Chrismas Spiders Available for Sale Again!

Yay, my handmade Christmas spiders have sold online!  Whew.  But what I didn't realize was that when one spider sells from a listing with the option to choose from five different spiders, the entire listing disappears - not just the sold spider.  There is still so much to learn about Etsy!  If you clicked over to my Etsy shop to buy one, only to see the "sorry, this listing is sold," my apologies!

I've got three fresh sets of spider listings up - including some you didn't see last time.

Click here for blues, greens, and purples
Click here for pinks and reds
Click here for gold and jewel hues

Unfortunately, I discovered that Canadian shipping - even a packet - is astronomical.  I shipped a spider for $13 when I had only charged $5 for shipping (oops), so I'm not sure any Canadian friends will be buying any more.  (But they ship free with another purchase - even another spider!).  Happily, shipping in the U.S. is what I expected it to be (a bargain, comparatively!) and with handy dandy priority ship (1-3 business days), there's still plenty of time to get one before Christmas!  Take a peek at my new listings if you missed out the first time around, and be sure to let me know if you're on the hunt for a certain colour combo and I can let you know what else I have.

Thanks to everyone who has purchased something from my Etsy shop - especially my handmade Christmas spiders!  Next year I know I need to get them listed earlier - and list MORE.  But I'm feeling encouraged, so I'll be adding more handmade goodies to the shop in the new year...fun, fun!

P.S. If you're new and wondering what the heck a Christmas spider is, check out this post for the sweet story about why every tree needs a spider (and there's a DIY tutorial there too, if you're so inclined). 

There's No Place Like Home

A lot of people leave their hometowns, build a life, and only return home for the holidays.  Hubby and I left, built a life, returned home for the holidays but then, all of a sudden, we sold our house, packed up our belongings and moved back to the region where we grew up.  Someone once told me that's not what people should do - that once they leave, they should stay gone.  That's life, I was told.  

Hubby and I were gone for six years, enough time for things to change immensely and yet stay exactly the same.  This past year, our first year "back," stirred up a lot of feelings for me - which was surprising, because I've always wanted to live on the lake.  Finishing my PhD and actually getting my dream lakehouse should have made me the happiest person in the world.  People would have been well within their rights to kick me for uttering any complaints.  And I have been happy, really happy, at home.  But I felt unsettled when we drove into the city, like I was just visiting and should be heading to the airport soon to return home to Ottawa, where we lived before.  It felt like we had taken a step back, in some ways, like we'd stepped in a time machine and were teenagers again.  It was so nice to be closer to family, but we missed our friends.  It's been difficult making new friends, and yet everyone knows everyone in this small city - we missed the anonymity of a bigger city.  We missed the shopping (I couldn't even find a decent curtain rod here).  I was also a little bummed by my employment situation: my job prospects have been disappointing and I'm currently cobbling together an income, while Hubby works full time.  Even though I was happy this past year, I also kind of missed our old life.

While I waited for the right time to write a post about moving back home, trying to make sense of what I was thinking and feeling, what I was thinking and feeling changed.  If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I was recently in Ottawa for a short visit.  I stayed with a friend who lived only a few minutes from our former townhouse.  She was able to take a couple of days off from work so we could spend a long weekend together, and graciously lent me her car on the days she had to work so I could venture out on my own.  It was a funny feeling driving around Ottawa again.  I visited my favorite antique shops, checked out some furniture stores, stocked up at Costco with whatever I could fit in my luggage, and went to the townhouse.

That's right, I went back to the townhouse.  I walked the grounds behind the townhouse and while I scuttled by, casually sneaked a glance toward my former abode.  The curtains were thrown open (did they get rid of my beautiful layered sheers?) and it was dusk, so I saw a little: aside from the addition of their decor, the kitchen looked identical.  All of the walls still looked white, and the dining room light was the same too.  That's all I saw.  It felt intrusive to loiter, so I hurried back to the car.  And I felt great!  Like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I'm a sentimental person and was sure that with my mixed feelings about moving back to Northwestern Ontario, I'd crumple on the townhouse property, weeping, but instead I phoned Hubby immediately and told him how good I felt about the trajectory of our lives.  He sounded relieved. 

