My bag collection

I used to have two bags (i.e. purses) and now it's doubled to four. Just like that! Take a look at my black beauties:

Yep, I love black. Let me tell you a little story about how they all became mine. The first one is a lovely Kate Spade that I bought on my first trip to Vegas. I was shopping with my friend Steph and I saw it and was absolutely smitten. Like any good friend does, Steph fully supported this purchase and it came home with me. It's a shiny, slouchy, perfect-sized bag. Then a year or two later, I spotted the next one while perusing Shopbop online. It's Red Valentino and the bow had me at hello. I got it on sale but it still certainly wasn't cheap! But oh how I've loved this beauty. It's very me with the ever so girly Valentino bow. The leather is like butter...seriously, it is like butter! 

The last two arrived today on my doorstep. They are Kate Spade and I bought them when there was a surprise sale online a couple weeks ago. The one that has the chain on the handle is so comfy. The perfect shoulder bag with a bit of sheen and a little bling. It's slightly slouchy and in my eyes is a perfect casual bag for summer. The last one is my structured, prissy bag. I love the little bow and super smooth leather...and the way I can carry it on my arm with a bent elbow like a lady. I seriously couldn't decide between the two of them, so I bought both since they were such a bargain. And as I explained to Dave, they are similar but very different!

Here's a close-up of my first Kate Spade and my Red Valentino:

And my new Kate Spades:

I may need to get Dave to build a shelf in my closet to display the ones I'm not currently using so I can still admire them. Maybe one day I'll branch out and buy one that isn't black...but when you know what you like, you know what you like! Now I just need to hold off for at least another year or two before I MUST add another one to my collection!

Art on a ledge

My kitchen/dining room art has arrived and it's framed! Finally! Each piece came in the mail one at a time and I got them all framed one at a time. I had them done at Michael's and they did a fantastic job. And the 'M' is a vintage 50's marquee letter that I ordered from Etsy. I had bought a RIBBA ledge (actually two) at Ikea in February in anticipation.

So here's what it's vaguely going to look like...try to imagine it hanging on the wall, not sitting on the floor:

So??? Does it look good? I need the truth! I love each piece but once I saw how big the biggest piece was, I wondered if it's too grand for a picture ledge. I set it out on the floor roughly how I'd arrange it on the wall to see if I like it before putting the five holes in the wall that it'll take to hang the ledge. Since the London print and the tree print are fairly big pieces, the plan is to attach the tops of the frames to the wall using 3M velcro picture hangers (which are the bomb, by the way). Then I don't have to worry about them falling off.

Just so you can see how cool the London art is, here's a close-up:

I seriously love looking at it! And here are the others:

Also awesome, in my opinion. If you think the whole idea of this on the picture ledge is completely uncool, I need to know! I really love a grouping/gallery for art and I really dig picture ledges, but does that make it good? 

Please tell me your thoughts! Go for it? Rearrange it? Don't do a ledge? I try to put a lot more thought into decorating in hopes that I will be happier with stuff and keep it longer. But now I'm constantly doubting myself. Ack!

Scandinavian stuff for my kitchen

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a while. I blame it on Pinterest! It's a vortex that sucks me in over and over again. However, there is some lovely eye candy to be found. If you'd like to see what I've been pinning, you can check out my Pinterest page here.

So Blogger, please know that I still love you. We go way back. I shall always return so I can ramble about all the stuff I love and want. And to show off my new purchases! And what is it this time? Well, as the title suggests it's a little Scandinavian loveliness to add to my kitchen:

I ordered the Rosendahl Copenhagen Grand Cru cutting board and Ferm Living's Triangle tea towels from Scandinavian Design Center. And I love them! My kitchen's accessories are going black and white. With dashes of wood. I tried a multicolour kitchen and it just didn't do it for me. I love colour but it just wasn't working. So my goal is to get only quality things I love and that is not hard in a black and white palette!

Oh, I love the bamboo cutting board as much as a cutting board can be loved! It's simple yet sleek with it's little notches that are ever so cute. And the tea towels...aaaahhhhh...I LOVE them. There's no denying that I have a thing for tea towels. I buy them frequently to Dave's dismay, but these are the best ones I have bought to date. I love the pattern so much! I've longed for them for a while and I finally pulled the trigger...or should I say clicked the computer keyboard...and bought them. My first purchases from Scandinavian Design Center and they won't be the last!

Also, some of my new kitchen/dining room art is in the mail and some is currently at the framers and I can't wait to show you once it's all up and done! Black and white goodness!

