Giveaway Winner

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you are all having a great week and enjoying some nice sunny day!

I am here today to announce the winner of my Blurb giveaway! Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

The winner is ...

Michelle!

Congratulations Michelle!

I hope you will enjoy the gift card and make a beautiful book full of memories. 

Have a great day everyone!

B

Hello Coral

Hello y'all! Today I want to share a couple of things that are buzzing around in my head. My mother's birthday is coming up and we have been chatting about doing a few changes to her place. She will be away for a couple of days and I hope to sneak in and do the work while she is away. I love surprises, so I hope she will appreciate it. It is mainly her bedroom that is in dire need of some TLC. She is a very picky lady, so I decided to make a mood board for a "client". And yes, I will be pretending that this is just for the blog so I can get a feel for what she thinks of my ideas. She doesn't read my blog, so I doubt she will see it, but here are my thoughts.

She is not a huge fan of pink, but likes red, so I figured since coral is so hot right now, I would go down that avenue. Here are some of my thoughts for her room redesign.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Number 1 is the paint colour I have chosen for her room - Balboa Mist by Benjamin Moore. I love this colour. It is a combination of a light grey and beige. I am looking to try my hand at a DIY tufted headboard. Here is the fabric (3) I am thinking to use and I will make some diy curtains (4). And last but not least, I will add lots of colour throughout the room with the different accents.

I really like what I pulled together, but most importantly I hope she will like it as well. Will keep you posted, but in the mean time what do you think? Would you like a bedroom that would look like this?

Have a fabulous day!

B

Giveaway Time

Good morning to you all! Today I have such an exciting giveaway for you and I hope you will enter to win. Summer is in full swing and I know that we are all snapping pictures of the fun and the beautiful people and things around us. What better way to capture all of those than into a Blurb book and treasure the memories.

This giveaway comes to you courtesy of Blurb, who is offering my Canadian readers a $35 gift certificate towards their own personalized book. Thank you so much to Blurb for hosting this giveaway

Blurb makes publishing and designing books, easy, fun and beautiful. It is very easy to use Blurb and not only can you make picture books, but you can create novels, recipe books and even short story books. Their templates are very well designed and they give you the opportunity to optimize the space and get more content on your page. 

Here are some examples of some of the gorgeous books that some super creative people have created using Blurb. The possibilities are endless; Photo books, Wedding books, Cook books, Note books, Business books, Facebook Photo books, and even Instagram books.

Who can enter and how do you enter?

-only thing you need to do is visit Blurb and leave a comment telling me what kind of book you would like to create

For additional entries:

-Tweet/Facebook about the giveaway and then leave a comment here letting me know that you did. Also, cc: @craftybeeblog.

-Contest is only open to Canadian residents

-Winner will be chosen using random.org.

Contest is open until July 22nd at 11:59 PM EST. 

Winner will be announced on July 23rd.

Good luck everyone!

B

Curtain call

I have been wanting to change the curtains in my son's room for a while, but wasn't really sure what I wanted. There are many and I mean many gorgeous fabrics out there, but my sewing skills are nowhere close to be up for that task. After giving it some thought, I have decided that stripes would be really great. If I would have the skills, I would love to make something similar like Barbara's from Hodge Podge/Markova Design.

You can find the instructions on how to make the drapes, here. They look so fabulous!

You are probably wondering where I am going with this. Well, here is where you come in. I would love your thoughts on my newest idea in home decor. 

I am a huge fan of West Elm and their products and while browsing their site, I came across these. 

Don't they look awesome? So, I had a crazy thought about using these in my son's room. There are two little problems with them though. One, they are shower curtains and two, they are 74"l x 72"w, which means they are not long enough. I could use some grey linen material and just sew it at the bottom. What do you think? Would they look ok? Would love your thoughts and/or ideas.

Have a great day everyone!

B

My Long Weekend

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and week so far. My post is a couple of days late, but here it is. We celebrated Canada Day in Ottawa and it was so much fun to see family and friends. I took a few pictures with my phone and if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen these, but here are some of my favourite shots from our weekend. 

There were so many great things to see and do downtown Ottawa and my little munchkin loved every bit of it. He was so excited when he saw Parka. 

A sea of red and white. 

And after a yummy bbq at home, we hit the fair for my munchkin to go on his first rides. 

My hubby and I wanted to go on this ride, but our little munchkin wanted to come as well and had a little fit, so another time. 

A gorgeous sunset to end a really wonderful day. 

We watched the fireworks, but my phone died and unfortunately couldn't snap any more pictures. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and got to relax a bit. 

B

Guest Posting over at...

Good morning and happy Friday! I am so happy it is Friday and on top of that, Canada Day is in a couple of days. We are off to Ottawa for some celebrating and in my opinion, there is nothing like celebrating Canada Day in Canada's national capital. That excitement might have something to do with the fact that I lived in Ottawa and love, love, love the city and miss it so.

But, today I have some very exciting news for you! I am guest posting over at Lindsey's awesome blog Recreated.

With Canada Day around the corner, I have put together a couple of things that will help you host a wonderful Canada Day celebration.

We hope you have a fantastic weekend and a happy and safe Canada Day!

B

Instead of Flash Use...

We bloggers spend quite some time making projects, writing up posts etc., but a big chunk of our time is spent taking and editing pictures. To be honest with you, I dread looking back at the very first pictures I shot and posted on my blog, because they look terrible. I will spare your eyes and not show you one.

The lighting in our place is horrible and I really mean horrible. Therefore it is really hard to take good, bright pictures. I am also busy with my little guy and therefore miss that window of opportunity when the lighting is optimal. I have also learned that one thing not to do when taking pictures indoors, is to use your flash. Hmmm, what is one to do then?

Well, here is the answer. This little thing will be your best friend forever! Forever!

It is called the Lightscoop and it works wonders. It is worth every single penny and it is very affordable. The best investment I have made all year!

What is it? It is small device that you attach to your camera and it redirects the flash from your camera to a wall or ceiling. It is very easy to attach to your camera and it is compatible with most cameras. Once you attach it, you just have to adjust a couple of settings on your camera and you are ready to go.

Here are a couple of pictures with and without the lightscoop, that I shot with my camera for you to see the difference.

numero 1

numero 2

numero 3

I just want to add that our place really has the worst lighting ever, so your pictures might not be as different. I have not adjusted the lighting or clarity in any of the pictures above. I had a really hard time finding a way to get some decent pictures and this has definitely helped. I am really happy with it and I highly recommend it.

Have a fabulous day!

B

P.S. I have not been paid to write about this product. Just wanted to share this with you!