Washi Tape Easter Garland

As time flies by, my love for washi tape only grows. 

Its nothing special, really. I envy the person that came up with it! It's just decorative tape! 

But it has so many simple uses to spice up your life. 

If you don't believe me, just check out my washi wonder Pinterest board. 

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Our Baby Nursery

We did it!
I completed the beautiful nursery for Miss Ellie.
Aside from a few picture frames that are yet to be filled and a couple of art pieces unfinished, it's all done!

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Twine Letter for the Nursery

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Baby Room Update

LOTS has been going on in this busy household lately, and progress on the baby room makeover is no exception! If you remember from previous posts, our baby room colours are gray, white, yellow, and navy. Yellow and navy both qualifying as accent colours. 

Our plan for painting was to build wainscotting for the bottom half of the room (completed weeks ago by my amazing husband), and to paint the bottom half of the room (including the wainscotting) white, and the top half of the room gray. 

Here's some pictures to show you that we really are progressing!

Mr. A sanding and painting the wainscotting in the garage.

A few frames and accent pieces getting painted to match too :)

And onto the bedroom!

Now that all the priming is done, we can get started on the gender neutral gray with Grandma's help on the edging :) 

PS - we only used baby friendly paints - no need for my mama to worry!

And three gray coats later, we're starting on the white coats for the bottom half :)  

I'm REALLY excited to see how it all looks when we're done. 

I'm pretty sure it's gonna be amazing.

Turns out you can accomplish a lot in one busy weekend of painting if you really try! 

{love}

Fall DIY Decorating

Is it lame to decorate your house for each season?

It might be... 

I didn't pick all the seasons though... just my two favourites: fall and Christmas :) 

I just l-o-v-e the fall! 

Not the ghost and witch version, but the leaves and pumpkins version ;)

I've never decorated for a season before, but this year I had two events on the go - a fabulous fall-themed girls party and hosting a family Thanksgiving meal! 

More than enough reasons for me to craft up some fall decoration ideas! 

Here are some of the results so far:

A simple fall centerpiece for the table :) 

Some quick additions (owls, pumpkins, orange candles...) to liven up the cabinet.

 A DIY mantle piece banner :)
For this, I cut the letter stencils out using my cricut and spray painted the letters onto burlap.
(or rather, my husband spray painted... helping his preggo wife once again!)

And a DIY wreath for the front door! 

Ahhh... ready for all my fun.
The house looks and smells like the fall now.
Smells like fall partially because of the cinnamon candles, and partially because of all the baking treats (more to come!).

{xoxo}

Living Room Holy Grail

My living room is looking very complete these days. 

All my orange accents and decorations are there. 

My photo wall has added some nice personal touches. 

There is one elusive piece that I've been looking for forever though! 

I specifically wanted a small cabinet with glass doors to display the few treasures that we own.

I definitely did not want a ceiling high cabinet - it would be far too overbearing for the room. 

We just wanted something that would sit nicely under my photo wall.

So we looked... and looked.... and looked. 

And finally, we found our holy grail this weekend!

Not only did we find a rustic piece we both loved... we also got $100 off the asking price in the store! 

The door wasn't closing properly, and there was a small crack, so my dutch husband asked what they could do for us and they offered this whammy of a discount! 

Then we took it home and Mr. A spent less then 10 minutes fixing their mistake. 

It's like brand new! 

[Good thing I have such a handy husband!]

I'm soooo pleased with our find! 

Now all I need is some decorations for the top, and two matching armchairs - one for each side :) 

Living room is now 90% done/ 

{xoxo}

Scrapbooking Wall Decor

I love scrapbooking and making albums to show off to people. 
It was only a matter of time before I started to get some of my creations up on the wall!
So I decided to scrapbook another wedding page to hang up in a shadow box.

I had to use wedding colours (i.e. orange, brown, green & yellow) to make sure it matched the other wedding artwork on that wall.

I also wanted to make sure that this wall flowed with my orange accents and my new photo wall in the adjoining room.
Here's the finished product: 

 And here's how it looks up on the wall! 

The other shadow box frame was one of my post-wedding crafts 

and the large frame is our wedding guest tree.

This has essentially become a wedding wall :) 

{xoxo}

How to Make Mini Pom Poms

Isn't that a cute wrapping job?? There are a few reasons I really like it. 1) I'm a fan of simple/organic-type wrapping (i.e. yarn, jute string & brown paper wrapping), 2) It's cheaper, 3) It's original and stands out

It's also very easy to do!

Here are all the materials you need to make the pom-poms:

yarn, cardboard, scissors, and anything to trace circles (I used tape, a tea cannister, and a glue stick)

1. Trace a couple of different sizes of circles (two of each), and cut them out. Then trace small inner circles (I used a glue stick) and cut them out too.

2. Cut yarn - I used approx. 5 arms lengths (finger to finger).

3. Put two cardboard circles of the same size side-by-side and line up the edge of the string with the inside edge of the circles.

4. Start wrapping the string around the circle (through the inside edge and around the outside edge)

5. Continue until the circle is completely covered.

6. Make a space between the two cardboard circles you put together initially.

7. Place your scissors between the two slits in order to cut the outside edge of the yarn circles.

8. Cut around the entire circle. Be careful not to let go of the strings in the middle or the yarn will unravel from the cardboard.

9. Put an additional piece of yarn between the two cardboard pieces and wrap it around.

10. Tie the additional piece of string around the centre of the yarn between the cardboard pieces

11. Pull apart the cardboard

12. Ta-Da! Cute decorative pom-pom. Repeat with more colours and sizes of cardboard circles.

Here are a couple of presents that I beautified with colourful pom-poms :)

{create}