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...!