Tag: diy

Posted on

The Pinterest Project

Long time, no see everyone! I ended up taking the summer/fall/winter off from my blog to get some much needed renovations done on our home and to try to build my Hillside Farms brand a bit. I have been hosting woodworking classes each month up at the store and have been LOVING that.

But with the New Year quickly approaching, I have started thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2019. 2018 has been an incredible year, we bought our dream property and are turning our home into our dream home, our kids are all doing well, we are blissfully happy in our marriage, and since February the two of us have lost a combined total of about 115lbs. We feel happier, stronger, and lighter than we have felt in years, and although we are not done with our journey, we are well on our way.

I believe that the things in life that make us the happiest are when we are working towards a goal or dream, so that left me wondering “What can I do in 2019 to better our lives?” “What do I want to accomplish in the next 12 months?” “What 5/10 year goals do I have that I can work towards this year?” And together, we came up with a few answers. But I can’t reveal them all yet as they are still just dreams, with no concrete plans in place.

What I can let you in on though is that I have decided to dedicate the next 12 months to what I am affectionately calling “The Pinterest Project”. If, like me, you spend any free time you have scouring Pinterest for “the next big thing” then you know that it’s easy to pin projects, ideas, and recipes but how many do you actually do?? I have probably used about 20% of the pins on my boards. 

20%

That’s a terrible number.

So I’ve decided that I am going to tackle 1 pin a week for the 52 weeks of 2019. Some weeks will be a woodworking project, some weeks will be a craft, some weeks will be something in the garden, and some weeks will simply be a new recipe.

I’m really looking forward to the next 52 weeks. The next 52 projects. With our home almost completely renovated and my office at the store in the middle of a renovation I need lots of new decor so finding projects to complete shouldn’t be too difficult!

I will post weekly after I have completed my project and let you all know if it was a successful project or not. I have seen several epic Pinterest fails so hopefully I don’t end up as one of them lol!!

Some of these projects will take longer than a week but I will post when it is complete.

Here’s to the next 52!!!

Posted on

Making your own farmhouse sign – Method 1

I love farmhouse signs. I don’t have many walls in this house to hang signs on but I will in the River House so I am stocking up in preparation!

I have made dozens and dozens of signs over the last few years, usually for customers, but I have made quite a few for us as well and this sign that I made is one of my favourites. It just has so much meaning behind it. I had seen an idea similar on Pinterest a few years back and loved it so pinned it, but of course, had to wait until we actually had a wedding date to add to the sign!

There are a few different methods that I use to make these signs, and I will do a tutorial on each of them as I do new ones. This method is one of the easiest methods and requires the least specialty equipment.

We always save the scrap pieces of plywood and MDF at the shop for any signs I might want to make so they would have ended up on the burn pile if I hadn’t “rescued” them! If you have friends who woodwork, it’s possible they would have some pieces lying around that they might let you have, otherwise you’ll have to purchase an entire sheet of plywood from your local building supply store and cut it to whatever size you are looking for. Most building supply stores will cut a piece of plywood down for you, but most of them are just rough cut so they don’t end up square. I have also made lots of signs with pieces of a board that were leftover from some other project. They look just as nice, but obviously, end up being narrow signs.

After you have found yourself the perfect piece of wood, give it a sand and make sure it’s smooth before applying a base coat of whatever color you want your sign to be, in this case white. I painted it twice, giving it a quick sand with some 600 grit sandpaper between coats. Let dry thoroughly.

If you’re any good at Microsoft Word you can get the text and numbers the way you want them (the font and size you want) and print them out. Microsoft Word and I are currently not speaking to each so I used the Silhouette Studio (I have the Silhouette cutter but I don’t think you need to have it in order to use the software?!?). I find the Silhouette software really user friendly, you can set the workspace to the size of your project which makes it really easy to lay everything out how you would like it.

Once you have your text how you would like it, just print it out, it doesn’t have to be good quality, I usually set it to Draft to save on a little bit of ink! I find it easiest to cut all of the lines into individuals lines so I can space them out as I need to. Then I use little pieces of painters tape or masking tape to tack the paper to the wood until I am happy with the results.

Once I have them all where I want them I take one off at a time and, taking a regular pencil, scribble all of the backside of the paper. It’s pretty easy to see where the letters are on the backside, so just make sure you cover all of the letters.

I would just like to point out that this is my work table not my good table!

Place the paper back onto your wood where you want it to be and simply trace around each letter/number, making sure the paper doesn’t move (or you end up with crazy letters!).

See how the pencil transfers onto the wood where you traced around? Cool, right?? Sometimes if it’s a darker piece of wood I will cover the backside of the paper with chalk instead of using the pencil, I find the chalk easier to see in that situation!

