Hole Be Gone

Slowly but surely, this house is starting to feel more like us. Most importantly, we are starting to bring in a lot of pieces that we love and really cozy up the place as we head into the cooler months. One project that has been on our list since mid summer, was finally completed last night. We finally addressed the big alcove over our fireplace...

It was obviously put there for the purpose of people placing TV's there (our house is about 10 years old). Well, we don't have a TV that would fit in there (nor would we want it to), and we don't even have cable, so we needed to figure out another solution. 

While out shopping at Canadian Tire near the end of July, we spotted some small oars on sale for $8 each. We looked at them for a while and then started talking about using an old pallet to cover the alcove over the fireplace and attaching the oars to it. The idea stuck and home came the oars... and then sat in our garage until Monday (you may have caught a peek if you follow me on Instagram).

While B was working away on our dining table (reveal post to come next week... I promise), he decided it was time to get the pallet out of our garage as well. I cleared off the mantle and we took some time to take measurements and discuss how we wanted everything to look. We decided that we wanted it to reach from the mantle all the way up to the crown moulding, and be as wide as we could get it at that point (which worked out to be about 4 feet). 

So, B spent some time cutting the pallet, including ripping down the boards on the back so it wouldn't take up the entire mantle on us. Then, he tied the oars together, drilled a couple of holes into the pallet and attached everything using some thick coated wire. 

From this point, our original plan was to attach the pallet using anchors and large hinges that we'd picked up at The Home Depot. So, B took some more measurements, removed the shelf, looked for studs and then went about attaching the hinges to the wall...

See all the holes in the wall in the above photo? It took a few tries to find the studs. B also decided not to use anchors since the majority of the weight of the pallet would actually rest on the mantle anyway.

Once both hinges were attached to the wall, I crawled into the alcove and B was going to hold the pallet right up flat to the ceiling while I screwed the other half of the hinges to the pallet. That plan was quickly shot down when we realized there wasn't enough room for the pallet to fit between the hinge and the crown moulding. Poor planning on our part. So the hinges were removed, and B decided to drill the whole thing directly into the studs...

And how did that work out for us, you're wondering? Well take a look for yourself...

We had known the pallet was pretty crooked, but didn't realize how bad it was until it was all attached to the wall. There was no way we could live with this wonky looking pallet over our fireplace. It made everything look off.

So, off it came again (by this time it was probably around 8:30pm) and B took it back out to the garage to work his magic. His plan was to cut it on an angle along the bottom, so we could lift it slightly on one side when we attached it to the wall. He figured this would be the best way to counteract how crazy it was all looking... and well, it looks much, much better now!

It's a huge improvement from the large gaping hole that existed there before, and I think it will be perfect to decorate seasonally. I can already picture a wreath hanging over the pallet, with a garland draped across the mantle, for Christmas. Now if only B would let me start decorating!

We have other plans for the fireplace, and room as well. I'm itching to paint everything but with such a large open area in our home, it will be a big investment to get it all painted. We'd also like to change the tile on the face and hearth of the fireplace. We like the idea of stacked stone for the face, kind of like this. All in time of course! Up next - finishing the dining table and Halle's bedroom!

Any big projects you're trying to finish up before the holiday rush really begins?

Autumn Leaves

Last week, after B headed back to BC, Halle and I stayed behind in Massachusetts for a couple of extra days with his parents. We always love our time there and with all of the wedding planning behind me we had some time to get crafty with B's Mom.

I did some looking around on Pinterest for inspiration and found a great Pin (can't find it now) where you made a tree out of your child's hand print and leaves for them to glue on using on fabric. It was just our luck that B's Mom had a great big box full of old fabric samples in wonderful fall colours. So, last Monday night I sat down and cut out a ton of little leaves from different fabrics so that Halle could pick and choose which leaves she wanted on her tree.

On Tuesday before lunch, we all sat around the kitchen table to create a little fall craft. B's Mom traced Halle's hand onto some brown paper to make our tree. (We actually cut out four tree's in total for some extra's).

Next, Halle helped put glue on the back of the tree and we stuck it onto a piece of white paper...

Lastly, we started dabbing glue all over that handprint tree and let Halle go nuts sticking whichever leaves she wanted to it.

She only lasted for one tree that first day, but it turned out so lovely and she was pretty proud of it. I have plans to frame that tree and put it out this fall season. 

It was such a fun and easy craft for all of us, and a great way to use up some scraps of fabric that my Mother-in-law had! Plus it was a nice way to get into an Autumn state of mind (even if the few days following that felt more like summer).

