The Upside of Down

After resolving a number of issues, to which I have to add the hot water heater breaking down a couple of days ago, our ensuite throne needing new parts and an ant problem, we are somewhat settling in our new house. There is still some chaos, still some boxes unpacked, I am still trying to "decrapify" and organize, but I'm slowly making headways. I'm hoping to be able to hold a garage sale in the next couple of weeks to get rid of all our unwanted junk, that is if weather permits, as it has been so wet this past month! I'm also finding I can't put my decorating accessories in quite the same spots in this house and I have to figure out where to put everything, which means moving things around until they are visually pleasing. This process is not as unpleasant however, it's like trying to accessorize an outfit! I'm trying hard not to buy new things and "shopping at home" instead, meaning using what I already have.

I knew however that we were home when I spotted this gorgeous creature in the golf course behind our house:

A blue heron!

And a few minutes later, this cute family of Canada geese:

Quite a sight, isn't it? Suddenly, all the apprehensions and all the doubts I had felt about moving melted away and I felt so serene! This made up for all the nonsense we went through. To be able to enjoy a little slice of nature in our backyard is truly a godsend. (If you read this older post, you'll see how we can appreciate this backyard soooo much more!)

We found an old cupola detached from its base on top of the garage. The wood is rotten, so we can't put it back on, but I found a company in the next town that makes cupolas, so I am really excited to get that feature back on the house. And this gorgeous blue heron inspired me: I am going to top it with a blue heron weathervane!

A Toast!

Today, I'd like to celebrate the success of some fellow bloggers: Rashon over at Mr. Goodwill Hunting and Kristin over at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia.

I want to congratulate Rashon on appearing not once, but twice so far on the Nate Berkus Show! Rashon has an amazing flair for picking out gorgeous pieces at thrift stores and creating wonderful decors out of other people's discarded items. Bet you if people saw how he transformed their rejects into such elegance and glam, they would think twice about tossing them out! I myself have been known to hit a thrift store or two and doing some "curbside shopping" (I will post someday about some of the curbside items I have picked up), but my picks compared to Rashon's were no-brainers, whereas he has a talent for seeing the hidden potential. He also has a gift for television and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more of Rashon as time goes by. Congrats on your success, Rashon!

Now, today, over at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Kristin shared with us the good news that her DYI kitchen is featured in Better Homes and Gardens Kitchen and Bath Ideas magazine! Wow, this is what the power of blogging can do! Kristin is at once resourceful and talented and this wonderful combination allows her to decorate her house in the most elegant manner on a budget. Her DIY projects go beyond the sanding and lick of spray painting that I do, we're talking about major renovations here! I greatly admire this ability in people as I have a lot of great ideas, but it is hard to implement them when you're on a budget and have limited skills.

So I raise my glass to these two wonderful bloggers and I hope that like me you all share in their success!

A hiatus from the hiatus

We now interrupt this hiatus to bring you this breaking news.

I'm way too busy to be blogging, but I just felt compelled to pour my heart on about how the move is going.

The move itself went somewhat well, the movers were polite, hard working and careful. Nonetheless, both our daughters' Ikea desks didn't survive the move, because they're assembled with cheap wooden pegs...

I'm still in the midst of trying to find everything and organizing, the kitchen pantry still isn't finished so I have boxes of food just sitting in the kitchen, it's chaos in every room, there's no window treatment other than the plastic table cloths from Dollarama we pinned up (très chic!). We discovered we have waaaaaay too much crap, even the movers said so (that must be a bad thing, because they move crap for a living! To quote ThriftyDecorChick who coined the term, we MUST decrapify!)

There's only one official phone jack in the whole house and there is no cable for TV!!?!! Were these people AMISH? Well, no, there was satellite cable but there's no way we're going satellite. So the cable company couldn't hook up the service on this call. We have to book another call so that they can wire the house from scratch....No TV, how will I live? The Good Wife and Parenthood had these great cliffhangers, Glee finally came back after a hiatus, Aaaaargh! (I know, I know, I can watch online. It's just that I'm frustrated.) At least the wireless Internet is working. Imagine otherwise no TV AND no Internet? Kill me now. (Yes, I'm supposed to be unpacking, but a girl needs a break now and then.)

