Thursday 9 May 2013

Staying Put

So, after MUCH debate we are about 99% sure we're actually going to....stay in our house and renovate it. This was NOT in my life plan! We bought the house almost 7 years ago, and my plan was to stay for 5 years, then move on to something bigger and better. If you've read this blog before, you'll know that I started to work on fixing up the house in order to sell it. The major stuff (plumbing, electric, new furnace, new water tank, new appliances) we did when we moved in, which I'm thankful about.

My plan for this year was to repaint all of my funky walls to a more stage-friendly neutral, dress up the basement a bit, and generally put a fresh coat of lipstick on my 102 year old house. There are so many little issues in a house that you know need fixing, but you either turn a blind eye to, or just get used to. I was going to fix those, sell the house, and move to a bigger place closer to work. This has been my goal for SEVEN YEARS. I have had brief moments of doubt (see this post) but was really pretty solid on my plan.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I thought about the realities of the market and about finances. (Boooo-urns! Reality is a bitch.) If we were to sell our house, we would definitely make a good deal of money on it. It's value has grown a lot since we purchased it, and it's a sellers market. Which would be great if we didn't need to buy another house. Another house that would be more expensive and in an area that's more highly taxed. Of course I realized this when I was planning my big move, but I was prepared to deal with the expenses.

Recently, though, I started thinking about how great I have it. My husband and I are dual income, no kids, car-free and in a house that we can afford. We're not close to wealthy, but in the long run, we'll be far better off financially if we stay here. Which means I can keep the lifestyle I like ie. working 4 days a week instead of 5, travelling, and spoiling myself and my loved ones.

It was a hard choice to make, as I had to reconcile what I want with what I can comfortably have, but hey, this is like, the second most responsible decision I've ever made! (The first was to stop dating musicians.)

There's a lot more to share, like about how on earth I'm gonna make this place really work for us, and of course I'm scheming away and have come up with lots of ideas, but more on that next time.

Hey, wanna see my bathroom? It's finally done!* (*Wellll, I still need to install the new light fixture.)
But, whoa, is it ever different.


My new bathroom floor (Allure planks, available through special order at Home Depot.)
This colour is called white, but is clearly grey.

All done! My Lillangen sink and upper cabinet are from IKEA. 







Friday 26 April 2013

Sylvester

When I was a little girl I lived with my Grandpa Dave and my home was cozy and warm and filled with aunts and uncles who spoiled me at all times. One of them (I'm going out on a limb and guessing my recently departed Auntie Ali, who took it upon herself to spoil me the most...) gave me a set of children's cutlery with Sylvester the Cat on them. Up until recently I still had them (the spoon is now my preferred chocolate-soy-pudding-eating-device) but last month my fork went mysteriously missing.  Searched high and low, can't find it. Now I know this is not exactly a crisis, but it's one of those things, tied up with childhood memories. I really hope that it will eventually turn up, but just in case it doesn't...I bought a vintage set from VarietyVintagebyALD on Etsy. The seller really went above and beyond to ship it to me here in Canada, and I thank her for the kindness!




Saturday 20 April 2013

Kantha Quilt

Finally! The quilt I ordered at the trade show last January has arrived, and she's quite the beauty!

A Brief History:

Kanthas are embroidered quilts from Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. Kantha making is a form of folk art and has been created in rural Bengal for centuries. It's likely that patchwork kanthas were the first form of this style of running-stitch quilting, and it's the kind I purchased for myself. They've evolved to include many different designs, but for my purposes it was patchwork all the way. I was really struck by the colours I saw when I was sourcing mine. As with almost every folk art and fabric art done in India, there are *more than a few* colours to choose from. Or you know, you could just throw every colour together and see how that spins out, which is pretty much my approach to decor in general.

As soon as I received this one I thought I might need another in a different colourway to cover a couch I don't even own yet. Always thinking' ahead, I am. ;)

Traditionally, old saris and recycled fabrics were used in kantha making, though today new silks and cottons are used more extensively. Many Bangladeshi and Bengali women were adept at making kanthas, and would do so in their leisure time, especially during the rainy season, so it was not uncommon for someone to spend months or years making one kantha.

