Bits and Pieces

I have composed so many blog posts in my head that it was a bit of a shocker to see I haven't done an actual on in almost three weeks! What have I been doing? Well ,nothing too great or exciting, just life in general.

Fall has changed from it's gorgeous colors to the final grey and brown. It was so cold here for two weeks that we were all convinced we would have snow before Halloween. Thankfully this week has perked up weather-wise, and we might just get away with fall jackets underneath our costumes as opposed to full out winter gear over top.

I was able to take advantage of a sunny afternoon and do some sewing. I have been wanting to make a patchwork valance for the bathroom the kids use most often, and this is what I came up with:

You can see what I mean about grey days as this is the best picture I could get. I wanted colors to coordinate with the shower curtain.

I desperately wanted to put some jumbo white ric-rac on the bottom, but figured it would only be a pain to iron every time I washed it. As I was putting the valance up I realized that in the 70's I had a bedspread that looked like it was made up of patchwork, very similar to what I made, and that it had white ric-rac printed on it. I guess I must have subconsciously tapped into some happy, 1970's memory and that's where the desire came from!

We recently had this bathroom re-done (new floors, tub, toilet and sink), but left the vanity intact. It's a good height for the kids, and to replace a vanity of this size would have cost a pretty penny. I didn't like the vintage '80s melamine cabinets with the oak strip on top, so I did a bit of a thrifty re-do.

I have been reading a few blog posts about beadboard wallpaper, and decided I would try it out. It was certainly cheaper and much easier than installing real beadboard, and the upshot is it's easily removable. So the wallpaper and the knobs cost less than 30 dollars, and I think it looks great. Much fresher and up to date anyway. I still have tons of wallpaper left, so I have been walking around with a critical eye to see what else could use a beadboard treatment...

We have also been on a quick trip to Montreal to aquire some furniture from my down-sizing mother in law. We came home with a pick-up truck loaded down like the Clampets. All we were missing was the rocking chair and Granny. My house is chaos at the moment with furniture in all sorts of places waiting to find the right home. I will show you this though:

Totally useless except to display all my old lady treasures. I didn't notice the squirrel on top until now. I'm not quite sure how My Favorite Boy got him up there, but I guess he thought it was the perfect spot for him!

Reason number 156 Why I Love My Kids: They sat in the car for 6 hours; had nothing to do while we loaded and moved furniture for two days, then sat in the car for another 7 hours to get home. That includes the hour we had to pull off the side of the road and re-tie all the furniture down because the tarp was blowing off. All this without complaining. They are amazing.

Lastly, I did have a bit of luck at the thrift store the other day. I needed a tall-ish table lamp for our living room, and thought I would check out second had first. I saw this lamp, sans shade, for $6. I didn't want to pay that much, so left. Later on I'm at Home Sense to look for something else, when I see all these crystal lamps there, and the exact same one I saw at Value Village. Price? $60!!! So you would be right in assuming that I high-tailed it back to the thrift store and shelled out the $6 for this one. The only difference is that mine is an older one, because it doesn't have a polarized plug. Even if I have to re-wire it, I am totally ahead of the game.


On that note it's time I went through my email that's been filling up my inbox for three weeks. Have a Happy Halloween!