Blogger BFF and a Special Delivery!

Sometimes in life you meet people that can only be described as incredibly special. When I first started my blog, Im going to be honest...I had NO idea what I was doing (not that much has changed, but still). I didn't really know any other bloggers that I could turn to for help or advice or just to talk to about blogging.

One day I came across Shannon's blog: Burlap and Lace. The odd thing was, that we had a TON in common. To begin, we had used similar design aspects in creating our blogs and seemed to have very similar tastes. I emailed Shannon directly to compliment her blog and our conversations began from there.

Weird things began to happen...lol. We found we were updating similar items, worked on the same furniture as each other, had the same fashion sense and obsession with Diet Coke....lol. We chatted more frequently and literally every day, found something else we had in common. WEIRD.

The only challenge is that we live nowhere near each other (sad face). I know if we did, we'd probably hang out...a lot. And talk decor and fashion and how our husbands would freak out if we brought home one more thing from the thrift store...lol. Thankfully we have Facebook and email and all those other media tools out there to keep us in touch.

Over the past little while Ive been dealing with a few struggles, and on a particularily hard day I got a package in the mail. Not just any package...a beautiful one:

It contained this:

and this:

and a little bit of this sweet smelling stuff:

Now if that doesn't cheer a girl up, I dont know what does! I feel that people are meant to come into our lives for different reasons, and Shannon is one of those people that I am so thankful to have met, and can call a friend :) Thanks Shannon :)

So pop on over and check her blog out!
On top of all of this she's featured my vanity table on there today!

You rock girl!! Wishing we could be out at OG with diet cokes rocking our matching wardrobes right now...lol ;) xo

Side Tables

Our Master Ensuite is almost complete, but we had been looking for a few things to finish it up. The hardest thing to find? Side tables/nightstands. Ugh.

We'd been looking for months. First we purchased these dressers from Ikea that fit our budget, but not our space...

source: Ikea

We spent an evening spread out in our family room- pieces everywhere, putting them together. We lugged them upstairs, put them in the space and didn't like them. Bah. I think we've all been there...thinking our room is going to look just like the Ikea catalogue and then putting it into your space and realising its not going to work. Womp womp.

So we took another trip to Ikea and purchased 2 other smaller tables, that we planned on making over, and that turned into a bit of a nightmare- I deleted the pictures of that project as its an instance I dont want to remember! lol!

Ian finally found one at Urban Barn that we absolutely loved, but could not afford:

source- Urban Barn

So that option was out...unless it went miraciously on sale for like 80% off. Fingers crossed! Ok so while we wait years until that happens, we had to keep looking.

We found a few items on Kijiji....none of which were the right size. So I kind of gave up for a while. Figured something would eventually come along- right price and size.

So one day my mom and I were at Homesense and I literally had an "aha" moment...like when a bright light shone over a piece of furniture literally saying: "HELLO...I'm right here".  We were actually sitting on a bench feeling defeated when I started to look a little differently at the 2 small cabinets right in front of me. The sizes were perfect. They weren't the right colour, and the hardware wasn't what we wanted but those were easy fixes. They were also a great deal. Sold.

I tried to lug them both out of the store, until my mom told me I was ridiculous and that she'd find a sales associate with a cart. Fine. I sat there right in front of them. A woman walked by and stopped to look at them. I felt like a mama bear protecting her young. Touch these tables and get ready for a fight lady!

Anyways, we escaped the store with both cabinets that I crammed into my car despite my mom's reluctance:

"Melissa, those will NOT fit"

"Mom, yes they will- do you know how many random Kijiji things Ive stuffed into my car before?

"They're not going to fit."

"Yes they are. Watch me. AND I'll get your luggage and massive picture in there too."

(SIGH)- mom

(10 minutes later...)

"HA- told you they would fit!" (HUGE happy face- ME), as I drove away not able to see out my back window...

Anyways, we got them home and put them in the space. PERFECT! Wooo hooo!!!

We haven't had them painted yet, but Ive switched up the hardware on them. Here was the before:

and here's how they look after switching up the hardware:

(please ignore my ugly alarm clock that Ive had since the age of 7 that might or might not still have disney stickers on it...I know I need a new one...)

Anyways, back to more important decor choices...what colour should I paint the tables? Right now, we are thinking white (as our headboard is going to be darker or patterned), but we might be open to colour choices too?

Any thoughts? What colour would you paint them?!

Master Ensuite Curtains

Hi Everyone!

Its been a while since Ive been on here- we have a lot going on right now, but there are so many things I have to share with you. Many of these projects we've completed a while back, and some we have still yet to finish.

Most of you will remember seeing our Master Ensuite reveal, and we are very much nearing completion on this room! We only have 2 things yet to complete, and Im so happy its almost done!

One of the major things we wanted to finish, was the curtains for this room. We found some incredible fabric on my favorite fabric suppliers site: Tonic Living, and felt that it went perfectly in the room:

Bethe- Robins Egg (Tonic Living)

It matched our tile choices nicely and helped to really tie the room together. Here's what the ensuite looked like before the curtains:

and here is the after:

We chose to create 4 smaller panels rather than 2 or 4 large, based on the size of the room. They fit the opening of the window perfectly and add a nice amount of pattern and texture to the space.

We chose to create simple panels, and hang them from the curtain rods with drapery clips. I found this was the most simple way to hang them while keeping the style modern and clean.

The curtain rods were from Lowes and the drapery clips from Boucliar Home. We used 3 packages of 7 drapery clips (leaving 1 to spare) as each panel needed 5 clips. Thankfully, the rods and drapery clips were a perfect match.

In order to make the panels, I used my Singer machine (which I LOVE), and followed these steps (which I made up as I went):

1. Take measurements of your windows and fabric to see what you have to work with. My windows were 45 inches wide and my fabric was 54 inches wide, so I knew I had just enough fabric to cover my window. I figured I could cut the piece in half, and with seams and cutting off the raw edges would end up with just enough. 

2. Lay the fabric down on a large surface (my dining table worked well!).

3. Cut off the raw edges.

4. If you are creating small panels like I did (24 inches wide), fold your fabric in half and iron the crease.

4. Cut your fabric down the middle to create 2 large pieces

5. Figure out how tall you want your panels to appear (I wanted to hang mine closer to the ceiling (my curtain rods were already up- which was risky!- but I measured how tall I needed them to be from the rod to the floor.)

6. Cut the fabric to be just long enough, and put your extra fabric aside. I had purchased enough fabric to create 4 panels.

7. You should now have 1 large piece thats just long enough, cut in half. Sew all your edges to create 2 large panels.

8. I went the extra step to make sure my patterns matched when I closed the panels, but you dont need to do this.

9. Once I finished my first 2 panels, I used one of them as a template to create the remaining 2.

Its not a difficult process, it just takes time to sew, iron and measure when you are working with such a large amount of fabric.

Im really happy with how the turned out, and am now working on a roman shade for our "kids" bath and 2 more curtain panels for our guest room. Our guest room is getting close to being finished and so is our master ensuite so those will be up soon.

For now, I can enjoy a nice relaxing bath in my washroom...without giving the neighbours a show anymore :S

Enjoy this sunny day everyone!

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