Welcome Elizabeth from Blue Clear Sky

I'm excited to have Elizabeth from Blue Clear Sky doing a guest post today.  I met Elizabeth early on in my blogging career when she recognized where one of my pictures was taken and emailed.  We soon realized that not only do we work in the same town but we live fairly close to each other and we even know some of the same people in the community.  Small world, eh?  If you haven't been over to Elizabeth's blog, then hop on over to get to know her better, read about her amazing sons, see her lovely patio and garden, and read about all the things she has been doing in her house, especially her family room.


Thank you, Elizabeth, for doing a guest post today.

**********************

My friend Grace at Sense and Simplicity has invited me to do a post for her summer series of Mondays’ guest posts. She sent some great questions to choose from and I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about me. Thanks Grace!




What inspires you more - the mountains or the ocean?

The mountains! I have always been attracted to movies, art and design with a mountain or rocky setting. I'm very fond of rustic. I love rocks and trees. I love the textures and colours. Growing up we spent a lot of time in the outdoors in Northern Ontario and I think that has a lot to do with it. Even better would be a lake in the mountains. I love inland lake beaches. The HGTV dream home is always in my inspiration file. I love the building structure, the scenery and many of the decor choices.

Images: HGTV DREAM HOME 2009

If you could choose would you like a personal assistant, a personal chef, a gardener, or a chauffeur?

Definitely a personal chef! I like to dabble in my garden and it is on the small side, so no personal gardener needed here. Organizing is near and dear to my heart, so no personal assistant required. I drive all the time, to work and travelling with the family and actually chuckle at friends who avoid the 400 series highways here in Ontario. But a chef would be a dream. I would love to have someone tailor a healthy menu for us and cook great food all the time.

What are 3 colours you love and do you have them in both your home and your wardrobe?


I really believe the old advice that says to look to your closet to see what colours, and often textures, you can live with comfortably in your home. My three favourite colours are blue, blue and blue. Oh, three different colours. Do white, off white, black, tan and brown count? Of course I have other colours in my closet, some pink, red, and greens, but blue, black and white are predominant. Lots of shades of blue. If I was to translate the materials of the items in my closet to my home it would be denim, cotton, twill, and leather. I'm a casual kind of girl!

Image: Wrangler

Image: Buffalo jeans

If you could live in a house anywhere in the world for one month - where would it be and what type of house?


A beautiful Timber Frame home in the west. Timber Frame is my favourite architectural style. I would love to have one built one day and fill it with all kinds of leather and wood and white. I would love to spend a month on a working ranch in Alberta or Montana. My kids and hubby could do the work though, I would just soak up all the beauty and maybe mess around with some baking in the kitchen. Or The Pioneer Woman's home and ranch! Farm animals, a lodge and a dream kitchen all in one.

 Above 2 images: The Pioneer Woman

If you could have one decorator help you work on your house who would it be and why?

Sarah Richardson, and her budget of course! I would love her help in getting the look I want in our home. Sort of a rustic lakeside farmhouse feel. Phew, that was a mouthful! I really admire both her Georgian Bay cottage and the farmhouse in the Collingwood/southern Georgian Bay area. Partly because both of those locations are near and dear to us. I also love that both those homes have a collected feel and are not showroom matchy. I adore quilts and pine furniture and always have.

If you could fill your home with furniture from only one store, what store would it be?


I would love to shop at Ethan Allen, http://www.ethanallen.com/. Buying one good piece there would be a treat, but to fill my home with furniture from Ethan Allen would be so much fun. I especially like the New Country series.

A friend gave me one of their design catalogs, a book really, and I refer to it often. I also visit their website just for ideas or inspiration. Just for fun, here are some of the pieces I would choose:

Above 4 images: Ethan Allen

What is the oldest item in your home?


Besides hubby and I? ;) Probably an old Canadian sideboard a relative gave to my mom. The inside is really cool, old cherry is my guess. The original little casters are on it, but it could use some new hardware. It was refinished many years ago but I plan to strip it to the original wood and maybe wax it. I like that it is a piece that can be used in different rooms for different uses. It has been in our dining room and family room for baking pan storage and now it's being used as a TV stand. We have upcoming plans for a flat screen and some detail to highlight this area.

Grafton Village Inn Mosaic

A couple of weekends ago, by pure chance, my husband and I found the Grafton Village Inn and what a treasure it is!

The Inn, which is just east of Cobourg, Ontario, originally opened in 1820 and was extensively renovated and restored in 1988.  The decor is beautiful with rich pumpkin walls, quilts, and lovely wooden tables and chairs.  The lunch was fantastic - see I was so thoughtful I even took a photo of it to get your mouth watering - yum - eggs benedict on smoked salmon, fruit and fried potatoes.

I made a mosaic with some of the other photos I took at the Inn.

After lunch we walked around the village of Grafton - I loved this little house with its ochre paint and its bright red back door.  We also stopped to admire the town administrative buildings that had a pretty cupola and the lovely community garden.

What an amazing place to stumble upon and a grand start to our weekend getaway.

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

Friday Photo - Camping in the Rain

The last camping-in-the-rain photo just tickled my funny bone so much that I'm showing you another.  It might even be from the same trip as we all look about the same age.   Don't we look lovely in our matching raincoats.

It sure brings back memories - cold, damp, wet ones - which couldn't be further from the weather this summer, which has been, for the most part, hot and dry.

