I always feel stumped on what art to hang in the bathroom.  Portraits are out.  That’s just awkward.  And lots of people seem to go for seascapes or water-themed art, but that feels too obvious for me.  A while ago I posted about painting agate-inspired art, so for my bathroom I stuck with that geological idea and painted some malachite-inspired art. (Geologists, look away.  Because these are not very technical.  Because, you know, I have all those geologists who follow my blog.)

I told you I was obsessing over emerald green, and I’ve been adding it to my bathroom in accents.  This was another way to repeat the colour.

I tend to hang my pictures differently all the time, but I thought I’d share with you one way to do it that requires no math (this is for a picture frame with two hooks on the back).  This is what you’ll need (plus, nails and pictures. duh.):

Isn’t my level cute?  (I got it in a Christmas gift exchange, which makes it extra special, since I never get anything good in those!  Once I got a little black toad paperweight with red jewel eyes.  Creepiest ever.) And painters tape is a marvellous thing for hanging picture frames.  I use it all the time.  And it’s especially great for spacing out groupings of art.  But I don’t show you that today.  So. Um… where was I?

Take your painters tape and stretch it over the little hooky-hanger-thingie and press down.  (Sorry, is this getting to technical?  I’ll slow down.)

Then poke your nail through the tape into the top of the hooky-hanger-thingy to make a hole.

Here’s a picture of a hole in some painters tape on the back of a picture frame.  This is thrilling stuff, people.

Then transfer that tape strip to the wall and use a level to make sure it’s straight.

Hammer your nails into the wall through your pre-marked holes.

Hang your picture on the nails and use your level again to be sure it’s straight.

Then, because I was hanging an identical frame below the first one, I removed the top frame and created a guide with painters tape from the top nail downward, again using the level to make sure it’s straight.

After that I repeated the first steps with the second frame

I matched up the nail hole for the second frame with the side of the tape guide from the top.  I hammered the nails and I hung the second picture.  And then I went savage and  ripped off all the tape like a mad woman.  Not really.  But you could.

Ta da!  Some colourful, interesting, abstract art for the bathroom!

I’ll resume with the rest of my “House Rules” next week (you can check out all of my inspiration photos here.)  It was interesting, though, watching how the pictures I posted for this reblogged on Tumblr.  Though there are a lot of factors to whether a picture I blog gets lots of traffic (if a blogger with many followers reblogs a picture, or if I also pin a picture to Pinterest, etc.), I do notice a pattern.  Certain pictures emotionally connect with people - window seats, welcoming chairs in the corner, or walls of windows flooding a room with warm sunlight.  It’s something that is about more than design, it’s about feeling safe, and comfortable, and cozy.

That being said, I have a spot like that now. (Hooray!!)

Though this chair was (and maybe still is?) intended for our master bedroom I have a few things I want to touch up, so it’s been sitting in our main living area, set back from the living room area beside the balcony doors.  And it’s made itself comfortable.

And so have I.  It’s turned out to be such a nice cozy spot to settle into.  And can I get a “holla” for wingback chairs?  (Or not.  A polite golf clap will suffice.)  I know, I know… if you’ve followed me for a while you may know that I’ve sworn off ever reupholstering a wingback chair again.  But it’s deep comfortable seat and hug-like embrace are swaying my judgement.  I love it.

I’d love to give you the step-by-step tutorial run down.  But I can’t.  I was too busy sobbing into a pile of foam, fabric and staples to take any pictures.  I’d previously nicknamed this chair “The Beast”, because reupholstering it was so terrible.  It was large, and difficult, and quite a puzzle to put back together.  The thing was clearly not made by human hands.  Rather, it was fashioned by evil alien robots.

I did follow, as best as possible, a couple of quite good blog tutorials for wingback chairs but they have both since disappeared from the world wide inter webs. (weeeeeird.  Aliens, again, perhaps?)  But you may find this one (that I found AFTER I was done my chair.  Gee, thanks a lot.  But gawrsh that chair’s pretty.  I love me some Dwell fabric.) and this more general one very helpful if you’re looking for a tutorial.

But 98.7% of you just want the “after” picture, anyways, am I right?  So here you go:

And this Beast, much like another familiar tale of a Beast, has won me over.  It was once a terrible tyrant, but now… now you might say:

There’s something sweet
And almost kind
But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined
But now he’s dear, and so unsure
I wonder why I didn’t see it there before

That’s right.  I just quoted that.  Don’t hate.  (And now I’m totally singing it in my head, aren’t you?)

