Sneak Peek

This is my proof of concept board for my new dining table design. Stay tuned.

Faux Capiz Shell Chandelier

I don't know if it's my personality or something that's hard-wired into my brain - but, why don't I ever go for the quick and easy projects? Produce 1 or 2 little round wax paper circles? Nah, I'll make hundreds and hundreds of them. Then I'll sew them together in rows and rows and rows....and then wonder why it's taking so long!



But, look at the result! It looks pretty close to the real deal.

As I mentioned, I had my camera stolen. On it were a stack of how-to photos for a couple of projects, including this one. So, knowing that I'd spotted this project online at some point I did a Google search and found this tutorial by Freshly Picked .



I made my chandelier basically the same way. A couple of differences include using a great little wire fruit bowl for the base and securing the basket using the existing threaded screw system that held up the original glass fixture.

Who knew that ironed wax paper could look this good?!

Thanks to my friend, Sylvia, for letting me borrow her hole punch for so long!

Lost camera

In the blogosphere, if you make something and have no way to take a picture of it, did you really make it?

My camera has been stolen. I'm heartbroken. Not because of losing the camera itself, but because of the 540 photos on the memory card that are now lost to me - only half of which I uploaded! That's a hard lesson to learn!

So, I'm heading out to get a new camera. I have lighting, pillow covers, new shelving and a toy design to share. Oh, and a sneak peek at my newest project!

Stay tuned!

I have a winning rack...ahem, bike rack

The Halifax Regional Municipality recently held a bike rack design competition. Design a rack for placement at the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal. Fun, right? And, with the added bonus of winning a new bike (I love new bikes).

The marketer in me couldn't pass up submitting a marketing statement/bike rack design-hybrid for the city.

Here is the transit logo -


Here is the design I submitted -


With bike (config 1) -


With bike (config 2) -


The results are in. I've been named "second" winner. I'm not quite sure what that means yet -other than not looking awesome on my new bike (I'm not saying I begrudge the 16 year-old first place winner her bike. I'm just sayin').

My design has been submitted to Metro Transit with the recommendation they be placed at various bus terminals around the city. That would be cool. (Yeah, but, can I ride cool around town...?)

Thanks to HRM for picking my design and loading me up with great alternative prizes!

And, Aelyn Murphy, your winning design is awesome! I'm just teasing. Enjoy your new bike!

Public announcement - http://www.halifax.ca/mediaroom/pressrelease/pr2011/110421BikeRackDesignWinnersAnnounced.html

Super Storage

Space is in short supply in my tiny house. And, anyone with kids knows that small spaces become even smaller when little ones leave their mark.

So, the decision to move our daughter into our tiniest of three bedrooms (8 x 9 - yes, that's tiny!) was made to make way for a new den/playroom upstairs. In order to move her twin bed into the new space we had to sacrifice the closest by ripping it out (pictures to come).



Eden's new storage plan starts with two cubby units (purple, of course!). The plan is to build a third unit that will fit in the corner and stand tall enough to house hanging items. The door will be a half-door that will swing out above the smaller right-hand cubby unit.

Now, I like my furniture to pull double duty - and, this piece is no different. So, I'm sewing up upholstered cushions that will lay on top of each unit. The longer of the two units also has a little desk that sits on a rail-type system. This way Eden can use the space as a little reading nook.


I'm excited to see what the green fabric will look like with the unit. I think it will be fun and bright. It should go nicely with Eden's new duvet cover.

The room is coming together!!

Seriously. It's a salad bowl. DIY Challenge - #2.

I needed a fun - but somewhat inconspicuous - light shade to finish off my daughter's new room. Other requirements included ridiculously easy and inexpensive. So, why not a salad bowl shade?

To start, you need the remnants of this type of ugly ceiling light. Take off the glass shade and you're left with a threaded rod that attaches to the base.

Here's what you'll need:

• $10 clear plastic bowl with roughly the same dimensions as the shade you removed (mine is PC brand)
• round coding stickers from an office supply store
• a drill and 3/8" drill bit (same size as the threaded rod)
• white spray paint
• saran wrap, or some way to cover the outside of the bowl when spraying

Step 1 - Drill a hole.
Using your 3/8" drill bit, slowly drill a hole straight through the bottom of the bowl - dead centre.

Your threaded rod should slip right in. If not, make the hole slightly larger by shaving around holes edge with your drill (wiggle the rotating bit around the edge).

Step 2 - Stickers.
Use your stickers to make a pattern. I went with random dots.


Step 3 - Saran Wrap.
You only want to spray the inside of the bowl, so cover the outside of the bowl with saran wrap to protect it from getting sprayed.


Step 4 - Spray.
Light coats.



Step 5 - Peel off the stickers.
Peel before the paint completely dries (before it dries as one piece!).

Step 6 - Attach to ceiling.
Slip the rod through the bowl and attach to ceiling fixture.

DIY Lighting - Challenge #1

I woke up one morning last week and, amazingly for the first time, admitted the light fixture in my bedroom is super ugly. Which led me to look around and let sink in that all of the lighting fixtures in my house are super ugly. So, new challenge – DIY myself some cool lighting.

My first DIY light is a small pendant light for my little ones bedroom renovation. I’ve been pining over the very lovely Swarovski Schonbeck pendant light for a while now. But, with a hefty price tag of just over $1,400, the closest I’m going to get is a DIY knockoff.

For some reason I have been carting around an old wrought iron planting pot hanger for years. It was one of those “it could be good for something someday” things (my collection of things drives my husband crazy!). But, couple the pot hanger with a $5 IKEA Hemma cord set and you’ve got yourself a frame for a light.

I made and tied on a slew of beaded strings around the frame of the hanger for shimmer. The colour choices match the bedroom’s new fabric.

To hide the string ties I then wrapped the whole frame with a thin turquoise ribbon.

I still have a few finishing touches to take care of – including tracking down a tin snip to get rid of the extra chain, evening out the beads and installing the light above E's new bed.

So, while I’m not going to be showing off this light fixture at any glamorous exhibits, it does the trick.

Featured on ohdeedoh.com

Back to blogging - A duvet cover

I have a three year-old with an insatiable appetite for the colour purple. Now, I like purple - but not in the espresso hit that she does. Luckily, I found a fabric that fills the purple need for her while giving me a little relief from all purple/all the time.

Using the fabric as a starting point, we’ve painted the room and made a few “designer” decisions (stay tuned).

My project this weekend was sewing the duvet cover. I used the designer fabric for the top, and decided on a purple and white polka dot fabric for the underside (originally a dress fabric, but it works!). All in all, this was a pretty easy project. It was literally sewing two pieces of fabric together. Remembering to make a slit in the side for the duvet.

I decided to add in a bright green piping. I thank Lenee Alexander over at ehow.com for teaching me how to sew piping! Nothing like propping the laptop up beside the sewing machine!