Wicked & Weird

Boy Crafts: Binoculars

2013-05-02T12:07:00.000-03:00

I am really enjoying this new practice of being a professional mom during the day and leaving the professional anything-else to the evenings and weekends. It is certainly not easy to come down after finally getting the boys to bed about 8:30 and crack open the laptop, but separating the two has really lowered my stress levels and upped my happiness levels. Unfortunately, a looming deadline this week has forced me to do more outside work during the day, and I can feel my blood pressure rising along with the boys' irritation levels. :(

I am loving my mornings with Cam. This guys is just growing so freakin fast, it is kind of blowing my mind. He is a real sweetie, with an ace sense of humour, and is a lot of fun when he can relax and not compete for attention (from me and from Will!).

We have all been keeping track of our friend the cardinal - a 'real loud guy', according to Cam. As the buds are just peeking out on the trees, it is still easy to catch sight of his bright red body sitting up in a tree. Nonetheless, Cam thought we should really get some binoculars to get a better look (not sure where he got this idea from!).

They are pretty self-explanatory and easy to make: all you need are toilet paper rolls, construction paper, glue or tape, markers, and string or ribbon. Cam wasn't happy with how his drawings were going, so he told me what he wanted and I drew it. What looks like just a random pattern is actually lightening, wheels, lines on the road, exhaust from a truck (not a cloud), and rain - oh and a car, of course. They have held up for a few weeks now, and Cam keep telling me that they "REALLY WORK!" and insists on wearing them out for walks. Of course we had to make a pair for William too, but his kept coming apart and morphed into a telephone instead. :)

So these were a pretty successful craft, but I have to say, the big winners are the parking garage and the whiteboard table. They are used every. single. day. Hooray!

Any awesome crafts you have made recently? Please share in the comments, I am always on the hunt for new ideas! Thanks as always for reading. :)

New living room photos

2013-04-21T17:38:00.002-03:00

I may not have been blogging much lately, but I can't seem to stop tinkering with the house - I do it almost unconsciously! One day I feel the need to change up the mantel, another day I am switching pillows around. Our friend and babysitter came over on Friday after having been away for a while and couldn't believe how many changes I had made. Because I have been doing them bit by bit and been so distracted by my work and business course, I really hadn't taken in the cumulative effect of all my little tweaks.
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Anybody out there?

2013-04-17T21:38:00.003-03:00

Holy Sweet Mother Of Pearl, switching internet hosts is not for the faint of heart*. That goes double when you are originally on Blogger and don't actually know who is currently hosting your blog! (It is eNom.com by the way.) Trying to remember all my passwords (with a special character? without??), requesting unknown hosts to unlock domains, having secret codes sent to you by both hosts - I don't know how people get away with all the crazy stuff they do online when you have to navigate the cryptic-undercover-secret-handshake back alleys of the internet just to move a design blog. Add to that the fact that all my recent online charges got my credit card blocked (which of course landed me in a whole other realm of security shenanigans), and you have the recipe for one confused and frustrated blogger, with a blog lost in the ether.

But lo and behold, here I am - I guess if you are reading this you found me! And thanks to everyone who sent me panicked emails and texts wondering what the hell happened to my blog, it made me so happy to know you guys got my back. :)

I am still on Blogger for now, but with Bluehost. I am planning to move over to Word Press eventually, once I get a business going, but I don't want to let go of this design I worked so hard on, at least not yet. :)

*Apparently you can pay people to figure this crap out for you, if you aren't cheap (and ignorant) like me...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

2013-04-15T12:24:00.001-03:00

Yes, I am very, painfully, aware that so far Spring has been the mother of all disappointments. Seriously Universe - ICE PELLETS? Yeesh. But, although the tulips are slow in poking out their heads, the Garage Sales have begun (Cue the music! Start the skipping!). That is right my thrifty friends, yesterday my mother-in-law and I went to my first yard sale of the season, in the posh area around Old Mill. We were there just at the end, which means we probably missed some good stuff, but got some great deals. For example, this cheerful, hand-stitched wool shawl. No holes, no snags. $5. Perfect to inject a little colour into a room or outfit. Love it.
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Belgian Style Guest Post

2013-04-10T17:11:00.000-03:00

Hi friends! It has been even nuttier than usual around here lately - for some reason my life seems to follow the "feast or famine" philosophy. For a while I was able to find some space, really concentrate on the business course I am taking, and focus on being an RSM (Rock Star Mumma). Then, suddenly, I landed a lovely marketing contract with a very short deadline, got started on some graphic work with a very short deadline, and am struggling to keep up with the course and all the reading. Thank sweet merciful heavens my wonderful mother-in-law is here for a visit and has been able to take on full time kid care, leaving me to reacquaint myself with the joys of hours upon hours behind a desk.

