Raise the Curtain

I made a little change to our living room just before Christmas. I got rid of the too-dark navy curtains and replaced them with some lighter, texture-filled ones. (Excuse the wrinkles, they haven't been steamed yet.)

The navy ones were just too much for the room. Even though the detail in them matched the paint colour (BM Ranchwood), they just weren't right. At the time I thought I wanted dramatic curtains, but they weighed down the room - made it seem dark and dreary. Too bad it took me nearly a year to figure it out!

These new ones are from Ikea, but I can't find them on line so they must be discontinued. They are a heathered taupe colour, and I'm in love with the large weave. They look and feel like cozy blankets you'd want to wrap yourself up in. And it doesn't hurt that they were less than half the price of the navy ones.

Now that we have more neutral curtains, I'm able to bring in the navy I want with little touches here and there. While at Ikea I bought these navy, tan, and white pillows. Combine them with the tan couch and the navy pillows I already had and you'd think I knew what I was doing. I love that they are removable (button closure) for washing because the dogs like them as much as I do. I always find Chloe with her paws wrapped around one, hugging it like a stuffed animal.

Other touches are the sea glass and starfish bowl, and the funky glass vase that I filled with a fake plant (or should I say faux greenery?) I think it looks like a little garden.

The room is by no means completed, in fact it looks quite sparse with all of the Christmas decorations put away. But I've been told that I need to focus on the kitchen cabinets before starting any other major project (I'm thinking a sideboard of some kind to go under the frames of the gallery wall).

Have you ever made a big purchase (it was big to me) and then regretted it later? Did you just live with it or did you keep looking until you found something you liked more? I guess I'll have to chalk this one up to experience.

Another Pina Colada?

We're in Cuba this week. The temperature is supposed to be in the high twenties (that's around 80 degrees for you farenheit folks). I can hardly wait. Especially since they say it's going to be far below freezing in Ontario all next week.

We're going back to the Sol Cayo Guillermo again - the same resort we stayed at last year. We've never stayed at the same place twice, but this one was pretty nice. Definitely worth a second trip. The resort is laid out in one and two storey buildings with every room facing the ocean, so everyone has a great view.

The plan this time is to just hang out on the beach or by the pool, and to do some horseback riding. The trail leads along a lazy creek and then down past the other hotels in the area. It's such a relaxing and beautiful ride. I've ridden in other places where they're on a tight schedule and make you keep the horses trotting, but not here - this is all about taking your time and letting the horse lead you.

And to top it off we'll be going to the most gorgeous beach in Cuba - Playa Pilar. Miles of sand. And can you believe the colour of the water?

The water is fairly shallow so it's a comfortable swimming area - no big waves - we even did some snorkeling last time. I think I saw a fish but Tom doesn't believe me.

Hope you're having a great time wherever you are, and we'll see you in a week!

Stenciled Dog Bowls (Silhouette)

In my last post I mentioned that Tom gave me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas. On the weekend he asked me how I liked it. Umm, it's great. So far I've...installed the software on my computer. He was off to his parents' house for a visit and told me he expected something stencilled when he got back, young lady!

So I gave it a go. My first project? Stenciling the dogs' names onto their food bowls. Now I didn't really intend to stencil them, I actually was planning on using vinyl letters, but that comes later in the story.

Do you have a Cameo? I've been wanting one forever. I've done some stenciling by hand in the past year and I can tell you, cutting out those letters or images by hand is just no fun. And the Cameo lets you do more than make stencils of course - you can cut out paper, fabric, vinyl, even temporary tattoos.

Glamour shot:

And so I got started. Now keep in mind that this was the first time I've ever used a Silhouette machine so I wasn't going for anything complicated. Also keep in mind that I didn't get around to starting until 5pm on Sunday night. Am I a procrastinator? I'll let you know. ;-)

My machine came with sheets of different coloured plastic - what I thought was vinyl. Why else would they be different colours? I planned to cut out the letters of the dogs' names and stick them on to the sides of their bowls. I opened up the program and got to work deciding on the size and font. I even put the names really close to each other so that I wouldn't waste any material.

I fed the yellow plastic into the machine and pressed start. Oh my gosh, so exciting. I actually videotaped it cutting the letters. Is that too nerdy? When it was done I peeled off the first letter and that's when I realized that it was a clear stencil and the yellow was just the backing paper. Sad Barb.

But that's okay, I have lots of paint - I can just paint the names on! Tom chose (he was home by then) Annie Sloan chalk paint in Aubusson Blue.

Our dog bowls are more like buckets with lids. They are so great because not only are they tall so the dogs don't have to lean way over to eat, but you can fill the bucket part with food and it's a travel bowl for trips.

I applied the stencil to the side of the bowl (Yay for self adhesive!) and pressed painters tape around the edges to block any stray paint strokes. And since I'd put the two names so close together I had to block the other name.

It took two coats of paint and only about 20 minutes to dry completely. I did some touch ups with a plastic scraper and an artist's brush, and then sprayed the names with a few coats of matte acrylic coating to seal.

Tell me that isn't adorable. Maybe I'll add some girlie flowers.

We hung the "Sasha" picture we found at HomeGoods over Sasha's bowl. Everyone needs something pretty to look at when they're eating, right? And why not a picture of yourself? Though for a minute I thought it might look like a shrine or something equally morbid.

Over Chloe's bowl we hung her graduation certificate from obedience class - framed of course. Isn't she a smartypants? She graduated first in her class. (She was the only one in her class.) 

There you go, my first project. Not the toughest to do, but it was fun, and I learned a lot. I can't wait to try something more complicated - maybe even with real vinyl.

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I'm linking up here this week!