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Hallowe'en in June

Today we had the Little Dude's birthday party with his school friends today. His actual birthday is tomorrow. I asked him what theme he would like for his party and he said "I want it to be Hallowe'en". So Hallowe'en it is! But can I tell you how hard it is to find Hallowe'en decorations in June? I have been to sooooo many dollar stores and craft stores and party stores and I would KILL for one little package of plastic spiders. But there were none to be found. Not even for ready money, as Oscar Wilde would say. 

Anyhow, I went and got some craft felt and some ribbon and made these quick little bunting banners. 

And smart Hubs made all these silhouette cutouts of ravens and bats and cats and rats that we stuck on the windows and walls around the house. He has access to a laser cutting machine at work, so that was easy for him to do.

And I stayed up until midnight last night, like a crazy woman, finishing last minute details like these kitty cat ears for the Little Guy. His go-to imaginary alter ego these days is a kitty cat (named Blueby, in case you are wondering), so naturally he had to have ears. 

Since it was Hallowe'en, all the kids were invited to wear a costume. And oddly enough all the boys dressed as Superheros and all the girls dressed as Princesses (she says ironically). Go figure. As you can see in the picture we also did a little Jack o' Lantern craft.

And then played "Pin the Jack o' Lantern on the Fence".

I got the idea to make these little Rice-Krispie-Squares-dipped-in-icing-with-Sprinkles-on-a-Stick from Pinterest. I usually like to bake something a little more, erm, skillful and less, um, sugary when I do occasion baking. But I gave in to my inner six year old, and just went with it this time.

And they were greatly enjoyed by all.

And here's our cake. Or at least one of them. The recipe I used made an insane amout of batter. So we ended up with two cakes. The Little Dude decoarted this one, a creepy multi-eyed monster. 

And this is the one that Hubs decorated. A Day of the Dead skull. 

These are supposed to be skull pops. Got the idea from Martha Stewart's excellent Crafts for Kids book. A very simple idea, candy sticks, marshmallows and other candies put together to look like a skull on a stick. And let me tell you, mine looked NOTHING like Martha's. I wish I could find a photo online to do a side-by-side comparison shot, because it is almost comical how much of a "fail" they are. But the best thing about about five and six year olds is that they are not critical at all about stuff like this. They're all like "is it made of sugar? I'll take TWO!"

Another fun thing we did, was a book disply wall. I already have these shelves, its not like I made them for the party, but I did put black and orange crepe paper on the egdes of them to Hallowe'en it up. And then we went to our beloved local library and got out tons of Hallowe'en themed books to put on them by way of decoration. And then we had a "Spooky Storytime" as part of the party. They boys have loved having all these new books on a single theme so much, that I think I'll do this once a month, with different themes. So many fun possibilities. 

This was easy too. I found a great free font online (Blood Crow, available here) and then printed out each letter at a font size of 450. Then Hubs took them to work and did the fancy cut-out edge on the laser cutter there, and then glued them on a half a sheet of card stock, and then hung 'em on the wall.  

And now, allow me a brief digression about kid party planning, and what blogs are for. Because I never want my blog to make you hate your life. I know what that's like and its not a good feeling. It should go without saying that I do not post any of this to make you feel bad. I just want to share my ideas and show you what worked for us. I like a home party, as opposed to a venue party for kids because I find it easier, and cheaper. And I make a lot of the stuff for the party because a) I find it fun and b) I'm cheap. And hey, if you would rather poke your own eyes out with a fork than potato stamp pumpkins on brown paper bags for an afternoon, that's all good. And maybe you love to go to Chuck E Cheese or head out to your local Splash Pad and get the party catered, that works too. Kids love a party no matter where it is, or what you do. And in case you think this all looks too easy and you feel tempted to hate me for it, let me assure you I am failing at many, many other things. You will never see a blog about my well organized closets, or my spiffy laundry room reno and redesign. We all have our strengths. And I generally don't blog about my weaknesses. 

Anyhow, this post has focused mainly on the "look" of the party, which is an aspect that I enjoy working on. (Sort of like a mini art-project, but inexpensive and low-stakes) But I've got a lot more pictures of the family-photo variety about the actual "party" part of the party that I'll have up on facebook if you follow me there. 

