Sparks & Recreation

It seemed that this week in the blogosphere (I felt like such a nerd writing that), there have been a lot of exciting announcements!

Young House Love bought a new house, and I couldn't be more excited. Okay, maybe I could, like if it was actual news for someone I knew and loved (although if I met them I'm pretty sure we'd be best friends). I'm especially excited because sometimes our house projects can be really discouraging, because we haven't really reached the cosmetic change stage yet, and so it'll be nice to read their blog starting from scratch on a fixer-upper so that maybe I can see them do some of the projects we have on the horizon. 

In other blog news, East Coast Creative's Jess is expecting a surprise baby, so that's exciting! I like to include a picture with each post, but the only picture is of a pregnant stomach that says "Yup there's a baby in there", and I'm afraid of a grandparent seeing it while skimming and jumping to conclusions. Not worth the risk!

The Pinterest Challenge has returned, I'm not sure what I'll make yet but I hope to contribute something. Will have to do some brainstorming this weekend!

This e-book bundle is so tempting to me. It's 97 e-books for $29.97. That's a really good deal. I've resisted so far, but I hope someone I know will buy it so I can live vicariously through them.

What have you read this week? Any interesting new blogs being added to your daily routine? Let me know about them in the comments!

Tree Droppings Reinvented

Last month, you saw as my friend Brittany & I made our very own Pinterest inspired craft, chevron art prints. We had such a great time making them that we decided to try and make a new DIY project each month. 

With Christmas approaching quickly, we decided to start creating some Christmas decorations. They were inspired by Pinterest projects such as...

Gold, Red, Green, Chocolate Brown Pinecones give a warm Christmas vibe.

These jewel toned pine cones are really fun, and the idea of putting them into a vase is what I was going for.

I love these colours for Christmas, sort of icy/snowy and soft.

After stomping through my snow filled yard seeing if we might have any pine cones, I gave in to buying some at Superstore for $6, Brittany and I split them for $3 each so overall it was a pretty thrifty craft. To fill a pretty large vase, it required about 13 pine cones and the bag I had came with 25.

Very strongly scented cinnamon pine cones from Superstore.

Some sites recommended dipping, but we didn't have the quantity of paint to make that feasible so we went ahead and painted them by hand with a small paint brush. They didn't turn out perfectly covered, but good enough!

It was tricky to hold on to them when painting, but it turned out okay and this fun blue colour adds some vibrancy to the pastels that I chose for the rest of the pine cones.

I happened to have pink and purple paint on hand from the splatter painted chevron art project mentioned above, so I went with the more pastel theme as seen above. I also borrowed some of Brittany's blue paints. She went with a white and silver theme, which I have to admit I am super jealous of, so rustic and Christmas-y! 

Brittany's silver and white pine cones turned out beautiful, and a little rustic because she didn't paint the insides.

Side by side it's fun to see how two different projects can be created from the same product.

I do still really like how mine turned out though with the nice bright colours, almost a mix of the last two ideas I pinned. Hopefully the blue pine cones also bring the girl-ish factor down a little bit and make them a little more Philip friendly, and maybe even a little more baby Jesus friendly as Christmas is a boy's birthday anyhow.

The finished product, on a paper plate.

I haven't found all of my vases yet from unpacking, and so for now my pine cones are hanging out in this serving dish on my coffee table. I have to admit I do like them there!

With my glass candy dish shaped like a present, my coffee table tray is looking pretty festive!

On a final note, here's a sneak peek at the washer and dryer that arrive Saturday! We haven't hooked them up yet so we'll let you know once that happens how well they work!

Have appliances ever looked this beautiful?

Anyone else thinking Christmas-y thoughts yet? Started shopping? Tried making anything from Pinterest yet? I'm definitely not crafty, but I feel like I'm getting there slowly but surely! Also a reminder to submit your vote to this week's poll about blog reading, thanks to those who entered last week's poll, see the results here.

The Original Pinterest

In the words of Arthur the aardvark, having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!

Last Friday I took a trip to the public library and found a treasure trove of DIY resources. Some of the books I took out even had pictures I've seen on Pinterest since. There's something wonderful about flipping pages in a book and marking them with a good old fashioned Post-It note (or--not that I've ever done this to a library book--a folded page corner). Here are some of my favourite finds after just reviewing two books. I'm definitely going to go back!

