The lazy girl’s guide to Halloween

Me and Halloween, we have an okay relationship. It’s not my favourite holiday, I may say it’s in the top three but if we count my birthday as a holiday (and I do) then it’s bumped to the number four position. I love seeing people put creativity into their costumes and love the opportunity to DIY my own, but I need a house party or some place where I don’t pay insane cover charges and high drink costs to make it worth my while.

This year, I didn’t have plans for Halloween. Well, the day of I did. I was going to a friend’s wedding and the invite explicitly said that costumes were not allowed. Hooray! I didn’t have to think of a costume for this year. But then I found out other friends were celebrating on the 30th so Annie and I joined them.

And then I found myself needing a costume and only a week to prepare. A week in which I had very little time to prepare, may I add.

I won’t tell you what Andrea’s costume was, mainly because I don’t want to embarrass myself with my lack of Harry Potter knowledge. All I know is it included an Elder Wand and that’s a reference to the flower and not someone who is senior. Also, wands are fun.

Note that Andrea wiped the red lipstick smudge off right after.

For myself, I totally phoned in Halloween. I was a cat. Why a cat? Because I wanted to wear all black and I knew that making a pair of ears would be cheaper than buying a witches hat.

It was important for me to make my ears because I like to be crafty and I didn’t want to be wearing some cheap dollar store ears. And, it seemed incredibly easy. And it really was.

All you need to make your own ears is a headband, two black pipe cleaners, lace, a needle and thread. I just formed the ear shape from the pipe cleaners, wrapped the ends around the headband and then sewed the lace to the pipe cleaners.

It literally took 15 minutes. The whole process was so quick that I didn’t even take photos of the process. I like to think that sentence up there that explains the steps is good enough for you to make your own pair.

On Halloween I then wore all black, I like to think I didn’t go as the stereotypical “sexy kitten” and instead had a fashionable and sassy kitten look wearing a skater skirt from ASOS and a crop top I bought from Forever 21 for under my sari a few weeks back. Which I never thought I’d wear again, but you know what, plus size girls most certainly can wear a damn crop top.

Finally, I found some make up tutorials on Pinterest and created my best cat make-up look at home.

Bathroom selfie

Looking at it now, two days later, if I had gone with different makeup and a half-up ponytail I could’ve gone as a plus-size Arianna Grande. I guess I have my costume for next year now.

What did you guys do for Halloween this year? I noticed a lot of friends and coworkers were lazy with their costumes this year (myself very much included), were you?

Knit happens

So, you may (or may not) have noticed that I have been M.I.A. for the last little while, even though there was some pretty exciting shit going on (I’m taking about you Trudeau!). I have been having a rather tough time with my previously mentioned arthritis, and needed a bit of a break from the blogging. Anyhoo, I am back to my old tricks and wanted to share with you something I have rediscovered. Knitting.

Now its not what you think. Although I do have the ailments of a 90 year old woman, its not just for old ladies anymore! There are tons of awesome projects out there, and I am going to let you know what has been keeping me busy.

Now first of all, one of my cousins is having a baby. I love babies. Actually so much. I am 25 and babysit often. So it is super exciting that there is going to be a new babe in the family! This also means that I need to start making things. I am thinking quilts, sweaters, socks, the whole nine. But I started with a blanket.

I have knitted on and off for years now, but never really went much further than knitting and purling, and I never even though about using a pattern! It just seemed too hard! But a friend of mine assured me that it was easier than I thought!

My friend suggested that I look on the website Ravelry.com and let me tell you, it is awesome. It has tons of free patterns, and you can search by keyword, yarn thickness, needle size, and difficulty (they have an option for “piece of cake” meaning an idiot could do it, I can vouch that it is really that easy). It makes it really easy to figure out what will work for you.

I found a pattern that I liked, went and bought all the supplies and got going!

This is just a little way into the blanket making…

And four skeins of yarn later, I had a super cute blanket!

I also have been on a headband making kick, and this is one of them. It kept my ears super toasty on a dog walk!

I have also ventured into the realm of cable knit. It looks super complicated and fancy, but is pretty easy! Don’t let it scare you off! Anytime I see something that I am not sure how to do, I go to YouTube and enter what I am supposed to do in. There are tons of videos for anything you may need to do! So far, there has not been anything that I haven’t been able to muddle my way through!

