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!

Ficus Benjamina Adventures

Hello Lovely readers! It's Monday and I'm in a great mood! Those two things don't seem to belong in the same sentence. Lol!

Our family had a great day yesterday. Our friends from back home were on vacation and just over an hour away so we drove up and got to hang out all afternoon. It was very refreshing to be able to hang out again and chat and let the kids play. It was a little hard getting the kids up this morning, they were so played out! But our hearts are full and the sun is shining. 

I've decided to do an experiment and try propagating my Ficus Benjamina. (Better known as a weeping fig.) There were a few branches starting to grow out pretty long on the sides. I do want her to get fuller, but these random branches looked silly on the sides. I am letting the top branches get longer so she can look bigger.

I have never tried propagating anything before so I am half expecting my experiment to fail. But if I never try then I'll never get it right. I wanted to trim the branches anyway, so it's not a real loss if the trimmings don't root.

I cut off 3 branches of new growth approximately 5 inches long. I removed all the leaves except the top 2 and have placed them in cups of water. They will sit on my counter beside my South facing window so they can get bright indirect light. 

I read some instructions that said they should take a few weeks to start growing roots. I will have to change the water every 5 days or so.

I might also experiment further and make a terrarium type of setup to put 1 in to see if it will root faster. The warmth and humidity is supposed to accelerate the process. But I will have to be careful and keep watch that it doesn't get moldy.

I'm excited to see if this works! Wish me luck! 😀