New Treasures

I admit it, I'm a hoarder. I love the thrill of the hunt when I enter a thrift store/yard sale/estate sale. I'm actually still on a high from my Value Village trip 8 hours ago. It was probably one of my best shops in months though. Amongst a bunch of other things I came away with the most amazing knitted suit for Wren with an elephant on it by Danish company Me Too and it is brand new. I'm crossing my fingers it will still fit her by the time the weather cools down.

Here are some of my recent favorite vintage finds:

A weather house! When I was little and it was really cold my mum used to take me for hot chocolate on the way home from school at a place called the Chocolate Box. I was always mesmerized by the cuckoo clocks and other decorations that they had hanging up and this weather house reminds me of them. I've had it 2 weeks and the little man has yet to go inside. I haven't figured out whether it's broken or it's just Halifax and our beautiful weather.

The most amazing/creepy Santa. His head is attached with a spring so he nods. I love his hand painted face. Too bad he's lost a shoe.

Pyrex coffee pot. I'm going to have to start entertaining again so that I can make use of this coffee pot. I was instantly drawn to the shape of this when I saw it on a table of china at a yard sale. It was a steal at $4. It has space for a tealight underneath to keep the coffee hot. It's funny I've always disliked gold, well anything metallic really and suddenly I'm drawn to everything gold and shiny.

Vegetable Garden

This year we tried our hand at vegetable gardening. I really don't have much of a green thumb but our garden is so large we really don't have an excuse to not give it a go. It's been frustrating. First it took so long to warm up and then there was all the rain that washed away half of the pepper plants. What remained got mostly devoured by birds and slugs. I never imagined I'd be out in the garden with a salt shaker cackling at the slugs shriveling up (a trick I learned from my grandmother, who I thought was completely loopy when I caught her doing this, now I completely understand).

Thankfully the cherry tomatoes, peas and beans survived. Our first harvest was pretty pathetic but we're happy nonetheless, especially Wren who has a penchant for raw green beans.

And just for fun let's compare our harvest against that of our fruit and veggie CSA from Taproot Farms. YUM!!!

"Home is where the art is" in The Coast

Here's the kitchen AFTER as I promised

Our house was featured in the local newspaper The Coast yesterday! You can read the great article by Stephanie Johns here. I guess all the work has really paid off!

Scott Blackburn took all the beautiful photos. I LOVE the family portrait he did of us. Wren is so funny, she refused to smile for the picture.

Working on the kitchen

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Not only have I just started back at work after a year long maternity leave and started working on a business making baby stuff (more to come on that later) but I've also been trying to get our kitchen and bathroom finished. The kitchen is directly opposite the front door when you come into our house so it's the first thing that you see. I was fed up with cringing at the sight of our kitchen every time we came home and something had to be done. New cabinets were definitely not in the budget so we had to be imaginative to create a vintage inspired kitchen that wouldn't be ruined by the 1980s melamine and wood cabinets. I had the brainwave to paint all the wood trim a dark red, thinking a bright colour against the melamine might detract attention away from it. We painted the walls a really pale shade of blue and laid new vinyl tile in burgundy and grey/blue. It definitely ties in way better with all of our vintage accessories.

Before

This cabinet was found at a thrift store (before you start getting jealous it wasn't that cheap). Someone had gone to the huge effort of stripping it and I would never paint over wood on a piece of furniture normally but it just didn't look right. It probably explains how it ended up in the thrift store. Besides painting the cabinet, I lined it all in oil cloth and I polished all the chrome handles. I used a permanent marker to draw red stripes into the grooves on the handles to match the other red accents on the piece. I am so happy with how it turned out, it's definitely the centre piece of the room now.

We wont talk about how I was up until 3:30 am laying this flooring and how at 2 am I discovered I didn't I have enough red tiles to finish the room. I also shouldn't mention the huge scratch we made in the floor putting the fridge back.

I'll share some pictures of the finished kitchen in my next post.

Stay Still Exhibition at Katie Gingrass Gallery

I was thrilled to be invited to be a part of the show "Stay Still" at the Katie Gingrass Gallery in Milwaukee. I just wish I could be there for the opening. The gallery looks beautiful and carries the work of some stunning artists. I'm honored to have my work shown alongside theirs. If you are in the area the show will be up from the beginning of July until the end of September.

Wren's Birthday Party

I had a hard time coming up with a theme for Wren's birthday. In the end I decorated with lots of bright colours and an image of Wren's face.

Hanging paper lanterns, a bright table runner and freshly picked tulips and lilacs.

I didn't want Wren's first taste of sugar to be too much so I made banana cupcakes with whipped cream instead of frosting. She devoured the entire thing so I guess it was a hit. I also made bird's nest cupcakes with chocolate frosting and mini eggs for those with more of a sweet tooth.

I sliced up lots of fruit and veggies to make rainbow trays

Layered jello

Don't put pineapple in your jello mold, it will end up looking like a creature from a horror movie!

Balloons and a fabric bunting I sewed alternating stars with images of Wren's face that I had printed on fabric using my Print Gocco

I also sewed a bunting with Wren's name using vintage floral sheets. This will look great in Wren's room afterwards

I sent the guests home with loot bags featuring the same image of Wren's face. The adults got gummy candies and the 2 babies got a board book and a toy each.

Camera 4: Imperial Lark

We're half way through the year and I am finally admitting defeat on my camera a week project. It quickly became a camera a month project and now I'm completely abandoning it for a new project that I will be sharing with you soon. Anyways here's the last of the sculptures for a while, the Imperial Lark.

This cute little camera from the 1960s has been on my to do list for a while now. I put it off for a long time because I didn't know how to approach the flash bulb and the domed piece the flash sits in. I knew that I wouldn't be able to construct a dome shape with flat felt but I finally came up with the idea of wet felting around a styrofoam ball to achieve the shape. I thought it would be fun to be able to take the lightbulb out so it's attached with a snap. The camera also has a working viewfinder.