The Girls Bathroom Part Two! {Reveal!}

A few months back I embarked on the daunting task exciting journey of updating the upstairs bathroom for my little girlies. I knew I wanted a theme that would be age appropriate but also something they could grow with that wouldn't need to be updated for quite a few years. I have always loved the look of a Paris themed bathroom and then I found the perfect way to combine the "age appropriate" part with the "won't need to be updated for quite a few years part!"

Hello Kitty in Paris!!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

I love the way it turned out! It's everything I had envisioned in my head. {Don't cha just love when that happens!?} Overall I think I spent $150 on the paint, curtians,  light fixture and the accessories. My SIL bought the shower curtain and the towel for the girls at Christmas so that was one less thing I had to buy. My little ladies LOVE their bathroom! And as they grow, I can take out the Hello Kitty, and add more mature prints and patterns without characters and it will still be suitable for years to come. The vinyl designs on the walls are from uppercase living {which I am addicted too... clearly.} The Eiffel tower is the "grande" format which is 72" I think. LOVE it!

On the vanity I have a Hello Kitty in Paris soap dispenser and an Eiffel Tower toothbrush holder. {Toothbrushes don't actually fit but it's too cute not to put there.} Got all the accessories from Walmart.com in the states. My SIL was good enough to send them up to me!

 

The Light fixture is of course from Ikea. Love that place so much! 

More uppercase living!

Although I still have a few small things left to do, {frame around the mirror, headband and hair clip holders and a few vintage glass knobs to hang necklaces and bracelets} I say MISSION {pretty much} ACCOMPLISHED!

~Chrissy~

{Keep scrolling if you want to see additional pictures.}

Blogging... I have so much to learn.

Obviously it's been quite some time since my last post and a new post was waaaay over due. (Like four months over due!) I have so much to learn when it comes to blogging. I started this blog about a year ago to basically keep a record of our house renovation adventures and throw in some crafts and a few of my hobbies at the same time.

A friend of mine asked me today on Facebook if I was still blogging. I really wanted to respond "YES!!!!" but instead had to say that I love doing it but can't figure out how to make a simple drag & drop collage for pictures, so I stopped. That's kind of a lame excuse eh? (Yes I'm Canadian! And no it doesn't bother me that we say "Eh" and that I don't even notice anymore when it comes out of my mouth! ha!) Truth is, I LOVE blogging. I like sharing my successes (and failures) when it comes to my attempts at being crafty and renovating our home. I like the feedback and blogging is kind of relaxing to me. Buuuut, I have so much to learn and sometimes feel overwhelmed with the smallest task. Like a photo collage! I have Photoshop, Paint.net and a few various photo editing programs but have no idea how to use them. I've looked up tutorials online, but can't seem to create my images like the people on the tutorials do! I'm not all that tech-savvy... not gonna lie! So it's hard for me to keep up.

So here's the thing... I'll keep posting as long as you don't mind my endless pictures. Or an even better idea... will someone please send me a link or a file that has a ready made drag & drop template for a simple photo collage? One that has 4-6 pictures?? I would really really appreciate it!

~Chrissy~

P.S. Because I love pictures, here's one for the road! Little Miss J at her Superhero birthday party! {More to come on that - I swear!!}

The Girls' Bathroom! Part One.

I'm finally back on the home reno bandwagon and have decided it's time for my hiatus to end. Next up, the girls' bathroom!! Now when I say "the girl's bathroom" it doesn't mean they actually have their "own" bathroom. It's the house bathroom upstairs. But The Hubs and I have a full ensuite, so we don't use the main bathroom and the girls do. Hense the term "the girls' bathroom."

Now that all the terms are clear, lets move on. I have been so excited about this project ever since I cooked it up months ago! I wanted to do something that little girls would love, but also something they could grow into as they got older so I wouldn't find myself having to re-do the bathroom a few years from now.

I will warn you that this blog post is merely a TEASER preview because I haven't received all the items I need to finish it off. I can't get the set in Canada and my SIL is bringing it up from NY when she comes to visit in two weeks. With that being said... let the tease begin!!

Here's what the bathroom looked like before:

 Doesn't that peach colour just do it for you? I mean really? Peach? Of all the nasty colours in that builders counter top, the previous owners chose peach to put onto the walls!? Well to each their own, but I'm just glad it's GONE now!

