AKA Carolyn - project blog

Sneak Peek

2011-05-27T14:41:00.001-07:00

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

Faux Capiz Shell Chandelier

2011-05-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-03-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

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!

Website

2009-08-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

www.carolynclegg.com

the beginnings of a home office desk

2008-11-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

i'm working on turning our one spare bedroom into a home office/playroom/guest bedroom. a little lofty, considering the room is only 9' x 11'! my first project is building myself a little desk that can be tucked away when eden and i need some room to play. so, how about a desk that swivels?

i'm building a desk that is made up of two 12" x 48" x 6" tabletops that sit on top of a small storage unit. the storage unit rests against the wall and the two tabletops are parallel to the wall.

when i want to use the desk i swivel the two tabletops to meet and lock them together.

i have the table tops made. i just have to see if the way i imagine the tabletops swiveling will actually work. i can't have them scraping against each other when they swivel. i'll show you what i've come up with next week!

idon storage shelf

2008-10-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

i know, i know....i took a little two week hiatus. i was busy building this....

this is my idon shelf (finally something named after my husband - he's been waiting awhile!). idon is an acronym for idea icon. this shelf is three rotating cubes within three cubbies. each cube is 6" x 6". i painted a different design on each of the sides and back to match up as you rotate the cube.

it funny how after you build something you think about how simple it was and what took so long?!

work in progress

2008-09-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

i like doing this blog for two reasons - one, it gives me weekly goals and two, it's nice to have all of my projects in one place. but, on the flip side, i sometimes avoid more complicated projects in order to post once a week. i have a few big projects that i have stuck in my head that need to come out! the project i'm working on now is a little complicated. i spent last week working it out by building little models out of cardboard to make sure it would work. these boxes are going to eventually rotate!

i've approached the nova scotia designers crafts council to see if i can become a member. in order to become a member you have to submit three pieces to be judged. i'm hoping this one will work out as a submission. my jury session is october 10th...yikes! stay tuned!

crazy cool tables

i'm a bit of a new design junkie. i'm addicted to being wowed by other peoples ingenuity. these two tables definitely impress. i want the marble table above by tineke beunders . how clever and fun!

i love this musical coffee table by tor clausen, too. how much fun would this be with a couple of kids (or a couple of drinks!).

a baby duvet

2008-09-22T15:03:00.001-07:00

what happened to summer? we've had to put the heat on two nights in a row! so, i thought it was time to make a little baby duvet for eden. luckily, my mum had an old duvet that she was happy to let me cut up! cutting up a duvet was crazy...i felt like i was working in a snowglobe for a couple of hours - down feathers everywhere! i'm still picking feathers out of my sewing machine.

out of one queen sized comforter i was able to make two baby duvets and one twin duvet. this one was covered with a cute hot pink fabric.

just two pieces of fabric sew together, a slot made for the duvet to fit through.

i'm going to pack away my sewing machine now and move back to the table saw! i have some projects stacking up in my head.

table cloth slipcover

2008-09-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

this is a project born out of necessicity. i built two benches for my kitchen table over a year ago and made up little cushions for each. i covered them in a gorgeous green textured material...that just got demolished by eden and her new love of throwing food! so, off came the soiled green material, on goes a funky vinyl material.

not so easy to find a great pattern in vinyl. after a couple of trips to the local fabricville i was feeling discouraged. then i go shopping at the local superstore and see the summer stock of vinyl table cloths on sale for $1.99! gotta love that. a quick zip through the sewing machine and i've got myself some inexpensive and kid-proof covers for my cusions!

i seriously need to invest in some lighting and photography lessons. my pictures are dismal. i keep waiting for the sun to come out...but, after two months of rain it's not looking good! take a look at my blog of the week, heather bailey. her whole site is eye candy! her pictures put me to shame. so gorgeous!

wood window treatment

2008-09-01T13:28:00.001-07:00

this past week i had a friend ask me if any of my projects turned out in failure. i could answer not really. because, usually, i have a really clear picture of what i want the finished project to look like and how i'm going to build it. i usually don't start a project unless i'm fairly certain it will turn out. and then there was the window treatment....

i remember thinking how simple of a project this would be. yeah...not so much. i haven't cursed this much in a long time! but, i was determined to get it up and working. now that it's up i've decided to take it down and do it another way. but, i'll show you what it looks like now.

the idea was to create a window treatment out of 1/8" mdf panels that could be decorated in any pattern. just four panels on a track.

the front panel is painted white, so that when it's open it blends into the room. when the treatment is closed it reveals the three other designed panels.

i attached pieces of track to a piece of wood that i then attached to the inside of the window. i used pieces of chain to attach the wood to the track sliders.

i still need to figure out a smoother way for the panels to open up and a better way to have the first panel open up the consecutive panels. that's next.

i used a debbie travis' stencil for the design, one in red and one in orange.

a sidebed for a baby (or cat...)

