category: create



Jan 22
2012
 

mini canvas

So since I have been working on a gallery wall in my office as well as adding some new art to the kids’ rooms, I have been keeping my eye out for things around the house to make interesting and meaningful art. And this mini canvas is a perfect example.

This was a souvenir handkerchief my grandmother had in her possessions that I was given after she passed away. It was from Florida and I just really like the design and colours but don’t have any real connection to Florida itself. I just wanted to use one section of the hankie to showcase – the flower.

First I searched my house for the perfect frame but couldn’t find what I was looking for (and believe me, I have a lot of frames hanging around – my plans are to get them all on the wall by end of February) but then I remembered a mini canvas I had and gathered some supplies:

my supplies

So I laid out the mini canvas and used hodge podge to attach the fabric the way it would show the flower and the pretty scalloped edge. I also removed the staples from the visible side and just hodge podged the canvas down on that edge to make it look cleaner.

And now I have this little piece of art in my office.

my new wall art

And I love it!

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, our house
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Jan 07
2012
 

free printable – meal planner – updated

Since I originally posted about my meal planning, I have made some tweaks based on my own use and some comments from people. I added 2 more days for those who like to plan the whole week, turned the paper upright, reduced the amount of groceries and added an area for notes (or a recipe). I am adding this version to download but keeping the original as well. Let me know what you guys think.

free printable: meal planner v.2

Download this free printable PDF (for personal use only).

So I have been meal planning for about 2 months now and can’t get over how awesome it is. We save money on groceries, but more than that, we aren’t throwing out rotten food that never got used, and I don’t stress in the evenings on what to make.

Now my meal planning system is based on advice I have been given from good friends and is very simple:

  • Pick 5 evening meals per week and buy groceries for those. (I don’t meal plan breakfast or lunch, just supper.)

  • Don’t decide what meal for what day, on your first day pick the meal you feel like cooking and cross it off your list.

  • Work your way through the list until you have made all five meals.

The reason you choose five meals is because two of the days will be leftovers. That depends really on what you make and how much you make. Often I find day 3 is a good leftover meal of day 1 & 2.

I love that this system is simple and flexible and just allows me to decide daily what I want to make but also removes the “what should we have for dinner” frustration in the kitchen.

I have made myself a pretty meal planning PDF that I am now using in my kitchen household files that combines my meal list with my grocery list. I added checkboxes to my grocery list as I HATE missing things when I am at the store.

free printable: meal planner

Download this free printable PDF (for personal use only). Enjoy!

Linking up to: I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday

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Posted by Janet under create, free printables, organize
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Dec 09
2011
 

customizing school pictures

To be honest, my kids never take the greatest school pics. Somehow the idea of smiling on cue is lost on them. I never do reshoots though as I am worried the second batch may be worst then the first, and besides, these are who my kids are right now. I want to remember them exactly this way.

What I don’t love is the backgrounds you get with school pics. And so I was inspired by this pin on pinterest.

source: www.feltphotography.com

So I created my own versions.

my new school pictures

The top are the original images (love the expressions) and the bottom are my new ones. I hid their names.

What a fun way to remember them at this age.

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Posted by Janet under create, happy list, life
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Dec 01
2011
 

our advent calendar

There have been so many great ideas about activity based advent calendars on blogs and pinterest in the last month, that I wanted to make my own. But I wanted it to match my style and use things I already had. So first I went shopping in my house. I found this:

old ikea drape and a 16 x 20 canvas

A blank canvas and an old unbleached cotton drape. So I cut up the drape. One piece to fit over the canvas and the other into little squares that were about 2.5″ X 3″ in size. 48 of them to be exact. I had made my measurements on a piece of paper and then used a cardboard template to trace the squares on the fabric.

yes, pencil on fabric! ;)

Then I sewed the little pieces together like pillows, turned them inside out and ironed them to make little patches, so to speak. (side note: I did this because I did not have any reinforcement to stop any fraying if I left the edges raw).

Then using embroidery floss, I stitched the numbers 1-24 in random colours on the front of each patch.

embroidering the numbers

And using matching thread, I stitched each patch on to my large piece of cotton on 3 sides to make little pockets.

sewing the pockets

I then stretched the fabric over the canvas and stapled it to the back (I had a hammer to make sure the staples went in flush). I covered the staples with masking tape to make the back look nice too!

stapling it to the frame

Lastly I printed out my activity list in different (again random) colours to fit in each pocket.

some of the activity cards

Next year I may add some more embroidery decoration to the background fabric, but for now I love our family’s new reusable advent calendar. (excuse the early morning photograph/bad lighting!) It sits perfectly at home right next to our 3 foot nutcracker.

our advent calendar

And for those wondering about my list, this is what I have (not necessarily in this order).

  • hang lights
  • get tree
  • decorate tree
  • hang stockings
  • go see santa
  • pizza night
  • gingerbread houses
  • bake cookies (x2)
  • christmas shopping
  • wrap presents
  • go to the library
  • hot chocolate
  • bubble bath
  • dinner at a restaurant
  • movie and popcorn
  • play board games
  • make paper snowflakes
  • christmas colourings
  • give a toy to charity
  • go to the library
  • wear red to school
  • breakfast for supper
  • open one special gift (for christmas eve)
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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, our house
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Nov 25
2011
 

reflections

my advent calendar in progress - post soon!

So lately I have spent my time and the end of the day on the sofa, with my family, working on some hand stitching. This comes in the form of a cross stitch project that is LONG overdue (like a year overdue), an advent calendar for the kids this year, among other things. What I have noticed with this is that although I am sitting in front of the television and doing the same thing I may have done before, having the added activity for my hands to do, has allowed my brain to slow down MORE. Which is not what I expected. But I think what I needed.

These moments recharge me, they allow me to find a little hands on creativity at the end of the day. They make me sit, quietly and enjoy the laughter and games that surround me. They calm me.

And for that I am thankful.

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Posted by Janet under create, happy list, life, musings
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Nov 13
2011
 

our house: girl’s bedroom update

So although I thought I had finished our daughter’s room, I was wrong. Since Little Man got new bedding that was more grown up, Little Miss wanted the same thing (after all she is FIVE now) ;) So after looking and looking we finally found something we both liked. Funnily enough it was from the same company Little Man’s was.

her new bedding (the flannel sheets she already had (from Pottery Barn) and happened to match perfectly

But now that she had new bedding, the existing drapes no longer matched so new drapes were in order, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So I found some drapes at Giant Tiger that matched her wall colour exactly and were $12.99 a panel. Can’t beat that. But… they were only 84″ long and we have tall windows. We need 90″ inch drapes. So I needed to come up with a plan to extend the drapes and work with the new bedding.

Here is what I did.

my solution to extend her drapes

I cut the drapes 10 inch from the top and added a panel of white fabric, which was actually a flat sheet from when we had a double bed in the guest room (upsized to a Queen last year, but kept the sheets for fabric). On this I made stripes. I wanted one pink and one turquoise. The pale pink is actually a strip of fabric I cut off her existing cotton flat sheet she has for warm weather. I noticed that it was quite long and she isn’t, so she doesn’t need all that length. She won’t even miss the bit I cut off. The aqua and the darker pink (on top of the light) are ribbons I purchased on sale at the craft store.

Anyway, I love the new drapes and how they match the new bedding.

her bedding with the new drapes

BUT I am not sure how I feel about my baby girl growing up!

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, our house
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