DIY rock boot tray

One of the things I did when I was on holidays was make a boot tray for our front entrance. And here it is:

Do you love my elaborate styling (please note my new Kate Spade pom-pom toque that Dave bought me for my b-day!)? We don't use the front entrance but guests do, so we needed a tray for snowy winter boots. I used to have a black plastic one but it always looked dirty and was just plain ugly. I'd seen ideas where you put loose rocks in a tray (like here at marthastewart.com) but I thought it might be messy and hard to clean. So I had the idea of grouting the rocks so it would be wipeable. Here's how it turned out:

I had to have a tray that was low because the door swings to the wall. Turns out it's tricky to find rectangular trays that are an inch high. Then one day I was at Indigo and saw a picture frame and thought it could work. A bit of discussion with Dave (to see if he thought it would actually work or if I was completely off my rocker!) and some measuring and I went back and bought it. 

Since I didn't take any pictures during the process (oops!), here are the steps involved in making my little DIY boot tray:

1) Buy the supplies - white picture frame from Indigo; LePage Extreme Repair adhesive glue from Rona; stone tiles, pre-mixed grout, a float tool, and a grouting sponge from Home Depot

2) Have your husband sand down the backing of the picture frame so it fits perfectly

3) Glue each rock individually because you don't like how the pre-made tiles looked ( I ripped the rocks off the netting stuff they were attached to)

4) Glue the frame backing in place because you forgot to do it before gluing all of the rocks on

5) Wait for all glue to dry (24 hours+), then put on the pre-mixed sanded grout following the directions on container (basically push it between rocks and smooth over with the float tool then use a wet sponge to clean the rocks off - having your husband do this part for you is a bonus)

6) Look at it somewhat grudgingly as you wish the light grey grout was a bit darker but be overall happy with the finished result

7) Put it in place and put your new boots on it to 'test' it out

8) Take pictures and share them on your little blog while writing a how-to that shows that I am not a professional DIYer 

To-do list progress

I'm really enjoying my holidays...but I'm sure you could have guessed that! My to-do list is getting a bit shorter, which is awesome. Even more awesome is that I had a birthday trip to Edmonton so I couldn't work on my to-do list for a couple days! We had a great time shopping and eating (mmmm...Olive Garden!). After we got back, Dave made me a birthday cake. It was his first time baking a cake! Look how great it turned out:

Chocolatey goodness, hey? So yummy!

Thanks very much Dave!!!

I'll also give you an update on my to-do list. I crossed out what I've done so far:

1) Finish needlepoint

2) Buy material/supplies for making pillows

3) Sew 4 pillows (one is done)

4) Make boot tray

5) Make and print art for kitchen frames

6) Attach weights to kitchen curtains

7) Hem bedroom curtains

8) Paint and hang up new house numbers

9) Clean make-up brushes and drawer

10) Paint nails (I have twice already!)

11) Go to the antiques and collectibles show...and find some treasures!

12) Clean silver necklaces

13) Watch 5 documentaries/movies: Being Elmo, Happy, The September Issue, Spellbound, Love Actually(!)

14) Wash mitts/hats/scarves

15) Buy and install record holders for stand

Here's a pic of the one pillow I've finished so far:

It's navy blue velvet. Super soft and super cushy! I was really happy with how it turned out. The second one didn't go quite as smoothly but it's almost done too! Another thing that I accomplished, which was not really a lot of work, was cleaning my silver necklaces:

The spray polish and cloth make it a pretty easy job. A trick that one of the sales people told me was to keep silver jewelry in little plastic bags (like the kind buttons come in). I guess this way the air doesn't tarnish the silver. I think it actually works...I just need to be a little more consistent in putting them back in the bags after wearing them! And I also want to show you one of the treasures I bought at the antique and collectible show I went to:

I bought the perfume bottle on the right. The one on the left I got at my favorite antique shop a while back. The silver swirl stuff is actually silver-plated so I polished that too! Anyways, I think they're both super pretty and I will definitely be looking for more to add to my collection when I go antiquing again!

Terrarium (and vases!)

We recently went into a flower shop and bought a cute little terrarium and an air plant. An air plant! I think it's pretty neat. Take a look:

It doesn't need soil and all you have to do is give it a little water every week or two by misting it or plopping it in a cup of water for a while. My plan is to put it in a cup of water for half an hour once a week...and if I forget one week, it will stay in the cup for an hour the next week! It'll be a good reminder to actually water all of my plants. They do well despite being somewhat neglected. A little wilting tells me it is time to water! Oops. 

Cubebot has made friends with the new addition:

Cubie (as I've taken to calling him lately) looks awfully stoked to be hanging out with...Airie...Airhead...Mr. Air? Hmmm, my other plants are nameless so I'm not sure any of these will stick.