But here's the kicker: there's a leak from the shower in the main bathroom coming through our brand new kitchen ceiling and potlight. Yaaaaaaaay!!! Cue fanfare music.

And we can't use the master ensuite shower because the grout is cracked and, well, we don't want any(more) water damage. I have a call in with a tiler to install a new shower tile floor, but in the meanwhile...

So as a result of all this, my whole family hates me because I'm the one who wanted to move. At least the cat and the dog seem fairly content. As long as they have food, they don't care.

I know that in a few months, when the dust settles, everyone will see the method to my madness, but right now, not so much, lol!

On the bright side, in the part of the kitchen where the pantry is going, there is no ceiling and my drywall guy is in these days to finish that. He will be able to fix the ceiling once the leak is repaired.

And we do have another shower in the basement. Not all is lost. Just darn inconvenient!

Well, thanks for letting me unload. Back on hiatus to deal with the whole mess!

A Little Hiatus

We are moving to our new (to us) house on Monday the 18th! As you can imagine, things are hectic as I am trying to pack and organize here and finish the renos there. I won't bore you with the details, but we had a major roofing issue that slowed things down to a grinding halt (aaah, the joys of home ownership!) until today when it finally (and hopefully) got resolved, which will then allow for the final touches in the kitchen to be done. Yaaaay!! Can't wait to be in and using my new kitchen and my new appliances. Who knows, I may even become a decent cook!

At least the weather has been fantastic, so it really motivates me to get things done. I hope it holds off until moving day!

I am planning to show you how things look after we're moved in. Although a great deal of work has been done, it will be a work in progress as far as decorating goes, as you know, a house is never done!

So in order to concentrate on this,

I am taking a couple of weeks off blogging and planning to return in full force once we're somewhat settled in.

À bientôt!

There are ducks in my pool!

I'm a follower of Sherry's blog, Annie's cupboard. She moved to a new place recently and has been delighting us with the saga of the ducks nesting in her backyard and the sweet duckling pictures she posted.

Well, lo and behold, yesterday I had my own little duck adventure. Check out this lovely couple who decided to take a break and frolic in the mucky waters of our unopened pool:

Aren't they sweet? I'm sure they're in the midst of mating season. As attested by the bubbly swirls in the water, the drake kept spinning around playfully while his "wife" just watched, while undoubtedly thinking to herself: "What a goof!".

They swam around for about half an hour, then gracefully flew away to continue the rest of their "honeymoon" elsewhere.

Featured Etsy Seller: 3dots

In my spare time, I like to design and sell jewelry as attested by the link to La Belle Poire, my little Etsy shop, on the right of this blog. While I enjoy jewelry making tremendously, I'm still relatively new at it and I realize when I visit other Etsy shops that I still have oodles to learn about design, marketing, selling, etc. My little shop is very modest in comparison.

One particular Etsy shop that really grabbed my attention was Lucie Veilleux's 3dots, so much so that I HAD to buy one of her fabulous creations:

Isn't it lovely?

And look how pretty her packaging was:

A nice touch!

Here are other spectacular items from her shop:

Not only is she extremely creative, she has great craftsmanship! Her pieces have great symmetry and are impeccably finished. They are earthy, organic, yet elegant. I love how she created a special and unique style and niche that are truly her own.

While it may seem counterproductive for me to feature someone else's jewelry, I find it helps me grow creatively to observe and appreciate other people's work.

Are you tempted yet? You can visit her shop at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/3dots?ref=seller_info

Earth Hour!!

Tonight, my family and I are staying in and making it a game night tonight in honour of Earth Hour. We will start with Scrabble by candlelight and take it from there.

Sure makes a nice change from watching the boob tube! How are you spending Earth Hour?

