Sustainable Design, Sustainable Living, Sustainable Everything
We all do it… well, those of us who use Pinterest at least. I’m talking about pinning projects we know we will never actually attempt. You know what I’m talking about. An entire wall covered in paint sample chips. A
Devin and I are nerds. If you know us, then you know this. We adore fantasy and sci-fi movies and have been known on occasion to pretend we are ninjas. We geek out over superheroes, routinely discussing them. Mostly it’s me asking
All you need is love – or so the song goes. But in the case of this handpainted sign all I needed was 23 hours of slow labour and nothing to do with my time other than distract myself with online yoga and crafts.
I had started this DIY a couple of weeks before I had my second daughter (who is three weeks old today). I first had to paint the 1×4 with several coats of white paint before I could stencil on the letters. Once that task was completed all that was left was the actual painting of the letters, which I did by hand with an artist’s brush whilst listening to my iTunes playlist “Relax” and trying to dance off contractions. There’s nothing like the imminent arrival of an infant to get the creative – and motivational – juices flowing.
Even though I finished this room going on three years ago, I’ve never posted photos of it in its entirety. But this particular space in my house has certainly been on my mind again as of late since bambino numero dos is only days away. I spent a lot of time in this room with my first baby – I slept the first six months of her life on a cot next to the crib. I’ve always said that’s exactly why I designed it with myself in mind. Because I’m selfish like that. Which is totally fine with me.
As you can see, I definitely didn’t go the pink versus blue route, which is pretty common nowadays I’d say. I think most people tend to lean towards a more neutral baby bedroom, aka “nursery.” (I have such a hard time using that word – I don’t know why, but for some reason it rubs me the wrong way… like “panties” and “mancave”… le barf.)
I love when random items come into your life and inspire you to make something crafty. This white porcelain key was attached to a Christmas card my lovely sister-in-law made for my family. It had a piece of sisal twine on
Those of you who were my Facebook friends back in March 2014 may remember a little fabric survey I put up for an old chair that I had acquired and planned to refurbish. (Check out my friend Val’s store Fabric For Less for beauties
Along with catching up on blogging in general, I need to catch up on blogging about all the DIY projects I did before my daughter was born. True, I’ve done a few homey things since she came into my life that blessed September day, but for the most part it’s been 16 months of laundry, dishes and more laundry (and of course playing!). The laundry sitch has been particularly hairy of late because our washing machine is on its way out (and BTW, this is our second laundry machine to futz out on us this year).
The first one was nearing that magical ten year mark that somehow in appliance years equals 90 human years, so that was that. Then, we got a replacement free of charge thanks to some lovely family members. Unfortunately, that one didn’t belong to said members originally and thus we don’t know how old it actually was. And now it’s dying too. Sob.
I can’t take all the credit for this DIY project as my most loveable and talented husband was the one who actually built this ottoman toy box combo, but we did design it together (amidst much ruler waving and pencil scribbling) and I selected the fabric and foam padding and wrapped this bad boy (girl?) up.
As is usually the case, the task at hand was not quite as easy as I initially imagined because we wanted as few seams as possible and I couldn’t manage to wrestle all the fabric into my sewing machine facing in the correct direction. The answer? Hot glue gun. It’s like the duct tape of DIYing… except duct tape is probably the duct tape of DIYing. So maybe it’s the duct tape of more delicate DIYing? (And yes, eco-friendly hot glue and eco-friendly duct tape are actual things!)
Here’s an easy, cheap and fun way to make a DIY hanging laundry bag. (Well, it’s fun if you’re a DIY nerdwad like me). All you need is a pillowcase, a burlap sack, some sisal twine and a few safety pins. (Bonus if they’re old and rusty like the ones I found in my stash. Yes, I have a safety pin stash – don’t you?)
Keep reading for directions on how to make a laundry bag out of a pillowcase and a burlap sack!
Sometimes fabric starts it all. When I was working on my daughter’s room – before I knew she was a girl – I was looking for neutral colours and prints that didn’t outright announce: “Hi! I have a penis/vagina!” I’ve talked about my dislike of pink in a previous post. I’m an earth-tones gal through and through. So, when I saw this graphic floral with its greys and greens and browns I just knew I had to have it. (I had to have it so bad, in fact, that I forgot to check the price tag… oops.)
You may recognize the fabric as the background for the baby superheroes artwork from my last post – so, I’d say I got my money’s worth. Even though this fabric features flowers, I don’t find it overly feminine. It actually reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are. Something about the long, snaking, brown and beige vine. It looks like the tail of a beast who just disappeared around the corner…