2008-08-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

damion left for volleyball camp with our digital camera in tow. that leaves me with no project picture this week. which, really, isn't such a bad thing because i'm ready to throw my window treatment project out the window. so, i wracked my brain about what to show you this week. i think i've dug up almost every project i've ever worked on already!! then i remember my 'cat in the sidebed' picture.

eden slept in our room for the first few months. we had her in the little bassinet on the floor by our bed at first. then, one day, i came across this brilliant idea. a side bed. because we have a platform bed i could make a knock off that i could screw right into the wood of the bed base. although the bottom piece was long enough that when it was slipped under the mattress the weight of the bed kept it pretty securely in place. i made it out of 3/4" plywood. the foam came from the local craft store.

i can't tell you how many times i thanked the designer of this little bed during the 3am feedings (and apologized for ripping off the idea)! it was perfect.

i have a whole series of pictures of my cat, oli, sleeping in eden's things. i think it was his way of adapting to her presence. i have him in her car seat, her bassinet, her little vibrating seat, her sidebed...not her big crib though, sadly oli is too fat to make the jump up and over!

window treatments

2008-08-18T06:06:00.001-07:00

i try to keep my home as bright and sunny as possible. for me, that has meant minimal (read, only two in my whole house) window treatments. great in the summer, maybe not the best during a drafty winter. i shouldn't be thinking about winter yet, but we just got a notice from the oil company telling us that our bill is going up by $100 a month this winter! so, i've come up with a window treatment idea that will keep out the drafts and maybe even help heat the place up a bit. while i work away on my prototype i'm showing you the window treatment i currently have in our master bedroom.

i apologize for the terrible picture quality. i should have waited until the sun came over to the front side of the house before taking pictures. they are very dark.

i got the idea for a pulley system type of window treatment from watching an old episode of Home to Go . i took a piece of fabric that i backed with blackout material and wrapped the top and bottom hems around wooden dowels cut to size. i screwed in two eye hooks to the top dowel (through the fabric) and attached rope to each of the two eye hooks. i then threaded the rope through two pulleys that i attached to either side of the top of the window.

it's great. it works just like a pulley - when you pull on the string the curtain goes up and when you let the string go slack the curtain goes down.

the paper laterns on the ceiling have been there for awhile. i love laying in bed and watching them sway to the wind. it probably is time to swap them out for something new, maybe something a bit more colourful. i'll keep my eyes open for new ideas!

swatch storage

2008-08-11T04:37:00.001-07:00

i created a place to hang our coats and store our shoes...but, what about the piles of hats, scarves and ever multiplying supply of canvas bags (you know, the ones that you buy for the grocery store but inevidably end up forgetting and having to buy more and then before you know it you wonder why you have so many of these damn bags!)...

so, i created a little storage for all that stuff and managed to hide my washer and dryer a bit from the outside world at the same time - my laundry is in my entrance way.

this storage is my 'signature' white box. yes, i know, i love white boxes! for this one i added a series of 1/2" holes that i placed paint swatches behind to get a gradient look. i added one row of black swatches to help blend in with my big black tree hook.

i hung the whole thing from the ceiling using hooks and threaded 3" stove bolts to hang the boxes from each other.

summertime relaxing

2008-08-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

i have been la-zy! part of it has been imposed (my husband is in full swing beach volleyball coaching mode - which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for me to get away and work on my projects) and part of it has just been that i'm loving the summertime. as a canadian, the sunny days are especially precious to me - if you've ever spent 8 months wishing for nice weather you can understand! so, all i have to show for my week away are some photos of the place i have been spending all of my time...my back yard.

one of the great things about living in the country (if you can call 20 minutes outside of the city county!) is not having to worry about what the neighbours think! because i'm pretty sure our neighbours would think we were crazy. i mentioned that my husband was a beach volleyball coach so it may not seem too crazy that we have a regulation sized beach volleyball court in our backyard. add a trampoline, a big fire pit, a hammock and all sorts of space to run and play and you can see why i've chosen to spend more time outside relaxing than inside working!

