New Tools!!

After Christmas my Sunshine went and got a deal on a new one of these.

An air compressor. We had one, but it was older and we needed a little bit more power.

Then I went and got this.

Its an upholstery stapler, so I could re-upholster this.

My very own wing back chair. Something I've wanted for a long time.

P.S. The chair is done, I'm just waiting for Amy to come and take its picture.hehe :)

Let's Make a Deal!

Amy the picture taker and I have a deal. If she comes and takes pictures for me, she gets free stuff done.
Sometimes she's busy though and that's when you get stuck with my pictures, but today is not the day.

Last fall her and I went kijiji shopping. She was looking for a table for her and her husband's apartment. Nothing too big, because the one they had just took up to much room. She had her hopes on a drop leaf table and by chance she found one. Her Dad and I went and scooped it up for $30. The neat thing about this table is that it has 2 leaves with it and extends to a rather large table, but folds up and flips down to nearly nothing.

 She also needed a couple of chairs.

$5 each from our local thrift store.

And now the after effect.

I sanded down the top and stained it a dark colour. Painted and distressed the bottom in a gray concoction I made. That's where I add a little of this and some of that and bam new paint colour.

The chairs were painted black and also distressed. The fabric was leftover from the bridesmaid dresses I made for her wedding.

(photo courtesy of Stephanie Gascho Photography)

And then for fun we brought out her Christmas present too for our photo shoot.

And Fuzz thought this was all A-OK.

Then we loaded it up and took it to their happy home before it snowed some more.:)

Way Back When...

 I was looking through some old photos on my computer, deleting and such when I came across some oldie but goodies of my bathroom.
These pictures are all point and shoot so the quality isn't the greatest, but I'm sure you'll still get the gist of how amazingly weird my bathroom was.

Yes that bathtub is sunk into the floor, and yes it is a cast iron tub covered with tile.

The toilet was wall mounted, but something happened along the way and the previous owners had to put that black plastic piece under the bowl.

The Hole.

  It was pretty yucky and the black at the back was moldy wet wood. All that raised bit where the tub sat, came out.

Cast iron tubs are not light. I was thankful that these guys were here that day.

 AND NOW duntduntdada!

A tub that securely sits on a a reinforced floor!

A sink on a reclaimed dresser, that is now my vanity. Roger recut the top drawers to make room for plumbing, and it still left me with ample drawer space.

And the reverse shot in the mirror, that shows my cute little lights. My bathroom also houses a great linen  closet across from the shower.

 It was a project that took us extra long it seems, but it was worth it.

It's been finished for almost 2 years and I'll still walk in on some days and think about what it use to look like and am grateful it doesn't look that way anymore. :)

Bread baking day!

I was in the mood to bake some bread the other day. The mood doesn't come that often, but I'm always amazed at how little time it takes to make bread at home, and then I begin to wonder why I don't do it more often. Then I vow I will make more bread, but then reality sets in and I find it much easier to pick up a loaf, then bake it.
I have a bread maker, but I like using my Kitchen Aid mixer. Lets me makes loaves look the old fashioned way.
I was making two loaves of whole wheat bread, but then I also added some cranberry raisin bread to the plan



                                                            All mixed and ready to rise.

Here's a shot of the whole gang after they have been put into loaf pans, had their second rising and are  now waiting to be baked.

And Baked.

And then my picture takin' daughter came over told me I had my camera on the wrong settings and snapped this one. All warm and toasty looking, not to mention tasty.

 Happy Baking:)

The Ruffle Experiment.

Someone asked me if I would make some aprons for their girls. She wanted them to match one that she had been given as gift. (which I made also). She was hoping that I had more of the same fabric and yes I did. I asked how she felt about ruffles and was given the thumbs up. So using the aprons as a ruffle experiment, I started with this.

With an apron that she gave me and suggestions I found on the internet about adding ruffles I cut a pattern.

  The white you see, is the "base" of the apron and the strips will be the ruffles. The strips could be made any size. Always make sure that they are at least double in length to what you are adding them to, so you get full gathers. You can make them as wide as you want, but I wouldn't make them too narrow though.  They wouldn't want to lay flat and would stick out funny.

Next I hemmed everything and added the ties to the base.

These are made from some of fabric strips, folded in half, sewn, and then turned right side out and ironed.

Now we add the ruffles.

Each strip was hemmed and zig zagged to prevent fraying.

Then I hand stitched for the gathering of the fabric. No special reason why, I just wanted too.

Now the gathering took place.

Then I pinned this little beauty to the base, and sewed it in place.

I made sure that when I pinned it to the base, I pinned one end first, then pulled up the slack at the other end with my gathering thread and then pinned. Then I distributed the gathers evenly.

Next ruffle.

 The next ruffle is just covering the zig-zag edge of my last ruffle. I pinned it, and sewed it in place.

To finish up the edge I made another tube (like the ties) and gathered it.

Then I sewed it directly over the last edge to cover the last zig zagged edge.

Experiment Completed. 

Oh and they are 100% cotton, so easy wash and dry.

Now if I can get M'lynn to stop trying them on, I might be able to deliver them. :)

The Joy of Giving Gifts.

A couple of years ago we decided that as a family, instead of buying gifts we had to make each other something.
We pick names as soon as we open our gifts for the next year, giving each of us a whole year to think, find etc. and make something. Now you may may thinking that's smart, but what really ends up happening is that a couple of weeks before Christmas we scramble to get things done.

Note to self- don't do that this year.


Here are a few of the things we made. (Some will not appear on this blog because they were eaten).

 My daughter Ashley and son-in-law Darryl's church had a yard sale to raise money. All things were donated to the congregation by the congregation.
But this was left behind and was headed for the dumpster.

So they took it home and it became this.

It's for my daughter Amy. Her and her husband Ryan aka Fuzz live in an apartment with little storage so this should help a lot with the floaties that hang around and have no home in their home.

Next up

Amy brought home a bunch of these from work. Combining their efforts Roger and Fuzz took them apart and made this.

It doesn't have a finish on it yet because we wanted to ask Ashley and Darryl what they wanted first. It will be on their new deck this year and they decided just to seal it. They like the different colours of the boards. We really like the way it turned out and I think we may make a few more of these. The pallets are free and who doesn't like free!

Some of these were made for M'lynn

and this

Grapefruit smelling bath salts and lip balm and we also made a mint chocolate one.

Amy took some of Isaac's lego people and made this for him.

And I got these funky comfy pants from Ashley. Believe me when I say comfy. I think I wore them for most of the Christmas holiday's. I even washed them late one night, popped them in the dryer the next morning just so I could wear them that day.

The things we ate were homemade chocolates. We had peppermint patties, Oreo cookie bark, mint chocolate bark, and peanut butter cups. They were tasty. (The boys who got them were nice enough to share)

It's all fun stuff and I like the fact you won't find it in a store. And if your looking for ideas to make stuff for this year. Pinterest is a great place to start.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! :)