Ewe Boots - A Local Christmas

 My lovely friend Stephanie (& coincidentally my Makers Market date) took some pictures of us in the fall and got these great shots of Ava's Ewe boots.  

Does she not have the best little hands?

Ewe boots are locally handmade slipper boots for children and adults using recycled quality materials(wool, cashmere, leather). I got Ava's pair at the Etsy Maritime Makers Market, blogged about it here if you're interested!

 

These are the Ewe boots on my wish list :)

 

Owner, Jaqueline MacDougall makes all these booties and sells them in one of her Etsy shops (visit here). Her earth conscious life style and her sons rare condition was the start to salvaging old sweaters and jackets to make these cozy slippers with care using materials that don't irritate the skin.

Go shop and read more and Jaqueline's story on her Etsy page! She also has another shop called Hug a Bug with some extra cute accessories that are on A-Babys Christmas list *hint* *hint*.

The little wooden figurines you see in the photos are from the Black Market in Halifax and are currently on their list of holiday gifts under $5!

Try to spread some local joy this Christmas! May it be a small reminder that we all work hard to balance and provide for our loved ones especially this time of year.

Thank you for reading!

Christmas Tree Pom Poms

We have finally put a dent into the Christmas decorations at home! It's been a three day journey finding white lights for the windows and I'm happy to have the hard part over with - temper tantrums were thrown.

Walmart recalled all their lights, Costco was sold out, Bought some from Canadian tire... broke.. by the time we went back the next day, sold out. Between that and the Destiny's Child Christmas they've had on repeat at work since the beginning of November I almost went Scrooge.

To make up for the lost time I made really quick and easy tree decorations with left over tule. Didn't leave the house and didn't spend a dime!

 

 I love making tule tutu's for A-Baby and I had some leftover white from her first birthday to make a tutu for her Christmas pictures.

 

You can probably get a good idea of how easy it is to make with this picture. I cut tule into strips, folded them and tied them in loop knots around an elastic waistband from the dollar store.  

 

 

 With the leftover, leftover tule I made these little Christmas tree poms poms!

 

 

To make just fold the tule in layers. Doesn't matter how much, I like the way the varying sized turned out.

 

 

Tie string around the middle, tie a double knot and leave enough string on the ends to hang it on the tree.

 

 

Cut the loop free on each end and voila!

 

 

Last Christmas I spray painted homemade salt clay handprints - It made decorating the tree extra special this year showing A-Baby and seeing how big her hand has grown! You can visit the link here.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Mic Mac Mall - It's So You Sale

I had some errands to run this morning at Mic Mac Mall. Upon arrival is the face of one of the coolest people I know personally, Mo Handahu from Lionhunter Blog. Not only is her face printed on the entrance doors, but I'm walking past life size posters of her smiling and posing for Mic Mac Mall's campaign for their big "It's so you" sale tomorrow. I was giddy... I've seen Mo work backstage and behind camera and she is humbling and inspiring!! Mic Mac was always my go-to mall growing up and I'm proud of them for wanting to show her off. She is accompanied in the campaign by a fashion and lifestyle mommy blogger from my favorite place in Nova Scotia, Katie Corkum from Wildrosebuds Blog. I have been following her for the past year and besides the obvious things in common.. we share the same last name! Her blog is full of great reads, beautiful photos and I want her wardrobe (including that coat!!!!!).

Besides making it in the door I had to go see my favorite tailor - of course he has his 2nd BEST OF HALIFAX plaque sitting proudly on the ledge. Congrats Mr. Profit! Can't wait to wear my trench coat! The awards celebration was last night at the Lord Nelson, you can see the list of winners here.

Speaking of Winners! God damn that place is a trap. I got caught up rug shopping for a mud room makeover and took over the aisle.

I am a sucker for organic materials and textures (and rap). I'm on a hunt for the perfect pouf.

Almost bought this painting for the inventory.. isn't it stunning? IT'S SO ME! (get it? so lame).

On the way home I had to pick up the Canteen lunch special, 2 free range turkey clubs with brie, tomato, lettuce, sprouts on a pretzel bun. Chickpea vegetable soup and a loaf of bread... mmmmm.

