I love you, IKEA. No! I hate you! No, I love you...

In other 'I guess I'll just make it myself...' news are our new bedside tables! I bought two cute little simple bedside tables from IKEA (hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em). I think they were about $30 each. They have a nice solid pine top and legs, with a little magazine shelf underneath.

I've had this plan in my brain for a while. I fell in love with some gorgeous tiles at my mosaic store. They are glass mosaic tiles, and they are the colour of Coca-Cola, with gold swirls throughout. Yes, gold, gold, gold. (Miss you, Cheryl! Call me!) And Stacey, no, you cannot eat them.

So last weekend I bought a few sheets of them. They come in sheets of 225 tiles, which is one square foot. And of course the tabletops aren't one square foot, so I had to cut up the sheets and fit them together to fit the tabletop. Last night I glued them down onto the tabletop in a bed of tile adhesive. I don't work with tile adhesive often, and it's not my favourite. It smells fume-y, and if you use too much, it squirts up between the tiles and you have to dig it out.

Today, after the adhesive had dried for a while, I moistened the paper backing and peeled it off. This type of mosaic method is called the indirect method, where you
initially glue the tiles upside-down onto paper, then lay the tiles face-down in the adhesive. Then you wait. Then you get to moisten the paper and reveal the mosaic, which is very exciting! Does it suck?? Is it great?? You're about to find out!!


Other than the extra adhesive I'll have to dig out, the table looks FABULOUS! Very luxe. Very not-really-my-style, but I just love it anyway. So, I just have to grout it, which will probably happen soon, because Chad misses having somewhere to keep his slippers and glass of water. And I may stain the legs, too, but I'm not sure yet.

The lesson here: you can almost always make something nicer yourself! Up yours, IKEA! (But I love you....don't hate me...)

'Well, I guess I'll just make it myself...'

The above words have been my mantra lately. I've been trying to investigate getting some new kitchen cabinets. Or rather, new kitchen cabinet doors. The layout of our tiny kitchen is such that it really can't be improved, other than by totally gutting it back to the bare walls. And as handy as I am, I don't think I'm capable of this kind of job by myself, and I'm really not the kind of cook who needs a fantastic kitchen. I need a functional kitchen that is not too ugly.

So, we're planning to replace just the cabinet doors, because the cabinets themselves are in fine shape. But try going to IKEA or Home Depot and suggesting this CRAZY idea and they look at you as though you've got two heads. They really don't want to even talk to you unless you're redoing your whole kitchen. (Sorry, Aunt Pat. I know you'd help me, but you don't work at the Depot any more!)

IKEA will sell you the doors.....after you've put your name on the waiting list and waited hours for someone to help you. And then, oops! They don't have the size you need! And Home Depot will sell you just the doors.....but frankly, the ones they have are ugly, and they only come in a few sizes, and they're too country-kitchen-y.

Which leads us to....'Oh, I guess I'll just make them myself.' Which is fine with me. I'm planning to get some simple plywood, maybe birch or something not too wood-grainy. And sand them down nicely and Varathane them. I'm going for a cool, semi-industrial unfinished look. I'm going to try one or two, and we'll see how they look.

How hard can it be? (Famous last words...)




Also in the category of 'I guess I'll just make it myself...' are these new cushions! I'm really happy with them! They're made with the same beautiful fabric I used on my new craft station. It's not heavy duty upholstery fabric, so we'll have to be a bit careful with them, but they're comfy and soft. I bought two pillow forms (nice ones! only $8!) at the fabric store and two zippers. They look just great on our couch (which is getting a new futon cover soon) and with the green wall. It's soooo cheap to make simple stuff yourself. I think I used about $10 worth of fabric for each cushion, plus $8 for the pillow form, and $1.50 for each zipper.

So there you go! You can go far with only straight-line sewing skills!!

Back in business

Hi! Finally, something craft-related to blog about!

Yes, I know it’s still summer, and there’s paddling and camping to be done, and hot traffic to be sat in, and sweaty brows to be mopped. But lately I’ve realized that the only piles of homeless stuff still sitting around cluttering up our new condo are my craft supplies. And damn it, they need a home! I have boxes of tiles and glass and tools, and they’re just sitting there TAUNTING me! And I’ve waited a long time for a permanent home for my craft stuff, and a user-friendly craft station that doesn’t have to be disassembled whenever we want to eat a meal. So damn it, I’m saying “screw you” to the 15,000-word essay I’m supposed to be copy editing on Conrad Black right now and putting the finishing touches on my new CRAFT STATION!!!!! Yay! Screw Conrad!




So, last week I did a weeknight run to IKEA and bought two simple little pine bedside tables for $20 each and stacked them on top of each other and screwed them together. They make for lots of perfect storage, with a little drawer area and three shelves for tools and tiles. And I bought a desk tabletop that matches our bookcases for $30. So one end of the desk is supported by the stacked bedside tables and one end is supported by our inset front windowsill, with another little shelf that used to be our bathroom medicine cabinet. Reduce, reuse, baby, so I sawed about 8 inches off it, screwed it back together, laid it on its side in the windowsill, and lo and behold if it wasn’t the PERFECT size and height to support the other end of the desktop. So there’s even storage underneath the desk in the windowsill—perfect little nooks for paper and crafty scissors. EEEEEEE!! Can you feel my excitement?!

And what did I do next? I went to MacFab, a great fabric store, and bought a piece of gorgeous fabric I’ve been lusting after for months. And I sewed a nice little double-sided panel to cover the craft shelves. It looks great with the colours in the living room, and when we get the new beautiful hardwood floor, omigod I think I’m going to pass out it will look so good.

Oh, and there’s more! Then I went to Canadian Tire and bought some little hooks, screwed them to the outside of the shelves and hung my most-used mosaic tools on them. Geez, can you tell I’ve been reading a lot of Blueprint and ReadyMade magazines? Ack! I love it, and it’s so adorable! Can’t wait to make something!

The reason for my lack of blogging...

REAL ESTATE!! Yes, after just four weeks of looking, we bought a condo. What a crazy grown-up experience. They say that in Toronto, a huge proportion of stolen-car deals go down in Tim Hortons parking lots. And now I can say from experience that a lot of real estate deals go down at Tim's (and other coffee shops), too. The week before last, we met our agent at lunch at a downtown Starbucks to quickly put together an offer. Quick--decide right here, right now how to spend a gazillion dollars you don't have. I'll tell you, I've had more relaxing lunch hours.

But we think it was worth it. Check out the pics below--ain't she a looker?! Yes, a face only a mother could love. She's a bit of a fixer-upper, but with lots of potential. We're already picturing new floors, a nice bright paint job, and Aunt Pat on new-kitchen detail. It's in a nice, established building on King West. It's a one-bedroom, with an extra solarium space for an office, and a window-side nook for crafting, and windowsills big enough to accommodate a feline. It currently has vast expanses of icky carpet--volunteers to help rip it up?! We move in on or before May 1.

But our first night in the new place, I'm anticipating huge flashes of 'Oh God, why did we leave our nice, cheap, simple little no-responsibility apartment for this crappy, carpetty, dingy box in the sky?' But I already know the answer, and we're waaayy excited.