Also extra added bonus, knitting and having my hands moving has made my hands a lot less painful from my arthritis! Woot!

Have you tried knitting or another hobby recently? What do you like to make? Let us know!

Ikea Hacks: Rast

If you’ve been reading this blog, you probably realize that we love Ikea. In the short life of this blog, we’ve had a few posts on this magical Swedish store and their delightful furniture.

A few years ago, I bought the Rast chest of drawers to use as storage for clothes because I wasn’t ready to give some of them up even though I really should have. I was basically enabling my hoarder tendencies. After buying this, I moved and started using it as a dresser, but it really sucked as a dresser because it doesn’t hold as much as I wanted it to and it was really short. Also, it’s boring to look at.

I left it as that boring colour for way too long. I mean, look at it, it’s begging for a coat of paint!

I needed a new dresser but wasn’t sold on spending too much money on the situation, so I decided to get out my tools, some paint, my creativity and hack this Rast.

Now, let me state for the record I actually completed this hack over a year ago and before this blog was even a thought in our mind so I don’t have photos of the steps. But it is one of my proudest creative moments and I wanted to share it here.

What I needed to do to make this bad boy a functioning dresser is somehow give it the ability to store more stuff, raise it so I don’t have to bend down so much and slap a coat of paint on there.

The first order of business? Buying a second Rast. This bad boy does not break the bank and is available for only $39 at Ikea. Before I rushed home to put the second one together, as I usually do with a new Ikea purchase, I painted the individual pieces, along with the previous one I purchased.

These colour tester cans from Home Depot are the best. I work very close to a Rona, but they don’t sell them, so I take the extra half hour out of my day to make a trip to Home Depot for these. It’s the perfect amount for most projects, relatively cheap and you don’t have huge paint cans sitting around your house unused.

I chose a dusty purple colour for my project because my room is a boring beige-y brown colour and I need a pop. Also, I like to decorate as if a boy would never live in my house.

Obviously I would use a colour where the name evokes wine

After the paint had dried a couple of hours, I coated it in Varathane Diamond Wood Finish in Satin because this stuff is awesome at protecting your paint job. It also helps wick moisture and makes cleaning so much easier. Basically, always coat any wood you’ve stained or painted in this to help keep it looking good.

Next I had to get the two individual pieces together to form one dresser, so I glued the two Rast’s together in the middle using heavy glue. I questioned whether this would work but didn’t want to have to screw them together (or use nails) for fear of the nails or screws getting in the way of how the drawers fit. I used Gorilla Glue for wood and it works like a dream. Over one year later and it’s holding up really well.

To do this, I had one of the Rast on it’s side and put the glue on then placed the other Rast on top. Then used two heavy duty clamps to hold it together as it dried for about 24 hours.

As previously mentioned, I wanted the dresser to be raised a bit taller. This was much simpler than I though, I just got four legs (similar to these ones), painted them and screwed them into the bottom of the dresser(s). Actually, it required one more step in there since the Rast doesn’t have much of a base to screw that in, so I added a small piece of 2×4 where each leg would go (painted as well) to give the legs something to screw on to. These pieces were also stuck on with that handy dandy Gorilla Glue.

And finally, the most fun part. As you can see above the Rast has two pulls for each drawer. I wanted to jazz mine up and use metal pulls and since I found out that buying 12 of them can be pricey I decided to just have one per drawer. Although there are a bunch of cute and covetable drawer pulls at Anthropologie, I couldn’t bring myself to pay $12+ for each knob so I went with a 6-pack from Rona (similar to these ones). Still super cute!

This step was the only part I needed help from someone else because it is impossible to screw these pulls in if the hole doesn’t already exist, so I needed my dad’s power drill. And if you’ve never used one these before, they’re fun! I legit want one for Christmas.

And a note about the six pre-existing holes in the Rast for where the original knobs were to go, I just filled them in with wood filler before I painted and it’s like they never existed.

After a few days work (mostly to wait for paint and glue to dry) my new dresser was complete!

Love it!

