My latest projects

Hello again! We've had a busy summer so I haven't had the time to write a blog post for awhile. I thought I would share my last couple projects I built.

I've really been liking the look of old corbels used in home decor. Either as book ends or just placed on a shelf. Even for their intended use of holding up a shelf. I decided I'd love to use some architectural salvage pieces in our home, but it is very impractical to think I could take my little kids to auctions and antique stores to hunt for the perfect pieces. So I built my own!

After I painted them I chipped off some of the paint to make them look a little aged. I love how they turned out, but I think I'll try distressing them a little more. They still look a little bit too new to me.

I decided to put them on my entrance way shelf for now.

I also made a wood sign for a friend's birthday present. We've always exchanged gifts on our birthdays which I think is kind of fun. Usually as you get older you don't get birthday gifts, unless from immediate family. So it's nice to be blessed from a friend each year on your birthday. 

I let her know I wanted to make her a sign so I could get her preference on what she wanted it to say, depending on where she would put it. She picked the saying " Home Sweet Home" with a wreath around it. I love the way it turned out!

Now I am currently working on a blanket ladder for myself. I'm finding I've been procrastinating on my projects. I start them and wait forever to do the next step. So I'm not sure when it will be done. Fingers crossed for this week!

Until next time!

Working vacation.

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I joined my husband on a work trip. He had to be away for 4 days and since school was over, we drove up separately and stayed with him. 

We were able to check out The Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum. Here are some pictures I took of the museum.

The kids really enjoyed it and it was a fun family outing! 

Ficus Benjamina Adventures Part 2

Has anyone been curious how my weeping fig cuttings made out?! I thought it was time for an update.... they rooted!!!!! Yay!

So this is the set up I ended up using. I used this plant cover from the dollarama as a terranium. The cover is meant to sheid your plants in your garden from wind, etc. But it has a couple openings on top for vents and worked perfectly to keep the humidity up.

The humidity generally was always between the 80-90%. A couple times I started to notice mold starting to form so I gently wiped it off with a paper towel. After a little more research I discovered I should have been removing the cover for about an hour a day. I only had it off for the time it took to change the water in the cups. Good to know for next time but I don't think it destroyed my efforts this round.

Here are the roots.

Now that there are a few roots more than half an inch long, they are ready to plant.

I decided to only plant 2 because the third only had 2 roots formed. Though they are half an inch long I want to hold off a bit longer and see if any more will sprout.

Apparently roots grown in water are very delicate so I'm nervous to see if they will continue to grow now that they are in dirt. I will see how they do and let you know if this next step is a success. 

We started building a shed last weekend. The past few days have been rainy and windy but today is nice again. I'm hoping we will be able to get more done this weekend. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

HomeSense Love.

If you follow me on Instagram you already know I "won" another gift card from HomeSense. I didn't actually win it. They contacted me about a photo of my entrance way that Marketing was interested in using in an email. As well as crediting me (@addicted.to.turquoise) for the photo, they offered a $25 gift card! Of course I said YES! 

This is the photo they wanted to use. It is show casing the rug I purchased from their store.

We went looking for wall art and ended up finding this. I had just been looking for blue and white patterned rugs online the week before at 3 times the price as I found this one. It was a major score!

I'm already planning on making a HomeSense trip next week to see if I can put my gift card to good use. Good thing we have a lot of rooms to finish decorating in our house. 

Finishing Touches

I finished another project today. The need for this project came about as one of my decor ideas did not work out. So this was plan B.

A little back story first... I had tracked down a large half windmill in hopes of hanging it up on a wall above the "hallway" area of our main floor. But it was a tad too big and completely filled the space. I was super sad because I loved the industrial look and the shape of the half moon. Well, I was able to keep the industrial look with a smaller round windmill blade but the circle looked odd in the space. So I had to come up with an idea to fill the space on the sides. Something to frame the windmill. I thought it would be a good idea to make some arrows to keep in theme with the arrows on my gallery wall but I also wanted something a little more "feminine" to balance out the industrial windmill blades.

So I created these "feminine" arrows.

First I drew out the design.

                          

Then I cut out my design and stenciled it on some wood. I used my new saw I got for Mother's Day and cut out 2 arrows.

I sanded the edges smooth and stained them so that when I distressed them it would look like old wood underneath.

 I slapped on some white paint. 

Then I sanded them to get some of that dark stain to show through. I wanted them to look old and "antique-y". 

Then I attached some hardware on the back so I could hang them up.

Here they are in their new space.

I tried explaining what I was making to a friend. It was hard to describe what a "feminie" arrow is. Maybe I should just call them accent pieces or wood art. Whatever they are, they are a little bit different and unique and I am happy with how they turned out.

Coffee Bar

I made a little coffee station on one of our counter tops. I saw a quote that I fell in love with and knew I wanted to make a sign to hang in this area. Yesterday was an awful day of wind and rain and eventually a power outage. It gave me a chance to stay inside and finally make the sign. Luckily I got it done before we lost power too!

I had a lot of fun making the sign and want to make more now. I am not a fan of my hand writing though so the next ones I make probably won't be free handed like this one. I'm thinking of doing a small one to add to my gallery wall. Maybe I'll make a bunch! Haha

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Gallery Wall

A couple months ago I joined the world of Instagram. If you have an account you can find me as addicted.to.turquoise !

I have been following homesense as it's become my favorite place to shop for decorating our new house. I was posting for a contest they were putting on and commented on one of their posts and I won a gift card for $150!! What what!! I was so excited!

So I headed into the store hoping to find some items to put together a gallery wall and my shopping was a total success! Here is everything I found.

Everything else on the wall I made! A couple of these items have special meaning to me. The long board on the far side is a very old piece of wood that came off of our last house  (and first home we bought). We had to remove it for repairs while we were renovating. The house was built in 1912. I wrapped some twine around it and have mini clothes pins to hang pictures on it.

The other two items of importance are the 2 white picture frames. They were old floor boards from when we renovated the baby's room during our first pregnancy. I guess I didn't make those. I saved some of the wood and had my dad make the frames and then I white washed them. 

I made the herringbone pattern on one with paint sticks. And the other I painted a cute saying that I've seen floating around on Pinterest.

These are some simple chevron arrows I made and stained to match our trim in our house.

This heart wreath is made from burlap garland and some paper roses made from book pages.

The long board I mentioned earlier.

And I already showed you the star I made in my last post.

It's amazing how doing this project made it feel so much more like home. I think I might add to it later on but I'm pretty happy with it for now.

Now I'm headed back outside to enjoy the rest of the beautiful weather on this May long weekend!

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Hello again! I hope all you moms out there had a good Mother's day. I had asked my husband for a saw for Mother's Day. I wanted a jig saw to do some wood projects. He suggested a Rockwell Table Top saw because it is multi purpose. I like practical things and we could use it for some of our basement renos so I agreed. He made it sound like he wasn't getting it for me for Mother's Day but when that morning rolled around, he had bought it for me. Yay! Is it strange I wanted a saw?! Haha

Well today I tested it out finally to make a small star on some old chippy wood.

Tracing out the pattern.

Here is the saw!

All 5 pieces cut out.

I stapled the back together. I was too impatient to use wood glue! Lol

And here it is hung on the wall!

My cuts weren't perfect but I'll get better with more practise!