Winter is back, progress at the house and a surprise in the mail!

Last week I blogged about the arrival of spring and how wonderful it was, blah, blah, blah. And yesterday, we were back to this:

Aaaaargh, my poor daffodils are going to freeze! And no, daffodils is not a euphemism for my buns...although they are freezing too.

Oh well, onward and upward, let the great spring thaw begin (again)!

There's been progress at the new-to-us house we are renovating. The official move-in date is April 18th.

We had the stuffy, cramped closets removed in the master bedroom, and behind the wall beside it was the closet to the room next to the master's, a tiny, useless bedroom. A friend of mine convinced me to turn it into a walk-in closet and I, in turn, convince hubby too. He didn't take much convincing as it makes complete sense. It is a much more efficient use of space. And we left the door to the tiny bedroom up, so it could, if need be, be turned into a nursery by future buyers (way, way, way down the line. I don't plan on moving again any time soon!). Anyhoo, here's the master bedroom with the closet removed. The door was the closet door in the tiny bedroom.

Here's a peek from the other side of the door in the tiny bedroom:

And here are the Pax closet components we bought on sale back in January for the walk-in closet, getting ready to be assembled:

Can't wait to show you the finished result!

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the light fixture over the island is finally up:

Don't you just love the bling? It's girly, but not too girly. Just a little touch of glam!

And to brighten up that lousy snow day we had yesterday, my Silhouette SD finally arrived. :^)

You might recall I ordered it a while back, following a discount offered through the DIY yourself Showoff blog.

I don't know which one I was more excited about, the Silhouette or the box it came in, cause when you're moving, boxes are at a premium!!

Unfortunately, I'm so busy right now, what with packing, overseeing the renovating, working, etc., that I won't have time to play with it for the time being. I have also had to put my jewelry making on hold and I'm dying to get back to it, but not until we are settled in the new house.

Ciao for now!

SO LONG, BEAUTIFUL STAR...

It's official!!

I don't need a calendar to tell me it's spring. Instead, I rely on these cuties:

To me, the return of the robins from the south heralds the beginning of spring. And today I saw my first ones happily chirping in the trees! Lo and behold, it also happened to be a nice, warm sunny day and to boot, the tulips were even starting to peek! JOY!

There's no pick-me-up quite like the first signs of spring, don't you think?

A thousand cranes for Japan

Image from Japan Visitor Blog

I think I speak for everyone by saying how saddened and shocked we are about the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami that occurred in Japan.

I am linking you over to Flora & Purl's touching post about the origins of Zenbazuru, or a thousand origami cranes; I felt the story she describes was very touching and seemed most appropriate for these circumstances.

Waiting for my Silhouette

No, not my physical silhouette, I gave up on that a long time ago! This Silhouette:

I discovered the Silhouette SD through Roeshel's fantastic blog, the DIY Showoff, when she had her giveaway and showed us all of this device's wonderful applications. I AM TOTALLY AWED BY ITS AWESOMENESS!

With it, you can make stuff like this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And so much more!

Awesome, right?

Roeshel, who's so well connected (lol) was giving one away, but alas, I didn't win (curses!). However, again because of Roeshel being so well connected, there was a discount offered through her blog, and I took advantage of it and I'm thankful to her for the great deal. I am now awaiting my wonderful machine and I can't wait to start using it. I have a million projects and ideas and I am going to use it till one of us runs of breath and it ain't gonna be me!

For example I have only one bare wall in our new kitchen and it's a silly rounded wall where it is impossible to hang a picture or a frame. This is a perfect application for a vinyl decal. I'm thinking of putting a clever cooking related quote there. And the frosted vinyl is also ideal for windows where more privacy is needed without losing the light.

The Silhouette is also helpful for card making and scrapbooking. It's a great little multitasker!

I can't wait to show you my creations! (Ahem, provided of course that I can figure out the technology!)

Vinegar pie? Oh my!

Sharon Santoni over at My French Country Home posted today about what looks like a fabulicious lemon tart.

