aloe vera love

A couple days ago I received a MASSIVE aloe vera plant from my friend, Jodi. I have never had an aloe vera plant but they remind me of my Gramma. She often had an aloe vera plant in her house :) 
From another friend, I heard that aloe vera grows better in a terracotta planter, so off I went to find a terracotta planter. With a glue gun and some sisal rope, I spruced up the planter and repotted the aloe vera.

Love...

I don't know much about taking care of/uses for an aloe vera plant....any suggestions?  

~Jessica~

diy tree stump side table

Hey there! Here's a project that me and my hubby have been working on for quite some time...so excited to share it with you! Last fall our neighbours had their front tree cut down, and while I was watching this happen, I coaxed my hubby to run outside, ask the tree choppers if they would cut the trunk of the tree in sections that we could use for side tables. They thought we were crazy...

After letting them dry in our basement for the entire winter, and after my father bought us an incredible bark stripping tool from Lee Valley...and after my hubby planed the tops and sanded and sanded AND sanded some more...I think they are finally done!

Here are our new side tables for the living room!

just checking out the coffee :)

If you're wanting to try this project, two of the tutorials I found helpful were A Beautiful Mess and Bye Bye Brooklyn

Have a great day!

~Jessica~

dining room project

Good Morning! With the dining room set gone, it's time to start putting together the new elements for our new dining room. There are so many things about this space that I am just overwhelmingly excited about! Because I'm working on a budget, I've had to do quite a bit of research to find options that work within our finance-frame. 

The table...
I love the look of a solid farmhouse table, but wanted a little bit of detail added....so I found this plan from Ana White which I think will be perfect for our new look! 

 

The next decision, and probably the trickiest, revolved around the chairs. I absolutely love the look of the Eames dining chairs, and was able to find some that look pretty close to the real thing!

Wire Home

To pull together an easy, not too formal look, I'm going to be using some of the chairs that I already have, from Ikea. I think a fresh coat of paint will spruce these up! I'm thinking Oxford White by Benjamin Moore....

And my farmhouse bench!

I think that the elements I've got to pull everything together will give me the eclectic/scandinavian-inspired/modern-rustic dining room I'm dreaming of! Now to get building that table....

~Jessica~

home inspiration

Hi!

This is my very first post so I'll share a bit of what's been going on around my house...

Last weekend we had a garage sale....and learnt that selling things online is way easier than sitting in the cloudy cold weather trying to sell things from your driveway. BUT we did end up selling some of our furniture, mainly our dining room table and chairs! So I've been searching, dreaming, and finding new inspiration for our new dining room look. This is what I've come up with!

myscandinavianhome

Love the diversity in the textures used for this dining space.

My favourite dining room inspiration comes from the July 2014 issue of Style at Home. The dining room featured on the cover comes from the lovely home of Anna Truelsen, of mylovelythings.blogspot.ca

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Her home is just beautiful! I love everything about these rooms. The farmhouse tables, the Eames chairs, the mirrors on the wall, the light fixture, the textures, the contrast between white & black, everything!

I can't wait for my dining room transformation to be complete. There are lots of projects to work on so I will keep you posted! 

Happy Friday!

~Jessica~