It’s become such a lovely little spot to curl up and read a book.  Especially with two sweet kiddos sharing its seat.

P.S. You can read more about my adventures in DIY upholstery here, here, and here.

Hokey Dinah.  Who even says that anymore?  Well, me, apparently.  And my two-year-old son.  Because whenever I open up a particularly gruesome diaper of his he exclaims, “Hokey Dinah!”, because I guess I’ve said that on those occasions.  Wow, starting out with digression.  Bad sign.  Run away, peeps, this could get all rabbit-traily.

So I’ll try to hit the main point now: Hokey dinah - life is suddenly feeling crazy busy.  And I have had no time to update my own blog, or read blogs, or do any of that fun stuff.  In fact, I haven’t even been scrolling through the pretty stuff on my Tumblr dashboard.  Boo.

I’m not sure what happened exactly.  Summer was so pretty low key (well, “I just had a baby” low key).  And fall snuck up on us with gorgeous weather and a whole bunch of commitments on the schedule.  Plus my beautiful baby girl is growing up and needing a bit more from me.  And my son’s been on this new sibling/terrible twos/battle for independence thing that is requiring a lot of me.  And… I don’t know what else.  All that to say: “Sorry, Dudes, the blog’s been neglected, and probably will be many more times to come.”  I do feel bad.  But not that bad, cuz let’s face it, I do this for free.

And in the midst of it all I’m really needing to assess what my priorities are.  My main purpose is clear right now - to serve and bless my family; to build my marriage and raise my children for God’s glory.  But what should I do beyond that?  Because there are a lot of things I want to do.  Some things I’m obligated to do.  Some things I wish I’d never volunteered to do.  And a bunch of other things, too.  But what has God planned for me to do?  I don’t have any answers right now - it’s hard to think through such deep life questions on such little sleep and personal time.  But I do know the blogging’s taking a slide, and that’s OK for now. 

I have managed to chip away at a few things around the home on the good days:

Remember my DIY lamp?  It looked cool in pink, but wasn’t working in my space.  So I repainted it in Krylon’s brushed nickel finish (which is actually a much warmer metal tone than nickel, I think), and used a lampshade I’d recovered in blue linen a while ago.  I’m quite smitten with how it looks.

I finally got around to painting our dining room sideboard.  I tried to sell this thing online a long time ago, but the “buyer” never showed up (seriously, people.)  So I opted to keep it, paint it, and now I just need to add new hardware.  I don’t love the piece, but it’s solid, and a good size for the space.  And now it’s not a garish honey colour, so that’s nice.

I picked up this pretty white platter at Value Village.  And I love it.  It reminds me of ironstone, though I don’t know if it actually is.  I try very hard to not purchase things that are for our future farmhouse, but this is one of those things.

And I picked up another Louis chair!  Back when I recovered the first one I purchased enough fabric for two in hopes that I’d find a second one.  So I’m looking forward to redoing this one to match, and creating the double welt cord for both.

I have some other projects in process, and some others on the to-do lis, but I’ll share them when I’m done.

And the most important projects?  A whole lotta’ this pretty thing:

And a whole buncha’ this handsome one:

And those are the projects that make my home the most beautiful.

Life with two kiddos is equal parts crazy and delightful.  I’m loving it.  And my days are full of feeding, playing, teaching, snuggling, disciplining, rocking, burping (not myself), diapering, and maybe tidying up after it all.  It doesn’t leave much time for projects, but I’ve managed to squeeze a few in.  And one in particular was reeeally easy and quick.

In our teeny tiny galley kitchen one side has a strange bulky wall that’s kind of awkward.  But for as long as we’ve been here I’ve thought it would be a great spot for a chalkboard wall - a place to jot lists of “to-do’s” and groceries.  I’d searched for a while for chalkboard paint, and only ever found spray paint - not something I want to use indoors.

So finally I decided to try the Martha method - a simple recipe for chalkboard paint from Martha Stewart Living.  

(photo from Martha Stewart Living)

Not only is the recipe super simple, but it allows you to customize the colour aaand if you use environmentally friendly paint (like I did) this stuff’s a lot nicer than the nasty chemically chalkboard paints out there.