I have many half-started-but-not-near-publishable blog posts in the hopper, but the universe decided to cut my blog a break and sent me an email with a complete guest post from Arcadian Home, all about calm, steady, grounded-in-history Belgian decor. That bedroom with the velvet bed cover is going to be permanently stuck in my imagination - to think I had once decided that I didn't like purple! Thanks universe (and Arcadian Home) - I owe you a solid.

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Hiding the Kitchen Clutter

2013-04-01T12:05:00.000-03:00

I am quite thrilled with my kitchen; it was renovated over two years ago and I wouldn't change a THING about it - I love love love using it. The only thing that was missing from it was a message centre or place to keep notices, tickets, adorable kid drawing, etc. Our stainless refrigerator doesn't take magnets, which is fine with me - believe it or not I am a fan of clean lines and lots of space. However, the piles of paper were growing and driving me nuts, so I picked the lesser of evils and hung this metal board from Ikea on the front of Dad's cabinet. While it did corale the bits and pieces, I didn't like that it marred and obstructed the beautiful cabinet, that it bonked the door every time you opened or closed the cabinets, and that it never looked tidy.

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Boy Crafts: A Parking Garage

2013-03-27T08:40:00.000-03:00

When I stumbled across this great parking garage craft on Spoonful, I got ridiculously excited. Seriously - a craft my guys would love to make, love to play with, and that would use up some of my out-of-control stash of toilet paper rolls. Major score.

The full instructions are on Spoonful, and I won't bore you with the details (not surprisingly their garage also looks way more profesh). It is a pretty simple craft - cover toilet paper rolls with coloured paper, cut one side off a cereal box, draw on parking spots, glue rolls between the two sides of the cereal box, and add ramps. It was a short enough activity that Cam and I could do it while Will was at school, which meant that Cam could actually get to participate in all the making (Will is a little... um... enthusiastic when we all do stuff together). I have to say, he is a pretty fun co-crafter.

I'm Still Kickin' !

2013-03-25T22:45:00.000-03:00

I know, I definitely have lost my blogging mojo lately, but I have good reasons... honest.

1) As the clock ticks down on to these two crazy cats both starting full time school in the fall, I am more grateful than ever to be able to be home with them right now. I realized that I was often getting sidetracked by the internet (ahem, and blogging) instead of being fully present with the kiddos - I would be playing with them but thinking of what I wanted to do online, or be online, thinking that I should really be hanging with the boys. Talk about a recipe for stress - it was a no-win situation. So I had a heart-to-heart with the mirror and realized that I needed to treat this stay-at-home gig like a real job (I even wrote myself a job description... super crazy but it worked!). I now spend my days completely focussed on what I am doing at home - in fact there have been many days when I didn't even turn on the computer until 8:00 pm when they were finally in bed (I do check emails from time to time on my phone, I am only human). The result is that I am less stressed, getting more out of life, the boys' behaviour is better and they are happier, and my blog is empty.

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Bright Bobbie Burgers Colour

2013-03-12T22:27:00.002-03:00

It has been a while since I have done a proper blog post. You know how you miss a day or two at the gym or skip a few runs, and it isn't so hard to get back on track? But when you miss a week, suddenly you feel guilty for not going, but don't go. Then it's another week and you aren't sure how to ease back into it without hurting your knees, so you don't go. Then people start to say things like "remember when you used to run?" Yeah that's how blog posting has gone for me lately (and the running thing may or may not be personal experience...). But here I am, ready to get back at it. Perhaps it was this gorgeous room in the weekend's Globe and Mail of Bobbie Burgers's living room that did it. I love it SO much, especially that incredible painting.

