WISH Wednesday #49

To my mind, fall decorating is all about golds and oranges and natural woods, so this dining room seemed perfect for a WISH Wednesday photo.  I love the light wood against the gray walls with the orange chandelier and flowers.  I'm not sure I would ever buy such a daring chandelier in case I got tired of the colour, but I love it in this room.

Martha Stewart

Have you started decorating for fall yet?  

Rubbermaid Lunchblox Giveaway

I take my lunch to work every day so when I was contacted by Rubbermaid to try out their new lunchbloxes I was all for it. I'm always looking for ways to make lunchtime more interesting, easier to pack, and healthier. The magic of these lunch boxes really became apparent when I started using them.  

So let's see how good they are:
1) They are very compact because they are rectangular blocks and all the pieces snap together.  Just picture Rubbermaid and Lego getting together and having a baby.  Not only do you have lots of compartments for different parts of your lunch, but they all snap together like a set of lunchtime Lego blocks.

2) They have a specially made cooler block that snaps onto the lunch containers.  Our schools are not air conditioned so they are often very hot in June and September and food can spoil quickly in those conditions.  The cooler pack is a brilliant idea!
3)  There are two sizes of containers.  One is designed for sandwiches and the other for salads - perfect for a little lunchtime variety.

4)  I love the slew of tiny containers that come with each kit so you can bring salad dressing or pieces of cheese or yogurt for lunch as well.  I recently found out that the packaging for individual containers of yogurt are not recyclable in our area.  I have been making an effort to decant yogurt from a big container into a little one so my lunches are more environmentally-friendly and these containers are perfect for this.

Sandwich Lunchblox kit

5.  I love that there are measurement guides on the containers which help with portion control.  
6.  I love the colours - I'm a blue and green girl so these are a natural choice.

Salad Lunchblox kit

Not only was I given some Rubbermaid Lunchbloxes to try, but I have some to give away as well.  One lucky person will win the following:

• two Rubbermaid Lunchblox salad kits
• two Rubbermaid Lunchblox sandwich kits

That's a total of about a $50 value and years worth of yummy lunch toting.   Here are the giveaway details:

• The prize is only eligible if you live in Canada   
• To enter just leave a comment below (and please leave an email address so I can contact you if your name is drawn).  
• The contest ends on Tuesday, September 25th at 9:00 pm.

I can't leave you without sharing my one and only lunch packing tip.
When you make muffins or cupcakes to pack with your lunch the icing can get all over everything.  So instead of icing the top, you should split the cupcake or muffin in half and put the icing in the middle like a sandwich filling.  Brilliant, eh?  
Oh, and if these carrot cupcakes have you drooling, you can find the recipe here.  
Do you have any great lunch packing tips?

My Mad Plaid Blue Fall Tablesetting

I've been mad for plaid these past few weeks.  I just love how cozy and warm it seems - perfect for fall and winter.  I wrote about my desire to purchase something plaid for the house on Design Mom and I wanted to show you how my plaid obsession played out in our dining room.
I found this plaid fabric at the thrift store for $3.50 and it was 50% off so ...  it didn't cost me very much, but it set the mood I was envisioning.

I love blue and yellow/orange together - they are such a good compliment for each other.  I used our orange glass pumpkin in the centre of the table along with some yellowy-gold flowers that I found growing wild along a fence.  

I used teal dinner plates and added the bread and butter plates I got at the thrift store recently.  Aren't the orange and blue flowers perfect.

Have you ever used blue for your fall decorating?  It is a little out of the box, but I love it.

Linked to Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality,
Fall Table Decorating Idea Link Party at The Lettered Cottage,
WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style,
Power of Pinterest Pinning Party at Debbiedoo's,
Fall Decorating at The Inspired Room

I Heart Map Wall Art

What do you get for someone who is getting married for the second time, already has a home, and has requested that donations be made in lieu of gifts?  Well, I guess, technically you just give a donation, but given the circumstances my sister and I wanted to do something more personal.
My youngest sister passed away from breast cancer two years ago (you can read my tribute to her here) and her husband has met someone new.  From all reports his fiance sounds like a gem.  It isn't easy accepting the previous wife's family and she has been wonderfully kind and generous to us all.  I couldn't be happier for my brother-in-law and am looking forward to meeting his fiance and celebrating their wedding this weekend out in Winnipeg.  
Unfortunately my other sister is not well and won't be able to attend the wedding.  I know my brother-in-law and his fiance don't want people giving them lots of gifts given that they have both been married before, but I wanted to help my sister who can't attend the wedding feel like she is celebrating the event too.  

After some consideration we decided to make the new couple some map wall art.  You can see some examples here, here and here.  The cost was minimal and it really is a personal gift.  
We printed off maps from the internet that reflected where the new couple met and live and the two places they have visited together.

We traced a heart-shaped cookie cutter onto the maps and cut them out.  Then we attached them using double-sided tape onto some linen cloth and framed them.

This is just a little way we can show that we are pleased with the new marriage and wish them well.

WISH Wednesday #48

I've had a busy couple of weeks since returning from Nova Scotia and still haven't found time to finish the rest of my blog posts about our trip - coming soon.  However I'm now off to Winnipeg for a wedding this weekend so that was my inspiration for this week's WISH Wednesday photo.  Nothing like travelling from the ocean two weeks ago to the prairies this weekend.
I wanted a room that reminded me of the prairies and yet wasn't too far over into the log walls, leather furniture, and cowhides camp.  This living room evokes the prairies to me through the golden leather chairs, the golden fields in the painting on the mantel, the soft yellow-orange wall colour, the wood shelves and furniture, and lots of animal references (the faux goat head, the photos of animals on the shelves, and the dog fabric on the footstool).  I think the golden yellow-orange is a lovely colour, but not one I would immediately think to use in a living room.  It reminds me of butternut squash and golden trembling aspen leaves in the fall - both lovely images.  Does this room remind you of the prairies?

BHG

Would you use such a daring colour in your living room?  I would have to have a lifelong love affair with the colour to use it in such a prominent place.