What a Girl can do with Streamers!!!

When I think of streamers I have always thought of tacky decorations pulled out at last minute to throw a bit of color in just about every party I've ever been too...can you relate?  Well, no more!

My featured lady today has changed my view of streamers and made me enthusiastic about the look they can achieve in your decor!  Take a look....

Oh so soft and pretty and if I didn't know, I would not have guessed what it was made of : )  Would you believe this is what happens when you run it through the sewing machine?  Nope, me neither!  And when you think it can't get any better, she teaches you how to make the flower too!

Well, take a look at my fave this week and have a fantastic weekend!  I'll let you know how the show is tomorrow when we celebrate our anniversary at Medieval Times:)
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Medieval Times: Toronto Version

So this Sunday, May 2 is officially one year of marriage for us! And in celebration we are going to the Medieval Times show in Toronto on Saturday.  I went once when I was about 10 or so...so its been a while.  Any of you been there before?  This is what we have to look forward to:

From the website:
Welcome to the 11th century! Just beyond the great doors of our Hall of Arms waits the celebration arena, the heart of each of Medieval Times' nine castles. From high above King Philippe and his daughter-in-law, Princess Leonore, preside over a four-course feast. Below, privileged royal guests are transported to faraway lands including a romantic snowy rendezvous in the woods and an authentic medieval tournament for the Battle of Champions ® -- with the help of Hollywood-caliber special effects, of course.

Sounds fun right???  We are excited to go and do something special for our anniversary since we typically skip such celebrations...nice to go off the two of us for some fun:)

Any of you do something special for your one year anniversary?





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Tea for Two

Hellooo Monday!!!  Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and took a look at the feature from Friday!  I survived the sleepover, although I did sleep for over three hours Saturday afternoon to recover... I don't remember ever having that much energy!!


And today I am excited to show you the project for my niece Stella that I completed.  Unfortunately I ran out of time as we are not able to bring it down ourselves so I had to send it with the in-laws so its not quite the vision I had in my head but I still think it turned out pretty cute:)

Here's the before: 





The table and two chairs cost me six bucks at value village:) I thought that was pretty good!






















My husband thought I should keep the little bear on the top of the table....I did not, so the sander was put to work!
Then all the pieces took a coat of primer and several coats of paint.  I just went to Home Depot and found the mis-tints and oops section so the cans were three bucks each, primer I already had a the can of spray paint was six bucks...not bad right? Looking online these things sell for over 100 dollars so I was feeling pretty good about myself!

And here's the after!

Ended up more soft and pretty then the funky vibrant colors I originally had in my head but things don't always go the way you imagine I guess eh? 

What I love about it is that the table is now a chalkboard for her to draw on, when she learns to draw rather than eat it...hopefully not too many incidents with that! 

Now we have to see in October if the colors in this table and chairs predict the gender of the baby on the way:) 

Have a great Monday everyone!

Linked to:

Making the world cuter
The Persimmon Perch

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Another Friday, Another Fabulous Lady!

It is just ridiculous how fast Friday comes! Well, I've have been "blog browsing" for the last day to find my favorite blog post this week, one that wowed me, made me jealous as all get out, over the top amazing,  and was just all around awesome!

And who would that be this week?? Kristine at The Painted Hive for her transformation of these BEAUTIFUL chairs...i love them, so soft and a beautiful spot to sit for some tea and a book! 


















Take a look and love it everyone! And be sure to take a look at the rest of her projects cuz she will wow you!

Have a wonderful friday everyone! I'm headed out to chaperone a sleepover with nine thirteen year olds....crazy? I think so!


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Have Paint, Will Spray

In my books, a can of spray paint is one of the best things EV-AH!!!  Have you ever had one of those days where you can just walk around your house finding stuff to spray paint until someone must come and pry that bottle out of your hands, or you have used every finger trying to keep that trigger going and you have to stop before losing use of your whole hand? Or is that just me? 

Well, a while back I got a can of aluminum paint to redo some hardware and I rediscovered it this week...Here's what happened:

The blue never fit in anyways....

I LOVE my stars here...and am proud to say they were a total of two dollars at Mardens...but the rest of the space still needs some inspiration I feel.  Definitely not spray painting those:) 

and the mailbox - the landlords put up a falling apart partially black/mostly rusting eyesore of a mailbox....haven't found a replacement yet so yup...it got the full treatment..

Maybe I can still make it work, got some black paint and need make a stencil....hmm, ideas? 

Oh and this too: 

Please don't look at the mess in the back of the picture...Notice the pretty wedding album though?

Yup, I'm a spraypaint-aholic:) but a little addiction never hurt anyone right?

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Homemade Coasters

Hubby and I had a pretty quiet weekend this week, cleaning around the house and hanging out with friends but still, somehow Sunday night always comes too soon every week!! Saturday was pretty cold and I wasn't feeling well so not too much got done...but it warmed up a bit today so we had a nice BBQ outside with Dairy Queen ice cream cake...not quite in my diet nowadays so please don't tell my mom (mom I hope you didn't read this) as she is one of my accountability partner!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Needing only the slightest reason to tray out the coasters tutorial I discovered earlier, I sat down to create some of these beauties for a friend's birthday this week. I set out hoping to find some scrapbook paper with a kind of beachy feel which would suit her well but could not find anything I liked:(  But I do love these sets of scrapbook paper with a design on one side and matching color on the other.  No more wandering the aisle of paper to find the color that will match perfectly! LOVE it.

So here we go, the tiles were 29 cents at Rona, the paper 2.50 at Michael's and I already had the glue and varnish so we're good to go:)
I used plain dollar store glue mixed 1:1 with water for a nice glaze.  Brush a layer on the tile and on the back of the paper, then carefully place in center watching for any bubbles around. Let dry about 20 minutes.  Then cover the paper with a layer of glue to seal in.  I repeated this three times, then did three layers of varnish to get that nice shiny look and so it will withstand any spills as they get used. Finally place some felt on the bottom to prevent any scratching on your table.
And the final product....Not too time consuming...I left it on the counter and came back to it in between doing other things so it didn't take up too much time....and present done! Hope she loves them as much as I do:)

Well, that was fun...anyone want to order some? I'm on a roll:)

 So I've started on my project for my niece but its not quite ready for reveal but I hope to have it done sometime this week.  Can't wait to show the final product on that one!!

Hope you are all ready for Monday morning! I'm certainly not...

This is linked to: 

http://theherberfamily.blogspot.com/2010/04/talented-tuesday_20.html  

Fabulous Fridays

To celebrate my first Friday of blogging I thought I would start a new tradition of picking my favorite blog post of the week and featuring it here.  So to start it off, because I LOVE a project that can be done quick and easy and still have the effect of tranforming a room, or in this case, a hallway, the feature this week comes from Tidbits from the Tremaynes. 

In the space of a few hours a hallway was taken to a thing of beauty...take a look and love! Can you imagine doing this in your hallway, or anywhere in fact.  I can picture doing the same thing in sort of a garden fence style in a bedroom....that would be adorable.  Can't wait to own a wall to do this to someday:) Sigh...

Happy Friday everyone!
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Bringing Nature Indoors

Well, the consensus is ....... LEAVE IT, ITS BEAUTIFUL!  Makes my job easier and I have a project for a certain niece of mine that i can't wait to get to so I think I'll agree.  Maybe once I get a sewing machine again I'll tackle making a removable cover so it can go either way:) Hmm, sewing not my strong point so we'll see!

I have been feeling especially inspired this week with all the spring weather, flowers, and everyone just seems happier around this time right?  Not to mention I hit my ten pound weight loss goal as of last Friday! Now that's inspiring!

What is a better or cheaper decoration than just bringing something from outside indoors??  Especially as spring is starting to show its face now... Well, I painted those branches from our walk on Sunday yesterday evening in ten minutes and think they look very cute and spring like in my living room now:) They are a mixture of white and silver and I am loving them in my red heart shaped vases(which were a steal at 1.50 on sale at Michaels!!)

