What I've Been Up To

Hello friends. I'm just checking in to let you know what I've been up to.  Here goes.
Did you know that my husband has been in Edinburgh since January 2nd doing research for his book?  Did you know that we are planning on going to a Robbie Burns dinner (Scotland's favourite poet) on January 24th just hours after Jonathan gets back from Edinburgh?  Fingers crossed that he isn't overcome with jet lag so we can go.  Anyway, in honour of both of those Scottish events I have been dressing our bed in some plaid pillow cases I got last year at the thrift shop.  I got two that match and one single one so I just wrapped it around a throw pillow - simple and it makes me happy.

I've also been working on a photo book of our son's wedding - yep the son that got married a year-and-a-half ago.  I had never got around to making a book or printing off any photos so I put it on my New Year's resolution list for this year to motivate me.  Here's a screen shot of how I'm doing.  I'm trying to decide if words like 'The Reception' are a good addition or not.  Have you ever made a photo book?  I have used Kodak in the past, but this is my first time using Shutterfly and there are a lot of options for backgrounds and stickers and things that make it fun somewhat overwhelming.  I set myself a goal of finishing the book by the time Jonathan gets back from Edinburgh and it is basically done and ready for final edits so I'm right on track.

And I've booked airline tickets, hotel, and bought opera tickets for New York for the March Break.  We take each of our children to New York city when they are finished high school as a fun way to have a special time together with them.  Since Jonathan has used up all his holiday time, I get to take William to New York.  Then it occurred to us that my parents had never been to New York City so we invited them to go as well.  The four of us will be in New York during the last part of the March Break - can't wait!
And did you know that I've been enjoying a beautiful photograph taken by my friend Kat from Low Tide High Style Art.  She gave me the photo for some help I gave her setting up her online shop.  Thanks so much Kat.  We love it!  I have it hanging in the dining room right now and am enjoying how the blue colour of the door looks so pretty with the pink flowers that my mother left me when they went to Florida.  I'm going to do a better post (and take better non-backlit photos) when I include the photo in the gallery wall-to-be.

And I've been feasting every weekend on the best lunch EVER!  Malcolm made me some raisin bread for Christmas (which tastes so delicious).

Which I toast and slather with peanut butter and a smidge of honey (okay, maybe a bit more than a smidge).

And drink with the world's best hot chocolate.  Here's how I make it - microwave a cup full of milk on high for two minutes and then stir in one heaping tablespoonful of the hot chocolate mix (they say to use four, but I find one tastes great and has fewer calories) and stir, stir, stir.

And before you know it you are left with this.

And finally, I'm working on decluttering and sorting out the house (aren't we all?). I tidied up my desk as the first step to organizing myself.  As my desk goes, so goes my state of being ... and i'm hoping for a calm, happy, organized state of being.  So far I've kept it tidy. I'm also going to aim to get rid of 365 things this year.  I have a couple of bags of things waiting to go to the thrift store so I'm on my way.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be back in a day or so with a post about one of the yummiest country food we have cooked so far - Israel. Did you catch Egypt's meal because it was pretty darn good too.

WISH Wednesday #57

Having seen John and Sherry Petersik, from the blog Young House Love, on Monday at the book tour party (which you can read about here), I thought I would post a room from their home for WISH Wednesday. I was surprised that some of you had not heard of them so this is my opportunity to introduce you to one of my favourite rooms they decorated - it is their daughter Clara's nursery from their first home. 
I love the blue and green colours they used on the walls and ceiling and the floral drapes.  I usually am not a fan of painting the ceiling, but I think the beautiful aqua colour they used works so well to tie everything together.   You can see more photos here.

Have you ever painted a ceiling in your home?  We have always had white ceilings, but I do love this aqua colour.  Would you consider it?

Red Quilt

I've been meaning to show you another change I made in our master bedroom.  When I finished our bedroom redo recently (which you can read about here), I decided I wanted to be able to change the bedding to get a different feel.  

I still love the Pottery Barn flowered duvet cover that we have used for the past ten years, but I wanted the flexibility of having another quilt to use sometimes.  So I went to Homesense to see what they had.  I was originally going to get a white quilt, but I couldn't see that lasting well with a dog that likes to sleep on our bed.  Then I spied the red quilt and was taken with it - I love gray-blue and red together.   

I also had a small cloth that I bought in Bangladesh last summer that I wanted to use across the end of our bed. The red quilt was a perfect compliment to the red, white, and gray in the Bangladeshi cloth.  So here is the alternate version of our bedroom.  

