DIY Beds for Spring

Valentines day is supposed to be the symbolic day of Love. I, among many others, think that one day just isn’t enough. And no offense, February… you are kind of a stinky month. Do you know what gets me in the mood? SPRING.

Yes that’s right. I get spring fever. All the melting of snow and the bursting forth of flowers…well I’ll leave the imagery alone cause this is a PG blog but you get the drift.

I always feel romantic in springtime. I like spending as much time outdoors as I can. But when I come inside there’s got to be a continuation of that feeling. I like to buy hothouse bulbs, or cut tulips, or go to the woods and chop a few pussywillow brnaches down. I get cleaning out the dusty crammed corners of my kitchen. I want to move.

After all that moving is done, I am exhausted. Which brings me to bed. I also like to spend a lot of time in there. (Yes just sleeping).

A long time ago, people bedded down beside each other under and on top of furs. Eventually we moved on to bigger and better things, beds. Where they better? Well that is up for debate. I recently watched a program care of the BBC that spoke all about the history and anthropological niche of beds. It got me thinking: in society today, a bed is a real symbol of love. Whether it is carnal love or domestic bliss or even chasteness, beds are an important fixture in our homes. So I thought I’d look at a few examples of fantastic beds that might stir the fire inside you. And they are all things you can make!

First off, is this awesome LED panelled headboard. How cute is this? The directions are here if you want to know a bit more, but all I know is its sparkly and big and i like it!

LED lights create a fairytale look

Next is a romantic metal bed with swirls of chiffon. Now, this particular bed is a four poster canopy. But, if you made a frame as big as you wanted it out of either metal or wood, and attached it to you ceiling, you could definitely recreate this look with the bed that you already have. Soft yellows and whites are very dreamy (and springy!). There are even canopy frames that you can buy. Alternately you could do something a little simpler, like hang a circle over the bed for a neat and crafty look. Who doesn’t like being romanced behind closed curtains? I personally think I’d get a better sleep behind chiffon.

an easy to recreate look, if you’re crafty! not just for a doggy to enjoy!

This next bed is super easy and looks very beautiful. I like a simple, woodland fantasy look. Get a few big sticks from the woods, attach some twinkle lights, voila! You have a super awesome starry bed.

using a feature from nature with some twinkle lights

Next up is a good use of pallets. Now, do be careful as some pallets are treated with some pretty nasty chemicals. If your pallets are good to go, you can make a platform bed very easily. This example shows them in a raw wood form, but I have seen ones that are painted as well. I would probably seal the pallets, and maybe give them a sanding, just to make sure they wont snag your linens or your toes. But this would give you lots of room for candles and whatever else you’d want by a sexy bed.

pallets: usually untreated pine that’s very sturdy. Be careful with fire and wood, readers!

I could show you a million beds that are easy to make and are super awesome. However, I like to leave something to the imagination. What kind of things would you do to your bed if you could, to make it a little more sexy? Me, I’d make a whole bunch of pretty pillows and get some cool old vintage quilts to put on it for snuggling in.

Getting creative with furniture restoration

Something that I always try to be, whether it is fashion, housewares or furniture, is original. Having something different is fun, to me at least. Vintage clothing is usually fairly unique and different. You won’t have to worry about someone else showing up to the office party wearing the same dress as you! Awkward moment avoided!

I like thrifting. A lot. A lot a lot a lot. My house is a veritable treasure trove of weird and wonderful things. Nobody else has my candlesticks or place mats or chair covers. And I like that. It is fun to tailor your home to be something that is totally unique and awesome. And while it does take some time, your creativity and You-ness can really shine.

It is really easy to make furniture be a centrepiece of this identity. Its usually big, you probably actually use it, someone besides yourself will sit on a chair or couch. What are some things that you can do, you ask. Well, I am so glad that you want to know

Cushions: probably the easiest thing you can do is get cushions, or even make them, that either blend in to your style or contrast with it, depending on what you like. A simple throw cushion can take a boring beige chair from frumpy to fabulous in mere moments. And because cushions generally don’t cost too much, you can replace them whenever you want to mix it up a bit. I know some people that bring out new combinations of cushions with each season. While that is a bit much for me, it is a great way to refresh your living space. And if you sew, making cushions is super duper simple.

