west elm

I was in the area of West Elm yesterday so I popped on in. And OK....WOW!! One of everything please! And while I can't do that at the moment {can you imagine?} I did walk away with these cutie little owl measuring cups. Just a little purchase to stave off my hunger! Aren't they adorable?

dream table

Say hello to my dream table - Restoration Hardware's Trestle Salvaged Wood Dining Table to be exact - made of roughened planks of pine reclaimed from a distillery in the UK. And not only is the wood imperfectly distressed, but the table seats 12. Oh the dinner parties that would take place on this large, grand table! Now a paper airplane carrying a cheque for $3495 just has to fly through my window and I'll be all set.

{seen in Style at Home magazine, August 2009}

easy botanical wall art

As you know, I am a sucker for botanical prints. And in addition to large vintage botanical prints, I also love the look of this symmetrical 'collection' too - it has huge impact! I recently found this great blog that features many free high-res vintage botanical prints. Hmmm...not sure if it is legal to distribute copyright images like these but ah well...get 'em while they're hot!

You might have to scroll through quite a few pages before you find a bunch of similar images. But when you do, just click on one of the images you like and it will enlarge in a new window. Then right click on it and save it to your desktop. Then you can open the file and print it. If you are familiar with any photo editing programs, you can resize the images so they are all the same size {e.g. 5" x 7"}. Buy a bunch of frames from IKEA {they seem to have the cheapest selection} and voila - you have yourself some easy peasy wall art!

painted chairs

These painted green chairs are right up my alley! A few years ago when we moved into our house, P. and I bought some lovely leather chairs for our kitchen table - they are really nice but I guess as time moves on, my taste is changing a bit and I am drawn to bright colours and cool architecture and shapes.

{I've been really bad at tracking where I'm saving my photos from lately, so unfortunately the source of this photo is unknown :(}

paint chip prints

Check out these Paint Chip Prints from Secret Leaves - they are antique images printed straight onto paint chips! Pretty nifty. And such a clever way to use old paint chips {I do have a lot of them...right Paintin' Pete?}.

console table

I finally got around to decorating my console table for Spring! I did away with the previous winter wonderland and made way for some fresh greens and yellows. Check out the beautiful forsythia! I wish they lasted forever.

time to decorate for spring!

I've mentioned that I like to decorate {and re-decorate!} the console table at the entrance to my house by season, so I think with Spring arriving on Friday, it's that time again! I am planning to re-style soon and I've decided that fresh spring greens would be nice, after my white winter wonderland display. Here are some beautiful console table displays, and an entranceway that makes me gasp every time I see it - the fresh whites and blues are amazing and what a gorgeous black door.

Stay tuned for photos of my new springy console table!

{both photos from Domino mag}

{from Wish mag}

cabin fever

Today is bright and sunny but still on the chilly side. Nevertheless, I am dreaming and planning of how to decorate my deck so that I can spend more time outside and make the most of the warm weather when it decides to arrive! I just bought a cheery red umbrella and cushions for my Pier One table and chairs, but I love the look of this deck and I'm thinking to incorporate an outdoor rug, some tall plants and lanterns. I don't have a ton of space to work with, but this looks like it could be such a cozy little sanctuary! {photo from Wish magazine}

Happy weekend my bloomers!

simple photo project

This is a wonderful photo project that was featured on Design*Sponge last week - making 'picture frames' using jars. It can't get much simpler than this! I noticed a similar article in Martha Stewart Living this month, and also I clipped this photo {below} a while back, from I'm not sure where - a similar project.

What a simple, green, and just-plain-cool idea! Instructions can be found at Photojojo.

wallpaper crush

Searching through my ever-expanding design inspiration files, I noticed a wee trend - a lot of the photos I like have used the Cole and Son "Woods" wallpaper. I'm so drawn to the rustic, natural-ness of it!

We are currently stripping the wallpaper in my dad's house {flowery 80's wallpaper that just wasn't cool} and it is pretty much a nightmare. After spending a week with my sister trying to remove wallpaper from a bathroom, I promised myself never ever to wallpaper anything! But...maybe just one wall wouldn't hurt?

I'm not 100% about where I got the above photos, although the 3rd one down is from Blueprint, and the 4th from Wish magazine {recognize it?}. Below is a pic of my bro-in-law at a restaurant on College Street where we went to celebrate my husband's birthday in January. The restaurant had recently been made over...check out the paramedic, my cute baby niece, and the wallpaper behind them!

oh anthro

Yet another inspirational photo from the beautiful Anthropologie...can't wait until their Spring opening in Toronto. My once-in-a-while trips to NYC, or browsing their store online just doesn't cut it.
Have a great weekend and hopefully my blogs will be a little more inspired next week!

a cowboy office...

...for my sister Melanie who has chalkboard envy and who is already planning the decor for her new house. The chair is a bit scary {wouldn't want to be impaled on one of those horns!} but I'm digging the huge magnetic chalkboard wall and the birch wallpaper. Yum!
{from Wish magazine, another great magazine that has gone the way of Blueprint, Domino, and Home Companion magazines...too sad}.

bedroom inspiration

Would you believe...we still haven't finished our bedroom yet?! Our weekends keep getting eaten up with various to-dos, but hopefully {hopefully!} in the next few weekends we will be able to buckle down and finish it off. Here are some more bedrooms inspiration pics that I've been looking at {I know, some are not bedrooms but I was checking them out for colour inspiration!}.

the images:
1. Domino magazine {RIP...sniff...}. This photo actually looks A LOT like our petite bedroom, and we even have the same two IKEA dressers in brown/black!
2. Living Etc. magazine
3. Living Etc. magazine
4. Pottery Barn
5. Dwell Studio
6. Domino magazine

diy wall art

Love this idea for creating wall art from diyideas.com!

my house: the photo wall

A few summers ago, my husband and I decided to take on a home project. And just not any project...a HUGE take-all-week, pain-in-the-butt home project. And while it was a much bigger {and more expensive} job than either of us anticipated, it was well worth the effort! Our photo wall is right at the entrance into our house, and has turned out to be quite a source of entertainment and conversation for anyone who steps in.

We chose to display mostly black and white photos in mainly black frames {Walmart, Kitchen Stuff Plus and IKEA have the cheapest black frames} but I do like adding a bit of quirkiness into home decor, so we had a sense of humour when choosing the photos. We each found our individual, awkward grade eight grad photos, equally scowly and grade eight-like, and hung them side-by-side. Also on the wall is my award for achieving the highest mark in my grade nine keyboard class...haha...nerdy.

There is a photo of my friend Rebecca and I at Blackbutt Nature Reserve in Australia {we both happened to be wearing black pants that day}, and a Photoshopped picture of me 'motorcycling' around Paris {I hope to replace this with a real photo of motorcycling around Paris one day soon!}.


There are many non-goofy photos on the wall too - our favourite wedding photo, various excursions, photos of dear family and friends, and travel pics. But it's the not-so-perfect photos that seem to generate the most conversation.

Like this photo of my husband as a child with a humongous head of hair {and his not-so-big catch of the day}!

i want these spoons...

How lovely are these bone china spoons and bowls made by Caroline Swift. They are exquisite! {via Oh Joy!}

Have a wonderful weekend!

my house: the living room

Happy 2009! I have found myself over the holidays on a cleaning binge - organizing, tidying, chucking, and donating tons of items to Goodwill. It is crazy how much junk can pile up and just gather dust. We pared down the clutter in our living room too and I think it looks a bit better...

I am still searching for a cool area rug to throw over the carpet here, to define the space of the sitting area.

But I finally framed my beautiful birdie prints by Geninne...and I am now hungry for more of her nature-inspired artwork!

I am still debating about what to put on this blank stretch of wall...this cool NYC graphic piece I found at HomeSense? Or my brand new Keep Calm poster? Decisions!

winter wonderland

I enjoy changing up my displays every once in a while, and so this console table usually gets a bit of a makeover every season or so. I decided to go for a white and wonderful wintery wonderland look for the first day of winter! My mom had a huge collection of vintage doilies that reminded me of snowflakes, so they were added to the table as a bottom layer. The branch of cotton look like little puffs of snow, and I have a real thing for naturey elements like birdies and birch bark...so they were thrown on there too. Happy winter everyone!

passport

A year ago this week, my husband's grandfather passed away and while going through all of his belongings, my father-in-law found his old passport from Italy. He gave it to me for scanning, and I thought it was such a lovely thing! I love old documents {as you can probably tell from my website} as the handwriting is usually scripted beautifully in ink, the stamps are quite interesting or foreign, and the photos are dramatic in black and white. A far cry from our modern day passports! This one is laid out graphically as if on purpose. I am planning to print an enlarged version to be framed on our wall - it looks like art! And what a lovely way to remember Pete's grandfather.

owl umbrella stand purchased! and other cool stuff

I couldn't believe it, but I swung by Urban Outfitters today and found the coveted owl umbrella stand there, so I bought meself a wee Christmas present. But as I was just looking on the Urban Outfitters website for the link, I found a few other things that I heart...this cute little loop-de-loop lace shelf {above}...

these cool 'glastic' water bottles...

and this 'thru the trees' non-chandelier chandelier...such wonderful things at that store!