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My soul-soothing escape from reality

2013-02-28T12:07:00.000-04:00

Hello all, as you may have gleaned from my last post, I have been stressing more than just a bit lately. Not really actively stressing mind you, rather ruminating - my mind chewing over what if's and to-do lists and schedules and such - in a constantly increasing and incessant way. The timing could not have been more perfect for a trip to the Caribbean to visit my parents. They built a house there years and years and years ago, but for some reason I have not made a point of going down. I was too busy, it was too expensive, I couldn't afford the vacation time, yada yada yada.

This year, as always, my mom said please come down. I said yeah... maybe...., as I always do. My Prince Charming of a husband, however, said this is nuts, you insane woman, and made it happen. He booked the flights, took vacation from work to look after the boys, arranged a babysitter for the days he had to work and pretty much threw me on a plane. All the while I was thinking what am I going to do down there? What if I drive my parents nuts (and vice versa)? I brought my computer to catch up on the all the work and projects that I needed to be doing, all the blog posts I haven't written, and of course my ongoing debate as to what to do with the rest of my life.

I did none of it. I can hear you all saying "duh...!" but for some reason I did not foresee how AMAZING this week was going to be. I am not going to go on and on about it because, well, I know how sick everyone is of winter, and, um, I don't want you to hate me. The major points: *first time away without the kids for so long, *first vacation by myself (i.e. without hubby) in about 15 years (this was also part of my reluctance to go - I love traveling with him) *first time hanging out with my parents by myself in around 20 years *being spoiled by my folks *warm sunshine *bright colours *green green green *warm sunshine *didn't make lunch or dinner once *rum and ginger ale on the porch *yoga and swimming *wonderful parents *warm sunshine... OK, done. No wait, there's photos:

So there you have it. I honestly feel like a different person. It really shook things up for me, although I didn't realize how much until I got home. After the requisite grumpy back-to-winter blues, I feel great, calmer, less stressed, more centred. I cannot thank Chris and my parents enough.

All of the "taxis" (i.e. mini-vans crammed with people) down there have slogans running across the top of their windshield, and the one I that stuck with me was "Too Blessed To Be Stressed." Amen Mr. Taxi Driver, AMEN.

Thank you also to all of you who commented on my last post, and emailed me encouragement. It meant the world, it really did. I have been reading and re-reading them ever since. I think I am starting to figure some things out, which I will of course share with you - cause that's what I do. Blogging is kind of a strange beast, part confessional, part public diary, part scrapbook, part PR machine... but the community that comes with it, the feeling of connecting to people, is so strong and heartfelt it sometimes surprises and delights me. MOOAH.

What the HELL do I do now?

2013-02-08T13:20:00.000-04:00

*warning: long post with no pretty pictures*

When it comes to hobbies, I am not unlike a magpie chasing shiny objects. Graphic design sounds like fun - I am going to sign up on Lynda.com and watch a million hours of video on how to lay out a magazine! Photography is awesome - I am going to take a photoshop course and spend hours on the computer tweaking levels! Interior Design has always been a passion - I am going to launch an online design business even though I have no training and little experience! Then there's yoga (which at least I am consistent about), knitting, painting, reading, BLOGGING.... there are times when I get an hour to myself and am actually at a loss for where to start or what to do!

After quitting my (pretty awesome) job at the Symphony a year and a half ago, I have been really enjoying spending time with my kids. Sure, there are some monumentally frustrating days, but generally it has been a crazy blessing to be able to tell myself "this is my job and I love it." Read books with them, make them lunch, watch them play cars, break up fights, listen to them talking to each other, do crafts - the days fly by. I have thrown myself into this time completely, grabbing these precious days with both hands and wringing out every sweet hug, funny face, and paint-covered high five.

Now, on the horizon, I can see the end coming. An end, and of course a new beginning. In September, both my boys will be in school full time (9 to 3). This doesn't mean I don't get hugs and hang-out time anymore (God forbid!) but it will definitely be the dawn of the new era for us all. It is only February and I have many more months of boy-time ahead of me, including those awesome summer months, but I feel like I should be preparing for my own reality now.

