My fave bookshelf & Vintage Enamel Flower Brooches

Welcome to my favourite (so far) part of our apartment.  

This little bookshelf is home to some of the prettiest things I own. 

The painting was from my mom, who thrifted it. (go mom!)

On the bottom shelf are my scrapbooks, vintage fashion magazines and boxes of photos.

2nd shelf has photo albums, data discs storing photobackups, an old Pentaz SLR and an ice cream cone that is actually a bubble blower.
Above that we have my 2 polaroid cameras (post about them to come) and the typewriter in my favourite color that I found at a yard sale for $7.

Then we've got a vintage globe, (the first of a hopeful collection - I love inaccurate geography.) my lomography camera, the camera from my grandpa (story here) and my vintage flower pins. 

 They were a little dusty yesterday, so I cleaned them up and then did a little photoshoot :)

They've all been thrifted over the past 6-7 years, never bought online, only found surprises at yard sales and good will shops.  I find it more exciting of a collection that way, they're all found treasures. 

Tonight my friends are hosting an outdoor movie night in their backyard E.T. & Jaws under the stars.  What are you up to this weekend? I hope it's a good one!

my fave way to arrange flowers. cheap, inexpensive, recycled arrangement.

The weather in toronto last week was strangely warm.  

All of the snow melted, and it felt like spring was here.  

It's still the first week of January, and we have new snow now, but mentally i have moved on.  

So i treated myself to a $4 bouquet of white chrysanthemums. (mums for short)

 I rummaged around my apartment for all of the glass containers I could find.  They include a wine carafe, pop bottle, homemade pickle jar, spice jars and vintage vases & perfume bottles.

 After filling all the jars with water, I began by placing flowers into the smaller jars first.  I wasn't sure if I would use all of the vases, so I started with my favourites. 

 After making sure all the vases had flowers, I set them on the table - beginning with the largest ones, then fanning out with the smaller ones.

 Play with the arrangement of vases until you are pleased with it. 

 And voila! your table looks pretty and ready for spring.

Random tips:

Mums like to be broken with a tear, rather than slicing the bottom like you would a rose.

If your florist doesn't give you any "flower food" you can add a little sugar to the water in the vase.

Remove any leaves that would be below the surface of the water - they will rot very quickly.

Bunch flowers together with an elastic near the bottom - they will spread more evenly.

Variations:

Different sizes of tin cans

Wrapping coloured ribbon on the vases

Mixing different types of flowers would be really pretty

Add food colouring to the water - the jars will have more colour, and eventually the white flowers will drink the coloured water and change the flower heads.  Beautiful and fun for kids to learn about plants.

Have fun!

decisions, decisions...

it's nearly that time, for me to move again!

and i don't even hate it.  i think it's because i get to start personalizing a new space.

when we move to toronto, we will at first be moving into a house shared with some good friends, which does limit the amount of decorating we (i, who am i kidding) get to do.

i have an idea of what i'd like for our bedroom but am having trouble finding the exact thing i have in my head. i may have to make it.  the bedroom is already painted, and because we don't know how temporary the place will be, we won't bother painting just yet.  the room is a blue-grey right now.  which is fine.  if it were just me, i'd go full out princess and get this bedding from anthropologie:

but steve would probably prefer otherwise. 
the runner-up/design in my head is inspired by mens suiting.  there are some that come close, but nothing just right.  truly, there is nothing better than a good looking man in a suit.  

 just an example.  *wink wink

this one from amazon.com is nice, but doesn't seem polished enough.  i'd like some piping or some sort of detail to make it look, well, less lumpy. haha.

this one from wrapables.com is tempting, i really like the pop of colour, but it's once again probably too feminine. 

this one from thelinenboutique.co.nz is nice, but would be better if not plaid and just stripes. 

all in all, this Dora Designs plush dog doorstopper would be perfect as a duvet.  all she needs is a chartreuse floral collar, and to not look so dog-like.

what kind of bedding do you have? how do you find the balance between his & hers? or do you at all?

best of 2009 - part three.

moving to europe. wow. big one.

and i really have blogged most of what's been going on, but here goes.

this is where we moved:

best first and foremost - getting to hang with my cousin jocelyn.

this is us out for dinner on my birthday and getting photo-bombed by the waiter.

swimming in the ocean and lying on the beach!

getting to know the other language assistants, and having girls nights out.

why don't men take this job?

halloween vs michael jackson.

only 15 or so dressed for halloween (not so big in france) but maybe 100 m.j.'s and his music played all night.  joce and i have never gotten to party together like this before. such a great night.

day trip to the market in ventimiglia, italy. and the best gelato of all time.

watching the finish line at a marathon and cheering.

seeing how dedicated steve is to watching football. note that we also have a 6 hour time difference whenever he wants to watch a live game.  8 pm game = 2 am here.

 going to paris for a weekend and meeting steve's cousins.

american thanksgiving for the first time.

preparing for christmas. a.k.a. hanging pictures and making paper trees. and making chocolate chip cookies in the toaster oven, without many of the usual supplies.

and holiday parties. and the christmas markets full of fake snow.  and sandmen.

having steve's friend jon come to visit for 10 days.  to see avatar, have a beer at a pub and then watch steve as he had the flu. but we bonded :)

spending christmas in paris with my best friend.

(more pics of this later)

what can i say... it's been an incredible year!

recycled paper christmas trees

i was bored one sunday, and wanted some christmas decorations for our apartment, but everything was closed, so i dug up what i could find... 

these are the supplies. 

cereal box, tape, stapler and the awesome green striped printer paper i found at my school.

cut the cereal box into a semi-circle shape. trace a plate or freeform - it works.

the larger the circle, the taller the tree.

roll & staple the cardboard to make a cone shape.  the rounded part of the semi-circle will be the base.

cut many leaf shapes from the paper. mine average about 1.5 inches long and i used 2 pages of paper.

tape the leaves onto the cone in layers.

continue until you've covered the tree, and voila!