And now to bed! Tomorrow is another party, the family version of today. Less kids, better food. It'll be at my sweet Mom and Dad's place too, so much less work for me (thanks mom). Just gotta bring a cake and a salad. Thank goodness. Because after today I am pooped! 

worst valentines day ever... and also, a table

Didn't really expect much in the way of a Valentine's Day celebration; its not really one that we celebrate in any big way. Made some valentine cards with the boys to give to friends, but that was going to be it. The Little Dude had a bit of a cold, but I thought nothing of it. Put the Baby down for a nap. L.D. went for quiet time, which he usually wanders out of after 45 minutes or an hour. But after and hour and a half I suspected he was having an 'accidental nap'. After two hours I thought I'd check on him. He was definitely napping. Shortly after that he woke up, but with the nastiest cough you've ever heard, and I've heard some nasty coughs in my day. And he must have been really tired, because I'd given him a sugar-free lollipop to have as a treat during quiet time, and he'd fallen asleep while eating it and came walking out of his room later, quite oblivious to the fact that it was stuck, mostly uneaten, to the front of his shirt. Which would have been very cute/funny were it not for the fact that he was crying and coughing and a very sad, snotty little mess. 

And so off to the doctor's we went. And a couple of hours later, well past dinner time we were finally headed home again with a diagnosis of Strep Throat. ARGH. Seriously. Poor little guy. He's in bed half asleep and coughing while I write this. There will be very little sleep tonight. 

Anyhow, I did also want to show you something that Hubs made a little while ago. Remember that sand table he built when the Little Dude was, well, littler? It hasn't had sand in it for some time now. It had a small upgrade, in the form of two drawers attached to the underside about half a year ago and became our lego table. But it became apparent quite quickly that we needed more surface area, so it has been enlarged by another addition.  See? That blue part down at the end is the old table, and the shiny bright unfinished portion is the new bit. Obviously.  

Here is a close up of where the two parts meet.  Hubs was muttering to himself with discontent when I took these pictures. He does not feel like this is his most elegant carpentry solution. But what it lacks in flair it more than makes up for in usefulness. 

Though speaking of a lack of flair, these pictures bum me out for a different reason. Which basically the lack of decor in any formal sense going on in this image. I like the floor, and the walls are at least neutral, but there is so much here that is leftover or just kind of random. Not to mention a toy strewn mess. Which is to say that this table does not match the previous aesthetic of the room, nor does it make anything by a small sad reach towards a future one. 

Sigh. But budgets and time constraints do no allow for such frivolities as decor at this moment in my life. And I need to prioritize and just say how much I love this table (and my husband for making it) as it allows my boys to play happily and at just the right height, with the toys they love best, and at no risk at all of falling off an adult height chair. (In fact a few such falls were deciding factors in favour of Hubs spending a day and a couple of dollars to complete this project)
And essentially, the most important part of this room is that it encourages the boys to play on their own while I get dinner made. And that is worth all the trendy decor in the world.

Though something like this might be fun someday. While not exactly my aesthetic (I like a little grey with my white) it would certainly make the Little Dude happy. 

 

take a seat

Ok, so along with many of the decor choices in our house (hello shag rug) we also inherited some furniture from my parents when they left and moved to their new home. Most of which is lovely and very, very useful. Though of course, the dining room table rarely gets dined at, but sn generally the site of all our Lego adventures. One of the things I like best, is the kitchen table, which I should mention is actually on loan only, as one day they may need it back. And also, it is of significance to them as I believe it was a long ago wedding gift. (am I right on this one Mom, or am I making that up?) Anyhow, I really like it. Like it so much in fact that I have the exact same kitchen table myself. Yes, you understand that correctly, we have two, identical kitchen tables. When Hubs and I were first married ourselves, my Dad stumbled upon a kitchen set identical to his own, which he scooped up for us. He kept the chairs for himself, (as you can never have too many chairs) and gave us the table, which Hubs did a beautiful job of refinishing. So the table that is ours is currently my sewing table, and the table that is on loan from my Mom and Dad is still being used as our kitchen table. 

Funny how I can go on so long about the tables when this post will end up being about the chairs.  This is what the chairs look like. Though they have had many different seat coverings over the years, not one of which I can pull up into my poor, faulty memory at this moment. It is neither here nor there anyways, as my point is that these chairs, on closer inspection.... ...are in desperate need of recovering. They are filthy. And this is not even the worst one. Don't imagine we inherited them this way. My mother keeps a very clean house. I, on the other hand, have toddlers. Who have wreaked their messy little havoc on most of the surfaces in this one time spotless house. And while I can wipe walls and clean tubs (you know, every couple of months as is my wont) I cannot do anything about these sad dirty chairs. Except recover them. 