stay tuned

2008-07-28T08:19:00.001-07:00

i'm going to be another day or so with this one! stay tuned....

bathroom mirror

2008-07-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

when i was a teenager my parents bought my sister and i the 'coolest' mirrors from ikea. i have dragged these mirrors around with me on every move since i was 18. they have been used in all sorts of different designs. this is just the latest.

i rarely work with hardwoods. but, for this design, i definitely wanted to splurge and work with mahogany. what a gorgeous wood to work with...makes it hard to go back to mdf!

this is a simple design made of up just four pieces of wood. the only details are a drilled out hole for a cup and making sure the top shelf is thinner than the bottom to allow for the mirror to rest on a slight angle. i hung the shelf up using l brackets (attach to the wall first, rest the shelf on it and then attach the shelf).

update - shoe storage

in last week's post i promised you i would upload a photo of the finished project...here it is, shoe storage and all.

i followed not martha's directions. her directions called for 2" l brackets for hanging...but, i think i'm going to have to swap them out for larger ones. the shelves are definitely drooping under the weight of the shoes (my shelves are a bit longer than hers were - and, i'm sure the shelf was meant for cute stylish shoes, not my and damion's big clunky sneaker collection!).

tree hook

2008-07-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

ok, i may be going through a bit of a phase. i love the whole wall vinyl trend that is happening right now. big bold graphics on the wall are appealing to me. after months of struggling with a bulky (and an unfinished) storage unit i built for coats and shoes in my foyer i decided it was getting the boot. i wanted something simple and bold. this design fit the bill.

so, again, i set out with my handy projector and some black paint. added in some wooden handles painted black and a simple coat rack was born.

now, i had planned to show you the shoe rack i've built to go along with this...but, i ran out of screws to attach it to the wall! so, once i hit canadian tire i'll upload the finished project. months ago i stumbled on a very cool diy shoe rack design on the blog not martha. so, i've pinched the idea. stay tuned.

my old door

as much as a flop as my old storage unit was (truly, a huge flop) i really like the design i had for the door (that, btw, was never attached to the storage unit - yes, picture us moving a six foot tall door every time we wanted a jacket or pair of shoes!). here is a quick pic of the door. i made the holes using my big drill bits and put pieces of wood veneer behind the cut outs.

colouring

last week i featured the blog doodlage in my new feature - blog of the week. on friday RaShell posted about colouring, one of my favourite stress relievers. when is the last time you went out and got yourself some brand new colourful markers and a sweet design to colour? i'm telling you, you'll fall in love with it all over again!

crayola really needs to come up with a 'flesh' colour line! i can't find a 'flesh' coloured marker anywhere! so, for now my fairie princess remains painfully white! (kind of like me in a bathing suit!)

van's bench

2008-07-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

when damion and i decided it was time to have a baby, my sister, julie, and her husband were deciding it was time to have their second baby. we both ended up pregnant within weeks of each other. she had her gorgeous 'little man, van' and i had eden (who is, of course, also gorgeous!).

as the kids got older, julie noticed that van was missing certain physical developmental milestones. after taking him in for tests and an appointment with the neurologist, van was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type II. SMA is a rare genetic condition that affects the proximal (closest to the trunk) muscles of the body.

julie asked me to build van a little bench and stool (the stool is still in the works) for his physio exercises. of course. but, a cool kid like van definitely needs a cool bench. so, i photoshopped the vans sneaker logo and a funky graphic to produce this design. i projected it onto the wood and painted it black. julie is going to take care of the finishing touches (adding a bit of colour and varnishing it).

for more information on SMA visit the families of sma or fightsma.org.

i'm still deciding how to design the stool...if you have any suggestions, let me know.

new blog of the week feature

one of my new favourite pastimes seems to be scoping out neat blogs online. i get a little thrill when i find a cool new-to-me blog. when my cousin spent 6 weeks recovering from a surgery i sent her a new website everyday to help keep the boredom away. now that she's up on her feet again i've missed digging around the internet with purpose. so, i've decided to start a new feature here. every week i'll post a link to a blog i love. find it in the sidebar.

birthday fun

2008-06-27T05:02:00.000-07:00

we celebrated eden's 1st birthday with family and friends over the weekend. i was looking for a reason to make these crazy pom-pom decorations i saw on martha stewart's site for awhile. so, with the help of my sister-in-law and mother-in-law we made a room full.