 

I'm using this sexy loaf of bread as an excuse to show off more progress to the kitchen. My last update included the floors and now the subway tile is UP! It needs some grout but things are brightening up :).

Before

Almost After

 

Too bad I can't make it to the sale tomorrow, I have a wish list of poufs and blanket scarfs. I'll be at the Atrium all day if anybody is in the market for some furniture! Shop ashleyfurniturehomestore.com / e-mail corkum.michelle@gmail.com for a free consultation.

Port Williams Frenchy's Run

I had a successful Port Williams Frenchy's run and I can't help but share some of the goods I found. Port Williams is a little bit past Wolfville and the drive there during the fall is easily one of the most beautiful mini road trips to take in Nova Scotia. My sister and I have done this drive too many times to count and it never gets old. Maybe next time I'll document the whole event but this post is strictly about the goods!

 

This sweet white cashmere hoodie and a floral Ralph Lauren top for A-Baby (18 mo).

 

The details on the Ralph Lauren top are why I love thrift shopping. For under 2 dollars, and for the length of time she will wear it I can justify buying high end for a 1 year old.

 

Found myself a table runner, unopened! Still deciding if it's too "farmhouse" for me but it was 1.50!

 

My most favorite find. This king sized blanket. It drapes over my bed and hits the floor just like I dreamed it would and it has become the family "Hub" blanket because all humans and dogs in the building can fit under it with room to spare, we will keep it forever.

 

and acouple things for myself, an h&m long sleeve shirt and a new top for work. Maybe my sister will let me take pictures of her haul because she cleaned up in the clothes dept. She has more patience than I do when it comes to rooting through 15 bins of clothes and if it wasn't for my new blanket I would have been jealous (sister tendencies).  

 

I also scored a linen 96" curtain panel from Ikea that is not photographed because it is currently being cleaned. I cant decide whether or not I'll leave it as a curtain panel or use the fabric for something else. I spent a good chunk of my time looking for the other panel, either way it was $3.00 for the one and I don't know why anyone would ever give it away! I'm sure Ill incorporate lots of these items into future posts, all the stuff I found for my home are inspiring for me. Home décor that has been loved before brings so much character (in my opinion)!

In the meantime - A kitchen update, since sharing the counter tops and cabinets in this currentish post, the floors are down! Can't wait to share the whole thing - life is better with a kitchen and floors . Extreme? No.. these floors were so old and so ugly and so impossible to get clean to the standards of a crawling baby - Plus I would use the space to paint because I knew the floors were about to go and I treated them like a drop cloth. So these floors are a lifestyle change for us!

Before picture of the floors and my first born



Floors after (No quarter round yet)

My little Waikiki baby could spend Halloween crawling around guilt free. Costume was compliments of her Auntie who brought it home all the way from Hawaii! I couldn't get her to leave the lei on for more than a second but I was prepared for that.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I'm not looking forward to parting with my stone pumpkins and my Mom's gravy boat but November is officially here.. is it safe to say nobody likes November? I'll try to fit one more ode to fall before it's too distant of a memory.. Thanks for reading!!

Salvaging Brass Hardware

I'm a crow when it comes to anything gold. I'm all over this kitchen trend of navy cabinets with clean lined brass hardware and persian rugs - feels like a sophisticated, exotic farmhouse!

This has been my favorite variation on pinterest yet but this dramatic kitchen trend has been one of my "most tabbed" in my stash of home magazines at work. Those countertops will always be my favorite no matter the style of kitchen.

There is no denying that brass hardware is coming back after MIA for some time. I've tried acouple DIY's at home to salvage some antique Canadian made brass hardware and nothing has seemed to work the way I need it to. I even tried ketchup - which is a reflection of my dedication because I HATE ketchup..

Sometimes you just need to leave the DIY's alone and leave it to a $4 bottle of (what seems like) pure ammonia. This stuff is strong.. in every way!!!

 

So I ditched making dinner and picked up some serious sour dough bread and soup from the Canteen and spent the night polishing.

Amazing right!? Do you see this before and after? (or after and before)..the results exceeded my expectations.

October has been full of beautiful days. I'm up and ready for a Frenchy's run to Port Williams so I'll be rambling about that soon enough! Can't believe I made it through this whole post without a horrible Robert Frost pun.

Thanks for reading!

