You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'decor' category.
I blame Robyn. I dragged her to craft stores and she dragged me to every home store on the Western seaboard. I may have dragged my feet and whined a little. But then I started to realize something. Robyn is a grown up. Grown ups buy things to make their homes presentable to their family and friends. A snotty voice spoke to me. It said: “Hey, guess what Amy? You’re about to turn 29 and you don’t have a decent ware in your ugly house. Your idea of a serving dish is a chipped Ikea 365 dinner plate you got nine years ago. Bravo, dumbass.”
When I arrived at Erin’s the parade of lovely housewares continued. She has every piece of Polish pottery ever glazed.
So, I went with my first instinct and drove to Ikea, which the province of Manitoba is totally devoid of. And I was bored.
And so, I dragged our foursome to a series of antique and thrift shops and a new obsession was born.
It started with the smaller two delphite Pyrex Piecrust pattern plates bought at an antiques store for $16 a piece. Then we found the larger version at Value Village for $5.99. Craziness! Chris’s jadite tea cup and the yellow dish were picked up an antique / junk shop and the white Pyrex side plates were found at the same Value Village for $2.49. We also found a milk glass vase there but I forgot to include it in the photo. The bud vase is from Ikea. Old habits die hard.
I am now in search of a sugar bowl and creamer, a large, rectangular, yellow table cloth with scalloped edges, more dinner plates (but not necessarily in the same pattern), and just about anything else that catches my fancy.
Another awesome Value Village score without the same visual charm is a totally unused French yogurt maker!
Unfortunately, I forgot to buy starter and a few key instructions are eluding us but I hope to try it out real soon.
Hooray for playing grown-up!
I finally finished the socks I’ve been carrying around in my purse since early December. I’ve been working on them in the car (as a passenger) and during down time while teaching.
They're only slightly uneven in real life.
These are just a basic sock with a twisted rib. The yarn is Silkie Socks that Rock in Walking on the Wild Tide. I won it from Tiennie – she of the gorgeous family, beautiful house, amazing blog and consistent comments. Thanks again Tiennie! I am totally in love with this yarn.
After weeks of searching thrift shops in Winnipeg and Kijiji for a real, grown up dining set we had a huge stroke of luck yesterday. We had planned on schlepping to every furniture store in the city but on our first try we found an amazing deal at EQ3. They are discontinuing the Canyon dining set and one of their models had a teeny tiny scratch. It was originally $1386 and we paid $299! OK, the big reveal.
Before: Value Village formica table, Kijiji chair, pathetic Canadian Tire stool.
After: Mid-century Modern Coolness
We purchased another upholstered chair which was also crazy on sale but it’s not coming until next week. The table has a built in leaf that makes it even bigger. Now I have to cook a nice meal to christen it.
This also means I finally have a sewing table in my studio!
Yipee!
Things are finally starting to come together around here. We found out that if we paint we have to repaint when we leave in around three years so we’re probably going to skip that and focus on accents like rugs and wall arrangements. It will be slow going as we don’t have a huge decor budget but the thrill is in the hunt sometimes!
First off – thanks to everyone for putting up with my whining the other day. I had a bit of a bad week and I was feeling pretty down but I’m starting to perk up a bit. I think I need to start a lame Oprah-style gratitude journal to whip my Debbie Downer self into shape.
Chris had a couple of days off sick and was a marvel of domestic production. He cleaned, baked, cooked, hung some pictures and shelves and it helped to boost morale. You can’t keep that boy down.
One evening I had this kind of crazy idea and Chris agreed to try it out. Meaning he agreed to do everything while I offered a critical eye. We had everything we needed on hand making the finished result doubly satisfying.
Swedish moody
You see, I hate open concept. I love cozy rooms with built-in book shelves and radiators and window seats and worn wood floors. Pretty much the antithesis of this place. Enter some metal shower hooks, roman blinds from Ikea and Christmas lights.
Sudden dining room
To my delight and surprise Dwell-reading, Eames-loving Chris is charmed by our light wall.
It’s kicky in the daylight too.
I miss Ikea
It’s starting to feel more like home.
This weekend was a festive blur. I shopped, baked, sewed, felted, fulled, cooked and passed out at ten o’clock.
It’s killing me but of course I can’t show you some of the output but I do have some projects to share!
On Saturday we drove to the middle of nowhere and walked out to the woods searching for a Christmas tree. Apparently the trees here grow very tall and very thin. At least the trunks can be snipped with nail clippers.
TIM-BER!!!
It doesn’t look so bad all made up.
The ugly blinds will soon be covered by homemade curtains. Thank the lord!