Perhaps there will be Christmas and Valentine's Day versions as well - the red is rather good for that.  
Do you decorate your bedroom for different seasons or holidays?

WISH Wednesday #46

Do you see the view out the window of this adorable bedroom - that is Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia) - one of the most beautiful spots in the world.  When you read this I will be down in Nova Scotia myself, so this bedroom seemed a perfect choice for my WISH Wednesday photo.  Kate goes to university in Halifax, Nova Scotia and will be sharing a house with two other girls this year rather than staying in residence.  I'm helping her get her room set up - you know - visiting thrift shops etc to find furniture and getting a big load of groceries. We are going to squeeze in a little sightseeing as well. I love Nova Scotia so I'm really looking forward to my week there.
This house was built as a family vacation home. The whole home has a spare, clean, modern look. I'm not usually a fan of modern as it can look stark and cold, but I find this home very appealing in its simplicity.  You can see more photos here.
I think the children's bedroom is one of my favourite rooms with the similar, but different Indian quilts on the bed, painted floors, and soft gray walls with white trim ... oh, and a breath-taking view out the windows.

The outside of the house is also stark and modern, yet echoes the cedar-shingled traditional homes of the area.

I'll be back from the maritimes next week and I'll show you pictures of what we visit.  I'm not going to Cape Breton Island, but I know that I'll be taking a bazillion photos of the areas we do see.

WISH Wednesday #43

I can't believe it's Thursday already and I forgot all about yesterday being Wednesday and posting a WISH Wednesday picture.  My excuse is that it was a holiday on Monday and that threw me off.  We'll all pretend that today is Wednesday and then I'm not a day late for my WISH Wednesday post - okay?  Now that we've got that settled...
I try to limit myself to just one photo of a room for my WISH Wednesday posts and I usually succeed, but today I utterly failed.  There was just way too much cuteness in this adorable little bunkie to limit myself to one photo.  Plus I wanted to give you an idea about how small this bunkie is.  Do you have bunkies where you live?  They are little sleeping cabins used for guests at the cottage.  
I really love small buildings and I thought this bunkie was especially adorable.  The decorating is all done on a budget.  Rattan mats were stapled to the walls to add texture - they look like grasscloth wallpaper, but are a fraction of the cost.  I bet that is a DIY wood stump table too.  Isn't it the perfect bedside table for a cottage bedroom.  The turquise polka-dotted bedding and the mosquito nets are adorable.

Canadian House and Home

Did you notice the collection of turquoise bottles up in the rafters?  Cute, eh.

via Poppytalk

Here's how the outside of the bunkie looks.  I love the little cupola at the peak of the roof, the row of tiny windows up under the eaves, and the yellow window boxes under the windows.

Canadian House and Home

And what a gorgeous spot to lounge on a summer's day.  The awning is made out of a dropcloth held up by branches.  The daybed is made using stacked shipping pallets painted a soft turquoise and topped with a foam mattress covered in a white sheet.  The stump tables and collection of pillows make it the perfect spot to relax.  

Canadian House and Home

Doesn't this bunkie make you want to grab a good book and a cool drink and spend some time relaxing?  I'm holding on to summer as tightly as I can - we still have a few weeks to go before school starts and I plan on making the most of it.

Master Bedroom Reveal

It only took about a month longer and tons more work than I thought it would ... but it's done!  Let me show you around our new and improved bedroom.  
We'll start here as this is what greets you when you enter the room.  

I wanted something round to go above the bed to echo the roundness of the headboard. I found this carving at HomeSense - and it was even carved in India (a place I have a particular fondness for after visiting last summer).

The darker gray accent wall (although it is a subtle difference and probably not worth the trouble) was painted several years ago and I painted the other three walls last month.  I did a happy dance when that was done - not only because the chaos that happens when you paint was over, but also because the grubby builder's paint was finally gone.

The furniture was rearranged - the two bookshelves were split up and put on either side of the window and the trunk was put under the window.  I thought it would kinda sorta look like built-in bookshelves and a window seat - both things I adore, but we weren't willing to put the time or money into building them into a house we may be leaving soon.

I re-hung the drapes above the arched window so that all the windows were covered by the curtains. Since the curtains are now much higher than they were before, I had to take down the hem and add more material along the bottom. Fortunately I had bought an extra set of curtains at the time I bought the original ones so I had fabric that matched. I covered the seam with gray ribbon and added another row of ribbon to make it look like it was all meant to be.  It actually took me quite awhile to do all of those steps since I had to think through the solution to each problem as it presented itself.

