a cool take on tomato cages

This weekend I built some tomato cages for Mon Cheri,

as a father's day present.

If it does not sound like a cool present,

it is for this weekend gardener!

Because we have so much shade in our backyard (and dogs)

we have a small area in the front yard for some gardening,

and because it is very present, it needs to not be too ugly! 

Here is my second cage, very simply made out of exterieur grade 1x2,

I used 4 of these (~$1.50 a piece), and followed this tutorial from Ella Claire Inspired.

Of course I changed it a little but it is the same idea.

It is a very easy and fast built,

but I thought the raw wood stood out a little too much,

so I stained it with some blue stain (old navy or something like that)

that goes with the navy chair by the front door.

It holds the tomato very nicely and looks like it belongs in the front yard. And more importantly Mon Cheri was surprised and happy! Now we need to cover everything with a net, the neighborhood deer think it is a salad bar!
Happy crafting!

the perfect pie carrier for a picnic

I love baking, and especially pies and tarts,

the more fruit, the merrier.

(apple, peach, lemon, plum, strawberry: click on the fruit for the recipe)

It is no surprise that I usually bring one to parties,

but it is not always easy to carry them to gatherings.

So I sewed this neat pie carrier, that wraps all around the pie, protecting and making it easy to carry:

I followed this tutorial by la chouette,

it is in French but google does a good translation!

it is pretty easy, I used a laminated cotton for the inside for easy cleaning.

I changed the way the long handles is attached,

but everything else is the same.

It has been very convenient so far,

and it works with all my different pie pan sizes.

On the puppy side, Bosco is growing well, bugging and biting everybody, especially Lou, who seems to handle it pretty well:

 we are looking forward to the end of puppy teeth...

Happy sewing!

a little scissors case and a new puppy

Lately, it has been hard to sew,

and from the title you probably understand why....

there are cute pictures at the bottom of this post!

I managed to hand sew this lovely little scissor cover,

made of felt and Tilda quilting cotton (like my jewelry bag)

with a sweet little embroidery:

It is the perfect size for embroidery scissors.

I followed a pattern from Bustle and Sew magazine

as I have previously for this spring wall hanging,

my polar bear tea cosy and my fox pillow.

I guess I am developing a fondness for the magazine,

full of cute and interesting projects!

I made this one for my Mom for mother's day, but I feel like I will be making one for myself, if our newest family member leaves me some time....
Here is our new puppy: Bosco. He is only 8 weeks old, and 11 lbs, so just a little baby. According to the rescue, he is a hound mix,

which I think it quite accurate, well we will know more as he gets bigger. But right now, not much is getting done around here, just a lot of snuggling...

and enjoying the silliness!
Have a great Memorial Day weekend

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: the big reveal

This is the last week of the One Room Challenge: the living room edition. The reveal is not quite as big as I would like it, but I am very pleased with where I ended:

The new paint Palladian blue is perfect, from week Two, and so is the armoire transformation into bar, from week Four. And I have an olive tree (ok fake but so pretty!)

The curtains had a great touch to our large windows, from week Three,

and the update on the library makes it fun again to look for books, from week Five.

And I rehanged all of our frames, updating the big poster from an older Monaco print

to a vintage DC one, with some lovely cherry blossom,

just like on my inspiration board from week One.

Curtain fabric, poster, olive tree,  basket, chairs, Sideboard

This large room feels now brighter, lighter and more modern,

those curtains add a lot of personality!

I wanted to do one more project but unfortunately I ran out of time,

so hopefully I will have time to work on it over the summer...

Another real transformation happened:

Miss C. cut her hair! They grow up so fast.... Happy Mother's day.

updating the living room {the ORC editions}: week 5

This week five of the One Room Challenge: the living room. With only one week to go, one would thinks I made a lot of progress this week end, well one would be wrong!
I worked on little things that take a long time but might not seem like a lot.... like reorganizing the library!

I like it much better than previously, the top row needed some help.

So I decluttered and painted the top shelf blue like the rest of the room.

And just put back a few things:

I also reorganized the books, a few were given away, but most of them stayed. Most shelves have 2 layers of books, we have a lot! Mon Cheri was a English major, so that explains most of it, plus we need books in French, especially comic albums (nothing to do with super heroes!)
I also spent a lot of time sewing a little quilt for the couch, there is still a way to go....

but when I saw this book "Southwest Modern" by Kristi Schroeder , I had to make something right away! We spent many years there, and miss it. It might not be finished by next week, but the colors are perfect in the room.

So let's review all that I worked on so far:

- painted the large L shaped room Palladium blue

- sewed cool retro curtains

- transformed an old TV armoire into a bar.

I have all the new furniture from the inspiration:

Now I hope I really have time to tackle the fireplace...

and put everything into place!

Happy DIYing!