The Twelve Days Of Christmas: Day 5

There are times in your life that rival no other for the excitement they bring us. When I was younger it was the anticipation of Christmas eve and Christmas day. Of course by mid September I had all my lists ready, easy bake ovens, spice girls CD's... grandma and grandpa to come for the holidays. But as I've grown up I've changed, gifts are no longer the things in life that make me giddy like a school girl (well still sometimes!) but it's when a friends looks me in the eyes and says "I need to decorate my place.. can you help?". It usually starts with silence.... slight smirking.... then squealing.... and then a rush to the nearest second hand store, IKEA and homesense.

That being said, of course.... I didn't take that many before picture. In fact I didn't really take any at all.... I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash(Yup, subtle Christmas reference)! My dear friend Gina wanted to give her new pad a special something this holiday season, and take it from feeling like a rental to feeling like a home. I've always loved her taste! Even when discussing our personal styles we were joking about how we generally love each others style because we are quite similar -- so shopping together is so easy! With a quick chat of what she was looking for, we took our shopping lists, gathered some Christmas cheer and headed out with one mission: Make a home!

Well -- it wasn't long before Gina had a luscious fabric with bold prints in her hands, some fabulous lighting and a retro piece of furniture selected. So there we were going through checkout after checkout styling a new space. Of course once we got to her new space which felt to her like she needed colour "I'd like orange and yellows, warm colours" she said, and with that we dove right in to getting that place sparkling. -- (Thanks to another close friend of mine Elyssa we were able to really complete a ton of what needed to be done, here handy-ness (is that a word?) was really a Christmas miracle and helped complete the project!)

 

Assume your decorating positions! I put my hand upon your hip, when I dip you dip we dip.... yes that is actually the first song I thought of when I glanced at this picture. That and -- "Here she comes misssss America" So you're probably thinking "well what did you do already?" -- As you can see in the two first photos here the living room window isn't centered so we decided we were going to play a little with texture and pattern to fake it center. What does that mean? We measured what was actually centered based on the wall and covered the sides with large panels.

 



Crazy Daisy right? -- How much better does that look! We made the panels using a fabric that Gina loved from IKEA. All we did was use "Iron sow" which essentially glues the pieces together and we created drape panels, with enough to spare for cushions later!

The second half of the room I don't have a before picture sadly! Just some lovely after pictures to share with you. -- well except for this half one where we've already added the IKEA LACK table as well as this beautiful vintage 1950's cabinet record player. Putting up her Christmas tree as she gets ready to host a Christmas party.

The glow of the space, the unique qualities of mixing modern with stylish mid century furniture is breathtaking. One of my favorite pieces in the space is the gold stool as well as the gold star resting on top of the cabinet. The whole space breathes of life and has a very welcoming airy feel. -- The bold printed drapes offer a focal point to the room that creates interest and adds height to the room.

 

After it was all said and done, moments before party guests arrived I asked Gina how she felt about her new space, "Its perfect combination of budget and beauty! You can only call a place home when you feel its yours and it feels like it represents me now... I love my living room!" She confessed "I Love it so much that now I want to have people over all the time just to share it with others... (not to mention I've slept in my living room for the past two nights)"

Well I'm looking forward to spending much more time in this lovely space. Happy Holidays to a beautiful friend and her new warm inviting space.

The Twelve Days Of Christmas: Day 4

It's been cold here in Canada, this weekend I had literally walked 14 blocks in -35 weather carrying a Christmas tree for a friends holiday party. This weekend has proved to be very busy and quite wonderful.

Right now, I'm sitting in Starbucks across from Rhys while he study's for a medical exam; drinking my eggnog and reminding myself of the true meaning of Christmas. Which for me is the close relationships that I have with my friends, and the wonderful family I have supporting me through my life.

So you're probably asking yourself now -- What crazy thing am I going to do next? Well, we now have the tree up, the songs are playing in the background and I have the fireside candle burning. With that of course I couldn't help myself I had to start wrapping!

Ever since making that wreath last week (you can see that here) I decided to take the leftovers from leaf cutting -- a skill I can now say I have perfected and use them on my presents!

 

 

So I took the left over colours that I didn't use in my wreath -- which was mostly a mix of gold, brown and blue mixed with a pewter colour and then I placed them around a giant glittery diamond.

 



Wow. That looks a little bit small from here! That gift is larger than that I swear. Then what I did was use double sided photo tape (the photo tape has a stronger hold!) and put it on the less shinny side of the leaves and began to add them one by one to the package to create a starburst! After a good 20 min of hard work it looked a little something like this:

It turned out wonderfully! One thing I'll say about wrapping is that I love to get solid colours of gold and silver and add to them. Why? Simply because its easier to match to my tree and I can make a statement with each gift I wrap!

