These past few days, I have been busy working on Miss Laine's room..
I still need to put blinds in there, and possibly new curtains down the road.. but other that that, I am happy to say it is done! ..oh, and possibly a winter paint project too. ha ha! ;P
..and I will have pictures to share really really soon. ;)
I had the urge to write up a blog post.. so I opened up Aperture to see what sort of photos I had taken with the intentions of blogging (and obviously haven't gotten around to ha ha!).. and these images of Miss Laine's new light were screaming "pick me, pick me!" ..how could I refuse? ;)
The story of this light (the Tord Boontje Garland Light) probably goes back a year or so, when I first saw pictures of it floating around the net.. you know how things do that? You see it on one blog, and then another.. and another and so on and so on.. and before you know it, you neeeeeeed it. lol
That is what happened with this, but we were in our old house.. and I couldn't justify the expense of changing out another light, when we had already done most of them in the few years prior. BUT.. when we moved into this house, and none of the bedroom lighting was personalized in any way, I knew it would be perfect for my sweet Laine's room. :)
So, I went on the mission of finding a Canadian store with one in stock.. and I did! The ladies at Chi Chi Home were fabulous to communicate with, and before I knew it.. we had this flat packaged (?? who knew!? lol) light fixture to make look pretty! ha!
I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered.. how it would arrive (box size etc.), I knew it was a garland.. but for some reason, I wasn't picturing a cardboard flat package! lol And LONG! It hung almost all the way to the floor.. and I am not going to admit just how many attemps it took for me to get it 'just right' lol! I think the lighting difference in this series of photos will tell that bit of the story all on their own! hee!
Here is an attempt along the way..
Probably fine, but all I could see was a lopsided 'smush' ha ha!
It gets put together by wrapping it around and using the metal flowers and leaves to 'clip' it back onto itself.. in other words.. chaos. lol It really is genius though, the design I mean.. it lets you be creative and have a 'say' in how it ends up, while still keeping it's own infamous look. I think the secret is to not try and make it look perfect.. honestly, the more I scrunched it up and stuff, the more I liked how it looked!
And as you can see.. this point of finally liking how it was came many hours later (after having to walk away from it once for a nice little break ha!)..
It is awesome.. she loves it so much, it reminds all of us of a little fairy home! Which is perfect for Miss Laine.. who loves all things fairy! ;) I think I may end up ordering another garland to add to this one.. to give it a bit more size. It is definitely a light that has impact on a room.. but it could be a little bit bigger.. for this room, being the main light... yeah, I just might give this 'wow' and bit more 'WOW'! We'll see.. I am kinda scared to mess with it though! hee! ;)
Oh, and she tells everyone that she has a light designed by a famous designer.. ohhhhhhh she is sooooo my kid! ha ha! ;)
Finally sharing my craft space! I say finally like it has been set up for ages.. but in reality it still just feels like yesterday that it even remotely started to feel like familiar territory. Once I moved enough boxes to be able to close the door.. I was a happy girl, much easier to ignore the reality that was the craziness of this room! ha ha
It is soooo much smaller than my space in our last house. I ended up with waaaay less storage, but miraculously have found a way to make it work! And honestly, I love that it is smaller! Who knew?
With less space, I am much more aware of what supplies I have... and where they actually are! hee! Laine ended up with one of my desks in her room, which left a spot for my most favourite thing.. the turquoise 'island' from our previous kitchen.
So many pictures.. not sure how that happened... (so rolling my eyes at myself right now).. ha ha!
The pom poms just got hung the other day.. until then they resided in three garbage bags in the corner of the room! Much prettier now! ;)
The bear is from bird mafia, and I first spotted it on Vol.25 (I had to snag one right away! hee!)..
Loving the desk looking out the window (except I need blinds for at night lol).. during the day though, it is great to be able to peek outside!
Well, that is all for now! I can't wait until a more regular routine develops and I work some creative crafty time into my daily schedule.. sipping coffee and making things, oh yes.. that sounds like bliss! :) For now though, it stays really really really clean! hee!
It has been a bit of a win win here lately.. I feel like I have actually hopped back into blogging, getting comfortable with it again... and naturally, I want to blog about things we are up to around the house (this has always been my fave stuff to blog about).. so anyway, blogging about things around the house, makes me actually want to DO things around the house! A win win right!?