This put me in mind of a very unusual dessert I had last summer, vinegar pie. Yes, you heard right. A pie made of vinegar. It sounds like an oxymoron. How can vinegar be associated with something sweet? Isn't vinegar just used on fish & chips and for cleaning, you might say?

We visited Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford museum last summer and ate at the lovely Eagle Tavern. I had no plan to have dessert but the words Vinegar Pie caught my eye. Intrigued, I asked the waiter about it and he explained that it was created out of a sense of necessity. In pioneer days, during harvest season and beyond, when fruits were abundant, so were desserts. However, after a few months of winter and with spring not so close in sight, the fruit supplies would run dry and folks would run out of ingredients for dessert. Some very ingenious person somehow who probably only had vinegar and a few other things left in their cupboard figured out how to make pie out of it!

(This is also how sugar pies were created. Sugar pie is a specialty in Quebec and other parts of the world, and I make it but at Christmas only, as it is too rich to have on a regular basis.)

Back to the vinegar pie, needless to say, I had to order a piece at the Eagle Tavern. I mean, you have to try everything once, right?

To my surprise, it was very good. While you can really taste the vinegar, it has the taste, the tartness and the consistency of a lemon pie and it's quite refreshing.

Who knew?

More info about my awesome sugar creamer set

Thank you all for your comments on my sugar creamer set post of yesterday.

Vonlipi steered me in the right direction by pointing out that the L stood for Libbey glass. From there, a little research revealed that this is from a line called Libbey Rock Sharpe (Rock Sharpe was a co. that Libbey acquired), and the pattern is aqua pinecone. I'm still trying to determine the year this pattern was issued. I'm guesstimating in the 40's?

I have seen coffee cups and drinking glasses in the same pattern on Ebay and such.

And then Vintage Christine posted about her wonderful matching coffee carafe over at her blog, a sight to behold!

We should get our glassware together and have a coffee break!

Question to all my thrifting buddies

I was out thrifting yesterday and found this incredible set of sugar and creamer. I did some research and found that a company called David Douglas produced glass items such as carafes with the same pattern, aqua and gold pinecones. However, I could not find an identical sugar & creamer set. Furthermore, I am puzzled by the fact that the only marking at the bottom is a stylized L in a circle, like a handwritten L, which leads me to think they might be from a different manufacturer perhaps?

I

If anyone knows anything about this sugar and creamer set, please do share your wisdom with me. Regardless, I think it's an awesome set and I can already see it on a Thanksgiving tablescape, with my Pyrex gold acorn dish and perhaps a butterprint Pyrex!

Give credit where credit is due

I must set the record straight. The lovely Jo from Secret Garden Cottage, bless her heart, thought I made these gorgeous cards that were featured on my post of two days ago:

I wish! No, I shamelessly uploaded the picture onto my blog because I thought it was so pretty. I am new at this blogging thing and not quite familiar with all the blogging etiquette, but I realize I have to give credit where credit is due. These cards are in fact from this lovely Etsy shop.

And her cards are so pretty that her shop is presently sold out! But please, to relieve my guilty conscience, lol, do visit her shop now and again and perhaps buy her incredible cards! I know I'm adding her to my favourite shops!

As an Etsy shop owner myself, I work hard and I know I would want to be credited for my work.

Have a great day all!

P.S. I now have 10 followers! Although it is a modest number compared to some of you, I am still proud, pleased and humbled that even one person wants to read me!

Happy Hearts Day!

Just a quick hello to wish all my followers and visitors Happy Valentine's Day!

I have mixed feelings about this holiday. I don't like the fact that it is made up and commercial, and I don't feel like I should be made to spend $6 on a Hallmark card and chocolates to express my love. By the same token, I'm a hopeless romantic, I love pink, red, hearts, lace and chocolates.

Solution? Give handmade cards and crafts, to me they are more of an expression of love, because you took the time to create something for the ones you love.

Also, don't limit your love to just one day: celebrate love in every form and every way every day of the year!