Another cool gifts wrapping idea is that I took a simple gold package and different gauged ribbon and wrapped them around the package like so:

I used a hot glue gun and simply placed the ribbon together creating a tight fit. This could be done with any number of glues but I find using a hot glue gun gives you the best results. Once I placed several ribbons and alternated the gauges throughout the process it looked a little something like this:

A beautiful package if I do say so myself! It's very clean cut and  really organized! -- Now, not all the packages are wrapped so elaborately underneath our tree, several of them have the basic 6-8 point bows and some loose satin sash bows. All in all its shaping up to be a wonderfully warm Christmas!

Off to the next project! -- and hopefully this next one will be tasty!

The Twelve Days Of Christmas: Day 3

The last few weeks I've been writing a list of all the things in my life that I am grateful for. After all Christmas is a wonderful time to reflect on the positive things or people in your life. This year I completed all my upgrades, I've been able to get closer to some of the most amazing people in my life And I've also registered for some of my first University classes ever.. These are just a few of my favorite things.

At home right now the towels are flip flopping in the dryer, the room has been cleaned and I'm ready to have some of my dear friends over for a warm glass of mulled wine. It'll be a wonderful night, that will most likely end with a trip down memory lane and a nice black and white movie.

Just for the occasion I threw together this very cool wreath that I found online that I made out of old card stock and wrapping paper! Check this out for some holiday cheer!

So first things first, you just cut a wreath like circle.

Second step is to make sure the center of your beautiful circle is cut. It doesn't really matter what colour it is, the leaves will cover the wreath cut out very well. I also used just basic bristle board. Also I'm sure cardboard would work as well.

So once you've got that sorted out you just cut leaf shapes out, I didn't really follow a pattern I just randomly cut leaf shapes out.

I didn't take a picture of this last part but you curl the leaves and tape one end (that you will glue to the wreath like cardboard with a hot glue gun) and then you start gluing them like so:

The after one side is completed you'd go the opposite direction with the other side. And once you finish it will look something like this:

Not too shabby! And it cost next to nothing, all I used was wrapping paper, card stock and ribbon. All things that I already had, so it was a great way to use things that I already had purchased and wanted to recycle what was left over.

I did make the bow by hand and then glued it on with the hot glue gun to fill in the bald spot at the top.

And the final product perched on my window looks a little something like this:

Well! We can scratch that off the to do list this Christmas! Now I'm off to start prepping for a party tomorrow night, and some mulled wine tonight. That's one thing for sure, Christmas time is always a busy busy busy time.

The Twelve Days Of Christmas: Day 2

One of my favorite things in this world during the month of December is the classics for Christmas, be it the brassy voice of Nat King Cole or the wonderful Judy Garland Christmas special. It's the nostalgic things that really make this holiday stand out from the rest.

After a lot of hard work, and some wonderful selections by my partner Rhys we have went with a traditional rustic look this year. Yes... I've gotten rid of the sprigs of globes at the top of my tree this year!

Lets take a look shall we?

Before:

After:

Are you ready for it? A close up of the tree topper! Very excited! -- Rhys actually took the reigns on this one so to speak, it was really sweet to see his creative side and I'm very much proud of him.

Where we are, it's been blizzarding for a few nights now. Walking is quite chilly, but I've got my love to keep me warm (that's right, I just threw a Christmas carol into the mix!) We've got 10 more days of awesome ideas ahead of us for the festive holiday season so get ready! For tips and ticks on how to place ornaments on your tree click here!

The Twelve Days Of Christmas: Day 1

Christmas is coming! -- Fear not! I have treaded the waters of the festive season. All of November I've been running a muck to share some of my tips and tricks to making the smoothest holiday season. The stockings are hung by the radiator with care in hopes of a magical holiday season will soon be here.

Now if you're anything like me, the tree is one of the most pinnacle parts to creating just the right mood, you may choose cool hues of blue, or warm hints of red... but in the end, it is quite literally the focal point in many living rooms over the month of December.

One of my fondest memories growing up were the stories of my Grandfathers pride in his tree. My mom always recounts the tales of family members coming over and congratulating him on having the best and largest tree in the family. The tinsel all strung individually throughout each branch with such precision reflecting the luminous tree.

The tradition of treedom has not stopped in our family, each year my mother puts up a magnificent spruce in our home covered in garlands and ribbons a plenty.

