a little late

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!