Creative, custom cake...from a box!

For our glamping extravaganza this past weekend I wanted a unique birthday cake that didn't cost a fortune. I'm a self professed baker-wannabe, I def don't know my way around a scratch cake mix, I bake from a box - there I said it. So, I had to pull out all of the other stops I could think of to make up for my baking inadequacies; a theme, edible custom topper, a friend with mad icing skills and food colouring! 

Do you love that my GF matches the cake? 

Nothing says fashionable-great outdoors like Canada's chic Hudson's Bay Co. I dreamt up the idea to colour each layer of the cake to match the brands signature stripes (many a rainbow cake have come across my Pinterest feed lately...an idea was born).

Of course I went right to my fave resource Etsy, to seek out a creative genius who could recreate the Bay's logo (with a small tweak to the date to represent the year the hubs was born) and add in a birthday message. The TopACake shop turned my logo around in hours and it was a flawless match! I was nervous about the application of the frosting sheet, but this sheet was sturdy and literally peel n' stick.

Cutting into the middle was the most exciting part! The reveal of these multicoloured layers was a fun surprise - TIP: for rich colour use food colouring gel, I used the drops and didn't quite get the dark colours I was going for.

I couldn't have been more pleased with this custom cake masterpiece, and the best part is the total costs was less than $30 (custom cake topper was only $10!!).  Not bad for this Betty Crocker connoisseur.

DIY PAINTED PICTURE FRAME MAT

So, I got up to some major DIYing this weekend, how about you?  I painted my fall pumpkins gold, gold leafed a ceiling medallion AND spruced up an old picture frame mat to give it some much needed colour. Because I knew it would take me another year to decide on a new piece of art that was a bit more colourful, I decided to go about it in a different way; I painted the mat.

The blase before...

Before

The tools were as simple as craft paint, mini roller and IKEA picture frame (I experimented with an inexpensive frame just in case it didn't turn out the way I wanted).

And the process was even simpler, dip roller in paint and roll on the mat (making sure to get the inside edges so you don't see any white).

After it dried, I popped it back in to the frame and found it a new home.

After

Instant facelift! Love.

HOW TO MAKE A QUICK DIY VASE IN A PICKLE...JAR

Hello!!! I know it's been a while, I've been busy getting my life back on track after my loooong vacation; laundry piles, bills and fallen leaves have been top priority; however I did mange to get away for a weekend with friends (they come before laundry).

Last weekend we made the trek up north to a friends cottage to celebrate two birthdays, an anniversary and one engagement! I was in charge of the flowers for the bride-to-be and in my post vacay daze I didn't even think to bring a container to put them in for her to transport back on the 4 hour drive home. Yikes!  

One of my super crafty girlfriends came to the rescue, she spotted a pickle jar in the fridge and decided we could make something pretty to keep these flowers perky.  

We emptied the pickles into Tupperware, washed the vase,  arranged the flowers (not sure why we did this before we wrapped it) and wrapped in twine (taping the first end down and the last end as well).

Ta da...make-shift pickle jar vase!  It turned out beautifully, very rustic-chic.

When you get desperate, your get creative; think beyond the everyday use for items you have on hand...it just might get you out of a pickle.

WEDDING WEEK || modern glamour wedding decor

What a weekend, whew, celebrated two milestone birthdays with two very special people; it was delightful and all, but I'm spent.  I'm still in the milestone mood though, my two year wedding anniversary is tomorrow, so I thought I'd share some of my fave decor pics from our "Modern Glam" inspired wedding.  Black, white, gold and glamour was on the menu for our luxe meets DIY day.

We had guests sit at 25 foot long tables to encourage conversation and to create a more intimate atmosphere, oh and P.S. we ate with gold cutlery, my fave "decor" item, try convincing your future hubs that this is a pure necessity, no small feat I tell ya.

Here are just a couple of the 14 million DIY projects I did for our wedding, including painted, wooden table numbers, and personalized, hand stamped menus.

Check out the chapel we were married in; the first time I saw it took my breath away, in fact the second time, same thing, I was basically doing lamaze down the aisle. 

Can you believe how in sync we are, both cringing during my dad's speech in our plush thrones, a splurge item for sure.

Some more of my DIY handy work and my fave glittery gold bourgie lamp *swoon*

I had such a blast planning the decor for our big day, but most importantly I have a blast everyday with the love of my life who puts up with and encourages me in all of my gold and glamour antics...

