Christmas Recovery Mode

Wowee, is it all over already?! I always seem to suffer from a slight post-holiday slump after Christmas. Maybe it's all the food, could be the wine, maybe the presents...all I know is that, today, I. Am. Wiped!

We had a great few days of celebrating with family and friends, but now it's time to clean up, pack up, and do it all again next year.

Mr. Mel and I agreed to buy only small gifts for each other this year. Learning from past experiences, I totally anticipated that Mr. Mel wouldn't follow the rules of a considerate, small, low priced gift... so I ignored the rules too! Ha ha. I surprised him with a PS3 and all the goodies and games he'll need. He was totally shocked (pleasantly so) and has been glued to the t.v. ever since!

Mr Mel truly outdid himself this year. A Cuisinart food processor, an Amber and Quartz mosaic necklace and earring set, and.......

THIS!

...and THIS!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! And then my daddio bought me THIS!

Needless to say, I am a happy girl. Now I am off to munch on leftover turkey! Hope you guys all had a great Christmas!

Quick Holiday Treat

Hi everyone! Well, the countdown is officially on in our house...less than a week til the 25th!

We are hosting BOTH of our families for festivities this year so that means lots of prep and lots of lists! I decided to save my sanity and not do a bunch baking this year. I also bought ready made munchies and appies. One thing I decided that I had to make were these little goodies. I always looks forward to work functions and snack days because my co-worker always brings a batch of these. The beauty of this recipe is that you can make as few or as many as you like.

Homemade Turtles

You'll Need:

Mini pretzels

Rolo candy

Pecan halves

To Make:

Place a layer of tin foil on a cookie sheet

Lay pretzels on tin foil

Place one Rolo candy on each pretzel

Place sheet in oven and bake for 4 minutes at 250F

Remove sheet from oven and place on pecan half one each rolo, press gently

Place in fridge or freezer to cool.

Voila...homemade Turtles! MMMMMmmmmmmm!

Slipcovers and Slip Ups - Part 3

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this nightmarish project.

I am embarassed that what was intended to be an easy peasy update of these chairs has become what it has. I appreciate you all bearing with me while I continue to try (and fail) to get this right.

Ok, so we're now going to reupholster these babies. I am not going to lie. I contacted several upholstry shops to see if it was in my budget to have this professionally done. At $1,000/chair (no, I am not kidding) that was not even an option. So, here we go again, Mel is gonna DIY!

I found these two helpful blogs that show, step by step how to go about reupholstering a wing back chair. Brooke, at All Things Thrifty, also tackled a wing back with amazing results! Definitely check out these how-tos before tackling this yourself.

These chairs have a very traditional shape, and I thought I would have some fun with them by using a more modern fabric. I bought my fabric for 50% at Fabricland. Mr. Mel picked it! Each chair will use about 5 yards of fabric. I decided to do away with the piping, and keep it simple. Yeh, famous last words.

I started by stripping the chairs of fabric. This was a tedious and time consuming process. I figured that I could strip both chairs in a morning. In fact, it took me just over three hours to remove all of the staples from just *one* chair!

Once I had the chair naked, I took the fabric pieces I had removed (and carefully labelled) and used them to cut out pieces from my fancy new fabric. It was at this point that I had a conversation about my project with my in-laws, and vented about how frustrating the process was. My ever helpful father in law suggested I call his sister, because her boyfriend used to own an upholstery shop! Turns out he redid all of the antique furniture during the restoration and renovation of a gorgeous, and historic hotel 5 star here in town.

I could have kissed him I was so excited! A call was made and, after a trip to a nearby city to drop them off and little negotiation, this project was officially someone else's problem! Ha ha. A week later the chairs were done, and the torturous project was at an end.

In the end, this project pretty much kicked my butt. I know that I could absolutley have recovered these myself but, honestly, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. I was relieved to pass it on to someone else. But, even after all of  my mistakes and the cost of materials and labour, I still got myself two awesome wingbacks for less than the cost of one new chair! I call that a WIN!

A couple of tips if you are going to tackle a project like this (our upholsterer added a few I hadn't even thought of):

• Buy an extra yard or two of fabric for each chair, you will likely need it and, if you don't, you can always use it for cushions later.
• Beg, borrow, or steal an electric staple gun. You will not regret it.
• Have a glue gun at the ready, it will come in handy dandy.
• use a fabric steamer to santize and re-puff the existing foam. Not having to replace this will save you loads of cash.
• Be prepared to improvise. You are not a professional, you may have to use your imagination to figure out how to get things just right.

After all of the drama, here is the cost breakdown for this project (including cost for my screw-ups):

$100 for wing back chairs
$52 for canvas drop cloth (fabric)
$44 for supplies (cording, thread, buttons, staples, etc.)
$155 for fabric
$400 for labour
Total cost of this monstrous rehab = $751

Map Wall Art

Way back when, I posted about doing a plate collage in the dining room. I had been slowly collecting all the plates I'd need...and then Mr. Mel and I were out shopping one day and he spotted a 4' x 8' map on canvas that he, literally, couldn't keep his eyes off of. At $600, however, he figured he'd sleep on it. The next day he went back...and it was gone. Mr. Mel was very bummed.

I have decided, after spotting these really neat examples on Centsational Girl and Decor Pad, that I will give Mr. Mel the world map he craves. And what better place to put it than the big empty wall in my dining room.

