Okay, so this post does not involve any dishes. BUT it does involve tea towels. And one specific pretty one at that!

While browsing in Homesense a few weeks ago, my eyes found this 3-pack of tea towels for $6.99. I instantly fell in love with the grey one featuring the ornaments.

There is no way THAT tea towel deserves to see the inside of a sippy cup – especially boasting that sparkly silver pinstripe and glittery white ornament.

As I sat petting the tea towel in the store (#don’tjudgeme) I thought, “this is so beautiful it should be framed. It would look awesome on my black mantel for Christmas”.

I think you can see where this is going.

Ya I did! I framed a tea towel. Are you ready for this jelly?

Last year was the first year that I got to dress my ‘newly’ painted black mantel for Christmas. With the black being so graphic and bold it was fun to dress it up with a large scale print and glittery decorations – see last year’s mantel here. When I saw this tea towel I knew it could look stunning as this year’s feature. And where else can you find a “print” for $2.33 ($2.60 with tax if we’re being technical).

Here is a better shot of all the shimmer and glitter that this little tea towel holds.

That’s one fabulous tea towel. It’s so fabulous I bet Cee Lo Green would turn it into an outfit for the Voice – either that or make it his new pet.

It’s quite large (awesome) so to frame it I used a silver 20.5″ x 28.5″ Ribba frame from Ikea.

Okay, answer me this? Why do frame mats never come in white? They are always an ugly off-white. Argh. I have spray painted one in the past – and this one I painted too. Such a pet peeve. Consider this my official plea to frame mat makers everywhere – WHITE. Thank you.

I didn’t have any white spray paint so I just used what I had on hand – leftover from  here. FYI – the spray paint worked better but this did the trick (if in a pinch).

With that done, I left it to dry and went to iron my tea towel. Once I had all the creases out I laid it flat on the table and placed my (now dry) mat over it to arrange the composition I liked. I preferred the ornaments to be off centre just for some visual interest.

Because it is hard to line something like this up from the back, and impossible to flip over while keeping it all in place, I came up with a little system where I  lifted two of the corners and inserted a little roll of masking tape to ‘tack’ the mat in place.

Then I could easily flip it over and tape it on the back.

Then all that was left to do was pop it into the frame and admire it!

Here is shot of it resting against our coffee table (complete with Harold the Helicopter toy, blankie and tent for your enjoyment) so that you can see how large in size it is.

I’m really looking forward to doing my Christmas mantel now! Currently my fall mantel décor is still up so I can’t show you how this looks up there yet – but soon!

Look at that pretty sparkle and fabric texture!

I know that framing fabric is not a new concept but what I love about this tea towel is that it has the extra little pizzaz that rolls of fabric may not – and it’s not a repeating pattern as is so common with large loom rolls.

How about you? Ever framed a tea towel? Anything else out of the ordinary? Found yourself petting unlikely items in the middle of a store? Please tell me I’m not the only one…

Christmas crazy? Me too! See all my Christmas posts here.

Linking to:
Craftberry Bush
Serenity Now
Lil Mrs. Tori
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Those who know me know I’m a little (if “little” means “a whole freakin lot”) obsessed with Christmas. I love it. Every year I do a Christmas Craft Night for my friends (see one here) which is basically me having a bunch of my best ladies over and instructing us all as we do a fun Christmas craft. I always try to hold it at the beginning of December so that my friends can have their craft up all month, and this year is no exception!

Now before I open the doors to my loving swarm of wine drinking craft elves I first need to come up with a craft and of course test it.

So that is what I did last week.

Yes! This year we are making etched glass snowflake wine glasses! Each of ma’ ladies will leave with a lovely set of four. I’ve tested two (to do some troubleshooting) and am happy with knowing we can pull them off in an evening of crafting (and still have time to fill those glasses up with some wine).

And the best part about using etching cream rather than a frosted ‘paint’ is that the etching cream is permanent – meaning you can put these babies in the dishwasher with no concern about washing off all your hard work. And of course enjoy these glasses for years to come!

They were quite simple to make and the result is so polished looking. If you’re interested in trying it yourself, here is what you’ll need:

wine glasses – I chose these ones from Ikea

source

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all my fellow Canadians!

