Cora's Playground Necklace

I just received my Cora's Necklace I bought , the proceeds go to Cora's Benefit , you can find lots of wonderful items by incredible artists here

the necklace was made by Home Studio

Speak to Me

All of these images speak to me . Pink Adirondack chairs , yummy and comfy .

The perfect wing chair with dark legs sitting on a white washed pine floor , charming .

A most beautiful Bermuda blue lagoon colored subway tile , refreshing.

Adorable little line up of chippy green chairs , welcoming kids to spend some time .

Welcoming .... refreshing ....charming ....and comfy , that is me , that is Just Beachy !

Did you know

Did you know that all you need to make popcorn is a brown paper bag and kernels . Place 1/4 cup of kernels in a brown paper bag fold over three times and pop for 2-3 minutes . No chemicals and it seems to pop better than packaged popcorn , and cheap .

Making changes

After yesterday's post about the tv above the fireplace and the adorable shutters , I decided I need that too , only problem was the awful trim that was existing I hate it , always have , so why not deal with it then . I am filling the groves , and I love this pink spackle its so great, it turns white when it is dry .

Today I am applying a second coat , gonna sand it all smooth , prime it paint it .

This weekend I will build shutters , and I will show you depending this weekend or Monday .

I also after seeing the comfy dining area in yesterday's post I wanted to see if it would work for me. Well NO not under the window because I have the chandelier in the center and a decorative thingy , which means I would need to take it down , scrape the ceiling and move the light , that is a bit of a task , so I instead took out two leaves and moved my bench and created a cozier eating space. I like it , it is spacious and cozy too.

My mind is thinking and revisiting the notion that I may someday get a mudroom . Now that we uncovered a door way just ready to be finished the dream may be closer at hand.
The one major thing missing from this house would have to be storage for utility items like vacuums and mops and all that other yucky stuff, nor does this house have adequate storage for the outer wear for a family of 4 and two dogs especially given we live in Canada and that can equal a grand scale collection of seasonal outer wear and footwear.
Although first I had thought we could have the laundry in there , it would be very costly to run hot water and to put in a drain ,and sink , so I have decided all I need is a cute and functional mudroom , one that has loads of storage , for cleaning supplies and vacuum's. A spot of cubbies and outerwear. Dog feeding area as well as lounging area , perhaps even a great spot for the kids to craft.
This would give us a extra room on the main floor , invaluable. We have talked about framing this space over the summer , this should not cost a whole lot and we can do this our selves.
Wood floors , beadboard , subway tile , great cheap lighting , kinda industrial .
Below is my inspiration board , and it is inspiring.






My mudroom - by chriskauf on Polyvore.com

Celebrity Homes

Click on the photos to enlarge , enjoy ! This is Richard Gere's Home or former home . I love that it is not mansion like at all , but warm and well appointed this is the perfect scale of home for me.

This was one of Ellen's many many homes . While looking I was shocked at the quantity of homes she has lived in and sold. She beats Brittany Spears . I mean if I could afford homes like she does I am sure I would have a few but to turn them over like she does , well it is something close to crazy . I suppose I like to put my roots down at this point in life. The longest I have lived in one home is 8 years and that was as a child , this current house is second at 7 years in a few weeks.

I believe this is Michelle Branch's home, I am afraid I don't know who that is , but she has lovely taste.

Making and entrance

Although my entrance is on the small size I still believe it can be hardworking and welcoming as well as good looking.
How I have made my entry good looking , after all you never get a second chance to make a first impression .
1. I have a pretty wool rug, this rug soaks up wet from boots as well as hides dirt and leaves you with a non slip surface as well a a pretty pattern to look at , no need to go utilitarian here , this one was $30.00 form Home sense.
2. Lighting , don't leave up builder lighting a pretty fixture here is not wasted , every time you welcome someone into your home or even accept a pizza from the delivery guy it is viewed.
3. Hooks , if your closet like mine is small and busting at the seams think of adding some trimwork to attach hooks to , for kids especially this is great , it makes it easy for them to help keep this busy area tidy , they do it at school and they can do it at home, when I have guests over I usually clear out all of the hooks to allow guest to use these hooks and not have to look at our clutter, I think it is a good looking feature .
4. For this window I dressed with a simple striped blind , pretty details should never be over looked , a bare space is never inviting .
5. I painted out the door bell cover to blend in with the wall to make it disappear .

Obama Arrives

Obama arrives for a quick visit to Ottawa , and gathers quite a crowd of onlookers aka fan's or admirers , what an exciting event for those who could be there.

He caused quite a stir buying Canada cookies for his girls , he tried to pay , come on , like the owner was gonna let him do that .

Here he is buying a key chain for his children , I love this, what a Dad taking time to bring back keepsakes for his girls , I can not tell you how many times my father went away and not once brought me back anything , so this is very touching to me, my husband always brings our girls back goodies from trips he takes.

The crowds cam out to see Obama , I am quite sure that visits from the former President did not bring and stir so much emotion and excitement, sorry I couldn't have been there too.

Making more room

I know I have got to do something about that door bell housing , I will.

I have noticed that since my oldest daughter is growing so tall and is close to as tall as I am , so longer to have her coats grown and I was in need of taller hooks and extra hooks for backpacks, as I hate to see book bags on the floor. Adding another layer of trim and hooks solved the issue.

Most of the supplies I found in the basement as scraps from other projects.