I also refinished an old, ugly media shelf for use in my craft room. Of course I forgot to take a before photo but pictures it: oak melamine with black plastic CD inserts.
Framed paper cut by Erin!
I spray painted it with Krylon in Buttercream and finished it with acrylic spray sealant. The paper backing is washi from Japan mod podged on and also sealed.
It’s the same spray paint I used for my little notions shelf. I think it will look great when I paint the room.
Aaaand I baked another pie.
This is the Sour Cream Apple pie from the brilliant Alicia Paulson. It was tasty although I still think I prefer the recipe from The New Vegitarian Epicure (question: does anyone know the rules for sharing recipes from books? It seems like it would be covered by copywrite but others also seem to do it all the time). I ran out of butter so I made a shortening crust. I think I agree with The Smitten Kitchen in that butter is better – pretty much always. For those of you who, like me, avoided pie making do check out her posts on pie crusts. How was I not aware of her blog until recently? That’s sinful.
I’m supply teaching in another town tomorrow, which may have surpassed getting needles as my least favourite thing to do. Wish me luck!
I spent much of last week lazing around but I seem to have gotten my productivity back. Today I almost finished a dress. I just have to sew the buttonholes and the buttons but I’m waiting to go to Michelle’s and use her machine which has that miracle invention, the automatic buttonholer.
As I was sewing I was thinking about how much I hate having to turn on one of our wall sconces in the middle of the day because the corner of our living room where my kitchen table is located is so far away from the window. And so a plan was hatched to move all of my furniture (via pushing and pulling because apparently I have no upper body strength or desire to remove things from bookshelves before moving them).
Of course I forgot to take a before pic but here’s an old one from when we first moved in:
Drum roll please………..
I still have to tidy a bit and my landlord will have to polish all my floors. It feels bigger and look how sunny my dining room table studio is! I haven’t checked yet to see if I totally screwed up my digital cable but let’s not kill my joy.
Also:
- I love this article. Funny cause it’s true.
- As of this Monday I’m going shampoo free. I’ve started using a baking soda water mixture and so far so good so cheap. For the various reasons many people are going this route see this post.
- I am very close to winning some awesome apparel from Ebay. I don’t want to jinx it. I love how you can buy awesome stuff dirt cheap online. I may be addicted. Wish me luck.
- In Treatment has got me completely hooked. I will warn you, the first two weeks are a bit of a slog but it’s all juicy from week three on.
- I’m still doing really well with eating healthily. My jeans feel looser today but it could all be in my head.
- This is no thanks to Second Cup whose Skinny Chai Latte not only tastes like crap but has 440 calories. For a Skinny!!! I’m sorry I ever strayed, Bridehead.
- This combines so many of my favourite things.
Pattern: Vinnland Socks
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Dusky Aurora from The Sweet Sheep (via Chris for Christmas)
Needles: 2.25 mm
Started: March 19th, 2008
Finished: April 9th, 2008
These are a tiny bit big but I don’t really care because this may be my favourite yarn ever. The feel, the colour, the yardage = just perfect. Which is great because I received this in the mail yesterday:
This is Ruby River which I ordered before my yarn cutbacks way back in December. It was partly my fault and party the Ebay sellers that I didn’t get it until now, but let’s just say I’ll stick to buying from Michelle from now on.
And lookey here, another facet of the Spring cleaning madness: new sheets!
These are Mexx from The Bay and they are awesome. The colour is more purpley and gorgeous in real life.
Next up: the Waving Lace socks from Favorite Socks with Wollmeise Poison No. 5.
It remains to be seen if this yarn and this pattern will mate and not produce some freak of nature.
When Fabricland was having it’s fifty percent off sale I picked up some lovely drapery weight fabric for Erin and I. I grew to love it so much that I went back and bought another metre. Then I had an idea: if I made a floor pillow, Chris and I could eat dinner around our ottoman and then I could convert our dining room table into a sewing area. Mwahahahaha.
I followed the pattern in In Stitches. It also fits perfectly on our cheap and previously kind of uncomfortable Ikea chair.
I still had lots of fabric left so I decided a coordinating throw pillow for the couch was needed
I had still more fabric so a plan was hatched to cover some of those frames I took down from our bedroom wall. First I cut out the fabric so it was just a bit bigger than the frames and then I did some fanciful machine stitching.
I borrowed one of Michelle and Alex’s five (?!?) staple guns and stapled away.
And hung them with care (I even used a tape measure – says Chris: “that’s hot”).
All three of these projects took less than three hours, I’d say, but the results are more impressive than the effort!
