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Fall Cure... Finally!

Holy coconuts!  (Beckett's new saying... obviously learned from his Dad.) 

I've missed 9 days of the Apartment Therapy Fall Cure!  BLURG!!!  So typical of me.  I've been waiting and waiting for the Fall Cure to start, and somehow I missed it!  I totally got thrown off by the new name "20/20 Home Cure."  But I am excited about the 20/20 concept... "In only 20 minutes a day for 20 days we're all going to make our homes beautiful, organized and healthy."  Sounds good to me!   

Ironically, I had decided to take things into my own hands and just do the cure on my own, so I started re-reading the book this week.  

It's a great read.  Although I have to admit that I read it more like a novel and didn't exactly put any of the advice into practice the first time around.  I'm sure I'll do better this time!

Looking forward to a busy weekend of running around like a crazy person trying to fit 9 days of cure-ing into 3!  Anyone else doing the 20/20 Home Cure

THIS is me...

Design Refuge is having a very cool challenge this month.  The topic is "THIS is me" and the point is to represent your design style through a blog post.  I think my style is best represented by my dining room:







Nursery Inspiration

No... I am not planning a nursery for my own house!  (I wish!)

But I do love looking through nursery ideas.  It is such a fun room to decorate.  And I do know an adorable little baby boy who will be moving into his own room soon!  His mom is my friend Cynthia, and I know she is super excited to decorate his nursery.

Here are some of my recent favorites:

1.  Toby's Nursery by Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook:
 Love the sailboat mobile, the painted cloud black-out blind (practical and cute), and the photo wall.

 2.  Oscar's nursery by Aubrey and Lindsay of Aubrey and Lindsay's Little House Blog:
Love the diy bunting, and the artwork above the crib.

3.  Clover's nursery via Covet Garden (Oct. 2010):
LOVE the retro fabrics in the embroidery hoops.  So cool.

The way YOU are feature!

Leah from The Way We Are has been doing an awesome feature called "The way YOU are."  She's featuring favorite spaces from some of my favorite bloggers.  So cool.  I was super excited when she asked me to share my favorite space!  Then I was in a panic because every room in my house was a bit of a disaster that day.  But I pulled it together and snapped some photos of my dining room.  Go see it at The Way We Are!


Thank you Leah for inviting me over to your blog today!

Trend chaser?

OK.  On the weekend I had a discussion with Carolee and Jackie about my kitchen table pendant.  Bottom line is that I want something new.  It's not that old, and it is infinitely better than the pendant that it replaced (an oversized hanging boob light... you know the kind.)

Anyways, the pendant in question is from my drum-shade-over-a-chandelier phase.  I had to have it.  And I still like it... here it is:


But I have been craving one of these:

It's the sputnik pendant from Jeff Lewis's Valley Oak eat in kitchen... I love Flipping Out.

Carolee and Jackie think that I might get sick of it just as quick as the drum shade/chandelier.  But I still really want it.  I guess I am a bit of a trend chaser, but I think that the sputnik has longevity... thoughts anyone?

My first design screw-up

Thank goodness my Mom and Dad are so cool.  Carolee and I have been helping them with their big renovation, and they are the victims of our first design screw-up.

Back in January there was a sale at one of our favorite furniture stores, so we went ahead and ordered a sofa and ottoman for the family room.  The furniture arrived months ago, and it has been sitting in the living room, (looking great), while the family room has been in demo mode.

We are almost ready to put the family room back together, so we decided to test out the furniture.  Mom and I both stood and cringed as Dad tried (without much success) to wedge all of the furniture into the family room.  Crap.  This is the current ottoman (only in black.)  There is no way it is fitting:
I guess I'm going to look at it as an opportunity.  I'm sure I can find something smaller and cuter.  Maybe one of these:

or a couple of these (handy because of the hidden storage):

So don't worry Mom and Dad... I'm working on it!

images from CSN Sofas

Basement Debate

So... our basement didn't even make my project list.  It is hideous - bright red carpet, red light switches and plug-ins, tiny windows,  and a low suspended ceiling with not enough lighting.  On the good side, it is pretty much indestructible which makes it a perfect for bike riding and hockey puck shooting area for the kids.  On the bad side, it's hideous, and I hate spending any time down there.

Jeff would really like to fix it up.  He can envision it as an area to watch sports and play Wii.  I just can't get on board with the plan.  I feel like it will suck up way too much time and money to get it to a level that we're I'm happy with.

However... the photos of this Sarah Richardson basement project have me inspired.  If I can work in a wall of Hicks Hexagon wallpaper, I just might be convinced!



Fabulousness in Progress

I like lists.  I like them so much that I have about 50 of them on random scraps of paper scattered around the house.  Every purse has at least two or three.  I also keep a notebook (started in an effort to reduce the number of lost lists... one of the many problems with the paper-scrap system.)

I decided that a project list is what I need for my blog.  Something to help me to finish things I start (maybe?).  Or at least keep me focused (impossible?).  The idea is good in theory, so here we go...

Today I'm starting my "Fabulousness in Progress" list.
***Jeff - fabulousness IS a word.  I looked it up.***

I think the list will motivate me.
I might be even more motivated if I had a system of rewards in place for myself.  For example, if I finish de-oaking everything, I get 4 of these???











 Maybe I should start a reward list as well???

Inspiration Board - Mom and Dad's Living Room

Mom and Dad's renovation is starting to take shape!  The kitchen is in (and is fabulous) and the flooring is on it's way.  Time to shop!