After my trip, I was able to think about Ottawa, our current place, the move - everything - with more perspective.  It's like my thoughts were previously clouded by feelings of "awwwww Ottawa, awwwwww, the townhouse," and that made me think a little irrationally.  With my new found clarity, I realized that it was just the change that had me feeling a little off kilter.  It was a lot of change, all at once.  In a period of only a few months, I successfully defended my PhD, we sold the townhouse (our first house!), bought the lakehouse (our dream house), added Szuka to the mix, packed up and moved 1600km.  Overnight I was no longer a grad student.  I think I craved the comfort of our old routine more than I realized.  Being plunged into a new, but eerily familiar routine, made me pine for Ottawa.  I forgot what a privilege it is to be able to make such huge life choices - and to actually see our dreams realized! - and I lost sight of what is important.  Diving right into home improvements made it seem like having a variety of furniture, home decor and renovation stores is the most important thing, and I forgot that life is about more than updating a home.

The last year went by in a blur, and I spent some of it in a bit of a funk, but I've decided to savor this upcoming year.  I finally feel settled and I no longer pine for what we had.  I'm also going to see my underemployment as something great: this is going to be the winter I indulge my creative side.  Embroidery, painting, sewing - I'm going to make things.  Time-consuming, beautiful things.  And to make up for the months we spent apart while I was doing research, Hubby and I are going to go cross-country skiing, have snowball fights and enjoy the crisp, cold air.  Oh, and buy a stand up paddle board for next summer.  And do a million other things.  Yes, the city we now call home still looks a lot like the city we grew up in, but there's also a lot of new restaurants, art galleries and shops to explore. 

I feel good.  Hubby, who is always on a far more even keel than me, feels good.  I'm already excited for 2015 because I know it's going to be an awesome year.  I think our breakfast guests are proof positive:

Have you moved around a lot?  Had to start fresh?  Ever moved back home?  Was a year too long to realize how good I have it?

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A Swedish Discovery - Giving New Life to a Yngve Ekstrom Mingo Chair

I am quite smitten with mid-century furniture, although I'm by no means a purist.  I like to mix it up, make it mine, and I'm not at all thrilled by original upholstery (this is so juvenile, but when I see vintage sofa or chair cushions, all I can think about are the decades worth of farts that I imagine to be trapped in the foam - I know there's steam cleaning and that this is an irrational worry but I can't help it).  Anyway, as much as I love it, there is a down side to the solidly built, wood furniture of the 1950s and 60s: maintenance.  Teak, in particular, needs a lot of TLC to look good.  I recently took an afternoon to give our teak dining table, my beloved minty teak chair, and the velvet garbage chair a little love.  I wanted to share the process and results - along with an interesting discovery about my favorite chair.  Turns out it's something special!

Long-time readers might remember me acquiring the minty chair in the Ottawa classifieds years ago, after posting a want ad.  I used a photo of a similar chair, but was really hoping for a mate for my orange tweed chair.  Pairs of chairs have always eluded me.  A mid-century collector contacted me and I drove to Quebec to pick up the chair she was offering.  I loved the curvy arms and how comfortable it was - some mid-century furniture isn't meant for the kind of lounging I like to do.  This was the perfect reading chair, save for one problem: its disintegrating foam and ripped upholstery.

The shot upholstery didn't matter to me because I wanted new foam and fabric anyway (farts!!), so I awkwardly shoved the chair into our Versa and sped home to Ottawa.  I agonized over upholstery samples at my favorite upholster (Kessels).  I'd found the houndsooth tweed, for the kitchen chairs, there, after every other Ottawa fabric and upholstery shop had told me "upholstery-grade black and white houndstooth doesn't exist".  Lol.  Kessels found me at least twenty options, so when it came time to upholster the minty chair they were who I turned to first.  The women who helped me were the ones who pushed the bold, abstracted flower fabric on me and I'm so happy they did because the pattern has made the chair a much-loved piece.