I mixed up the recommended 1 cup of latex paint to two tablespoons of unsanded tile grout (which I found at Home Depot).  Some of the commenters on the website complained that the mixture was too thick and gloppy.  I mixed mine with a small whisk to ensure the powdery grout didn’t clump up.  

I found it thick, but useable.  I used a brush (as opposed to a foam roller like the instructions said), which I found useful to feather out any lumps in the paint.  (Though going over it with a foam roller may give a smoother finish, if you want to try that.)  I also think the mixture became thicker the longer it sat.

I decided to do two coats since the instructions said to sand the wall once it dried.  However the sanding began to take the paint off spots of my old bumpy walls.  So I touched up those spots and skipped the sanding.

Before I knew it I was doodling all over the wall.  It comes clean easily with a damp cloth, and looks great.  I was surprised to find that the chalkboard wall is slightly darker than the remaining walls (all painted with Newburyport Blue from Benjamin Moore, btw) - which I’m OK with.

And as soon as a certain someone discovered Mommy drawing on the walls he joined in with fervour.  Before I knew it he was even making requests.  (“Mommy, draw tractor.  Right ‘der.”)

This project was super easy and yielded great results.  Even my husband stated: “Hey, that actually looks pretty cool!”  I’ll take that. :)

Well, I shared my plans along the way… but maybe I should also share the finished project?  So welcome to M & L’s nursery!  

In case you forgot, here is the original plan:

Over time the plan in evolved in the details, but stayed pretty true to my vision: cream with pops of colour (particularly deep red), with lots of fun, vintage-feeling, patterned fabrics.  Here are a few of the posts and DIYs I shared along the way:

• I sewed the drapes myself, and my dad built the bed then I upholstered it.
• Once I found a serendipitously perfect fabric I used it to slipcover an ottoman.
• I reused a side table from UsedRegina, which my mom painted.  (You’ll see in the link I’d planned to use two tables, but since I changed up the layout I only needed the one.  The other table still has its wood finish and is in my bedroom.)  I had also originally thought about painting the table red, but with the contrast between the dark wood crib, medium wood floors, the light canvas toddler bed, and the apple green chair I felt the need to neutralize the remaining furniture, so my mom kindly painted the dresser and side table in a colour to match the fabric on Little M’s bed.
• And after I knew I was having a girl I swapped out the IKEA knappa pendant (which I have a cool plan for) and created my own “capiz shell” chandelier.
• I also sewed Little M’s quilt - made with some inspiration from Pinterest.

Some other changes?  

• The layout was changed up because we actually had room for the change table between the crib and bed (instead of in the closet) - which is ideal.
• I did purchase the IKEA rug, but after living with it for a few weeks I felt the pattern was a bit too busy, and didn’t relate enough to the fabrics in the room.  Also, it has a pretty scratchy texture, so it wasn’t necessarily better to play on than the laminate.  So the rug’s in our room now, and I quite like it there.
• I also sewed some pillows and a crib skirt, spray painted the lamp and some hooks cherry red, Sean put up some display shelves and hung a second closet rod, and I added some adorable alphabet flashcards as art above the crib.

But enough of that… how about some pictures?

Our rocking/reading/snuggling/nursing corner!  (And though the drape over the closet is also the cheaper option - as opposed to adding doors - it also allowed us to have a spacious floor plan by placing the chair slightly in front of the closet.  Another bonus?  Little M loves to hide in his “tent” closet where I’ve stashed books and soft toys on the bottom shelf.

I sewed the stripes onto the store-bought curtain panel using the leftovers from the drapes to connect the two sides of the room.

Here’s the lamp I bought ages ago at Urban Outfitters on clearance, now looking kicky in deep red.  I love it.  L’s journal was purchased at Chapters and was designed by the same artist, Lorena Siminovich, who created the flashcards above the crib. (Underneath it is M’s journal, which coordinated with his old forest-themed nursery design.)

I actually bought these corner shelves when Little M was born, but they only made it onto the walls last week… isn’t that how it goes?  I’m loving the display surface now!  (Especially Baby L’s cute red shoes!!) :)

Here you can see the side table, a find from an estate sale on Used Regina painted to match the change table/dresser.  I love the extra storage space for more books!

