Advent Calendar inspiration

2 days left 'til Dec 1 and I have advent calendars on my mind. Is it possible to make one before Dec 1? Here are the culprits that have caught my attention and spurred this idea of putting one together in time for Dec 1.

via funkytime

via AnnaleenasHem

via maya*made

via Funkytime

via etsy

Aren't they adorable and inspiring! I am amazed at the creativity. I have never done an advent calendar but HAVE to now that I have seen these ideas. I am already visualizing my supply drawer (ha, like any of my supplies are neatly organized in a drawer ... only in my mind) ... have burlap and string at home, I do have a couple cardboard rolls, but probably not enough to make 24 boxes. Click on the first post and she has already done the work for you supplying us late people with a pdf printout of the little ornaments.

I wonder how to work an advent calender with several kids - do they take turns opening the token for the day or do I need to put a token for each kid for each day??? hmmm.


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This post fulfills several cliches at once, Pinterest cliche, Seasonal cliche, and my personal cliche, partaking a day late & posting about something without having my own after photo. But at least I crossed something off my list, a meme.

Beautiful Saturday

The weather is gorgeous. A warm, but very autumn day; barren streets, naked branches, piles of raked leaves waiting for pickup.  Split pea soup cooking on the stove. The boy is playing football with a friend and little Lucy and I took Luc the Pug around the block.  The neighbourhood is quiet as many university students have gone away for the long weekend holiday. Lucy experienced her first stomp through piles of crispy leaves, accidentally falling into piles and rolling down the little hills. Now fast asleep.

Painting on a whim, p. II

I have learned and decided that painting trim-baseboard is nothing to fear, loath or dread; in fact it is rewarding and even kind of fun. Yesterday I was accidentally and forced to paint the fireplace mantel, a necessity yes, but way down on my list of things to do.

Neglected mantel had become a catchall for treasures and photos and covered in dust. It was originally painted with commercial flat paint (the entire house is) which collects dust (ok, I suppose anything collects dust if it is neglected) and dirt simply does.not.wash off.

Chantilly Lace in semi-gloss - which is white white, no tint of blue or gray or cream. Pure white and quite bright.  After I painted the mantel I continued with the door trims, a few window frames, a couple of steps and some baseboard, and back to the mantel, until I ran out of the paint. I overcame my dread of painting trim. For some reason I thought this would be a horrible job. Now, how 'bout that ceiling?

Two coats of semi-gloss later, I have a fresh place to store the candles.  And since I had the ladder out, I put one coat of DOVE white on the chimney portion of the wall. I was eager to see the contrast in whites. Dove white is a bit creamy; sales person said it has a hint of gray in it, to go with the striped wall. I think because chantilly lace is so white, anything looks a bit off beside it. I originally bought chantilly lace for my bathroom, but the paint was so bright, it paled the new subway tiles.

I was never one to prepare for Christmas & festivities too early, especially not a month ahead, but somehow my creative need led to making candles which led to Christmas gifts and then a festive Christmas display and, well ... several things accomplished! It's Black Friday today (when stores accounting books show profit) ... and being an expat living in the US I think we will go check out this craze.

Painting on a whim

I started out this morning with our newly made candles, some string, scissors and burlap (cut from the curtain I made. ha)

I decided the wrapped candles would make a nice mantel display and serve as a storage area until we are closer to the Christmas holidays and gift giving.

Besides clearing and dusting the neglected mantel I did little else in paint preparation; No drop cloth, no scrubbing area clean, COLD & thick paint as it was stored in the basement. The thing about my house, I believe, that anything that is done is an improvement, even w/ my iffy painting skills.

I opened my semi-gloss chantilly lace (Benj. Moore) paint. Ok, not a complete whim, as I was somewhat prepared, already having purchased the trim paint last week. BUT I really wanted to finish the bathroom caulking task before getting into painting. All of a sudden painting has creeped up my to do list as fun things to do. The mantel painted,

and now the baseboard trim painting spree has taken off! Things got much smoother as my paint reached room temperature!

Kitchen: Phase II

I took a measurement of my stove and got all excited that it was only 24" wide ... I had been debating getting the standard size stove/cooktop of 30" which would take up too much counter space.  And I didn't want the smaller stove of 26" because, well, that is what I thought I had and it sucks.  I have not been able to bake since I bought the house ... that's two years ago folks! This little oven burns everything and there is NO window to peak into and watch the bread rise, and no light to shine out the window to guide us to the fridge for late night snacks. I contributed all that burning to the ovens small size rather then some malfunction of the appliance (although I am sure its actually just broken).  SO IMaGinE how excited I was when I finally measured my stove and discovered it was ONLY 24". That meant I could get 2 extra inches of cooktop / oven area. SO MUCH BIGGER and yet not compromise counter space.

AND then I went googling for 26" cooktops/ovens and discovered that somewhere along all my kitchen renovation brainstorming, my brain failed me and I had remembered measurements incorrectly and yes, 30" is the standard size, but there is no 26" range. 24" is the next width. Bummer. There goes my 2".

