design flu. I've booked marked at least 30 pages of ideas I want to steal. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Yummify your boring Ikea dressers with Overlays
2. The craziest most beautiful wallpaper.
3. Get organized in style.
4. Painted floors that make you want to rip your carpets out today.

If any of these ideas materialize, that remains to be seen. I might have to settle for just re-arranging the furniture. 

Getting Crafty

There's something about being on maternity leave and at home that gets you feeling really crafty! You want to use your sewing machine again, start painting or scrapbooking, and can your own food. You visit Etsy and you start dreaming about starting your own pink tutu making business. Why not, right?

I decided to start simple: to recover my white, stained, dining room chair seats covers. Easy right? First get some fabric, unscrew the seats from the chairs and then staple the new fabric over the seats, and then ta-da! New covers!

Day 1. Visited the fabric store, brought home fabric which was promptly vetoed by my husband. Good call babe.
Day 2. Visited another fabric store, picked out something similar to the original fabric but that has specks in it to hide the stains better.
Day 3. Drove to my mom's to get her stapler.
Day 4. Walked to Canadian Tire to get staples. They didn't have any that fit.
Day 5. Walked to Rona to get staples. The guy there laughed at me and said that they didn't carry staples for that stapler anymore because the model was too old and to try their competition.
Day 6. Drove to Home Depot to get staples. Forgot to bring the stapler but did bring the model number. They didn't have the right staples, but suggested to try others instead. They didn't work.
Day 7. Went into the storage room, suddenly remembering that I had my own stapler. No staples.
Day 8. Return old staples to Home Depot, try to find new staples for my own stapler. No staples.

You would think that after all this, all the while lugging, pushing, and carrying Baby, that I would give up!

WELL, I DID!!!!! (only after I had a major tantrum when my husband, who didn't know about all this, asked me why I hadn't finished my covers yet.)

This is a classic case of not listening to the universe! Until a stapler fully loaded with staples rings my doorbell,  I officially give up and I'm okay with it! At least I have the fabric!

On a more positive note, I have successfully completed other crafts since then. Thanks to my friend Michelle for inspiration and my mom for her help! I made some cute pants and a hat for Baby from a pair of old maternity pants and some curtains. I will not be on Etsy anytime soon.