In this shot you can see the crib skirt I made from the wonderful dot fabric using the instructions found in Amy Butler’s book: Little Stitches for Little Ones.  My sneaky cost-saving (and time-saving) secret?  I didn’t have enough fabric for the whole skirt, so I only sewed the visible panels, and left the other two wall-facing sides of the crib bare.

Obviously those cushions won’t stay in the crib once Little L moves in with big brother, but they’ll look lovely on the chair or Little M’s bed then. 

Here are the beautiful flashcards from Petit Collage.  Love ‘em.  And you can see Little L’s new chandelier and my beloved drapery fabric.

As you can see we painted our change table to match the side table and stand out a little less.

Here’s little M’s bed - loosely based on this tutorial from Design mom, with a headboard added.  And you’ll see those great ‘Monsieur’ prints by Blanca Gomez on the wall, which look so great with the ottoman fabric (and Little M loves that they feature bubbles and balloons - two of the coolest things ever.)

Speaking of the ottoman, I love that it can float around the room:

I spray painted these cheapy brass hooks red to hang outfits on.  I like to hang out their Sunday clothes on Saturday night to make getting out the door on Sunday mornings easier!

We kept the Ribba picture ledges as book shelves - a wonderful, changeable art display of storybooks!  However now that Little M is a ravenous reader I have to watch that he doesn’t use the ledges as a ladder…

So there it is!  I’m pleased as punch with it.  Even with two it doesn’t feel crowded at all, which is lovely.  …Oh, and I think the kids like it too. ;)

Progress is happening little-by-little in the nursery makeover!  

After attacking the laundry room I used the momentum to organize the nursery closet.  It’s nothing to behold, but it is organized with room to spare!  We’re going to add a second rod to hang clothes on and then it should work swimmingly for 2 kiddos.  (The nice thing about a circa 1970’s condo is the big rooms and big closets!)

And I’ve been able to accomplish some fun projects too!  The drapes are finished:

I sewed my usual tab-back pleated drapes, which are sooo easy and look lovely.

And my dad and I finished the bed a while back (Little M loves it!).

We based it on this tutorial from Design Mom - with a few size adjustments, a bit of free-styling (‘cause that’s how I roll), and I created a tufted headboard.

I also have the rug, which I’ll try out this week in the room.

What else is on the to-do list?

• Create some pretty bedding for the crib (skirt, fitted sheet, small quilt perhaps)
• Sew some pillow cases for throws and bolsters
• Create a fabulous and cheap new mobile for above the crib
• Paint the side table and change table (I’m opting for cream rather than red… just feeling like I need them to blend and let all of the colourful and patterned fabrics be the “pop” in the room.)
• Switch out some artwork and arrange it

…and I think that’s it!  T-minus 64 days until Baby #2!

pre-kteacher:

(via Doorway Puppet Theatre by CoolSpacesForKids on Etsy)

I happened to inherit a free ottoman.  My husband loves it when he’s rocking with the little boy in the nursery, and Little M loves to roll around on it and pretend to sleep on it.  Problem?  It’s ugly!  Solution?  Slip cover!  This is a ridiculously easy project with big impact.  Of course you could complicate it by using a storage ottoman, or adding piping, but I wanted a quick “cross off your to-do list” projet du jour.

So… Start with one ugly ottoman:

Then drape your much nicer fabric over the ottoman, fabric right-side-in:

Then pin the corners:

I drew a line along the edge to help guide me when sewing:

Then sew along your line:

You should put your slipcover back onto your ottoman to make sure it fits properly.  At this point your son may announce “ALL DONE!” and try to climb up on top.  However, he would be mistaken: you may need to re-pin, stitch rip, or re-sew the sides to make the fit snug.  I am not very fussy though, and I declared it good enough.

Then you can remove the slipcover and trim off the corner pieces (I’m saving mine… possibly for pillows?)

Now you can hem up the bottom for a nice edge:

Now you can turn your slipcover right-side-out and voila!  A fun little ottoman slip cover!

I made mine a little loose, since I think it’ll be taken off and washed frequently, given its location in the kids’ bedroom.  (Which, by the way, I pre-washed the fabric to avoid future shrinkage fiascos).  I may go back and tighten up the corners a little, but I’m perfectly happy for now!

My husband’s work is very seasonal.  He is both an agricultural accountant and a farmer.  This means there are 3 critical seasons in our family life: Tax season, quickly followed (hopefully) by Seeding, and in the fall is Harvest.

