Why can't I finish one project before I start another?

I hadn't  even finished my living rooms last corner, before I started the master bedroom!  Well, to be honest, while I'm dying to finish the last corner, that would require emptying and moving the BEAST of an armoire in that corner!!!!

Behold the Beast:

Until I work up the courage  strength to move this armoire, I'm tackling other smaller projects, like painting and redecorating my bedroom!!!

The 'Before' colour was a colour I loved on the paint chip (why does that always always happen!), but wasn't so crazy about it on my walls.  It was pleasant enough, it just didn't 'work' with the look I wanted.  Instead of a serene, cohesive look, the aqua colour just looked 'off'.

Here are some 'Before' pics:

I wanted to paint it nice white, but a bit more greyish white than pure white.  I didn't get any photos of the empty room with the 'After' colour, just a couple of photos after I shifted things back into place.

Here is an 'After' in the little corner near my bed:

I painted the flying pig painting a few years ago, and while Ioved it, it never fit into my home, as the colours didn't go with the more sherbet tones I had my walls painted.  Doesn't it look better with the new colours?  I love it now!  I call this 'Ham Highway'.  

Here is another corner.  The new wall colour looks much more suited to my furniture.

I still have to figure out what to hang over this tallboy.  It looks kind of empty above it.  Maybe a nice old mirror.  Did I ever mention I have about 5 nice old mirrors in my basement just waiting for a wall?  I'm sick sick sick I tell you!  Why do I buy so much old ****!!!!  Because I love it?  See, I'm talking to myself now…

She looks so lonely alone on that wall…She needs a mirror!

Here is my vanity, with a nice assortment of lovely old china!  Unfortunately I had a casualty when rehanging them.  I lost one of my favourite ones…  So sad : (

Okay, so the vanity top requires a little tidy up! 

I can't help using some of the vintage-y filters!  They make everything look so much sweeter, don't they?

Doctor Who seemed to make his way into my bedroom again!!!  I can't seem to hide my love for The Doctor, but my husbands not jealous, so its okay.

My vintage handbag/evening bag collection…another sickness…

Okay, enough of my junk, but I'll end it with a sweet little photo of a really old, lace childs dress.  It got a little more 'holly' after I hand washed it, but in DESPERATELY needed washing, but for $5 including the sweet hanger, I felt it was worth it:

You can't really see the hanger from this photo, but its an old wood hanger, painted green with white roses and dots hand painted on it.  It has such a lovely old patina.  It just makes me smile!

Have a great day!

Going White

THE WHITE DILEMMA

I have a problem.  I'm usually ahead of my time when it comes to trends.  While I do follow those really irresistible  trends, I try really hard to fight trends.  My usual M.O.  lots is to find things I love, and start decorating/collecting/wearing them.  A couple of years later, my sister, daughter, friends will say 'wow' I wish I listened to you back then.  I used to be a fashion buyer for years, so my eye had been trained on picking interesting new options.

I've fought the WHITE trend.  So as I've watched the 'white/pastel' trend budding, blooming and now beginning to wilt in the United States.  I liked it, but didn't bite.  I resisted, but not only to fight the trend, there have been a couple of reasons I haven't jumped on that band wagon.

REASONS WHY I DIDNT GO WHITE:

Reason 1:  I love Cath Kidston too much!

My kitchen is lovely pale green…

Can you see how light a green it is?  Its just enough to be green (greener in reality), not just a green-y white.  Gives enough colour to  make all my Cath Kidston 'pop'.  I just love Cath!  Have for years, and that is the problem…

While white will also make colours pop, unless I went with the more pastel hues, the Cath colours are often too vibrant.  Hence the light green.  Just enough colour to make it really shine.

More Cath on my curtains, table cloth…

And lots and lots of Cath in the cupboards, which I rotate, as not all the prints work well together.  I guess I'm attracted to the larger florals, which due to scale and colour similarities but not cohesion, don't really work.  I'm just not too into her dots (I do have some, and use them to break up the florals) or her checks (can't waste valuable Cath money on checks!).

Anyway, do to my Cath K collection, I have avoided going all white.