Repeat the above procedure until all of the letters/numbers have been transferred, then remove all of the papers, stand back and admire your work for a few minutes, then start outlining and filling in all of the letters/numbers with a Sharpie marker. Yep, you read that right. A regular old Sharpie marker. In the last few years Sharpie has come out with lots of new tips, and widths and thicknesses, even paint pens. The makers of Sharpie just get me. I must have at least a dozen different styles of Sharpie at any given time, and I have multiple of each style. I use them for EVERYTHING! I do find that I usually need a few pens for each sign I do. Something about writing on stain or paint really takes it out of the markers, thankfully they are cheap. I usually buy them on sale, and sometimes I get lucky and find a box of 12 really cheap. I have tried the paint pens Sharpie makes, and although I do like them, I prefer just the regular markers, unless you need white then the paint pens are the way to go!

After you have filled in all of your letters/numbers you are just about there! If you’re happy with it the way it is you don’t have to do any extra work, however I wanted it to look older and faded so I ran my palm sander over it quickly to fade the letters out a little bit and scuff up some of the paint around the edges. Then, because I wanted it to look older, I quickly wiped some wood stain over the whole thing (I used Early American color by Minwax). It seems like a scary thing to do, putting stain overtop of your sign that you worked so hard on but most of it wipes off right away and it leaves behind a slightly aged creamier looking white paint.

Lately I have been framing out my signs when I am done with them. I never used to do it, but I think it makes them look more finished and farmhouse-y. I use 1×2 lumber to make my frames and I cut each side after I have measured it against the sign. Once I have the 1x2s cut, I give them a sand, then stain them (again I used Early American Minwax). If you’re never used wood stain before it’s the easiest thing! You just use a cheap foam brush to brush it over the whole thing, then take a rag (old cut up t-shirts are my favorite as they are lint free!) and wipe it all off! Easy and fast! Normal people wait for the stain to dry, but I am the worlds more impatient individual so I attached them to my sign while they were still a bit wet. I attached the 1x2s with a finishing nailer, but if you don’t have access to one you could just glue them on, you just have to make sure to hold it all together with something (a paint can or two on each side works well!) and let it dry thoroughly!

I’m prepping for more than just this one sign!

When I made this sign I had planned to hang it in the stairwell in the gallery wall. Well, I say gallery wall, but at the moment it just looks like someone hung one or two random things and forgot to add anything else. There used to be quite a few things hung up there but I keep stealing stuff from it to put somewhere else in the house and never replace it. I’m torn between spending some time to make it look nice again, or just not bother as we’re moving soon! Anyway, somewhere I got lost…..right……I had planned to hang it in the stairwell but when I brought it upstairs and staged it against my giant clock I kinda fell in love with the little area so there it stays!

I have plans for some other signs and a few pieces of scrap wood just itching to get some love so I will do a different method on all of them and put up tutorials for them too. If anything isn’t clear and you want some clarification please don’t hesitate to let me know! I had planned on writing this today while Maddie was at school but the day got away from me so now I’m trying to get it done while her and Rex are watching a movie and it’s a bit distracting!

Until next time! Xox

Posted on

Making beautiful and easy vintage wedding confetti

Like many, I have had a fantasy Pinterest wedding board for years. I think I started my wedding board 5 years ago, which means we were only about 6 months into our relationship. It’s not that I started planning our wedding then, it’s just that there are so many great ideas on Pinterest it’s important to save them when you see them. You never know when you might need them in the future.

I was under the impression that I wouldn’t marry again (my previous marriage was short and not particularly pleasant at times so I just didn’t feel the need to do that again). Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that I wanted to be alone. Just that I thought I would be happy to live together without the need for that piece of paper. But then things got serious between Rex and I and the thoughts of what our wedding would look like started to creep into my head.

I mean, after all, I am a girl, it’s only natural.

Before I had even met Rex I used to always say to people that everyone that got married before the invention of Pinterest should get a do-over. Fast forward to today, about a month after the wedding and I can safely say it was a Pinterest-perfect wedding. As many of you know, I am a do-it-yourself kinda gal. So of course, I am diy-ed as much as I could. I had saved a pin with sheet music rolled into a cone filled with flower petals. I loved the idea but as we had a flower and lace thing going on, I decided I would use paper doilies.

 

Dollar store paper doilies and dried flower petals! So cheap and easy to come by!

I am thrilled with how they turned out, I think they are the perfect vintage, garden-party, old English addition to our special day. I don’t know if it’s a tradition in Canada, but in England (where I am from) throwing confetti at the bride and groom is essential. It’s not a proper wedding until you’re digging confetti out of your dress all night. In place of traditional confetti (which we have found difficult to find in Canada) I opted to use dried flower petals. They are beautiful, and they smell good!!

It’s an extremely easy craft and they were one of my favorite elements of our wedding!

Simply roll up a paper doily (I used the 6.5″ size round ones and some 6.5″ square ones), and glue the edge with a hot glue gun.