inpired by my favourite cupcake blog, i made a tower of cupcakes instead of the traditional birthday cake. yes, and the kitchen is still in one piece (if you knew how bad of a cook/baker i was you could appreciate that like my husband does!).

i made some monogrammed 'e' cupcakes for fun. i printed off an e onto a transparency to create the template. you can see that after close to a dozen i gave up on that idea and just started in with the sprinkles!

this cupcake was shown no mercy by eden! it ended its existence as a ball of mush!

dressing up work walls

i'm carrying on with a pom-pom theme....

when i returned to work from maternity leave i was presented with a very white new office. we are limited to what we can do to the space we are given (my day job is at a pretty conservative firm). wall vinyls seemed like just the thing. they have been popping up everywhere so i headed over to etsy where i found a shop called elephannie. i love my pom-poms!

starting out with a wall vinyl that has a hundred little parts probably wasn't the greatest idea. that's something i should have work up to. i'm glad i came into work early to put them up...i spent an hour struggling and swearing up a storm!

well worth it!

a painted floor

2008-06-22T15:08:00.001-07:00

who says carpet and hardwood are the only options for your floor? after years of complaining about my berber carpet (aka the worlds largest scratching post!) i came home to a carpet-less room compliments of my husband. i knew right away i wanted a white shiny floor. every expert i talked to said i was crazy...but, haven't painted floors been around for years? so, i picked up some huge sheets of 1/8 birch plywood and had it cut down to 2 x 4 tiles. i glued and screwed it into the floor (knowing i can always lay alternate flooring over it in the future if i wanted to). my husband took care of the priming and painted. the result is a floor solution that cost me around $150!

this picture shows you a close-up of the birch plywood over the sub floor.

the rest of the room leaves a lot to be desired. but, oh, the posting possibilities!

a knife holder

2008-06-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

* my family and i just got back in to our house last night after being evacuated because of a local brush fire. everyone is ok, but it was interesting to see what you really would take with you in case of a fire. once we had eden and the cats packed up it was all about our pictures. our wedding album and a couple of framed pics. everything else wasn't given a second thought (well, i lie...i did think about my tools!). just goes to show you the rest of it is just stuff. and, speaking of stuff...here's an old project.

i was working on a project for my day job that required bamboo skewers. after playing around with a bunch of them i thought 'hey, this would make a cool pen holder', which turned into 'hey, this would make a cool knife holder'. so, i made a cool knife holder. then some guy in australia made a cool knife holder too. and, we all know how that turned out. they are all over the place now.

the design was even featured on "She's Crafty". here is the project plan.

*i don't have a pic of my original knife holder build, the knife holder shown here was built by my friend Louie.

a frog mirror and storage for a budding Imelda Marcos

2008-06-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

eden is just at that age where she loves to look at herself in the mirror (although i'm sure we all know a couple of adults who are still at that age!), so i've made her a little frog mirror. i was inspired by eden's new book about colour that has this cute little picture of a frog.

it is a little rough around the edges because i cut it out with a jigsaw (if my husband is reading this blog i would love a router for my birthday!). the mirror is a 10" round from Michaels.

shoe shelves

i was sorting out e's closet yesterday and ended up creating tower of her shoes. yeah, she's a little spoiled. half went in to a bag for the sally ann, the other half got a little storage treatment.

just before eden was born i made up some shelves and a slat wall panel for her very tiny closet. i bought pegs and a plexiglass shelf for the wall panel. the plexiglass shelf was perfect for placing little shoes on....but, at $8 each a little too pricey to buy in bulk. that's where my trusty 1/8" mdf and bottle of carpenter's glue came in handy.

after a couple of coats of paint they'll be good to go.

small steps

2008-05-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

ok...i've taken a small step in the right direction. i've opened an etsy site! visit Quirky Kid to see it. i only have one item up there so far, but will add some more over the next week or so. thank you for your feedback. the first item posted on Quirky Kid is my diaper caddy.

i have two new project ideas that i'm working on now....i hope to have some fresh material for you next week.

have a great week!

etsy

2008-05-12T03:47:00.000-07:00

i have a project of a different kind to share this morning. i've been playing around with the idea of starting a little business for a while now. i knew one of these days i was going to have to stop talking about it and actually get off my comfy couch and do it. so, here i go.

