DIY crib mattress ottoman
I admit it — I was emotionally attached to our crib and I didn’t want to sell it. We turned it into a bench that we used for a long time at our dining room table, and now it sits happily on the front porch.
The mattress, on the other end, I didn’t care about … but I also hoarded it because I felt it could come in handy for something one day. Besides, I stuck it under my son’s bed and he didn’t even realize it was there. Pinterest kept suggesting different ideas for it — a reading nook cushion, a doggie bed, a porch swing — but nothing felt right.
It was around this time that I realized I wasn’t crazy about the coffee table I refinished for My Handmade Home last January. I just wasn’t feeling the yellow anymore, but it was a super-solid wood table so I didn’t want to just get rid of it — and we have very limited storage space.
Then I realized I could kill two birds with one stone, pardon the gross and violent expression. I could store the coffee table for possible future use while also making something awesome out of the crib mattress: an upholstered ottoman!
Once I figured it out, I was off and running.
I had my Handy Husband bolt the crib’s support board (which we’d also stuck under the bed) to the coffee table to keep it firmly in place. (A piece of plywood would work just as well, if you haven’t kept your crib’s support board.) If your coffee table is rectangular and fits the mattress well, you won’t even need a board, but our mattress hung over the edges.
I bought a piece of gorgeous grey tweed with a small chevron pattern from Atlantic Fabrics. It wasn’t quite wide enough to cover the full mattress, so I wrapped spare pieces of grey fabric around the ends of the mattress and stapled them to the underside of the wood — leaving the middle of the mattress exposed.
Then I spread the tweed fabric on top of the mattress, stapled the sides underneath, and folded the ends under slightly — stapling again underneath.
To make both fabrics look like one piece, I used a needle and a bit of grey thread to blanket-stitch them together along the seam.
This would also allow you to get nice tight corners if the fabric underneath was the same fabric, which mine isn’t, of course. 😉
Since the legs of our old coffee table still peek out from the bottom, I repainted them with a bit of dark grey (Fusion Mineral Paint’s “Ash”) and they were good to go!
The coffee table underneath is completely unharmed (except for two bolt holes which could easily be filled and sanded smooth) in case we ever wanted to use it as a coffee table again. Because the upholstered mattress is secured to the piece of wood and not the table, we could also remove it cleanly and attach legs of its own.
For now, though, we’re loving our new upholstered ottoman. It’s the perfect footrest in front of our new daybed and I added a woven tray to hold drinks, snacks and remotes. This crib mattress has had quite a long, exciting life so far — and there’s a 95 per cent chance no one is going to pee on it anymore. 😉
How to de-tangle, smooth and curl doll hair
In conclusion, my fingers were very pruney after so much spritizing and combing and curling (C wandered off half-way through and I was left to finish the job).
But … it was totally worth it. #fabulouslifeofdolls
How to work faster from home
Today I’ve got a few quick work-at-home tips for your non-procrastinating pleasure!
Of course, these tips are also useful if you’re an in-a-real-office type who maybe doesn’t wear yoga pants and have semi-dressed children under your desk* but they’re especially important for those of us who scrounge for their next working hour the way we scrounge for the Cheetos we dropped into the couch cushions.
*I’ve been told that doesn’t happen at real offices.
So here we go …
1. Don’t waste precious work-time figuring out WHAT to do.
You guys know I’m addicted to my Google Calendar and all its colour-coded glory. Whenever I get a project deadline, it goes into the Calendar, but — and this is the important part — I also schedule the TIME in which to DO IT.
If I have an article due on a Friday, let’s say, I’ll make sure to block off a chunk of time on the Tuesday or Wednesday to actually write it. I’ll also make a note on the Friday before to start harassing for interviews. So when I start my work on Tuesday, I’ll see that I’ve already scheduled myself to work on X article that’s due on Friday.
I check my calendar before I go to bed at night to see what’s on deck for the next day and then again when I wake up. I always know what’s on the schedule so I can sit down and go straight to work.
2. If you have a bunch of quick tasks, do those FIRST.
It’s rare that someone can sit down at their desk and plunge immediately into work, so that’s where we often get caught in a Super Important Social Media Ease-In.
Instead, look at your calendar or to-do list and see what small tasks you could start with — they’ll help you get on a roll when you’re still half-asleep or not yet in the working groove.
3. Keep in mind what NEEDS to be done, not what you’d LIKE to get done.
It doesn’t matter how much I want to work on the project that’s due on Friday if I have a different project that’s due tomorrow. If there’s no way I can get up from my desk without finishing the project that’s due tomorrow, then I have to JUST. DO. IT.
I usually find that once I’ve forced myself to do the things I MUST do today, I feel relieved that they’re done and I can decide what comes next.
4. Never START with something open-ended (unless it’s all you have to do).
I’ll often start a work session (I can’t say “work day” because I rarely get an entire day) by blasting through email or making a bunch of calls, or maybe even by finishing up a story. But I never, ever, ever start with anything open-ended.