Aren’t these flower petals beautiful? I love them!

And fill with dried petals. I had bought 3 shoe boxes full of dried flower petals cheaply on a Facebook page, and I started drying and saving all of the flower petals from flowers I had bought to jazz up the kitchen, and I didn’t end up even using 1 full box but I’m sure I’ll find a use for the remaining 2 boxes!!

 

We purchased this Franks beverage crate at an antique store in Arizona during one of our trips down there and it used to live on our kitchen counter with mason jars in that used to hold our utensils but it made the perfect display crate for these confetti cones.

So fast and easy! And beautiful!

Posted on

My love/hate relationship with macarons

I LOVE macarons! Delicate, sweet, available in any imaginable flavour, and without a doubt, the most beautiful treat in the history of existence!

I have a huge sweet tooth and generally like anything that even resembles sugar. I’m not much of a baker though. I’ve always been the type of person that marches to the beat of my own drum. Not much for rules. Always challenging the norm. You know the type.

The people closest to me (sorry Rex) have their hands full with me some days. If there is a difficult way to do the simplest task, that’s the way I’ll do it.

Every time.

Which is why I don’t bake. You can’t just wing it. You have to measure everything out in precise proportions. And that’s just not what I’m about.

But I am also the type of individual that thrives on a challenge. So about a year ago, I decided it was time to embark on the ultimate challenge – making macarons.

Now I’ve read lots and lots of blog posts about making these delectable little beauties and all of them said that they weren’t for the faint of heart. And I just took that as a personal challenge. “Challenge accepted” has been my personal mantra since I first heard those words from Barney Stinson’s mouth. (And if you need to ask me who Barney Stinson is, we can no longer be friends……just kidding….well, sort of….)

My first attempt at making macarons was actually pretty successful. I even went as far as to grind whole almonds into almond flour first. I no longer do this. I just purchase already ground almond flour, cause I’m lazy like that. I made some berry flavored ones, and then I made some chocolate orange ones. Both were delicious. BUT. My kitchen looked suspiciously like an atomic bomb went off. I swear I used every bowl in my kitchen, and I have A LOT of bowls. I’m getting it down to a fine art now, so it’s only about 50% of the items in my kitchen that need to be washed between batches.

Now, I’m neck deep in this wedding planning and prepping things and I got the bright idea to have macarons. Another one of my personality flaws – once I get something in my head, there’s no going back. If that means I don’t sleep for a week, well, that’s just too damn bad. If it’s in my head, it’s happening. No matter what it takes. See what a peach I am to live with?

Did y’all know I was getting married? Well, I am. SOON! June 3rd to be exact. That’s why I haven’t been posting for a while, I’ve been crafting and planning up a storm. When we get back from our honeymoon you guys are going to be so sick of me. I have so many projects to post about that I made for the wedding, but I was waiting to post them until I got some beautiful professional pictures at the wedding. You just wait, it’s going to be legen-wait for it-dary. See what I started?!

Alright, alright, enough of that, back to the task at hand.

Pretty good for a non-baker, huh? I’m also pretty happy with my photography skills (I know I have a LONG way to go, but I’ve come a long way already!)

Today, I tried 3 different recipes. The first batch I made were the lemon ones found HERE. They turned out so well I will definitely be adding this recipe to my repeat list. They are cute little yellow bundles of sugar. I filled them with lemon curd instead of the lemon buttercream in the recipe but other than that I followed it to the letter. See, I can do it when I want to.

Next I made THESE vanilla bean macarons. I was so excited to make these, I love real vanilla beans but they’re so expensive I only use them for special occasions. It doesn’t get much more special than your wedding day so it seemed an appropriate time to break these bad boys out. And then they were a total flop. I’m talking all-melded-together-to-form-one-macaron. And then they fell. Everything about them was a fail. I’m sure it’s not a problem with the recipe, I’m sure it was entirely user error but I’m struggling to find the will to try this one again. Maybe I’ll just add vanilla beans to a recipe I know I can handle.

The last batch I made today was just a basic French macaron recipe (found HERE). I made this twice, once for the berry ones (that I filled with Orchard Berry jam) and once for the salted caramel ones (that I filled with Dulce Le Leche and a sprinkle of sea salt). Both batches worked out well, although the berry ones I had incorrectly read the recipe and used 2 egg whites instead of 3. I noticed after I had mixed them with the dry ingredients and it was a dry mix. I whipped up another egg white and added it and thought I would see what happened. They turned out but they are EXTREMELY fragile. As in, I broke every single one putting them together. But I’m using them anyway. Don’t judge me!

I still have planned to make some cookies and cream ones  (recipe HERE) this evening after the oven is finished with our dinner (stuffed peppers, and they smell amazing!) so I’ll let you know how it goes!

