Catching Up.....

Hello....and Happy New Year...belated I know but things have been really busy around here so I thought I would catch you up on what's happening.

The holidays came and went in a flash...ours were fantastic.  The perfect combo of Canadian winter, family gatherings and some good old lazy days.

This is a pic at my sisters cottage of the lake "rink" being made....fantastic!!

I am super excited for the new year ahead and look forward to all the great things I already have planned.  OffHerHinges will be at 2 shows this winter...ladies days at 2 ski clubs. These are a great venue to show my wares so I am pretty happy to be doing those!  You may remember the "Jimmy's" from my last post?  Luckily I have 2 very skilled brothers in law that chainsawed up over 30 more slices I will be transforming soon into Jimmy boards.

We are also planning another reno at the homestead.  Finally we are putting in another bathroom.  I cannot believe how excited I am for this to happen.  We will be taking over the 3rd floor here and making our Master Suite!!! 

As you can imagine this project has swamped me with ideas, planning, obsessing about colours and materials etc.  My husband listens and nods politely and then just tells me "whatever you choose will be fine"....which is pretty great right?

Choosing from the more than "50 Shades of Grey"

If anyone else is doing a reno or planning one in the future, I have to say I am addicted to 2 different sites.  Pinterest and Houzz www.pinterest.com and www.houzz.com 

They have become invaluable tools for all sorts of inspiration.  You can search products, rooms, paint colours...you name it!  Sort of like a ramped up Designer's version of Google images.

I've also been sourcing fixtures and materials for this project.  Anyone who has done that knows it is totally consuming and at times overwhelming. When I am working on projects for clients I don't usually have this much trouble selecting finishes and fixtures...but for our own project I have been obsessing....an unhealthy amount!

Upon searching around I realized a few things:
1.  There are things you need to splurge on....cheaping out on a major piece like the vanity isn't wise
2.  Go with your gut instinct....usually what your first thought or idea is will be the one you end up happy with.  Just make sure to do some research to be sure you are making the educated decision.
3.  Buying from a local source who specializes in what you are looking for is the best way to get the quality and service you want.  Upon shopping at a neighbourhood bath store I learned that the Orange Aprons (you know who I mean) couldn't touch the price, quality, knowledge or service of this great source...if you live in Toronto, I highly recommend Bath City on Kingston Road.  http://www.bathcity.ca
 As well as The Tile Store on Bermondsey.  http://www.thetilestore.ca/  These guys were about 1/4 less expensive than the orangeys and really know their stuff.

I wasn't surprised that the service and knowledge were far better at these amazing stores, but I was surprised that their pricing was really competitive.  Sometimes we avoid the specialty shops thinking we will get a bargain at the big box stores but it isn't always the case.  I encourage you to check out these "little guys" and you may be pleasantly surprised.

I will keep you posted on all the upcoming events....the shows and the renos and all the projects I have on file to be completed.  2013 is going to be a busy year!

When it rains....it pours!!

wow...it has been a nutty month.  It seems everyone is buzzing this time of year, but in particular these past several weeks have been really crazy!

In addition to picking up an almost full time gig (yay!), I was part of a craft show/Christmas Market with some other people in my neighbourhood.  It was such a success we have decided it will be an annual event.  It is really great to see all the people you love from your neighbourhood and to look at the talented artists who I know.  There were so many great things for sale and it was a really fun night to boot.  Here are some pics of my things at the sale that night.

I sold a lot of my wares...and also got my name out there.  Took some custom orders and generally had a wonderful time catching up with all the people in my neighbourhood.  Who are truly wonderful!!

From that night....a star was born...and his name is "Jimmy".   Back in March we were lucky enough to be invited up to a friend's brother's cottage for March Break.  We all had a great time and in the process I spied these cut off round of wood in the wood pile.  My friend checked with her brother and he generously donated them to me.....and the "Jimmy" was created.  Named after their donor, these babies are lovingly sanded down and oiled with food-safe Tung Oil to create cheese boards...or Charcuterie Boards for those of you more fancy folk!

I love sanding them down and discovering the grains within.  As a kid I really always loved fallen trees and especially loved counting the rings on them to see how old the tree was.  So the fact that these boards make really lovely presentations out of your cheeses for entertaining...and that you can literally see how old they are is just too sweet!

Here's a look at Jimmy being created:

I've asked my friend to see if there are any more around....and to tell her brother that he is a much wanted commodity amongst my friends in the hood!