Better Homes & Gardens 501 Decorating Ideas Under $100 

Ceiling Medallion Wall Art
I saved this first one because I originally saw it on Pinterest a few weeks back, and remembered it. Such a clever use of a typical item that isn't that pricey, it would definitely add some visual interest to a wall.

Chalkboard Paint

If there is one major trend on Pinterest it has to be chalkboard paint.

I loved the idea of a dresser painted with chalkboard paint in order to label drawer contents. Perhaps for a playroom or craft room?

Another chalkboard paint use that I'm definitely going to try someday is painting the top of a table as a games table or for a kids colouring/craft area.

Canadian Living's Create, Update, Remake

Floor Cushion

Making some hassock pillows for the floor in my living room is an idea I love. We could use them for when we have big groups over or for watching movies. 

Knit Bolster Pillow

I'm dying to make a knit pillow of some kind, this one especially tickles my fancy and includes a pattern!

Anyone else rediscovered the library lately? I'll leave you with this, I don't know how I remember this song so vividly but it was from an amazing musical episode of Arthur forever burned into my memory. Easily the best animated hip-hop video about the merits of library card ownership.

Procrastinated Pinterest Challenge

In case you aren't an avid home improvement blog reader, you might not have heard of the Pinterest Challenge. It's hosted by Bower Power Blog, Young House Love, Ugly Duckling House, and Our Fifth House. I read Young House Love more than once a day (Philip has to remind me from time to time that I shouldn't talk about John & Sherry as if I know them in real life - it gets weird), and through their blog I also started reading Katie Bower's posts. I would recommend them both! 

So the challenge was to stop pinning and start doing, by creating something inspired by Pinterest with the deadline of Tuesday, October 30. I'm obviously late...but better late than never.

I had planned to make the monogram holiday wreath I've been drooling over from Our Unexpected Journey but have been encountering difficulties with finding supplies.

Determined to come out with something, my friend Brittany and I continued our search at Dollarama. Having given up on this beautiful wreath (for now) we ended up coming home with some canvas and craft paint. I don't have a lot of craft supplies so we bought everything, but it only cost $5.32 and future projects will cost even less as I accumulate some supplies!

The project was inspired by this splatter painted chevron idea by Baby Black Bird. 

Brittany and I both decided to make one so we got started with taping. I only had one roll of masking tape that I could find (a lot of our stuff is still packed or just randomly strewn around the house) and so Brittany used the masking tape and I tried my hand with good ol' clear scotch tape. I am one of the least patient crafters around, so I very quickly gave up on trying to make them all even. We were also limited because I couldn't find a ruler. In the example above, the lines were all carefully measured and beautiful, as you can see below mine weren't quite like that. If you have a ruler, definitely measure, although I kind of like how mine turned out a little wonky and homemade-esque. You can see how some of the gaps are super small and then they are suddenly bigger in other areas. 

Instead of the mess of splatter painting, I just started putting dabs of paint in different colors anywhere I wanted. At first I really did not think it would turn out. Definitely thought it would end up in the thrift store pile by today based on the first few minutes.

We had bought primarily pastel type colors, but then I borrowed a bunch of paint from my mom as well and so it started looking a little more aggressive than I had intended.

I added some more pastel colors on top and then forced myself to quit because it was just getting to that point where I kept adding for the sake of adding and it was going to be terrible. At one point I started painting up and down the whole thing smearing them together into a browner shade than I'd like and freaked out a little.

Still looks crazy right? Oh my...also just noticed a foot in this picture...that looks strange. Anyway this is when I decided to call it quits and let it dry as-is, no idea how it would turn out.

Brittany ended up doing hers more ombre style, with different shades of blue. Looked super neat!

While waiting for those to dry we painted some wooden letters spelling J-O-Y with white and glitter paint, that's why you'll see those in the background of some of the tape peeling off ceremony photos.

Once the tape was off, this was the finished product. I must admit, I'm super pleased with it. Not quite sure where I'll put it yet, I'm thinking either the bathroom when it's renovated, the mail organizing place once that's set up (it'll be kind of my work station in Philip's office), or maybe in our hallway frame gallery. None of these things exist yet, but they're pretty vivid in my imagination.

The finished product! Now I just need to either paint the sides a solid color to cover those nasty staples, or put some ribbon or a frame around. That's for another day.

Anyone else finish any projects they saw on Pinterest? Share the link in the comments!