Working With What You Already Have

I still haven't taken photos of our new front yard, what can I say, I'm pretty fantastic at procrastination.  In all honesty though, with the ridiculous heat wave we've had for the last couple of weeks its been a battle just to keep my new plants alive.  Twice a day I've been dragging our hose to the front yard just to keep them from wilting, sadly we may still lose a couple of plants.  But, with the heatwave easing off and the rain coming my plants will hopefully rebound and we can take some pictures soon!

While our front yard has been coming along nicely everything else has kind of been put to the backburner.  If you have ever heard me talk about our backyard, you have probably heard me utter the words ugly and hate.

Our backyard is a giant deck, landscaping brick everywhere and a garage strategically located right in the middle of the yard.

While big plans are on the horizon for the backyard, these last two years haven't seen much use beyond being utilized as a painting area.

Marc, decided that for our first anniversary he would make that backyard a little bit more palatable.  So with the help of his brother Dan, his sister-in-law Rachel and my mom Carol, Marc put together a pretty good backyard.

I couldn't believe that such a small change could make such a big difference.  This last week I have found myself sitting out in my backyard enjoying it!  All because of a patio set and a few planters.

I'm still looking forward to completely renovating the backyard, but for now, we are working with what we have and it's going pretty well.

Organization For the Not So Organized

I love organization, or at least the idea of it.  See, I'm not as organized as I would like and I'm always astounded by my friends and family who can organize in their sleep.  Their houses are spotless and everything has a place and is in it!

Organizing is a system, a system that I am very slowly learning.  When you work from home being organized is pretty paramount to getting anything done, so I'm starting to figure out how I like to organize.

One of the biggest things I've learned about organizing is that you need containers to organize stuff into.  I like to organize by function and type, and I found some cheap organization tools to help me put items away.

Ikea has the whole organization thing CASED.  If I know that someone is going to Ikea, I send a list, and then hope they have enough room in their vehicle for everything.

I recently got the entire Kvissle set for my office and the whole set quickly became a favourite.  Clean, modern, white and with just a nice touch of cork.

Kvissle Desk Organizers, set of 4 Boxes

Kvissle Desk Organizer

My office just happens to be in my dining room at this point in time, so being neat and organized is key.  Some quick, cheap and easy mount shelving from Rona along with some more Ikea makes keeping all my work odds and ends in site and neat.

Tallisker Containers from Ikea

You don't actually have to spend money to get organized though,  It can honestly be as simple as re-purposing items you already own or found or made.

For our wedding my husband and I made almost 100 vases out of old wine bottles.  While we gave a lot of vases away we still had a couple of boxes left, and ultimately they were suited very nicely for pencils and paintbrushes.

Mason jars are really popular right now for decor, and here's why.  They can be used anywhere and for anything, and they look pretty cute at the same time.

Here was my tea and coffee cupboard pre-organization and pre-mason jar.

It was pretty much a total disaster.  Bags of tea and coffee everywhere, and I never really knew what I had.

Post mason jar organization:

Clean and simple.  Everything stacks, I can read all my labels and I know exactly what I have.  Apparently, I have a lot of tea.

I'm tempted to add some Chalkboard paint labels at some point later down the road, it would up the cuteness factor by at least 10%.

The downside to this whole organization thing?  I no longer have any excuse to stop by my local tea shop, not until I empty a few of these containers anyway.

Elephant

Elephant was the name of our choice paint, but it ended up seeming surprisingly blue for an elephant, until I realized that it was almost the exact colour of Dumbo!  It really helped lighten up our bedroom which was a really awful dark matte brown before.  Matte paint helps hide imperfections on plaster walls, but it also deadens light and makes everything seem far more dreary.

Pretty awful before pictures, hey?  Ok now on to the good stuff!  The after(ish) pictures!

We went with a semi-gloss from General Paints in the Z-Coat line (which is their low VOC line that I love!), semi-gloss won't hide imperfections as well, but it does allow natural light to reflect off of its surface thus making the whole room brighter.

I found those bedside lamps on a weekend Salvation Army shopping trip with my Sister-in-Law Rachel, $10 a lamp.  Most likely early 70's, but originally they were pretty dated, and the bases were in rough shape.

Three coats of a glossy blue spray paint, and about 3.5m of fabric and those lamps got a fantastic easy and cheap redo.  I honestly rarely like lamps, which is why it took so long to find just the right ones.  But I am so happy with how it all turned out!

There is actually one more DIY project in the above picture, can you guess what it is?  Don't worry I will post it tomorrow, so you can see the before and afters.

Aren't Renovations Glamorous?

It is always the weeks where you have the most to say and absolutely no time to say it, these last few weeks have been crazy!  DIY projects littered around the house, paint, family and rugby meant that I lived entirely in the real world for a while and the internet world was left behind, so I will try to catch things up as best as I can.

The real work on the master bedroom finally started, and we've been pulling it together piece by piece, and I am so excited!  I would say we are at about the 60% mark, only because some big pieces like the closet and the drapes haven't been started yet.  But 60% is still so much better than the 10% we've been sitting at for a year and a half!

In the beginning of renovations I get so inspired, I see all these "before" and "after" pictures on Pinterest and I oggle, I oooooohhh and aaaaaaahhhh, I design in my head, I pull colours and fabrics, and then we do the work.

The work is so much less glamorous, you guys.  Halfway through painting my master bedroom looked something like this:

Everything we own shoved into one corner of our room, paint and patch on the walls, ladders and dropcloths.  Pretty sexy right?