I've failed to show you a pic of my pretty vases that hang out at the other end of the tv bench/credenza:

I got them quite a while ago with money from our garage sale in the spring. They're from Jonathan Adler and I love them. They're pottery (if you can't tell or have never heard of JA) so they have such a nice weight to them and are such great quality. I really want one more (the lantern gourd vase) that is smaller but in the same series. One day it shall be mine, I hope! Also, a special shout out to Ray for picking my vases up for me...thanks again!   

My new antiques

I've been meaning to show you a couple things I picked up when my friend and I went on a road trip to our favourite antique shop. I now have another cake stand:

I already had one and now I need another so I can have 3. Three is a collection! I think cakes, pies, or cupcakes would all look amazing in these.

I also bought a jar for my great-grandma's buttons and wooden spools. I really liked the design on it:

Of course I had to buy a few more things than this! I'll show you a couple that are now in my bedroom another time. I assure you that they are fantastic!

Art wall in the kitchen

Yep, that's my dining room/kitchen wall. And yep, that's a whole lot of frames on my dining room/kitchen wall. IKEA Ribba frames of course! Last weekend, Dave used a very large number of those 3M velcro picture hangers and did a fantastic job with the measuring tape and level! As you can see, I need some more art to finish filling the frames. I'm working on it!

For the patio: Take two

Here are the lounging chairs we actually bought for the patio:

Satori S-Shaped Patio Lounger from Canadian Tire

We got them a few days ago and haven't used them much yet but I really like them. They're sleek and comfortable...and really, who doesn't want to lounge?

We got two so now I'm on the hunt for a table to sit between them that we can set our beverages on!

Our record player and stand

We got a record player! Actually, we got the record player a couple weeks ago but I finally got around to taking a picture tonight. We ordered it from Amazon and it's just awesome! We bought an antique stand to put it on and it's sitting cozily in the corner of the living room:

We absolutely love both the record player and the stand. We got the antique stand from a store here in the city. The owner told us he bought it at an estate sale and it belonged to a man that had a lot of really nice stuff and he spent $20,000 at the sale. Wowsa! The owner told us it's a parlour table (which is such a great name!) made of 'tiger' oak and he figured it was made between the 1900's to 1930's. I like having something old like this in a room full of really new stuff.

Anyways, here's a pic that shows the side of the record player where the speakers are. They actually sound really good and the volume goes quite loud so we don't need external speakers. Also check out the cool curve on the side of the table (I love that part!):

Here's a close up of the top of the record player so you can see the controls:

Pretty easy to use! It can also be connected to a computer with a USB so you can rip records if you want. We haven't tried it and probably won't really do that much but it's still cool.

And here's our massive record collection:

We had two records when the record player arrived so we visited two record stores in the city and came home with a bunch of new and used ones. Here's what we have so far:

The Beatles: Abbey Road

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Chronicle

Nirvana: Nevermind

Nirvana: In Utero

The Cars: Greatest Hits

Foo Fighters: Wasting Light

The Everly Brothers: Looking Back

The Guess Who: 20 Original Hits

Adele: 21

Superman The Movie: Original Soundtrack

Superman 2: Original Soundtrack

Superman 3: Original Soundtrack

The Doobie Brothers: Best of the Doobies

Bob and Doug McKenzie: Great White North

Elvis: 20 Hits

The Steve Miller Band: Greatest Hits 1974-78

Guns n' Roses: Appetite for Destruction

Oh yeah! Quite the mix we have going. Can you guess which ones Dave picked out and which ones I picked out? I can't wait to get more records to fill up the shelf!

New chairs

During our recent trip to Edmonton, we bought new dining room chairs. They're white and I dig them in a big way:

They're called Erland chairs (from IKEA...of course). They really lighten up the dining room area overall and I like the contrast of the white chairs with our black-brown table (it's a Bjursta from IKEA if you're wondering).

The chairs are a molded plastic and have bit of flex to the them so you can rock back a little. They're sort of matte on the front side and glossier on the back. I also like their sexy curve, which you can see in this pic:

Oh yeah! You may not have noticed, but I switched out the curtains as well. They're the curtains that were in the spare room. And yep, they're from IKEA too (they're Hedda Blad). Not everything in my house is from IKEA, but a whole lot is!