Hope your past month of getting ready for the holidays was as wonderfully busy, fun and varied as mine has been!

White Out

Wow...it's been ages since I've posted...you may (or not) be wondering what I've been up to....lots!!

I just finished designing and setting up an event for a corporate client.  This is about the 6th job I have done for them and each time I enjoy it more.  They are great people, the budge is healthy and they allow me to basically do whatever I want.

The theme for this event was a "White Party".  My first thought was to design a white winter wonderland but they didn't want to do seasonal since we had already done Christmas in July (I know...nuts!  but that is the business).  So my next thought was to just use all textures of whites.  I got inspiration from the Spring/Summer 2012 Chanel Show...it was the first thing that caught my eye when I googled "white party decor". 

So I ran with it.

I drew up the floor plan according to their needs for the event.....they were having a speaker so they needed a "front" of the room, and bar and buffet stations.

I sourced some fabulous all white furniture from Lounge Rentals Inc loungerentalsinc.com....highly recommend them!  My friend put me on to them and they were so professional and helpful....which just makes my job easier.

There was a long divider wall made up of those folding panels that they often use in venues to divide up the larger rooms into smaller spaces.  It wasn't hideous but wasn't gorgeous either.  So I decided to cover it up with a floral wall like the one above.

That led to a floral theme...so off I went to the Art supply store to get rolls and rolls and rolls of white paper.  And lots and lots of hot glue sticks.

I started making the flowers using some websites I found with tutorials.  I am constantly amazed at the things you can find out how to do online.

Each panel took about a day to finish.  Here is a peek at the flowers coming to life.  Note my dog lying there saying..."play with me and the ball!!"  Sorry Scout, flowers won't make themselves!

 I made several different kinds of flowers and then added them to the 4'x8' foam core panels...believe me, fitting 4 of these in my house was no easy task!

Then I made some extra flowers to use as decoration loosely around the room.

Needing to fill up the space and add drama, I sourced some huge vases (actually styrofoam planters??) and made giant paper flowers on "stems" (aka threaded rods).

I also wanted to string up some white paper lanterns above the buffet table.  I hung them at various heights from a wooden rod.

 This was an interesting task at 10pm in front of full height windows 8 floors up!!  I had to keep chanting "don't look down"...

Once I had everything in place and the furniture arrived I did all the finishing touches.  Like white flowers, white pashminas rolled up for the guests etc.

And......here is the end result.

I got Benched!!

As the title infers....my latest projects have been benches.  Two very different styles of benches but both using reclaimed materials. 
The first bench I made from that old piece of wood that I almost climbed into the dumpster for.....recall my ill fated trip to the salvage yard in a dress and flip flops?
Here is the block of wood before....

All it took was a lot of sanding....starting from the coarsest grade down to the finest....then I added some blocks as risers...and some metal legs...a coat of stain and tung oil.....and here is the final result.

I'm hoping to sell this and several other pieces at some shows I am doing in January/February.  So you will be seeing lots of other projects happening here soon to get ready for those!

The next Bench project was for my son's room.  He has wanted to make a bench out of old hockey sticks for over a year now and we finally collected enough to do just that.

We looked at lots of different designs and decided on a simple one that uses only hockey sticks for the bench, legs and supports.  I built the top of the bench first...

And then added legs and cross supports....

It looks great in his room and is a personal and quirky keepsake now! 
After completing these 2 very different benches I realized how practical that particular piece of furniture is and how different they can be made for every space.  You can bet I will be making more benches in the future.  It seems that they are just the right size and scale to fit in many areas of the home and are useful for many things.  Although I think in my son's case it may just be one more place to throw dirty clothes on...sigh....

Fall projects

Recently a friend commissioned me to make a headboard for her daughter's bedroom.  She wanted one made from a door similar to others I have done.  The difference for this project was that they wanted to do fabric inserts where the "panels" of the door are.

Their daughter is a teen and she wanted to update her room to a more sophisticated look. 

I started with a raw 5 panel door and cut it down to the appropriate width for a double bed.

I used the cut offs from the door as "legs" to raise the headboard to an appropriate height....

Primed and painted the whole thing white....

Then I cut pieces of wood to fit the inserts....and wrapped them in a layer of white felt (to soften the edges and pad it a bit) and the fabric.  I staple gunned the fabric to the wood backing.

 Then I attached the fabric inserts with my nail gun....