i'm planning on opening an etsy shop. quirky kid designs. i hope to be up and running in the next week or so. i'm trying to decide which items to sell. i've narrowed it down to a few items. let me know what you think! (i could really use the help!)

choice #1 - customized alphabet shelf

choice #2 - joyeau* towel holder

choice #3 - diaper caddy

choice #4 - enia boxes

tell me what you think about these choices. also, i need a little help on the price point...let me know how much you'd buy them for! thank you!

a 4 year old's birthday present

2008-05-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

my niece turned 4 this past week. and to honour her love of all things fairy and all things fairy princess (she insists there is a difference between the two!) i made her a fairy door.

a few months ago, i came across a story about a man by the name of Jonathan B. Wright who started a whole 'urban fairy' phenomena in Ann Arbor. very cute story.

these doors are sold all over the internet, but my niece's door was directly inspired by steph's work over at etsy. i love the spin she puts on her door description. steph points out that the fun begins when discovering what kind of fairy has moved in...a travel fairy, a cleaning fairy, etc. very clever idea to use on kids!

i found steph's work through leslie's write-up on her blog, a room somewhere.

e shelf

2008-04-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

ok...so more than a little late...but, the extra effort put into making this just right paid off i think! this is a project that i've been wanting to do for months now. i know i should be working on my floor, but this wouldn't be the first time i've done what's fun instead of what's necessary!

chances are that eden won't find any mugs or cute little sparkly pens with her name on it...the least i could do is give her something personalized. the fact that this item will hold all of her new-found (and mounting) hair bobbles and ever growing supply of ointments, lotions, etc. is a bonus.

the shelf measures 16" x 24". i traced an 'e' onto a big sheet of 1/4" mdf using my projector and cut it out with a jigsaw. the actual shelf part is also made out of mdf. i'm going to hang this in eden's bedroom.

ok, now on to the floor...honestly!

a little late

2008-04-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

i'm going to be a little late with my post today. i'm literally watching paint dry! come back in a few hours...this project is a fun one!

a table to put away

2008-04-21T04:41:00.000-07:00

i have a small house, not a lot of floor space for playing and making. so, when i saw great potential floor space under my old kitchen table i knew i wanted to take advantage of it.

so, with a little help from my carpenter friend, Louie, i put together a new kitchen table that i could fold away when i wanted the space under it.

i took a trip to the local Happy Harry's to pick out a solid beech veneered door ($30) and a thick post for the leg ($10). Louie attached the door to the wall for me using piano hinge. Then he attached two blocks to the wall with latch/catch thingys (no idea what they are called...you should have seen me trying to explain what i wanted to the sales person!) from Lee Valley .

the table then folds up to the wall and gets "clipped" in!

it weighs a ton, but trust me, it isn't going anywhere when it's secured to the wall. i eventually want to do some sort of funky artwork on the backside....or maybe a chalkboard for when eden gets older. although, then, i'd probably have to explain why i had chalk on my pants all the time...

laptop bag & advice needed

2008-04-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

for some reason i've never liked being called crafty. the word 'crafty' conjures up images of fluffy bunnies and appliqué hearts for me. but, lately i'm finding myself doing crafty-like projects. for example, this laptop bag. a layer of foam, pretty fabric, clear plastic, a zipper and you've got yourself a laptop bag. cute.

alright, moving away from the crafty stuff for awhile. on to building stuff. i feel like i should insert a tim-the-toolman grunt here!

but, first i've got to take care of a priority... i need to lay some flooring in my spare bedroom. and, because i've never laid flooring, i need some help.

here is my newly painted room (cotton blossom). we ripped up the old carpet and have to now rip up the underfloor cushion and stripping around the edges. i want to create a floor from mdf. i know it sounds crazy. but, debbie travis did it!

i'm looking for some advice from you about laying floor. specifically laying an mdf floor. i'll cut it into 4' x 4' tiles, seal it up on all sides really well and screw it in to the existing plywood. then i want to paint it a high gloss white and put a couple of coats of a vanish on top. let me know what you think.

a splash of colour

2008-04-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

so, you may be saying to yourself... that just looks like some thread wound around a piece of wood.

yup, that's what it is.

this is the colourful 'art' i created to brighten up a dark corner of my hallway. i wanted stripes of bright colour for this space... but, i didn't want to have to go out and buy dozens of individual paint bottles and a custom piece of stretched canvas (i'm pretty cheap!). so, i dug in my drawer and found handfuls of coloured embroidery thread. i took a scrap piece of wood that i painted white and started winding. 1" for each colour. but, any pattern of stripes would do.