Art for the bathroom

We checked another thing off of our to-do list! This morning we finished hanging some frames in the 2-piece bathroom. So now there are the fancy new glass shelves AND cute little frames in this tiny room. Sweet stuff! It was tricky to take a good pic so you can see what they look like but here's one on an angle:

All IKEA, of course. I had bought these little art cards ages ago but had never put them up because I had a bit of an issue with frames. I had originally bought 4 of these RIBBA 5 x 7 frames for another project that never happened, but I needed 5 frames in order to hang all of these pretty little art cards. I got my hands on another one (thanks Steph!) but it turned out to have a different finish and the matte was a different colour. So I got crafty. I bought some acrylic paint at Michael's and painted all of it! As you can probably guess, I painted the mattes white and the frames black. I used a small roller for the mattes and a foam brush for the frames. I think they turned out pretty well...at least they're more cohesive even if they're not perfect!

Don't rub your eyes...this pic seems somewhat blurry...but it gives you an idea of what the pics look like straight on as you go through the door:

We (by we, I mean Dave) used those handy little 3M adhesive velcro picture hangers. We've used them quite a few times now for smaller pictures and they work great.

So now I have another sweet little homage to beautiful Sweden. Every room should have one!

Shelves for the bathroom

We were on a trip to Edmonton recently and of course we went to one of my favourite stores in the world. You know I mean IKEA, right? Well, we bought a few things (by a few, I mean a lot). We got these great glass shelves for our 2-piece bathroom:

They're called GRUNDTAL glass shelves and the ones we got are only 12 cm deep (and 60 cm long) so they're perfect for our little bathroom on the main floor. They were only $19.99 each...so cheap compared to what we saw at big box stores in our area. So many of the glass shelves we've seen before had really tacky looking brackets but I love these simple ones. Dave hung them up with no problems and they look great! Yay IKEA! (And yay Dave!)

The cow has arrived

My last post was about the Swedish poster I ordered for the kitchen...and now it's here (excuse the poor lighting in this pic and the fact that my beautiful new artwork is just leaning against the wall in the upstairs landing):

So it's here...all the way from Sweden. Well, actually, it arrived from California! I ordered it from Huset, a website I stumbled upon in my neverending quest for all things fantastically Swedish. I think my pretty poster looks quite snappy in its silver IKEA frame (it's a RIBBA of course). It's the first one I have filled for my wall of silver frames that will cover my kitchen/dining room wall. I'm scoping out other art and can't wait for some serious colour to be added to my kitchen. I'm tired of blah!

Now how could I order just one thing from a site like Huset? I mean once you're ordering one thing online from a shop, you may as well order more from there, right? That's how I like to roll I guess. I fell in love with this tea towel...okay, I fell in love with several tea towels (I really love tea towels for some reason!)...but this is the one that made it into my basket:

No, I couldn't wait to wash it and I certainly wasn't going to iron it just for the pic. Look past the wrinkles and check out those crazy adorable apples. Ack! To me, it's just so very Swedish looking, sort of retro, and a whole lot of cute. All right, I'll go take it down and put it in the laundry now.

My sewing basket

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I did! And I have a few more days before heading back to work. Woohoo! I'm actually still in my pajamas and it's already 4 in the afternoon! However, I've been busy. I just finished organizing my 'new' sewing basket (i.e. box). It belonged to my great-grandma and I couldn't be happier to have it. It really beats the green plastic rubbermaid box I previously had my sewing stuff in! Take a look:

It was pretty dusty...so I vacuumed it. I wasn't sure how else to clean it! I used a nozzle attachment and it actually worked very well.

All of my sewing stuff (minus my sewing machine and fabric of course!) fits wonderfully:

I love the red satin lining! On the top's inside area, I stuck some needles in the cushion part and was also able to tuck in some pretty vintage buttons and other things.

The rest of my sewing stuff is decidedly less vintage! No pretty wooden spools of thread. However, I do have some pretty sweet containers for organizing pins and stuff:

They're tricky to see but there's a tic tac container for needles and a sucrets container for pins...I've used these since home economics in school. They'll be vintage one day soon I suppose! I had even scratched my name in the sucrets container with a pin. Make no mistake friends...those are my pins.

Thanks for the treasure mom!

We have a couch

I've been too busy to show you but we actually have a functioning living room again. The couch cover from IKEA arrived last Wednesday...2 months after we placed our order online. Ack! What an ordeal. We got the actual couch in a pretty timely manner but it took 40 days after the couch was delivered for the cover to get here. Without a cover, you can't exactly use the couch (you don't build it until you put the cover on the individual pieces).

Perhaps this is reasonable to some but we have chalked it up as a frustrating experience and there's a very slim chance that we'll be ordering online through the IKEA website again. Even their customer service rep said it's a better idea to order directly from your most local store. That would have been good to know. We usually drive 5 hours, load up the car, drive another 5 hours back and are as happy as peaches. However, my car doesn't fit a couch. Next time (if Dave allows it...he was not a happy camper I tell you!), we will have to place our delivery order at our 'local' store.