So what did I do on November 5th? -- I started putting up my Christmas tree -- It started a bit something like this:

While the rest of my room looked a bit like this:

One of the best tricks for artificial trees that cannot be stressed enough is when working on sprucing out the branches, always push the interior branches almost vertically up and as you progress to the front start to angle straight out. What does this do? It gives your tree a very full look, not only that but it also makes it easier to add ornaments and lights later and then you don't get the bare look in the center.

Before:

After:

And we can fast forward a few long hours of work by this photo montage:

Well that was easy! -- Ok! You know I'm telling a fib. We all know that putting up a Christmas tree is a lot of work -- especially when it's not a pre lit tree. -- One thing to remember if you're not blessed with a pre lit tree is for proper coverage and to give your tree that "glam" effect you're looking at (at least) 100 lights per foot -- example my tree is 7.5 ft so I would need roughly 750 lights.

Last year I ran short right near the end for Christmas lights, this year the exact same thing happened... which resulted in me having to stop shy of 9 hours of tree primping and lighting. Which actually worked in my favor, I'm not sure if this happens to everyone or just me but be it Christmas baking, Christmas decorating or wrapping presents anything over 8 hours I kind of start to get weird and go from "Normal" to this:

And I'm usually covered in glitter. -- Now -- I'm going to go primp my tree and get it ready for the big reveal tomorrow.

Happy Holidays Dear Friends -- Michael

Pretty Pillows of Blue!

Since I got that fabric I've been eyeing up the idea of making some throw pillows with it. Honestly, I haven't taken a stab at sowing in probably 2 or 3 years now. Of course, I wanted to see what it would be like to work through that bad boy... I had more than enough left so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Before:

Now I like those pillows (even though, I really wanted to change them to something a bit more springy!) so all I did was trace the pillow size on a piece of paper, and began sowing my square pattern.

After:

There isn't much like a job well done **Air high five!** -- I really like how much they lighten up the room, and add a little bit of a springy delight. That and it's not to shabby of a job considering that I haven't made pillows or anything for that matter in so long. I guess that makes me a sowing rockstar!

Guy on the move gets updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. -- Why? It's because we are in absolute love with these days! We are perhaps having a dance party every time we load a post.... true story.

DIY Fabric cork board!

I'm sitting on our patio today, with light rain... a sweater, and a cup of peppermint tea I'm chilled to the bone. But I'm forcing myself to stay outside... fresh air apparently is good for you. Although, I'm not sure if that still applies when you are living downtown... possible exhaust fumes?

Either or! -- The good news (we found out right before we left for our little trip) is that the fabric is in! Which when you have waited for something as long as we have.. was similar to like a child at Christmas... except we had to pay for our gift... and we didn't get turkey or sugar cookies. Mmmm cookies.... ok ok back on track.

SO! I did it, I sat down and figured out how we could do this bad boy. The first step was pretty simple, remove the picture from the frame. Easy Peazy.

Once that was done, I got some cork from the dollar store here -- but you could find it really at any craft store. I used a spray glue adhesive that you can get at any craft store. I sprayed glue on both the cork and the picture.

A word to the wise though, cut the squares to match the board before clueing, I thought shaving off the sides would be easy.... I was wrong.... really wrong. Once we had all that trimmed up and glued it was a matter of putting the fabric over top of it. Now, when you have been waiting this long for fabric and you're about to use it, you're little heart starts pumping and you say a little prayer that you don't screw up and have to wait another 8-10 weeks for a new shipment.

I cut the fabric a bit larger than the board and started to staple... I put in almost an insane amount of staples.

After stapling it looked really good... I was actually shocked, I personally couldn't find a "How to" video online and was pretty much convinced that it didn't exist. So this is what it looked like:

And when we put it back in the frame (and with a deep breath it wasn't too heavy to put on the wall now)... it looked wonderful. But I'll let you judge for yourself.

Yes the upside down kitties are still watching.... with their all seeing eyes. Eventually we are going to have to replace them. All together we're pretty excited with how it turned out, it is a cork board.... but we don't like the idea of putting things on it quite yet. Maybe soon....

The last wonderful event, was as this was happening and I went to go get my morning starbucks... I ordered my regular coffee misto, the cashier took my name (or so I though) and I waited in line... only to find out, that my name is no longer mike but in fact....

Yes.. I am now May, or at least for that day I was thanks to my wonderful coworkers.

Guy on the move gets updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. -- Why? It's because we are in absolute love with these days! We are perhaps having a dance party every time we load a post.... true story.