What are you doing this weekend?
a) enjoying your loved ones
b) giving thanks
c) salivating over a nice feast at a fancy table full of thanks
d) snoozing somewhere in a tryptophan induced coma or
e) all of the above.

Chef Kev and I are really lucky in that we have not one, but two dinners this long weekend. Yay! We are off to my parents one day, and his the other.

I wanted to bring a nice Thanksgiving flower arrangement to each dinner to show our ‘thanks’. And so I made some tonight. Here they are…

Oh, and don’t worry if your favourite ‘side’ or ‘view’ of the arrangement falls at a spot of the pumpkin where there is a blemish or scratch, simply wiggle your fingers in and turn the styrofoam cup so that the flowers’ ‘good side’ matches that of the pumpkin’s.

Gourds can be so vain.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

linking to:
Liz Marie Blog
Craftberry Bush
Serenity Now
i heart naptime

Want to see what I got up to on Saturday night? Warning – it’s pretty X-Rated. As in X = wrong. Bad. Solution required.

I organized.

It was a party.

I was the only one invited.

Contain your excitement.

In an attempt to stop the dining room table being a dumping ground (you know, so we can actually eat dinner there) I had to find a new spot for the biggest culprit – my laptop. I usually take it with me to work so when I bring it home, it generally gets parked on the dining room table and used throughout the evening/weekend many times.

It needed a home. A new one.

And this mess needed to be cleaned up.

I like things being tucked away, Chef Kev likes them out in the open and accessible so the cooking oils and utensils had to stay. The cookbooks also needed to stay on the counter (by request). The doggie treat canister gets used daily (lucky Belle) so that made sense to stay as well. The canisters got moved to the ledge above the stove and the phone also stayed where it was due to the phone jack being right there. The espresso machine is too big to tuck away anywhere else. But it all could be tidied up some.

But look to the top far right at my dirty not so little (or hidden) secret.

Totally my fault. Look closer at Casa Clutter over there.

But don’t dare open it unless you brace yourself for the avalanche.

Holy CARP (yes, I mean the fish). Do you like my collection of vases (original purpose) plastic plates, cutlery, bubbles, outdoor toys, things that I thought were too small for a baby (now a toddler) and miscellaneous ‘decor’ finds? No? Me neither.

This needed to become a home office station STAT.

After some serious Saturday evening organizing I filed everything into their rightful home – bubbles and outdoor toys to the outdoor storage bins, paper plates, plastic cups and cutlery to my storage elsewhere which housed their ‘friends’ and the once-too-small-kids-toys-now-okay-for-toddler got put into the potty training prize jackpot.

The large vases and decor items got relocated to our closet that has new shelving (via Chef Kev) for safe (non-avalanche inspired) keeping.

And since I was on a roll, I thought I better tackle this ‘issue’ as well.

double CARP (two fishies).

Too make a long Saturday evening short, this got a major file and in the end this drawer holds a few misc. household items – removable hooks, tape, candles etc. but most importantly, I finally created a usable system for the danged CABLE STORAGE PROBLEM!

Oh label maker, you make me so happy.

At the end of my organizing rampage spree, I had a nice new TIDY home for my laptop to be parked each night. I still take it up to my office when I do design work and plug it into my larger monitor but for all the other little things I use it for, this is great. Plus the perfect spot to charge it each evening.

In the boxes you see through the frosted glass are small home decor items (napkin rings, tea light candles, small candle holders etc) as well as all of my ‘office’ type stuff that I need on hand – lap top case, note paper, back up drive etc.

The mat below is where we feed Belle.

And the nice thing is if I do need to sit for a quick moment, I just turn the chair around and make my self comfy.

I had everything on hand so this was a nice and easy free makeover. yippee!

Things that are uncluttered seriously make me very, very happy.

And, because I was having such a rocking night, I went on to make Chace’s Halloween Haunted House after all of this.

I told you I lead a pretty exciting life. So different than my Saturday evenings of 5 or 10 years ago… But I wouldn’t change it for anything 🙂

What about you? Any quicky clean ups that went a long way in your mind? Do you have a computer ‘station’ that is easily accessible? Any vase/decor related avalanches at you place? Do tell!