The striped pillows are a little much with the spread, but I just had to show you my new kantha.

             Here are a handful of kantha images from around the Interwebz. Loving the loveseat!





Hot damn! Buy it for $3500 at VivaTerra






Thursday 11 April 2013

Frida's Fiesta Ensalada

A quick recipe! Tonight I made what I'm calling Frida's Fiesta Ensalada. It is muy bueno. This recipe made enough to feed 6 people, or 2 people, if one of those people is my husband. You could add leftovers to a rotini or fusilli type pasta for a southwestern pasta salad, or toss in a tortilla with refried beans and cheese. Or you know, whatever you want. What the hell do I care? ;)

Ingredients:

Greens
1 diced mango
1 diced avocado
1 cup of corn
1/2 zucchini
1 pepper (I used an orange pepper, but red would be good, too)
2 cloves minced garlic
About a cup of tomatoes (I used baby tomatoes cut in half, but like, whatever)
1/4 cup crunched up tortilla chips (I used black bean garlic ones, which are goddamn delicious)
Your choice of salad dressing (I used avocado chili dressing with cumin and lime added)
S & P, to taste

Mic everything together, except for the greens and crushed tortilla chips.
Toss with dressing.
Add greens and tortilla chips.

Eat yer damn dinner!






Tuesday 26 March 2013

Dream House Heartbreak

Well, so it goes. We were this-close to being able to get our dream house without selling our house first, but in the end it wasn't meant to be. My realtor told me there were 5 offers on the house yesterday and I guess it'd have been really unlikely that we'd have gotten it, anyway. I was horribly crushed for about 3 hours yesterday; tears, anger, hating my current house, the works. Then I remembered that I am one of the luckiest people on earth, and I do mean that literally. Anyone of us who has the love and support of friends and family, a safe place to live, who has a job, who lives in a country with clean water and health care...we're incredibly lucky.  It's good to remind myself of this often. It's okay to have a good cry and wail at the "injustices" in my own little world, but that's just it. They're not injustices, at worst they're just bad luck. You take the time to address them, hopefully learn something from them, and then move on.

What am I taking from this experience? So far (hey, it's only been 16 hours...) I'm looking at this as a lesson in Preparedness (fix up and sell my house before looking at others) and Patience (the right house will come along at the right time.)

Also...don't check the MLS!


A big thank you to all of my friends and family who were supportive, helpful and kind to me this week, especially Miss Scarlet, my aunt Laura, my dad and brother, my friends Jen and Eddy, Lil' A, Rebecca, Francine and Grant. I'm lucky to have you!



Saturday 23 March 2013

My new love.

It started as an online crush, but developed into full blown love-at-first sight when we met.
Yes, I've met my dream house and I WANT it!

I shouldn't have been looking on the MLS, but it's too late now! It is not the right time for us to buy another house, in fact it's possible that the timing couldn't be any worse. But we're at least going to see if it could happen. (Getting my husband on board was a bit of a battle, but not as bad as I thought it would be...) I saw the house online on Tuesday night, viewed it on Wednesday with a friend (as my fella was at work) and we're meeting with our bank on Monday just to see if it's even possible. (I'm thinking positive thoughts, but  nope, I'm just THINKING POSITIVE THOUGHTS!) My husband has only seen the online photos, but the open house is tomorrow and the sellers start accepting offers Monday. It would take the stars aligning for this to all work out, but oh, if it did! Ooops, I meant, "Oh, when it does!"

It is dreamy. It's awfully retro in a lot of rooms and the kitchen is the size of a postage stamp. The carpets over the hardwoods would need to go, and it could use some cosmetic changes (my favourite!) but IT. IS. PERFECT.