Phase II of the kitchen reno is meant to start now, like right now, in November. (Phase I was the demo, back in Feb '11). We were suppose to meet this weekend, but that didn't happen. My plan is to get the cement board, do some wall repair work, buy the cooktop/oven or slide in stove (undecided) and make the stove area. When I say my plan, well I do mean MY PLAN, but someone else will be doing the work.

I want to turn this little space, which is where the fridge has always been (there is LuLu, propped up on the stair, back in Feb 2011, in her faux fur vest and purple velvet pants, learning to walk),

INTO something like this.

via

Wow, OH SO WHITE and crisp and clean. Is it possible or is this only magazine worthy. When I saw this photo I decided that this was perfect for my little kitchen. I mostly want to replicate the cupboard, stove, cupboard idea. I'll probably put an industrial type fan or microwave above the cooktop along with a backsplash and floating shelves. SO, you see why I got excited and then bummed over those extra 2"... Once I saw this photo, I pretty much stopped fusing about the kitchen layout ... unless my Contract-HER comes along and advises differently, or offers up some other amazing kitchen design.

And, so you can see how this area originated, a before, before shot. That is, before we took out the overhead cupboards and the little side cupboard/counter and moved the fridge to the middle of the wall space. The kitchens' original. Pretty dark, eh.

We tore this out in Feb 2011. The cupboards are stored in the basement and the bottom cupboard and wooden counter is across the room, beside the stove. I'm going to see if we can use the cutting board counter somehow. When we first moved in, it was kind of scary, in that small dark area so I plopped the microwave on top of it to fill the void, but since then, and with not too much effort cleaning the surface, I have become fond of the chunk of wood counter. After the cupboards were taken down, I bought/made this IKEA toy bin and used it to organize and store the recycling.

I still have the 30" vs 26" cooktop dilemma but hopefully the work will actually start this month, as my fridge is slowly dying and I am dying to BAKE some muffins without having to toss them due to BURNT outsides and gooey insides. I gotta get this reno moving...

Candle making

Last time I made candles was back in 1994. Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Me and my friend Kari. That was my first candle making experience and last...

...until this morning.

Last week I stumbled across a blog with a pretty picture of a candle; homemade candles as wedding gifts. Great idea, I thought, for my son and I. Little homemade gifts for teachers, instructors, grandmas and grandpas.  Naturally the blog had links to everything we would need. Order made and a week for delivery.

I don't remember how my friend and I made the candles but I do recall making stripes and solids. And we poured them into molds and somehow got them out. Freestanding candles.

This time we used an assortment of glass containers that we picked out yesterday at Michael's craft store - if you plan well, collect little jars of emptied dijon mustard, earths best baby food, pesto sauce, prepared chopped ginger or crushed garlic jars, etc. We used a couple washed out yogurt containers for extra wax and molds. (Don't pour hot wax in these, wait til it cools down a bit before pouring out excess!)

Back then we used natural essential oils with names like Lavender and rosemary. And food colouring for dye.

This time we ordered kid and Christmas friendly scents, like Snow Flake, Sweet pea and Coffee in PJ's. And special candle dye with fun names like maple and cinnamon red.

The kit came with wicks and we used pencils for supports. 2 5lb bags of soy wax and instructions (plenty of wax, will be doing this again, on some rainy day).

After one attempt using the stove and a make shift double boiler, I decided the microwave method was much easier.

Sugar cookie scent is my sons favourite. Candy cane lane and cranberry & ivory dye worked well for stripes.

The candles need to sit & set for 12 hours before we can cut the wick and then we will add a fabric cover, string and tag 'em.  And now I must return to the bathroom caulking task, that is taking far too long.

Pillow love

Sofa ordered. Now for some pillow talk.

some black and white @ West Elm

or a little more colourful @ CB2

or completely whimsical

via Etsy Shop

via Etsy Shop

or this one

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxwz

10 weeks to upholster the sofa means 10 weeks for pillow pondering ... oh I hope not ... luckily I'm pretty happy with these finds.

Little hands at work

And then we went for donuts. Yum!

Orienteering

On Saturday we drove 35 minutes south and hungout in a forest. A group of boys, my son included, learned how to use a compass and map; some orienteering skills.

They were led into a forest and had to make their way out. I wandered off for a bit and discovered this pond.

I didn't have a compass and had to quickly catch up to the group. ;)

At home, I managed to accomplish a few house related things. I took a proper measurement of the glassless opening in the french door. I spoke with the glass cutter about bringing in the entire door for him to deal with versus him cutting glass and me taking it home to install myself. Back at home I discovered I couldn't easily loosen the bolts to unhinge the door. I guess I will be installing the glass. 

I'm not a DIY, but while waiting for contract-her and running into dilemmas such as the above has forced me to take on some projects if I want to get anything done. Perhaps my own orienteering lessons.

I also started to pull out the old silicone around the bath tub. Actually, the silicon is not that old, just a year, but mildew was spreading underneath it. This did not come off as easily as I had expected. A few years ago, in my other house, I had to do this and it just tore out. argh. No showers for awhile while I work at scraping it off.

I also planted some garlic. Yay. Something for next fall.

And I ordered 10 pounds of soy wax, scents and dye so we can make some festive candles to gift to teachers, instructors and other people we are grateful to have in our life.