Category Archives: Decorations

Nothing New: Furniture

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Hey everyone, I hope you all had an amazing week and a Happy Easter :) I know a lot of my friends and readers in Europe will be celebrating later this spring, so get ready for the Easter Bunny to hop overseas!

Today’s blog post is about furniture, and since some of you know my minor (*COUGH* yeah, right) obsession with Freecycle.org, the post is going to be about “not so new”, but beautiful, vintage and FREE furniture!

I finally got tired of not having a coffee table in our living room, and wrote a Wanted post on Freecycle, and here is what I got:

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The lady who gave it to me was so nice, she even delivered it to my apartment building! I am serious! I was shocked too! Trust me! Most of the time it’s your responsibility to go and pick something up off of freecycle, but this time I guess I got lucky! It’s a wooden table, definitely vintage! I looked under it, and it said Massachusets! I am such a sucker for vintage furniture! It’s so beautiful and elegant, that Ikea and Target simply become a blasphemy!

I’ve acquired another piece of furniture this week – a night stand/end table, thanks to my mother-in-law! Since our bed is so high, very few nightstands work with it! I have been looking for a tall nightstand for months, because that corner between the bed and wall started to feel more and more empty with every day that went by. So Sandra, dropped off this beauty last Tuesday, and it fit right in!

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I love it, don’t you? I immediately took Sam’s old green lamp out of storage, and placed it on the table:

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Now it reminds me of a short story by a Russian writer Alexander Green, called the Green Lamp, which I am planning on translating and posting on here this week! I love Russian literature, makes me feel nostalgic, but at the same time appreciate my background and culture!

An oldie, but a definitely goodie is my console table, which has been recently featured in my “Early Stages of Hoarding” post, and is another great freecycle find, that I got from a woman, who said her husband was a hoarder (Oh-oh!)

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Some other items that I have freecycled include (but are not limited to ;) )

- books

- clothes

- vintage

- kitchen appliances

- arts and crafts supplies,

and the list goes on!

It really is a great source, but don’t forget that it’s not all about getting, it’s all about GIVING!

Xo,

Z

About these ads

BeingZhenya is now on ETSY!

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Yes, I finally did it! I opened my very own Etsy store where I’ll be selling all sorts of vintage and hand-made items!

All are welcome!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Here are some of the items that are currently on sale there:

Vintage Hand Bag with Diamond Stitching

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Vintage Pourchet Bag: 

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One of a kind lace embellished canvas tote: 

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And many more! I will be gradually updating the list of available items!

Thank you for following, commenting and spreading the word!

Zhenya

DIY Classroom ideas: “In the Grass”

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As some of you may know, I quit my job at New Horizon Academy, there were a number of reasons why, but I am not going to go into detail now. But in spite of the fact that I wasn’t going to stay in the classroom, I helped decorate it for the next month’s theme, which is “In the Grass”

I started off with making these flowers! You will see them a lot throughout the pictures. I used green pipe cleaners for the stems and the flowers themselves came pre-made, I simply mixed and matched :)

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The clock also required an update, if you remember, this used to be a Big Ben, now it’s a sun, shining over the flowers, a carbon monoxide alarm disguised as a giant pink chrysanthemum, and a blue bird:

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I hung green ribbon from the ceiling for a cozy in the grass feel:

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Remember the Love Tree I had up in February? I took some of the hearts down, replaced them with flowers, and viola – a spring time tree:

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And finally an updated Family Board (I blurred out the faces, I am sure you understand why :) )

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Today I am starting a new job at Orchard Park Childcare Centre, and I couldn’t be more excited! I will continue posting classroom ideas about once a month, so don’t forget to subscribe if that’s something relevant to you!

And don’t forget that Blue Nile earrings are still up for grabs – enter to win them HERE!

Happy Monday everyone! Tomorrow is Tuesday, that means I have OFF, so I’ll be running around doing all sorts of fun blog related things!

Xo,

Zhenya

 

DIY Doily Wall Art/ Салфетка как Картина

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Hi everyone,

Today we are going to frame a doily and hang it up on the wall, so it looks like this:

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I saw this idea in one of my sewing books. And immediately decided to bring it to life. Of course it took me about a month and a half to find the right frame, but in the end, here it is, my $3 wall art!

You are going to start off by getting all supplies ready! All you really need is a frame and a doily, plus some construction paper if you want to change up the background. Now don’t worry if you can’t crochet, there are plenty of doilies you can purchase for cheap at a thrift store. I chose to make mine, because, well I can, and it gave me more options!

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As you can see, I ended up with a different doily than what I framed at first. I had a last minute change of heart. The doily I originally made didn’t look as good!

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And there you have it, our quick and easy DIY! It’s always good to add something new to the walls, don’t you think?

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Z

Всем привет!

Сегодня мы оформим салфетку в рамку и повесим на стену как картину! В этом нет ничего сложного, зато смотрится красиво.

Идею я подсмотрела в одной из книг по шитью, и немедленно решила воплотить ее в жизнь! Но мне потребовалось почти полтора месяца, чтобы найти подходящую рамку. В итоге, вся переделка обошлась мне в $3!

Для начала нам нужно приготовить все необходимое! Вам понадобится рамка, салфетка и картон/цветная бумага если вы хотите сменить цвет фона. Если вы не умеете вязать крючком – ничего страшного, сейчас практически любую салфетку можно купить в секонд-хенде! Я, конечно же, связала свою, потому что умею, ну и потому что так намного больше вариантов!

Как вы, наверное, заметили по фотографиям, изначально я связала другую салфетку. Но она не так хорошо смотрелась в рамке.