My sabbatical from Making Money (since it certainly isn't a break from WORK) has been fully supported and encouraged by my whole family - I definitely couldn't have done it without everyone's sign-off. But a was conceived as a sabbatical, meaning eventually I would return to work away from the boys and start putting money back into the bank account. Right now, I can't imagine going back to life the way it was; I am a different person than the girl who did marketing for the Symphony. Ideally, I will be able to do something part-time, during the school hours, and still be able to walk the boys home from school.

But WHAT??!!?? I am pretty confident I know how start up a start-up. I have read books, blogs, watched videos and am fully inspired to build a successful business. After all, marketing was my line of work - I can direct-mail-social-media-conversion-rate-advertise-promotions the hell out of this business. I can network-leverage-collaborate-media-SEO-customer-service with the best of them. But first I have to figure out what the hell I will be selling!

In the past few months I have done logo work, website work, marketing consulting work, graphic design work and tried my hand at interior design. The problem? I loved ALL of it! But I have to pick one thing and do it well, right? So now I am feeling lost and directionless. I feel like I have to pick one and get much better at it before I can launch a business and charge people money for it. Right? But as soon as I start with one, I am crippled with indecision and doubt - maybe this is the wrong one. I should go back to that other one.

I really love interior design, but I have absolutely no confidence there. People go to school for this, intern, apprentice, yada yada. Who the hell am I to equate putting a mood board and layout together and thinking I'm a designer? Graphic design is really fun and I think I could be really good at it. But the learning curve on the programmes is STEEP guys, and there are so many graphic designers out there - would I even find work? Marketing is where I feel confident, maybe I should stick with that and offer consulting for creatives?

Photo Credit Andrés Þór

Anyway, sorry to dump all this on you guys, but this lack of direction has somehow bled into my blog as well - what is my niche? what do I blog about? - and has kept me from posting for a bit. I am hoping that this soul-dump will at least break through my writers block...

Interior Design Show 2013

2013-01-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

I had an amazing time at this year's Interior Design Show last Friday. I was lucky to have joined an "InstaWalk" hosted by the gals over at Beige is Dead and led by Margot Austin. Essentially we wandered through the booths snapping Instagrams of things that inspired us, and if you search #idswalk13 you'll find a treasure-trove of amazing ideas and products from the show. Here are a few stand-outs for me, and I will also include a few links to some of the other bloggers on the walk who have done great round-ups.

From top, left to right: Gorgeous wall of Farrow & Ball colours - they are just so velvety and posh, and always just the right hue. Wish I could afford them. :) Laser-cut alphabet by Eva Bartha of lasercreative.ca in a fun casual font. They also had laser-cut felt hangings and their business card is laser-cut slices of wood. Show-stopping copper tub in the Ikea booth (which won the Gold Booth Award). All of the tiles at Ceragres were beautiful (really, really beautiful), but I quite like this wood-grain tile for kitchens or bathrooms, where tile is the most practical but a wood floor looks so nice!

I had to stop at this eye-catching paint display at the Beauti-Tone Paint booth, where they had lots of great DIY paint ideas. The Ikea display was the star of the show (I'll post some of their publicity photo eye candy below) but the marketer in me liked that they included the very-affordable prices. New works by one of my favourite Canadian artists, Charlie Pachter in the Caviar20 booth. I am dreaming up ways to use these big hexagonal tiles at Ceragres.

And here are the publicity Ikea booth photos I was sent, which I am posting because it was impossible to get a great photo with all the crowds in there.

And here are some great IDS13 round-up posts:

Poppytalk post by contributor Janis Nicolay
Desire to Decorate post
DesignMaze post
Interior Groupie post
Recreated post

I wanted to post these right away, but this weekend I was as sick as I have been in a very long time with some sort of flu or virus. It has run through every member of our household and is hanging on much too long! I am used the colds and flu that go around but this one knocked us all flat.

Cam's new "vintage" big boy room

2013-01-24T15:36:00.000-04:00

Cam has been having sleep troubles lately (ergo, we have all been having sleep troubles lately). In an effort to entice him to stay in HIS bed, we pulled out the turned-wood bedframe I bought at an auction in New Brunswick. I had intended to paint the frame, but I actually like the worn walnut colour. Of course this prompted some full-on decor strategizing, and before I knew it I had the boys watching Netflix and was opening a mostly-full can of the paint left over from the basement.

The bed required a new mattress, so I headed to Ikea. While I was there...I realized we would need a new duvet, and why not this young-but-not-too-cutesy duvet cover? It's a dangerous place, that Ikea.

Other than that, the room cost $0. All the big artworks on the north wall were feeling a bit too heavy for me, so I took them all down (except for Yara's of course!). Suddenly I remembered these wooden figures were sitting in the garage, waiting for the perfect spot. My neighbour had them out for a garage sale a few years ago (he's an antiques dealer) and when I asked about them he gave them to us. I love the style of them - they look straight out of TinTin to me. I have no idea what they were originally used for - they are all two-sided.

I flipped up the Expedit shelf, and got rid of the little dresser - meaning all Cam's clothes had to go in the baskets (the white dresser is actually full of my husband's clothes!). The artwork is mostly the same - Chris insisted that the elephant stay - and I love this photo of Chris and his brother when they were little. I grabbed these un-used curtains and although they aren't very 'kid's room', I like how they go with the grey and white furniture. I have a bigger, more substantial curtain rod I would like to put in, but it didn't get done - YET!

So to recap, it went from this:

to this:

And I might be done. For now.

Resolutions on Style at Home

2013-01-18T18:05:00.000-04:00

Good heavens, I am so out of it these days that I didn't even realize I was up on Style at Home.com again! Their web editor-extraordinaire Elaine Song emailed me before Christmas asking if I had any home resolutions for the new year, and I had to think on her question for a while. I of course have my endless wish-list of projects and transformations, but I wanted to focus instead on my attitude towards my home. I find I am so frequently inspired by my fellow design bloggers, that I am always dreaming up new ways to style my house, arrange my furniture, and paint my walls. I need to simmer down a bit and put the brakes on my consumerism, second-hand or no! Stuff is stuff, and I have too much. Admitting it is the first step... right?

Anyway, head on over to read my and my fellow bloggers' home resolutions for 2013. But before you go... I am so curious - do you have home resolutions for the new year? And do you ever feel overwhelmed by STUFF?

Craigslist Round-Up Time!

2013-01-16T14:33:00.001-04:00

Seriously long, beautiful, blue velvet tufted-back Louis XV-style sofa for $2500. Wow.

Alright folks, obviously if I am going to start this year off right, I need to do a Craigslist Roundup post. I had high hopes for this search, since it is January/Organizing & Purging Month when people shed their belongings like a snake its skin, but I really wasn't blown away by the offerings. I also have certain criteria for these lists: things have to be something I like, somewhat unique, that I could consider using in a room I designed. It has to have a good photo. They also have to be cheap or reasonably-priced, which usually cuts the contenders in half! Man, people charge a lot of money for crap... However, I managed to find a few gems to tempt you with...

60's-style chrome orb ceiling fixture for $75. I would change the light bulbs (OBVS) and maybe the colour of the wires. Could be cool, could be crap, requires inspection.

Mustard yellow (patterned?) velvet occasional chair for $175 OBO. Not sure of the style - is that art deco? victorian? dunno. walnut legs I would like to see close up. Could be a funky dose of colour in a room.

OK, check out this awesome victorian corner curio cabinet for $150. Pretty wood, pretty art glass, nice shape...

...with blue velvet lining and a light! WHAT!? So it's a light fixture too. It has two glass shelves - for holding bar glasses? Talk about unique...

Ikea swedish-style wool rug for $60. I don't love the colours, and mostly I just posted this because I have the same rug in Wills room but all in blues and I love it. People always ask me about it, and they haven't sold them in years, so here you go!

Conservative white chandelier for $75 OBO. Not totally my taste (I'm not into chrome) but a nice, neutral fixture for a decent price.

Plastic crystal and brass ceiling fixture for $20. Probably chintzy and complete crap, but for $20 worth a gander!

And finally, the piece-de-resistance, the one I WANT but can't quite justify, the Emily Henderson-style treasure find of the day, this cedar-lined brass half-size trunk for $195. And they'll deliver. **SOB** AAAAAH. Buy it. (for me).

So there you have it, the inaugural 2013 craigslist round-up post. I kind of feel like I could do better - there are treasures eluding me, I just know it. Do you like any? Hate any? Inspired? Think I'm a nutter with no taste at all? Common guys, lemme have it.

DIY whiteboard coffee table

2013-01-15T17:04:00.000-04:00

I have to say, while not being the most aesthetically-pleasing of projects, this guy has to be one of my favourites, based purely on the fact that it is a raging hit with the boys. It could actually be a very beautiful project, I just didn't have the optimal bones to start with, since I found the coffee table on the street on garbage day. The table looked pretty solid (it was damn heavy) so I squeezed it into the back of the car while taking the kids home from school one day.

The run-of-the-mill heavy machine-turned legs are not really my style, but the price was right, as was the shelf underneath. It was in pretty rough shape, with peeling veneer, chipped and cracked paint, and creaky legs. It looks like it was someone else's up-cycling project at one point, but they must be even more impatient than I am (I didn't think that was possible) because it definitely wasn't sanded or cleaned before the paint went on in glops and dribbles.

I sanded the table for the better part of a weekend - next time I would definitely try to scrape off more paint before the sanding stage. Then I filled in the cracks and split veneer with wood-filler, and tried to fill in the routed "detail" on the top. I also hammered in some nails around the legs to secure the wobble. It was at this point that I hit a creative roadblock - should I just leave it white? Paint it with blackboard paint? Get the fancy expensive white board paint? I tweeted about my indecision and was surprised and thrilled to hear back from Steven at Smart Wall Paint. He offered to send me a tester of their white board paint and I jumped at the chance! When it arrived by DHL, the cost of duty was as much as the paint would have been from Home Depot, but I was excited to try it. It was also a great chance to make use of the Scotch blue tape I had been sent. I painted the bottom a light grey with the paint left over from my bathroom redo, and there was just enough smart paint for the top.

The paint was an interesting process - you have to mix part A with part B (much like DIY hair dye), make sure your roller passes over every section 5 times, wait 5 days, and then use. We had to open part B with a knife as the top wouldn't come off, and it was pretty stinky stuff. I carefully followed directions and waited patiently to use it. I don't know if I didn't clean it off properly, but I was disappointed that the surface wasn't a smooth glossy finish - instead it has lots of little tiny bumps - but the kids don't seem to care and you can't really see it. I call it a win.

The table has been in heavy use since the moment I put it in the sunroom. I had bought some whiteboard crayons a few years ago to go with a book Will had, and they work perfectly. I also bought some washable whiteboard markers, imagining every shirt and bit of exposed skin being covered with ink, but the crayons give better colour.

We have had roads, towns, shapes, words, animals, and games drawn on the table. My favourite was the whole zoo they made with Děda, complete with a polka-dot hedgehog! They each have their own collections of cars and trucks - the table is the perfect height for driving - and I have been keeping them in white Ikea baskets on the bottom shelf. Looks good and functional: score!

I do wish it had more modern lines, but all things considered, it doesn't look too bad in front of the sofa. As a bonus, we now have somewhere to put our feet up and rest a coffee mug (when we're allowed). So what do you think? Have you used white board paint before? I love that it fits in my favourite colour scheme (white and wood), and am contemplating a whiteboard wall in the kitchen...

*Thank you to Steven from Smart Wall Paint for reaching out - gotta love social media!
*Thank you to Laura Stratton for the Scotch Blue Painter's tape - it's awesome.
*thank you to Katrina at Pugly Pixel for the photoshop templates!

Happy New Year: a fresh beginning

2013-01-07T11:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am a little late with my wishes, but I still hope you have a wonderful 2013! It has been a slower start to the year here - my in-laws left for Alberta yesterday morning (they are driving with their dog) and we took the tree and decorations down. Although I am always sad to see the Christmas tree come down, there is something so cathartic about packing it all up, vacuuming up all the needles and dusting all the little nooks and crannies that had been hiding under the garland. In all the mass cleaning, I ended up moving all the furniture again, and replaced our tired-looking white rug with an old rug from my house in New Brunswick. Today, after taking my eldest to school, I came home to a clean uncluttered house and felt like the new year was finally underway, fresh and full of promise.

I have been reading all of the amazing resolutions on everyone's blogs and can feel the optimism for the new year. Usually I would have my own list, but for some reason it just doesn't seem appropriate for me this year. I am less inclined to set goals and more of a mind to be open to whatever life brings for a while. Maybe it's laziness, maybe it's zen. :) Whatever you call it, I am looking forward to seeing what 2013 has to offer! I hope it holds wonderful things for all of you. xo

Rambling Renovators' 2012 great reads

2013-01-03T20:55:00.000-04:00

I am thrilled to be on Jen's round-up of blogs on Rambling Renovators. I am in amazing company too - I have found a ton of new blogs to add to my reader... Thank you Jen!

Craigslist Murphy Bunk Bed

2013-01-03T14:49:00.002-04:00

Um, this thing is pretty amazing. I wonder how comfortable it is? I have always had a thing for Murphy beds, and this one is sort of blowing my mind...

Yours for only $4000.

Glitter Card Production Line

2013-01-01T15:35:00.000-04:00

I purchased a few holiday cards for the boys' classes, and never really got around to using them. When I mentioned filling them out to William, he asked if we could make cards instead, like we did for Valentine's Day. Wullll, yeah!!!

I had a ton of glitter around that I had picked up during one of my many excursions to the Dollar Store, and of course a bazillion sheets of construction paper. So we cut some little cards and I drew a few simple designs with glue. Then the boys ~~gently tapped~~ quickly dumped the entire container of glitter on the glue and shook off the excess. Thankfully I had the foresight to use some box tops to try to contain the glitter! Our little pot-scrapers also came in handy. They kept at it for quite a while and we had a real production line going before the glitter fights began... I think there will be glitter in our house until they leave for university - it is like living inside a disco ball. (I sort of love it.)

Having done all the cards, and then allowing them to dry, William filled out approximately six before he had a melt-down and refused to do any more. So for those of you with kids in his class who thought his hand-writing looked like something his father might have done with his left hand... well, you get a gold star. :) Oh, and you are welcome for all the glitter we sent into your house. Enjoy!

Pretty little things make me happy

2012-12-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

The lovely Brooke from Pure and Noble had a sale of some of her vintage items and I nabbed this cute little blue vase. It reminds me of the Russel Wright dinnerware that I would love to collect. It was sitting in my glass cupboard until I found a branch had broken off my new poinsettia plant during transport. I couldn't bear to toss the pretty flower, and went to find a small vase - and voila! I think it couldn't be more perfect. Aren't the colours of the leaves gorgeous? They look painted on.

Sometimes the little things can make me so happy... :)

Christmas pinecone painting

2012-12-28T14:19:00.006-04:00

The boys were a fabulous help with the Christmas decorating this year. One of our favourite projects was collecting pinecones at the park and painting them when we got home. We started by painting white on the edges to look like snow, but then the tubes of gold and glitter seemed like even more fun! When they dried, I put them just about everywhere - I especially love how they look on the mantel and in amongst my beach stones.

The great thing about doing Christmas crafts is that they are instantly go on display - so gratifying for the kids. It has me thinking about how I can incorporate even more of their art into my decor on a regular basis - any ideas?

Post-Christmas Peace

2012-12-27T14:28:00.001-04:00

OK, I have to admit that I am sitting here a bit stunned. Has Christmas really come and gone in a flash? It was such a mad rush around here getting ready for visitors, decorating, finishing up school, and putting the basement back together; then wrapping, stuffing, eating, unwrapping, eating, and more eating!

The basement was finished in the very nick of time - I was doing the final clean of the bathroom when my in-laws drove in, exhausted from 6 days of driving here from Alberta. So I haven't had much of a chance to sit back and enjoy it yet, but I look forward to doing just that, and snapping a few photos. The next day I enjoyed a rousing Sing Along Messiah at Massey Hall (so much fun!) and was home in time to chat with my parents, who arrived at my brothers' after a 2-day drive up from New Brunswick.

Christmas Eve we celebrated here with the Petriks, enjoying an amazing salmon dinner in the Czech tradition. The next morning my folks stopped by to watch the boys open their ridiculous number of gifts and we had a yummy strada for brunch (my mother-in-law truly spoils us with her cooking!). Later that evening I made my way to my brother's for our traditional turkey Christmas dinner and it was nice to hang out with my family. We all headed back to Malcolm's (my brother) for brunch the next morning, and he served up delicious hand-made beignets (a tradition my Dad started when we were little of having New-Orleans-style beignets on Christmas morning!).