But then the question becomes, what to cover them with? I have an aversion to most 'wipe clean' fabrics as they are generally treated with the most noxious chemicals know to the human race. Even what they call "oil cloth" is really just treated with vinyl and phthalates and all the nastiest off-gassing things you can imagine. And I won't have that stuff in my house if I can help it. 

So what to do? I don't just want to choose another fabric that will be soiled instantly, and all the "green" vinyl alternatives were either CRAZY expensive or not available in a pattern I liked. And then Hubs hit on a good idea. Leather. Not new leather, but old leather. Good old, wipe clean leather. Leather that has been around the block. Leather we can get for cheap. 

So I hit the Value Village on 50% off day, and found myself a nice, long grey leather coat. And look at the magic that Hubs did. See that? Lovely charcoal grey, soft and very wipe-able.

And since it was cheap, we don't have to be too precious about it. If the kids manage to ruin these ones too, we'll only be out of pocket $15. Not bad for three seat covers. 

On the downside, there are still another five chairs to cover and the odds of getting an exact match are pretty low. But we like the eclectic look, so it'll be fine. 

What a difference, eh? I'm very pleased. And Hubs did everything except buy the coat. He spent the evening with a stitch ripper, taking the lining out of the coat, cut it up, took the seats off, stapled it on. I'm quite happy with the result. Now I just have to keep my eyes open for two more coats in at least a grey-ish colour. Wish me luck. 

home improvements

I've probably mentioned before that since we don't own this house, we haven't put in a lot of time and effort into making changes to it. And it used to be my parent's house, which they kept very nicely, but also, is filled with their taste and their choices. So we try to find little ways to make it our own, but without spending too much money or time. We've repainted a few rooms and put up some new curtains, but much of it remains as it always has been. 

But this past weekend we finally got around to doing a small project that I've had on my list for some time now. If you read this blog often you also know that I am a collector of lovely vintage things. However, I walk the fine line between collecting and hoarding because I'm not very good as displaying all the great vintage finds I collect. They get added to the piles or the boxes labled "vintage table clothes: embroidered" and "vintage table clothes: printed". We had to re-arrange the boxes last week because we were trying to find stuff and I noticed how many boxes I have labled "vintage books". I love vintage books. Obviously. I collect old school readers, and old how-to manuals and old medical books. It made me sad that I had all this great stuff and never saw it. I was also at the library the other day paging through some random glossy home-dec magazine and I was feeling jealous about how lovely all these other people's homes were (I consoled myself with the thought that clearly they did not have small children, and if they did they could obviously afford 'help' in the form of cooks and cleaners and decorators). And as I read the tips I noticed over and over again how the decor experts exhorted people to seek out clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds in order to personalize their decor. And of course I occured to me that I am sitting on, like, the motherlode of clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds. And that I should quit feeling jealous and do something about it. Because boxes of lovely old things just feel like wasted potential. I should have all these things out in the light where I can enjoy them. 

Of course, the problem is the two sets of ten sticky little fingers that would love to schmeer themselves all over my clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds. So I had to find a way to put stuff on display without putting them in the line of smearage, as it were. I decided that book rails were the best possible plan. That way we can change the items on it regularly and they can be on view but also up out of harms way. 

So we spent a couple of nap times making it happen. We decided on using the dining room/front room/play room as the place for it. You see it when you walk in the door so it can set the tone for the house, and also, we spend a lot of time there. And it was the biggest stretch of wall that did not have a piece of furniture or a window obscuring it. Here it is before: We'd sort of 'wall papered' the space with two large drawings that one of our MFA classmates had done (Ian Campbell if you are wondering). But they had to come down. We've relocated them to the living room. Then there was the issue of the actual wall paper. I'm not a huge wall paper fan. I mean, there are some lovely, innovative things happening in the world of wall paper right now, but the choice may parents made for this room probably a decade or so ago, is not one of them.

My Dad and I have a running argument about home decor. He feels that neutrality, especially in transitional spaces, is something to strive for. I don't necessarily disagree, but his idea of neutral is a pale yellow I like to call 'eldercare beige' and my idea of neutrality is white. So this slightly textured beige wall paper is way to 'meh' for me, but just right for him.  Its a good thing he doesn't live here anymore, because that wall paper is coming down!

The Little Dude was so helpful. I cannot tell you how much glee he took in tearing off large swaths of wall paper. He enjoyed it almost as much as we did!

