2014 Calendar Round-up

NB: If you are looking for my nail polish posts, I've moved them over to a new blog. Come and visit me at swatcherpolishranger.blogspot.ca. <3

Eeek! How did I forget to write this post? Luckily, it's only mid-January so not too late to buy a calendar for the year. Even though I keep track of my appointments in my Google calendar I still like to have a gorgeous printed calendar to hang on the wall in my kitchen. Hopefully, of the 21 calendars I've selected, something catches your eye. :)

| See the full collection on Pinterest. |

My favourites are the FREE printable calendar from the Observant Nomad, Secret Garden calendar from Rifle Paper Co., Pride & Prejudice quotes from 10cameliaway, and Jaunty Animals from hellosmallworld.

 

Which one is your favourite?

NOTD: Leopard spot skittles

I'm home with a sick kid today so I thought I'd use the time while she's napping to do my nails. It's quite warm and almost feels like Spring is coming so I wanted to do something pastel that would remind me of warmer weather. I saw this tutorial from Spektor's Nails on Pinterest and decided to give it a go. I had colours that were similar to what she used but I did pink on my thumb instead of white. I think it turned out quite well.

 

 What I used:

• Base coat: Revlon Multi-Care Base and Top Coat
• Essie Butler Please
• Revlon Eclectic
• China Glaze Pelican Gray
• Julep Carrie
• Revlon Spirit
• Revlon Knockout
• Seche Vite top coat - 2 coats
• dotting tools

Are you starting to lean towards more spring/summer colours? What are your favourites?

Washi tape manicure

One thing that I like to do weekly is paint my nails. Setting that time aside allows me an hour every week where I can just relax and do nothing while I literally wait for paint to dry. Usually I just pick one colour and go for it - changing it up based on season or mood. Lately though I've been intrigued by all the fun manicures on Pinterest and then, inspired by Kyla's post on washi tape manicures, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm going to warn you right now - I don't have the steadiest hand so yes, I have nail polish on my cuticles. And speaking of cuticles, yikes! Disgraceful I know - picking them is a bad habit that I need to break.

Last week I tried out a manicure that starts with a tan base-coat (in this case San Tan-Tonio by OPI) and then adds fun pastely neon tips {Pinterest inspiration found here}. I chose a variety of colours from several different brands (from left to right: Revlon, Joe Fresh, Essie, Wet N Wild and Sally Hansen).

This week I went with a two-toned look (with sparkles!) and I'm loving it. I used two colours by Joe Fresh - teal and hunter - and I'm surprised by the quality. Each bottle is only $4 and two coats gave me just as much coverage as some of the more expensive brands. The sparkle polish is from Nicole by OPI. {See the original inspiration on Pinterest.}

Even if you are an amateur manicurist (like me!) I urge you to try a washi tape manicure. Super easy, super fun, and best of all, M. loves it. She always strokes my nails and says, "I like your polish nails, Mommy!" Can it get better than that?

Have you given yourself a fun manicure?

I'm loving... cozy grey bedrooms

Our master bedroom is large. It's not huge but it's definitely bigger than we are used to and the empty corners tend to be black holes for crap. When we built the house we chose a buttery cream colour hoping that it would be a nice neutral but it's kind of turning our bedroom into a big blah box. We have a TON of natural light in the room (three southwest facing windows) which I think would lend itself well to having a darker colour on the walls. A while ago I did up an inspiration board and sent it off to A. He liked it but doesn't want to spend money on new furniture since we just bought ours when we moved back to Calgary in 2008. I'm hating the matchy-matchyness of the set but in the spirit of using what we have, I think I've come up with a plan.

Here is the inspiration board I came up with awhile ago. Forgive the shoddy quality - I created this using Microsoft Word. Ha!

Source: flickr.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I am obsessed with the Colette bed from Crate & Barrel but since that's not in the cards I am going to swap our bed with the LEIRVIK bed we currently have downstairs in the guest room. (The bed in the photo is actually a more affordable version of the Colette called the Beaconsfield from Sears.) While it was living in the guest room I had plans of painting the frame yellow but against a dark grey wall, I think the white frame will look quite nice. Perhaps something similar to this blue room seen on Design*Sponge.

I wanted to keep the big pieces pretty neutral and bring colour in in the form of seating and accessories. I think two slipper chairs would be perfect under our large south-facing window and in my corner of the room, a fun coat rack would be a great place to hang clothes we intend to wear again.