Thankfully, we are just passed that stage and onto the putting everything back in its rightful place stage.  I can't wait until we are done that stage, because we have three pretty fantastic DIY projects that need some photo love!

Anique may be watching a little too much DIY go on around the house since she has effectively started her own projects.  I'm worried about what she is going to start DIYing when we start the big renos on the house... or maybe we can channel those creative energies into installing new wood flooring, or patching plaster?

Some New Acquisitions

You know those days when you are wandering through a store looking for something as innocuous as a giant bin to hold dog food, and you decide to just wander the other aisles. You know, just in case.  And you pick up one thing and put it in the cart, and then you see something else, and what do you know it has a sale tag on it, and its pretty, so you put that into the cart too.  And then suddenly you have a full cart, but no dog food bin.

Totally my trip to the store today, though I did manage to actually find a dog food bin.  While normally DIY and thrift is my thing, sometimes, somedays you just find things that you really don't want to attempt to DIY or thrift.

Especially when you have three DIY projects sitting around your house staring at you every time you enter a room... and none of the gumption to just "git'r done".

Purchase number one, was a fantastic rug all bunched up in the corner.  I don't even know what drew me to it, because honestly, I don't like patterned rugs.  I like textured rugs, all wool rugs...expensive rugs.  But this one made me stop and look twice.  I'm not sure if it is because the pattern and colours are similar to cowhide or what, but I love it.  

There is one sad part though.  Its about two feet too narrow and too short for our living room, so it will probably find a home on the veranda or in the master bedroom.  

I was going to DIY a living room rug like this DIY latch hook t-shirt rug, but now I'm kind of loving patterns.

What do you think, should I DIY pattern or texture in my living room rug?

This was another thing that just made me stop and pick it up.  Who doesn't love an oragami bull?  I know I do.  I kind of want to buy another one for my bedroom.  Is that wrong?

I'm finally starting to feel like my living room is coming together, throw in some drapes and some new throw pillows and I think we will have it!

 There are more thrifted and DIY items on the way this week!!  Including a post about kid's toys, storage, and how those "before and after" photos with and without kids stuff, are usually lying.

Many Many Thanks!!

Recently Jenny Komeda of Little Green Notebook and Lewis & Sheron Fabrics teamed up to host a competition where the winner received a $100 credit towards fabric from Lewis & Sheron.

I was the super lucky winner you guys!!!  I was on a total high for days, and I wanted to send a big thank you out to Jenny and Sheron & Lewis Fabrics!!

I have spent almost a week perusing fabrics, and to be honest, I am stuck.  We have a ton of projects that need fabric, there are so many great choices, and I am totally torn.

Verandah or Bedroom?  Verandah or Bedroom?

Verandah

Start off right away with some light and breezy drapes, organic patterns are perfect! Bold and graphic trellis pattern for the banquet seating. Striped cushions for the banquet, bold lines and bright colours compliment the trellis.  Some fun and outrageous florals for the great vintage chairs with gold velour.

I can picture the whole thing put together already!

Or, Bedroom

Scandinavian inspired bird motif for the drapes.  Moving on to a trellis mixed with a light floral for chair upholstery and simple stripes for cushions for the chair.

The bedroom is really much more simple because we already have bedding, but the verandah holds a lot of serious potential for fun fabrics.

Decisions, decisions!

Reclaiming Space

We all have one.  That one room in the house that is a total wasteland.  Full of odds and ends, junk and hand me downs.  The room of collection.

We all walk by that room and sigh.  We know that room could be something great.  But until it then, it stagnates.

My room greets me every time I leave my house, and every time I return to it.  It's the first room visitors see, and its an eyesore.  It's my veranda.

Bikes have taken over my veranda :(

An entire wall of windows going to waste.

The really sad part is that my veranda is awesome you guys!  It is probably the best space in my house during the spring and summer and right now it is just going to waste.

But there is hope, oh yes there is and it starts with two chairs.  I picked them up today and I am so happy!!!

I even love the gold velour!!!

The table my husband and "les boys" made in highschool.  One of my favourites!

So that is where my reclamation of my veranda begins.  With two chairs.  Soon, there will be drapes, a carpet and room for my kiddo to play while Marc and I read and drink tea... or whatever two grown adults are supposed to do on a veranda.  Board games perhaps?

What room is your reclamation room?  Where do you begin to turn it around into a space that you love?

Trending: Neon

If you have been looking around the internet lately, you've probably noticed that neon is back in a big way.  But not in a 1980's MWOOOOOAR NEON kind of way.  Neon has grown up ladies and gents.  Now, we see neon being paired with neutrals, whites, grays, taupes.

Neon Toe Shoes  ©  Green Wedding Shoes: Used under Creative Commons License  

And, as many of us know, what's big in fashion is also big in home decor.  Yes, neon is making its way into the home.  But, as with clothing, there is a right way and a wrong way to use neon.  Too much neon, and people are going to think that you wear your hair in a side pony and listen to Tiffany on your tape deck.

If you want to go bright, bright but are a bit wary of a lot of neon, use it as an accent.  Try to pair it with a more subdued colour palette throughout the rest of the room.  

Neon doors are so much fun!

Or if you are feeling more adventurous, play up your whole room and colour scheme around one or two bright neon, standout pieces.  

A dark colour scheme plays up the bright of the neon.

What do you think?  Would you have fun with neon in your home?