Now Chris is back at work, his folks are out for lunch with a friend, and the boys are ensconced with Max and Ruby. I am enjoying a relative moment of quiet and feel like it must have all been some vivid dream! How lovely though to sit peacefully with a cup of tea, the Christmas lights on, and a blanket of powdery white snow outside. Always nice to have the simple moments give meaning to the full and festive moments, and vice-versa.

I hope you all enjoyed the peaceful and the festive over the last few weeks. Here are some photos I managed to grab of our home this year - I went for a little more gold and sparkles this year, and pulled out lots of my thrifted brass treasures! The boys and I were a little sparkle factory here as well doing our Christmas crafts - I think we will be finding them around the house 16 years from now.

So friends, did you have a nice holiday? :)

Merry Christmas Blog Buddies!

2012-12-26T19:51:00.003-04:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you were able to enjoy a few of those magical moments of quiet, surrounded by loved ones, feeling peace and joy. xoxo.

A Cozy Reading Nook Guest Post

2012-12-21T11:52:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday/End of the World guys! I don't know about you, but I am ready for a wee break (insofar as a few weeks of intense family visit time is 'a break', lol!). Things have been super busy the last few weeks, especially considering I am retired! :)

A few weeks ago I was approached by a freelancer agent, who was wondering if I ever posted articles from other authors on Wicked & Weird. I have done some guest-post-hosting, but never actually invited submission, so I thought - why not? Heaven knows freelance writers could use a break now and then. So here is the article I chose - all about setting up a cozy reading nook (a must-have in every home, as far as I am concerned!). Let me know what you think of the whole concept of writer-submitted posts in the comments - I am curious as to your thoughts. :)

Whether reading a graphic novel, piece of fiction, cookbook, coffee table book, mystery, comedy, romance or poetry book, make your reading nook all your own. Here are some ideas to give your reading space character.

A Crime Fiction Cave

From Stieg Larsson's “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” to Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code,” crime novels are filled with mystery and intrigue to the extreme. These books offer a chance to travel through time and space to far away lands as one attempts to solve a crime before the book ends. How would the mystery lover like their reading nook to look and feel? An understair storage is a great location because it's dark, cozy, and mysterious. If you don't tell anyone about this hideaway, you can immerse yourself in all the guilty pleasure you can handle. Hang a framed photo of a weathered handwritten note with a bloodstain. The Shade Store's drapery will come in handy as you cloak a velvet curtain in the corner. Add some battery-operated flameless LED flickering candles to the space, and scare yourself at any noise coming from outside of your thriller sanctuary.

Your Fantasy Escape

Do you prefer misty mountains, fantastical forests, and epic adventures? Escape into an alternate universe as you channel C.S. Lewis and climb into your own wardrobe transformed into a reading nook? Or, better yet, grab a book and fly the coop as you head out the door to a secret location in a nearby park, garden, forest, mountainside or beach bluff to depart from your daily grind and get lost in a fantasy land of fairies, witches, knights, princesses, unicorns, and magic.
If daydreaming is more your style, consider adding dark greens and pastel pinks. Soft light can illuminate through flameless LED candles, twinkle lights, or by running a lamp with a colored bulb into the space. Be sure there is tulle draped from the ceiling to all walls. Add images of fairies and mysterious forests. A liquid motion water wave feature would add that extra touch of nature to your escape.

Science Fiction, Solar System

If Arthur C. Clarke's 2001— “A Space Odyssey,” George Orwell's “1984,” and Aldous Huxley's “Brave New World” float your boat, a Sci-Fi inspired space is in the stars for you. There are so many directions you can take for the futuristic reading nook. For example, deck it out with universe-inspired decor using a planet projector, glow in the dark stars, and colors that take you right off of this green earth and into the darkness of space. Or, consider a restoration decor that marries elements of the past with an imagined future of nautilus, time travel and space exploration that jump off the pages of your favorite literary masterpieces. Incorporate brass wall switches and exposed gear clocks. Mix leather with lace and velvet. Put weathered maps on the walls. Maybe even some aviator-style goggles, a pith helmet, and a corset. Who cares what the cat thinks.

Victoria James Daughter of a designer and home ec teacher, Victoria learned everything she would ever need to know about being a successful designer from her mother. Victoria loves passing her mother's secrets on to readers.