SHOP UPDATE

Over the last little while, I've been gradually adding a new line of hand-painted alphabet letters to the LAX TO YVR shop. These new letters feature a stencil style serif font.

I'll also soon be adding a couple of new felt garlands. I just sewed them up yesterday and need to photograph them.

For the month of September, I'm a sponsor on the My Girl Thursday blog. You should check out Thursday's fun blog! As part of the sponsorship I'm offering 10% off everything (before shipping) in my shop until the end of September. Just use coupon code MGTSEPT11 at checkout. The other great sponsors on Thursday's blog are also offering discount coupons. Retail therapy, anyone?

In other news, I'm getting laser eye surgery today! So I'll be taking a break from blogging until I recover from the procedure. I'm a bit nervous, but I'm looking forward to taking time off and resting post-surgery.

THE BLACK WALL

Yes, I finally did it! I painted the black accent wall I've been fantasizing about for months on end. The black wall happened where the red accent wall used to be in the living room. The paint I used is Behr "Cracked Pepper."





The red was a lovely colour but it made our living room feel a little too "cozy." The black wall recedes into the background so it makes things feel a bit more spacious. The black wall is actually not really black. It's a dark grey that looks navy blue when it's very bright and charcoal grey when it's very dark. I wish it were a bit darker actually, but I'm sure that if I went for a dark shade I would probably wish it were lighter.



Anyway, it's très très exciting to have a black wall finally.

This week I'm starting to paint the rest of the living room in Benjamin Moore "Simply White." I'm hoping it will reflect light better than the current drab renter's white. Also, I'm excited to use a paint brand other than Behr. My goal is to finish painting the living room by the end of October.

LAX TO YVR GIVEAWAY!

LAX TO YVR is participating in its first giveaway!

There are some great prize packs to be won over at the rikrak studio blog. I'm giving away two alphabet letters painted on burlap from my shop!

Details on how to enter the giveaway are here.

Happy weekend!

CRAFT HOTEL IN BUENOS AIRES

I meant to blog about this hotel we stayed at in Buenos Aires ages ago. So back in March we went down to Argentina to attend my cousin's wedding. It was the Dude's first time there. I learned about Craft Hotel through Remodelista and booked one night there so I could see all the design goodness it boasted. It was the first time I ever stayed at a boutique hotel.

I love the shelving behind the bed and the storage baskets underneath.

The terrace was probably my favourite feature in the hotel. The rustic furniture was to die for. Plus it offered great views of the city.

I wished I had more time to lounge about while visiting.

The courtyard was also lovely. The checkerboard tile floor really gave the space a nice graphic punch. The bikes were available for guests to use.

Craft Hotel is in Palermo Viejo, which is where the young hip people of Buenos Aires like to go to shop, eat, and be merry.

HACKING A SUNBURST MIRROR

Earlier in the summer I found a dusty old sunburst clock at an estate sale. I grabbed it so that I could transform it to the sunburst mirror I always wanted. It was the best $2 I ever spent at an estate sale.

Here's the original sunburst clock.

I couldn't wait to take off the ugly clock face. But when I dismantled it I ran into a couple problems.

Originally I thought I was going take off the hands of the clock and the little knob that holds them and simply glue a mirror on top of the clock face. But when I unscrewed the hands, the clock and the battery pack behind it all came loose as well. This called for a Plan B. How was I going to glue the mirror onto the space where the clock used to be? Additionally, how was I going to hang up this thing since the hook for hanging the clock was attached to the battery pack?

For the mirror solution, I first cut a few pieces of craft foam into circles. I ended up only needing to glue two of them together to fill in the space in the centre. 

For the hanging solution, I used some picture hanging wire I had on hand and tied it to the back like so.

Then I glued on top of the foam circles the mirror I hacked together using a 7 in. round mirror and a 7 in. wooden embroidery hoop that I painted gold. And voila!

It's everything I hoped it would be.

There are lots of instructions out there for how to make a sunburst mirror from scratch. This one and this one are two pretty good tutorials.

This sunburst mirror has one little imperfection. Bonus points to the first one who can point it out. 

LIVING ROOM

Things have been changing a bit in our living room recently.

Last weekend I visited Stepback, my favourite vintage home decor store in Vancouver and scored a couple things that I'd been searching for a long time.



We had been hoping to add a two-tier cart to our living room to function as the landing strip and occasionally moonlight as a bar for when we have a party. Stepback had just what we needed. I love the industrial vibe to it. The Dude is not a fan of industrial decor, but he was game for this piece because it's been nearly impossible to find a cart small enough for the space we had in mind. What I love about this cart is that it's on wheels (I'm a huge fan of furniture on wheels) and that it's airy looking instead of bulky. I'm trying to avoid monolithic pieces of furniture so that it doesn't seem overcrowded in our tiny apartment.



The second thing I found is a vintage toolbox I needed to round out my collection on the top shelf above my desk. I definitely need it to store my ever growing stash of craft supplies.



It looks quite cheerful up there with the other vintage toolboxes, don't you think? Vintage toolboxes have so much character and they provide a creative storage solution.



The last new addition to the living room is the sunburst mirror I hacked. I'll devote a separate blog post to this piece. It looks fabulous on the large wall, which was bare and sad-looking until recently.