Have you been thinking about fall yet? Have you started any decorating, or maybe some DIY projects for around the house? 

Recent Garage Sale Scores

Like many other bloggers, hitting up garage sales and thrift stores is one of my favourite ways to furnish and decorate our home. We've found some really great pieces over the years, and it's a fantastic way to find unique pieces that reflect your personality and stye. Since moving into a much larger home, we have found that there is a lot we need but we just don't have the money to spend at the moment. Thanks to some recent garage sale finds, we're slowing piecing together a few more spaces in our home. Check these out.

Last month one of our friends sent me a few text messages with pictures of furniture her neighbour was selling at her yard sale. Unfortunately, B and I had been across the border for the day and I didn't get her messages until after the sale was done. One of the pictures she sent was of these beautiful little chairs, and the lady was only asking $1 a piece for them. As soon as I saw them I shot our friend a message letting her know that if her neighbour hadn't sold them, we would gladly take them off her hands. Lucky for us, no one else (aside from our friend) had seen the potential in these beauties. They are now resting in our garage, waiting for me to show them a little TLC. 

I plan to paint them and upholster the seats. I'm hoping I can find some fabric in my collection to use, so as not to shell out too much money for them.

On the long weekend, our garage sale effort ended after our first stop, but at least we came home with something. I was just about ready to walk away from the sale when I spotted these three floral prints in IKEA frames resting on an old dresser. 

I thought that they would look nice in our guest room, so B asked the lady about much she wanted for them. She said $12 for all three... then talked herself down to $10. We figured one frame alone was worth that much so it was definitely worth it. Home they came, and now they are also sitting in our garage. We need to work on hanging more artwork inside before these are added to our space, but they will find a home soon. (They also need to be cleaned off. Note to those hosting a Garage Sale - PLEASE dust off your merchandise before you set up shop!)

There's still a lot we need, and we're scouring Craigslist as well as working on plan to build a few pieces of furniture. It's fun piecing together a place that we can finally make feel like our own. Have you stumbled across any great finds recently, either at a yard sale or on Craigslist? I love hearing stories about successful treasure hunts!

New Addition to Halle Handmade

I'm so excited to share with you a brand new addition to Halle Handmade. I love creating my tags (even though there has been a bit of an unplanned break from my shop recently), but I felt that I had more to offer. I wanted to add something to the shop that was a bit more universal, and that is why I have started to create some hand lettered art work.

It's something I really enjoy doing and yesterday I released my very first piece of artwork in my Etsy shop! I'll be selling my art as a digital file - this way I can sell my work for less, and customers can also save on shipping. All you do is purchase the print in my shop and you will then be able to download the JPG file. You'll be able to print the artwork wherever you like - even at home if you are so inclined!

I hope you all love my latest addition and I hope to create some more art that I am really excited about!

So make sure to pop by Halle Handmade to check out my newest listings! I hope you love what you see, as much as I enjoy creating them!

Up On the Mantel

Happy Monday! It's a long weekend for us, so today's post will be short and sweet, about a project I mentioned a while ago. Back when I shared our autumn mantel decor, there was a big empty gap just begging for something to fill it up. 

In that same post I talked about how my ideal solution would be to get a large canvas of Halle up there. I had a photo in mind, but I just couldn't pull the trigger with the cost of getting a canvas being so high. Then, one wonderful Groupon was the answer to all of my prayers... a great deal on a 30" x 20" canvas for only $49. How could I possibly turn it down. The deal was purchased, and then I jumped on the company's website, ArtsyCanvas, uploaded my photo and ordered it the same night.

Last Wednesday, when Halle and I returned home from a great afternoon play date, I was thrilled to find a large box on our front step. I immediately cut into it, and was thrilled when I pulled out our new canvas.

The quality of the canvas itself was incredible, and the photo looked beautiful. It went directly up onto our mantel and I couldn't be happier with how it looks...

Though I have the photo in colour as well, I opted for the black and white version. I figured this way we can leave it there all year round and it will always match our seasonal decor.

The photo was taken by the fabulously talented Nicole of Bittersweet Photography during Halle's one year photo session way back in July. It's one of my favourites and I knew it would be canvas worthy as soon as I saw it.

Yes, the space could have used a larger canvas, but this was the largest size available, and to be honest I didn't want something TOO large that may eventually not fit into whatever space we end up in. I think this is just perfect and will be easy to hang wherever we would like in the future - our bedroom, Halle's bedroom, a playroom, the options are endless!

Have you turned any of your own family photos into a canvas? What website did you use and where does it hang now?

In This House...