I wanted to do something fun and Halloween related for Chace as now that he’s three, he’s really starting to get in to the holidays. He keeps asking if it’s Halloween yet, and then when I reply ‘no’, he asks if it’s Christmas.

So when I saw this amazing FREE countdown haunted house over on ‘Kiki and Company’, I just HAD to make it for him. What better way of focusing his adorable excitement than with an advent calendar!?

Here is the completed one on our kitchen table – ready and waiting for excited toddler.

Now, you may have noticed that I had to water down the amazing typography that Kiki did. The designer in me hated to do it, but the mommy in me won out. Since Chace is only three and can’t yet read – and is learning all his numbers – I edited the file in Photoshop so that each window only had one number. That way when we are asking him to “find number 21 – look for a two and a one together” then it’s nice and simple for him.

After I did that, I uploaded it to a photolab that can print a 16 x 20 print and also picked up some foam core from the craft store.

When I had my print back, I used my exacto blade and ruler and (tedious alert) cut out all the windows and the door. It was worth it though :). I made sure to leave the left ‘side’ of each intact since that would become the ‘hinge’.

Then I flipped it over and used some white glue on the back. In hindsight, a glue stick or rubber cement would have been much better (it’s bubbling a bit due to the white glue) but I just used what I had on hand and didn’t worry about it being perfect. Chace will love it just the way mommy does it. He’s not picky!

Flipping it over, I glued it in place on the foam core. Since my foam core was larger than the print, I trimmed down the edges.

The version that Kiki and Company created has another sheet filled with fun Halloween related tasks to go behind each window (i.e. “make pumpkin sugar coookies and decorate them”) but in reality, Chace is too young for most of the tasks and/or they require major mommy involvement and planning – and I’d end up having to do most of the task for him. Perhaps when he’s a bit older…

So for now, most days will just have a little sticker inside. But when I saw these mini Halloween clothes pegs, I just had to work them in somehow!

So I grabbed three jewellery boxes from the craft store and realized if I used the top and bottom I’d end up with six little boxes that I could use as ‘cubbies’.

I picked six windows and then cut through the foam core to make an opening behind them. Again, I didn’t worry about being too precise here. It’s a bit finicky to cut through the foam core and the edges aren’t that clean, but don’t sweat it if you try this yourself.

Then I flipped the haunted house over and simply taped the six boxes to the back of the board with a single long piece of scotch tape.

Then I used a remnant of the foam core excess and cutting it on an angle, made an easel for the back. I attached this with scotch tape as well.

Here are some of the little happy Halloween stickers waiting for my little ghoul.

And of course, one of the six cute clothes pegs that are sure to delight.

Such a fun and easy little project that lights up Chace’s eyes. Now he knows when he gets to the ’31’ that it is finally Halloween time!

Still a ways to go kid.

What about you? Any fun toddler/kid projects going on over at your house? Do you have a holiday challenged boy like me? Easter? Halloween? Christmas? Anyone? Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…?

Or should I say Booller? {Groan}

I don’t know about you but while I love travelling, I don’t think my jewelry does. Why else would it protest and ball itself up into a labrynth of chains never to release the one necklace that I want? And if I do ‘win’ and wrestle the necklace I want to wear out of the ‘great ball of jewelry’ it undoubtedly has a knot or TWO in it as reward for my victory. How is that even possible?

Something had to be done. I could no longer take the jewelry carnage.

So I did what any woman who loves jewelry does… I went straight to the “fish n’ tackle” section of my local hardware store. Naturally.

And now my jewelry can no longer fight in long car and plane rides.

I simply took a standard ‘fish bait’ case…

I can’t even begin to tell you how much easier this made getting ready on our recent vacation. To find what I wanted to wear quickly and without ‘world war jewelry’ was awesome.

I put my larger bangles and headbands etc. in another small toiletry bag which was fine as they were never the problem pieces. But for now, I’ve got this jewelry all wrangled up and now all I have to worry about on vacation is whether I should order dessert or not (and by the way, the answer to that is always ‘YES’).

What about you? Any fun tips for travelling? Any recent jewelry arm wrestles? Any recent episodes of “earrings gone wild”? Only the censored version please – this is a rated G blog. 😉

Serenity Now
The Life of Faith
i heart naptime
Lil’ Mrs. Tori
Cherished Bliss