Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have had severe thunderstorms and buckets of rain here this weekend.
So what's a girl to do with all this (indoor) time on her hands?
Paint, of course!
We headed out to pick up some paint for the closets (yes, I'm still working on the office) and I went with my old stand-by: Benjamin Moore Cloud White. I love this colour. Love, love, love. And, I will admit to complaining about the cost of Aura paint, the truth is, it paints like a dream. And it doesn't splatter AT ALL. Which is good for me because I am a total painting slob a neat freak. Heh heh.
So, I'm standing in the closet and Jack comes by to supervise watch.

Jack: Hey while you have that white paint out, so you want to touch up in the hallway?

Me: The hallway is Gentle Cream. This is Cloud White.

Jack: Oh.

Me: They're totally different.

Really, they are.

Oh, and while I was at Benjamin Moore, I happened along a mistint: Iced Slate (right colour, wrong finish for the previous client) for $4. Oh, yeah. You heard me. That baby came home with mama.

I'll let you know how I decide to use it!


Nadine

Sunday

Would rather be doing this:



than this:



Ok, so I'm not ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY building the deck. But I am doing A LOT of planning. A LOT. Seriously. I am.


Nadine

The Office, Part II

Let there be light!
So the yellow on our office walls is starting to grow on me. Like I had a choice.
But I have noticed it looks like there is a light on in the room even when there isn't. It's cheerful! And we can all use a little more cheer in our lives, right? As I found out here, yellow symbolizes wisdom. Yellow means joy and happiness. People of high intellect favour yellow. (Obviously, this is true!) Yellow is useful when you want sharper memory and concentration skills and relief from 'burnout', panic, nervousness and exhaustion. Forget the office! I'm gonna paint yellow EVERYWHERE!
Any way, here are some "sneak peaks" at the office-in-progress.

You may recall this Before shot of the closet doors.


Notice anything, well, wrong???? Yes, the door pulls are on the outside panels.
When we removed the doors, we discovered why:


A broken door. Some wood glue and clamps later, they were ready for this:



Seriously. I don't know why the walls look egg-yolk in this photo. They aren't. Stupid camera operator.

So it was time to load in furniture.

We had to hang the shelves that fit over the desk.


WARNING! This is NOT the way to hang a heavy item. This is totally MacGyvered. And completely wrong. Well, except for the level. That's right. And, it worked anyway, so who am I to judge? :)

And here I am hanging cork board tiles:


I am SO not showing you how they all fell off the wall and I had to throw my body across the desk and squeeze my arm between the wall and the back of the desk and then redo it all. Nope. Not gonna happen.

More furniture in:



Almost ready for its complete unveiling!


Nadine

Beach Living, Gimli Style

I spent this weekend in Gimli. It is located on Lake Winnipeg, a huge freshwater lake covering around 9500 square miles. It has sand beaches, marinas, quaint shops and restaurants and a small-town feel. Gimli is also home to the largest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland, so as a short brunette, I blended right in!

Here are some of the sights we saw:


This is the local doctors' office. Swoon!

There are numerous hotels and inns and cottages available for lease. There are also many places to camp out for a while. But if you wanted to stay a little longer....


This lakefront house is for sale for $549,000.00.

But while I was dreaming of summer decorating, Gimli style - seagrass mats, white slipcovers, and easy living, Jack was dreaming of this:



And it's for sale, too. Now, how should I decorate it?


Nadine

The Office, Part I

We've been steadily working at the office, AKA The Creative One's former bedroom. It's a small space, but I think it will be great for an office space.
The previous tenants had painted the room a (yucky) blue. When I spent most of April some time in that space doing our taxes, I noticed it was very dark. It was SO dark (how dark was it?) that I had to put a light on AT NOON, despite the fact that the room faces west and has a large window.
Here's some BEFORE shots:


Yes, the room came complete with faux woodgrain closet doors, paint on the ceiling (like, seriously, whatever dude painted this room before!) Why bother doing a half-@$$ed job? Drives me crazy. Anyway, back to the topic at hand...
So I thought that yellow would be a good choice for the walls. Lots of bounce. Our office furniture is cherry-coloured and the carpet is a neutral berber. Yellow, it is. But which yellow? Yellow is a difficult colour to pick. I didn't want "nursery" or "egg yolk". The biggest obstacle here is that I always, and I mean always paint my living rooms yellow. No matter what I want to do, I always end up going with yellow. So my family is a little sick of yellow. Even Andrew, The Creative One, weighed in on the debate with two thumbs down and HE doesn't even live here anymore! The Horsey Girl was okay with yellow, however, and she wanted me to go with Benjamin Moore Hawthorne Yellow. It's a deep rich historical colour. It is also the colour of our living room from two houses ago. That house was 80 years old and huge white-painted cove moldings and baseboards. Totally a different concept than my current 70s townhouse. But the Horsey Girl wins again. And so we painted.
I cut in, and Jack (rock 'n) rolled.
Here's the DURING:

Notice the blue paint on the switchplate too - you're supposed to remove it before you paint the room, previous tenant dorks!


And when it was all finished I stepped back and said, "I hate it." It was a yellow nightmare. And because Jack is, and has been for 25 years, my biggest support system, he said, "Tough. Live with it because I am NOT painting it again." Wow. Really supportive.
So I am living with it.

I will even learn to love it. Maybe. One day.

Stay tuned for Part II.

Sorry to leave ya hangin'!


Nadine

The Case of the Missing Blogger

Where, oh where can Nadine be?

I'm working on my latest project drinking a cup of peppermint tea and reading my latest finds straight from Kijiji!


I am a big Nancy Drew fan, so when I saw these beauties I had to have them. And at $3 each, it didn't break the piggy bank. What's not to like? Nancy is smart (even smarter than adults), has titian hair and a blue roadster. How I longed to be her when I was a girl! Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind being her now!
I particularly enjoy the old Nancy Drew books, in blue. The first ones I ever received were from my beloved Aunt Shirley. They were originally hers. The blue hardcover books were printed 1947-1951, while the lighter blue were printed between 1952-1958. The printed book containing The Clue in the Old Stagecoach and The Mystery of the Fire Dragon appears to have been printed in the 60s.

I can hardly wait to dig in!

P.S. The teacup was a gift to me from the mother-in-law of a Canadian Prime Minister.


Nadine

Happy Mother's Day

Since I have already written about my mother, I thought I'd share something from one of my children. Both my kids have turned out to be amazing people. I am a very proud mother! Today, I am focusing only on my daughter, because my son has recently moved out of the family home, and I have no photographs of his home to share with you. But here is a picture of him in Mexico this past Christmas. Handsome, isn't he?

My daughter shares my love and interest in interior design. She was adamant, when we moved into our condo, that she decorate her room right away. It helps her to feel "at home".

Her comforter was a (very nice) chocolate brown and lime green stripe from Nygard.com (no longer available). She wanted her room to feel fresh and bright and, since she loves the colour green, she decided to paint her room Benjamin Moore Wales Green. She painted it (mostly) herself, with only a tiny bit of whining. :) Both the kids have grown-up in renovation-mode and they are each quite handy.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the green and brown bedroom. The Horsey-Girl saw a black and white printed bed set from Walmart. It was love at first sight. And the price was reasonable.
Since the room was already painted the fabulous green, it was going to stay that way!
We decided the small room could use a focal point, so we decided to use a wall tattoo (which is just another name for a huge stencil) from Benjamin Moore as a "headboard". (She doesn't like real headboards; I guess we all have our quirks). We decided the colour could be a fuschia as a counter point to the black, white and green. We had an existing can of paint in that colour.
Ta da!
Here is her room:


I discussed the lampshades project here.


Notice the beautiful black doors:



A view of her shelves, installed by her dad. Perfect for displaying horsey stuff.


The view to the door.


A close-up of the shelves. The riding boots are actually a Christmas ornament, meant to hang on the tree, but she loves them and wants to look at them year-round. (Thanks for the gift, Kellie!)


A better look at her art work, purchased at a song from Home Sense.


Her room is small, but cozy and she has made it all her own. Hope you enjoyed the tour!


Nadine

Saturday Morning

Another sunny Saturday morning!

It should really look like this:


Or like this:


But will probably look more like this:




Have a great weekend!