Censational Girl

Decor Pad

Maps are quickly becoming a really popular design element. Nate Berkus (hello cutie) even did a segment on his show about this new trend.

I ordered a 48" x 73" antique style world map from National Geographic. Mr. Mel likes the idea of framing it in a series of four frames, rather than one large one, so I brought him along to buy the frames I'd need from Michaels. He picked these puppies:

You know that old carpentry saying, "Measure twice, cut once"? Well, this would be a good time to follow that rule of thumb. I laid the map right-side-down and made marks where I needed to cut it to fit my frames. Using a cutting mat and rotary cutter, I cut my pieces to size (you could also use scissors, or a straight edge and exacto knife).

I put the pieces in their frames and, after painstakingly measuring and marking the wall, hung them. Presto, chango! It makes a big impact in the dining room!

The best thing about this project is that you can totally do it on the cheap if you don't get picky about the frames you use. Mr. Mel had a very specific idea of what he wanted so we ended up paying *way* more for frames than I would have preferred. If you hang the entire map and trim it out in leftover casing, I bet you could save a bundle!

Cost Breakdown for this project:
Map $40
Frames $240 (what can I say? Mr. Mel can be a fussbucket!)
Total Cost $ 280

Black Christmas Tree

When it comes to Christmas, Mr. Mel is a traditionalist. So a few years ago, when I suggested that we have a black tree, he was less than enthousiastic. I went ahead anyway, I was convinced he'd like it. Along with the tree, I bought several lengths of pre-lit black garland. I loved it all! Mr. Mel? Well, he slowly came around.

This year our second tree is in the upstairs bonus room. We decided to use the black tree and garland and go with a fun white, black, silver and lime green colour scheme.

There are lots and lots of decorations on this tree, 250, in fact! It's a slim tree, so I decided to forgo garland and just filled every square inch with ornaments instead!

The cats are in love with that tree skirt. They are rolling and snuggling up to it every chance they get. I have to admit, if I could fit under the tree, I might be napping on it, too!

The ornaments on this tree came from several of my favourite haunts: HomeSense, Canadian Tire, Pier 1, Michaels, and Zellers. All super inexpensive so when the cats (inevitably) break a few, I haven't lost a fortune! Ha ha.

My nephew, Andrew, picked out this sparkly butterfly a couple of years ago. That kid is all about the bling. I love it!

Thanks for coming by to check out my tree! 

White Christmas Tree

I am a tad obsessive-compulsive about decorating our Christmas trees. As a kid I wasn't ever really allowed to participate in decorating our tree. My mom had a method for making it perfect, and that plan did *not* involve allowing any of her three kids to lay a finger to it! I suppose I over compensate as an adult, but it's cheaper than therapy so it's ok by Mr. Mel!

I like to change the colour scheme of our trees every few years. This year I chose to put a white tree on our main floor and go with copper, gold, brown, and white. My mom likes to say I have creative "vision", that is certainly true for my tree. I have a picture of the finished product in my head and simply work at it until it looks just how I imagined. I can be downright finicky about where each ornament is placed. It has to be *just right*.

I prefer my trees to be practically dripping with ornaments, more is better in my book. I clustered alot of the ornaments, as opposed to hanging each one separately. Instead of garland, I used gold tulle. I love the effect! My tree toppers usually lack flare. This year I put a hodge podge on top and I think it's awesome!

 

I pick up most of my ornaments at big box stores. I change them so often that it doesn't make alot of sense to invest in high end ornamnets. That's not to say that I don't occassionally splurge on a few special pieces. The key is to mix high and low end for a great finished product!

Grand total for this tree: 468 ornaments, 30 feet of tulle, and 25 feet of ribbon and 5 1/2 hours! Wowee wow!

I especially love that this tree is directly opposite the front entrance so it's the first thing that folks see when they come in the house!

Poor Mr. Mel. He really wanted to help decorate, so he grabbed an extra little tree from the basement and got to work! Here is his 2' tall masterpiece!

Thanks for visiting! We visit the upstairs tree next week!

Dressing Room Vanity

As much as I loved doing my make-up each morning sitting on the floor in front of a small mirror propped up on a small stool (yeh, did my make-up the same way when  was in the 6th grade), what I really wanted was an actual vanity, you know, wth a chair and all. Mr.Mel gets creeped out by buying "other people's old stuff", but even he was impressed with my Kijji score a few weeks ago. I picked up this wooden desk for $10...yes, ten Canadian dollars!

Granted, it wasn't much to look at, and those handles are just awful, but  thought  could make it pretty.

The desk is really solid, and was in pretty good shape. But there were some dings and cracks that I fixed with some wood filler before I got started. Once all was fixed, I gave it a light sanding, primer, two coats of Behr's Black Raspberry (leftovers from our bedroom wall colour), and two coats of Varathane. I painted the existing handles with Rustoleum ChromeMetallic.

 

I am going to keep my eyes open for a pretty wall decal for the side. Til then, this is it!

Now it's the perfect place to get ready for my day! All of the drawers are great for my makeup and brushes so no more Caboodle! Ok, so I'll probably keep my Caboodle, who am I kidding?! Andplusalso I have a home for the lamp that I love and Mr. Mel hates doesn't love.

Cost breakdown for this project:
$10 for the vanity
$0 for paint
$7 for spray paint
$0 Varathane
Total Cost = $17