Time to Get Artsy

I'll be honest, I am not artistic. Creative, but not artistic. When God gave me my talents he skipped right over the A's and started with B- bargain finder. Sure I can whip up a DIY project with the best of 'em, but when it comes to designing pieces to hang in our home for years to come, I leave that to the pros. So when John and Sherry over at Young House Love first mentioned these destination prints by Jen at The House Of Wood in a post of theirs, I immediately thought of how cool it would be to hang one or a few of these prints in our home.

While any combination of the prints would be great, I wanted them to mean something to the both of us. When I saw the Boston print and that she also offered custom design work, I knew having a Boston and a Charlottesville print hanging above our new, soon-to-be-built desk to honor the cities where we each attended college would be perfect. Well ladies and gentlemen, today my proof for the Cville print popped into my inbox, and in a few short weeks both of these beauties will be hanging in our new work/home office area.

How awesome are these?

Boston Destination Print, House of Wood

Charlottesville/UVA-inspired Custom Destination Print, House of Wood

And yes I mentioned new home office area. We're moving our computer workstation/office from the third bedroom into the second floor family room/den. Brent and I are off to our local Habitat Re-Store this weekend to find a hollow door so we can get started building our desk for the area, inspired by this post from none other than John and Sherry at Young House Love.

One of my goals for the New Year is to take more time to blog and document our home improvements, so I'll be sure to post progress pics of the family room!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Anyone reading this who has been to our house will know that our house has two main living areas: the main floor great room (open concept kitchen/living/dining room), and our second floor family room. When we moved into the house last May we decided that since the second floor family room was so open and airy, with 16+ foot ceilings and big windows, that it would be our media room/chill zone and that the main floor living area would be more formal (but not "don't sit on that!" formal). Since we moved into the house with one set of couches/side tables, we put them upstairs in the family room.

Now, 8 months later our great room is still sans living room furniture. Don't get me wrong, this was intentional on our part. We didn't want to rush into buying the first pieces we liked. We made the decision early on that we would wait until we'd lived in the space for a while (and painted) so we could really figure out what we wanted. After painting the house last November, and spending the better part of six months looking at Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and Restoration Hardware I finally knew what I wanted. Now I just needed to find the pieces at the right price!

Over Christmas we were in Calgary visiting family. One night the girls went to Crate and Barrel while the guys watched football at home. While casually browsing the store my eyes focused on "the chair" (or chair(s) as we needed and bought two). I quickly snapped a photo and BBM'd it to Brent back at the house. He really liked them but I wanted him to sit on the chair before we bought them, so we went back the next day. Brent loved it and we ordered two! Here's a couple pictures of the beauties. The first one was taken in the store with my BlackBerry and the other is from the C&B website.



I think they'll look great with one or two toss cushions on each!

Yesterday I got the call from C&B that the chairs had arrived and are ready for pickup. Great news, except that the pressure is now ON for finding and purchasing a couch, not to mention waiting for it to be delivered! I am pining for this Pottery Barn sofa:

Pottery Barn Buchanan sofa

I like the colour shown as it coordinates with the cushion on the chair. What do you think? I'm a little wary of buying a sofa from PB, as I've heard the quality doesn't match the price. Do any of you have experience (good or bad) with PB?

Christmas Dessert #1

I'm on dessert duty for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year. Usually I opt for an appetizer but lately I've been really keen on making decadent desserts that are as beautiful as they are delicious. Since I'm working up until Christmas Eve and we have church tomorrow night, I'm going to get started on Friday's dessert tonight: a white chocolate tart with raspberries. I made it once last year and it was so fabulous, I can't wait to do it again!

photo credit: LCBO Food and Drink
The last time I made this dessert it actually looked just like the photo above. I'll remember to take pics as I go and post a step by step guide to making this fabulous dessert.

Stocking Stuffers

As December draws nearer I am reminded that I need to get started on my Christmas shopping, which immediately makes me think of all the things I would like to find in my stocking and under the tree. I really like high quality stocking stuffers versus gifts under the tree. I'd rather have a few great small things than one or two expensive gifts that someone stressed over trying to buy, wondering if I would really like it.

Here's a few things I think would make perfect stocking stuffers for me or any other twenty-something jcrew/chapters/kate spade/anthropologie/allthingsculinary-loving girl:


Kate Spade Wallet (on sale right now!)


JCrew hat


The World of Gloria Vanderbilt, available at Indigo.ca and Amazon.


JCrew belt


Anthropologie necklace


Holiday cupcake stencils, Williams Sonoma


What's on your Christmas list?

All Dogs Go To Heaven...

...and last night our family dog Daisy got to go too.

I woke up this morning to the news that my mom and step dad had put Daisy down last night. On Sunday my step dad brought her to the emergency animal hospital, not sure of what was wrong but knew there was definitely a problem, as she wasn't her usual tail-wagging, face-kissing, crooning-at-the-squirrels self. Turns out her little puppy kidneys were failing and the outlook wasn't good. I'll spare you any details, but after a night of treatments she wasn't doing any better. Last night my sister, mom and step dad went to hold her giant bear-sized paws and say goodbye.

Just a couple of my favourite photos of the pup:


At my bridal shower, summer 2009.


Christmas 2008.

You were a good dog, Daisy. I'm going to miss walking up to the house and seeing you waiting for us in the window. I hope you're having a blast in doggy heaven!

How I'm Spending My Halloween Weekend

I am too excited for words so I will make this brief. This weekend I am embarking on my first big DIY project at our house and I am ecstatic! I will post before and after photos when it's done, but let's just say that I get to use my palm sander for the first time AND painting supplies :)

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween!

TGIF

This has been one of the longest and most stressful weeks in a long time. I'm so glad it's the long weekend. We're heading up to the cottage with our good friends Mel and Jay tomorrow morning until Monday. I'm really looking forward to some solid reading/wine drinking/catching-up time with friends.

I also really love this BlackBerry smartphone case that is just so conveniently made for the 9700, which I currently use. The price point isn't bad either, at $25 and free shipping.


What are your long weekend plans?