This is "sew" cute

What a terribly lame joke. No On e can help themselves from making puns, and yet I'm sure we all shudder at the lameness anytime one is spoken. (And I'm sure many of us secretly laugh on the inside...I know I just did...and I was the one to make the lame joke!)

This past Christmas, instead of regular Christmas cards ( which seem to cost a fortune by the way!) we did the family photo (myself, my husband and our pup). We not only had the photo's taken for the card but we wanted them to be slightly awkward. So I went to the good ol' value village and purchased two really ugly Christmas sweaters and also one for the dog.

Merry Christmas!
Even Olive had an awkward pose!

It took Ollie a while to get used to wearing her ugly Christmas sweater. I put it on her and she wouldn't budge. I even left the room for about 15 minutes and upon my return, she was still standing in the exact position...not a whisker had moved!
I always this it's really cute when dogs ( whether macho bulldogs or fragile little teacup pooches) wear a sweater or a coat. I know many people out there think it's ridiculous. "dogs have fur for a reason" blah blah blah. I know, they technically don't need it, but come on now, it's cute, or sometimes just funny.
So after seeing a really sweet dog at Petsmart, in a little tweed jacket, I went out and bought some fabric. I then went online and looked up free dog coat patterns, printed it out, enlarged in onto newspaper, and cut my fabric using my pattern.
I used two layers of pink jersey and the top layer is a regular cotton blend with a tweed-ish plaid, brown ans fine pink lines.
After I sewed it all together, I decided that it needed a little hood, just because it would jazz it up a little, plus dogs are really cute when they have hoods on their jackets! Lastly I added a heart decal, off centre on the bum end and added buttons to keep it on.

what a good little model she was!

When I come home

For the last week and a bit we have been house sitting, manily to take care of my in-laws dog, Kiba. So Olive was there also, and she was entertained during the day, while we were away at work or on outings. Today was the first day in a week or so that Olive was by herself for maybe 5 hours. She has toys, a bed, a warm corn stove to sit in front of and large windows to peek into the park behind our house. We place a self constructed baby gate ( not suitable for kids, but good enough for the dog) so that she can not destroy things in the living room, take down the Christmas tree, eat parts of the Nativity scene, the toilet paper in the bathroom or chew apart our rug/couch/cushions/shoes/ and any thing else that might make its way into her mouth.

This morning, before I left for work I removed an envelope filled with old receipts, coupons and other papery items that was weighing down my purse. I placed it on the centre of the coffee table as I rushed out the door so that I wouldn't be late. 

When I came home today I found Olive greeting me at the door. She had busted down her gate, pulled the envelope off the table, and shred everything in it to bits...including a package of instant oatmeal! there was rolled oats all over the rug, under the rug under the couches, and bits of paper everywhere. 

After I had her all settled down, out the door to play in the back yard, I cleaned up the mess, and invited her back in. 

She looked sad for some time after so I thought I would cheer her up by giving her half a "dentastix" (she normally gets half of one each day) As she was busy enjoying that I went into the kitchen to make myself some lunch, and then in the living room I heard plastic being crunched. Up to no good Olive has three whole dentastix in her mouth...sneaky dog!

Oh and last night we woke up to Olive puking. Sometimes dogs get upset stomachs if their dog food gets switched, but Olive had been eating the same food for quite a while. It turns out she had puked up a part of Kiba's toy. :\

So yeah, the post has nothing to do with Thrifting or DIY projects, but sometimes....okay many times, Olive does things that just needs to be shared. 

Costs: high vs low...vs affordable

I did it again...

While many young women leaf through the latest gossip in Cosmo, People, etc, I'm leafing through the latest trends in Style at Home. I love this magazine. But I don't have a subscription since I just read it in the Grocery store at the check out. Or I just go online and read the parts I can without getting the online subscription. You should check it out (styleathome.com).

My favourite section is High and Low where they show a beautiful room with some priceless items in it, then they replace the key items in that room with very similar items at a lower cost. They do a great job with this, however, the only problem I find with their low cost rooms is that I would still not spend that much on one room. I'm sure some people would and it's not a heart stopping price, but for the cost of the room they show, I would have assumed that EVERYTHING displayed in the picture is included in that price. I'm talking about the paint/wallpaper, the smaller items such as all the vases etc. 