We'd had plans to paint the wall white once the wall paper was down, but upon discovering that the wall underneath was very nicely painted a rather pleasing shade of vintage-y green, we decided to forgo the effort and cost of paint and just clean up the wall really, really well. Its funny, I only vaguely remember this paint colour from my childhood. Which makes me wonder how much of our surroundings the Little Dude and the Baby are taking in. 

Eventually the fun exciting part of stripping wall paper was done and we were down to the boring tedious part of cleaning the wall, so I was glad that I had prepared a little painting activity for L.D. to do at the table behind us while we got on with the work. 

Hubs built our book railings/aka picture rails/aka skinny little shelves with some stuff he bought at the hardware store. This is not a 'how to' so I'm not going to go into the details and it mostly happened out in the garage while I was busy washing the walls and distracting a pre-schooler. We got the wall finished and the shelves done during the Baby's nap time, but waited till he was awake to screw them to the wall (because drills are really loud). And I forgot to take pictures of the installation. But they went up on the wall just after dinner, and pretty much as soon as the Little Dude laid eyes on them, he knew what they were for.

Obviously, they are little train shelves for Thomas the Tank Engine and friends. We let him play it like that for the rest of the evening, and as soon as the boys went to sleep, we did some last finishing touches with the paint and then let them dry over night. And in the morning, I got out my six boxes marked "vintage books" and had at it. 

Et voia! Our display wall.

Going through all the boxes and choosing what to put on the shelves was really fun. Like rediscovering treasure. But it was also hard to choose. I just put up a general selection this time, but I think in the future I will pick themes (things that are red, children's books, graphic impact, etc.) and build the display around that. Also, it works for books and artwork and the kid's paintings and record albums and all sorts of fun things. Doing this also made me realize that I am not as good at arranging things as I'd like to be. It made me wish that some of my Montreal friends lived near by, so I could have them come over and make a display for me (I'm looking in your direction jake.m).

Its so nice to see some of my favourite old things though. This book cover makes me so happy. 

And the design on this old box blows my mind every time I see it. 

Another favourite book cover, and so appropriate as I'm constantly surrounded by little people who are daily gaining skill with words. 

The Little Dude is pointing up at his favourite, the picture he made for me with heart-shaped sponge stamps while I was stripping the wall paper the day before. "It says 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you." he says, counting the hearts. (you can see it on the top shelf in the picture of the full wall).

Not bad for something we did for almost no money over the course of two naptimes on the weekend. 

 

framed brooch display tutorial

I have a problem with stuff. I like to collect things, but often find that all my carefully chosen treasures somehow disappear into boxes and don't get enjoyed, by me or anyone else. It was my New Year's resolution to try and display some of my collections and make them accessible for use. I decided jewelry would be a good place to start. I have a ridiculous collections of costume and vintage jewelry that I've been picking up here and there since highschool, and yet, I wear the same necklace, ring and earrings all the time. So maybe if I could see some of this nice jewellry I'd wear it more often. Or not. Brooches are my weakness, but ever since the big vintage-style-brooches-on-cardigans trend of the mid 2000's, I've been kind of over wearing them. But I still love them. They are beautiful, and I wanted a better way to display them than in a jumbled dusty heap on a saucer. 

So I decided to make myself a lovely brooch display picture frame dealy.
Ta-daaaah! I've seen this kind of thing around before, but did not want to hand over the money to buy one when I could conceivably make one myself. And you can too, because I'm going to tell you how.

Lets start with materials. You will need the following:

An old frame, the more ornate the better. 

Spray primer

White spray paint (I prefer matte, because then it has a sort of porcelain look, but you could use glossy too, if that's your style)

pliers and flat head screwdrivers

cardboard/foamcore/cork board

quilt batting/flannel/felt

fabric large enough to cover the area inside your frame, plus at least 2 inches all around.

Thick thread (I used top stitching thread, but in a pinch I'll bet dental floss could work too)

scissors

sewing needle with an eye big enough to accomodate your thread choice

staple gun with staples

So here's my original frame:

I got mine from the Value Village, but just keep your eyes open when you are in any second hand shop and if its meant to be, one will eventually come your way. This one originally had a lovely needlepoint of some daisy's in it, which I used to make this tote bag.  1. Start by pulling whatever was in the frame, out of the frame. Make sure not to damage the frame. Use your pliers and flat head screwdriver to pry out staples and such. Then useing a damp cloth, wipe down the frame to get any dust or loose dirt off it. But you don't have to go crazy. You're going to be spray painting it after all.

