Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Framed!

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On our vacation, one of the things Clayton really wanted to do was get some of those old-fashioned photos done.  We found a place on Cavendish Boardwalk that specialized in them.  He decided on the theme, and a short while later, 4 thrilled kids got to dress up like old time gangsters.  Hunter immediately called driving the car.  Clayton refused to smile, only smirking as he figured befit a hardened criminal.  Blade was thrilled to be all dressed up and holding a gun.  Storm, my born model, was beyond excited to be posing for the camera in a sequin dress and high heels, with a gun of course.  Ryan couldn't believe how heavy the 'prop' gun was, and mom and I rocked out our dresses.  A couple of hours later and a whole lot poorer, we had our awesome photos and memories to take home.

Back home, I really really wanted to get some nice frames for these pictures.  I took the kids a couple of times to Red Deer and searched out Walmart and Zellers for the perfect frames.  Clayton couldn't imagine why I just couldn't grab the first black frames I saw that were the right size.  Storm and Blade also had no problem picking out something they figured would work.  Ah, if only I were satisfied so easily!!!  I figured I'd make one trip through Michael's to see if I could find any really nice frames in my price range.  Although, by this time, I was willing to pay for the perfect ones, almost no matter what.. but not really, because as you all know, I'm sort of cheap :P

BUT, it must have been fate or something (as I don't read flyers, that would be too easy!!) because the day I decided to go to Michael's they were having a Buy One Get One Free on ALL frames in the store.  So although I only needed 3 frames, you can bet your bottom dollar I took home my 4th free one!

Anyways, here are some not so good pictures of my frames on the wall and the subsequent picture I had blown up to fill in my 4th free frame!



 
 



Waiting to be hung on the wall
It took a few days for me to decide on which photo to blow up!





Monday, August 16, 2010

Swap Shop Finds

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While looking for a buffet for the sitting room, mom and I saw a lot of 'interesting' furniture.  Most of it extremely ugly and overpriced. 

Until we went into the local antique store/swap shop. 

We (I) didn't really expect to find much there in my price range (cheap!).

In fact, we had declared the place a bust when the owner had asked us if we had went down to the basement, as she had more stuff down there. 

 Basement?!?

So down we trudged, with me thinking I'd just find more of the same down there as I did upstairs.

And lo and behold, we found something!!

Okay actually we found about 4 somethings, but two wouldn't fit in the place I was thinking about.  We did find the buffet there, for a mere $45, broken and looking for help.  I also found this huge blond coffee table.  I've been randomly on the search for a big, square, black coffee table to put in front of my sectional downstairs.  Well she may not be black, but she's definitely big and square!



After borrowing a sander from my FIL, I took it outside and sanded it down.  Just to discover it was really laminate and not wood.  Oh well.  It scratched it up a bit and I had primer!  A coat of primer and three coats of really pathetic paint (DON'T buy HH Beauti-tone Paint, what a waste of time that stuff was.  I had to put on three coats and in some spots I can still see where I should have done 4 (FOUR!! Zomg I don't think so!)) 

Anyways.

Here be the final results.

She fits in perfectly!!! Oh and she was $25 people!

Twenty five bucks, NO TAX! 

Woot!!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Don't Hate me because I'm .. UGLY..

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Beautiful isn't it....

This lovely little stand came to our house via Grandma.  I really wasn't sure what I was going to use it for.  Mom thought maybe I could use it as a small buffet near the table to hold the overflow of drinks and food etc.  Some nights with 6 of us at the table, space is at a premium! So we took off the doors...

Nope, doesn't get much better....

Turns out it was just too far and too un-handy to use by the table. And it felt to me like it cluttered up the space.  If you know me, you know I'd happily live in an empty box..so what to do with it?

 I didn't know. 

 But I did know if it was going to stay in my house, it had a paint job in it's future!  I'm happy to say, without doors and with paint, this little ugly cupboard ain't half bad. It recently found itself a home in Blade's room, holding all the stuffies in the WORLD! :) 

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Aww it's that time again..already!

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Okay technically this was last week already, but hey, at least you get to see 'em!

First day of School 2010
Storm Grade 3
Blade Grade 1
Hunter Grade 4


Whew Time Flies!!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Sitting Room Wall Art

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For the longest time, on the wall in our sitting room, has been a couple of 11x14's of family pictures that we had taken about 5 years ago. 

For 2 years I've had shells sitting in my basement in a storage bin awaiting some shadow boxes to display them. 

Finally, after this last vacation (in which I came home with more shells!) I decided to actually get on it and put them in a frame. 

After reviewing my photos that I had taken on vacation, I really fell in love with a couple of them.  My favorite being this one; a picture of a heart rock we found while beachcombing on Cape Breton Island.

(ignore the window and door in the picture!!)
our sitting room is bright!

Isn't it the best?!  I decided to take down the family photos and re-use the frames for my vacation pictures instead. On the right hand side is a picture of the coast line at Peggy's Cove, NS.


While shopping for frames for other pictures we had taken, I happened to go into Michael's where they just happened to have a "Buy One, Get One Free" sale on ALL frames in the store!  I picked up a couple of shadow boxes for the shells. 




 
 

So happy with the way it turned out.  Next on the list of things to get was a buffet for under these pictures.  Mom and I went to check out the local swapshops/antique stores and look what we found.....

 
 


Sure it's ugly as all heck, and broken... BUT, it's all wood, it's the right size, the right configuration of doors and shelves AND it was only 45 bucks.  With a little stripping, painting, new hardware and some door fixing by the FIL, we'll have a nice little buffet on the cheap! Stay tuned for pics.