I have plans to make three map art pieces inspired by a photo seen on Pinterest and I'd like to hack the Ikea RAST 3-drawer chest so that we can split up our current matching side tables.

Source: everythingfab.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: aubreyandlindsay.blogspot.com via Courtney on Pinterest

We are going to keep our big dresser but I would like a fun new (king sized! We tend to fight over the covers) duvet cover like this Lucia duvet cover from Crate & Barrel. A gift card I received for Christmas will go a long way in off-setting this cost. (Thanks Elaine!)

Maybe one day we can bring in a small writing desk to place under the window and change out the lamps, but for now I think this is a pretty good start to making our bedroom feel like a sanctuary. Here are a few rooms that are fueling the inspiration.

Source: srgambrel.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: day-lab.blogspot.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Have you painted any rooms in your house lately? Yearning for a change?

Making an Advent calendar

Growing up we never had Advent calendars. I don't think it was for any particular reason, they just weren't a part of our Christmas tradition. When A. and I started living together we bought the cheap $3 calendars from Wal-Mart with the waxy chocolates that we stopped eating after day six. As M. gets older and understands more about Christmas I wanted to make something that would be meaningful and that would allow us to track which activities we did over the years. I pinned several different inspiration photos to Pinterest but the one that ultimately stole my heart was this library cards & pockets Advent calendar from Not on the High Street.

Source: notonthehighstreet.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I used this picture as an inspiration for my own project. I used materials that were readily accessible and purchased what I needed (sturdy scrapbooking paper, vinyl stick-on numbers, and mini clothespins) from Michael's. My book pockets have an adhesive back so I cut the scrapbook paper to size and attached the pockets to the paper.

True to my library nerd nature I looked up the Library of Congress call number for Advent calendars (GT 4988.5 if you care) and created a Cutter number (signifies the author) for our last name. My brilliant co-worker (a crafting whiz in her own right) suggested the phrase "On the {number} day of Advent" as the title proper (fancy cataloging term) for each card.

I mapped out our activities on a calendar beforehand (some items had to be placed on weekends) and then wrote them out on the borrower line of the book card. This way we are easily able to see what we did year after year since each year will have its own line on the card.

I strung everything up on a heavy twine and each day we pick out the card as a family. I'm really loving it so far and hope it can turn into an annual tradition!

When I was trying to come up with 24 different activities I searched around and found some great lists like this one from Jordan Ferney and this one from Kim McCrary. I took a few ideas from them and came up some more that suited our family and arrived at the following list. Borrow at will!

• Hang the wreath
• Pick out a book for the Birth & Babies exchange
• Make a tree topper
• Decorate the tree
• Hang stockings
• Make a popcorn garland
• Pick an item from the World Vision catalog
• Listen to Christmas music
• Pancakes for dinner
• Go tobogganing
• Make cookies
• Make a Christmas craft
• Hot chocolate in front of the fire
• Drive around the neighbourhood to look at lights
• Make snow angels
• Hang yearly ornament (Tradition #1: M. gets a new ornament every year. She will then have a starter collection for when she has her own home.)
• Go skating
• Visit Santa
• Pick a Christmas treat
• Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol
• Snowball fight
• Unwrap a new book to read tonight
• Christmas PJs (Tradition #2: New pajamas every year at Christmas)
• Read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (Tradition #3: We read from the same copy A. had as a child)

Do you have an Advent calendar every year? Have you ever made one?

2012 calendar round-up

It's that time of year again! Your December is full of Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, and family dinners and friends are already sending you invitations for January. Time to find somewhere to collect all of these dates. Enter the 2012 calendar.

Last year I featured a calendar a day but I decided to do things a little different this year. I explored pages and pages of results on Etsy and pinned my favourites to my "calendars" board on Pinterest.

Calendars pin board

The focus this year is on poster calendars; that is, the year at a glance all on one page. There are some really great options out there and these are just a few that caught my eye. To see all 39 calendars, click through to Pinterest.

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

 {Such a unique idea - I love it!}

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: riflepaperco.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Courtney on Pinterest

I hope you find something that you will love for the whole year!

Are there any that I'm missing? Have you found a calendar that knocks your socks off?

Pinterest Challenge : Autumn edition

A lot of the projects that I've worked on around the house lately have been inspired by Pinterest, but the things I had planned to do this past weekend coincided perfectly with the second Pinterest Challenge that was hosted by Sherry, Katie, Ana, and Erin. Check out their projects - they are pretty awesome!