I’ve read a few posts about storing macarons and several people have had good success with freezing them after they are filled so i’m giving it a shot. Because I had to make them more than a week in advance (my schedule is pretty hectic for the next 10 days as you can imagine!) I am opting to freeze them. I am hoping that when I take them out of the freezer in 10 days they are just as beautiful as they are today.

And if they’re not.

Nobody needs to know they existed.

You won’t tell anyone, right?

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful day in the kitchen! I’m pleased with my happy little box of beautiful, dainty confections.

Challenge accepted!

Posted on

Signs galore!

Signs are one of my favorite things to make. No two are ever alike, and it’s a place to really let me personality and mood shine. I have made dozens of signs for customers but, honestly, I don’t think there is a single one hung up anywhere in my house.

It’s not that I don’t love all of them, it’s just, at the moment, I have very little wall space in our house. I’m talking VERY little. There is a 6′ space on our dining room wall, and a 6′ space on our living room wall above our tv.

That’s it.

Above our TV I have hanging these 3 arrows that I made a few years back and I love the accent they bring to our living space. When it’s dark outside and our living room or kitchen lights are on, you can see these 3 arrows from the road. We live smack dab in the middle of town and our living space is on the 2nd storey of a 2 storey house so this is all you can really see from the road, and I don’t know why, but I like that people walking by can see this little piece of art.

 

In my dining room we have our coffee bar set up on a sideboard I also made a few years ago. I LOVE this space, it’s the first area to get redecorated every season. This giant clock hangs on our deck during the summer months, but during the winter I bring it indoors and decorate with it in here. It’s been really beautiful outside lately, and the forecast looks promising for the foreseeable future but I am hesitant to send it back out there. I just love it in this spot. That being said, I really liked it hanging on our deck as well so we’ll see what I decide. I just know if I take it back outside I will need something here to replace it. But I guess that means I get to go SHOPPING!!

Anyway, that paragraph got away from me. It was supposed to explain why I don’t have any signs hanging on the only available wall space. The clock takes up all of the space so I have no need for a sign, but if/when that baby goes back outside I will have to make a sign to hang there. Something about coffee….

Ohh, sidenote, Rex is putting together a coffee bar for his contractors at the store and he’s recruited me to make a sign for the wall that reads, “First I drink the coffee, then I build the things”. I’m looking forward to it, it will most likely be the sign I use for my next tutorial so stay tuned!

I don’t have any tutorials or details on any of these signs as these are ones from my pre-blogging, pre-instragram, pre-attention-seeking days but I PROMISE I will post some in the not too distant future. Please feel free to comment or message me if you have any questions!

Posted on

Quick and easy floral wreath (under $5 to make with simple items!)

I made this coffee filter wreath a couple of years back and although I have loved it, it was time for a change. My mom requested a coffee filter wreath for her bedroom and I thought there was no time like the present to give mine up and make something new and fabulous for my gallery stairwell. I found this brass ring at our local dollar store for $3.50 and I have a massive stockpile of fake flowers that I have picked up over the last few years (all of the ones I used in this wreath came from Value Village, score!!) So this ended up being an extremely inexpensive and quick wreath to make but I love the look it provides to our stairwell. Spring appears to be firmly here, so I’m all about the florals at the moment!

They have these brass rings in lots of different sizes at the dollar store, and I still have to come up with uses for some of the smaller ones but the large one worked really well for this wreath. I just made sure to put the leaves and flowers over the seam where the ring was joined.

 

 

 

I started by hot-gluing some leaves onto the wreath. I knew I wanted lots of the brass ring to show, so I chose to only cover about 1/3 of it with the leaves/flowers. A new glue gun is one of the things on my shopping list, I have 2 of these, and they are terrible. They get so hot that I have to unplug them every 10 minutes for a  while otherwise they actual burn the glue. I am constantly burning myself with this glue gun, but I never remember to buy a new one when i’m out and about so I guess it’s better than nothing.

 

After I had enough leaves I glued a couple of larger flowers. I love these flowers, they have burlap in them and are just perfectly rustic enough for me.

 

 

 

 

And, of course, I had to add some pink flowers. It just wouldn’t be something I made if it didn’t have pink in it. But I kept it rustic looking with some dusty pink flowers instead of something bright.

 

 

 

Using a glue gun is so fast but it always leaves the little glue strings behind. Over the years, I have tried several methods to get rid of them, someone once told me that if I kept the glue sticks in the freezer it wouldn’t do that, but I don’t find that very convenient so I just run my blow dryer on a hot setting over the whole things and they shrink right up! So quick and easy!

 

 

I had intended to make an easter wreath today for our front door but I had already used all of my wreath forms and I didn’t think to pick one up when I was at the store, so instead, I made this floral wallhanging. Easter wreath will have to be Friday’s project…stay tuned!