Toronto Interior Design Show 2011

I enjoy attending the Interior Design show in Toronto and sometimes I even enjoy this with my family , I made it clear that they were going to enjoy it with me this year as well , my husband was game but my dear daughters wanted to just stay home .....well no I don't think so, I can imagine many dreadful calls from home interrupting my fun at the show , so after laying down the law the girls were so thrilled to join us.

See the happiness...

My fun girls , seriously they are crazy and fun , and we did enjoy our time there or at least the first hour was fun , then I had the barrage of are we going ?, can we leave ? started, what fun .....I always love to see how much Mason loves the ultra modern design , and what was up with all the fire it was simply hot in there ?

It is always fun to walk through the mock up rooms , this one was so magical , notice the ceiling full of paper cranes , what poor soul's had to install all of those...?

Of course the Sarah Richardson rooms were inspiring, done with her brother ....

I think I have found the perfect colour for my dining room which happens to be a Sarah Richardson colour called Lichen , I think its perfect.

Up Country had a very appealing booth , I loved this dining table and benches .

The girls thought I should buy this painting of the blue chair .....I loved it for sure.

But I was drooling over these tiles , so gorgeous don't you think so too.

I hope I could share with you a few fresh photos of this years IDS I know there are many blogs sharing their photos too , it as always was a great and inspiring show, cheers!

*I had to edit this because I just weighed in and I have lost 10 pounds , 2 extra pounds over the weekend...

FYI on the weight loss front I have now lost 8 pounds , yeah me , things are getting loose which is so nice , off I go to workout now , again .

Trying something new

I recently ordered these Disc plate hangers , I thought they were such a great idea , however patience is required, they are easy to use , just wet the back and use your fingers to mix the glue a little wait 5 minutes for the glue to get tacky , apply and wait over night for the glue to set. You can find Disc hangers at www.dischangers.com I like them because you don't have all those little hanger clips and sometimes just putting a plate in one of those spring loaded hangers can be dangerous , do you use plates to decorate ?, I have been using them for as long as I have been decorating .

I have been moving things around , I get bored you know ... what I would really love in here

is a lantern , I want to tone down the feminine look a little , I think it is getting s little too girly... and its bothering me .

I have moved some corbels and shelf into the dining room for now, I added some more plates for a new look .

I think I am bored and ready to change the wall color in here ...more on that later.

I think I am tiring of looking at a lot of the same things for too long ...time for change , maybe its just this time of year, too much time stuck inside.

I am really longing for spring , how about you , are you in a deep freeze too ? , I know I'm not alone.

Organizing feels so good

A fresh start and a fresh coat of paint always starts things off a new, but an organized streamlined space brings so much peace to me.

I finished putting in the tower of shelves and added two drawers , so handy for mitts, hats and scarves , some baskets to hide things and some wire baskets too along with a little folding stool to reach things. To the left of the tower I opted for a row a sturdy hooks to hang longer less used coats .

I wouldn't dare show you how badly this closet functioned before , along with a door full of mismatched hooks and way too many of them , the door hooks are so necessary but now streamlined to 4 hooks , one for keys one for dog leash and two for the girls book bags.

Before ; I tried the wire shelving , now I hate wire shelving , never again , I plan to make custom organizers for the master closet this year at some point too , well maybe , check in for more details.

Coming soon , a wall of applied wainscotting in the front living room to about 7 feet high, finally we have come up with the perfect design , just need to wait for the weather to improve , today it is -32 c with the windchill.....now that's cold maybe that is -10 f , looks like this may even have to wait till spring.

Like Mother like Daughter

Well I think we can blame it on the Food Network , the show Cupcake Wars actually , Mason has never taken interest in cooking or baking at all, until recently , she dreamed up a cupcake that she wanted to make ... vanilla chocolate chip cake with strawberry frosting with choc dipped strawberries , ambitious.

She took to it naturally , and was a pro with the piping bag .

My first cupcakes probably didn't look this good .

Of course she decided to make cupcakes when I am dieting and counting every calorie and for the one day I did low carbs too , but I did try one this morning I didn't want to offend, and they were devine , she brought lots to school to share with her friends , she isn't even a big fan of cupcakes , hah!

Organizing

I know I haven't been around much lately , truth be told I have nothing much to share , however I did decide to do something about or front hall closet , as you can see I tried to make the most of it a few years ago with this wire organizer , yuck , it sucks , so I ripped that out yesterday yeah that was fun...

Here was my clean slate , I have put in a narrow storage tower so far and added a couple of drawers and two runs of hanging ...it is a work in progress , I need to paint and add some more hanging .

Good news on my get fit journey , I have lost 6 pounds so far , this is a big deal for me , I have had trouble in the past losing , after eating right and working out it was difficult to not see changes in the scale which has lead to giving up at times , however there is no giving up this time there is no option to fail this time 40 is just two years away for me and that is a huge motivator for me , I must look good at 40 .... this time I am using a weight loss aid , Slim quick which I have used in the past and which I had great success with , and so far so good , I am using the Slim quick drinks , which aid in appetite control, added energy and the best part is that it makes me drink more water which I am really bad at , this along with my fitness pal app on my iPhone is proving successful for me .....good old fashioned calorie counting ....it's just math ...

