DIY Lamps

In third year of university, I made this adorable dinosaur lamp. I bought a lighting kit from Home Depot, found some plastic dinosaurs at the thrift store, picked up gold spray paint, a lampshade from the thrift store, and used a scroll saw to create the wooden base. Making a regular lamp is obviously a little easier (but make sure to read the instructions to do the electrical parts!) because there's less drilling and sawing etc.

The awesome thing about making your own lamp is that you can have whatever base you want: I've seen people drill holes into piles of books (aaagh how!?), mason jars, pieces of driftwood... The sky is the limit. Every day that I look at my lamp I feel super proud because I made it.
Side note: Nic's not super fond of it, though he does think it's cool that I made it. I told him that once we have kids it'll be a dinosaur-themed nursery so that I can keep making gold dinosaur DIYs! (My parents even made me gold dinosaur bookends the year after I made this!)

Here are some YouTube tutorials to give you some tips on how to make whatever lamp you want to make! You can also check out my "Lights" board on Pinterest.


 DIY lamp Terrarium - Live Your Style
This one is the most similar to how I put my lamp together. You'll notice that for the height of my lamp I have some plastic tubing (probably leftover from a plumbing project) that was the correct width for the base of the lightbulb to sit on. This means that you don't see any of the wires except the ones coming out of the base.


Copper Tripod Lamp - The Sorry Girls
I hope to make this or something similar to it when we get a bigger place, because it's so art deco! These two girls are so great at their explanations for their DIYs, and super creative.


DIY Concrete Lamp by Rachel Aust
Rachel has an example of when you wouldn't even be using a lampshade. Her style is super cool and minimal, so that's always an option.

Easy Spring Wreath DIY From the Dollar Store

Every season in our apartment I have loved making a wreath for our door. It's a little old-fashioned, but it brings a lot more life to the hallway. I went to Dollarama, my favourite super cheap crafting store and picked up a bunch of things for my wreath. Of course, I have a Pinterest board dedicated to wreath ideas.
Check out my previous wreaths: Christmas and early fall (at the bottom)

What you need:
Base for the wreath - anything round in the correct size will do. I contemplated using a steering wheel cover from the dollar store, then found this planter which has removable side posts. You can also take a regular wire clothes hanger and bend it into a circle.
Floral wire - or twine to attache all the pieces together. I used twine on my fall wreath because it blended in with the grape vine I was using. I got the super thin, flat stuff that is easy to bend.
Garland - it's obviously super easy to just wind garlands around your circle, so that makes it a lot faster than individually attaching pieces
Any filler - if you want other greenery or flowers to attach to it, get some too.

Step 1
Separate the greenery from the extra stuff that you want.

Step 2
Use the wire to attach the greenery to the hoop so the flowers will have something to fix to. If you're using rope instead, tie little loops with double knots around the hoop. With the wire method, you can wind it around to hold it especially tight.

Step 3
Finish attaching all the greenery and make sure you like it's placement before you add the garlands.

Step 4
Wind the garlands around the wreath. I went pretty slowly and wound fairly tightly so that the flowers would stay front-facing when you're done. For my wreath I used two garlands which were both over a meter long.

Step 5
When the wreath is hanging up, adjust it so that the greenery and flowers are showing the way you want them to.


What do you think? Do you love wreaths like I do? Have you made one for Easter yet?

January Favourites - Beauty, Skincare, Music, Decor, & Activities

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My favourite playlist on Spotify (other than my own!) is the Relax & Unwind one. It's exactly how it sounds- super chill and folksy. I love listening to it in the evening, or while I'm practicing yoga at home, because it encourages me to be more fluid with my movements, and make it more dance-like.

In January I didn't try many new products. My face has been peeling a little with eczema, so my friend recommended I try shea butter. If we're being honest, I made my own shea body butter a few years ago, but forgot about it. Also, everyone always suggests that I put coconut oil on, but I'm pretty allergic to that. 

I went to my local health food store and bought this Shea Butter by Alive: Approved by Nature. It was $8 for 8 oz/227 g, which was a much better deal than a lot of the other ones they had. It helps to warm it up a little bit in your hand and then melt it onto the affected area. After one night of application above my eyes, the eczema was gone! Unfortunately the same can't be said for the eczema in my left elbow or right knee. 

The second skincare favourite is Burt's Bees honey lip balm with vitamin  E. I've normally used their regular balm, so this one helps heal the cracks and peeling on my lips. 

One of my favourites for the month is going through all my 2015 photos and putting together a photo book. Check out this blog post to read my thoughts about the process. 

My cousin Conrad visited us from Manitoba for an interview, and brought us these lovely tea light holders from his trip to Egypt. They're gorgeous and we love to light them in the evening!

People who don't get makeup won't get that this can be my full face of makeup on a regular day. It's true, it's a little excessive, but in the winter I look dead (past vampire dead) so I need all the help I can get to look more alive.
The only new product is my NYX stay matte not flat powder foundation. I like the coverage, it's a lot better than the Body Shop one I've been using for years.
As always, my palette obsession is the Too Faced Chocolate Bar. I couldn't even tell you which colours are my favourites, because they're all being used at a pretty similar rate. That's how you know it was a good investment in your pallette.

Matcha green tea lattes!!! So good! Check out my tips on this blog post.

Tiny Desk for a Tiny Apartment

Finding space for a desk in a little Toronto apartment was hard. We had to downsize the desk from the LINNMON IKEA large size with FINNVARD trestle legs to Linnmon top with Adils legs since the trestles reached too far over into the bedroom doorway. Once we get a larger place, we can use the larger desk top for a desk or a table, or use the smaller one for a console in the hall.

On my small desk (in comparison to the previous one) I house my desktop computer, planter with pens and pencils, a vanity tray with smaller stuff, my agenda, and filing stuff.

No, it's not usually this organized. Receipts are usually thrown onto it. Oops.

I realized I only like bulletin boards if they are kept exactly straight. I did need to keep a calendar up there, so I have my Star Trek calendar with goals, coupons, and snapshots form different events.