While we have been dealing with this stuff (thankfully this is all gone now and we finally have a day above 40 degrees today! yippeeeee!!!!).......
I was busy doing some inside stuff like hanging this gallery wall in our family room. It is our favourite room in the house but was a but unloved on the walls and still felt very 'we just moved in'-ish. Sooo, I finally got busy to stop myself from going CRAZY from the snow still hanging around in April. I really wanted to only hang things that meant something or that I really love so I can get the most enjoyment from it everyday. It is a mix of my kids' art, a framed doily my Nana made, the Home sign (which was made for us by our best friend Barry for us to take with us on our international travels and we have hung it in every home so far - it is the first thing we put up), a plate that always hung in my Nana's home, a favourite print from Emily of The Black Apple, a bottle of seaglass collected in Uruguay by another dear friend and gifted to me, seashell art I made fom seashells collected in Uruguay, favourite thrift store finds, etc.). This wall was blank for a very long time but I put up the picture ledge last September and it has been only the picture ledge with a few accessories since then so this has been a long time coming. What can I say? I don't like to rush! :) I kid you not though, when my husband watches tv, he sits in a chair directly across from the tv just to the left of where I took this photo from and he DID NOT NOTICE the entire gallery wall (I did it while he as out of town). After a few hours I just had to ask if he noticed anything different about the room.... sigh...
I have also scored a few thrift shop finds lately. The above items were bought on a spring break Macklemore style 'thrift shop challenge' ($20 in my pocket...) with my kids. The picture is a bit dark (it is a dark room plus it has dark carpet) but that super cute mid century bedside table was only $5.99! So happy with it - it now resides in my son's room. The globe was $10 and I loooove its soft colours. I also got a little wooden craft plaque that I want to make into a key hook for near the garage door entrance, a wood and marble chinese checkers game and a tiny little English porcelain plate (I collect them - they are personal salt cellar type plates).
I also repainted my Home sign. I can't remember if I have ever shown it before but I painted it a taupe colour to match the decor in our apartment in Malaysia for some reason that escapes me now. I don't know when I will learn that I just like a lot of colour. I have always loved it but now I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it in yellow. That photo above looks a little odd but I just got a new iMac and have always been a PC girl so it is taking some getting used to. Therefore my old trusty photo editing tools (which I was not very good at anyway but at least I knew how to use them a little bit!) are not around.
I did this embroidery for my dining room (as part of another gallery wall). I showed a picture of an oversized embroidery that I was taken with in my last post and I wanted to do one but simpler. This is certainly nowhere near as large as my inspiration one either (it was 1m [3'] across, this is about 36cm [14"]). I have never done much cross stitch either so I just did a simple back stitch. This is the second version as I tried it first with regular embroidery floss but the line was too fine and you couldn't see it unless you were right in front of it. I used an economical knitting weight yarn for this version and it does show up better but I think I have to have another try at it so I can see it from my kitchen. I love the yellow but it is still hard to see from a distance. I am thinking of cutting out felt letters and stitching them on next. Not ready to give up on some form of yellow yet!
So, that is a quick update of a few things I have been busy with. Hopefully I will be back soon with some more but my blogging schedule is a bit unpredictable right now (award for stating the obvious goes to me...).
Hope you are all enjoying a glorious Spring/Autumn wherever you are! I am going to go and stare at the trees and imagine leaves on them...