Facelift for a Dated House

If you are anything like me maybe you have been looking for a place to house your 3 humans and 3 dogs at one point in time.. and maybe not ready to buy! In which case, finding a rental house with yard access from someone who doesn't run for the hills when you say you have dogs and a baby... under 2000 is HARD! So you might have settled for some dull honey hardwood and some pink or floral counter tops. Even more so for those buying.. the upfront costs add up and sometimes a renovation gets put on the backburner so you can do it right!

Your surroundings play a huge role in how you feel and act, beyond the "clean house clean mind" motto. Before you binge on accessories - consider that a small investment can give you a fresh clean slate and change how you feel when you're recharging in your home. Here are a couple products and tips to give your home a quick facelift to have it feeling new and fresh without a big investment.

 

1. White Paint (And lots of it)

If you need to make chalkpaint to paint cabinets or furniture you can make your own by mixing 1 teaspoon of plaster of paris for every cup of paint. If you don't like white just mix your own shade!

Cabinets Before

 

Preview of the Cabinets after

If you are repainting the walls you can quadruple a can of paint in size by going a couple shades up and adding some of the white. I love hunting the 'mistint' sections in hardware stores and mixing them into new colors at home. I recently painted an entire 3 bedroom house using some left over tan colored paint and a seriously oversized bucket of white.

Also, cleaning and painting all of the trim in a house always makes a huge difference.

Window Trim Before
 

Window trim after

 

2. Mr. Clean Eraser

I've read lots of articles about these being dangerous to have around children but I'll tell you one thing - It's the only thing that gets hair dye off bathroom counters and old paint off floors and hardware so if your going to take on some projects, they are good to have on hand (Just don't feed them to your baby). Search them on pinterest for so many more uses.

3. Caulking

You must. If it hasn't been done since the last resident has left, you must.

 

4.Stone Paint

 

Not only were the counter tops floral, the previous tenant covered them in contact paper. Here is a previous blog post on my process of painting them. Essentially I used a textured stone paint, sanded it down and finished it.

 

 

Rustoleum has a couple products for this. I used the spray paint version and taped off everything in the room.

 

 

This is another product I considered using that would have had similar results. Probably would have been an easier job to apply it with a roller too.

 5. Rejuventate Professional Floor Refinish

Before

 

This was the picture that sent me looking for a solution. I took it after freshly washing the floors and they looked so gross and dingy still!

 

I used Rejuventate Floor refinish Kit and the following picture was taken 24 hours after doing 50% of the floors. I had just put the furniture back on the right side of the room so I could proceed to the other and couldn't help but take a progress picture because the improvement was wowzas!!!

 

Right side of the room Done

 

After

 

Above is the after picture of the floors. About 6 months after - the two day job was well worth it because they look better, they clean better, it held up great and I feel a lot better about my mini human crawling around!

 

 

Note without judgement the new countertops and decisions on a backsplash in the background. I found enough tile to finish my kitchen for $30 which leads me into my next and most valuable home hack.

 

6. Habitat for Humanity Restore

Yes, the building itself is a hack. It has everything any home DIYer could ever need for prices that make DIYing worth while and all of the proceeds go back to the charity. They even have the Stone Paint I just referenced (#4) or a portion of the price and double the size.

and Cabinets!

and Lighting!

Lots and lots of paint and stain! 

and floors and sinks and furniture and hardware and doors and countertops and mosaic tile. This place has saved my budget!
 

 7. Bulls Eye 123

This stuff is a stone cold killer. It will kill any mildew, dirt or strange smells that cleaning can't do in kitchen cabinets or closets. If you are painting a wood like pine (like bare window frames or doors) it will NOT absorb white paint unless you prime it first (painted a whole frame twice to find that one out). Your third reason to buy primer is for the walls. If the walls haven't been painted in a long time there is a chance it's an oil based paint. In this case painting over it without priming will cause it to peel, so prime first!

 

Anyway, It's a new weekend and I'm cleaning our house around mild construction. I was inspired to share some of the products that helped me not lose my marbles. Last thanksgiving weekend we celebrated having a home that meets all of our needs and these are simple things that helped us really feel satisfied with building our family here.

Hope I didn't bore you too much! This isn't the fun part of nesting, but it's damn satisfying.