That brings us to the newest light addition. James hung it for me last night, when I am pretty darn positive that the only thing he wanted to do was crawl onto the couch with his book.. yep, awesome-ist hubby ever! Thank you babe! xoxo
The view from the veranda looking in..
I have wanted something with a little bit of 'funk' for this space.. something with a bit of glam, but on the simple side.. I know I know.. this light is far from simple lol. I also didn't want to break the bank on a light fixture for my craft room.. ya know? Which is why I stayed away from our one and only specialty lighting store hee heee! There is some pretty (expensive) stuff in there! ha! ;)
SO yeah.. I was at Home Depot, looking at the display and saw NOTHING. Then I decided to actually take a look at what they had in the boxes below.. and I saw this one! It was a small box, compared to the light.. so I almost skipped over it... so happy I didn't! The picture on the box was horrible, the box was small so it was hard to get an idea of size (I am so bad at visualizing measurements! lol).. and like I said, it wasn't on display! BUT, it was the closest I had found locally to what I pictured. I am so glad I took the chance on this one!
From the beginning, I had told myself I either wanted something round (our stand by Ikea dandelion light was always an option too).. or a bigger version of what we ended up putting in the laundry room, which is what this so perfectly is! Yay for good 'ol Home Depot! ;)
Now to clean up the room so I can share pics with you all.. or should I paint first? ha ha ha ...sooooo joking! hee!
Yesterday, I showed you our entry way.. and today, I thought I'd talk a little more about the floor to ceiling photo wall that you might have caught a peek of. You see, when you first enter our front door.. there is this little wall off to the side that is home to the doorbell fixture, the central air exchange switch, the thermostat and of course a plug in.
All of which are running straight up the center of the wall.. leaving it pretty much useless.
As soon as I saw the wall.. this fabulous wall from House Tweaking came to mind! The only thing I could think to do was hide them amongst a wall of white frames.. thank goodness I had a ridiculous amount to choose from since barely anything had been put up on the walls since the move. I went 'shopping' in our closet of 'things to hang' ..gathered up all things white and went to town!
James did all of the hanging of course (he is kinda awesome at it).. otherwise there would have been too many holes in the wall to count (I kind of suck at it)! ha ha! We started at the bottom and worked our way up.. making a straight border with the frames as we went.. and filling in the middle area with assorted smaller frames.
Thank goodness it worked out.. since we didn't pre plan it at all! lol Once we got close to the top, we made our edge along the ceiling and worked our way back down to meet up with the rest.
After all of the frames were hung, I went and switched out art work in a lot of them (since the frames all came from different rooms in our previous house).. added some photos and viola! ..camouflaged 'stuff'! lol Now instead of having a little basket case every time I looked at the wall (I know I know.. it wasn't that bad, no actually it kinda was hee!) ..well, now I see calm and happy! ha ha ha!
What about you.. have you ever disguised 'unsightly' things around the house by hanging frames around it or maybe even right over top of it? ..cause trust me, if we could have hung one big frame over the whole shebang, we probably would have! hee!
sources.. (1, 2, 3, 4.. as well as framed cards, scrapbook paper and vintage paintings)
Hey hey! I figured it was about time that I started to show you a glimpse of our new house.. what better place to start hen the front entry right? Not only was it the spot that made the most sense.. it was also the only room/area that didn't require any cleaning as I walked around with my camera early today. :P
The first picture is what greets you as you open the front door. Office on the left, staircase to upstairs on the right.. as well as a hallway. The photo wall on the right had a sole purpose of disguising a strip of outlets and fixtures (doorbell, thermostat etc) that ran right up the middle of it. I must say.. I loooove how it turned out, more on this in another post though. ;)
We have this little hallway area that goes between the front door and the door to the garage which is at the other side of the front of the house. This little area also has the door to my office, the stairway, 2 hall closets, a pantry door, the basement door and a bathroom! Quite the busy spot in the house! lol
Looking out from my office door..
When you walk around the staircase, this is what you see..
And looking back towards my craft space..