What I have done is taken the lower cost room, and found the items on line, either on kijiji, ikea, ebay etc and create the same/similar room for a fraction of the price. (Other items that are similar/possibly even less expensive are out there, so don't limit yourself to just those two or three resources)

 So here goes: 

The high cost room:

HIGH $12,965

Hooker Furniture leather-topped Seven Seas DRESSING TABLE, $1,360, Stoney Creek furniture, stoneycreekfurniture.com. Fruitwood 18th-century CHAIR, $1,875 per set of 2, Convex Dorian MIRROR, 24", $685, Ribbehege & Azevedo, ribbehegeandazevedo.com. Redford House white alder wood Swedish DRESSER, $2,877, restored vintage Liat CHANDELIER in Antique White, $835, Au Lit Fine Linens, aulitfinelinens.com. Wool/silk Dorothy RUG in Blue/Grey, 9' x 12', $3,785, Elte, elte.com. Thai Silk DRAPERY PANEL in Optic White, 50" x 96", $259, large Estate Silver ROD, 6', $95, large Ball FINIAL, $89 per pair, RINGS, $54 per pack of 7, Restoration Hardware, restorationhardware.com. Teal grosgrain 8900 RIBBON (on drapery), $14 per metre, Mokuba, 416-364-5144. Ceramic Antique-Finish garden STOOL in Apple Green, $375, Teatro Verde, teatroverde.com. SCARF, $130, Winners, winners.ca. Vintage Coach Heritage HANDBAG, $450, REmix Clothing, remix.ca.

The low cost room:

LOW $5,040

Solid pine Edland DRESSING TABLE with clear lacquered finish, $249, IKEA, ikea.ca. Josephine CHAIR upholstered in Charlene Wedgewood, $1,164, Ethan Allen, ethanallen.com. Round Soleil MIRROR, 27", $49, President’s Choice Home Collection, pc.ca.Boudoir DRESSER in Country White, $949, Urban Barn, urbanbarn.ca. Hampton Bay Heritage 6-lightCHANDELIER in Antique White, $189, The Home Depot, homedepot.ca. Wool Mia Wallace RUG in Blue/Light Grey, 9' x 12', $1,745, Elte, elte.com. Polyester PT Milano DRAPERY PANEL in Winter White, 50" x 96", $190, pewter Connections ROD, 6', $45, silver Connections Mozart Ball FINIAL, $45 per pair, silver Connections RINGS, $13 per pack of 10, inVU Drapery Co., invudraperyco.com. Teal Herringbone 5700 RIBBON (on drapery), $8 per metre, Mokuba, 416-364-5144. Green ceramic garden STOOL, $150, Pier 1 Imports, pier1.ca. SCARF, $15, Winners, winners.ca. Vintage Kate Spade HANDBAG, $200, REmix Clothing, remix.ca.




the affordable room:

Okay so again there is not pic of the actual room becuase I would have to purchase all these items, paint my walls and take a pic. I don't want to do that every time I do this blog. So once again, take note of the items in the room above and replace with the once below.

dressing table. $49 at Ikea. 

remove the legs from one side of  the  dressing
 table and replace with this. $50  Ikea

chandelier. $35 kijiji

old dresser, add a couple coats of white paint and
 find some old knobs $50 kijiji

upholstered antique chair. $60 kijiji 

mirror. $30 kijiji

fabric for curtains. $20 +10 for rings=$30 Ikea
(seems like a fairly pointless picture to copy and paste!)

curtain rod. $20 kijiji

large  rug. $200 kijiji

green handbag $25 kijiji

scarf$10 Meetups (?) in Scarborough (I found the link on kijiji)

large turquoise vase $40 I could not find anything like that green ceramic stool.
That  in an item that is not often  duplicated So I replaced it with this. Kijiji

Grand total: $600 

One of the key items in both images seems to be that dress form/mannequin, and yet it doesn't have a price. However I found one of those on Kijiji too, though it is black I think it could still look really great in this room. 

dress form $80 kijiji. Although you might find one on the
 side of the road like I did

Also, not included is the wall (paint? or paper?) either way, Rona, has recycled paint, which I think is fantastic, unfortunately it only comes in 16 different shades. However, I'm sure you could find it in a blueish colour and some kind of white and they cost $17 per can so that makes another $35. And you can use this paint for the dresser too. 

All thats left to do is to place some old books ( owned or thrift)  and a storage box or blue/green basket on top of the dresser. And Voila, you have a new room for about $715 that someone else paid over $12, 000 for!

So lets review the costs of all three rooms:

High: $12, 965

Low: $5, 040

Affordable: $600 (or$ 715 if you add the dress form and paint)