Nadine

Credit One
Credit Two

Blue Armoire Love

My favourite piece of furniture is my blue armoire. I love it! I love it because, not only is it beautiful, but it is useful as well ( much like my husband, Jack)!
I originally purchased it in the late 90s from Blue Moon Evolution. The link to their website is where they are located now, but back then, the store was in a very cool, very old, brick building in the historical Exchange area of Winnipeg. The owner imported this piece from Mexico and I fell in love with it as SOON as I saw it. It has SOOO much character. It is solid wood and VERY heavy.
And little did I know how much MORE I would grow to love it. This armoire has been in almost every room of every house I have lived in.
It started life as a television cabinet in our living room and then moved to the dining room in the same house as a china cabinet. In our last house, it started out in the (quite large) kitchen as a dish cabinet, and ended up in the master bedroom as clothes storage. Today, it is living in my condo as a front-hall closet. I do not understand WHY the closet was ever removed in the first place. Still scratching my head over that one, but I will build a built-in one one day.
When that happens, my trusty blue armoire will move from its current location, but it will always be somewhere in my home!




And on another note, a very happy birthday shout-out to our cats - Amelia, Belle, and Milo. They were born 2 years ago today on our farm (that's how I know their exact birthday).

Because no matter how much you love the things in your house, it's those you live with that make it a home.

P.S. These are the fur-babies getting their breakfast this morning!

Nadine

Master Bedroom Options

As a refreshing change of pace, we have decided to decorate our master bedroom NOT last. This is big. Unheard of, even. So, we were at the Home Depot on the weekend on an unrelated matter, and I saw lots and lots of wallpaper.
I would like to do a feature wall in wallpaper, with the remaining three walls in the background colour of the wallpaper. I am loving the colour turquoise right now, so I picked up some paint chip samples for the nightstands as well.
The existing comforter and accent pillows are a soft blue with a small brown stripe, and the shams are brown. They are from Nygard.com It is called "Zen".
So here are the top three contenders:

Option #1:
I like this combination. The brown paper is warm, yet modern. it goes well with the bedding, without being too matchy-matchy. The blue chip is Behr "Sunken Pool MSL126".

Option #2:


This paper is fresh and country-looking. I think it looks welcoming and comfortable.

Option 3:


The wallpaper is shiny and sophisticated. A little "upscale". The second photo features a paint chip by "Behr". The top colour is called "Gray Morning 490F-4". This is the chip suggested by Home Depot/Behr colour matching system. I placed the accent pillow in the machine and this is what I got. Not bad, considering it is pretty hard to match blue with brown stripes! But I am still having my love affair with turquoise...


So, what should it be?

Tune in later for a full reveal! (Don't hate me for keeping it a secret!) :)


Nadine

A Shady Post

I did a little project this week for the lamps in my daughter's room. She is very particular about how things go together in her bedroom (hmmm, where does she get that from???)
The before looked something like this:


Image Source: kijiji.ca


She hated the pleated shades and shiny brass metal of her hand-me-down lamps. But her room is rather small and lights attached to the wall made sense.

Time to put on the crafty hat!

I spray painted all the metal parts in the basement. (gasp, gasp- trying to breathe- it would have been much better to do the work OUTDOORS, but it was raining, and when I have a project in mind, I get impatient!)

They looked better already.
But what to do about the shades? I removed the pleated "slipcovers" and also spray-painted with the black spray paint. FAILURE!!!! There is old glue on the shades and the new paint just highlighted that detail. Boo hoo!



SO I thought I'd cover the shades in ribbon for a one-of-a-kind look. It took 4 rolls of this ribbon from Walmart @ $2.50 each which comes to (oh, no a math test - I'm panicking, ok $10) plus my handy dandy glue gun. The whole project took about 10 minutes per shade. I just wrapped the ribbon around the shade, so the inside looks exactly like the outside. I only used a small dot of glue at the beginning, at the end of each roll and to finish up the shade.


yeah, that glue gun ain't pretty, but it gets the job done!




And this is what they look like now:




The horsey-girl is delighted.

P.S. The full reveal of her room is next week!
See you then!

Nadine