I am trying to keep this image in mind , because 6 pounds is no small feat , now how to fast forward through the next 31 pounds I need to lose and all the hard work and balancing that will entail.... but I know it is worth it , I can see my prize.

Finished slipcover

I completed the little slipcovered chairs , see how I added the little ruffle, this slipcovered required 2 yards of fabric, so cute.

Slipcovering a chair

I really haven't been up to too much lately , but here is what I am currently working on for a client of mine , it is a little arm chair for their little girl.

Not an easy thing to do , many hours of fiddling to make slipcovers but I am happy it is turning out well.

I have been steadily working on my new years resolution to shed many excess pounds I have gained over the last few years, some may refer to this weight as blogger butt , anyway however it got here it needs to go , I am living in my exercise wear so that when ever it hits me or at least twice a day , I will workout on my elliptical machine. So far so good I have lost 4.5lbs already, which normally takes forever but thanks to my new iPhone app "my fitness pal" I am keeping very accountable, I can keep track and it is really helping me . One good thing is that I have a whole closet with a full array of sizes of things I love that I will be so thrilled to fit into again .

Spiderman

I wanted to show you a cake I did for a friend of mine, well for her son obviously I think it turned out pretty cute and by cute I mean tough and strong and very heroic....

Applied wainscoting

One of the first projects I tackled in the house was this applied wainscoting , this is an easy project for the beginner , I like a thicker moulding so I used what some use as chair rail in fact it is chair rail moulding as the applied rectangles and I broke all the rules by using a medium sized casing turned upside down as the chair rail ...I am such a rule breaker, it also saved me a bundle of money.

All you have to do to get started is get out your level and pencil and start mapping out the trim placement , I chose to do equal portioned rectangles, odd numbers work better, I went with three rectangles on my 14 foot wall here, you then use these lines to measure your applied trim pieces .Then you can use nails and an adhesive to apply the trim to the wall , I did this before I had a nailgun , now that I have one I would suggest you get one right away if you are planning to do more than one trim project in your home , get a small brad nail gun and compressor those big nailers are better suited to framing, you can thank me later , because unless you have three hands you will want the brad nailer for sure , or better yet a pinner , which leaves smaller micro holes.

In case you are wondering the height of this wainscoting is 36" but if you have higher pieces of furniture in the room like a sideboard you may want to go higher I did trim at 40 inches in my dining room and it works very well in there , so go ahead and make your own rules.

I have had two of these chairs of my mother in laws for way too long , I had put these on the back burner for some time and recently brought them out to work on them again, they will look so sweet when done but turns out there was a reason why I put the on the back burner its because they are murder to paint , and since they are not for me I am being really particular, for me I would antique them and maybe do a glaze on the frame, but I really need a sprayer , so they must wait until our weather warms in the spring ...back to the back burner then.

OMG our 30 pound dog must think he weighs a lot less because he lays on our legs like this a lot our poor knees , he is such a cuddly teddy bear , always with the snuggles , he doesn't like other dogs with the exception of our other dog but he sure loves people , here he is watching TV he really watches TV but he LOVES watching animals on TV the most of all , funniest home videos is always a full family favorite.

He watches in the mirror over the sofa and in the tv, he must think we have two tv's in this room .

silly puppy! of course you must notice my husband in shorts in the middle of winter , I am in sweats and sweater and under a blanket , I know most of you understand.....its just a man thing.

2010 projects re-cap part 2

I guess I will just dive right into the start of 2010 projects , one of the very first things I did was make these simple slips for my dining chairs , I really just pinned them in place and hemmed and added ruffles and stamped on our birthdays

this is just a photo I love leading into our kitchen

I also did quite a makeover on our island by adding v-groove and new brackets and a solid butcher block top also I turned the island around which has been a great change

I re did this adorable cabinet for a local client after purchasing it on kijiji , they use it under their wall mounted tv for storage and components , it looks so right , I love this piece

I helped my friend design and construct her kitchen island , it lead to a bunch of other projects which has completely transformed her entire great room , she after this built a storage unit/bar for her kitchen and built in window benches flanking her fireplace , so proud of her work

I got this lovely cabinet for my birthday last year , another kijiji project , I of course painted it blue, it is a great addition to the dining room

I finally added wood to this strange little spot leading down the stairs which at least makes it more durable

For the second time I re-upholstered this adorable craigslist chair

I cut out the center of one cabinet door and added chicken wire and added beadboard to the back of the cabinet and painted it blue for a little open display

upgrading the posts was always something I was planning on doing , so glad I did that , very little effort but a lot of style

I prettied up the chimney area with shakes and stained the to match the house , love this , I guess my neighbours really benefit from this improvement because I sure can't see it from inside this time of year

I got around to deciding on the trim for the bath , so glad I went with beadboard wainscoting it really added the right amount of charm

new lighter draped went up this year

more shakes added to the guest house / tiny playhouse

and that concludes part 2 of the recap , I clearly got a lot of projects completed around the house , things I am toying with for this year would be the basement which remains unfinished for the most part, we NEED to new sofa that is slipcovered and has a good sleeper mattress going for good quality for this purchase, wood floors for the master bedroom and some more work on the backyard and side yard path , that is where I am at right now , planning , thinking and dreaming , I am sure you are too .