So even though our ordering experience was less than ideal, I really do love my new couch:

It's the Karlstad with the Isunda gray cover which I have dreamed about, talked about, longed for, waited for, etc. for a very long time. It's very comfortable, I love the fabric (colour and texture), and I really am happy to finally be sitting on it!

I will have to get different legs for it as I'm not a fan of the ones it comes with. And since we are playing what's wrong with the stuff in the picture above:

1) Take a look at this rug on rug situation. Not good, I know.

2) Check out the brown too-short curtains (which are gone now and replaced with beauties I will show you later...promise)

3) Beige paint with a grey couch? Not a big fan I tell you.

4) You can't have one pillow...maybe you can, but I can't. This will not last.

Oh, and one other thing that is just plain right...that sweet looking art. It's a moviebarcode print that we ordered (I posted about this cool art back in April). We got it framed at Michael's and we're digging it in a big way. What movie is it? An epic masterpiece from 1978 of course. Okay, it's Superman. I love my husband. And the colours.

I'll post more pics of the living room another time. It's still a work in progress but we're getting there!

We got a Cubebot

Remember when I posted about how fun it would be to have a Cubebot? Well, thanks to Indigo we have one that is certainly upping the fun factor in our living room:

This is his "Hi, I'm awesome" pose...or as Dave thinks, it's the "I'm tough" pose. Either way, our little Mr. Roboto is fun to play with. I have yet to master how to fold him up into a cube but I will one day...maybe.

For now, Mr. Roboto is hanging out on the end table. And if you're incredibly observant, you may have noticed a new lamp behind Mr. Roboto. Woohoo, we got a new lamp on Saturday! It adds some much needed light to the living room.

We are still living in slight chaos in our living room as we are still without our sofa cover and the chair we ordered from IKEA. Ack! IKEA is very lucky that I love them very much. So once that all comes in and everything else comes together, I will be excited to show you some pics...hopefully sooner than later!

Almost here

We ordered our new couch and chair from IKEA. And on Friday, we got some of the boxes but not all. So in our living room sits the pieces of a couch that can't yet be assembled. As I wait ever so patiently, I will show you what I will soon have in my living room:

1. TULLSTA in ransta dark gray

2. IKEA STOCKHOLM easy chair in rostanga white

3. KARLSTAD in isunda gray

I already have and love the white IKEA STOCKHOLM and hopefully very soon the rest will be here. I have longed for a KARLSTAD for so long. Why I didn't buy this couch for my (I mean our) living room in the first place is beyond me. Honestly, it was the fact that I could not fit it in the car. Shipping? What? Every time I would go to IKEA, I sat on the KARLSTAD floor models and told Dave repeatedly how much I wanted one. More accurately, how much I needed the grey one. And now I have the pieces (sans cover) which will soon look like the pretty pic above. And then in a couple years, we will get the darker grey cover which Dave likes better (The light grey "looks like an old man's suit"). Marriage is all about compromise, right? Somehow, I win...and I win. Thank you Dave!

Candy dish

Just want to show you the glass candy dish I picked up for 10 bucks at the flea market last weekend:

It caught my eye, I showed it to my friend Alissa, and then I quickly bought it from a sweet elderly lady. She told me "You enjoy this" and I think I will...and so will Dave since candy is one of his favourite things!

Even the bottom of the dish is pretty:

I really need to get some candy in here ASAP.

Zigzags...and circles

We got the lamp I wanted for the living room and I also impulse purchased some sweet zigzag patterned pillows at Pier 1 Imports:

The pillows have a sweet retro feel...the yarn stitching is super soft and the back is a velvety fabric in the dark teal colour. I like the bright lime and turquoise colours and how punchy they look with the dark brown leather couch. Even though this couch is heading to the basement someday soon, it still deserves fantastic pillows! I actually look forward to decorating the basement living room one day with these pillows as my jumping off point.

And then there's our new lamp! We are really liking it but will be even happier when we get the bright white drum shade we had to order for it. I'm very disappointed that Pier 1's website says it has a "clean white shade" because it isn't even close to white. It couldn't even pass for ivory! It's essentially tan with a darker shade of tan on the inside. It really blends in with the paint. Blech! So we've ordered a white shade that is pretty much the same size (16" x 12"). We got the lamp on sale so that sort of makes up having to buy a white lamp shade. Sort of! But it's going to look pretty darn snappy once everything else in the room comes together.