Reason 2:  I grew up with 'builders beige'.  Well, growing up in the 70's it was 'builders White'  kind of off white, creamy, non descript white.

So, I like subtle colours.  My halls are the beautiful Farrow and Ball colour, 'Pale Powder'.  Its magical.  It works with so many different styles of furniture, gold and silver tones.  Its a pretty silvery blue green.

Reason 3:   Three kids under 12.  Colour hides dirt a bit more. 

Exhibit 1:   The Dirt Squad:  They can spill, smudge, smear and destroy any area in 60 seconds flat!  They don't even need capes!

Now my kids are older.  A little less messy.  A little…

Anyway, I've been influenced by all this WHITE on blogland.  I kind of love it now.  So I decided to try a room.  My living room was kinda white.  It looked like a nice parchment colour on the colour chip, but as soon as it was on my walls, it looked…'blah'.  I hate blah!  So last week I bought two gallons of white paint (but, as I found out it wasn't white enough) and attacked 3/4 of the room.  I had to do one wall at a time and shove everything off the wall, fill holes, paint, paint some more, dry, shove furniture back.  I have one corner left to do.

Here is a 'before' colour:

See that wishy washy, not white, not beige colour?  Hmmm… pretty boring.

Here is a new corner….ready for the new colour?  Here it comes…the crazy white….

Nice?  Just wait till I get the rest of the junk in there!  Here's a 'filtered' photo of my 'Crazy lady lives here' corner:

I can hardly wait to finish the room and move all my stuff back in.  Perhaps in a more orderly, organized fashion than the last time…Wish me luck!

EASTER WREATH

Well I couldn't swallow my morning coffee this morning.  Less than a week from Easter, and I hadn't even put a spring-y, Easter-y wreath on my front door!  In fact, I just took down the St. patricks day signs off my front door last week (I hear you gasping!  Don't judge, don't judge!).  

I know none of you need a tutorial on wreath decorating, so I thought I would give a step by step photo tutorial on my project:

First things first…

Then, I got my stuff together…

Ta Da!  Easter wreath!  Next week I'll pop off the nest, and glue on some silk rosebuds I had made a while ago.  

Time to paint!

Miss Hannigan has style!

I    L-O-V-E   Y-O-U   M-I-S-S    H-A-N-N-I-G-A-N!!!

I was just watching one of my favourite movies (the 1982 Annie) with my kids.  I've always loved Carol Burnett, since I was a little kid, and I especially loved her cast as Miss Hannigan, but tonight I was just loving her style!  From her dresses, to her beads, to that amazing romantic bedroom of hers.   Talk about shabby chic, but not todays 'shabby chic' of pastels and whites, a more old world shabby chic.

Amazing fabrics, romance, moody colours, WOW, hard to believe all this in an orphanage during the depression.

Can you believe I couldn't find one image of her bedroom on the internet?  Anyway, if you all get a chance to see this movie (which everyone should watch at least 100 times!) keep an eye on the sets (and Carols wardrobe!).

Cape Cod

I've always wanted to go to Cape Cod.  You know, its one of those things you always read about…'summering at the Cape'.  So two weeks ago, when my husband and I were wondering what we were going to do with the kids during March break (we NEVER go away during March break) I suggested seeing if we could rent a place on Cape Cod.  My husband didn't think there would be anything available, as this is a hot vacation time in Canada.  All package holidays are either fully booked or so expensive its prohibitive.  However, I guess no one wants to go to New England as it isn't exactly tropical weather.  We didn't care about the weather, we just wanted somewhere nice and interesting.  So I scanned the internet and found a gorgeous home on the water.  I don't mean nice, I mean G O R G E O U S!!!!

Just look at this view!  This was exactly 20 feet (ish) from our front door!  I haven't downloaded the photos of the house yet, but when I do I'll post them.  I just can't get over our, I mean OUR beach!  It was semi-private, but as no one else was crazy enough to be on it, it felt pretty private!

Crazy or what?  I felt it was crazy to have this in your backyard (I mean GOOD CRAZY!!!).

How can something so simple as this photo give me so much joy?

And here is my funny leprochaun at the Cape Cod St. Patricks day parade on Cape Cod last saturday!  He  does have 50% Irish blood, but 100% Irish mischief in him!

We also went to my ultimate dying to go to place of all time…MARTHA'S VINEYARD!  It truly was beautiful, and we were lucky it was a sunny (COLD but sunny) day.  The island was pretty much deserted.  We ate at the only restaurant open in Edgartown, 'The News from America', and it was really great.  Our food was pretty good, but they could have fed me chicken nuggets, and I wouldn't have noticed, as the ambiance and character of this old pub was spectacular!  Also, as one of my kids has a severe (LIFE THREATENING SEVERE) peanut/treenut allergy, the restaurant staff was very helpful and accommodating.  A lovely and safe meal was had by all (not as easy as it sounds).

Martha's Vineyard was really all that and a jar of caviar!  But, in a very relaxed, low key, billion dollar cedar cottage way.  I would move there in a heart beat!  Look at these views…

The harbour in Edgartown, known as the JAWS harbour, as Jaws was filmed there in 1974 (wow!  I remember reading the book back then cause my parents wouldn't take me to the cinema)!  Did I mention I read it when I was just 6 months old?

and…

and…

Oh yeah, and…

SPECTACULAR!

Here's Primo (not his real name, but as he's a real Tony Shaloub fan, we find it appropriate) chillin' by the lighthouse, reading his map.

Well, not only did the kids love running around the lighthouse, and their day there, they thought it was SUPER COOL that Tony Shaloub owns a home there!!  Are my kids not the geekiest kids in the world?!?!  We love watching Monk!  We have 7/8 seasons on DVD, and are having the hardest time finding season 8!  Anyway, when they found out he has a home there, it was worth the day trip!

All good things must come to an end, and our great vacation ends tomorrow!  Long drive back home, but even thats fun!

Oh, did I mention I did a little 'junktiquing' on the trip?  More on that next time…

I just joined the Cowgirl Up! Link party!  Follow the party here:  (sorry, I'm so bad at this and can't figure out how to get the button on here).  Just copied and pasted, don't know if it will work…Sorry Ladies, hope it works, don't mean to offend.  I would love some advise on this if anyone can help!

http://farmhouseporch.blogspot.ca/

Cath Kidston Love

CATH KIDSTON LOVE!

Why is it that we are drawn to a certain designer, or a certain look?  Why is it when you walk in some shops, you feel a real connection?  Thats how I felt about Cath Kidston about 10 years ago, when I first saw Cath Kidston in a UK magazine.  I quickly found the online shop, but to ship from the UK to Canada is terribly expensive, not to mention how much duty we would pay on top!  So a couple of years later when my daughter moved to NYC to attend NYU, I was ecstatic!  I would buy online from the US site, and have it shipped to my daughter.  Or, she would just go to the shop and pick out what I wanted.  As you can see from the above photo, its done in 'vintage' Cath Kidston prints.  I love the Pop Flowers curtains, and the 'Birds' oilcloth tablecloth.

However, now I think I've fallen in love with the new pattern called 'Royal Rose'.  IN LOVE, real, achey, yearning love!  You know what I'm talking about!  How can I deny my heart its desire?  When I saw this photo I knew I had to have it!

Doesn't it just make you ache?  My walls are pale green, so I'm pretty sure this will work without changing the paint colours.

While her oilcloth tablecloths are a bit pricey, they are worth every single penny!  They last and last.  Yes, they will stain if you spill tomato sauce on it, so I'm quite careful when my kids eat pasta (I just put paper towel under their plates), but even with the odd stains, it holds up well.

Ok, and if you are going to invest in a new table cloth, you need a new apron or two!  Tea towels are an 'INVESTMENT'!

However, I'm not going to the UK till this summer, so I'll have to order them (from now, cause I don't want anything sold out!) and have them shipped to my sister in laws house!  What do you think?  Lovely, huh?

Then, after redecorating my kitchen I must redecorate myself!!   Look at what else I found and MUST HAVE:

Can a girl have too many broaches?

How about a matching handbag?

I have to start saving up for this trip!