Saturday, December 31, 2011

A little Christmas and Goodbye 2011!

I have been totally ignoring this blog and for that I apologize! I was surprised to learn at some Christmas gatherings that many of our family and friends check up here regularly! SO I better get cracking..

Speaking of Christmas, ours was incredible. We travelled out of town to the cutest tree farm and cut down our tree the last week of November. It was dark and late so any pictures I took were at the mercy of my iPhone flash. Once we got it home we quickly decorated it..






We had quite a few dinners and get-togethers with family and friends over the course of December. We feel so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives! The holidays are a great reminder of just how lucky we are..

One of my favourite gifts that I made and gave out this year were these jars full of cookie ingredients! They were so fun to make.




Today is the last day of 2011. Looking back, it has been an amazing year full of wonderful memories. I am looking forward to what 2012 has to bring and working hard to accomplish all of our goals.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Lots of love, 

Monique & Thomas

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Rustic Bed Project and Master Bedroom Update

I am horrible at taking before pictures. But here you can see what the walls looked like before. A yellowy beige not fun color.


New paint and baseboards brighten everything up and make me happy. 


Window trim will follow but we have to get new window treatments first..

We also painted a feature wall. Can you see the difference in colour? Do you like my huge TV? Hopefully that will also get an upgrade soon ;)


Now onto the rustic bed project!

The wood for the bed had to be sanded..


And conditioned.. (I didn't realize I took a picture of the french side - HA!)


And finally stained.. we used the colour "Ebony" from the minwax line and only used one coat..


Thomas starts to put it all together..


Back inside he started to assemble the frame.







Here is the 95% finished product. I still need to decorate and make everything pretty. We also ripped apart the closet.. and want to put in a new fan.. and.. and.. the list doesn't end. But this is the start. :)

Plans for the bed can be found HERE.

So, what do you think? Do you like the look of the bed?






Saturday, August 13, 2011

Quick and Easy Closet Redo

Bonjour!

Do you have a closet in your house that bugs you every time you walk past it? I do. Actually, I did! Please meet my bug:


I used the same paint we used on our trim to freshen up the shelf and rod. Just plain white Behr paint.


I needed some organization up top there so I chose some simple wicker baskets from HomeSense. $14.99 each they weren't the cheapest but I am liking how they look!



What do you think? Are you going to tackle an ugly closet in your house this weekend? :)

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Spring Clean Up

This past weekend was spent cleaning up the yard.

We are doing a pretty major overhaul and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

Here is what has been done so far..

Bright and early start at 8am


Nearly all of the existing plants in the yard were dug up.


Thomas hated these trees..



Timber :)


Roots dug up.. big holes left over..


Much cleaner looking. Once again, Thomas is right.

Rented a rototiller..



It really helped loosen all of the compacted dirt.




This was ugly. We dug up all of the rocks.. 




Ira helped out! The back corner of our yard needed some love and attention..






We planted one of our Lilac plants here. I can't wait to see it bloom for the first time! :)



Rented a power rake to cut up all of the dead grass from the winter.



Both of the bigbigbig trees in the front and back received a trim..


By the time it was all done we filled this entire trailer.




There is still a lot of work to be done, I can't wait to share the progress with you. 

I hope you are enjoying the first little bit of summer! I know we are :)


Saturday, April 9, 2011

Starburst Mirror DIY

Do I have to mention again how I like to save money? Well I do. So when I came across this great idea, I had to try it. I have been wanting a starburst mirror for a while now (Remember back to this post) but store bought ones come with a hefty price tag.

Last week we took a trip to Home Depot and Michaels (armed with a few 40% off coupons, of course) and came home with these items.


- 12" Mirror (Michaels, $8)
- Floral rings (Michaels, $5)
- Hot Glue Gun and glue (Michaels, $3 and $2)
-Cedar Shims (Home Depot, $12)

Not pictured
-Wire, Wall Hanger, Mirror Glue (Home Depot, $12)


Before we started gluing the shims onto the floral rings we laid them all out to see how we wanted the shims positioned. Then we took them all away and layer by layer glued the shims on..



We used mirror glue (not just glue from the glue gun) to attach the mirror to the shims and left it for 24hours to dry. Thomas attached the wall hooks and wire to the back of the floral rings and hung it on the wall. This project took less than 3hours total.

End result? Love. It turned out great. And it was fun to have a craft night with Tomtom. :)




Of course I had to put in a picture of my Sydney bean.