home adventures: my sanctuary...

The beginning of mine and Caleb's home adventures started in March when we moved into our first home and I introduced our new floors to our readers in this post. I'm happy to say that we've done much more to our home since then and I've also come to terms with the fact that despite all the work we've done, many of the grand ideas and dreams I had for my home will be a loooonnngg time coming... We have a basement full of boxes still waiting to be unpacked, floors that aren't quite finished, and bathrooms that are a little bit leaky and stuck in tacky 70s colours.... BUT! I've accepted the fact that Caleb and I can't do a new home project every week and that to maintain our sanity, we need to actually just enjoy our home as it is. So we've been enjoying away and easing off the renos. 

We knew when we bought our home that the sunroom was going to be our favourite space to be in, so this past month I've done my best to homey it up and we've created a space that's sooo welcoming and fun to be in. So here's the before and after of my own, personal sanctuary...

Isn't is so much more cozy and fun?! We had debated whether or not to buy actual patio furniture or to somehow work in furniture we already owned... and I'm so glad that we didn't dish out a lot more money to buy stuff that wouldn't have felt as homey! What we did end up purchasing was the mustard striped pouf and the hanging lights (both from Target), and everything else was furniture that we already owned :)

diy: "what does the fox say?" sharpie mug

I won't lie... I am seriously in love with the music video, "What Does the Fox Say." I know, it drives some of you crazy, but really, it is hilarious, random, catchy, and totally witty. I can't stop watching it and I might be a little obsessed, which is why I made a mug out of it! 

And if you don't like the song, I'm hoping you'll at least love this mug.
Cause I think its seriously cute and love how mine turned out!

What you need:  sharpies & some plain coffee mugs. I thrifted these for 50 cents each and I seriously love the gold rims! It just adds a little something :)

How to make them:  I free-handed the silhouette of the fox onto my mug, but you could also easily print out a silhouette and cut it out to make a stencil! Just draw on whatever silhouette you want on your mug. Also, note that it is very easy to wipe off sharpie marker from your mug before it goes through your oven, so if you make any mistakes, don't worry! Just give it a little scrub and you cant start again.

After you're done drawing, simply stick them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
For a more in-depth tutorial, check out my movember sharpie mugs from last year!

Note: You do need to hand-wash these mugs as the marker will still scratch off in the dishwasher! 

So any thoughts on what the fox actually does say? ;)

p.s. ♥ clara

diy : watercolour stencil art

Today's DIY features my favourite art medium.... watercolours! I seriously LOVE watercolours and if I had to only go with one kind of paint, it would definitely be watercolours. Now, I know what you're thinking, aren't watercolours tricky and hard? NO, it definitely does not have to be. I'll give you some tips throughout this post to help you overcome any fears of this beautiful & dreamy art medium.

{ s u p p l i e s }

- watercolor paper 

(first tip of the day, don't use watercolors on regular computer paper, you definitely NEED the thicker material that watercolor paper provides!)

- good paintbrushes

- watercolour paints!

- cup of water
- a stencil : does this deer head look familiar? ;) for today's DIY I re-used a stencil I had printed off and cut out from my "Bleached Oh Deer Tank Top". Any stencil would work for this project though! I'm thinking elephants for my next one :)

{ i n s t r u c t i o n s } 

1. tape down your stencil to your watercolour paper

2. wet your brush with some water  

(tip #2, do NOT use too much water! make sure to scrape your brush against the sides of your cup or on a paper towel so you don't have an excess of water...too much water results in not only a really faded colour but it will also ruin even your strong watercolour paper)

3. dab your brush in the colour of your choice

(tip #3, choose a palette before hand and stick to a handful of colours for this project...ie. I made two pieces of art, one with warm colours: reds, oranges, yellows, and the other with cool colours: greens, blues, and purples.)

4. feel free to use a palette to mix your colours to get different shades. 

(tip #4, hardened watercolour paints will ALWAYS be darker than the colour you will see when you paint the colour on, so this is also a good way of seeing what the actual colour will be!)

Since I was too lazy to buy frames that would fit my watercolour pieces, I simply used an office clip and a tack to showcase these in our home. Cheap, easy, and lovely!

p.s. ♥ clara

diy : vintage framed map art

I love to travel. It's something that I have been extremely blessed to have been able to do a lot of and a love that was passed down to me from my parents, who dragged my brother and I all over the world :) Thankfully, I'm married to a man who loves it just as much as I do! We dedicated our study to have a "travel" and "around the world" theme to it - to name a few, we have pieces from Haiti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Korea, France, and India decorating our walls and studying in this room just makes me restless to get up and go! 

For this diy, I thrifted some empty frames and a lovely old Canadian School Atlas from the 1940s and began to cut out maps of places that are near and dear to our heart. 

When cutting out your maps, simply be aware of the different sizes of your frames! This diy is so simple but adds such a great personal touch to your wall. 

The maps that I used for our wall include a map of... North America, Africa, Korea, the world and good old Alberta!

I also have to point out my wonderful vintage suitcases! The top one is from Caleb's grandpa and the one on the bottom was gifted to me from his parents, who know my love for vintage pieces. 

As I said, Caleb and I absolutely love to travel, so I thought I'd include a couple favourite places along with some bucket listers - 

{ 5 places I've fallen in love with }  -  trekking through the Himalayas in India (this is where my romance with caleb started!), being awed by the architecture of Antoni Gaudi in Spain, the lush green mountains of S.Korea, working at an orphanage in Haiti, and going on an adventure of a safari in Kenya.

{ 5 place I'd love to go to } - the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the canals of beautiful Venice,  the Inca site of Machu Picchu, Topkapi - the oldest and largest palace in the world in Istanbul, and the old city of Jerusalem.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

p.s.  ♥ clara