Editors note: I took that last photo right after I put the dresser in place. The orchid has since died and the top of the dresser is littered with hair elastics, brushes and random bits of jewelry. The glasses I have hanging there will soon be gone as my prescription has changed and I have no need for my collection anymore. That in itself is sad, but it means a new DIY project to find something to put in it’s place!

I might get a new power drill for Christmas and need to use it on something! Link us to your favourite Ikea hacks or DIY projects for the house. 

How to be a home handy person

So as a young lass living on my own, I have realized the importance of being able to fix shit for yourself. Even before I moved out, I was the handy one. I lived in a house with my mom and sister, neither of which are particularly well versed in art of fixing things, or assembling IKEA furniture (which we had a lot of). I have figured out some tools and tricks of the trade that I am going to share with you here.

First of all the tools. Don’t let the pink fool you. This is the handiest little kit, and I have actually bought this exact set for myself and quite a few friends. You do need an additional screwdriver situation because what is included here is an electric screwdriver which isn’t great for all situations. To find the Apollo Pink Tool Kit click here!

Now for screwdrivers, I am a huge fan of the Picquic. My dad first recommended this to me and he loves it so much he got rid of a whole bunch of his old screwdrivers. It allows you to change the bit on the end, while still having secure grip and control. It comes in majorly handy when assembling things from IKEA. You don’t need to get up five times to find the right screwdriver, its all there! To find the Picquic Multi-Bit Driver click here.

Once you have these sorts of tools your options are endless! You can hang pictures, put up lights, assemble an apartments worth of furniture and fix most things that come up. With just these things I have fixed my garburator, taken it apart piece by piece and re assembled it, fixed my moms clogged sink in her bathroom, and replaced all of the pulls on my cupboards. Another helpful tip is YouTube. I am so resistant to paying for things to get fixed, I usually start with trying to sort it out myself, with the great assistance of YouTube, and my last resort is calling my dad. Typically if I can’t fix it, he can’t either but its worth a try! As far as YouTube goes, pretty much anything you would encounter needing to be fixed is on there. From coffee machine issues, to said garburator issues. Just look it up, watch the video, and take what you can from it and go from there.

For IKEA and other home assembly furniture, what I have found to be a tried and true method is separating all of the little fidgety bits (you know the ones, the screws, dowels and more) into different containers. I have a whole bunch of tiny little glasses my friends mom gave me for “wine”. Lets be honest. I need a real wine glasses. 3 oz will never cut it. So I use them for separating all the IKEA bits and it makes everything so much easier. The other thing I recommend is reading the whole instruction booklet first, and clearly identify which part is used for what. Sometimes they look really similar and if you don’t read the whole thing, you put the screws in the wrong thing!

The next thing is to go step by step and not jump ahead. They are in this order for a reason, and it is not just a Swedish ploy to make you cry. I promise.

Also, as I learned last Friday when I was assembling my most recent piece of IKEA awesomeness, if something doesn’t make sense, you probably did something wrong. When I was assembling, the drawer in my new nightstand wouldn’t slide in! I followed all of my own rules and still made a mistake! I retraced my steps and although the drawings were awfully misleading (I swear) I saw where I went wrong. I switched the drawer slide things and it slid in like a dream! And check out my new bedside setup! 

Ignore the pug who would not move. If you are interested the side table is a BRIMNES Nightstand which you can find here for $49.99, and the lamp is the BRÅN Table lamp base – 30 inches which you can find here for $15.99 and the shade is the JÄRA Lampshade in gray 23 cm which you can find here for $10.00. Anyways, happy fixing, DIYing, assembling or whatever you choose to do!

What kinds of projects to you like to take on? And what are your tips and tools of the trade? Let us know!

Home away from home

If you’re like me, you work in an office. And if you’re like me, you like things to be pretty. I moved in to my cubicle in March and have been looking for a new and interesting way to decorate it. I wanted to make it different from everyone around me, but also pretty and fun for me to look at when I space out and rest my eyes from staring at my screen for the 6^th hour in a row.

One of my office mates decorated her cubicle with “wallpaper” and when I saw how great hers looked, I had to make it my own.

