My first table!

I've finally finished the first table I've ever made. I'm totally happy with it. I have no experience doing this, but I still wanted to try. I got a scrap cupboard door from ikea. It was only $1.99. It's not made of wood though. It's compacted shaved wood. Which to be honest sucks. But it works for me. I also found some free banister posts. The were super tall, but again, totally free.

I started by sanding the cupboard down. I'm doing the same idea as the three shelves I did in an earlier posts. So it didn't need to be sanded down much or perfectly by any means. Once I sanded it down a bit I spray painted the base a light gray color. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, I wanted a some what withered look, so this worked good.


Once the spray paint dried I rubbed the edges with a tea candle. Then I grabbed my lovely paint and did two coats. I let the second one dry really well. While that was drying I spray painted the table legs gray.


Once the table top was dry I took a 220 grit sandpaper and began to expose the gray base. Where the wax was, the paint will come off a lot easier. I used the sandpaper on the whole table, just to give it a worn out look.



Now that I've finished all that, I attached the table top to the legs!

Yay, my table is done!

Now, for someone like me attaching the top to the legs was difficult. I would recommend getting some help with the final part. I'm pretty sure mine might not be the most sturdy table ever. I think I'm going to get some help to re do the leg portion.

I'm still in love with my table though, looks great in my hallway with some pretty flowers!

DIY scarf

Here's how I made a super easy scarf, so versatile, so great.

Things you'll need:
Large t-shirt
Scissors
Pearl necklace if you want to add to it!


I got a an extra large shirt from value village for a whopping .99¢. The longer the shirt the thicker the scarf will be. I found a nice girly pink color I liked, so the length wasn't as long as I hoped. But I still love it!

Once I had the shirt I cut the middle portion out. I cut the bottom seam out, and I cut out from underneath the arm seams. The line doesn't have to be perfect, you won't see it anyway.
Once you have your center cut out, loop it around a door nob and stretch it out as much as you can. You can loop it under your feet as well and pull up!

Now you have your scarf! Play with it, you can make so many different looks! I usually loop it in half and fan it out so it's actually a thicker scarf. Here are a few examples of how you can dress it. You can even add pearls in it to make it a little more fancy.

frugal me

For under $10.00 I made my hall way a little more girly. I bought a pint of paint for $5.99 at Canadian Tire, along with 2 pipe clamps that combined were under $2.00. Here's how I did it!




I had some extra shelves from a wooden ikea dvd shelf. So I grabbed 3 and sanded them down. I used a 120 grit sanding block and sanded away the top layer of the self. I'm pretty sure a 60 grit would have been way better, but I had 120 at home and wanted to do this as cheap as I could.


These shelves aren't the best, they are filled with shaved wood. I didn't want to sand down to deep because I feel like it will fall apart. They do the trick though. So when I had the top layer sanded down I spray painted with them with krylon smoke gray for the base


Once that dried, I took a tea candle and rubbed the edges of the shelf. I also added some wax in the middle of the shelf. Once I finished that I used my cabana coral paint to do the top coat. I applied two coats of the coral color. I'm no pro by any means at painting and what not. So I'm sure something I did is not the "right" way. But it works for me!

I used a really fine bristle paint brush for the top coat. I wanted it to be a kind of rougher looking and a few streaks showing up.


I let those coats dry really, really well. Now here is where the wax helps. Using a 220 grit or so sand paper, lightly file down the edges and a bit in the middle. Frugal me, I didn't want to buy more sandpaper so I used a new 220/240 grit nail file I had in one of my work kits. And it totally worked for me! Lightly sanding the edges down exposed the gray spray paint base to give it a bit of a withered look. I love mine!

Before you start putting our hooks and what not on the front make sure you nail in the picture hangers on the back first. I did not do that on one of them. It wasn't fun. I used a vase and mason jar I had on my balcony already and hung them with pipe claps. Getting the screw through the pipe clamp was fun. In the end I used scissors to stretch one of the existing notches. If I had a place to hammer properly, I probably would have smacked a nail right through it to stretch it. So the scissors were the next best thing.

On the last one I put hooks on it so I can hang my keys, purse, and jacket! For the longest time I had a golden wire rack holding my keys and what not. This is much better, much more room! The mason jar I have can only fit 2 pairs of sunglasses. I'm addicted to rounded black ray bans anyway. So for me that's more than enough room!





Finished product!

Although, I do think I'm going to spray paint the blue vase a solid white, because I seem to be addicted now to painting all glass objects white!

Any input? Should I keep it blue, or go with the white?

homemade sidewalk chalk!