It's hard to believe, but we've been in this rental for over 6 months already. Time is certainly flying by, and we're still working on making this place feel more like home. One of my biggest initiatives has been to get artwork that is unique, personal and meaningful up on our walls. I've already shared our bedroom art project here and here, our hallway gallery wall here, and the updates we've made to Halle's gallery wall here. Next on my list was this big blank space next to our entertainment unit in our living room...

Just like everything else we have put on the walls, I wanted it to be something we loved and something that really reflected us as a family. Everything worked out perfectly when I attended the BLEND event back in late September, and won this beautiful decal from Danielle's shop, Urban Walls.

A decal is the perfect solution for art in a rental. It's a great way to get something on the wall that isn't permanent, and it won't cause any damage. Plus, options are endless so you're sure to find something that speaks to you, especially in Danielle's shop. 

For us, it would've been easy to just slap it up on the wall and call it a day, but that wasn't what I wanted. Since we're not too sure how long we'll be in this home, or where we'll be next, I wanted to do something to ensure we could take this message with us wherever we go. It all started on a rainy Sunday when we made a trip to The Home Depot...

That melamine coated pressed board was exactly what we were looking for, and we were thrilled that we didn't even need it cut. It was larger than the decal, but would leave us the perfect border all the way around, and it put us out only $26!

Election night was the night to get this project going. While the TV kept us up-to-date in the background, we got to work preparing to apply the decal. B measured everything so we could get it nice and centred. Then we gave the whole board a wipe down with a slightly damp cloth and then began to apply the decal.

We had some problems with keeping the decal straight on the board. The easiest way to fix this was to actually cut the decal in between the lines of text, and apply it in sections. You can see B cutting it in the middle picture on the right, and it's obvious in the picture on the bottom left that we have two separate pieces. Cutting the decal really helped make this whole process easier. In the end, it worked out perfectly and the whole thing looked great. Halle loved helping too...

With the decal on, it was time get our big heavy board up on the wall. B would guess it weighs around 30lbs, so we had to be sure to get something sturdy to keep it up on the wall. B had picked up some of these corner braces at Canadian Tire when we were out on Sunday...

Then, there was a whole lot of measuring, drilling and inserting of anchors...

What B did was place the braces in the wall so that the board would rest on top of it, not cradled inside of it. Then he took the two braces for the top and attached them to the board first. Lastly, he put the board in place and attached the top braces to the wall, and then screwed the bottom braces into the board. One night of a little bit of dedication and we ended up with this beauty in our living room...

I am SO in love with it. I have always loved how decals look on walls, but I really love how this one looks on our melamine coated board. It's thick and heavy and really has presence in the room. I think it's a statement piece, and the message is a perfect reminder for all of us on how we should approach each day. Halle really loved it too. Once it was up on the wall she kept running over to look up at it, then she would laugh, run away and repeat. I wish I'd got a video of it. The best part for me though, is knowing that I will get to take this with us wherever we go in the future.

If you're looking for something great to spruce up your space, check out Urban Walls. I'm already eyeing up these awesome polka dots - I think they'd be perfect for Halle's room!

Have you been adding artwork to your places? Getting up to anything besides preparing for the holiday's? I can't lie... I have Christmas on the brain these days, I'm just not allowed to decorate until after American Thanksgiving! ;)

A Guest Ready Room

I've been lacking in posts showcasing projects and rooms that we have been tackling recently. I guess that would expected with all of the guest traffic we have going on. Well, I'm back today with a peek at how I fluffed up the guest room for those coming to stay. We didn't have a lot to spend, but wanted to make the room feel really comfortable, cozy and inviting for our family and friends.

Back in early June, we had our first house guest, and in a rather rushed attempt to prepare for her arrival, we got the room looking like this:

Not awful, but still incredibly bare, so we had our work cut out for us. The first thing we did, was add a little bit of artwork. We shopped our home for this and pulled out the headboard from our old bedroom in Toronto, along with a print that B gifted me a few Christmas' ago. The colours worked with the bedding from our old bedroom, along with the paint colour on our garage sale find headboard. 

I also figured, our guests could use somewhere to hang towels, purses, jackets, sweaters - whatever they pleased really. Thankfully, we had some hooks that hung in our house in Toronto when we had moved in. We had taken them down when we painted, and never got around to hanging them again - but we did decide to move them out west with us. So, up they went, just next to the door to the guest bedroom. The perfect place for our guests to hang whatever they may need.

I also wanted to make sure that our guests had everything they needed right at their finger tips when they arrived. I brought down one of our newly painted blue chairs and placed a basket of towels, face cloths and goodies on it for them. All the toiletries one could ever need are in that basket, along with a hair dryer.