The before… I may have purposely left my desk cluttered for this photo

This is what I started with, I had a few plants and accessories but the walls were boring. To jazz up the place I went online to find a pattern that would reasonably fit on a 11×17 piece of paper. This was probably the hardest part because I’m not good with photos and resizing and such, I had to find one in the size I already needed. I’m also super picky and would print out one pattern and decide it was nice in small bits but to wallpaper a full cubicle would be overwhelming.

Inspirations/ Mood Board

I’ve always loved blue and white China patterns, my maternal grandmother had a few pieces in her house and I really liked them (and I regret not getting them for myself when she passed, even though they probably weren’t worth much and likely went to the Salvation Army to be sold for $1 each). For my desk, I Googled blue and white pattern and after hours of searching eventually found this one.

(I would link to it here but I don’t know where I found it and erased the file from my computer. Way to go, Jen!)

Next, I went to Staples to print out the pattern on 11×17 paper. No need to send it in or even talk to someone, just bring in your USB with your file and your credit card. For each piece it’s $0.89. For my desk I needed 9 prints.

Then I went into work and put them up. I used tape for the plastic and whiteboard parts and push pins for the fabric parts.

After a few weeks of having them up, I’ve got quite a few compliments on my desk. It’s eye-catching in a sea of white, similar desks and I think I’ve inspired a few others to follow suit!

To keep myself sane I’ve also added a few plants that are supposedly hard to kill in office environments, one is a succulent and the other is a ZZ plant that people always think is fake until they touch it.  I don’t stick pens in a pot of grass, that’s a pen holder that looks like grass from ModCloth, there’s also a monkey covering his ears that I randomly picked up at TJ Maxx during a cross-the-border visit (mostly because it matched the green of my plants but also because I love monkeys). Finally, I keep my one litre water bottle that I picked up from Superstore on my desk to make sure I’m drinking my water because I’ve come to learn I will only drink water if it’s out of a cute container.

If you were to visit my desk on a day to day basis you’ll find some of the notebooks and clutter from the before picture still exists.

There’s a few other things I’d like to get to make my cubicle a bit more like home, I know I’ll be asking for this foot hammock for Christmas (heated, if you’re looking to buy me a gift). My next project will be to tackle the drawers you see on the right hand side there, I’ve been in this desk for a few months and I have no idea how I’ve accumulated so much crap in there.

Share your cubicle decorating tips in the comments or you can give me any help you have to keep desk drawers clean!

Cleaning Out My Closet

It’s summer. It’s sunny and hot and the perfect time to be sitting on the beach or by a pool or doing anything outdoors. But I just want to sit on my bed and stare at this sight all day long (with a fan blowing on me, obvi)…

 

This is my closet. For perhaps the first time since I moved into my place over two years ago, I have finally been able to tackle the beast that it is and have everything organized.

Here’s the before…

 

I’m getting anxiety just looking at it. And this was after I went through and gave away stuff and tried to organize it in April.

The main issue at hand was that there were two clothing bars, the bottom held my pants and some blazers whereas the top was my shirts and dresses. I hated that the dresses couldn’t hang free and instead were folded to hang on the hangers so they didn’t dangle down on the pants. It took up twice the room and everything looked a mess.

I woke up Friday morning with one goal in mind… organize that closet.

Originally, I had thought to add a divider in so I could have one section for dresses and another for two bars. Look, I even drew up “blueprints”

I took a trip to Home Depot and decided that the divider wasn’t the answer to my problem (i.e. it seemed too difficult to do without help from my dad who is out of town), so I went to my favourite place to visit when I need to organize my life. Ikea.

One look at the Kallax and I knew I found the solution. I actually have a similar one of these bad boys in my room already and knew that it was just what I needed.

 

Let me share something with you guys, I have a PhD in Ikea furniture. You can give me anything out of their catalog along with the necessary parts and an Allen key and I can put it together. Doesn’t matter if it says I need two people to do the job, I got it on my own (this may also have to do with my fiercely stubborn personality). My greatest Ikea achievement was when I put together a wardrobe while I was living in a one bedroom with a roommate and used the living room as my bedroom. They don’t make the same one anymore, but this is similar and served as my closet at the time

 

After tackling that, the Kallax was child’s play. I could get it done with one hand tied behind my back if I needed. Instead I just did it while sweating buckets in my 500 degree room (C or F, whichever you prefer) and drinking.

