Pottery Barn Inspiration

Here is the beautiful Pottery Barn "Mia" wall sconce. They retail for about $69.00, EACH. I found these Shannon Crystals at Homesense for $3.00, on mega clearance - obviously no one wanted them because their purpose was very unclear - are they for decorating wine glasses? napkin rings? who knows.

These are yet again my $4.00 Thirft Store black wall candle sconces - painted white.

It took me a while....but I played around with the crystals and the clasps and was able to come up with a configuration that used all of the crystals equally between each sconce. A little sewing thread and a couple drops of hot glue helped out.

They will never actually hold taper candles, since one of them is a bit crooked - and because these are in my daughter's room....

The 3 vases were also a thrifty find at 0.99 cents each.

While my chandelier sconces don't even come close to the Pottery Barn "Mia's" , with break down of $3.50 each I don't mind having the homemade ones.

My Kids

My friend Angela's photography business has taken off over the last couple years and she was looking to try something different than her usual request for family photos. We had a play date one morning and she decided to experiment on the kids for something different. I love the photos she took and here they are in the kids' rooms. Photos courtesy of Angela : Elizabeth adores horses.

Mason sitting with his car. His vintage cars were supposed to be decoration but they are too fun to let them sit on his shelf.

Antique Dresser

My friend Laura asked me if I wanted an old dresser about a month ago. Laura's parents had just bought new bedroom furniture and were looking for a new home for their 50+ year old dresser. Laura didn't have room for it in her home and thought I might like to have a new project. When I saw it I fell in love! Morgan kindly went and picked it up for me again, and it sat on our back deck for a couple weeks until the weather cooperated with me finding time the time to get started.

Here is the before. The dresser was in such great shape structurally and the hardware was perfect already, just missing one. The original castor legs are my favorite. My workshop - our backyard, when it's nice out. After. The colour I used was called "inspiration white", a little warmer than a bright white. The hardware got sprayed black and I bought 2 new black antique style knobs to make up for the missing piece.

I think this is my new favorite piece of furniture. Thanks Laura's Mom!

Kyle Family Update Via Photos

Here are some things we've been up to this month.

Elizabeth colouring in her princess dress. Grandma Kyle sewed this dress her to wear at Kenny and Britany's wedding 2 years ago but lately it's been her pick for what to wear all day. Wearing my shoes. I don't think I know any little girls that don't like shoes.... Elizabeth had a slumber party (minus the slumber) with her friends Kendyl and Emerson. We had popcorn and watched the Princess and the Frog but that lasted all of 5 minutes and the girls just did summersaults and cartwheels all night.

Elizabeth and Morgan had a mini photosession together. Here, she is pensive....

Sleepy?

Finished?

Dad's turn.

And Mom's? Excuse the creepy face.

My cousin Steve came for a visit and we loved having him around for a couple days!

We went to the zoo to see our gorilla friends.

Steve taught Mason to step down a stair all by himself. His legs are still pretty short for this though so he usually wipes out but he still seems pretty proud about trying.

Awkward snake slide. Maybe not a good idea for 2 people?

How about three?

That's it for now. We are enjoying another 4 days off with Morgan again though most of our time will likely be spent inside....potty training. I swear I'll be able to post someday soon about the success of our almost 3 and a half year old peeing on the potty. Heaven help me.

Flower Urns

Spring has been a real tease. Not because we've had little bits of sunshine, but because we've had lots of it - though just not quite enough to get summer flowers outside yet. For instance it's been warm all week and this morning we woke up to snow. That's Clagary for you.

I found these flower urns at the Thrift Store. They were nice and big, though plastic and stone coloured.

One can of black Plastic Spray Paint later, and the urns could almost pass for the expensive heavy clay ones that I keep eyeing inthe stores and then walking right past. I stuck my indoor flowers in the pots to dream about how they sort of might look with bright summery flowers in them. I spent half an hour at Home Depot today talking to a very kind elderly lady in the garden section who was also eager to get started. She had been all over the world (I think she mentioned countries in about 4 different continents) and had so much knowledge about plants and flowers and their seasons. I wished I hadn't felt so rushed - I would have loved to hear more of her stories!

For now I guess these will wait on my back deck until mid-April when the outdoor potted flowers hit the stores. Oh, and you can see a peek at my new (old) dresser that's been waiting for a paint job for about 2 weeks on our back deck.

M + D Chilvers

My Mom and Dad drove from Vancouver Island to come visit us last month. We always have a fun time together and here are some pictures of their visit. Our kids love both their sets of grandparents and I hope one day they realize how lucky they are to have them. Here are my lovely parents with a little more than half of their total grandchildren on their laps, at the zoo. Hanging out in the basement watching Dad play on his phone.

This might be my favorite shot of the visit.

Giggle-fest.

Snuggle-fest.

Grandma and Grandpa bought this tent during a trip to IKEA. The cookie Elizabeth is about to swallow whole is also from IKEA.

Mason has developed a true "Mason family" characteristic - a love for trains.

Tea parties with G-pa.

Mom and Dad did a ton for us this visit, including showing me how to change a light fixture. Elizabeth still looks up at the light above her while eating dinner and says "hey that's Grandpa's light!". I'm so glad that my kids already have such fun memories with Grandma and Grandpa!

More White Paint

This canister has appeared before in my pictures, though it wasn't always white. I bought this originally brown canister at Homesense, after about 4 mark downs, and gave it a quick spray in my backyard last summer. I then asked a very good vinyl-making friend of mine to spell out SNACKS for me and stuck it on. My favorite thing about the canister is the little pokey-top lid. Morgan's least favorite thing about this canister is that it never actually holds any snacks.

These oringinally cherry stained chunky frames were $5 dollars each at Homesense, more than half off, and were cracking a bit the seams. They also got a spray of white paint and a bit of distressing to match the cracks. I got the idea from my sister here, to add vintage pictures to the frames. She had found a website that you could print good quality vintage photos for free. These are found in our main floor powder room.