Organizing

It was a mostly-lovely long weekend up here in Canada, which means my extendo-family goes camping or canoeing or out to their cottage while I stay here to look after their pets. This sounds like I'm complaining, but I much prefer the hanging out with animals to the camping (wood ticks!), boating (BORRRRR-ING) and "cottaging" which I find over-rated in every way. Should it take so much work to relax? I think not, but whatever floats your boat (so long as I don't have to paddle it.)

One of the great things about pet-sitting or house-sitting is that you get to see how other people live. And when other people are in a rush to get outta the city for the long weekend, you get to see how they really live! And apparently my family embraces chaos. Both houses where I was pet-sitting were a sight to behold. I'm not judging, in case my family is reading this...(but if they're not reading this I am totally judging!)

Now, I don't have kids, so I'm sure I can't fully understand how much of a bloody mess they make. My dad says my almost-13-year-old brother is like a hurricane, destroying everything in his wake, and I definitely caught a glimpse of that this weekend. I'm gonna call it "Katrina-Chic." The thing is, my dad has a big, beautiful house, lots of storage space and a whole whack of storage cupboards...which haven't been set up yet. It was all I could do to leave the house as it was, but I assure you, I will insist he invite me over for an organizing-party very soon. The other house I was visiting had been left in a hurry, and with two kids, two dogs and two cats I imagine it's a daily battle just to maintain ones sanity. I did their dishes, so they wouldn't have to come home after a lovely weekend away to 2 hours of cleaning. (See? I'm not always a selfish wanker. Just usually!) And I learned something! KIDS = TUPPERWARE. So much Tupperware!

For me, organization is the key to living easy. I am the first to admit that my house is only about 70% clean, 60% of the time (I could build an extra cat with the amount of fur on my stairs right now) but I'm crazy organized. I know where everything in my house is at any given time. My baby blanket? In that white storage box with vintage Barbie, who's wearing a super slutty outfit! (Everything is sluttier with no shirt.) That cheese knife with the sheep-bone handle that we got for our wedding (makes a great gift for any vegan!) It's in the drawer with the chopsticks. My husband's old head shots? In the lidded basket on top of the shelves in the office. (And oh! my! God! I laughed til I cried when I first saw those. C in a tux with a trumpet, C dressed like an Irish thug...absolutely priceless.)

With the amount of stuff I have, I have to be organized, or you're gonna see me on the next episode of Hoarders.  I really do believe in the old adage "a place for everything, and everything in it's place." It takes a little bit of work to get a system in place, but it makes your home run so much more smoothly.

Here's a link to a home-organization website, which is full of helpful tips, if you're feeling like now's the time for conquering the clutter: Organized Home

And here are some photos that make me feel calmer just lookin' at 'em!

Chick looks so excited to be organized! Could just be the mom-jeans, though.

From Classy Clutter...I love it.

Filing cabinets of any kind would be good....Mario filing cabinets would be better.

This makes me feel mellow! 

Clever.

What I wouldn't give for vintage industrial lockers!

Desire to Inspire

One of my favourite blogs, Desire To Inspire has posted a couple of photos of my uber-kittens on their weekly "Pets On Furniture" column. Thanks, Kim! Now they're famous. Well-deservedly famous!

Mario Brothers Bathroom

Holy Effin' Crap, you guys! You MUST check out the bathroom over at Woo Home.

ONE UP!

Wallpaper!

I was hanging out with my little cousins a few days ago, blowing their minds by making them watch Labyrinth.  I've seen that movie 100 times (I don't think that's an exaggeration) and I never really paid attention to the wallpaper, probably because I was too distracted by David Bowie's junk. (Seriously, WTF is up with that?) But this time I noticed the William Morris-esque wallpaper in Sarah's house, and my thoughts turned to decorating. Then I had a dream that I was wallpapering over a window, and then I figured "Blog Post!"

I've never had wallpaper (that wasn't 50 years old and painted over by generations of renters) because I figured I had too much art work to put on patterned walls and the paper and the art would detract from each other. But maybe there'll be space in my next house? If there is, I will hire someone to put it up. I'm awfully crafty, but when we moved into our house I did buy some paint-able, embossed, polka-dotty wallpaper from the Debbie Travis line and things did not go well. Words to the wise: Don't try to wallpaper by yourself. Or with my husband. Had we been married at the time, we may have been divorced by the time the wallpaper paste dried.

Here are some great wallcoverings that might be worth the aggravation! But first....

Honestly...what the fuck?

William Morris design. 

William Morris.

William Morris.

William Morris.

And another William Morris. These papers and similar are available here.

Greta Jade by Villa Nova.

Close up of Bengale toile by Manuel Canovas.

Saw this Schumacher wallpaper on an episode of Sarah's House, where she used it to grand effect in a powder room.

Love this tree print by Lee Jofa.

Knowing as you do my infatuation with the macabre, you'd know I couldn't end this post without showing you this  graphic skull print available at Designer Wallcoverings.