On a related note: I recently re-wrote/edited a post I wrote on picking fabrics.  The core of it is there, but updated with more photos and tips.  I don't know if this is "allowed" in blogland, but it was from so many years ago - back when I had no readers and wrote really boring things (were the two connected?) - but I thought the idea of the post was relevant.  Read the revised post here and share your tips and experiences - I'd love to read them!

I paid $250 for the chair (plus the cost of fabric, which I don't remember, and the labour, which was $400), but I recently learned that this chair is quite rare and fetches a handsome price.  Without markings, I knew nothing about it.  After I'd had it for awhile, and realized how amazingly comfortable it was, I put want ads in kijiji (Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal), looking for a pair, or even just more information.  Nada (but I did receive hundreds of emails asking about the upholstery).  Happily, through the magic of the internet and the genius of someone who saw my chair on instagram, I recently found this Etsy listing:

Turns out my little chair is designed by Yngve Ekstrom, and made in Sweden in the late 1950s.  The chair in the listing sold for $1200!  The good news is that it was definitely worth restoring this guy, but the bad news is that I doubt I'll be able to afford a pair for him.  It was definitely neat, though, to Google "Mingo" (the name of this style) and see tons of these chairs - my chair! - pop up:

Finding out about this chair made me love it even more, and it also made me feel a little sheepish about not taking better care of it.  During the move, a little paint had transferred onto the teak when it was bumped against a wall (teak is so darn soft!) and I hadn't oiled the wood since it had been recovered, mostly because I was terrified of dripping oil on the upholstery.  It was looking a little dry and dull.

I decided I had to take better care of it, immediately.  I draped some old towels on as much of the upholstery as possible and lightly sanded the paint scuff (with a fine grit sandpaper).  Then I oiled the legs, applying the teak oil with a lint-free rag, allowing it to sit for five minutes, and then wiping off - as per the directions.  I've bought many different brands of teak oil, most recently I bought a bottle from Canadian Tire, and I have yet to find the one but I have noticed that the instructions can vary a bit, so always default to what the manufacturer suggests.  I've occasionally let the teak oil soak into the wood for longer than five minutes with no troubles, but otherwise I follow the directions to the letter.

With the house filled with fumes, the furnace blasting and the windows open (why didn't I do this when it was warmer?) I figured I might as well tackle the solid wood arms on the velvet chair I heaved from the garbage.  I still know nothing about him, but I doubt he has any fancy lineage.  Because the wood arms are embedded into the fabric, I used a low-tack painter's tape to protect the velvet, along with strategically draped towels.

I used Danish oil on these arms, like I did when Hubby and I first refinished them.  The arms on the velvet chair were really nerve-wracking to oil, but the result looks so good:

You might have never noticed the paint transfer on the minty chair but I did - it was the first thing I'd see in photos.  Now the wood gleams:

As glorious as the wood arms and legs now look on my two mid-century chairs, I'd like you to ogle my wood pile for a moment.  I spent over an hour filling up the cubby.  It should take a few minutes, but I spent a long time rustling around in our outdoor wood pile, picking out the best pieces - only rounds, which look good but take forever to catch.  Next time it will be a jumble, especially because we plan to burn through the janky pile of really hacked apart pieces left with the house, so I'm enjoying the picturesque pile while I can. 

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DIY Plywood Magazine Files

UPDATED: Exciting news!!! This project was chosen for the January 2015 edition of Bob Vila's "Thumbs Up" Competition.  I'd really appreciate it if you could hop over there and vote for me, no registration or anything required - just click "Vote" (over my project, preferably).  Click here :)  Thank you so much!!

I have ignored our home office for so long, that a few readers have actually asked if we even have one!  So far you've only seen the closet turned into an aqua nook and my Ikea Expedit Hack 2.0.  I recently unearthed my desk and spent a good long time making the office moderately presentable, only to have the Etsy shop explode in it and make it messy once again.  I'll clean it up (again), snap some pictures and share our plans soon - we have an ambitious idea for matching DIY desks sketched out (there's woodworking and welding involved).

