Playing Tourist in My Hometown

I feel fortunate as today it is a gloriously sunny day with a gentle breeze here, while the Eastern seaboard is bracing itself for a monster hurricane. I'm praying that everyone and their pets will be safe and that Irene will somewhat calm herself down before landing on shore.


Two week-ends ago, my family and I took off for Montreal to go to my niece's wedding. The wedding, which took place in the Notre-Dame Basilica in the old part of Montreal, was as lovely as can be, every detail perfect, the bride absolutely gorgeous in a mermaid dress, the bridesmaids in sexy purple and the groom and groomsmen in tuxes and Converse shoes. Yes, Converse shoes. Totally funky! I loved it. The priest even made mention of it in his talk to the bride and groom, saying that married life was an obstacle course and you needed to be prepared.


This is the same church where we said our vows 24 years ago, so it was particularly meaningful to us. My niece had been our flowergirl. We felt a bit old...

Notre Dame Basilica

We made an extra long week-end of it and decided to play tourists in Old Montreal on the Friday before the wedding day. 

The details on the older buildings are spectacular.

A mix of old and modern, typical of Montreal.

Don't you just love this garland?

And this Art Deco brass detail, patinaed to perfection?

Un charmant petit bistro...

Even the street signs have an old vibe.

Oozing with charm!

A lot of beautiful boutiques. We almost bought these cute fascinators for the wedding!

A whimsical bronze

Streets of cobblestones that have been standing the test of time!

Street performers add to the local colour.

Eye catching door colour!

If you ever think of visiting Montreal, here are a few ways you can get around:

A beautiful Vespa. Why not? Very European.

This is a bike renting system called Bixi. You can rent a bicycle very cheaply for 24 hours and return it to any of these handy stations that are set up throughout the city. Very popular.

Here is another mode of transportation in Old Montreal.  Although I'm not a proponent of caleches because you never know how well they take care of the horses (I'm always so concerned about animal welfare), I still thought it made for a beautiful picture.

You can take the "metro"(subway).

This very Art Nouveau metro entrance is an exact replica of the ones in Paris, donated by, who else, Paris!

Closeup detail of the metro entrance. Gorgeous!

And, of course, like us, you can simply walk and take it all in:

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of my beloved Old Montreal. 

Words to Live By

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

What a beautiful quote full of sincerity from Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), the Opposition party of the Canadian Government. Jack Layton passed away yesterday at the age of 61, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Even though Canadians tend to be somewhat liberal to conservative and the NDP is more on the left, Jack Layton managed to carve a good slice of the votes at the last federal elections. He was well loved and well respected by all.

He wrote a beautiful letter to Canadians before passing away. The above quote is how he concluded his letter. I can't help but think that a dying man must be graced with a certain wisdom and clarity of mind that the rest of us just don't possess, in order to write such beautiful words. 

So today, as flags all over the country are flying at half-mast in his honour, let's take a moment to remember the words of a bright, passionate and determined man and try to live by them. Wouldn't they make a good mantra?

Little Time Wasters

I haven't been blogging much this summer. Firstly, I'm still trying to get the house organized after our move in April, secondly, well, I'm trying to enjoy summer, and thirdly...

These little guys are keeping me busy!

I volunteer once a week as a receptionist at our local Humane Society. I also foster pregnant Moms and their kittens. We have had several litters so far, but this is the first one at this house. And although I had decided to postpone taking any more litters in order to get the house organized, it is kitten season and the shelter was overrun, and so these little guys and their Mama arrived at our house June 16 at 10 days old. Mama is a young cat, barely 8 months old when she gave birth, so she was rather stressed out about the whole thing and not nursing very well. But once she got settled in at our house, she slowly caught on with the whole process and eventually became a very good mom. I keep them downstairs in the laundry room, which is spacious, fairly indestructible and kitten proof.

These moms are usually strays or abandoned cats. The shelter finds foster homes for them so that they can be more relaxed and so that the kittens can grow up in a home environment to get socialized.

 This litter has 5 kittens: 3 boys, 2 girls

See this little grey and white one hiding under the brown tabby? He's the cutest little runt. He's about one third the size of the others, but he's feisty and scrappy and always the first one at the feeding bowl. And he has the sweetest disposition! Love!

Here he is again!

This one is a little girl who looks like her Mama.

Here's the sweet little one looking at water for the first time. Doesn't know what to make of it!

First time eating. Love the feet right in the bowl! They are 5 weeks old at this stage. At about the same time they start eating solids, they start using the litter box. Before that Mama cleans everything. They master the litter box remarkably fast!

Taking a little rest, all curled up together. How cozy!

And there's Mama. Her name is Mabel. I haven't come up with names yet for the little ones! Mabel had a very irresponsible owner who let her roam outside before she was spayed and now it becomes our problem to deal with.

This little one is all grey except for the white tips of his 4 paws!

This is the other little girl.

So tired after playing!

I spend a lot of time feeding them, cleaning the litter boxes, the food dishes, the floor, etc. But really I spend the most time just watching their antics! They run, they jump, they pounce, they climb, they do flips and somersaults, they wrestle and generally just practice doing big cat things. So much time wasted watching them play!

After doing this for a few years, you'd think I would be blasé about the whole thing, but not at all. Each time I get a new litter, I'm awed by the whole experience. And when the time comes to say good-bye, when they are 8 weeks old and ready to be adopted, I have mixed feelings: I won't miss all the hard work, but I am at this point attached to everyone of them and I blubber like a baby shed a tear or two on the way to the shelter and again when I say good-bye to them and Mama. (Mama then gets spayed and is also put up for adoption.) But I console myself with the fact that our shelter has very high standards of care, it is a no kill shelter and, because I'm there once a week, I may get to see them again before they each go to their forever home, and then get to hear their happy tail story about who adopted them, etc. And I also console myself thinking about how much joy they will bring to somebody else!

And this is the part where I do like Bob Barker and tell you to get your pets spayed and neutered!

Cool Dinner on a Hot Day

The weatherman announced that today was going to be a record day for heat. Right at this moment, with the humidity factor, it's like 116 Farenheit or 47 Celsius. Yikes! Today is definitely a good day for a cold dinner.

To stay hydrated, I am planning to whip up a pitcher of agua fresca, which is a cool Mexican drink of water, sugar, ice and fruit:

The starter course will be a bowl of gazpacho with perhaps a dollop of light sour cream. This vegetable cold soup is so tasty and refreshing, full of nutrients and very low in fat.

Photo credit: Andre Baranowsk

The main course will be this cold poached salmon with a cucumber dill sauce from cooks.com, served with a mixed green salad. This is one of my favourite ways to serve salmon!

To finish off, perhaps a fruit salad or some lemon sherbert, or, since this is such a virtuously low fat, low cal meal, a nice trip to DQ for a soft serve cone!

Photo credit: Dairy Queen

Stay cool my friends!

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!