WEDDING WEEK || custom homemade cookie favours

With my 2 year wedding anniversary just around the corner - July 24th for those of you who would like to send gifts ;) - I thought I 'd take you on a lil walk down memory lane. To clarify, "wedding week" is more like "wedding couple of weeks", I have lots to share; tips, DIY's, a couple delicious recipes, oh and about 1500 pictures from our special day, JK!!! only a few fun pics, hopefully I didn't lose any of you there :) 

chowing down on street meat, I was sooo hungry: this pic makes me giggle 

I want to talk favours; I know favours have been getting a bad rep lately; they're becoming synonymous with tacky, cash sucking, junk. I totes agrees if you're ordering random trinkets online that are meaningless to you or your groom.  If you're giving a favour, which personally I think is a nice touch to thank your guests for coming, they must be meaningful. We customized ours in a way that related to our theme AND had special meaning to us.

Our favours were little brown bags, stuffed with each of our favourite cookies, homemade by our moms the day before the wedding, we included the recipes too.  For me this was the perfect combo of  cost effective, meaningful and custom.  We (and by we I mean I) customized them by hand stamping each bag and fastening them with mini chandelier buttons that I had made to fit.

FETE || chic canadiana party

Happy Canada Day eh! My long weekend was pleasantly packed full of family, food and fireworks; my fave things ever...and in that order.  We hosted a Canada Day party on Sunday in our backyard; I had an idea to honour this special day in a way that included more than just red and white paper flags. Chic Canadiana was the theme, think woodland wonderful, beavers and moose, beer and bacon, all things coined classically Canadian. I get ridiculously excited by any occasion that allows me to let my inner party planner, crafter and hostess rear its' obsessive head, and this patriotic celebration was no exception. 

I dug out my wool Hudson's Bay Co. point blanket, with its iconic stripes, and used it as the inspiration for my master plan, bwah ha ha ha.

I prepared a food and bevy line-up that was quintessentially Canadian; Canadian Bacon Burgers, Poutine,  and Moose Tracks Ice Cream with a Maple Cookie topper.  We sipped on Canadian beer from our famed cottage country in Muskoka and cocktails infused with fresh Ontario strawberries.

I also got my craft on; I ordered some of these cute moose gift tags from Etsy and glued them to red take-out boxes from Michaels (I also raided Michaels for scrapbook paper, glue and string), made a catchy celebratory banner and wrapped vases with scrapbook paper to add a little oomph. 

I wanted to keep the classic Canadian red and white colour palette alive, but I freshened things up by using some pretty patterned paper. We handed out maple suckers and sparklers as party favours.

After the feast, we headed out the beach to take in the annual fireworks show, it was a lovely way to cap off the evening. 

The party was a success, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we all left feeling uber proud to be part of the true North strong and free.

DIY || personalized picture frame fillers

On any given day I have at least one, but let's be honest usually many more, DIY projects dancing around in my head. I'm constantly thinking of ways to personalize things, make them prettier, or flat out just make them altogether.

One of my best girlfriends had a milestone birthday this past weekend and as part of her gift I got her an amaze Jonathan Alder picture frame, we share the same obsession for home decor items. I didnt want to give an empty frame (I think that's bad luck isn't it?) so I thought -  hmmmm, how can I jazz this up a bit (my mother says that) -frames can sometimes be deemed as "default" gifts.

I came up with the idea to create an image that reflected this milestone, using Microsoft Power Point of all programs, yes, my computer skills are embarrassing, this is what I came up with. Cute right?

I used a digital background that I bought on Etsy, there are so many beautiful options, I spent a HOURS fawning over each and every one. I went with this yellow and white zig zag pattern and created the document. I set the background, formatted the size (in this case 4"x6") and added the message. Save, send to the 1 hour photo studio and set in the frame. That's it!

I was so excited about this idea that I got a little carried away; here's a kid friendly version for a gal pal who's expecting...

And here's one for my office, te he...

Now, if you don't have the same amazing computer skills as I do ;)  or the desire to DIY this, but like the idea of adding something to a frame to personalize it, you can always search Etsy (clearly my go-to) for lots of pretty pre-made frame fillers (well, technically these are cards, but if you find the right size there's no reason you can't pop one in). Have a peek at some fun ones I found....

 Maybe for a housewarming, engagement or graduation?

via

Or for a bride-to-be at her shower, include your favourite recipe for her?

via

For a new mom...

via

Easy as 1,2,3. I love!

