Thrifted

A Simple Coffee Table Update

Last week I finally found the coffee table I've been searching for. It was only $13 at Value Village. It's not solid wood coffee table of my dreams but it's pretty close. When I saw Rachel's coffee table in her living room, I was in love. I did come across a few at the local antique mall but I wasn't willing to spend over $100. 

I wanted a two-tiered coffee table so that I could actually display my beloved coffee table books. I was inspired by Emma's yellow coffee table to add some colour to my coffee table. Mint is favourite colour right now so I bought a sample size of paint at Home Depot and foam brush and painted the legs last night.

I finally feel like our living room is complete! Although we won't live here forever it's important to make this feel like our home while we do. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. We don't have a lot of natural light down here.

Vintage Candle DIY

Have you ever come across something in a thrift store that you were drawn to but weren't sure what to do with or you saw it and realized immediately that it could serve another purpose? That's how these homemade candles came to be. I love vintage green glass and found these tumblers at least a year ago while out thrifting. For a while now I've wanted to make tea cup candles but I could never bring myself to pour hot wax into a beautiful vintage tea cup. These tumblers on the other hand, were made for a second life as candles.

Talk about easy! You will need wicks that are slightly longer than whatever container you are making into candles, a bag of soy wax like this, wood skewers, and a double boiler. My double boilers are pots with a Pyrex bowl on top. You can also add scent or colour if you like but because most scented candles send me straight to migraineville, I chose to go scentless in this endeavour.

Get an inch or two of water boiling in your pot and then place your heat proof bowl over top. You will need a lot more wax than you would think. It is melting into liquid form after all. I would say at least 3x what your container holds of the wax flakes. Stir the wax often. Dip the bottoms of your wicks into the melted wax and then adhere them to the inside bottoms of your containers. Fill each container 90% full with melted wax. Using two wood skewers, brace the wick, making sure it's centered and not tipping over. It should take at least an hour for the wax to cool completely. When they have cooled completely, trim the wicks so that no more than half an inch is exposed.

I feel like typing these instructions took longer than actually making the candles. Such an easy DIY, I'm kicking myself for not trying this sooner. And FYI, Amazon in the US is amazing! I wish we had access to all the amazing supplies available to order in the states. Until then I'm stuck with Micahels and 40% off coupons. Happy Sunday!

Simple Pencil Skirt DIY

My mom bought me my own sewing machine for Christmas and last week I broke it in by making a simple pencil skirt. This is a very easy DIY - my sewing skills aren't exactly stellar so if I can do it, you can too! You will need a metre of stretchy fabric (no zippers here!), matching thread, pins, scissors, and a sewing machine. Please mind my Da Vinci like instructions, I have yet to master my Bamboo tablet.

You could also use elastic in the waist. Go here for a great tutorial. For more info on straight darts go here.

I love how easy it was to make this skirt. I'm a big booty gal with a smaller waist so I'm a big fan of pencil skirts but I have a hard time finding ones that are as long as I would like them to be. I plan on making another skirt with a zipper closure in the back. More on that later!

Star Wars Wall Art DIY

Star Wars is a pretty big deal around here. Grant grew up watching the films and although I was in my twenties before I saw A New Hope I too have grown to love the original trilogy (I've refused to watch the prequel trilogy). The space above our bed has been barren since we moved and I really was at a loss as to what to hang there. Last week it hit me. We often quote the lines "I love you" "I know" being the nerds that we are and having printed a few other engineering prints at Staples, I knew we could make something pretty cool without hurting our wallets. I created super large files in Photoshop (using a Star Wars inspired font) and then we had them printed as the aforementioned 24 x 36 engineering print. These went into two reasonably priced frames and ta da. I really love this homemade art. It suits us perfectly.

Here are a few places you can find great prints that you can download and take to Staples to make your own art. Here and here. Oh and if you live in or around Edmonton definitely check out Star Wars Identities while you can!

Patchwork Quilt DIY

So, I made my first quilt. Probably my last quilt for a while. This was my most ambitious project. After choosing my fabric, I cut close to 100 squares. I worked through this row by row. It certainly isn't perfect but it is handmade after all. For the back, I used a vintage sheet I picked up at Value Village. The most difficult part was binding the quilt together. Thankfully, I had my mom to help me with that. I decided not to fill the quilt with anything so it would be a summer weight. Even though it was difficult at times, this project was completely worth the end result. For someone who failed sewing in middle school, I think I've come along way. I'm excited to start another sewing project this week - more on that later.

Happy Sunday!

xx

Allison