My least favourite of the 3 is tax season.  Maybe because Sean is just so darn happy when he’s out farming (he likes doing taxes, but looooves driving a combine.)  Maybe it’s because seeding and harvest can have the occasional rain day for a break.  Maybe it’s  because he just looks so hot in jeans and a ball cap fresh off the tractor.  Whatever the reason, tax season is my least favourite.  But this year I’ve felt it hasn’t been so bad.  Maybe because we’re used to it now, or maybe because we’re doing better at carving out family time. Or maybe because I’ve decided that Sean’s tax season = my DIY season.  If he comes home later (in the evening) then I have more time to make a mess with my projects and clean it up by the time he’s home.  If he’s working Saturdays then I can use those days for projects.  So here are a few of the things I’ve done in the last week…

…the pieces of paper mapping out the location for an art arrangement were finally replaced with actual frames…  (You can see some good picture wall techniques here and here.)

…the sad little phone table finally got a new outfit with a glossy black paint job…

…and I finally sewed a bench cushion to bring some “doneness” to our entryway!  (though we still need to find the black hooks I hid from Little M… or he hid from me… and hang those on the wall!)

I also decided to take on our poor “flood pant” drapes.  They were the first I sewed, and were unfortunately crooked and too short.  I added a band to the bottom to bring them to floor length and even them out:

Unfortunately I was insistent on using fabric already in my stash for this project.  So I used a white bed sheet, which, even beforehand, I knew wasn’t the best idea.  Here’s why: as the edge of the drapes it’ll get dirty.  Also the sheet material is more “true” white while the drapery stripes are more off-white.  Not to mention if you’d asked me advice on what colour to use I’d have recommended a darker colour to “ground” the drapes.  And the final reason the white sheet was a bad idea?  As you can see, the bottom of the striped fabric is visible through the white fabric.  But I’m stubborn and forged ahead because I already had my sewing machine out.  I don’t hate it, but I’ll probably change it when the right fabric comes along.  Until then, however, the drapes look far less nerdy than before.

And here’s the project I’m working on tonight:

My wonderful dad built the frame for Little M’s new bed this weekend, and I’m working on upholstering it and creating a headboard!  (Based on this tutorial from Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom)  I’ll show you more when I’m all done.  

But the best part?  The cutest “helper” in the world.

New favourite blog: http://www.centsationalgirl.com/

Kate’s tag line is “fabulous for less”… my kinda’ girl!  I have so many DIY projects rolling around in my brain (painting our front door, drapes for my office, a headboard for our bed…) and she offers many great tutorials and ideas for easy ways to fix up your home.

Check it out!

Her laundry room makeover

Her daughter’s beautiful bedroom!

P.S. I hope you’re still into cabin inspiration pictures… because my tumblr queue is chugging away, and there’s a whole lot more pictures comin’!

I managed to squeeze in a little time with my new sewing machine last week and finally finish the binding on my abc quilt.  This whole quilt has been done in parts over two years as I experimented with different things (like basic patchwork, applique, making my own binding…).  There are a few things I would change if I made it again today, but overall I’m pretty happy with it.

I tried the blanket stitch on my new machine for the binding.  I like the idea of this stitch for binding, but think it’s a bit too busy on this particular fabric.  Ah well.

Here’s an idea of what the rest of the quilt looks like:

Whew!  Busy week.  Definitely put in more hours than I needed to, but I think that will be  a trend as VBS approaches.  Here’s some of the fruit of my labour.  (It’s a poster advertising our Vacation Bible School.)

If you live in/around Regina, check it out!

With my new sewing machine here I am bubbling over with ideas for various sewing projects!  Wahoo!  One big one is a quilt I want to make for a girl who is graduating high school.  She’s an awesome young lady who I’ve had the joy of mentoring for the last 4 years, and I want to give her something special to take with her to Bible College.  Here are some of the fabrics I’ll be using:

But I haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to do the quilt.  I want it to be fairly simple, fun and modern.  Here are a few ideas:

Possibly something with squares…

But I really like the zigzag quilt, too:

And I’ve made a stacked coin quilt before and really like the look:

What do you think?

And P.S. this is the one I want to make for Little M’s room:

(Most quilt pictures from the Purlbee and Crazy Mom Quilts)