What’s open-ended? Original writing. Research. Brainstorming. Basically anything that requires a lot of brainpower OR that could easily eat up a ton of time. There’s nothing worse than getting carried away with a task that didn’t really need to take so long and then realizing you have a lot of other stuff you still have to do. (See #3)
5. Remember that even 15 minutes is a lot of time.
I’ve been guilty of saying “Oh, there’s 15 minutes until my next call. That’s not enough time to get into writing, so I’ll just see if Amalah’s dog is doing better on her new food regime …”
But sometimes I’ll say, Heather, NO. Spend 15 minutes sending out emails! Because, yeah, 15 minutes is totally long enough to send out a LOT of emails and then I don’t have to do them later.
(Which gives me more time to read about Hamsterdog.)
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What are your favourite tips for working faster from home? Also what brand of yoga pants do you find the most conducive to getting ahead in your career?
Should kids be world travellers?
Our kids have barely left the province and I feel guilty about it. They’ve been to P.E.I. for a camping trip, to New Brunswick for a quick day trip and to Ontario for a week at their grandparents’ house. Other than that, our family travel has been limited to lugging the 1991 Jayco tent trailer around Nova Scotia.
Because my husband works for a major airline, it makes me feel even more guilty for not carpe-ing the diem out of his employee perks. Shouldn’t we be the ones jetting off at a moment’s notice, or at the very least planning incredible vacations?
Sometimes I fantasize about packing four small carry-on suitcases and four backpacks and just … going. Driving to the airport and hopping on whatever flight strikes our fancy. No need to check bags or hassle with missed connections because there wouldn’t be a plan.
We’d stay somewhere for a night or two and come home full of stories and photos. Maybe we’d start a fun collection where we buy a mug or mini license plate in each spot we visit.
How amazing would it be to take your kids to every single province and territory before they were 10 years old? How awesome would it be to also say you’ve been in every single U.S. state?
I’m 32 and I’ve only been to six provinces and nine states (several of which were just stopovers or drive-throughs). We could even make a point of visiting totally random spots like Cincinnati and Milwaukee instead of just the biggest cities.
They’d be learning about geography in the coolest way possible, and maybe they wouldn’t have to make up little rhymes to remember the order of the non-Atlantic Canadian provinces like I did. (“Q. O. M. S. A. BC. That’s what Canada means to me!” Catchy, wasn’t it?)
I started flying to Europe before my first birthday, but how old will our kids be before they cross the ocean? Will I get to experience it with them, or will they go on a high school trip or a pre-university backpacking adventure with their friends? We’ve never been to Paris or Rome and we talk about going once we’re empty-nesters but there’s no time like the present, right?
So why aren’t we packing right now? First and foremost, travelling is expensive. Every trip we’ve taken as a couple has costed more than we expected. We’ve typically put more money into “stuff” or upgrades to the house, so could we even become the kind of family that values travel and new experiences over material possessions and creature comforts?
Travelling also requires taking time off work. My husband does shift-work (which can be unpredictable) and I’m a freelancer (which is actually Latin for “totally unpredictable and also no paid vacation for you, ma’am”). It means being flexible, eating different foods and throwing daily schedules out the window, three things that are difficult for this routine-loving mama.
Travelling with little kids can also be a huge pain. More stuff to bring, more concerns to address, more limitations on what you can see and do (no Red Light District tours in Amsterdam or Broadway shows with nudity). It means worrying about loud neighbouring hotel rooms and staying in every evening.
My husband and I travelled to New York City regularly before having the kids, and we’re now stuck between wanting to show them the city we love and fearing it will be too difficult (or just annoying) to drag them through the crowds.
Our son would flip for the LEGO store in Times Square and our daughter is already begging to go to American Girl. We want to show them Central Park and take them on the subway and wander through the Museum of Natural History, but can their little legs handle so much walking?
The reality is that as much as I love the romantic notion of being a family that travels regularly, I might be imagining us as something we’re not. I’m not sure if we could logistically do it … or if we’d even enjoy it?
Even though I’ve yet to figure out if this is something that’s right for our family, I did finally print the kids’ passport forms and I’m taking them for photos tomorrow.
Maybe we’ll do a trial run and see how it goes. I’ve heard Ohio is lovely in March.
Glam folding chair makeover
When you have a large extended family and a small house, there is a good chance you’re going to be worriedly counting guests on your fingers and wondering if there will be enough places for everyone to sit.
How many times have my husband and I stood in our living room, pre-party, bickering over whether or not we could count on two or three people squishing onto the couch? Hmm, if we drag this chair up from the office, we’d only have to borrow three chairs from the neighbours. But what if — horror of horrors — one of the kids sits in an adult chair!
My in-laws keep a collection of folding chairs and tables tucked away for large family gatherings, and that’s something I’d definitely like to try when we have a house with more storage. Or a garage. Or a shed that’s larger than a porta-potty.
In the meantime, I went out and bought a $9.97 black folding chair to use with my quilting frame. (I’m the oldest 32-year-old you’ll ever meet.) Because my frame sits in the dining room, semi-finished quilt stretched between the bars, it meant we were staring at a pretty cheap-looking folding chair … every. single. day.
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