I sorted and edited the books so the bookshelves would look tidy.  On top of one bookshelf I put a shadow box with my husband's fossils. The back of the box used to be Barbie pink, which is great if you are putting Barbies in the box, but not so good if you are putting fossils in.  I painted it white and it looks much better and actually means you can see the fossils now since it is much brighter inside the box.  I know the box still looks a little pink in the photos, but that is just a reflection of the red shirt I was wearing when I took the photos.

And on top of the other bookshelf I put some of my dolls.  I'm not really a doll kind of person, but these are special to me as they were mostly collected when we traveled through Europe when I was a child and a few were given to me by my Grandmother from her travels.  I had all my dolls out before and it just looked cluttered, so I've decided to only display three at a time and have the rest in a little vintage suitcase nearby so I can change them up when the mood strikes me.

I centred the tall dresser on the wall across from the bed and put my favourite painting done by my Grandmother on it.

The ceiling light was dreadful and had to be replaced.  We toyed around with a number of options and in the end chose our second favourite.  We didn't go with our first choice because it was only available at a store in downtown Toronto and it cost almost $80 more than this one.  It was also a capiz shell light that looked very similar to the one we chose, but was cream-coloured rather than gray.  We figured that since the walls were gray the gray capiz shells would look fine and they do.  

The ceiling light doesn't cast much light so I also bought another light to go on the dresser near our bed.  I chose a silver mercury glass lamp from HomeSense to add some sparkle.

Do you love Queen Anne's Lace like I do - I think it is such a pretty flower/weed so I put some on the dresser.

Let's see the before and after photos - they are always fun!

And after ...

I had to show you all the details, because it took so long to do that I wanted to share everything with you.  If you want to see more details about how the bedroom looked before you can read this post.  All the effort was totally worth it as we are enjoying the new room!

Linked to WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style,
The Creative Spark at Clean & Scentsible,
Tutorials, Tips, and Tidbits at Stone Gable,
Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence,
DIY Link Party at Funky Junk Interiors,
Before and After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick,
Tutorials & Tips Link Party at Home Stories A to Z

Let's Discuss our Bedroom Problems

Now that I'm getting close to finishing our bedroom (yeah I know, slow or what) I'm going to show you the "before" photos and what needed to be done to get this bedroom to start acting like the calm peaceful organized retreat it is supposed to be.  It is a little embarrassing to show you these photos as the bedroom was a hot mess. I had already started to take one of the bookshelves out of the bedroom when I took the photo below so some of the things had already been moved around, but to be honest it wasn't really a very organized place at the best of times.

So let's have a look at the problem areas and discuss:
1. The eyebrow window - aka the bane of my existence.  There is a streetlight outside of our bedroom window and we aren't the best sleepers so we needed to have good light coverage on the windows and the eyebrow window made it very difficult to figure out a good arrangement.  I had cut some foam-core boards to fit the arched window and that blocked out the light. My original plan was to cover the foam-core board in material to match the drapes, but in the end we came up with a better plan - a much, much better plan.
2.  The drapes - I thought going wide would be good, but instead it always just looked like a wall of material, the drapes were hard to slide because they were hung using the tabs along the top, and the curtain rod anchors were coming out of the wall.  Yikes.
3.  The bookcases - There were two bookcases side-by-side that you can see a tiny bit of on the left side of the photo above.  I will spare you any other pictures of them, but they were crammed with books and the top was piled with boxes and family photos.  In a word - they were messy.
4.  The bed - We have a rather strange bedframe that means the mattress is lower than usual and as you can see it was slightly lower than the trunk we had at the foot of the bed.
5.  Too much furniture and stuff in one room - Enough said!
6.  The messy dresser - It was usually a mess because anything on it (like my jewelry boxes) got moved aside whenever Jonathan needed to use his laptop as that was the only place he had found to get internet access.  
7.  The walls - The darker gray accent wall had been painted about five years ago when I first started work on this room, but life got in the way and then I got onto decorating other rooms so I never finished painting the other walls.  They still had the original thin white (now grubby) builder's paint on them.

8.  The ceiling light - The overhead light (which you can see in the photo above) is a cheapo installed by the builder and needed to be replaced.
So there you have it -  the terrible, no good, horrible disaster of a room.  I'm finishing the last few things on the bedroom today and hope to show you photos tomorrow.  I tell you I'm liking the change.
Update:  See this post if you want to see how the bedroom looks now!