*photo from ohmyhandmade.com

I came across this amazing tutorial on how to make your own sidewalk chalk! I know you can buy it super cheap right now anyway, but making it would be that much funner!

Thanks to ohmyhandmade.com you can have some fun and make sidewalk chalk!

i made these

Today is an earring making kind of day. I made the ones above out of left over pieces I had in my supplies box. Almost all pieces were purchased from Etsy. My favorite website of life. The hoops around the roses on the right pair were purchased on Queen street. They have some great prices at stones and findings on Queen street east. Check it out!


Finished making my button earrings. I have a jar full of gold and silver buttons so I figured why not make some earrings. All I used were some flat earring posts, a glue gun, cutting pliers, and buttons!

This is the style of button I was working with. I had to cut off the thread hole in the back.

Once I cut the back off button the center piece on the front falls out. So I used my glue gun to stick it right back on there! Once that dries I glue the earring post to the back of the button.
I also use a somewhat abrasive brush when I'm done to get any little glue pieces off.
Then voila, you have your button earrings! So easy, so addictive

Here's a few other pairs of button I made today too!

Simple flower pot

I recently purchased two plain flower pots for my balcony from dollarama. I has some extra chalk board paint laying around so I decided to decorate them!


The best thing about chalk board paint is how fast it dries.




I got some bows connectors together to dress up the pot.



Final product!





Because it's done with chalk board paint you can change the pot as much as you want. Plant a flower and write the date on the pot so you can track your flowers progress. Or you can buy your favorite herbs and label them with chalk.
So many ideas!



I'm not as happy with the other pot I painted. But I'll post it anyway, just so you can get some ideas. Also, I ended up not using my wooden bow I put aside for the pot. So I made it into a ring instead!

Balcony, on a budget.

It's official. Blog number 2 is up and running. Although this one is completely different, it's still all done by me.

I decided to kick off my new blog with my balcony updates. I've been having a major itch for a garden. Condo living proves to make that dream near impossible. So I decided to decorate an old bookshelf I had. I got the bookshelf at ikea a few years ago for only $50.00.




So here it is. The cactus and mug were also purchased at ikea (clearly, my favorite store). The cactus was only $4.00 and the mug I got in the as is section for an amazing .99 cents! The flower on the right I found in canadian tire. Surprisingly enough, they have amazing prices on wide variety of flowers. I highly recommend buying flowers from there. All of the single flowers and mini holders were purchased at ikea as well. Nothing was over $5.00. Which is why I love Ikea so.
Watering can also from ikea. Only $6.99. Granted, it leaks more than a can with bullet holes. It's nothing I can't fix.

This little guy I also found at canadian tire. The chest he sits in I got at dollarama. Amazing!



The silver pots are from ikea. The range in sizes and prices. They start at .99 cents and don't go above $5.00. Plants are from ikea for only $4.00. White lantern is from dollarama. They have other colors as well. I think I'm going to go back and get another white one and paint it a nice tiffany blue for my arts and crafts station. Jar and flower tops are also from ikea. The jars were an amazing $2.99 and the flower tops were only $1.99 for the pack. I filled the bottom of the jar with old buttons I had laying around.


This is one of my favorites! My sister got the wooden crate from a flea market in Kingston. She purchased a few different sizes and used them as shelving in her apartment. It looks lovely! My good friend bought me the herbs. He got lavender, oregano, and thyme. I paired the herbs with this adorable flower. I only wish I could remember the name of the flower.
I shall call him Bob.


I have 2 of these guys on the balcony, and I'm so happy with them. The mugs were purchased in in the as is section of ikea for only .49 cents each. The hard part was finding a small enough flower or herb to fit in it. I was walk down parliament street downtown and came across a little corner store that had an outdoor flower section. These flowers had 4 tiny sections. 2 of each section fit perfectly in these mugs. It made me ever so happy.




Finally, my favorite part. I found this little number at ikea as well. They had this on display and I couldn't walk away from it. The entire set was only $120.00. It completely changed the appearance of my balcony. If you knew what my balcony looked like before, you would totally agree with me. I'm so happy with it, and it was surprisingly easy to set up. I recent trip to ikea told me that as summer creeps in, the price creeps up. It's now up to $150.00 in price. If you ask me, that's still not that bad. If I have people over and the weather outside isn't right, I can bring it in for my table inside too. Since the size of my place doesn't allow me to have a stationary kitchen table.


And finally, I topped off my new table with our mothers day flower pot. My mom was in Toronto during mothers day and we got this for her. But she did go back to Nova Scotia, and the flower pot did not.
It is however, perfect for my table.