Picture this; you walk into the charming little enclosed porch and through the original oak and glass door. You step into the huge foyer, and look at the gorgeous oak staircase in the corner. To your left you enter the 26 foot long living room. That's right. 26 feet long. Huge front window, two small windows. The back wall is all wood, with a built in shelf, perfect for a record player and some loungey floor pillows? Enter through one door and you wind up in a kitchen the size of a Volkswagen (I have plans, believe me!) At the back of the house with doors leading to the kitchen and to the living room, is the addition which houses the 21x12 foot dining room with 3 big windows.

Take the stairs to the basement and check out the 70's recroom, complete with wood panelling and hunter green wall-to-wall carpet. To your left is the second bathroom (nicer than the main bathroom, but we'll get there.) To your right is the furnace and laundry room. As if that weren't enough, poke your head through that door. Yeah, that one. Oh look, 2 storage rooms! What?

Go back upstairs to the second floor. On your right you'll see the original master bedroom, with a huge window, and next to that the guest room (ie. my future walk-in-closet.) Speaking of walk in closets, what's that next to the bathroom? Oh! It's a 3x5 foot closet! Thanks, I'll take it! Then check out the bathroom. It's in great shape, but was last updated in 1974, at which time it was at the height of home fashion, I'm sure. But it's huge, and once I rip out that 70's tub and have a clawfoot installed, we're well on our way to Calgon taking me away. Hey is that another bedroom over there? Actually it WAS, but since they added an addition to the back of the house, it means it's the den that leads into the second master bedroom, which is 19x11 feet. That'd sure make a great man cave, insuring that I never see piles of my husband's comics, marking and laundry ever again! Let's go to the third floor. Wait, what's behind that door? Oh, a huge linen closet, how nice. Up the staircase to the loft. Dark wood floors, super spacious. How 'bout we put the lounge-y TV room and office up here? And maybe a kitty play zone? Sounds like a plan.

So...it's possible that I may be slightly invested in this house that I'm not technically ready to buy. The possibility of another person coming in with all their ducks in a row shan't deter me. Reality be absolutely damned! I'm going to keep the dream alive, at least til Monday. Please send any good thoughts you have to spare my way. I'll let you know how it goes.



Tuesday 5 February 2013

Once Upon A Time

I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's book "Happier at Home," and she touches on something that I think about often, the pervasive idea that enjoying "stuff" i.e. one's possessions is shallow and materialistic. I think it definitely can be, but I'm someone who (as the author puts it) "is not embarrassed to love [her] possessions." I freely admit that I love stuff. I don't love my stuff more than I love my family, friends and pets, but I definitely find joy in being surrounded by things I find beautiful. Surroundings are important to me, and they always have been. I don't think I buy things for prestige, as the author suggests many people do. If you know me, you know that while I have champagne taste, I have a...prosecco budget. But even when I was 19 years old and flat broke my apartment was pretty great. I remember having to make a hard choice every month between a $5 design magazine or another Guinness at the pub. My liver probably thanks my design addiction, as the magazine usually won out.

My then-boyfriend used to joke that I should write a book called "The Happy Hippie Home; Decorating With Things You Can Beg, Borrow or Steal." The stealing wasn't of bulky 90's style TVs or anything, more like plastic milk crates. I tied 12 of those bad boys together with a ripped up batik scarf (in retrospect, zip ties would've been better, but the scarf was free...) topped them with the worst records in my collection (to create a flat surface) and covered the whole thing with a purple tie-dyed sheet. Yeah, I was *that* kind of girl. I was so proud of myself. All that storage and all I'd had to do was carry out a misdemeanour!  We also had a metal egg-crate end table that wobbled like I would after one too many of the aforementioned Guinness', but it added a certain  level of industrial charm to our 100 year old apartment.