There are still a few things I would like to do in this area. Like, switch out the ceiling lighting (I am thinking white globe lights), I also want to add some hooks and maybe a ledge shelf back by the garage door.. give it more of a 'mud room' feel, since the garage door will likely be the door we use the most, it would be great to have an easy spot for backpacks and sweaters.. as well as somewhere to set coffee as we get our shoes on. ;)
It is coming along though, thanks to company coming up this past week.. sent our picture hanging into high gear and lookie what we got done! Have I said yet that I LOVE the photo wall? Oh yeah.. I was going to do a whole separate post on that! ha ha Yes, I loooove it that much. :)
sources.. photo wall (1, 2, 3, 4.. as well as framed cards, scrapbook paper and vintage paintings).. bird mirrors, owl, mountain scene painting (vintage).. table, vase, and mirror (Winners).. bench (have had it forever), peacock feathers, frames (mostly from Michaels)
A quick and random post on this gorgeous sunny Sunday.. spring, are you finally here? Knock on wood, right? Here are some things I am loving around home this week..
I scrapbooked! You have no idea how happy this makes me. First page since January.. this is HUGE! ;) Nevermind that.. first bit of craftiness since January period! Happy happy girl I am!! :)
Miss Laine's hair. She got a haircut a few weeks ago and donated her 8 inch pony. So proud of her! Then.. to top things off, her auntie took her and her cousin to get a pink streak put in last weekend.. so fun! You should see her struttin' around the house these days! ;) Don't worry (mom).. it is only semi-permanent and has faded immensely already.
Our light. We have replaced a lot of lighting in our house already.. most people think we are nuts since it is a brand new house.. but it had the same lighting as almost all of the houses around us, so the need to be unique pushed into the land of crazy. ha! I actually bought two of these.. one big and one little, and this one (the big one) is hanging above the entry/foyer-ish area up on the second level.. we loooove it. Not too sure where to put the smaller one yet.. maybe in my craft space, or we might save it for the staircase down to the basement.. which isn't finished, so it may be a while before it makes an appearance.
I actually just love that we actually had somewhere to put this huge light in this house.. it was actually James who said it would be the perfect spot (he knew I had a major crush on this particular fixture hee!) when we first stepped into the house! ..love that!
Love that I am finally getting the nerve to hang things on the walls... even if they are just taped up for now. ;P
Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend so far!
These two spaces (old and new) are night and day in comparison.. the new space is A LOT smaller. Which surprisingly.. I am looking forward to! Nuts right? The thought of a cozier.. less 'junk filled' space is very exciting! Looking around the room at all of the boxes (not pictured lol).. I am realizing that I may need to get creative with some storage, but I am definitely up to the challenge!
So far, I am down one brown Ikea Expedit shelf (extra one now lives in Harley's room.. toy storage heaven), one desk (the other now lives in Laine's room.. her very own big girl desk) and I gained a turquoise kitchen island.. which I am thrilled over!! Why the island? ..the new kitchen has a built in island, and since this turquoise stand alone is one of my favourite pieces of furniture.. had to make it fit in somewhere. ..where better than as a workspace in my new crafting room! I just *might* miss it a little in my kitchen though. :(
It has been very challenging so far, shuffling furniture around the house.. a challenging but fun process. Harley has all new furniture in his room, Laine has a desk and I haven't spent a cent.. just repurposing. ..it has been kind of like going furniture shopping within our own walls!
My two tall storage shelves are going to live side by side, and to tell you the truth.. as soon as they were placed beside each other, I knew I liked it more than with the space/window arrangement before. My remaining white topped desk will go under the window (to the left of the door in the picture above) and the island will remain in the middle. Oh yeah, and the left over Expedit is behind that pile against the wall. ;) It will definitely be tight, but it should work!
Sadly, the new space is much more cluttered up right now.. it seems to be the 'catch all' space for baskets and other random things. lol Oh well.. it will come along soon I am sure. Can't wait to get in there and set up this new space properly! ..and better yet, can't wait to actually get in there and make stuff!! :)
Yep.. iPhone pics are as good as it is gonna get around here for a while... my main computer is currently in a mountain on top of that island.. surrounded by who knows what. ;)
What do you think? Will I come out of this 'downsize' happy.. or will it get the better of me!? I see many many blog stories to come! ha ha ha ..ha ha??
xoxo
If I was to define the style that I would like to call our new home it would possibly be something like "modern rustic" ..lots of nature inspired goods! With a bit of glam thrown in? lol Um.. "modern rustic chic?" ha ha ha? Yes, switching gears a little bit with the decor.. we call this our 'mature house' hee!
Since I am still photo-less (or too lazy to take pictures of my camera might be more like it), I figured I would do a post dedicated to some artwork that we have ordered.. and are itchin' to hang ..right babe?!! ;)
First up..
