A borrowed Idea

I love reading other people's DIY blogs. One in particular showed a utensil crate which I loved and wanted to re-create. I don't however own a mitre saw, though I am sure it could be done with out, and thus had to improvise. (I think the next tool I need is a mitre saw. *hint hint hubby*)

I found a small crate in value village today that would work perfect, I stained it so that it looked a little less dollar-store-esque, and placed 4 mason jars in it. The mason jars hold my knives, forks, spoon and teaspoons. And then I tucked some napkins in the back, which I want to replace with some more colourful ones ( Ikea has some fun napkins!) 

my breakfast nook, now with utensils.

my kettle and yummy cookies
in the oven

I also found this adorable tea kettle at value village. As soon as my husband comes home from work, he's probably going to say something along the lines of "quit buying stuff" But I'm sure you must agree with me that this is a great kettle. Plus we can take it camping.

My husband and I spent the past weekend at a cottage in Grand Bend owned by friends, and every time we go there we make sure to visit the Pineries Flea Market. Last year I found a mirror which I repainted and an ottoman/storagebox (not the one I refurbished in the last post). This year, we found a brass sand timer for $3. I love it!

Now that the warm weather has passed (and my countdown to spring has almost begun) I thought Olive might like a warm spot to lay down. I found a simple wicker doggy basket in VV, which I covered with brown fabric (held down with elastic) and made a bed out of a blanket and some pillow stuffing also from VV. I added a purple flower for a bit of a girly touch and voila, Ollie has a basket. As soon as I finished she hopped into it too, it was really cute.

I bought a gun

Maybe I should clarify, I bought a staple gun. Technically I bought 2 but the first one I bought used and it didn't work so I returned it and bought a smaller new one for less. I needed a staple gun for a reason and that reason is ofcourse to refurbish another item. 

I got this old ottoman from my in-laws. They were going to throw it out so I took it home and put a little work into it. The first thing I did was completely strip the ottoman of it's fabrics. the most tedious thing was probably removing all the staples. there was at least 500 of them!

After I removed the materials I transfered the woven potato sack material from the top of the ottoman to the bottom so that I could create a storage space. Our house is very small so everything has to serve a storage purpose also. 

I then started adding a new fabric and stapling it into place with my new staple gun.  

I purchased a small piece of plywood to create a lid, placed the padding ontop and added material to it. I connected the two with some hinges, attached a loopy thing for a handle  and added some tacks for decoration. 

The only thing that needs to be done still is an inch or so needs to be chopped off the front legs because for some odd reason they are waaay longer than the back ones. 

after

before

I think it looks fairly good though I am not too sure about the corners of the fabric, I beleive I left too much excess fabric to fold over but it doesn't look terrible.