These chairs would look quite boring without some awesome bright cushions. Look at how they really pop against the neutral decor.

Paint: while I generally cringe at the idea of painting wood furniture, sometimes it needs to be done. A fresh coat of paint on a tired old plant stand can make your plant pop out of the woodwork so to speak. Have an old broken kitchen chair languishing in the basement? Pull it out, paint it, you have a new plant stand for indoors or out. You can paint a chair, couch legs, picture frames, really anything. You can even paint fabric (click here to see some instructions. It sounds like a lot of trouble but hey who am I to tell you what not to do). Paint is usually fairly inexpensive and if you go to your local home improvement store often you can troll for cheap mis-tint paint like I do.

sick of looking at your faded scratched wood table and chairs? look how cute this is!

Fabric: it isn’t that hard to make slipcovers, if you know your way around a sewing machine. You can pick any fabric you’d like, and if you can’t sew it, you can have someone else do it. This way you are reusing your existing furniture but giving it new life. Dining chairs are easy to redo, and you can really let your creativity shine here. I am currently fixing an old chair up and using a cable knit sweater for the cushion! You could sew together old doilies and layer that over a contrasting fabric for a really cool effect. The possibilities are really endless when it comes to chair bottoms. I change mine all the time. I think my husband believes I have some commitment issues!

look at this great refinishing project! see how to do it here

Using things that aren’t intended for that purpose: an old barrel with a cushion on top becomes a fabulous chair. An old door mounted on the wall becomes a headboard for your bed. An old office credenza becomes hallway storage. Old fabric remnants can be framed and hung for a cool and vintage look. An old dining table can be an office desk. There are so many things you can use in different ways, just thinking about it makes me excited. If you want some inspiration click here and have a Re-Imagining Weekend; fun for the whole family!

an old ladder hangs down for a great small space reuse pot rack

What sorts of creative things have you done in your home? Let us know!

 

Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Green: How to Plan a Beautiful Eco-Friendly Wedding

The average cost of a Canadian wedding today is $24,000. $24,000! No wonder so many fathers are angry when their daughters announce they’re getting married. Even though most couples actually pay for their own weddings these days, that is still a huge bill to begin a new marriage with. But if you don’t want to start your honeymoon in debt, what are the options? Well, since this is the UsedEverywhere blog, of course you can throw a beautiful, eco-friendly wedding for a fraction of the usual cost!

My fiance and I had a tiny wedding budget thanks to two years of ongoing renovations on our fixer-upper. Over a year and a half of wedding planning, we found out that when you go green, you save green, even in weddings. We learned where to save big money and where to go green … and that the two usually went hand-in-hand. Elegant does not have to mean expensive, and neither does eco-friendly. We planned a gorgeous, “green” wedding for all our family and friends, and saving the planet was just a bonus.

In planning the wedding, Rolf and I turned to the same resources as we had been using in our ongoing renovations: the knowledge and help of our friends and family; online classified websites such as UsedOttawa.com for cheap and free materials; and Google. For 1/8th the cost of a standard wedding, $3,000, we got married last summer in a sweet, vintage wedding with one hundred of our closest friends. And partied our asses off.

In upcoming posts in this blog series on throwing a low-budget but beautiful wedding, I’ll go over all the aspects of planning a wedding, showing you where we saved money, what the green options are, and what not to DIY! Over the coming weeks I’ll cover all the wedding planning essentials:

The venue.

The invitations.

The rings.

The flowers.

Photography.

The dress! And other wedding clothes.

The food.

Centrepieces and wedding favours.

Wedding cakes and cake toppers.

If you’re out west this weekend, UsedVancouver.com is proudly sponsoring The Original Bridal Swap. Bridal Swap connects past brides and brides-to-be in a fun atmosphere so they can buy and sell gently used wedding items.

