Special Guest - Second Chance to Dream

Hey Everyone,

Today we have a special treat... Barb is here from Second Chance to Dream. Barb has an absolutely fantastic blog with so many great projects. Barb's son just turned 21 and she made an awesome "non-cake" cake.

Seriously - you need to visit Barb's blog and follow her adventures.

Welcome Barb, the floor is yours....



Hi! I'm Barb Camp from Second Chance to Dream. I want to say Thank You to Natalie for having me here today. 
A little about me, I'm a wife of 34 years, a mom to 6 kids ages 33-13, 3 married and 3 still at home. I have 3 grandchildren. & I'm a life coach who wants to encourage women to live their dreams and passions and help them to grow creatively as well as spiritually. Stop on over and check out my blog. 

 Continuing on with our goal of one structure piece in every garden we came up with something different than a bench.  If you need a simple DIY bench you can find a tutorial here.  Or you can find a DIY Rustic Headboard Bench here.  

This time we made a pyramid trellis. 

We found directions for this trellis on the Birds and Blooms website and took their plans and altered them to fit our needs. 
 You can download the directions at Birds and Blooms here.  I will walk you through how we built our trellis.

First we took these old fence posts

and turned them into these:

Recycling at it's finest!

We made our basic pyramid with 4 of the 2x2 boards.

We added the side slats.

Next came the  longer side slats.

Here is a picture of all the side slats put on.

Add your fence post cap. I forgot to take a picture.  :(

And here is the finished trellis.

And here is a picture of the trellis in it's new home. Now all we need to do is transplant the vine we already have.  We have a hot spell coming so we want to wait until it's cooler.  
This project cost us nothing since we had everything already.  I LOVE when that happens!

Thanks Natalie for having me over to your blog today.

If you enjoyed this post why don't you subscribe via Facebook, RSS Feed or Email.

Barb

xxx

Distressed Frame - a Beachy Scene

 I have had this gorgeous Seascape painting for years and years. 

I'm not sure how long, but it has spent the last 10 years in storage (at the back of my cupboard). 

The frame was so not me! I think that's why it was packed away...

 

But just look at the painting....Its stunning. 

I decided I had nothing to lose, painted the whole frame, even the fabric bit, white. 

I distressed it a little and what a difference.

I love, love, love it!

What do you all think? Looks great right?  

So glad I made the frame over - now I have a fab "new" painting to admire.

Take care

xxx

Linking Up To:

Uncommon - Uncommonly Yours
Live Laugh Rowe - Live Laugh Linky
Serendipity and Spice - Manic Monday
Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Night Special
Bowdabra Blog - Saturday Showcase  
Joy 2 Journey - The Sunday Stop 

Inspiration Cafe - Beginner's Quilting

Happy Monday Everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend. Its raining as usual in Auckland and today its really windy too, so I'm looking forward to my hot coffee and the next installment of Inspiration Cafe

Today we meet Heather, she can seriously sew! And her creations are gorgeous and her tutorials, super easy to follow....

Hi everybody! Thanks for visiting the Inspiration Cafe this week.
 My name is Heather from Beating Hearth and I am the contributor who's in charge of inspiring you all to sew. I pretty much do it all, from quilting to crochet to embroidery to pillow cases and clothes. So, hopefully I can inspire you a bit to try one of the stitching arts and get crafty with your bad self.

My Crew

I am the sole non-redhead in the bunch. Yes, you can cry for me. Today I am going to try and get all you folks who are non-committal (and with good reason as getting equipped to quilt can be spendy!!) about quilting, to make a quilt. Come on, I don't want you to fully commit and get married to quilting or anything, but maybe just go on a blind date with quilting. Just see if maybe it's something you might be a bit more interested in. Quilting is quite handsome (or beautiful), and fun, and smart. Maybe a little different from what you've done before, but once you quilt, you'll never go back. 

This is what I want you to make...at least it's the beginning of something I want you to make. These little beauties go by many different names, Hexies, hexagons, Grandmother's Garden, English Paper Piecing...but the great thing about them is you don't need much to make them. They're quick and easy to make and darn cute!  I am going to show you all the supplies you need and give you all the tips needed to create a beautiful and simple to make quilt.  

Please click here to continue reading...

Don't forget to like us on Facebook

xxx

Stormy Skies

Taken on my phone, outside Maclayne's creche after drop off on Wednesday.