The best thing about this piece of furniture was that it could be stood up to have two rows of four (as pictured above) or four rows of two. I went with four rows of two after trying both ways about 10 times. Which was fun to move around in said 500 degree room in a cramped closet space.

After taking everything out of the closet, I put everything back in neatly and I tried to colour code it. I was able to hang my dresses as a normal person might and not have them hang over other things, I then folded all my pants up along with a few sweaters and stored them in the Kallax

 

While at Ikea I also picked up these Dröna boxes to keep things organized (read: hidden) and put some scarves in one and some shoes in others.

I’m super happy with the results and finally feel like I’ve got a handle on my closet. Now, I just have to keep things organized and avoid throwing things on the floor when I change my outfit five times each morning.

Share! What’s your favourite closet organizing tip?

It’s (almost) my birthday and I’ll dance if I want to

In all my years, I have never met someone who loves their birthday as much as I do. I have many modest friends who would prefer that  a fuss is not made (ahem, Jen). But I love my birthday. I love everyones birthdays. I am the girl who will show up at your house with a garland, and a cake, and expect for you to be as excited as I am that it is your day.

When my birthday comes, I count down the days for a month. With my birthday here TOMORROW, it shall be the day to end all days. The best day of the year. For sure. So I am gonna share a few things that I have been wanting to try out for other peoples birthdays.

Recently, I have been super into the Naked Cake ideas. I love frosting as much as the next girl, but I think that the bit in between layers is plenty, and if you use food colouring to make the cake a fun colour, it is even more awesome. Below are a few of my faves that I have seen recently.

 

I also love a good garland. I found an awesome tutorial on Pinterest, and it is much easier than you think to make.

Check it out here.

I made mine a little thicker because I liked the look (and it was a lot easier ;). Here is a pic of my creation.

I got the tissue paper from the dollar store, so the whole project cost me about $3.00.

Now as far as reality goes, I am not super into throwing parties for my birthday. I love getting together with close friends and last year, I had a pool party at my moms house. It was great. And my amazing friend Cory made just the best cake ever. Now Cory has a penis cake mold. It has been used on many occasions, and you would be surprised how many different things you can do with this cake pan. Check our our inspiration here.

Cory created the wizard cake for me, because of my endless love of Harry Potter. See the magic below.

 

Here are a few other fun pics from the party.

 

PS Pro tip, if you use stemless wine glasses, they float in the pool #science.

Do you love your birthday? What are your favourite things to do on your special day? Let us know!

Cross-stitching

I recently took up a new hobby and this is huge for me. I have an attention span that is worse than a child, so I pick up hobbies and quit shortly before I can finish the first project. Or right after if I’m not amazing at it the first go round.

For years I wanted to pick up cross stitching, it seemed like an easy hobby and the final products can range from cute to funny. So last Christmas when my workplace Secret Santa came up, it seemed like the perfect time to pick up the hobby.

One of my favourite types of cross-stitch is funny or dirty words or pictures that seem to clash with your grandmother’s stereotypical cross-stitch. I started looking through Etsy for a funny cross-stitch to fit the personality of my coworker, Colleen, and found that the prices for a finished product was higher than the Secret Santa dollar limit and because I put it off so long, I wasn’t sure I’d get it by Christmas.

It looked easy enough, so I consulted my cross-stitching friend Lauren (of the fabulous Little Wren) about how hard it could be. With her tips plus some help from the Internet and a pattern from Etsy, I created my first cross-stitch.

If you know anything about Colleen, she is all about the Thug Life. Ok, not really. But she loved it and I kinda want to make one for myself. The contrast of the hilarious saying vs the cross stitch is probably what makes it most hilarious. This pattern was found on Etsy from HouseofMiranda, who has a lot of great bad ass cross stitch patterns.

The next cross stitch I took on was one that I kept for myself and proudly hung in my bathroom

Again, it’s hilarious to me because the idea that anyone would be doing coke in my bathroom is ridiculous. But it is a quant reminder to those that may decide to imbibe that I prefer they don’t. This pattern was purchased from starkissedjade on Etsy.