For the nightstand, we decided we needed a lamp for our guests to flick on before they crawl into bed. Whether they would like to read, or just not have to worry about getting from the door to the bed in the dark, it was necessary. Since it was short notice, we actually moved one of our master bedroom lamps down there before my friend came to visit in June, and it remained there right up until B's parents left. But last week, after they were gone I was at IKEA and found a much smaller lamp in the As-Is section for only $10. Perfect solution for our small table, and it made room for us to add a clock, as well as a place to keep our guest book.

On the floor next to the night table, I placed a basket that I picked up at IKEA for $5.99. Inside of it, I placed all of the brochures we have collected for the surrounding areas, and other places we have visited. I figure this is a great resource when people are coming to stay from out of town. We don't really make a ton of concrete plans in advance, so this way our guests can take a look at the different places nearby, and maybe decide what they would really enjoy seeing. After all, I'm around all day to help them see the sights, and I'm happy to bring them wherever they would like to go...

I'd say, for mostly shopping our home (with the exception of the $15 I spent for the lamp and basket... not including some toiletries I picked up) that we did a good job setting up the space for guests...

There is still room for improvement to cozy it up a little. Maybe a nice chair, or a dresser, and definitely another nightstand. We'll get there eventually, but slow and steady is our best way to go. We enjoy finding the right pieces and not just throwing stuff in there because it was a great deal. I need to really love it. So I'm keeping my eyes out, and maybe by the next month we have a ton of visitors, I'll have some more updates to share.

So far the reviews from B's parents were great! They loved the room and found the bed incredibly comfy! Come back tomorrow to see how we whipped our "office/work out room" into a guest room in a pinch! Yup you read that right. We have three people staying at the moment and needed to provide some privacy for our extra guests, so we made some moves and shopped our home and pulled together a cozy little space for extra over night guests!

A Monday Giveaway!

Happy Monday everyone! Once again we've been incredibly busy with some friends who have been visiting, and my brother just arrived yesterday. Still a lot more to see and do, but I do have more to share with you this week. Before I get to some of the stuff we've done around here, along with a look at how I prepared the guest room for everyone, I wanted to kick off this week with a giveaway. It's been quite a while since I've done one, so I was happy to hear from Monica over at Printique, who offered up TWO really great prizes!

Printique, is a fun Etsy shop, that has some really great ways for you to dress up your walls in a personal way. Located in New Brunswick, Monica does a great job taking your photos and turning them into beautiful Pop Arts prints.

{Set of 4 8x10 prints}

{Andy Warhol style 8x10 print}

I love that you have the option to get the four individual prints, or one print. She also provides the option to order them as a digital file so that you can print them anywhere and anyway you'd like. How fun would those digital files be to create your own birthday party invites for little one's?

You may also like to have a couple's photo done. Great for framing and hanging, or using for some funky wedding invites, save the dates or even thank you cards.

{Couples Pop Art 8x10 Print}

If you're looking for something a little different, you may be a fan of the custom silhouette portraits that Monica does. You can choose to have it made using the map of a city you love, or have one of the pretty scalloped frames around it. So lovely!

{Custom Silhouette Portrait with Map}                                        {Custom Silhouette Portrait}

So "What?", you may ask, is Monica offering up for my lovely readers today? Well, we're giving away TWO $20 certificates, to be used any way that you would like, to two very lucky readers! Excited? Well, here's how to enter:

1) You must be a follower of my blog! Just click on that pretty "join this site" button on the right hand side of the screen. 

2) Visit Monica's shop, and check out what she has. Then come on back and leave a comment letting me know what you would use $20 towards!

For Extra Entries (please leave a separate comment for each of the below for an extra entry to count):

1) Head on over to First Time Fancy's Facebook page and give me a "Like". Then come back and leave a comment letting me know (if you already "Like" First Time Fancy on Facebook, even better - just leave a comment and let me know!)

2) Head on over to Monica's Facebook Page and give her a "Like", then come back and leave a comment letting me know that you have done so!

3) Give a little tweet! "I just entered to win $20 from Printique over at @FirstTimeFancy!"

Make sure you enter by this coming Sunday, September 16th at 12pm PST. I will announce the winner (chosen at random), next Monday the 17th! In the mean time, if you just can't wait to find out if you've won, or you'd rather do some shopping on your own, Monica has offered up 20% off to all First Time Fancy readers! Just use the promo code FANCY20! Good Luck and Happy Shopping! :)