In the meantime, we turned our attention back to the Expedit to wrap up one last project.  Last time you saw it, I was mooning over my colour-coded books (which traumatize my colour-blind Dad).  Hubby and I had made a simpler version of my Expedit hack so the bottom row - full of photo albums and ugly binders - was successfully hidden.  With it's jumble of painted/unpainted magazine files and coil bound course packs, the fourth row was the last hold out in my pursuit of orderliness:

I decided I wanted fifteen identical magazine files and spent a long time searching for the perfect ones.   What caught my eye was either really spendy (I ogled some $20 a piece Lucite ones) or seemed really flimsy (Ikea, looking at you).  We decided to just make some out of plywood.  At the last minute I decided that making five larger versions would be easier, faster and look cleaner - and solved my worry about staggering heights if we accidentally made some taller.  Here is the finished product:

I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  We started with the same kind of doodly sketch that precedes most of our projects:

We used 1/4" Carribea pine plywood (the same plywood as the top for the floating Ikea credenza, but thinner).  Once we had an idea of what we wanted - and what size - Hubby used this online cut list tool that he really likes (we used it for our DIY plywood pantry as well).  It helps figure out how much material we need, and helps us efficiently cut up a sheet of plywood.  We worked on another project at the same time so we can't remember exactly how much plywood we used for these, but we think it was about a sheet and a half.  Here are all of the pieces cut out for one magazine file:

For anyone looking to make the exact box with the same dimensions (which are completely customizable), I've updated this post with more detailed information on the cut list - thanks to a reader's suggestion:

Hubby used a table saw to cut all of the square/rectangular shapes:

And a bandsaw for triangular cuts:

He edge glued and clamped the boxes together (applying wood glue to both sides of each joint).  Once dry, he glued the internal dividers into place. Without dividers, these would make great storage bins for the Expedit.

We made these in Hubby's Dad's wordworking shop, where Szuka tormented the local pups. She's adorable, no doubt, but when she's with other dogs she can turn into a real jerk.



Back to the files!



Once the glue dried, we sanded the finished magazine files smooth.  I was definitely tempted to paint them aqua (everything turquoise!), but for some reason I'm really smitten with the Carribea grain.  I decided to paint the inside the same turquoise as the closet nook and hanging canvases (semi-gloss in this colour).  To help insure no paint bled onto the fronts, I didn't paint the edge - only the insides.  While I love the Carribea grain, I don't love the natural colour of pine.  Three coats of my favorite white stain helped tone down the yellowness.  Here they are painted, but un-stained:

Once the stain was dry, I applied two coats of low lustre varnish, lightly scuff sanding in between coats.  You already saw my pretty, vintage hardware given a makeover with rub 'n buff, which we installed - centred - with the help of a small metric bolt and washer.

Finally, we added some felt feet to the bottom of each file to keep it from scratching the Expedit - they're smooth on the bottom, but I find the white scuffs easier than the espresso finish I had before, so I try to be extra careful with it.  I actually think that adding two strips of adhesive-backed felt to either edge will be a better solution, but I have yet to pick some up. 

When you make something yourself, there's always a chance it won't turn out/hold up.  So far, so good, but there's always a chance the construction won't bear the weight of the magazines, so I'll keep you posted on how these wear.  When they're packed full, they're a bit heavy but it's nothing I can't manage.  Truthfully, I don't look at back issues of my magazines that often, but I just can't bear to get rid of my old Domino issues or Style at Home.  Hubby also hoards his favorites.  When I'm home sick or planning I project, I'll take them all out and leaf through, but ordinarily they stay put.  If you're someone who is constantly referencing magazines, you might not enjoy one mega file.

The magazine files are wider and taller than the canvases I used for the Expedit hack and the balance bugs me a bit.  When I have a chance, I might re-do the Hack with plywood pieces as large as the new files, or I might get used to the change. 

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