kuler is a great site to visit if you are looking to create a colour pallet of your own.

the before shot

2008-03-30T14:53:00.001-07:00

i've been putting together a laptop bag this past week (the countdown to my last day of maternity leave is on), and i was going to post the finished product...but, i came across a site yesterday that ties in to an old project of mine and is too great not to share.

the photo above is a before shot of our spare bedroom that's getting the overhaul. the wall above the bed was my 'statement wall', a great black and white photo of waves that i blew up and then printed on over 80 sheets of paper (then pinned each sheet to the wall! tell me i'm not regretting that decision as i renovate). crazy me did all this via photoshop and a grid pattern. it took too long to figure out. had i known at the time that the rasterbator existed i would have been all set.

the rasterbator is a software that some genius of a person (who had fun coming up with the name, i'm sure) put together to create huge wall murals, posters, etc. from regular sized photos. you upload a photo, specify the size you want and it comes out with a pdf document that you simply send to print. seriously, check it out. it does all the work for you. i think i may have to use this in some fun way soon.

when i was looking for the photo above i found a photo of my old bathroom 'statement wall'. i know, i went through this whole crazy phase.

what i did here is cover a whole wall in mactac and then cover that sheet with hundreds of individual 2" wide photos. the photos were thumbnail prints found on sites like gettyimages and shutterstock . don't ask how long this took...

my friends tell me there is a fine line between creativity and mental illness! but, hey, you always had something to look at when you were in the bathroom!

sue's very fun lightbox

2008-03-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

most of my project time this past week has gone in to painting our spare bedroom, which is getting a much-needed reno. i love painting in theory and those first couple of brush strokes are gratifying...but then, by about the 10th stroke, it quickly becomes a chore (then gets handed over to the husband, who ends up doing most of the work!).

so, as exciting as a newly painted (and very empty) room can be i'm instead showing you sue rose's very cool lightbox. sue gave me this lightbox years ago and it continues to be one of my favourite pieces in the house.

it's just so clever in its simplicity. sue made a wooden frame, covered the front and sides with canvas, filled the inside of the box with twinkle lights (the ones with different settings) and created a velcro canvas cover for the back so you can change the setting on the lights or switch them out. a wire picture frame hanger is secured to the back for hanging. it's beautiful when all lit up at night.

thank you to sue for letting me share! you continually amaze me with your talent (seriously, there is nothing this amazing women can't do!).

a shelf and a jumper

2008-03-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

i know now that i use some of my projects as an excuse to sit myself in front of the tv for hours on end! i'm a total tv junkie and this latest project gave me an excuse to get hooked on dexter !

i'm hhmming and haaing about this shelf. not totally convinced now that it's up and running (it's a little borg starship), but i'll give it a chance.

the shelf hangs from either side of the mirror and opens up to reveal storage using a piano hinge.

the surfacing was made using prepackaged wood squares .

MY LITTLE JOLLY JUMPER

hanging in a door jam just wasn't going to cut it for my little dare devil. so, i took eden's jolly jumper out of the door and jimmied up a little contraption to hook it up to a beam in our living room. now she has all the space she needs to bounce, swing and twirl. you should see her go!

make-shift dresser

2008-03-10T06:33:00.001-07:00

before my daughter was born we used her room as our home office. i'd built a crazy big desk for our computer, complete with all sorts of open storage. well, the computer had to come out to make room for eden and the desk was honestly too huge to go anywhere else in our little house...so, i turned it into a dresser.

first i removed the actual desk part of the unit and then i built little storage bins out of 1/4 MDF that slide in and out of the shelves.

the painted design was the fun part. i knew i wanted circles and a designed that flowed from one box to the other....so, i first tied all of the boxes together, then i traced out different sized circles on them using things like cd's and drinking glasses as my template. then i got out my paint and painted a thick ring around each traced out circle. i placed colour coded sticker labels in a circle over each painted ring, painted the whole thing white and then peeled off the stickers. looks kind of neat, i think!

