Showing posts with label Domestic Diva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Domestic Diva. Show all posts

Red Felt Roses

 23.2.11

Here's a little craft I've been working on this February.  

I found this amazing blog {Creative Jewish Mom}and was inspired by her tutorial on making a Felt Rosebud Bouquet. She has a full tutorial on her blog, so I won't repeat it, but here are some photos of my progress.  

I'm not done yet -- these babies take a long time! But they are worth it :)

So you first outline various sizes of circles on the felt.  Then cut out the circle shape.  Then within that shape, cut a spiral pattern.  Repeat for each circle.

Unravel each spiral, the take the pointy end and start rolling it in on itself.

As you roll it, keep the felt taut as you don't want floppy flowers.

Almost done! With your hot glue gun, adhere the centre part of the spiral {the butt if you will}, to the bottom of the rose.  This will help the rose maintain its shape. Since you have your hot glue gun out anyway, you can always secure the sides of the flower if you feel like you need to.

And voila. A completed rose!

I love how each rose is individual, depending on the size of the original circle and your freehand spiral cut.
I then adhered the roses to a styrofoam ball {try 5-6 inch balls}, and all of my many roses only filled half the ball! So here's a shot of my yet-unfinished bouquet.  I'm interested in making another one for my dining room in shades of gray and white, so I'll leave my red one till next February.
Hope you enjoyed my mini-tutorial!


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Aviva's Chic Nursey - almost done!

 11.1.11


So after much ado, here is Little A's nursery.  Not yet entirely complete, but enough to post online. I wish I knew how to take better photos because these just don't do the room justice.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy! 

I wanted the nursery to be glamourous, yet kid-friendly.  I wanted a room that Little A can grow into.  If you know me in real life, you know that I'm not a pastel-type person, so this baby girl nursery had to be sophisticated and fun! But most importantly, this room had to be done well on a VERY tight budget {like almost non-existent - ask Adair!}.

First I chose my favourite colour palette - Black, White & Pink.  There were times when I wanted to do a gray with pink & orange accents, but the colours and style I chose really spoke to me.   My hair dresser Kara actually gave me the idea for the wall, which was essentially the jumping-off point for the entire space. 

To save money, we kept EZ's crib and dresser and just painted the wood a glossy black to tie in with the rest of the room.  


The fuschia-coloured feature wall is definitely the highlight of the room.  After much searching for the perfect pink, we settled on Behr's Tutti Fruitti colour and we're very pleased. 

The black chandeliers are actually Dollarama stickers!  $2 each, compared to vinyl wall stickers from Etsy or the like for $20+.  Very good deal. Since I was very pregnant, our good friends came over with their fancy level to help us get the chandeliers perfectly straight and even - an essential element in making this feature wall a real knock-out.

We purchased this 4 piece damask crib bedding from Walmart.com for only $70 all included. It even came with a coverlet! Although it looks great from a distance, the bumper pad shrunk by about 5 inches when it was washed, so we're disappointed, but not enough to drive back to Buffalo {a 90 minute drive + border delays} to return it. It still looks fine, and you can't use bumper pads in Canada anyway, so once Aviva starts sleeping in her crib, the bumper pad will be removed.


 We decided that we'd keep Aviva's onesies, jammies, bibs, shoes, etc. in this cute Closetmaid storage unit, so I got these adorable hot pink mesh baskets from Solutions.  The labels are actually chalkboard vinyl pieces from this Etsy seller - LOVE THEM! I just use a chalk marker {or you could simply use a piece of chalk too!} to update the labels as necessary. 

The gorgeous sans-serif letters come from the Dollar Store too. AMAZING. SIMPLE. LOVELY.


  Now. This gorgeous, swanky mirror was an amazing find from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Seriously. It was this hideous gold colour that only cost me $15. We gave it new life by spraypainting it a glossy black.  Simple and totally recessionista-chic.   We purchased the pink minky material change pad cover from Etsy.  It really brings that side of the room together.


I've been in LOVE with the Eames rocker since I first fell in love with interior design, but unfortunately it is simply beyond my budget.  I found this amazing reproduction from this Canadian company that offers free delivery.  The chair arrived only a few days after we ordered it. Very impressive. 

Both the black sequin throw pillow and the white croc material ottoman were purchased from Bouclair Home - my favourite local go-to home accessories shop. I got it on clearance for $20. It's also functions as storage! LOVE multi-purpose items! 

