whirly shelf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...