The rain wiped that rainbow out, just seconds later.....

xxx

Two Cabinets Made Over..

Hi Everyone,

I know I've been a little absent lately, no excuse really, just been working on some projects.

And here are 2 of the projects I recently completed - all by myself!!! Impressive? Yes!

I had these old hand me down cabinets for a while and really not my favourite look to be honest. 

The double door one houses the girls toys and the drawers hold all my craft supplies.

One day I had enough of staring at the awfulness. I knew that to repaint the entire cupboard would just be too much right now, but I needed a quick solution.

 The kids were all out for the morning so I whipped the doors off the cabinet and sanded them with the sander - I forgot to take photos of this part, but the below pic shows just how much glossy varnish covers the whole thing.

Once I had all the varnish off the front of the doors - I painted about 4 coats of Dulux White onto them.

 Payton has a thing about the number 5 - as in she loves it and looks for "5" everywhere we go. As the cabinet is where all her toys are - I thought I would pop a 5 onto it for her. And there are 5 of us in our family ! 

I printed the words and letters from my computer and stuck them onto one of the doors and painted over them.

 

Once the paint had dried, I sanded really heavily and distressed the doors.

Then I used furniture polishing cream to buff the doors and I didn't use varnish for this project.

At the end of the day - this is what I had. Looked much better but now the drawers had to be done.

Did you know that Sean didn't even notice when he got home that evening? Hmmm....

 Cue the next day and onto the drawers...

I wanted to go beachy, but it just didn't work out like I wanted. 

I left them overnight to see if I would change my mind, but NO!

So I stripped them back and painted them white to match the cabinet.

 

When I replaced all the handles - I left off the extra metal bit that was originally on them.

 I really like how they turned out. Okay so, I love how they turned out....

  Huge difference right? I think it makes this area look so much bigger and they totally fit in with the rest of my decor now.

Yep and Sean noticed the drawers... I think he was just happy not to have done all that sanding!

Here is side by side, before and after.

Take care

xxx

 

 

Linking Up To:

Uncommon - Uncommonly Yours

Under the Table and Dreaming - Sunday Showcase

Etcetorize - Make it Great Monday  
Its Overflowing - Overflowing with Creativity 
Beyond the Picket Fence - Under $100 Linky Party

Special Guest - The House on Bluebird Lane

Hi Everyone,

I'm so excited to have Sharla from The House on Bluebird Lane here today.

I featured Sharla's blog a month ago when she sent me an award. I have followed her blog from the beginning which is only 4 months ago. She shares the most amazing projects and stunning photos, you really do have to go and visit her.

 

Her latest reveal was her powder room - just amazing - you should see the before picture....

So welcome Sharla......

Hello, I'm Sharla from The House at Bluebird Lane.  I'm so excited to be a guest of Natalie's at NorthShore Days today! Recently, I made over our tiny powder room and today I would like to share one of my many projects from that makeover.  But, first a simple math problem:  
 

 

Our home is a 1970's special and needs a lot of updating.  The old light fixture and popcorn ceiling were really ho-hum. Now, I'm a big fan of popcorn...just NOT on my ceilings! At first, the plan was to replace the entire fixture, but after removing the light bulb and glass I discovered that I could reuse the base quite easily.  
 

I wanted to paint the base using oil rubbed bronze spray paint, but did not want to shut down the power to the house during our 100+ degree Texas heat to remove the base in order to paint it outside.  I got lazy creative and painted the base right on the ceiling using black craft paint and a small brush.  Then I sprayed the spray paint into a damp sponge (outside) and used it to sponge over the dried craft paint.  (I failed to take a picture during this step.) I used the paper plate as a ceiling medallion to cover up the messy edges around the light fixture.  I simple cut out the center and sprayed it with the oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  Then, attached it using Liquid Nails. (I also, forgot to take a picture during this step.)
 

I found the wastepaper basket for 79 cents at the thrift store and knew it would make a perfect shade.  I measured the opening of the glass fixture and then created a small circle pattern the same size.  I taped the pattern to the middle of the bottom of the basket and cut around the circle.  Then a couple coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and it was ready to go. The final touch was a vintage style light bulb I purchased from Home Depot.  Here is the before and after one more time:

 
Many thanks to Natalie, for the opportunity to be a guest on her terrific blog!  I invite you to stop by for a visit sometime at The House at Bluebird Lane. 

 Have a Wonderful Day!

xxx