Since it was Halloween on Monday it was the perfect chance to try out some of the pumpkin designs I had pinned. My sister and I took M. to the Calgary Corn Maze over Thanksgiving and we picked out four lovely pumpkins. A. was in charge of two of them (M. coloured on one and then we carved a design) and I took the other two. The designs that peaked my interest the most were the pumpkin village {original source: Disney Family Fun} and the drilled holes {original source: Martha Stewart}. A. make a happy face using some cut out parts and we carved a monogram on M's coloured pumpkin.

I think they turned out pretty great although I should have stuck with one chevron row and used a bigger drill bit so more light got through. As it was, I had to leave the lid off on the little one so enough oxygen got in for the candle to burn.

The pumpkins were the main project I had planned for this challenge, but as luck would have it, we completed two others as well.

With winter fast approaching and snow in the forecast, we really needed to get some raised garden beds built so that I could plant my garlic, winter onions, and chives.  I had pinned many different raised bed ideas (like this, this, and this) but the design A. decided he liked the best was this cedar raised bed {original source: Sunset}.

I wanted two beds so we went with 6' x 4' so that it was easy to cut on a 12' board. Now, cedar isn't cheap so we could have done this project for less money if we had gone with pressure treated wood, but cedar is naturally rot resistant and we didn't want to run the risk of any of the chemicals from pressure treated boards leaching into our soil. Plus, cedar is beautiful and smells amazing!

A. built two 6' x 4' boxes in the garage in about an hour. It took another hour to dig trenches in our rock hard ground to settle the beds in to and about another hour to fill them with black garden soil. (I ordered a Big Yellow Bag from Eagle Lake Turf here in Calgary.) We did the digging and filling after M. went to bed. Now we are the weird neighbours who garden in the dark! All told we spent about $300 for the two beds - the cedar and supplies were about $150 and the bag of soil was $150 delivered. Seems expensive but the amount of money we will save on produce during the summer (fingers crossed) will pay off the beds in no time.

Last, but not least, I made these cranberry granola balls {original source: Sweet Potato Chronicles} for a Birth & Babies Halloween gathering we hosted on Sunday.

They were really easy to make and taste delicious! Sunflower seed butter is great if there are any nut allergies in the group and has a nice flavour but you could substitute any nut butter you want.

Did you complete a project recently that was inspired by Pinterest?

Rawr! I'm a turtle!

I have been woefully inactive here in recent months. I said at the new year that I wasn't going to try so hard to "be a blogger" and then just kind of gave up. I have thought about what to post and have certainly been inspired by people on t'internet but it always seemed like a lot of effort to come over here and write something. I certainly haven't been totally absent from the social media world. I've been Tweeting and Pinning to my heart's content. In lieu of a long post, here are some of my favourite things I've come across on Pinterest recently.

 | The feeling of flight |

 | Play kitchen |

I really want to make something similar for M's birthday but I'm having trouble finding a suitable night stand.

 | Always remember... |

 | Chevron shirt |

I can't find this on Old Navy Canada sadly.

 | Rawr! I'm a turtle! |

| Camping? In a yurt? In France? Yes, please! |

Hopefully summer will arrive in the Canadian prairies soon and we can go do some camping close to home. :)

Have you come across anything wonderful lately?

Ode to Pinterest

If you are an avid blog-reading, internet-surfing, Twittering fool nerd person you probably come across several items of interest a day that you want to save for future reference. Recipes, products, photos, book reviews, design tips - I love them all! If you are at all like me you probably have a massive list of starred items in your RSS reader, a links folder in your email, photos saved on your hard drive or a Google document with a list of your most coveted items. Half the time you forget what you've actually saved or you know you bookmarked something, you just have no idea where. You've probably wished that you could gather all of these items in one place that not only lists a link to the item but a picture! and a price! and any other information you care to add! Oh, what joy that would bring! Luckily for you, such a place exists and it's called Pinterest.

I've heard Pinterest mentioned on several of the blogs I read and recently, thanks to a kind invitation, I've been able to try it for myself. And let me tell you, I'm in love! Pinterest has made "pinning" items for the future so much easier! All I had to do was add a little bookmarklet to my toolbar in Firefox and any time I come across something I like (as long as there is an image to pin) I can add it to one of my Pinterest boards. Neat and organized with everything categorized and in plain view.

Here are a few of the items I've pinned recently.

Source: spiritbeautylounge.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: jonathanadler.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: locallemons.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: notcot.org via Courtney on Pinterest

Follow me on Pinterest!