Any of you have some sparks of color that you just love or good deals in your house that just make you smile inside every time you see them?

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Bench Update

So as I've been refinishing this bench to add to my dining room table set I have been debating between leaving it the plain wood or adding a cushion.  The chairs have cushions and I love how they turned out when I recovered them as you can see in the before and after below:

I think it looks better in person than in pictures, but no matter what, its an improvement over the ducks, right? I'm sorry to take off my Oma's hard work but I hope that I'll be able to give them a new home someday:) 

Anyways, finished the bench tonight and love how it looks but probably will need to let it sit a few days before deciding if I want a cushion... 

Well, here's the pictures thus far...like?  I forgot to take a before pic of the bench but it has a matching table that I will use for something else later...

I love that we can now easily sit six instead of four at our table and that a bench can easily hide or be re-purposed in our little apartment where space is precious... 

Hmm...Mix a new pattern in, leave the wood, cover it in a solid and add the awesome nail head trim?   Still pondering the options:) 

How should I finish the Bench?

Coasters....from Tiles??!!??

So the fact that these places charge an obscene amount of money for four little squares to place your drinks on has always bothered me and I have just tried to avoid them altogether.  However, my mom redid my Oma's old dining set for me and it is BEAUTIFUL and there is no way I am getting any water stains on it! So I bought little Ikea cheapy ones for the time being but they are just not doing it for me. 

And that is when I came across this beauty of a tutorial!  Do It Yourself Coasters made out of tiles and some scrapbooking paper! That is my kind of project! Easy to do and easy to replace when I decide I want new colors around! PERFECT!

Don't these make you drool just a little bit??  So tonight I shall finish my beautiful bench and maybe paint those branches BUT I can't wait to try out this little project soon:)

Have a great Tuesday!

A day in God's Creation

Today we had a wonderful day with some friends enjoying breakfast, and a little walk to these beautiful falls.  

Isn't that beautiful?  It was a little windy so we got a faceful of water quite a bit but it was warm enough that it was alright.  

Put first layer of varnish on the bench and got some branches on our hike to paint for some decor in the living room.  Some beautiful red vases have been sitting empty for too long! At some point this week they will become silver or white or both...we'll see:)   

Hope you have had a wonderful day however you worship on your Sundays:) 

Springing Up :)

I was pretty proud of myself and worked on a few projects today and got all my laundry done today...laundry being much more enjoyable now that we have cable in our bedroom so i can watch tv and put away the laundry at the same time:)  Anyways, saw a picture of a vase wrapped with twine and loved the look and knew exactly where i would put that...
So here is the before:

Red is the dominant accent color in my living room but I love this ceramic vase from my sister in law for our wedding...but it will have to find a new home as I wanted to make it lighter and more spring like in this corner.

Here is the after:

I think now it looks much airier for this spot and hold the two only roses that Hubby ever gave me, however sad looking they are now...  And notice those cute looking eggs? Ya, they were my fun project of paper mache eggs for Easter stolen from Kate at CentsationalGirl - one of my fave bloggers:) Her version is seen here:

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/03/paper-mache-easter-eggs/

Currently working on another project I saw of hers here:

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/03/trestle-bench-transformed/

Can't wait to have that one finished! Glad had some stain from my dining room table so that it can match up to that and sit there soon!

Thats it for today, Have a great Saturday night whatever you do!

The Beginning

Being a newly married girl with no kids in sight, I tend to have some time on my hands.  Hence, this blog! I dream of the day when I will have a house to decorate and not live vicariously through the blogs of amazing transformations that I now check daily.  Til then, I thought why not document my small projects on my own blog.  And Voila! Here we are.  Given we currently live in a small one bedroom apartment in the basement of a house, the projects are small but I feel a small bit of victory with each one.  And crave the day I can really be creative...