A friend of mine just happens to live a few houses down from me and she and I have the same model of home. She and her wonderful fam have been here for 5 years I believe and have done quite a bit of work to their place (which is stunning BTW!) Totally gives me hope for our house and makes me happy that I'm not the only one with an interesting hunter green ensuite to deal with! Anyway, she pulled the grey colour from the same counter top and it looks awesome! So I decided not to re-invent the wheel, and went with the same colour, Smoked Oyster by Benjamin Moore.

I went with a Paris theme but with the adorable Hello Kitty for my little girls! It has shades of grey, baby pink and a hot pink too. We bought a chandelier from IKEA (LOVE Ikea!) and new curtians.

  Don't you just love Ms. Kitty's adorable little beret!? My wonderful SIL bought this shower curtain for Christmas. SO cute!

 Yes, I do still need to iron it out. I was just so excited to finally put it up that I didn't want to take the two minutes. 

Loving these fantastic curtians we bought at Fabricland! They didn't have anything I like material wise, and then we found these. I think it was actually cheaper to buy them already made then to buy the material to make them. 

And lastly, the chandelier from Ikea. Totally stoked about this part.

Is it bad to be jealous that your little girls have a WAY cooler bathroom then you do!? Cuz I have to be real and say that I'm totally jealous! {wink.} As soon as I have all the other little accessories in, and my Uppercase Living designs up, I will post pics and update this post! Thanks all for reading and keep in touch! 

Chrissy

Long Time No Post... What I've been up too...

So I've been super busy these last few months and I haven't really had time to breathe much less compose a blog post. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE blogging, but between sewing, scrapbooking, working and spending time with the Fam, I've been stretched thin. I have however taken the past few weeks to chill out, rethink what's important to me and now that I'm regrouped, I'm ready to get back at it! A huge sorry to anyone who enjoys my new little blog as much as I do!

Now... What have I been up to? I'm so glad you asked!!

As you know a newer passion of mine is sewing! The Hubs bought me one for Christmas this year and I am IN LOVE with it!! I always wanted one, but thought that I wouldn't really use it. Boy was I WRONG! There are so many free patterns and online tutorials our there just waiting for me {and you} to use! Pair that with Pinterest, and it's a win-win combination. Here's a list of projects I've made in the past few months from FREE online tutorials!

Let's start out with the "It's A Cinch" Bag I found on Pinterest. This is the first bag I have ever made, compete with a lining, inside pocket AND zippers!! {Squeal!} Yes, I'm THAT excited about it! The original blog post and tutorial are found here. Katy has a bunch of wicked tutorials on her blog! Go check her out!

Holding my new beauty!

The outside. I'm SO proud! {No, really I am. You have no idea!}

The inside {including the zippered pocket!!}

I've also made myself an adorable little clutch to go inside my new bag. It was by far the hardest project I've worked on to date, but I am not really a super fast learner am just starting out, so for the novice it was difficult, but for the pro, I bet it is easy peasy. It's called The Gathered Clutch Tutorial, which you can find here. It's a FREE tutorial, but I opted to purchase the pattern so I could have a few handle options, and I can also sell them in the future if I would like. I just adore how it turned out! {And it's now my go-to clutch.}

Front

Back

here
I've also made a skirt {found here}, a necklace {found here} and adorable matching dresses for H & J using upcycled curtians!! {Yep, curtians make for fantastic summer dresses! You can find that tutorial and downloadable pattern here.}

Before {on the windows in J's room} and After {on J!!}

The circle skirt! LOVE it! Can't wait until all the snow melts... Oh the joys of living in "the snow belt" during those lovely Canadian winters.{Oh, and don't you just love my awesome green counter top? It comes with lovely hunter green tile... EVERYWHERE in my master bath. When I said power of sale... I wasn't kidding.} 

Well, that's what I've been up to lately. Sorry for the time away. I'm back and hoping to stay on track by posting at least once a week! {Seriously though, don't hold me to that... you know how crazy life can be!}

DIY Fleece Tie Blanket

For Christmas this year, I made my new little niece and H & J fleece tie blankets. I've never done anything like this before but it was super easy and the finished product was perfect! I bought 1 meter of fleece for the top {for my niece E's blanket} and one meter for the bottom. For H & J I bought 1.5 meters each for the top and 1.5 meters each for the bottom. E is almost 6 months now {where did the time go!?} and my girlies are 5 and 2 years. Looking back, I should have purchased 2 meters for H's blanket because I wanted it for more of a blanket to sleep with, instead of a throw. {I cut a bit too much of the edges off and the finished product was more square while J's is more rectangular.}

So, here's E's finished blanket:

I just love the way it turned out! I chose baby pink with cream hearts for the top and a solid cream for the bottom. Nice baby girl colours don't ya think? I sure do!