Before that I lived in a big old house with a bunch of roommates where I was the only girl, living with a rock band. Obviously, there was not a decor budget. We had a huge blank wall in our kitchen that needed something. We'd had a running joke about A&W's "See The Bear, Taste The Food" ad and always joked about Seeing the Food and Tasting The Bear. What can I say, we were young and weird. So, one day some of the fellas and I were walking by an A&W and they had these big cardboard posters in the windows, and one of the boys dared me to go get one. I wasn't about to walk into an A&W and steal a poster off the wall, but hey, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I walked in there, asked to speak to a manager and when he came to talk with me, I made up some ridiculous story about all of my roommates and I being huge A&W fans, and in fact, that's where we had all met! (Lies, outright lies.) "Gee, mister, we sure would love one of those posters, do you think you could spare one?" He went up to the window, took one down and handed it to me, while my roommates stood on the sidewalk shaking their heads at my genius! Or at my unashamed idiocy, who cares? We took that sucker home and with a slight adjustment, it became the highlight of the kitchen. At least until our friend T came by with a 5 foot tall black plywood silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.

That was such a digression that I don't even know what I was getting at. Something about being surrounded by the things you love. And no matter what your budget, with a little creativity, you can create a home that makes you happy. Sure, let's stick with that! And hey, if you want to check out "Happier at Home," may I suggest your local bookstore? xo

See The Food, Taste The Bear. The kitchen definitely looks like rockstars lived there. (This was after a party, I can tell because of the torn apart feather boa on the floor!)

Monday 4 February 2013

Before and After: Foyer

Remember that colour I was telling you about from Behr, that I was going to use in my entryway, halls, living and dining rooms? Well, it turned out awfully pale! I've never painted a wall so pale in my life. I almost had a heart attack! I'm going to keep the foyer and hall in that colour (Chocolate Froth by Behr) but I think I'll be choosing the next darkest colour on the paint swatch for the living and dining rooms.

After MUCH work, I've finished painting the ceiling and walls in the foyer. I still have to do the wall leading up the stairs and the upper landing, not to mention paint all the trim; 3 doors, 2 windows, the stair risers and the bannister! Of course, now the wood door looks weird, and I'll have to paint that, too. Maybe the same grey I plan on using on the kitchen cupboards.

After I finished the ceiling and walls this afternoon, I "rewarded" myself for getting the foyer done by installing my new entryway solution. I think it looks pretty sharp! 1000 times better than my slapdash hooks and craptacular bamboo shoe racks that were there before. I still haven't put together my new shoe racks from IKEA, but I'm gonna go do it right now. For now, here are the before and afters of the entryway.

Chocolate Froth is pretty much white. Still nice, but white! I'm going to try out Wheat Bread in the living and dining rooms. I'm sure I'll get crumbs all over the place.

Slapdash entryway before. This is as bad as it's ever looked, the bookcase was just pinch-hitting for the other 2 terrible shoe racks that broke last week.

Ooh la freaking la! Pretty sweet, right?

Sunday 3 February 2013

Cursing a BlÄ Streak.

Flerm! Florgen! Liilanglorp! (I ran out of English swear words while I was putting together my IKEA cabinet, and had to come up with some new ones.)

I'm not even going to get into how screamy and insane I got while hanging my new IKEA cabinet in the bathroom. We've all been there. All I'm saying is that I should probably have my mouth washed out with soap.

The good news is that my pal J and I went to IKEA today, and got all manner of housey-things. Our boss (who is clearly the best boss ever) drove us to IKEA, dropped us off and met up with us to help us load our heavy flat-packed boxes of frustration onto the trolley! What a guy! We plied him with meatballs in return, but I think J and I got the better deal.

J bought herself a couple of Expedit shelves to help organize her yoga area. We were looking at an 8-shelf one, but when we went to load that sucker on the cart it turned out to be HUGE! She settled on two 4-shelf units, instead. WAY easier to move, and a lot more flexible if she wants to repurpose them in the future.

I bought the aforementioned cabinet, a sink, a faucet, white towels, a ceiling light for the bathroom, hangers for the entryway, two shoe racks, a picture frame...quite the spree. Luckily, I had gift cards from Christmas, thanks to my dad and to my stepmom, and I put them to good use.

I haven't put my sink cabinet together yet, as I try to limit myself to one outright conniption per day. And until my flooring arrives and I install it, there's no rush. Tomorrow I'll get an early start and prep my foyer for painting. Not too keen on the painting itself, but I'll be really happy to get my new entryway system up and running. Can't wait to show you...stay tuned! For now, here are the photos of my new cabinet and my freshly staged bathroom shelves. ("Freshly staged bathroom shelves?" What have I become?!)

Lillangen cabinet.

Staged shelves. The blue DKNY towel was a HomeSense find. 





Saturday 2 February 2013

Stressed Out!

Normally, when I make a decision, I don't second-guess myself. I decide on a course and it gets done (not always quickly!) But  I was lying in bed a couple of hours ago and thinking about how much work it's going to be to move. Not so much the readying of the house, or even the actual move, I'm mostly concerned about what to do with our cats. My plan all along has been to rent a small apartment for a couple of months while the house is on the market (hopefully it won't be longer than that!) My husband and I would take turns staying there with the cats, and it would also give us a place to store our excess stuff so the house is less crowded, airy and properly staged. I just don't think anyone's gonna walk into a crowded house full of kitties and jump to make an offer, you know? I also worry about the cats running off if the house is full of strangers at open houses and viewings. I know it's not ideal, but the only other way is to purchase the new house before I sell this house and that's just not in the cards! (Unless I win that lottery that I don't play.)

After lying around worrying about cats (clearly I'm neurotic, but I've gotta put my pets first!) I thought, 'Well...what if we just don't move?' I mean, it would make sense in a lot of ways. I even made a Pro and Con list (not typical!) Pros: -It would be way easier. -We wouldn't have to worry about the cats. -We probably won't be able to afford to be right in the neighbourhood we want anyways, and would likely end up on the outer fringe of it (not so far from where we are now.)
-We would save a lot of money staying in this house.
Cons: -This place is too small for us, and I don't love the neighbourhood.
I thought, maybe I'm being elitist for wanting to live in a nice neighbourhood. The pros seemed to outweigh the cons, so I woke up my husband and told him what I'd been thinking. If you knew C, and how much he hates change and projects, you could imagine his response!

I racked my brain for a couple of hours about how to make this house work for us, and thought I'd come up with some good ideas. I was kind of relieved to be taking the easy way out. I drew up some floor plans and everything was going alright until I started drawing up the living room plan. I tried every combination of things I could, using my existing furniture. I was going over and over where I could fit my daybed and my lamps and tables that I have in storage and I realized that there was no way to make it work. I would have to buy all new furniture for the room, and either get rid of the beautiful pieces I've had in storage (eagerly awaiting a house that they'll fit in) or keep them wrapped up in my basement, where I don't get to enjoy them at all. I know it seems silly to base a big decision on whether or not my daybed will fit in the living room, after all it's just stuff, but I think it's symptomatic of this house. 808 square feet is small! We've lived here for 6 years and we've outgrown it. I've always seen myself living in my favourite neighbourhood, in a (slightly) bigger house, close to work and friends, and I'm going to commit to doing it, even if it IS going to be a pain in my ass! Guess the easy way out doesn't apply this time!
(I think I'll wait til morning to wake up my husband again and tell him the revised plan. Ooops.)


You deserve a picture of a stressed out cat.





Thursday 31 January 2013

Greige.

I just got back from my quick trip to Toronto, where I attended the CGTA, a trade show for the gift and housewares industry. I also had a good time at the Mode Show, a jewellery and accessories show that happens at the same time as the CGTA. So here I am, back to -27 temperatures (-42 with the windchill!) and back to a house that my husband let fall to ruin in my 3 day absence. How that guy can create that much mess in that short of a time, I'll never know. It's a good thing he's so cute.

The CGTA was better this time around than the one last summer. I found a couple of new suppliers for the store, including a wholesaler that carries fairly traded Cambodian bags and wallets, and an East Indian supplier of beautiful home goods. Great pillows and small tapestries and bohemian metal and glass chimes. All the stuff I bought for the store and for myself will take a month or so to arrive. As far as house stuff goes, I was awfully good! I hardly bought myself anything! Such restraint, but I figure I want to move soon, so unless it's AMAZING I think I should wait until I'm in my next house. I did succumb to a gorgeous East Indian silk quilt and throw pillows, but you'll see why! (The waiting is the hardest part...) And I met Cobi Ladner!! For me it was like meeting Mick Jagger. She is a great designer, who edited Canadian House and Home magazine for 18 years, and she has a brilliant collection of pieces. She was very gracious and liked the motto my boss told her..."Life is short, have nice stuff!"

I did spend a bit of time and a lot of money at Anthropologie, where I bought nothing for myself (!) but many beautiful gifts for my friends whose birthdays are coming up (or have just passed, like my friend and colleague F, who had to work BY HERSELF on her BIRTHDAY while the boss and I were at the gift show!)  I did buy myself something I've been wanting for 2 years...a super cute portable turntable from Urban Outfitters, which worked great in the hotel, but broke on the plane. Heartbroken, but I will try to repair it.

Today I went to Home Depot to choose my staging colours. I bought a gallon of Behr's "Chocolate Froth" which I'm hoping will be the ideal colour for the foyer, hallway, living room and dining room. It's pretty much just a pale greige. I'll try it in the foyer first, and I think it'll work out. Hopefully I'll be able to start painting on Sunday, so as soon as I'm done, I'll post some exciting greige photos! Here's a sample of the colour for now...

"Chocolate Froth" by Behr.

Cobi Ladner of cobistyle

cobistyle couch

cobistyle armchair

cobistyle collection







Wednesday 23 January 2013

I've finally started a project!

When I started this blog a year ago, the plan was to put my house on the market in April of this year. Well! That's not happening! A few months ago my husband (who is not a "project-guy") begged me to postpone the move. He's a little concerned about the scope of the work to be done (not that he'll be doing very much of it!) I think he's mostly concerned with the costs involved in fixing up the house for sale. Always fiscally responsible, my husband. Lame!

Anyhow, being a master procrastinator, I agreed to wait until April 2014 to list the house. That gives me a whole year to repaint, fix up the basement, and tackle the myriad of little things that need to be done in order to show a hundred year old house in it's best light. If you saw my list, I think you'd agree that I'll need it!

But for now...I've started a project! I've been working on my bathroom for the past 3 days, turning it from a fiesta to a calm oasis. BOOOOOORING! I started with choosing the paint colours (Aerial View from CIL and White Glove from Behr.) I used Behr's Premium Ultra Plus paint because it's got the primer built in, and the gals at the paint store swore that it would cover even super dark colours. It really worked! It's amazing, and it's what I'll be using from now on. There's still lots to do, but I've ordered my floor, which I really hope will work, cuz I've already paid for it! I've also chosen my sink, faucet, wall cabinet and light fixture from IKEA, I just have to go pick them up. That'll have to wait until after I return from the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association trade show in Toronto. I'm looking forward to the trip, I'm sure I'll find great new stuff for the store, not to mention stuff for me! Mostly I'm looking forward to visiting with my sister A!

Here's a sneak peek of the bathroom, before and after. And by after, I mean "during."

The Before shot! Fiesta bano! I took the Guatemalan tapestry shower curtain down before I took the photo ...ooops! Trust me, it was fun.

Fiesta bathroom.

New shower curtain. Was going to order it from Urban Outfitters for $44, but they wanted $40 for shipping! I found this one which is EXACTLY the same for $35 at Jysk, of all places.

New floating shelves, also from Jysk. I was going to get lack shelves from IKEA, but they were too long for the space.  Baskets were a Home Sense find.

To be styled...crisp white or the perfect robin's egg blue towels. 

Little soap vignette! Thanks to A & G for the skullies and C & J for the cute dish. The tall dish I bought at the thrift store for 50 cents! Go me!
Pierced metal mirror.

Faux Art...I like to call it "Faaaaaaaaaaaaart." This one was a $9 Jysk special. The blank space is where the dark brown cabinet will be.