My next project was a bit more detailed and took longer than I had thought it would. My mom’s birthday is on Valentines Day and we all know mom’s like homemade gifts, so I made her this cross-stitch

This one does have a special meaning, I text it all the time because it’s my favourite emoji, and it has become my way of saying I love you. This one was hardest because the space was completely filled in, even the white parts, and three different shades of brown made up that majestic swirl. This guy was bought from JimJamCrafts on Etsy and hangs proudly in my parent’s bathroom.

One of the things I love most about cross-stitching, other than the final products, is that it helps me focus on one task. I tend to do a million things while watching TV at the end of a long day, I’m on my computer (reading gossip, on social media or writing a blog post as I am right now) or my phone. I also am a late-night snacker, so this helps me cut down on bad snacking and also focus my attention on one thing.

If you’re interested in learning to cross-stitch a really great tutorial can be found online here. A lot of great patterns can be found on Etsy and are relatively cheap, instant downloads. There are also free online patterns, but I don’t always find them to be cute or funny. They’re good to learn on though. You can also use this tool to create your own quote cross-stitch.

Some of the basics you’ll need to start can be found at Michaels:

• 14 count Aida cloth (14 is a good starter, as you get better you can move up to 16 or 18 to create a tighter pattern in a smaller space)
• Embroidery floss (most patterns will list the corresponding DMC number)
• Embroidery needles
• Embroidery hoop
• Clothes pegs, this is the easiest way to keep your floss untangled and organized (tip: write the DMC floss number on the peg)

This is a fairly cheap hobby to pick up and I highly recommend it as a stress reliever as it does help calm you, it puts everything out of your mind as you concentrate on one task.

Tell us, what hobbies do you have? Any cross-stitch patterns you recommend I tackle?

 

The Magic of a Gallery Wall

For a chica on a budget, there are few better things to decorate your house with than a good gallery wall. There are so many amazing prints out there, with great things on Etsy and other local printshops. All you need is a few extra bucks, and maybe some old picture frames that need a little love, or a trip to HomeSense and/or Ikea.

I am going to list a few of my favourites here, the ones that are still on my list and haven’t quite taken the plunge to get yet. I like mixing black and white frames, so that it doesn’t look too matchy matchy.

I like having a mix of prints, photos, and other things. I found some great vintage silhouettes on Etsy a couple of years ago and love them dearly (also see if you can spot the beast somewhere in the picture).

 

The one below is my favourite part of the two walled gallery wall. I love my Rifle Paper Co. heart from a dear dear friend.

 

Below here are some Etsy link to some fun prints, the top one I have. I love buying prints that you can download, all you need to do is send it to a local print shop and you can get them the same day!

Mindy

Lips

Unicorn

Botany

Geo

Watermelon

Vespa

What kinds of things do you like to do to make your space feel more homey! Any fun tips, please let us know!

What a hand-me-down can of paint can do.

I love my house. I always have, always will. I loved my every house that I lived in with my family, and I loved my old apartment, and I am really starting to love my new one. Now lets get one thing straight. It is not always love at first sight. There are usually many different things that catch my eye and bug me consistently until they are fixed, from cabinet pulls, to ugly paint, to a piece of art that I just can’t quite get rid of. In my old apartment, I got the keys two weeks early and for two solid weeks, my dad and I painted and buffed it up until I moved in. And let me tell you, it was pretty great. It was in rough shape when I moved in, but man, did it look nice when I left. Now my new place is great, and there is only one main issue. And it is the colour red. Nothing against red, it is just the last colour I would choose, after potentially orange. I like white, grey, pastels, and some bright colours, but usually green or blue. So when I moved into my new house, the red had to go. Now as I am a student, my budget is pretty tight, so I postponed doing any big DIY tasks for the first month. But then, I got really fed up. I needed it done NOW. Exams were done and I had no more excuses. So I made a plan to do it for free. My dad is a pretty handy guy and he had all of the painting supplies needed to make the necessary changes, but all that was missing was paint. So while my mother wasn’t home, I went into her storage room and took the little bit of pretty gray paint and went on my merry way.

Now for some fun before and afters.

 

And after some fab grey paint!

 

The colour is Benjamin Moore – Cliffside Grey

See if you can snoop around in someones basement for paint, you might find a gem!