Some Birthday Wishes

This week-end, two great nations, two great friends who share the longest border in the world, celebrate their birthdays. We are lucky to be living in these two beautiful countries, where freedom prevails, where we have rights, where we can speak and speak up and be heard, where we have a chance to become anything we want and succeed at everything.

So, on this beautiful summer week-end, let's get together with family and friends, fire up the barbecues, whip up some strawberry shortcake and raise a toast to celebrate our two great countries!

Animations provided by MySpaceAnimations.com

Have a great long week-end, everyone!

The Enchanted Bench

You see this gorgeous Kilim bench below?

It was a wonderful giveaway from Tina of The Enchanted Home and Safavieh Home a little while back.

Well, guess what! This gorgeous, stunning thang is now IN MY HOUSE! That's right, I was the winner! I was in shock!

Tina and the folks over at Safavieh bent over backwards to get the bench shipped to me here in Canada and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. I am so grateful! 

The bench was delivered yesterday and it is stunning: the texture and neutral tones of the kilim fabric make this bench a very versatile piece and I love, love, love the unfinished turned legs on wheels. I don't know where it will end up in my house, I'm thinking perhaps the side entrance, which is kind of the mudroom. There's a little nook there where it fits in perfectly, but I would like to put a beadboard backing to add contrast and visual interest. When we finalize the look, I will certainly post some pictures.

Again, thank you Tina and Safaview Home! Make sure you visit Tina's gorgeous blog, and Safavieh's website to see their fantastic furniture selection (and yes, they ship to Canada!). You can also visit them on Facebook.

My Garden Tour Part II

Good morning! Blogger has updated its picture uploading feature and I like it a lot more! I was able to upload all the photos I wanted all at once. Progress!

So let me continue taking you on my garden tour, since I can't take you on a house tour, things are not organized up to my standards just yet. In any case, it's summer, it's too nice to be spending time in the house cleaning and organizing, don't you agree?

Here's a peaceful little oasis in our backyard. My husband wanted to leave this bench at the old house and I said, "What for?" Glad I didn't listen to him, it looks so nice here.

Now here is a strange container. Before the renos, the house had an old, useless, indoor barbecue that was probably not safe. We had the whole thing taken down to replace it with a bank of pantry cupboards. Now this indoor barbecue was topped with a copper vent. Imagine this empty, turned around and hanging from the ceiling. (Unfortunately, I can't find the before pic!) Not wanting to throw away a piece of copper, I asked the demolishing crew to put it aside. I was going to sell it to a metal scrapper, until I had a divine inspiration. Turn it into a planter! I like the fact that I can keep it as a piece of the house's history. It needs polishing to restore its shine and I am planning to put a curlicue wood decoration at the front to dress it up a bit.

Now this was the barbecue door! Again, I thought it was too pretty to scrap, so it is now in the garden. My friend thinks it looks hideous and keeps trying to get me to throw it out, but I don't want to and it's my house, so there, lol! 

Again, I like the fact that it's part of the house's history.

The heart shaped curlicues of the barbecue door are echoed in this half-moon garden gate. Beyond the gate is the golf course where the blue heron sometimes swoops in and where the goose family lives. Such peacefulness!

 More of those lovely columbines I so adore. This variety is called "Pink Swan". 

They remind me of little ballerinas.

 Honeysuckle growing near the gate. Love this pink-orangey-yellow!

We now move to the front, where this little red weigelia is in full bloom. It contrasts 

nicely against the blue salvia.

No idea what these purple flowers are, but love 'em!

Now we're back in the backyard, where I am in the midst of creating a rosebed. I'm a huge fan of roses, always loved them, always will. Isn't this colour wonderful?

And for the grand finale, a perfect pink rose with a little drop of dew.

I swear I didn't stage this, Mother Nature did!

Hope you enjoyed my little garden tour! I'll update it as it evolves throughout the summer.

My Garden Tour Part I

I thought I would welcome summer (I know, it's not here officially yet, but I can't wait any longer) by taking you on a wee tour of my garden. As you know, we have recently moved and this is a new garden for me. I am slowly discovering its beauty and learning how to tend it according to light and so on. The garden was for the most part professionally landscaped a few years back, and while it is beautifully done and symmetrical and all that, I find it is a little too perfect in spots, particularly at the front, so I am slowly going to remedy that by putting my own touches to reflect my likes. Also, the landscaping was done in such a way as to provide a low maintenance garden, which has its value, but I happen to like gardening, so finding myself just trimming a few bushes and pulling a few weeds leaves me wanting more.

So, without further ado...

This is a view of the side of the house. It is a very shady spot thanks to several serviceberry trees. I missed taking a picture of them when they were in full bloom (I had lost my memory card). I was lucky enough however to catch the bridal bush shrub in bloom:

Here is the lovely wrought iron gate entrance to the backyard:

This is a pretty flower called Snow-In-Summer, growing along the rock retaining wall:

This charming plant is a native woodland flower called Solomon's Seal that thrives in the shade and is supposed to have healing properties:

A friend told me that these were Dutchman's breeches, a plant with the most adorable flowers that look, as its name implies, like little pantaloons flowing in the breeze on a clothesline. However a little research revealed that these were Solomon's Seal rather, but they are somewhat similar.

And finally, one of my added touches, with more to come, columbines:

I adore columbines, I find them at once complex and cheerful, elegant and whimsical. Definitely not boring. One of my all time favourites.

Now I would have liked to show you more of my garden, but blogger is not letting me upload more pictures. That's very mean. That's why I'm calling this post Part I. I will be back with part II and maybe parts III and IV, depending on how many pics blogger lets me upload!

Have a lovely day everyone!

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!