Canadian Voices Rise Up to the Sky

National news can be learned directly from children, which was the case in my household regarding a new song my kids are learning at school. The song I.S.S. Is Somebody Singing was collaborated together by Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson and with how interactive Hadfield has been from space – the kids rate this partnership as something very cool! Officially commissioned by CBC Music, the goal is to bring attention to the importance of music education in Canada. The debut of the song Is Somebody Singing happened in February with the glee choir of Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts and not only is it a great song (and Chris Hadfield can really sing!) but it’s a coalition spreading a great message of unification through music across Canada. Music history was made when the song was recorded both on Earth and Space while Hadfield is in orbit on the International Space Station. Have a listen below!

Astronaut Hadfield helped co-write the song and I love the line “You can’t make out borders from up here.” Ed Robertson from Bare Naked Ladies has a wonderful quote about how we can all feel connected, even the wonder of what Chris Hadfield experiences in Space. Robertson’s quote is here:

“I wanted it to be a celebration not about the remoteness of space, but about the connectedness of a human being on the I.S.S. who looks down and sees the whole planet in a way that, from our perspective, we don’t have the opportunity to.”

I love listening to music that my kids enjoy and the goal for May 6 is to have the entire country united in song across the different time zones and have Hadfield hear the voices while still in space. It is the official song for Music Monday to promote and celebrate music education in schools. Share this message so that children that are home schooled, school music departments, and music makers of all backgrounds learn the song together and lend their voice in May.

Access free downloads and lyrics through the Coalition’s Music Monday website, and join the coalition to fill the skies with music. There are some great Music Monday ideas for getting started:

• Music Monday in a field
• Joint School Event – organized with multiple schools
• Community Wide Event – community partner with a senior music group, local choir, etc.

Play the video, learn the lyrics and help bring awareness for music education in your communities with this special song. Champion children to believe that anything is possible – whether it be travelling to space or hearing a song there.

Keep Celebrating with Easter Leftovers

It’s Easter weekend, one of my favourite holidays because it usually brings with it beautiful spring weather, not to mention family togetherness. And chocolate. And turkey. All wrapped up in a long weekend.

Another of the innumerable pleasures of Easter weekend is … leftovers! Not last year’s eggs that never got found, but the leftovers from turkey dinner (sorry, ham people, I’ve got nothing for you). After Easter dinner is over, I love how the holiday continues to the delightful ding of the microwave as miniature versions of Easter dinner arrive steaming and ready. And don’t even get me started on how delightfully light on the palate a turkey sandwich with mayo, tomato, and lettuce is.

Once you’re down to the turkey bones, Easter surely seems over unless you’ve got a few chocolate eggs stashed away. You’re ready to toss the carcass in the compost bin or (god forbid) the garbage. But wait! There’s still plenty of turkey meat on those bones, and Easter doesn’t have to be over yet. The easiest and tastiest way to use up the last of the turkey is to make a soup or stew from the carcass. If you can boil a pot of water, you can make a turkey stew and keep celebrating Easter well into next week. Here’s how you get started:

Turkey Stew (or Soup)

Step 1

Put the carcass into a large pot, breaking it up if necessary. Fill the pot with enough water to cover about half the carcass or more, depending on how much water you want in your stew or soup. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 3 hours. You are done this step when you can easily separate the meat from the bones just by picking it up, like in this video:

Step 2

Remove the bones, leaving the meat and the broth in the pot. Depending how much meat was left on your turkey bones and how much water you added, you may have a turkey soup going on, or a turkey stew so meaty you can stand your spoon up in it.

Step 3

At this point you have a nice, meaty turkey broth and you can take this recipe anywhere you want by adding cut up veggies like onions, carrots, celery, diced potatoes, a chopped up sweet potato, some cubed turnip. Add flavour with spices or seasoning such as a chicken bouillon cube and/or salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, thyme, sage, marjoram, garlic.

This year I think I’m going to take my meaty turkey broth and make this Turkey & Wild Rice Soup recipe by adding chicken bouillon, wild rice, onion, celery, carrots, spinach, sage, and balsamic vinegar.

Step 4

Cook at a low boil for 30-60 minutes until the veggies are cooked to the desired tenderness. Done! Easter is the best!

What are you doing with your Easter leftovers?

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Fellow UsedEverywhere blogger Amber recently shared some of her top tips for cleaning your home without toxic chemicals. The natural cleaning methods she recommends are not only healthier for you and your family because they don’t contain toxic chemicals, but also better for the environment for the same reason.

As it turns out, homemade cleaning products are much cheaper, too. When you buy cleaning products from the store, you’re paying for the dozens of chemicals that go into every bottle, plus the research that went into developing those chemicals. Add in the cost of the fancy packaging, and the marketing campaigns and advertisements that get you to buy the cleaners in the first place. Chemicals are expensive!

True confession time: I don’t do that much housecleaning, so switching to homemade cleaning products isn’t actually going to save me much money. But my husband and I generate a lot of laundry somehow, so using store-bought laundry detergent is one area of our lives where we were literally pouring money down the drain, along with a lot of chemicals. That is why we switched to homemade laundry detergent three years ago and have never gone back.

Homemade laundry detergent is quick and easy to make – it takes only three ingredients compared to the three dozen listed on the back of a box of Tide. It is low-sudsing, so it is perfectly safe to use in both HE front-loaders and standard washing machines. Homemade laundry detergent performs just as well as any store-bought detergent ever did for me: it works in both cold and hot water, it lifts stains, keeps whites white, and takes Rolf’s shirts from funktastic to fresh as a daisy. All without dozens of toxic chemicals, and for pennies a load. With all these points in favour of homemade laundry detergent, I feel like a chump for ever using store-bought detergent!

If you’re ready to shake off the chains of the store-bought laundry detergent industry, here’s how you do it.

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Powder

You can find the ingredients in the laundry or cleaning aisle of most Wal-Marts and large grocery stores such as Loblaws / Real Canadian Superstore.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda (not to be confused with baking soda!)
• 1 bar laundry soap (e.g. Sunlight, Fels Naptha, Zote, or you can even use regular body soap like Ivory)

Directions:

Finely grate the bar of laundry soap with a cheese grater, blender, or food processor. Mix the grated soap with the borax and the washing soda. Store in an airtight container such as a jar or plastic tub. This detergent is very concentrated, so you only need to use 1 tbsp of powdered detergent per load of laundry (use 2-3 tbsps for heavily soiled or stinky loads).

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Liquid

The liquid version of homemade laundry detergent takes more work, but it still requires only three ingredients and is just as cheap. I made the liquid version for two years because I had always used liquid store-bought detergents, and because my HE front-loading washing machine had a liquid dispenser. Turns out you can just remove the liquid-dispensing cup from the washing machine and use powder instead. The powder works just as well as the liquid for me, so I’ve switched because it’s easier to make. If you just plain prefer liquid detergents, here’s how you make the homemade version.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 bar laundry soap
• large bucket with lid

Directions:

Grate the bar of laundry soap into a large pot. Add 6 cups of water and heat on low or medium, stirring occasionally, until all the soap is melted – avoid boiling as this produces a lot of foam. In a large bucket, mix the borax and the washing soda with 10 Litres (or 40 cups or 2.5 gallons) of very hot water and stir well. Add the hot soapy water from the stove and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. Let stand overnight. When it cools, it will turn into a solid gelatinous mass – break it up and stir it with a large wooden spoon until it becomes a smooth, thick, liquidy mixture. Use 1 cup per load.

COST ANALYSIS

Each of the recipes above makes enough for 50 loads of laundry. The cost breakdown is:

Borax (2kg box / 10 cups): $4.99 ÷ 10 cups = $0.50 per batch
Washing Soda (3kg box / 15 cups): $4.99 ÷ 15 cups = $0.33 per batch
Sunlight Laundry Bar Soap: $1.25 each

At a total cost of $2.08 per batch, which makes enough for 50 loads of laundry, that’s about four cents a load. See you in the borax aisle!

