Feather Art

I don't recall at all how I came up with the idea for this but I made it forever ago (forever ago as in before my wedding... which was in October so probably about a year ago).  If you search online I'm sure lots of other similar feather art will come up though.

Originally I had put the feathers between 2 pieces of glass but the feathers were to thick and broke one of the pieces of glass (you can see that in the below photo)

In the end I took out the back piece of glass and put a piece of cardboard behind them.  Definitely not quite as nice as being able to see through but maybe if I painted the cardboard a nicer colour it would look better.

Anywho, super simple and inexpensive artwork for your home!

I'm Thinking White

It seems my eye is drawn to white as I browse through shops because I've got nothing else to do and why not consider things I could buy to put in our new home.  I haven't allowed myself to purchase anything... yet... why buy stuff just to move it right away.. right?  But once we get possession of the new house (ahem*today*ahem) I may be buying all the things I've found.  There's a teeny tiny chance that I MIGHT wait until we at least design our new kitchen before purchasing too much but that could be a while and I've got gift cards just waiting to be used!

The first things I found were from Marshalls... I can't confirm these are the same ones I saw at Marshalls but they are equally as nice (as far as I remember at least)

This may sound crazy as I'm not huge into coffee... I mean I'll enjoy it on occasion but I can't recall the last time I made it at home (mostly because John makes it and I'm not even sure how to use our fancy new coffee maker) but I want to make a bit of a coffee bar in the new kitchen/dining room.  Plus, by having a spot off the regular kitchen counters for the coffee maker will free up a tiny bit more counter space!  It's a win all around I'm sure.  I would use one of these to keep coffee in... because I don't want the oh so attractive Folgers can displayed on the counter either.  If I had a second one I might hide some tea bags in it.

Then I was at the mall getting my ring inspected and I was trying to leave my regular way when I walk to the mall (through the movie theatre) but it was blocked off.  So I went with the next best option and cut through Chapters.  Naturally I browsed a bit on my way through there and naturally one of my first stops in that store was the clearance rack.  That's where I spotted this little number

(ok there were actually 2 different ones and then when I went online to grab a picture I found out there are 3!).  I have no idea where I would put this and it serves zero purpose but come on... it was on CLEARANCE (and 76% off)!  Plus, I have a gift card for chapters that I've had for at least a couple of years that should really get used.

I also considered buying it for a certain girls Christmas party gift exchange but I didn't... yet.

Other things I've been looking at for the new house:

baskets... for blankets maybe?  

Curtains... I don't even remember what they look like in the house but I'm sure they need updating.

Pictures

Ovens (I was at Home Depot once looking for large storage containers)

New Kitchens (because I was at Home Depot)

Lights... because I'm sure the dining room one might need updating

Basically... I'm looking forward to being in our new home and how we will make it ours!  

Stay tuned for all the lovely details on how we update the place to our liking (if all is going according to plan I'm scraping ceilings today!)

The Perfect Homemade Wedding Shower Gift

That's right I said perfect.

Perfect for the couple that likes to eat.

Perfect for the couple that likes to spend time outdoors.

Perfect for the couple that likes picnics

It's... A... PICNIC BASKET!

I don't recall how I came up with the idea for a picnic basket.  I think I went searching for a shower gift at Winners and saw picnic stuff but thought I could find something better than what they were offering.  It turned out I could find something better than what they were offering and the price tag for better was indeed quite a bit more.  So I travelled down the interwebs hole of picnic baskets and eventually found a DIY one that I thought was perfect on Lovely Indeed!

Her instructions went flawlessly for me.  

BUT for the love of everything... make sure you get your basket of choice from Michaels and make sure you use at the very least a 40% off coupon.  I was lucky and went when there was a 50% off coupon because baskets are expensive!

Once I had the basket all put together I searched stores for the perfect dishes.  To be honest I think Superstore had better ones but I wanted to fill my basket with so many wonderful things that I went to Dollar Tree instead (Dollarama was more expensive).  The cutlery was the cheapest set from Ikea (it's picnicing people not dinner with the queen!)

Inside my basket I included:

4 bowls

4 plates

4 knives

4 spoons

4 forks

4 plastic wine glasses

napkins

reusable ice cube things

fancy juice

I considered also including some kind of platter, table cloth or picnic blanket, a snack, and I meant to add in some kind of game (like a frisbee)... I just forgot to pick one up.

I wasn't sure whether to include stuff for 4 people or 2 but went with the larger number in case stuff breaks or goes missing or they want to invite a couple of friends out for a picnic.  But I only made space in the lid for stuff for 2 people... 4 just wouldn't have fit.

I asked my friend the other day how it was all holding up and apparently everything is still intact so the glue that is recommended is absolutely the right glue for the job!  I'm mostly surprised about the button on the outside not coming off... apparently I did a better sewing job of that then I thought.  

Sidenote:  That button was a hard choice... was I getting the right kind, I wanted white but not glossy white so we painted it but the paint wasn't sticking... really though... who would have thought the hardest part of making your own picnic basket would be the button choice!

Oh, and I added the lovely flower on top because I wasn't wrapping it and thought it needed a little something extra.  You can make your own flower... just search "tissue paper flower" and I'm sure no less than 50 Youtube videos will come up.

What's New

I recently got together with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while... and by a while I mean it had been a few years (I guess that's just what happens when you live in different provinces though).  Anyways, the question that kept coming up was "what's new?" because of the course of 4 or so years surely there should be a bit that is new.  I haven't even abandoned this blog for more than a year though and still there is a lot that is new.

1.  I've been settling into married life.  I hadn't lived with anyone for a number of years prior to living with my husband so that was a bit of adjustment.  But we are doing great!

2.  We've had our wedding pictures back for a while now and I don't know that I've shared a single one.  Expect a post with a few of our favourites for you to gush over soon!

3.  I went to a wedding (I mean... I want to say I've been to more than just one but I think it's just the one).  I made a super fabulous wedding shower gift for the bride... but that's a post for another time.

4.  We've expanded our garden!

5.  We've gone to the lake a whole bunch.  My biggest accomplishment there was catching a fish immediately after plunking my hook in the water.

6.  Oh, and perhaps the biggest change is that we bought a house!  Our possession date is in precisely one week so expect some pictures and what not after that!

Summer is winding down and I got bored so expect at least a few more posts before I get too busy with house renos and substitute teaching.