This gorgeous HUGE antlers poster by Debbie Carlos. EEeeek! Can't wait to figure out ummmm where exactly to hang this beauty! At first we were thinking above the mantle.. but I think it might be too large once framed, then we came across another piece for the mantle ..so I wasn't going to order this one.. but heck, it was to great not to! Just love everything about it, it sort of sets the tone for the house I think! :)
And how cute are these little fellas!!
I um actually purchased these cuties while we were in the old house still.. but knew they would be perfect, SO CUTE! From BROOKLYNrehab ..this shop is full of things making me want to go back for more!!
This next print is the one we ended up choosing for our mantle.. we put a floor to ceiling rock fireplace into this house before we moved in (can't wait to share a pic.. we love how it turned out!).. and we are thinking this framed in a thick white frame will look so great against the dark stone! I first came across this via Apartment Therapy (of course)! :)
Photo is a bit stretched.. but if you pop on over the The Wild Unknown, you can zoom in on the gorgeous detail! I was smitten the instant I saw it..
Actually, completely smitten with The Wild Unknown all together! So much so, that these are also on their way..
Wild Heart and Hanging Prism both from The Wild Unknown ..eeek, can't wait to hang that prism in the window!!
I love the neutrals in these photos.. resisted the urge to go completely neutral through out the whole house (although I was very tempted!), so there will still be aquas, greens and yellow accents in the mix.. although we are purging along the way, I can't bring myself to get rid of everything that I love.. the challenge will be coming up with a mix between this totally rustic neutral look with the crazy colours I had going on before! ;)
I would love to tie it all together with vintage paintings like this..
littlebyrdvintage is another shop that I could likely and willingly take one of everything! hee! LOVE the look of this shop, the images alone are inspiring! ..I had some mountain scene paintings similar to this look that used to be hanging in our playroom, they may get used in a main living space this time around! Looks like littlebyrdvintage only ships to the US.. probably a good thing I suppose! ;)
Also loving (and sort of wish I ordered along with the antlers poster)..
owl call print from Debbie Carlos
Anyhoo.. what do you think? Feeling it? Crazy? I need more antlers I have decided.. my one and lonely deer antler is going to need some companions around the house (mom.. has Brian found anymore out in the field?? lol) ..I blame the house for all this, it just screams for this vibe!! :) Yes.. totally the house's fault. ;)
Later friends!
Current status... crazy.
OK.. wanna see? I know I promised pretty pictures.. you know, the official 'after' photos, I said I would have those up right away right?
Wrong.
How about you take a walk with me, and you will see what I mean. Let's start at the top of the stairs and head down to the family room, shall we?
Oh oh.. that doesn't look quite right does it? lol Well, if the massive amount of filler and repairs all over the walls already, you may have guessed that the beige got the better of me. My 'maybe someday' paint plan is going to be a 'why the heck not' sort of plan. lol
Now that we near the bottom of the stairs, we are going to turn towards the family room.. oh, and there is my craft space (the only room down here free of chaos)!
If it isn't already obvious.. with the amount of little dents and holes in the walls, it was definitely due for a fresh coat of paint anyway. ;)
One thing I have learned already.. kids are hard on walls. lol
Now, let's keep going down and around the corner...
Ohhhh, looky! Pretty! So nice and fresh.. very welcome colour for this dark space!
You are probably wondering what that spot of white filler is doing on that wall though, right? I did just finish painting it after all.
Another thing I have learned.. I am hard on walls too. Got it with the vacuum nozzle the other day as I was cleaning the rabbit pen. Nice.
Keep on going around the corner..
Whoa!? Yes.. we are all hard on walls apparently. Harley thinks this couch in the middle of the room thing is pretty fun! Yes.. he pretty much lives in those jammies. Can't blame him, really.
See the corner? Sample paint #1 (strayed from my original thoughts and randomly picked something different.. silly me). Close, but not quite. Purple-ish/pink undertones. So crazy how different paint looks when it is actually on the walls.
Well, there you have it. Current status.. nowhere near done. lol Project paint just got a whole lot bigger.. next up, main floor! ahhh!
Send help.
I need it. ;)
Oh, also.. added a 'project paint' category tag (below), so if you want to follow this as it progresses, just click on it... and it will show all posts that have to do with this craziness (aka, my current obsession). hee!
xoxo