Cleaning Out The Closet: 5 Tips For Making Room For New Clothes!

A little while ago I shared the goodies that I bought at Value Village on their most recent 50% off day. What I didn’t share was that these finds have been sitting in a pile on top of my dresser since that day because I didn’t have any room in my closet for more clothes. It was definitely time for a little “out with the old and in with the gently used” – in other words, cleaning out my closet.

Luckily, I find cleaning out my closet just as fun as shopping for more clothes! Is that weird? Purging items I don’t need anymore is a no-brainer way to calm clutter and it actually helps me feel more in control of my life. Every item I remove from my closet and my house is one less thing I have to keep track of, one less thing to organize and clean, one less thing filling up my home and my mind. And … it makes room for more clothes!

 

Here are the tips that I follow whenever my closet and dresser drawers start bulging:

1. Go through your entire wardrobe: check every single hanger in your closet and every pair of socks in your dresser drawers. Pull out every item of clothing that you know you don’t want and put it right away into a “discard” pile.

2. Step two is where we start separating the purgers from the proto-hoarders. Go through your wardrobe again, and pull out everything that you’re not 100% sure about keeping. Put these in a “maybe” pile. Don’t worry, you won’t have to get rid of anything you don’t want to! Just trust the system for now and put that great dress you bought on sale three years ago into the “maybe” pile.

3. Now go through your closet and drawers one last time, and pull out everything you think is a great piece of clothing and fully plan to wear again one day, but that you haven’t worn in a long time (you can define “long time” however you like, but I like to go with “haven’t worn it since the last time I cleaned out my closet”). Put these clothes in the “maybe” pile, too.

4. Now try everything on! Don’t skip anything – make yourself try it on and check it out in a mirror. As you try things on, you might find that you change your mind about a lot of your “maybe”s and put them into the discard pile. It’s funny how clothing has a way of not looking as good as we remembered, and it suddenly becomes an easy decision to purge it. If you’re still unsure about something even after trying it on, put it back in the “maybe” pile.

5. When you’re done trying everything on, put everything that’s still in the “maybe” pile back in your closet or dresser. If it goes on a hanger, a cool trick is to hang the hanger backwards on the closet bar until you next wear that piece of clothing, at which time you put the hanger back normally again. Six months or a year from now, or whenever you next clean out your closet, you’ll know that everything on a backwards hanger has been sitting there untouched since the last time you cleaned out your closet. It might make it easier to discard next time.

 

What to do with your discard pile? There are plenty of options! Pass them along to someone who has similar taste in clothing. Drop them in any of the streetside donation bins you find in most cities. Take them to a thrift store: Value Village, Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul – every thrift store takes donations of gently used clothing. Or my favourite method because it’s so darn easy: contact the Canadian Diabetes Clothesline online and schedule a FREE pickup of your unwanted clothing and other household items. The Canadian Diabetes Association sells the goods it picks up to Value Village and uses the money for diabetes research and education. Everybody wins!

 

Thrift Stores … Not Just Your Granddad's Clothes Anymore

I’ve had this song in my head for awhile, and it was giving me the urge to go thrift store shopping.

So on one of Value Village’s sale days at the end of February, my husband and I had a date night of sorts at the thrift store. It was surprisingly fun to score some great deals on nice clothes together. And the changerooms are big enough for two …

Rolf had actually never been thrift store shopping before, but I love thrift stores. I get it from my mom. You can point her to a Salvation Army or a Goodwill and she will come out with an armload of fabulous outfits. I usually prefer Value Village myself. Their prices are higher, but they have lots of 50% off days, and it’s hard to beat the size and selection of a big, bright Value Village.

On this trip Rolf wanted to see if he could find shirts and sweaters for work. I, as usual, wanted to look at everything, but I decided to make a short list and focus my efforts on skirts, jeans, hoodies, and long-sleeved shirts. And some drinking glasses. And serving dishes.