Салфетку просто надо вставить в рамку, и повесить на стену! Вот и все, наша переделка закончена! Новые настенные панно никогда не помешают!

Всем отличной недели!

Z

Country Chic 5 Minute Refashion

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If you are a devoted refashionista like me, you have craft supplies laying around everywhere. My dining table has become a permanent home to a sewing machine. The living room floor is where I lay out most of my patterns and fabrics, finding a pin or stepping on one is nothing out of the ordinary in this household.

Today’s refashion was inspired by a piece of lace trim that was on my dresser, aka make up table! I was going to use it in one of my refashions, but it turned out to be a complete fail (those happen to me too!), but I am glad it came in handy, because I think it turned out super cute! So here is what we are going to refashion today:

A Liz Claiborne Petite Large shirt. It’s so comfy, I love it! And even though it’s somewhat baggy, it’ll be staying in my closet for a long while!

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And here is the stranded piece of trim, laying right there on my make up brushes case, like it belongs there:

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Here is what we do:

Trim the lace to fit the pockets:

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So it looks like this:

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And now you are going to hand sew it on. Super easy and fast, took me only 5 minutes! Here is what it’s going to look like from the inside:

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And the result:

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I hope you enjoyed this easy, super chic, super girly refashion. I am sure that my obsession with lace trim is becoming more and more obvious with every refashion!

Happy Thursday and Happy Holidays!

Z

No Christmas Tree – No Problem

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That’s how we think in this household. Last year we had this amazing cork board tree made out of push pins and yarn:

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This year we were not going to have a tree all together, but then I was feeling overly creative and made this:

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Yes, I made a Christmas tree out of TP rolls, and even painted it with glitter! So I guess DIY Christmas trees are a family tradition now!

Happy Tuesday!

Z

Easy DIY Greeting Cards

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Our center director has recently quit. So I decided to make a “Good-bye” card for her, which turned out so well, that I decided to share this DIY with you!

The card ended up being a combination of scrap-booking and sewing, plus I got to reuse one of the paper bags I got from Origins! (Every time I shop there, I ask for a paper bag with a different pattern! I know it’s crazy, but those bags are perfect for all sorts of DIYs)

Here are all of my supplies (plus glue of course! Elmer’s is becoming my best friend!). As you’ll see below, I am not going to use up all of these supplies, I was simply trying this and that :)

Then I took a white piece of paper and cut out tissue paper to make my card a 3-layer one!

And after a little bit of gluing and sewing (the larger piece of lace in the bottom left corner had to be sewn on, because it just wouldn’t stick!) I ended up with this:

I hope I’ve inspired you to go make a card for someone today! I think I am going to DIY all of our Christmas cards this year :) Let me know if you want to receive one in the mail!

Xo,

Zhenya

TP Wall Art, and yes, TP stands for Toilet Paper!

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I am pretty sure that by now, everyone has made a TP (toilet paper) wall art! It’s really not that hard, just takes a long time.

Before I share the results, here is a tip for those of you who are going to feel the urge to make some TP art after reading this post:

- Make sure to use liquid glue, glue stick won’t make the pieces stick!

- Get plenty of paper clips, they are going to be your best friend when it comes to holding the pieces together!

And now that I am all done giving my advice, let’s see what I’ve made:

 

 

 

 

Have a great Tuesday everyone!
Zhenya

DIY Friday: Decorating a Tote Bag

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Back in October, I went to a staff development day for work. It was one giant teacher conference, with a lot of classes to take, and of course a free goody bag! Unfortunately the bag had this on it:

 

Just in case you have trouble figuring out the writing, it says – Igniting your awesome! I think it’s an absolutely amazing inspirational quote, but not when it looks so sad and washed out :/

I took some nail polish remover (ACETONE is your best friend here!) to get rid of most of the writing.

 

Then I got some fabric for the new applique to go over the writing! This came off of an old T-shirt I freecycled a while back, and it’s just been sitting in my closet, waiting for it’s moment! And well, it finally came!

 

I was debating which piece to use for my refashion and whether to do both front and back, or just front, and finally decided on this:

 

The brown lace trim came off of the same shirt that I cut up last week for my wall art DIY :)

The next step was the longest and probably the most painful one, because I pricked my finger with a needle a few times! But I hand sewn it all together! And the result was just amazing!

 

Yes, it is Monopoly Star Wars edition sticking out of my newly refashioned bag!

 

I hope every single one of you had a blessed Thanksgiving! And a successful Black Friday!

Cheers,

Zhenya

PS. Don’t forget to like my FB page and follow me on Twitter!

 

DIY Lace Art from an Old Top

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I am so glad I am done with all of the product reviews and can finally return to my ordinary or extraordinary posts (whichever you prefer).

This DIY is so easy, you can do it at 11 o’clock at night (that’s exactly what I did!) and it will still turn out great!

You are going to need:

- Small canvas (I’ve had it for the past 2 or 3 years in my craft storage box) which are usually pretty cheap!

- Lace fabric (Mine came from a freecycled XL OldNavy top)

- some ribbon (Came from the same top as the lace) if you are planning to hang your piece, otherwise, because the canvas that i used was a square it could be used as a stand alone piece on a shelf!

- staples or nails or glue, or whatever you can think of to hold it all together! I went with push pin boards!

Here we go:

1. Get your supplies ready!

 

 

2. Lay the canvas on top of the lace to determine how big of a fabric piece you’ll need!

 

3. Fold the lace nicely around the canvas (you don’t want it looking messy!) and pin it down! Hint: when you are pinning down the lace, add the ribbon into the fold, so it’s all pinned together.

And you are all done and ready to hang!

And the best part is – I made TWO!

 Happy DIYing everyone and Happy Monday!

Xo,

Zhenya