First I removed the chains. Then I spray painted them with stainless steel paint.

Spray paint inside and out

After a second coat and some time to dry, I used some wire to attach pairs of baskets and to make a little top piece so that the cage would stay in place on the light fixture.

Wire two baskets together

Here’s what they look like “installed.”

Finished wire basket light

Including 2 cans of spray paint, the cost for 5 light fixtures:  less than $30!

Segway Tour in the Bahamas

Sam and Grandpa Elmo - the birthday boys

Sam and I also spent a day at Universal Studios in Orlando – Sam’s choice for his birthday!

Sams I am

Anthropologie Light

So I started tea dying coffee filters, crunching them up a bit after they were dry and then attaching them to the IKEA dandelion light.  I used small coffee filters, and I’m not 100% happy with it.  I’m wondering if I’d like it better with larger coffee filters.  Think I still have some experimenting to do.

IKEA Dandelion Light Altered with Coffee Filters

Anthropologie also had some interesting lights hanging over the pay counter.  They looked like little cages made of twist ties that had been glittered.  I have bare bulb lights hanging down my hall that I’ve been looking for a way to finish.  I would like to try this, but so far my hunt from white twist ties has been unsuccessful.  I found green ones at the grocery store, red ones at a bulk foods store, and apparently you can’t buy garbage bags with twist ties anymore – they all have draw strings or plastic ties.  I’ll keep looking!  Here’s what the light looked like.

Anthropologie Twist Tie Light

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

We also got discount tickets to “Mary Poppins” and “Spiderman” – very different shows but loved them both.  We went to the South Seaport TKTS for the Mary tickets – the blogs were correct – no line-up there!  It was a bit of a ways to go, but we enjoyed exploring the surrounding neighbourhoods.  We waited in the Broadway TKTS line for the “Spiderman” tickets and were wishing we had worn fur-lined boots instead of sneakers!

Mary Poppins

Martha is a museum-lover so we squeezed in a trip to the Guggenheim this time.  There was an “interesting” work of art by Maurizio Cattelan hanging in the centre of the museum.  We overheard a dad ask his young daughter how it made her feel?  We didn’t hear what she answered, but decided “disturbed” best described how we felt!  Awesome architecture as well as great paintings by many famous artists like Cezanne, Gauguin, and Kandinsky.

The Guggenheim

I was the designated photographer, but Martha did snap a couple of me.  Here I am with the nice police horses.

My husband has also made a big change career-wise.  He is now working for Discovery Education.  He is now either working from home or travelling – looks like it will be about 50/50.  I’m a little jealous – I love being home and I love travelling!

A few other changes…I am very happy that I was able to lose 40 pounds!  I am feeling much happier and healthier.  And I taught myself to crochet!  (I had to have some creative outlet!)  I started by making some mittens and gloves and am now nearing the end of my first afghan, made of alpaca wool.  I’ll post a picture when it’s done.  It’s been something kind of comforting, mindless, meditative to do for a few minutes at the end of a long day.

This weekend I finally packed up all of our Christmas decorations!  (I was happy to learn that I have at least two friends who are behind me in this!  A week ago my daughter’s boyfriend casually asked how long we leave our Christmas stuff up!  I told him our record was the end of February, but in my defence, it was a white tree with red and pink ornaments which begged to see Valentine’s Day!  I believe my friend, Penny, holds the record for keeping her tree up until Easter last year!)  I snapped a couple of pictures before taking everything down…

We had a cabinet built to fit the space and put in two vessel sinks.  The counter is quartz.  The mirrors were a great find (and deal!) at Home Sense.

Penny Round Tile

My favourite thing in the bathroom is definitely the penny round tile floor.  The installers had a little trouble with it, so it’s not perfect – but I still love it.

The shower is matt-finish extra-large subway tiles, with an accent of black and white mini tiles – all with black grout.  The floor is black pebbles with grey grout – a little foot massage each morning!

The bath towels are also from Home Sense.  The artwork is an original my daughter, Meredith, bought from one of her Grade 12 art students – on loan to my bathroom for a while!

This painting also belongs to Meredith (also on loan to my bathroom).  She bought this one in Montmartre when we were Paris at Easter.

Here’s a better view of the counter and sinks…

The Laundry Room

It’s been done for some time, although I just finished the backsplash this summer.

Chalkboard backsplash

I had leftover chalkboard paint from the kids’ rooms and thought that might add some punch to the backsplash – plus it’s a space for me to do some chalk art too!

laundry room storage

Originally I was going to have this room have a third function – sewing room.  However, I read that it’s not good to have your sewing machine in a laundry room because of moisture, so I scrapped that idea.  And I’m glad I did because I’m not sure how I would have squeezed it all in!  I am storing fabric as well as sewing and art supplies in the cupboards, though.  (Sewing machine is back on the dining room table – when I have time to use it…)

Laundry Lift

Probably my favourite thing in the room – and maybe the whole house – is my drop-down laundry lift.  You can dry a lot of clothes on this at once, and it takes up no space as everything gets pulled up to the ceiling.  It is awesome!

Rolling hamper and a place to hand the ironing

I am very happy to have a place to hang my ironing now as well.  The hamper has three compartments and conveniently rolls over to the washer.

Built-ins for coats etc.

We had some open cupboards built in at the end of the room for coats, shoes, leashes etc.

Another Alanna Cavanaugh print

Only one piece of art in this room (so far), but it’s a great one!  This is another Alanna Cavanaugh print.

Pocket Door

We also had a pocket door installed so that we didn’t have to make room for a door to swing.  Kind of wish we’d done all of our doors this way!