By the way, for the nicest stuff, go to a thrift store in an upper-class neighbourhood … the clothing at the new Stittsville Value Village in Ottawa is full of name brands that I can’t even afford to buy new, thanks to getting their donations from the rich surrounding Kanata and Stittsville neighbourhoods!

How did we do? Check out the awesome buys we got!

 

 

 

Eat Local, Eat Healthy, Eat Cheap – with the Ottawa Good Food Box!

Some time ago, I emailed my city councillor my thoughts about allowing hens to be kept on residential properties (totally for, of course!). He and his staff were gracious and gave me a lot of insight into the process of getting city by-laws changed. Fast-forward to today and hens still aren’t allowed in Ottawa, but I did end up on my councillor’s newsletter distribution list. Once a month I get an email about upcoming activities, events, and other notable things in my ward and the rest of the city … and that’s how I found out about the Ottawa Good Food Box program.

The Ottawa Good Food Box is a non-profit initiative that offers healthy food to communities at wholesale prices. Through the Ottawa Good Food Box, you can order a box full of fruits and vegetables once a month. There are different sizes of boxes to buy, and it should really be called the Good Food Great Price Box, because the biggest box for feeding a family costs only $20!

They also offer a medium box for $15, a small box for $10, or a fruit bag for $5. Each month there is a variety of delicious and nutritious fruits and veggies in the box, and the goal of the program is to offer food that is in season and grown as close to home as possible. There is even an organic box offered during growing season.

Once a month customers place their orders on the Ottawa Good Food Box website or directly with the coordinator of the nearest distribution site. Customers choose the box size and price that meet their needs and the boxes are delivered to neighbourhood distribution sites for pickup. There are 30 distribution sites, so chances are there is one near you. (They will also open a new distribution site anywhere there are 10 customers and a site volunteer.) A newsletter with nutrition tips, recipes for cooking any of the less-common veggies in the box that month, and information about the program, is included in every order.

I ordered my first Good Food Box through the website for February, and picked it up last week. Even though the $20 size is described as “good for a whole family”, my husband and I decided that we probably eat this many fruits and veggies already … and if not, we should be! Since it costs an extra $1.50 to order from the website instead of in person, I paid my $20 for March when I went in to pick up my first box. Here’s hoping we eat our veggies and not our words.

This is what was in our $20 Ottawa Good Food Box for February 2013:

10 lb bag of potatoes (potatoes are only provided every second month)
2 lb bag of onions
2 lb bag of carrots
3 enormous beets
1 acorn squash (weighing in at 2.5 lbs!)
5 apples
4 oranges
8 bananas
1 grapefruit
2 kiwis
1 cauliflower
1 huge head of romaine lettuce
1 green bell pepper
1 tomato

In the interest of research, I actually weighed everything that was in the box and then compared the prices at my neighbourhood Sobey’s and at the discount grocery store Food Basics. At Sobey’s, February’s $20 Good Food Box would have cost me over $35. At Food Basics, it would have cost me $25 – so I saved $5 there and a few trips to the store since I don’t usually buy that much at once. I also got more local food than I would have at the grocery store because, to be honest, I never remember to consider that while I’m shopping.

$20 a month or less … for a huge box of fruits and veggies … and they buy local so you don’t have to think about it. The Ottawa Good Food Box has been around since 1996, why haven’t I heard about this before!?

Great Moments from the UsedOttawa Winter Scavenger Hunt!

On February 16th and 17th, UsedOttawa.com hosted the first annual Winter Scavenger Hunt and it was a great success! People came out from all over the Ottawa area to participate and enter to win one of 3 iPad minis. On Saturday and Sunday, hearty contestants braved the cold and came downtown to pick up their lists and tick off items such as taking a photo of themselves on Parliament Hill.

It was colder than an Antarctic ice hockey championship, but Ottawans didn’t let that stop them from enjoying the final weekend of Winterlude! Rosy cheeks, sunshine and exercise – what a perfect way to spend the weekend.

Congratulations to all the winners, and a big thank you to all the participants for making my first weekend working for UsedOttawa so much fun! Check out some of my favourite moments from the scavenger hunt: