O Canada

Thank you all so much for the enthusiastic response to the living room! I was quite nervous to reveal the whole room to you all. It was quite a departure for me - I tend to decorate rooms with a bit more subdued palette so this riot of colour and pattern was challenging. But we all need to push ourselves sometimes, right?

With the living room done, I've had a bit of time to spend on other things. Last Saturday, I had a great time at the 2nd Canadian Design Bloggers meetup. I didn't have my camera with me, but the fab Leah Kirin was there to capture all the great moments of the night.

Photo by Leah Kirin

That's a photo of me, Sarah from Yummy Mummy Club, and soon-to-be-momma Kerry from First Time Fancy. If you didn't notice, Sarah and Kerry are wearing the same dress. Sarah actually also owned the dress I'm wearing (but in blue). Thankfully, she didn't wear it too, but she did wear the belt. The three of us will be coordinating our outfits prior to any other future blogger events ;).

It was a wonderful event organized by Vie and Daniella with the help of fantastic sponsors Ikea Canada, Delta, and CIL. Tommy Smythe was the keynote speaker and he was in fine form - fashionably dressed and quick with the wit and sometimes off-colour humour. Tommy let us know that 'the cuffs come off' for the next season of Sarah 101 and we'll see more of that signature Tommy-Sarah repartee we adore so much!  

One thing I enjoy about these blogger events is catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones too. Since its Canada Day this Friday, I thought I'd highlight some of the newish-to-me Canadian blogs that are filling up my reader these days.  Have a read and maybe you'll find some new favourites:

10 Rooms Design

aDESIGNdock

AM Dolce Vita

daffodil design

Dans le Townhouse

design BLISS inc.

the fabulous design file

flutterflutter

Half of What I Say Is Meaningless

Inspiration for Decor

Interior Groupie

Lisa Roy
Living Beautifully

Not A House But A Home

Pinecone Camp

rook

I hope to be relaxing this weekend up at the cottage, free from iphones, blogs and TV. Time to disconnect, slow things down, and recharge.

{photo of Chloe at the cottage two years ago. Wow, time does fly by!}

Wishing all my Canadian friends a sun-filled and fun-filled Canada Day! 

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Before & After: The Living Room

Here it is, finally, the renovated living room. I don't know why it took us so long to get this room done. There weren't any major structural changes aside from the building of the fireplace but I guess when you touch every surface from floor to ceiling, it takes a bit of time. It took a bit of time to turn something that looks like this...

 and turn it into this...

Let's see that again.

So what exactly did we do in here? We started with HandyMan building the fireplace frame. This helped determine the position of the pot lights which were installed next. We removed the old wallpaper and uncovered a hidden treasure that turned out to be nothing more than a hole in the wall. Then we had the stuccoed ceiling skim-coated (a change which instantly made the room feel much more modern and new) and painted the room.

We found a hutch and a dresser which we spraypainted and updated with new hardware. HandyMan built one more of his awesome radiator covers and installed the baseboards. I ordered curtains and practiced my styling skills with the hutch. We spent a lot time trying to figure out the tile for the fireplace and it turned out looking great. And finally, we added some new furniture and put it in place like we planned.

The room has much more pattern and colour than any other room in the house. The wallpaper in the dining room kind of forced us to also use colour in the living room, but I'm really embracing the look. We tried to be a bit bolder in our decorating choices, mixing textures, patterns, and styles. I would have to say this was the hardest room to decorate in our house!

We've tried to keep this a room everyone can enjoy so that means that Chloe's toys and books have a place here too. There's one thing left to do which is pretty up the sideboard wall. We need to turn the sideboard into a media cabinet (hence the cable box sitting on top) and I think we'll be painting the sideboard too, to lighten things up on that side of the room.

 

 

But that's a bigger project for another day. For now, we'll just sit back and enjoy sitting in a finished room.

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Get Your Thrift On!

Are you a thrifter? Do you enjoy finding bargains and hunting for design treasures? Then you'll want to join Vanessa of Decor Happy and I for "I <3 Thrifting!", a multi-national shopping event that is the brainchild of Mr. Goodwill Hunting himself, Rashon Carraway.

On Saturday, July 9th Vanessa and I will be hosting the event here in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). We'll be heading out to a cluster of thrift shops around the Dundas & Dixie area of Mississauga. Here's a look at the itinerary:

Talize
3100 Dixie Road
Mississauga
L4Y 2A6

Value Village
3130 Dixie Road
Mississauga
L4Y 2A6

Salvation Army Thrift Store
1458 Dundas Street East
Mississauga
L4X 1L4

Goodwill Toronto
1224 Dundas Street East
Mississauga
L4Y 4A2

We'll be getting our thrift on starting at 10am, meeting at Talize. So if you're a thrifter, a shopper, or just want to meet other thrift-minded peeps, come join us!!

P.S. If you're not located in the GTA, there are events happening all over. Check out Rashon's blog to see how you can join in on the fun.

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Living Room: A Painted Hutch

Now that we finally got the broken glass replaced, I can show you how the display hutch turned out. The hutch and buffet which started out looking like this, now looks like this:

What do you think? We tried to update the look a bit by using a bold colour (Schoolhouse Slate by Martha Stewart) and adding some new hardware, the Ripe Melon yellow drop pull from Anthropologie, and the three Louis XVI old brass ring pulls from Lee Valley.

The hutch and the dresser which sits on the other side of the room have similar lines and work well together. We debated getting two dressers or two hutches as many of you suggested for a more symmetrical look, but the reality was I need both display space and closed storage so this was the best option for us.

I really like having a place to display treasured items, like an antique painting, a few family photos and pretty things, and our formal china which only gets to see daylight at Christmastime.

I still don't think I have the hang of this "styling" thing but at least I can see these pieces instead of having them hidden away in boxes. Maybe I'll be more inclined to use my finer china now too. Do you have formal dishes? Do you use them regularly or is it more of a special occasion type of thing?

For the eagle-eyed, you may have also noticed my new draperies. They were made by the always fabulous Tonic Living and the pattern is Theo in Marble. Love love love these drapes, maybe as much as I love the ones Tonic made for our master bedroom. As you can start to see, we've used way more pattern and colour in this room than any other room in our house! Soon, I'll show you the whole room. Soon :)

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Thrift: Display Case

Do you ever go to the thrift store and find something interesting and then ask yourself "but what do I do with that?" That happens to me all the time and usually I leave the thing behind. But today I bought the thing. It was this:

... and it reminded me of this:

I had seen the Clarus Display Box when I went to the Crate & Barrel tweetup event, but I wasn't about to fork over $79.95 for it. So when I spied this galvanized metal & glass case for only $4.99, I didn't hesitate to pick it up.

I'm still stuck though... what do I put inside it?? I can see filling it with ornaments at Christmas or pinecones in the Fall. Maybe I fill it with those rocks that Chloe is fond of picking up? All I could think of was these shells. I know, I need more shells! I could do what blogger The Stories of A to Z did and get some faux coral at the pet store and spraypaint it and add that in too.

Till inspiration hits, I'll leave the shells in there. It kinda works with the beachy picture, right?

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On Mothering: The Safety of Children

I was a bit traumatized (still am a bit) by an incident at the street party and I feel the need to share it, to get it off my chest. Don't worry, Chloe is fine!

I had been watching Chloe play in the bouncy castle which had a bouncy slide attached. A girl about seven years old stood at the top of the slide and instead of sliding, she jumped down to the base of the slide. There was an inflatable wall around the slide but no mesh or anything enclosing it - and when the girl hit the base, she bounced over the three foot high safety wall, with her head aimed toward the concrete pavement. It is by sheer luck that I was standing on the other side of that safety wall. The girl was aimed head down and I caught her with her knees at my shoulder before she hit the ground. It was a strong impact that pushed me a few steps back and I awkwardly lifted her upper body and put her on the ground. The little girl stood there in shock. I asked her if she was alright and I scanned the crowd for her mother. Amazingly, no one else had seen what had happened. A neighbour finally came over... and that is when I promptly burst into tears.

I don't know what I was feeling in that moment. I was overwhelmingly emotional about it. In my head, I was thanking God I was in the right place at the right time. I could so clearly see what could have happened, I could feel the trajectory of her body. But I think it wasn't the "what if" that was making me convulse in sobs. It was that moment when I scanned the crowd and couldn't see this little girl's mother and imagining this mother coming back from the food tent or from inside the house or wherever she was, and finding something so tragic and unimaginable. I identified with her.

There are moments when you realize you are "mom". This was one of those. Later on, when the girl's mother came over to thank me (and I realized that it was Chloe's teacher at the weekly playgroup she attends), I felt the tug of that invisible bond that connects all us mothers. She looked me in the eye, not allowing any tears to fall in defiance of the "what if", touched my arm, and said a simple heartfelt Thank You. There was no Thank You necessary. I get it. We are one in the same. She has kept an eye out for my child during her class and I thank my lucky stars that I was there for hers.

When I was pregnant with Chloe, my female boss said to me "Now you're a mother. Now you are never going to live without fear." She was right. Not a day goes by that I don't worry about the safety of my child. Sometimes and in some situations its a passing thought that I sweep under the rug, realizing I need to be more comfortable with Chloe trying new things and testing her limits. Other days, it spurs me to proactivity... being there before she falls off the dining room chair, clearing counters on the chance she could be tempted to reach for something, keeping an eye out for dropped coins and other choking hazards. Its never going to go away, is it? I just hope when the inevitable day comes that my daughter will do something beyond what she is capable of, there is someone ready to catch her on the other side of that wall.

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Street Party Fun

Um, yeah, there are no living room photos in this post. But we found a glass place nearby so I will get photos up very soon. Promise. Cross my heart.

We had such a fun weekend. We spent Friday afternoon getting some retail therapy with my parents and sister. I can't remember the last time I went shopping, as an adult anyway, with my family. On Saturday, we had our annual street party and on Sunday we went strawberry picking. It was so much fun hanging out and watching Chloe interact with others and be her adventurous, independent self.

There are about 50 kids that live in just our one block of houses. It was amazing to them all out and just being kids. I loved not having to worry about passing cars, letting Chloe run off by herself a bit to explore the bouncy castle or fire truck or the tattoo and fingernail painting station. She put her Salt Water Sandals to the test by jumping in puddles and stepping in the wading pool. Fireworks capped the night and Chloe finally went to bed at 11pm, saying "more fireworks! more fireworks!" as she drifted off to sleep.

It was a glorious fun-filled day, and aside from an incident which I'll tell you about later, one which made for perfect summer memories.

How was your weekend? Was it memorable?

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Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Dad! You were the one who always pushed me out the door, encouraged me to explore the world, to have fun!, to be active and involved, to believe I could do anything. And now as Chloe's Lolo, it fills my heart to see you teaching her those same lessons. She knows that her Lolo will always be there to take her to the park and let her climb the chain link ladder and let her slide down the big slide... if there is one thing you are wonderful at, it is giving your family confidence in themselves (even 2 year olds!). You show us every day that family is the most important thing in the world to you. How lucky we are to have you!

And Happy Father's Day to my husband! Chloe is so very very lucky to have you as her dad - there is nothing you wouldn't do for her {and I love you for that}. You are funny and goofy and loving and affectionate, everything our daughter needs in a dad. Chloe saves her biggest deepest belly laughs for you! You give Chloe space to try things, following her lead - but are always there to catch her if she falls. Chloe is very much her father's daughter, being friendly and funny and charming those around her. We love you!

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The Dog Ate My Paper

Okay, so the dog didn't eat my paper... but when I tell you that I can't show you the finished living room because we went to get the replacement glass for the refinished hutch and we took the glass home and found out it was 6 INCHES TOO WIDE and went back to the hardware store and the 17 year old behind the counter said "Sorry, something must have been wrong with the ruler" {insert eye roll here} and said 17 year old proceeds to take glass back to the back to recut it and CRACKS THE GLASS and then comes back and tells us they don't have any replacement glass in that size and would we like to wait for it to come back in stock, oh, in say THREE WEEKS, and I think "Three weeks? I've got seven people who read my blog and they have been waiting MONTHS for me to finally reveal the finished living room and if I tell them they have to WAIT ANOTHER THREE WEEKS for the reveal they are going to get fed up, take me off of their blog reader, and never ever ever come back and I will be consumed with guilt for teasing those seven people and stringing them along for all these months"... doesn't it sound like I'm just making excuse after excuse after excuse?

Well, if we manage to find a place that has glass in the size we need it and the place doesn't have wonky rulers or inept 17 year olds behind the counter... maybe, maybe, I can finally show you the finished living room on Monday.

:)

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some pretty photos of the peonies from my garden and wish you a good weekend.

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Thursday Thrift

You've probably seen this type of project on many other blogs but here's my take on it. Its a cakestand made using a plate and candlestick holder from the thrift shop.

I wanted to be a bit more decorative with mine so I found two plates with floral appliques and little cutouts. I taped over the holes so that when I turned over the plates to paint them, paint wouldn't get on the surface area and I could still use them to serve food.

I picked a pink gloss paint that would work on both ceramic (the plates) and glass (the candlestick holders). After painting the candlestick holder and just the underside of the plate, I used a two-part epoxy to glue them together.

Then I picked up the dried cakestands... and promptly hit one of them against our granite countertop, causing the glass base to shatter :( Guess I'll just have to go thrifting again and find another candlestick holder :)

And here's the cakestand in action, holding a lonely butter tart.

Don't worry, I put the butter tart out of its misery right after I took this photo :)

Have you made one of these thrifted cakestands? If I had the room to store them, I'd make lots more of all different sizes. You could even use teacup plates to make individual cupcake plates.

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