 The result is a really pretty and more sophisticated bed for a teen.

Hopefully she loves it!

Next project was a super quick little autumn decor project.  I don't get fresh flowers often enough for the house and decided that Friday dinner with friends coming over was the perfect time to change that.
I wanted something really pretty and fun for fall so I purchased 2 pumpkins and some small sunflowers.

I hollowed out the pumpkins to fit small cups as vases.....

 I also grabbed some grasses from our front garden to act as filler....

And then arranged them all inside the pumpkins for 2 really cute centerpieces!

All in all a productive week...let's see what next week holds in store....I'm planning on making some floating shelves out of cast off timbers.....fingers crossed!
Happy Fall Everyone!!

How's it Hangin?

This weekend was "odd jobs" time.  You know all those little things that don't take very long to do, but never seem to get done?

Some of that included sorting through things we had stashed in the basement during the kitchen reno back in March/April and never dealt with.

Other chores included the twice yearly turn over of clothing...summer to winter in this case.

I have a theory that if you haven't used something in a year...or have put it in storage and not brought it back out or missed it....then you probably don't need it.

I applied this theory in going through basement stash and clothing.  Needless to say the pile for Goodwill is quite sizable now!

In the basement collection of cast offs I found some prints that I previously had hung in the kitchen but we hadn't put back up yet.  I didn't want to put them back exactly as before...why go through all the effort of renovating only to put it back as it was?

So I started to wonder how I could hang them again in a more creative way.  I loved the metal "frame" I made in the last post for our Beef Cuts print and wanted something along those lines.

I dug around in the workshop and found a cool piece of barn board....and some old metal tacks and nails.

The board turned out to fit 3 pictures perfectly!

 I attached the photos on with the old brass tacks....

.....and then hung the whole thing on some old rusty square nails.

It fills the space between our eating nook and cupboards perfectly and I like that it is a more interesting way of displaying the art without simply using frames.

 

Don't wear a sundress to the Scrap Metal Yard....and other tales from the field

This morning was beautiful and sunny....and I am trying to milk everything left out of summer so I decided I would wear a sundress even though it's past Labour Day. 

After a lovely long walk on the boardwalk with the 3 dogs (we are looking after 2 of my sister's plus our own) and then supervising the drop off of pea gravel and stones for our new schoolyard project, I realized I needed to get some yeast so I could make some homemade pizza for dinner tonight.

I popped in the car since it had started raining and off I went.  But I couldn't stop thinking about that Beef Cuts Chart and how to mount it on the wall.  I wanted something that would be industrial and interesting and decided upon sheet metal as a backdrop.  I would then magnet the chart to it.

On my way to the grocery store there is a scrap metal yard that I often visit and thought they might have something for me.

Upon arriving there I quickly realized wearing a sundress to such a venue was a pretty bad idea.  I'm sure I looked the perfect part of ditzy, bored, soccer mom.  It's still raining and I just had my hair straightened and was trying to save it so I was huddled under an umbrella looking for someone who worked there.  I ended up being hassled by a customer dropping off a load of aluminum who assured me "I'll be thinking about you for the next couple of days that's for sure"....ewww!!  Reason #1 for not wearing such ridiculous attire to a scrap yard.

Finally found the guy who worked there and asked about some sheet metal...turns out they didn't have any.  About to leave, I spied a huge chunk of wood in a dumpster.  I asked if I could have it and he shrugged....apparently the strong, silent type.  Not so strong as it turns out because he couldn't lift it out of the dumpster for me.  Cut to me perched on dumpster, in sundress hauling out filthy wood.....nice huh?  Reason #2 for no dress at metal yard.

Hope you'll understand if I just don't have pictures of that! But here is the beam of wood in my trunk...perfect fit!

Next stop was a sheet metal fabricator just past the grocery store...I had been there before and had some luck so I drove there.

I got out of the car and was greeted by the welcome wagon.

Not too sure how valuable sheet metal might be but I guess it's better safe than sorry?

They had exactly what I needed there and cut me a piece.  Success!

Back home, I cleaned up the border of the sheet metal with my drill and wire brush attachement.  Then mounted it to the wall with screws, washers and nuts. 

Attach print with magnets and voila!

I think it sets off the print perfectly and with interest.  I also think this is a great idea you could put to use for a photo collage, memo board etc...I plan to make a few more of these.

Not sure what I am going to do with the old beam of wood but I'm sure I will come up with something.