2. Priming. Make sure to do this in a well ventilated place, like an open garage, or your back balcony. Lay down some newspaper if you don't want to get spray paint every where. Following the manufacturer's instructions, apply one or two coats of primer. I used two, as after the first coat had dried, there was some yellowing showing where there were cracks in the frame. 

3. Spray painting. Apply however many coats of spray paint until it looks the way you want it. I did two coats of matte white, just to be thorough. Allow to dry completely.  See how pretty that looks?

4. Make the part that goes into the frame, the pin-board we shall call it. This is a bit tricky, since it really, really depends on your frame and its never going to be the same as mine. Mine was a very shallow frame, so a lot of possible materials would have been too thick. Foam core, for example, would have worked well, but was too deep. And I was shocked to find that my local craft and hardware stores did not stock bit sheets of cork, or even anything like it. I did buy a role of very thin, adhesive cork that turned out to be totally useless. You're just going to have to shop around and find something at a store near you, or maybe on the internet that works. What I ended up using was a plain old piece of corrugated cardboard, which I cut to the size of the opening. I put a layer of that adhesive cork on it, but that was no good, because the adhesive actually made it hard to poke the brooch pins into it. I ended up turning it around, and then cutting a layer of quilt batting and a layer of cotton flannel and putting those on top. 

  Anyhow, your goal is to end up with something like this. Test it for 'pokeablility' with safety pins or something, because you just want your brooch pins to poke into it easily, and not slide out until you want them. 

5. Cover with fabric. Choose something you like. I decided to go with a plain charcoal grey cotton, as I wanted the brooches to really stand out against it, but you could also totally do a print and make it really fun. Stripes would be awesome, or some vintage style print would be great too. There are so many fun fabric options out there. But do stick with a light-to-medium weight fabric. A heavy upholstery fabric might make it hard to get a nice clean wrap around, and would be bulky in the corners making the whole thing too thick to fit. If you do decide to go with something thicker, like a velvet or something, just be sure to cut your pin-board backing a little smaller in order to make it fit. And also test the size of it in the frame before you go to all the work of securing the fabric to the board.

You have a two different options to get the fabric to stay in place. You could just wrap it around and use a staple gun to keep it in place, but then you'd need to be using a thick enough pin-board substance that the staples would not show thorough in the front. It wouldn't have worked with my little piece of cardboard. Instead, I decided to lace it together.

To lace the fabric around the board, start by laying the fabric, right side down on your work table. Then position the pin board in the middle of the fabric. Starting with the sides, take your thick-ish thread, and your needle and sew back and forth from side to side as though you were lacing a corset. Or putting shoe laces in your sneakers. Whatever you are more familiar with. This is going to take a very long piece of thread, so what I usually do is I just keep it on the spool. Istead of trying to measure the length of thread I'd need and cutting and knotting it, I just thread the needle onto the end hanging off the spool, and sew away, while unspooling what I need. Start at one end, and a scant three eighths of an inch in from the egde (just enough so it wont be too close to the raw edge) and go across the back of the pin-board and insert your needle from the top down into the fabric on the other side. Continue, going back and forth and catching the edges of the fabric, making the stitches about three quarters of an inch apart, until you reach the bottom of the pin-board. Then, after you've tightened all the "stitches", and are holding the last stitch taut, go in and out around the last spot a lot of times, and run your needle underneath this bunch of stitches, and pass the needle though the loop you've created to make a knot. Do this a couple of times, so that it is really secure. Repeat with the top and bottom edge. 

Alternatively, if you don't feel confident with a needle and thread, you could also just go ahead and use good ole' duct tape. That would work too. Won't be as pretty, but then again, you won't really be seeing the back that often, will you?6. When you are done with that, you are going to pop the pin-board back into the frame.

7. Then, using your staple gun, you are going to to staple all around the edges, so one side of the staple is in the frame and one side is in the pin-board back. 

As you can see, you don't need to go crazy with the staples. Just enough to keep in in place. Also, in this image you can see the lacing back and forth that is holding the fabric in place. 

8. Now comes the fun part. Get out your brooch collection and enjoy making a lovely arrangement of them. Go by theme, by colour, by category, or just make a fun, pleasing random arrangement.

As I said, this really gave me the chance to appreciate my collection aknew. I have some really lovely little pieces here that deserve a chance to shine, or at the very least, see daylight. 

Et voila! Find yourself a nice patch of wall and hang that puppy up there. And then give yourself a pat on the back for being so clever. And think about wearing brooches again sometime soon.