The living room is going to be pretty and sophisticated with touch of glam.  This room will NOT have a tv, and will NOT be lounge-y.  That's what the family room is for.  The living room will be a space for great conversation over a pre-dinner cocktail.  Or maybe a place for the girls to sip some  tea  wine while the kids and men watch hockey in the family room.

We're going with creamy whites, accents in citron, punchy pillows, and a few touches of gold.
Here's the plan:

credit:
1- room by Palmer Wiess in October/November Lonny
2&3 - cushions by Elegant Touch
4 - Candice Olsen area rug through Hellenic Outlet
5&6 - Decor-Rest
7 - room by Samantha Farjo in Style at Home

Good from far but far from good

I had paint left over from my chevron rug, so I thought it would be fun to add some chevron stripes to the roller blind in my mud room.  Quick easy project, right?  Not so much.  It looks ok from a distance, but trust me, up close it is a bit of a disaster.  I ran into a couple of problems - both related to the little holes in the roller blind fabric.

 First, while I was rolling, I could tell that the paint was squishing through the little holes onto the newspaper that I had laid out underneath.  Somehow it did not occur to me that the paint would dry onto the newspaper.  Yuck.  Now the newspaper is all stuck to the back of the blind.

Second, in some places the paint kind of filled in the little holes in the blind, making opaque blotches all over the place.  Ugly.

So now I need to fix it.  I might try to do something with this fabulous fabric.  It's been on hold for use in Beckett's room, but I think I can spare enough for the blind:

Carolee's Vintage Bed Makeovers

Carolee totally lucked out this summer and found two vintage bed frames - one for each of her boys.  The first one came from the family cabin, and the second one from a family friend.  Both beds were headed for the dump, so she scooped them just in time!


Carolee cleaned them up, and gave them a fresh coat of shiny blue spray paint.  I love how they turned out!  Perfect for her little boy bedrooms!


Remodelaholic Feature!

Guess where I am today???
I'm being featured at Remodelaholic!
Thank you Cassity for featuring my Chevron Rug DIY Project today!
Hop over and check it out!





Speaking of chevron... I'm at it again.  Had leftover paint to use up from the rug.  Details later this week, but here's a preview:





Tuesday is the new Monday

We had the best Thanksgiving weekend!  Went on a quick (7 hour) road trip.   Jeff took Jack to his first NHL game - something Jeff has been looking forward to since Jack was born - and by all reports it was everything he had hoped it would be and more!  Super cool memory for both of them.   We stayed in a hotel.  It was the first time watersliding for the kids - that was a big hit.  Had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with cousins who we don`t get to see very often (they just moved back to Canada from Scotland!)  Then we had another Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad`s house when we got home!  Perfect!

Then the week started out in typical chaotic fashion.  No groceries, messy house, tons of dirty laundry, snack day at school, and an 8:45am dentist appointment!  Blurg!  We made it through the crazy part of the morning, so Becks and I rewarded ourselves with a little bit of this:

Happy Monday Tuesday everyone!

Stair Spindles

Yikes!  I decided... and now I'm not convinced!  I'm going to wait until I paint out my paneling (this is just primer) before I do anything drastic (like repaint them white).  Here it is:


I have to admit, seeing it in a photo makes me like it more.  I usually tend toward impulsive rather than indecisive.  Weird.

Atmosphere Interior Design

I've been admiring the portfolio and stalking the blog of Atmosphere Interior Design for about a year.  Atmosphere's designers Curtis Elmy and Trevor Ciona have done some seriously stunning work.  Plus, they blog about their projects (including their own home reno), and put out some pretty entertaining tweets.

Atmosphere designed the 2010 Hospital Home Lottery home in Saskatoon, and it was gorgeous.  Check out the gallery on Atmosphere's website to see more of the rooms.  This is the great room... love the chair fabric:

If you are in Saskatoon, you can visit the Atmosphere showroom to browse through their collections of wallpaper and fabric.  It's worth the time just to see how cool their office is!

I stopped by last year and Heather (the showroom manager) helped me choose this wallpaper for my dining room.  Love it!:
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen Helsinki wallpaper through Graham & Brown

Look for Curtis and Trevor in the Shops etc. section of this month's issue of Style at Home!!!

Samantha Pynn Drapes

I'm a big fan of designer Samantha Pynn.  Love Pure Design on HGTV.  Sam often does drapes with bold colors and wide horizontal stripes.  I'm planning some Samantha-Pynn-inspired drapes for my family room when it gets put back together.

I'm thinking something like this:

or this:

or this... my favorite:
photos from hgtv.ca

more inspiration at Sam's website

Monday inspiration

My weekend was BUSY.  Felt like I ran around a lot and got little done.  Blurg.

I continued de-oaking.  Finished priming most of the second floor trim, but still need to tackle the railings and paneling.

I cleaned out my fridge (a job I had been putting off until the Apartment Therapy Fall Cure - I know... not the best logic - btw, does anyone know when it will start???  If it doesn't start soon, I'm going to have to instigate a fall cure all on my own.  Seriously.)  Anyways, a major fruit fly infestation led to a cleaning spree in the kitchen.  Not exactly fun, but necessary, clearly.

This post is sounding bitter... I think I need some Monday inspiration to get me going this week.  How about this... found it on European Chic via Inspire My House Pretty.  I keep going back to look at this room.  It had me at the orange wall with white frames, but also love the floor tiles, the pink chairs, the pendant... so I thought I'd share...
photo from Bolig

Gotta Love Fall

This is a little video of my perfect fall day.  Blue sky, colorful leaves, the boys riding bikes, family time.  Love it.


Fall Day from Carissa Erickson on Vimeo.

... and one of my favorite fall photos by Cynthia: