Happy Valentine's Day



These two. My favourite Valentine's. The cutest bubble blowing littles from a few Valentine's Days back.



I hope they always make me Valentine's Day cards.




We are going to hang out tonight and make some of these tasty baked donuts. We made these last year too. So yummy.




Happy Valentine's Day. 
I hope your day is filled with love.

Debra







Weekend Craft for Kids - Cute Bird on a Branch





My daughter and her friends love to craft together. So on Saturday, after a matinee at our neighbourhood theatre, they checked out my Pinterest page to see what crafty inspiration lay waiting for them. One of my boards is geared towards them. I love Pinterest for that. It's my virtual file folder of ideas at my fingertips.

The girls decided that a touch of spring was in order and we also had some sweet little birds about. This craft also entailed that they do a little walk about outside to find suitably sized branches, that weren't buried in 5 ft of snow. 

They found the idea for this craft on Pinterest here.






If you want to see step by step, pretty photos of this craft, visit this Pinterest link. Love that I discovered this new blog as a result. 

This is how we made it...

Materials:

fallen branch
scrap pieces of fabric cut into strips approximately 1" wide.
wire or a coat hanger
hot glue & glue gun
little birds from the craft store 
(sometimes you find them at the dollar store)

How-to:

1. Wrap strips of fabric around the wire, using hot glue from time to time to secure the fabric to the wire. 

Make sure you leave a couple of inches of wire at each end so that you can wrap it around the branch.

*Using the glue gun will require adult supervision, it can burn skin badly, just sayin ;)

2. Once you have wrapped the wire, secure it to the branch. We wrapped each end of the wire around the branch and it worked well.

3. Get your little birdies and hot glue them to the branch.

4. Hang and enjoy your little bit of spring!



Debra


Valentine's Day Gift Wrap Ideas & Inspiration




I thought I'd share some Valentine's Day gift wrap inspiration with you today. Simple little ideas using plain white shipping tags available in my shop, washi tape, and stamps.

The little eiffel tower was something I purchased on Etsy a while ago. I painted it gold. I really like this colour of gold paint, from Michaels. It's just the Folkart brand acrylic paint in Inca Gold.

&

A message in a bottle is a sweet little gift to create. I bought the glass bottles from Chinatown and rolled up some vintage paper with a message written inside.




Just some inspiration for wrapping... it's so easy to make pretty tags using washi tape. I just picked up these colours the other day - so springlike :)

I bought this little change purse from Indigo for my daughter. Love the sequins! They have the sweetest gift items.




I have stacks of vintage book pages. I love using them to make gift tags and other crafty things. I just cut the paper into heart shapes.




Then I attached the heart to a tag with a piece of washi tape layered on top. I like how it is a bit transparent and you can see the print.


I used a stamp on these linen bags 
from my shop to package up little treats.




...even the top of this cork got a dose of gold paint.








See I told you I have a thing for this gold paint. 
I painted these letters from the Dollar store in Inca Gold.
I don't do a lot of Valentine's Day decorating but I do add little touches here and there. I thought these were cute.

Just some inspiration for Valentine's Day. 
I hope you like it :)

Have a great weekend!



Debra

Round Mirror Round-Up



We finally hung our mirror. I was undecided about where it should live in our house. It had a couple of potential spots. I am always so hesitant about putting stuff on our new walls. Sigh..

However, I do love how it reflects our shelves from this angle. When you are in our kitchen it reflects the outside. So all in all it is the perfect spot. 





We use this buffet as a bar area. We refinished it last year, painting it this great Benjamin Moore colour - Raccoon Fur. The hardware is from Lee Valley. Funny I saw a very similar painted buffet and knobs in the Look of the Year story in the January House and Home recently.

We found this walnut mirror (Stockholm Mirror) from Ikea ages ago, but I think it is still available. For some reason it's not showing up on the Canadian site, but I'm sure I've seen it in store.

I love the look of a round mirror in a room where there are many angles. So I thought I would put together a little round-up of other great mirrors just in case you are in the market for one.


A  R o u n d  M i r r o r  R o u n d - u p ---



Gilt Minimalist Mirror from Wisteria

I really like this aged brass mirror. I've thought about switching out our bathroom mirror for one of these. But I haven't even shown you that mirror yet, have I? I vow to share more of my house with you.


Paloma Mirror from Pottery Barn

These leather strap mirrors are popular. 
I've seen some great diy ideas on Pinterest showing you how to make your own version using belts! Here is a link to them. Fun!




Arteriors Fletcher Mirror from All Modern

I really like these chain hung mirrors. They have such a pretty vintage appeal.This would look great in a bathroom.


Tork Brass Dripping Mirror from CB2

Another brass mirror... It has such a nice warmness against a white wall. I really like the grouping of white pottery on this buffet.



Round Mango Wood Mirror from West Elm 

Sadly, it's not available anymore. 
I wish they would bring it back. It's a great rustic mirror slightly similar to the amazing (and coveted) mirror in Emma Reddington's home here on The Marion House Book.
http://houseandhome.com