So first what you need to do is lay your fabrics on top of each other {wrong sides together} and trim the edges so they are pretty much even. {Yes, I realize mine doesn't look very even. Clearly my eyes are crooked.}

Make a 5" square template from some cardboard or something sturdy. {I think I did 4" on E's and 5" on H & J's blankets.} Put the template on the corner of the blanket and cut the square out as shown in the picture. You are going to do this on all four sides of the blanket.

 

Next take something heavy or something you can use as a guide and place it along the top where your 5" cut is. {This is so you don't cut deeper than the 5".} Lay a ruler on top or below your fabric and cut 1" from the end of the fabric. You can also just use the aprox width of your thumb, which is what I did on the other two blankets.

Cut "fringes" every inch or so all the way around your blanket.

Next comes the tedious and boring fun part... tying your blanket together! Simply do a regular knot. I only did one knot for each tie on all three blankets... I know the ones for H & J ended up coming undone, so I would double knot each fringe. Yes it takes a while, so my suggestion would be to put a movie on if you are making multiple blankets because you can pretty much zone out and tie the night away.

Once they are all tied, you're done!

Enjoy your new blanket! My girls love theirs! They are both into Care Bears right now, so I chose the same pattern for the tops, and pink for H's bottom and purple for J's bottom {to match their bedrooms.} Sorry for the low quality pics. I took them right before wrapping them up for Christmas.

I think I need to make one for the living room because it's a wee bit chilly at night and I like to lounge on the couch while watching tv once the girlies go to bed.

Happy blanket making! It's easy to make and would be a good gift for kids too!

~Chrissy~

It's a crafty kinda day...

So it's been what... two months since my last post?? Sorry about that! I really do enjoy dabbling into the world of blogging, but as every one knows, Christmas is a crazy time of year, we had the flu and then we were trying to get back on some kind of schedule after the holidays were over. But I'm back now, so let's pretend there was no time between these posts {I can keep a secret if you can!} I can't promise it won't happen again, but I can say that I'm going to try to post an entry at least once a week. I have soooo many craft ideas, home reno projects and scrapbook pages to share with all of you!

Ok, so moving on.... it's a PA day today and that means no school for H and no daycare for J {which also means I'm home until the evening! Yahoo!} It also snowed today and I really don't feel like going outside so I decided to pull something off of my craft board on Pinterest. {If you haven't been to Pinterest, you MUST go!! It's be next best addiction to Facebook ever!}

Here's the original Pinterest pin that I saw. It's a pretty simple craft, but I had to figure out what size to cut the pictures and such, so I'm just going to add all that into my post today. Here's the finished puzzle we made...

Now for how I did it. Here's the materials you'll need:

Popsicle Sticks {more like the big tongue depressors}

4x6 pictures of your choice

Mod Podge

Sponge brush {or paint brush for mod podge}

Paper Trimmer {optional, can use scissors and a ruler instead.}

Here's my original picture before turning it into a puzzle. {It's actually our family Christmas card from this year! Photos were taken by Jennifer Hall, and she also designed our card too.}

First you're going to cut 1/4" to 1/2" off the width of your picture.In my case it was from the height because it was a portrait layout, not landscape. 

Next you cut the picture into 5/8" strips.

Brush a layer of Mod Podge onto the stick and then put your picture strip on top.

Continue that until all your strips are on the sticks.

Mod Podge creates a protective barrier on top of papers, pictures and the like. This is ideal for "little hands" to make it last longer... and less sticky. Just pour it on top of the picture, and brush it on.

Don't worry! It dries clear!!

Even H was in on the action! {Yes, it's THAT easy.}

Put it on some parchment or wax paper {or newspaper} and let it dry.

It was so easy, we actually made 4 puzzles today!

And the girls had fun putting them together after they were all dry. All in all it took me maybe 25 mins to do all 4 puzzles and for them to dry. Easy Peasy!!

Oh, and I had to throw this one in there... Doesn't J look like a doll today!? So cute!

Happy Crafting!! Hope to post again soon! {Like a week or earlier soon!}

~Chrissy~