my neck of the woods

I thought I would post today on the lovely little neighbourhood where I live. Just outside of Toronto, in the 'burbs', I live in a community called Cornell in Markham. And as far as suburbia goes, I think it's a pretty nice place. The homes are fairly new, however they were built to resemble Victorian houses with porches and gingerbread detailing. All of the garages are built behind the houses, so that neighbours can mingle on their front lawns and porches. And there are a lot of eco-friendly touches added to the homes when they were constructed - even before eco-friendly became trendy!

Recently some live/work townhomes were built just down the street from me - homes that can also be used as storefronts. What a great idea! This little retail area encourages our statistically larger suburbia bums to walk to the corner store, instead of so easily hopping in the car.

This neighbourhood makes me happy. Recently P. and I started looking at some other houses in other areas of Toronto. But soon enough we realized...we are not ready to leave Cornell and it's charm just yet!

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}!

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!