tree hook

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

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.

a painted floor

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 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!