Crafty time!

Today I managed to complete few projects that have been waiting for the right time.

First I took my trusty hammer, two nails, two old toy cars and a wreath base... I've had that base for years (leftover from some crafting project) and the wooden toy cars are from my childhood. I thought it would be nice to keep them, but I hate cluttering surfaces with tiny decoration items, so I had to come up with something.

 Few minutes later I had simple but cute wreath to decorate my door. And I get to keep my toys. ;)

I got two small Singer charms some time ago (a very thoughtful present from Marmalade) and I've been aching to make earrings out of them every time I see them. So... Today I went to a small store near my place that has amazing collection of glass pearls. I picked two beautiful square ones (and some more, but let's not go there right now...) and voilà - I've got a set of earrings.

Completing a project is always so sweet!

Midsummer finds

When ever I'm in Finland for mid summer festivities, I want to enjoy pancakes and coffee in the early morning at the local market place near our summerhouse. As always, the place was buzzing already at 8 am, so I hurried to get the right kind of potatoes that go well with Baltic herring and salmon and summer's first fresh strawberries.

On my way back to sea shore I popped in to a local flea market and made some interesting finds with just few euros; An old Fortuna board game and a white vase that had similar pattern painted on it as one of my old treasures.

The turquoise smaller one was painted by my great grandmother in 1954. The fortuna game is really in bad shape, but I love the pale greenish paint on the edges and the tiny crooked nails look adorable. I wonder how many exciting games some kids might have played with it in the old days?

I remembered my greenish vase had triangles painted on it, nut this was a surprise to find out they are so similar when I placed them next to each other. I guess they're from the same era.

At the minute I laid my eyes on that Fortuna I knew what it is going to be doubling as: A jewelry display!

I'm not sure if it's "chic", but it's definitely shabby!

IKEA hack - new life to Frosta stools

I got four of these IKEA Frosta stools stacked in my kitchen. I bought them about 10 years ago and they've starting to lose their lacquer finish. 

I was about to replace them with new ones, but then i got stingy and decided to give them a coat of paint. I even got the paint for free as Cherry's renovating her apartment and had some leftover furniture paint from her kitchen makeover. Luckily we have similar taste, so the color she had chosen was perfect for me too.

I used sandpaper to get rid of old lacquer and then wiped the stools clean with a damp cloth. 2 coats of paint  and voila! There's probably more "professional" way of doing this, but if I get few extra years for my stools like this, I'm content.

To avoid washing the paint tray later, I covered it with plastic bag. I used a small brush for the edges of the stool and a small roller for the top part.

I didn't want to paint the legs, so I used some tape to protect them.

Alvar Aalto designed very similar stool already 1930's ( stool number 60 ), it's now available in different colors, also in turquoise, sweet!

1920’s Apartment – A Facelift

Me and the Mr recently bought a two-room apartment. The building is from 1920’s and location is downtown. Perfect! I instantly fell in love with the place.

The apartment has been renovated heavily in the 1980’s and some small things have been done in the 1990’s, but frankly it’s in a poor shape. The former owner has lived abroad for at least last ten years and has been renting the place during that time. It’s really no surprise that the whole place needs some TLC.

There are some major renovations coming up during the next two or three years though. They’re going to redo the electric wires and plumbing in the whole building. This might mean that they’ll have to open floors and walls to get things done. So it wouldn’t be very wise to do expensive renovation that would be ruined just year or two later… (There went my beautiful tile flooring in the hall and kitchen. Tiles are already bought, but I’ll just have to wait.)

Layout of the apartment

I still need to do something so we can actually live there (as soon as possible). Thinking it over and over again I came up with a plan. I have a very tight budget for anything that is only temporary or might not be “permanent”. I want to make the place look fresh and appealing for nearly nothing. I’ll have to use what I have as much as possible, but a little paint can take you a long way. ;)

I'll post more about our renovation as we make progress. I think first room we'll finish will be kitchen, but let's see how it goes.