WEEKLY POSTING

i've scaled myself back to weekly posting. i've discovered that i have an affinity for making crazy time-consuming things...either that or i'm pretty pokey! either way i'll try to stick to publishing a new post every monday, unless i have something to say or show before then.

enia storage variation

2008-03-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

i've been working on an impossible shelf design for just over a week now. i know what i want it to look like and do, but i just can't get it right. i hacked straight through two prototypes and three sheets of mdf! i think i may have it now...we'll see. so, because i have nothing new to show you this week i'm going to cheat and show you something old.

these little boxes are a variation of my enia boxes. they hold my odds and ends...including one stuffed full of Canadian Tire money! (i'm waiting for all my 5 cent bills to add up!). truth be told i originally built them to house my bizzarely large nail polish collection. i'm still not quite sure why i have so many bottles of nail polish...

whirly shelf

2008-02-27T05:20:00.000-08:00

this is a little storage shelf i dreamed up after noticing the rims on a car one day. i was thinking about how they spun and thought it would be fun to make a shelf that spun too.

the 'cover' spins from the blue square to reveal three little secret shelves. the whole whirly shelf only measures 16'' x 16'', so the little shelves inside are tiny....perfect for hiding jewelry and little nic-nacs.

built for my friend tammy, but named after my friend shawna shirley.

(don't worry tammy, i'm thinking up something to name you after!)

crystal box

2008-02-25T06:19:00.000-08:00

i woke up to dancing rainbows this morning...
the sun was beating in my hallway window throwing its light through my crystals. the whole hallway was lit up and rainbows were sneaking in to the bedrooms. i love sunny mornings!

this 'window treatment' was one of the first things i built for the house when we moved in. i found the idea in one of my style at home magazines way back when.

the box was made with pine. i drilled little holes through the top to weave my invisible thread through and then hung my crystals (from ikea) from the thread. i used two little cup hooks to hang it from inside my window. fun and easy!

lazy days

2008-02-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

we've been battling a stomach bug in my household this past week. lots of fussing over and swaying little ones to sleep. my parents brought us this hammock home from mexico. since we don't have any big trees to hang it outside i decided to hang it in eden's room. i see us spending lazy sunday afternoons hanging around in the hammock when she gets older. here are the instructions i used for hanging our hammock.

d*s diy contest

Grace at design*sponge is holding her 2008 diy contest. so, break out the paint brushes, glue guns and tools and enter your funky project. the deadline for entries is march 2nd. there are some great prizes up for grabs.

on-cue key holder

2008-02-20T12:59:00.000-08:00

i am forever losing track of my keys, bank card, lipstick, basically anything that isn't attached to my person. so, it was really important for my sanity to have a designated place to dump all of my stuff when i come in the door. i wanted something really casual. my original idea was to have something that i could just chuck my stuff at and it would stick. this design doesn't quite do it, you have to wedge things in, but i still think it's fun. this catch-all holder is a pine box with four bright green broom heads screwed to the insides. i do think that if the broom heads were a little more ridgid that i would get my stick-to-it effect. i'll have to try it out some day!

named after my friend jason (louie) cullen...on-cue because it was supposed to 'catch' things on-cue!

THANK YOU TO LESLIE AT A ROOM SOMEWHERE

i'm feeling a little 'awh, shucks' about the write-up leslie over at a room somewhere posted on akacarolyn. seriously, leslie...so nice. thanks!

myng vase slipcover

2008-02-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

one day when i looked around my home i noticed that i seemed to be collecting little rectangular glass vases, i had at least half a dozen (no idea why). just the cheapy walmart kind to hold flowers, candy, loose change, etc. i decided to spruce them up a bit and put together the myng vase slipcover (named after my friend amy long).

this one is made out of 1/4 poplar. i used a couple of different drill bit sizes to add the circles and glued it all together. super easy.

i'm thinking of a couple of fun ones as well...maybe some funky painted mdf ones. what do you think?

THANK YOU TO DESIRE TO INSPIRE

thanks to jo and kim over at desire to inspire for featuring akacarolyn on their blog over the weekend. their site is a must see! so gorgeous...take a look.

a touch of red for valentine's day

2008-02-14T05:33:00.000-08:00

in observance of valentine's day i'm featuring the bright red flower i painted on the wall above my fireplace. i snagged the idea from canadian house & home's september '06 issue. the issue featured the work of wallpaper designer tracy kendall. i love that it's both bold and soft at the same time.

here's a link to a site that gives you step by step instructions for painting wall murals. i love red, but as we know... red is all about applying multiple coats. i think i ended up having to paint 5 coats of red paint to get it just right!

check, the red bench

2008-02-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

the curtains are complete! remind me never to do that again...it took a few hours of massaging to coax my hand back to its normal state. here's the finished product.

to show you something new i've dug up the photo below of bench i built for my living room. actually, i built two benches for my living room, but the second one literally fell apart. not my best work (i'm going to whine now and say "but, i was 7 months pregnant at the time i built them", even though i don't know that it really makes a difference...things i've made have been known to fall apart every now and then!).

i made the bench with pine and upholstered the top cushion with my old ikea curtains (i still need to replace those curtains!). the material on the side that covers the storage below is simply a translucent plastic...the same material that people use to cover their florescent lighting.

diaper caddy

2008-02-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

back to back episodes of pushing daisies on sidereel (a fun and quirky little show) are getting me through the monotony of hand stitching beads on to those crazy curtains!

while i work my way through my latest project i thought i would show you an older project. this project was born out of necessity. a small room and a poopy new daughter. this is a diaper caddy that i built to house the truck load of diapers we go through every day.

the idea is diapers get loaded in to the top and come out the bottom. the door slides up and down so you can take a handful of them out for road trips when needed. and the circle cut outs let you know how your supply is doing.

flower curtains

2008-02-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

it's projects like these that seem like a good idea until i get half way through and wonder what i was thinking. guess where i am with it? half way! i'm sure that somewhere in the world i could buy curtains just like these for $5 at a discount department store. but, here in nova scotia we don't have such selection. so, i went to the local fabric store then picked up some beading and away i go...attaching beads to fabric. this could take awhile!

for a really fabulous curtain idea check out mocoloco's post (one of my favourite blogs) on this magnetic curtain. how much fun is that?

eden's ibbs (itty bitty booties)

2008-02-04T15:51:00.000-08:00

i got a sewing machine for christmas and, although i don't know what i'm doing, i'm trying my hand at it. this is my first project with my new toy. i've spent the past 7 months trying to get eden into a pair of booties that actually stay on her feet...so, i decided to try to make her some funky little shoes. now that i have, and had a lot of fun with them, i'm going to quit my job and make booties full time. i'll start off by selling them at the weekend farmers market where they'll get discovered by a baby footwear manufacturer. i'll design a whole collection of booties. then, i'll start to sell them worldwide and eventually take over the baby shoe market and...oh, ok...here is a photo of my humble attempt at making my daughter something to cover her feet....
i got the pattern for these booties online from heather bailey. heather has set up a photo group on flickr for everyone who's used the pattern. click here to view.

jen stark rip-off

2008-02-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

ok, this is a blatant rip-off of an artists work that i fell in love with. it was fun to figure out and make. i'm sorry jen stark for stealing your idea. it's hanging in my bathroom and i promise not to sell it! to see the original go to jenstark.com...her work is amazing. btw, a plexiglass frame is not so easy to make!

joyeau* towel holder

2008-02-04T12:46:00.001-08:00

this is a fun little project that was born out of my laziness...why fold a towel neatly when you can stuff it in a star? these little towel holders are named after my friend jo-lynne breau.

(*for all the bilingual folks out there i only miss the 'x' because jo-lynne doesn't spell her name with an 'x'...but, she's still a star to me! cough cough).

the phanoli bookshelf

2008-02-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

i love to read and have a ton of paperback novels laying around my home. to house a few of them i built the phanoli bookshelf (named after my cousin, stephanie olive, who reads even more than i do). it can get a little tricky when your stack of books reaches the top, but it's still fun. i'm thinking of building another one in a blond wood. i owe stephanie one of her own...!

enia boxes

2008-02-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

i built these storage boxes in the spring of 2006. they were my first real design. not only are they great for hiding all sorts of clutter, but they were also featured in an exhibit put on by the Industrial Designers of Edmonton Association's called THAW in 2006.

named after my daughter eden nia.

eden's crib

2008-02-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

the first project i'll post is my favourite. it's my daughters crib. it's not my own design, but it is my own build. i fell in love with a designer crib online, but being as cheap as i am i decided i would make a knockoff. so, we bought a $100 ikea crib and pimped it out. i posted the project to instructables (although it is still not officially published), click here if you want to pimp out a crib of your very own.

giving it a try

2008-02-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

here i go...diving in to the blogging world. my idea is to keep a running tally of my projects. i love to make all sorts of things. sometimes crazy things (i have a very patient husband), sometimes just boring practical things, but mostly just whatever strikes me. i'll start with some older projects and then move into the new ones. here i go...