I was faced with developing a new style for the upper portion as the light switch was in an awkward spot, which also made me think it was better to put in a white switch cover to ensure it blends in better , the photo makes it look very grey but it blends quite nicely.

Opening the curtain

Sophie loves to open all three panels of drapes on her closet to display her items, so not like me , I am a close the closet door kinda girl, that is a lot of clutter , but to each his or her own , and Sophie is an open closet kinda girl . So fix up this former odd ball of closet organization I built. A lick of paint and some decorative bead trim which comes in lengths of 8 ft for $4.00 what a great deal , it was the perfect fix. Sophie asked for white shelves and pink walls behind, no problem , I just dug out the can of pink from the existing stripes. I don't know what we would do without all this storage space.

Two days of work and now I am not ashamed of the closet being on full display.

I raised the bar in this dress area, she is a growing girl , this is a closet made especially for a child.

These hold backs are from Pottery Barn Kids and the curtains are from Wal-Mart.

Beaded trim $4.00 a piece from Home Depot. .

Pretty basket liner also from Pottery Barn Kids . All the contents of the closet were here , funny how it all looks better now.

Small details like a new cottage style light switch And ice cream colored hangers.

The edging of the hook board are wooden hole fillers/plugs , I just glued them on and painted it all and sanded it a bit for a shabby chic look.

Closing the Curtain

I am working on a little project that I have literally drawn the curtain on . Sophie's closet .
A while ago , let's guess a year and a half ago , I took the standard closet with one long shelf and one rod. So I simply moved the rod and shelf to suit a child , my child , I bought some simple pine boards , and L brackets and left over bits of plain primed MDF and I put together a useful yet not pretty closet . I always meant to go back and finish this paint and trim out my most shabby work. Honestly I didn't know if I would keep it like this because I was so unhappy with the way it turned out.
Well turns out it works really well and hold so many things , and girls have lots of things.

This is how it looks this morning above , a mess , needing quite a lot of work . So I primed and fixed major wall wounds with spackle , and then I added a beaded trim piece to the edges , what a difference that made, and I filled all my shameful gaps with caulking and it is really coming along.

A year and a half ago .

I hope to show you the finished closet tomrrow.

Pretty

I am working on prettying up Sophie's closet this week , these images are very inspiring for pretty.

Don't forget to click on the above link to Cora's Playground and buy a handmade item to support this family and their desire to build a playground in honour of their daughter who has sadly passed before her first birthday . I just bought a lovely necklace.

Happy Tuesday , finally the kids are back at school after a very long and lazy weekend , the kids hogged the computer and we tackled the garage project .

Did you know that mice hate and are allergic to peppermint , so I soaked cotton balls with peppermint oil and my garage which was FULL of poop {thank you little visitors} now smells devine , and I will say it works so far , as a mouse decided to freeze to death instead of entering our minty garage, yeah , I googled "mice hate?" oh and roaches hate mint too not that we have that problem.

Hide and Seek

It took about 7 hours and a shop vac, one trip to the dump and one trip to the beer store to return bottles, but we cleaned out the garage . More work will continue tomorrow.
Hubby carried out item after item shaking everything out while wearing a mask , and I vacuumed up the mess , and there was lots of mess , how many mice did we find you wonder ?, well 1 lonely dying mouse , hubby took care of it. Could it be that we got rid of most of the varmint , well lets hope so , I am being optimistic .
Apparently this is an area that often has mouse problem's , it is very hush hush . I would think an old neighbourhood would have such a problem not a brand new one.
They exist of course they do , but they are not welcome to share my loved home .
We had been wondering how did the 2 bold mice that I spotted and scared get in anyway???
We found the answer through a wide open hole in the wall , hmm wonder no more.
Hide and seek we played today, I found a seam of drywall falling off a joint in the wall , what I found was a very poorly covered hole , a hole what is this hole ?, why its a doorway , seems as though some turd when pouring our foundation left out a section for a garage to house access door , one which we did not request , since it was a $1000.00 upgrade and only encouraged me to toss garbage in our old house so we opted not to go this route again . Well at some point someone noticed and simply filled it in with a couple of studs and insulation as well as a sheet chipboard , well it was half arsed at best , leaving the gap to the right in the above photo , not wood to attached chipboard to nor any insulation .
Moron's.
So glad we decided to tear it open just to see for sure what we were dealing with . I filled it as best I could with expanding foam and screwed everything back into place.
It will cost $125.00 to buy a door for that area , which we are a little torn about , not so sure since the spot it is located it a real jam of doors already , one to the powder room and one to the basement and the next direction is three steps up.
However I am still thinking the area in the back of the garage would be best suited for a laundry room , my dream .

So how was your valentine's ? well it had to be better than ours.

Clutter and cleaning

After finally finding the perfect clutter organizer , this is the spot that school papers and odd things go in the kitchen . I found this one for $16.00 at Home Sense I used a gift card my mother gave me , how perfect.

Before, messy messy , and that is after de-cluttering .The corner of shame , papers and a frog , I just don't have the heart to get rid of him though or is it a her , whatever .

And a Happy Birthday to the husband , he requested Apple Pie, I even found a nut free one , that is hard to do, but my hand got tired from putting the candles in so I had to stop. hehehehehe!

Wish us luck today , we will be tackling the garage today , I am very afraid . We haven't seen any mice in the house in a week , and thankfully no droppings, I have sealed all holes I have found but we know they are still in the garage . They have been eating the baits and hopefully some are "expiring ", not looking forward to what we may find .