**************

I'm meeting Susan, of Susan on Design, who is visiting Toronto this week for work.  Susan lives and works in the lovely tiny maritime province of Prince Edward Island and is braving our hot humid weather to attend a buying show for her store Moving Designz Home and Cottage. We have arranged to meet tomorrow and have lunch in the Distillery District in Toronto.   I'm tickled pink to be meeting a real live bloggy friend.   Photos coming soon!

Relaxing Mini-Vacation

My husband and I are empty-nesters this summer for the first time.  We just got back from a lovely, quiet, relaxing 5-day mini-vacation at the cottage.

We both finished 2 books and started on our third and spent our time drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee.  On one of the cooler days, we sat wrapped in blankets reading on the screened porch while the rain came down.   It was heavenly.  I love the sound of a soft rain on the roof.

 Actually that looks a bit more like beer for him and tea for me.  Oh well, still relaxing.

It only rained one day.  We also had some lovely calm weather,

and the loon came by one afternoon.

Of course, I took a ridiculous number of photos, which is loads of fun for me.  I always set myself some silly challenge and then spent hours trying to get the shot.  This time it was to get a picture of a fish jumping out of the water.  Those fish are just too darn fast, is all I can say.  See what I mean...

My aunt and I went on a tour of the cottage country sights in preparation for our french guests coming next week.  It was a lovely afternoon with so many interesting things to see. Photos coming soon.

*****************

Yesterday was my father's 81st birthday - it seems I'm a day behind on everyone's birthday.  Oops.  He is recovering from surgery and doesn't have quite his usual vim and vigour, but it is returning day-by-day.  He does still have his gentle kindness, amazing knowledge of the world, and his quiet patient way, oh, and his love of a good dessert.  We celebrated his birthday tonight with Moroccan Chicken for dinner followed by strawberry shortcake.  Yum!

Happy birthday, Dad!

 
Linked to Friday Finding Beauty at Dipity Road,
FOLK Magazine Submissions at Funky Junk Interiors

Happy 23rd Birthday Malcolm

I'm a bit late with this post, but it was Malcolm's 23rd birthday yesterday and so I'm doing a birthday tribute - better late than never!

This is one of my favourite photos of Malcolm.  It was taken about three years ago when Malcolm was visiting my brother and his family when they lived in Botswana.  My sister-in-law took Malcolm on a day-trip to the village where they had stayed when they had first got to Botswana so they could start to learn the language.  After some visiting, she leaned over to Malcolm and said, "Uh-oh! I think we are being given a chicken.  I'm afraid of chickens - you have to take it."  So Malcolm posed for a photo with this generous woman before taking the chicken.  They brought the chicken back in a cardboard box and gave it to the maid, who of course knew what to do with a live chicken.

Following the tradition I started with my other two children, here are 23 fantastic facts about Malcolm to celebrate his 23rd birthday:

1.  He has an amazing memory for stories, facts, and ideas; he can rattle off the most complex things that he has heard only once.
2.  He is an amazing eater.  Even from a young age he would eat anything I served up to him! I love feeding him as he usually wants seconds of whatever I make (I'm sure it's because I'm such a good cook).
3.  He loves to cook and organize cooking sessions with his sibs.
4.  He is a rambler.  One of his favourite things to do is to walk.  When he was in high school, he and a friend walked into Toronto from our house, not once but twice.  The first time they walked 44 kms and the second time 60 kms.
5.  He has a great heart.   He and his friend  raised $1500 for AIDS victims in Africa by walking into Toronto (see #4).  They were in the newspaper and on the local news and everything.  We were so darn proud.
6. He is a reader. He reads wide and he reads deep.
7.  He is a thinker - about religion, philosophy, literature, history, ideas ...
8.  He has simple tastes.
9.  Strangely, for a young man of simple tastes, he loves to dress up -- jacket and tie for a special dinner or even, as is his custom, for his last exam at the end of term.
10. He is a great judge of character. After all, look at his wonderful choice in fiancée.
11. He is an excellent big brother. He spends mucho time with both his sister and brother, who look up to him and love him dearly. They talk and laugh together by the hour.
12. He loves to travel. He's been coast-to-coast  in Canada, to a dozen states in the US, to the United Kingdom, and to Botswana and South Africa.
13. He is honest.
14. He doesn't care about appearances or social standing.
15.  He is sympathetic and a friend to the underdog.  He is the kind of person who could work happily with the elderly, the poor, the homeless, the handicapped, really anyone who our society deems as different.  He wants to be a high school teacher, so I'm thinking that should work!
16. He is a natural leader. As a camp councillor his campers loved him.
17. He is a hard-worker at school and has done well as a result.
18.  He has a strong faith. He takes the Bible seriously and attends up to three different church services every week.
19. He is good at explaining even very complex ideas.
20. He has a good sense of humour. He regales us with jokes from movies and shows he has seen and funny stories from his friends at camp and university.
21.  He is a coffee connoisseur. Instant will never do!
22.  Before he was a coffee connoisseur, he was a tea connoisseur. Actually, he's a bit of a tea and coffee snob -- and he's infected his sister and brother with his enthusiasm.  Now he's expanded his refined taste to include the best imported beer. He's slowed down by the price, but he gets to share his Dad's well-stocked selection.
23.  He's a fantastic canoeist. He has been on at least half a dozen river canoe trips, ranging from 5 to 12 days in length.  For most of those trips he was the leader, so I guess he knows a thing or two as they all came back alive.

There you go, 23 amazing facts about our wonderful son.

May you have a wonderful year, Malcolm!