I have a terrible time choosing art for my spaces, especially art that doesn't have any wording on it, so I chose our most recent family photos to be the art in Little A's room.  The white frames are from Walmart! Such a great deal!  

I also purchased this print from Etsy a while back, so now you can see it prominently displayed above the Eames-style rocker!

I don't know how to get rid of the flash - I should have taken a better photo!

 The last element of the room is the lighting. I had previously blogged about a jet black crystal chandelier that I was coveting.  It was relatively inexpensive, but I decided to go with this cute chandelier from Home Depot for less than half the price of the black chandelier.  I'm so glad I did! The black chandelier, albeit lovely, was heavy and limiting, whereas this chandelier perfectly sets off the other elements of the space.  It accents without overshadowing.  And I love ceiling medallions. There I said it.


So there you have it!  Little A's modern, sophisticated nursery - a room that will grow with our little girl.  There are still a couple accents I have to add {more art!}, but I'm currently working on these projects now.  I'll blog about them when complete!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Aviva's Chic Nursery!

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Labour Day Projects

 6.9.10

Here's our list of things to do today:
1. Paint family room - check.

2. Paint dresser - check.

3. Prime dining room - check.

4. Prime nursery - check.

5. Organize Ez's closet - check.

6. Organize bills. Again - check.

7. Make banana chocolate chip bread - not yet done.

8. Laundry - check.

9. Put away laundry - not yet done.

10. Put up vinyl wall decals in bedroom - not yet done.

11.  Organize 2 front hall closets - check.

12. Put up towel rack in ensuite - check.

13. Plan weekly menu - check.

14. Utilize my new chalk ink pens! - check.

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Here are pics of some my results so far - much more to come!





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Saturday Morning Laundry - my lil' helpers

 18.3.10


"Mounds of laundry don't amuse me. But I'll help anyway since most of it is mine."


"Anything else in here, mum? Lemme check."


"I think I'll just hang out on the pillows, if that's alright with you."



"Gotta find my socks - they're in here somewhere!"

"Whew, I'm so tired now mum. I need a refreshment break."

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Labour Day. Literally.

 7.9.09

Today was the 1st time in months {9 to be exact} that I really, REALLY enjoyed a stat holiday. Being on mat leave for 8 months, every day felt like a stat holiday - apart from the giving birth part.

So today, we really took advantage of our day by getting up early to go for a family walk. EZ really enjoys the park now. He likes to play on the swings and go down the slide {with a little help from mum & dad, of course!}.

After the park, we decided to immediately embark on our Labour:

  • tidy the kitchen {not CLEAN bc the cleaning lady comes tomorrow!}
  • cut the grass
  • weed the garden
  • paint the garage door
  • organize the book shelf
  • make labels
  • re-organize closet {rid myself of maternity clothes!}
  • tidy the family room
  • put up patio furniture {why not? it's still summer!}
  • laundry. loads and loads of laundry
  • organize the 2 front hall closets
  • finish painting the living room & trim
  • clear out boxes and put them in the basement
  • install new Britax carseat!
As you can see, it was a busy day. All of this had to get done with an almost-8 month old who likes to be "in on the action." EZ definitely liked to hang out with mum & dad today. He liked to watch daddy paint. He also used his little plastic car and bike for the 1st time today - thanks to cousins for those! We tried to find our camera to take photos because he looked mighty adorable in his sweet plastic ride, but alas, it was nowhere to be found. But trust me, EZ was CUTE!!!

So tomorrow is "back-to-school". Definitely makes me nostalgic for the good ol' days, but soon enough little EZ will be going to school! I love this time of year. I wonder how different traffic and my commute time will be tomorrow?

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Home Cookin' Queen

 1.7.09

So if you follow my regular blog, you'll see that I am strutting my stuff in the kitchen. Yay me!

We've been eating every dinner at home for the last week. I'm actually quite impressed. There are days that I do crave Thai, but we haven't eaten so well in a very long time. Like seriously. Our bodies aren't used to so so so many vegetables and whole grains.

But it's super fun to try out new recipes and learn to be more comfortable in the kitchen. I'm gaining a lot of confidence, which actually is giving me so much independence. I can actually cook what I want and when I want. I know that concept may sound unbelievably simple, but to me, who didn't know how to boil water - this is a huge breakthrough!

I'm cooking real food - and some of it from scratch! I'll keep you posted on my continued kitchen successes!

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