Time: 30 minutes (to format and print)

Difficulty Level: 2/10 - almost anyone with a computer can do this

Cost: $6 (not including the frame)

DIY || modernizing porch lattice

As I’ve previously complained about, our house has a negative rating in the curb appeal department (keep in mind we bought a flip so at least most items were “updated”: front door, windows, new porch ya, ya, ya…).  On the list of outdoor uglies, was the white plastic lattice underneath the front porch. As a quick fix last summer (I’m embarrassed to even admit) we spray painted it in hopes that it would blend with the deck, knowing we would be ripping the sucker out this summer.

Hallelujah, praise the design gods, the time has come; we just did a super fab DIY and replaced it all! We decided to add 1.5” wide horizontal slats to create a more modern look. Here’s how we did it:

       

- Nail gun

- Circular saw

- Table saw

- Drill

- Screws

- Medium sandpaper

- PL glue

- 1"x6' maple wood planks

Out with the old; we tore off the existing lattice – which took all of 2 secs and measured out the distance across the porch (Note: there was an existing frame the plastic lattice was attached to so we just used that, if you don’t have one it’s easy to create).

Before

Next, cutting down to size; hubby and my bro used the table saw to cut the wood into 1.5” strips

Then, the sanding; really easy, doesn’t have to be perfect, just use a medium grain sandpaper and do a quick once over of all sides

Installation; this was also pretty simple (coming from the person who “supervised” and sunbathed the entire time :) ); the boys added two support strips of wood vertically down the centre of our existing frame to prevent the slats from warping in the centre. They also made  a 1” inch thick spacer, which allowed them to maintain the exact distance between each board every time.

They held the spacer against the underside edge of the top portion of the frame, they butted the first strip of wood up against the bottom of the spacer and using the nail gun put nails into the wood at each support beam (far left, centre and far right).  They repeated this step all the way down.

And…voila, bye bye sad sissy slats, hello sleek lined lady. I LOVE!  The finishing touch will be the paint.

After

Time: 5hrs (two people)

Cost: $75 (my brother had all of the tools)

Difficulty Level:  7/10 (for peeps who know at least a little something about power tools)

DIY || mother's day indoor herb garden

Do you have your Mother's Day gift picked out yet? I was scrambling a little bit until today, some of my supplies for my DIY gift didn't arrive until last night, wasn't sure if I was going to end up empty handed. But...crisis averted I got the goods and whipped up these li'l cuties. 

This was a super easy DIY project; I personalized it by choosing paper shades and patterns that go with my MIL's decor, and picked herbs that I thought she would use in some of her favourite dishes.

 

 

 

- empty tin cans, washed and dried

- herb plants of your choice (I went right for the plants that were already in bloom, no patience to wait on seeds)

- potting soil and pea gravel

- shovel and garden gloves (if you're like me and want to protect your mani)

- glue, paper trimmer, stamps, ink pad and kraft paper

- wallpaper samples - these can be left over from an old project or ordered online. I used Lowes Wallpaper Studio .

Indoor tools

Outdoor tools

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || industrial glamour inspiration

Talk about beautiful weather, these past few days have been lovely; the sun brings with it both freckles and anticipation of our upcoming landscape overhaul!  Yup, we’re tackling the great outdoors; a full chicification of the backyard and front of the house.  When we moved in last summer we had a mud-pit out back, but coming from a teeny tiny condo we were pumped about any type of greenish/brown space; as for the the front of the house, let me tell you, she’s not a looker.

So, we’ve decided to make it more functional, do some soft and hard landscaping and turn it into something FA-BU-LOUS! What’s on the list (P.S. lists are my life, drives hubby insane): painting the fence, porch and back deck, adding a limestone patio to the backyard, furnishing a lounge and outdoor dining area and planting the gardens with all new foliage.

My fave part of his whole project, creating a vision board of course, I give you  “Industrial Glamour”.  

I completely heart these ghost chairs, but the seats are narrow and they aren’t the most comfy so I didn’t want to commit to them for our dining room, but I’m thinking they might work for outdoor dining? Pairing them with an industrial style sawhorse table will be tres chic.

I'd also love to hang a cool light fixture – the one above from Design Within Reach, is a great mix of industrial and glamour with the brass finish and exposed filament. We’ve already purchased a Cane Line sofa for the lounge area (it has charcoal coloured cushions), it was the floor model and was such a STEAL so I snapped it up.

Our budget for this project is decent, but most of it will go towards labour so I’ll need to get creative with the decor – apparently according to hubby this or this is not in the budget, boooo. We have some DIY projects on the horizon which will help keep the funds in check and allow us to splurge on a natural gas/propane fire pit!

Lots of decisions to make in the next few weeks, time to roll up the sleeves and dig deep into the savings account!