Sunday 6 January 2013

Anthropolo-joke

 I love Anthropologie, I really do. They've got some truly beautiful stuff, and I appreciate that. When I'm  in a city with an Anthro store, I go. I always buy something, but it's almost always something small or on sale, because MAN, the prices for 85% of their stuff are just outrageous. My friend and colleague J and I were at work yesterday drooling over their website (Ummmm....we were on a break. Maybe.) and we came across the Twinkling Trove Jewelry Box. It's not a piece that blows my mind, but I think it's nice enough. Essentially, it's a teak root box with a small amethyst cluster glued on top. Yours for only $198 US! J and I gave each other our best slack-jawed looks of incredulity (hers is pretty good!)  and then she went over to the pile of teak root boxes that we sell (for $20), grabbed an amethyst out of the rock box ($6) and brought them over to the desk. "So...this is $200?" Man, we are in the wrong line of work!

Well, I bought that box and that rock from work, took 'em home and glued them together. All in, you could make this project for about $30, including the glue. (I already had some silicon glue on hand, so with my discount at work, this project cost me about $18. And it took less than 5 minutes.)

My dear ol' dad suggested that I use a dremel tool to cut the perfect sized notch for the amethyst to fit in, and if I were to make one again, that's just what I'd do. This time, I wanted to make it like Anthro's, and their stone is just on top, not nicely nestled. I thought about making a photo-tutorial, but it would've just been a pic of me dabbing silicon glue on to a rock. Use your imaginations.

Here are the comparisons!

Anthropologie's Twinkling Trove Jewelry Box ($168 for small, $198 for large.)

Aynsley's Bootleg Bounty Box (less than $30 to make.)

This time I win, Anthropologie.









Friday 4 January 2013

Oh, right, I have a blog.

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions, but here's one anyway. I will go to the gym! I will remember that I have a blog! I will come up with things to post! My three faithful readers, I will try not to disappoint you!

I hope everyone's holidays were full of love, friends and family. And the most important thing of all... presents! (*SORT-OF-JUST-KIDDING!*)

I was thoroughly spoiled and did my best to spoil everyone in my wake. My gifty friend J (who has great taste) went nuts and got me (amongst other things) a great piece of art by Jon Todd, a pillow in the shape of a bat and a Day of the Dead bath towel. My sister A bought me a beautiful cowl and the Day of the Dead bottle opener that I wanted so much, but couldn't justify! My cousin's boyfriend Sean McLachlan had me in the Christmas draw (which I rigged so we could get each other...secret's out.)  He's a great young artist and it was well worth rigging the draw and facing Grandma's wrath as S gave me a beautiful woodcut print of a map of Portage & Main that he made, plus a bound journal and a groovy magnet for my spectacular magnet collection. I got him a small piece by Jordan Van Sewell. I was on the receiving end of a great JVS piece myself, which my husband bought for me. He has great taste in wives and art. One of my other fun house gifts was the new industrial style coffee table from IKEA from my aunt L. My very sweet and generous in-laws bought me a gorgeous, cozy sweater and showered me with jewelry. I saw my super friend Lil' A today, and she gave me a groovy Day of the Dead ring and Day of the Dead top. I'm pretty sure there's a Dia de los Muertos theme going on, and I'm liking it!

My dad, stepmom and mom all got me gift certificates to IKEA and Home Depot, though it almost killed my dad to resort to giving me gift cards. (He's a very generous and gifty guy...it's a family trait.) But it's what I asked for so I can FINALLY start this house project! (More in my next post! I've gotta string this stuff out to keep the three of you coming back for more.)
Great artwork by Jon Todd, thanks to my friend J.







IKEA PS 2012 coffee table, from my aunt.



Day of the Dead corkscrew from my sister A.

Jordan Van Sewell wall piece, thanks to my fella.




Another fabulous gift. Woodcut image by my friend Sean McLachlan.

Bonus! Fossil handbag...looks like an acid trip with handles.