New Year's Eve Fashion

Need a little black dress for New Year's Eve?  I've picked some beautiful ones out for you at White House Black Market.  Buy one of these, and you'll still be wearing it 10 years from now.  Classic and well made...a win-win!

No jewellery necessary with these two neck lines below.

Here is just some of what they have for long dresses.  

Mini Christmas House Tour

 I thought I'd give you a mini Christmas house tour.  I say mini because I don't really do a lot of decorating at Christmas.   I like to keep things simple because I find it calming, and at this point in my life, I need calm.  

I kept the family room (above) in neutral tones using creams, taupes, greys and golds.  I even turned the books so that the books blended in and added to the tones.  I must say that although it's hard to find a book now,  I love it and I don't think I'm going to turn them anytime soon.  They were just too busy the other way.  Actually, House and Home Magazine liked my tree and showed it on their Instagram account so if you follow them on IG, you would have seen it.  That was pretty cool to have them say they liked my tree!

 I needed some height at the end of my mantel, so I placed this large ornament I had in a silver candle stick.  Even the collage got some garland.  Found this gold silver and twine garland at Target and had to have it. 

For the front hall I bought some miniature Christmas balls a couple of years ago in silver, deep blue and white.  Usually I just put them in a clear vase, but this year I decided to make them into garland by stringing them on silver yarn that I got at Michaels.  Then I decided to make a chalkboard by just painting canvas black and strung the garland across the top.  The rest of the Christmas ornaments I just put in little mirrored vases I bought at the dollar store and put some greenery in between.  The miniature wreaths I also bought at the dollar store and just tied ribbon around them and hung them from the shades.  Simple, but one of my favourite decorations.

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In the front room I kept it very simple as well.  I hung a paper star that I got at HomeSense last year in the window and hung some white globe lights that I found at Target.  (These lights were hard to find and I had to go to a few Target stores because they were all out.  I also found similar ones later at HomeSense.  The great thing is I can use them outside in the summer on my pergola.)  The red twig wreath I got last year at my grocery store.  I'm not really a big fan of red but in this room which is very gray, it looks quite stunning.  I even went very simple with the railing this year and decided to just place a long string of gold beads that I got at the SuperStore.  On the coffee table I placed an iron gold snowflake that I've had for a couple of years.

In my daughter's teen room we just hung some cool sparkly ornaments that look like old fashioned tree lights (which I love and think would look really cool to use for decorations at New Year's) and some tinsel from the dollar store.  I also just placed some gold snowflakes that I got at the Superstore on the frames.  

In the master bedroom I placed some red wooden beaded garland (that I used on my tree years ago) around the bottom of an Ikea candle and then placed some greenery around it. 

So that's my mini Christmas house tour!

I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but haven't quite finished all my Christmas shopping.  I'm going to be a little busy the next couple of days.:)

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday! 

More Changes to My Daughter's Teen Room

 This room is slowly, and by slowly I mean very slowly, coming along.  My daughter is learning patience.   Hey it's a good life lesson to understand that we can't always just go and buy whatever we want. Some times we have to wait for things...what a concept!  If you follow me on instagram you've seen this pic before.  I found this cute gold accent table at Target for under $80.00 and thought it just looked amazing against the black wall.  Then I decided that all that gorgeous Kate Spade framed paper would look amazing above it.  I also found a cool metal hashtag and "at" sign at HomeSense  and along with the "B" I made earlier, decided to make a collage above the accent table.  I originally had a bookcase here but I thought the gold table looked so much better, so I moved the bookcase to the other side of the room.  Then I wanted a light for above the bed, and was thinking about making one, but spotted this one at Ikea.  The cord and shade combined total was under $20.00.

This is what the light looks like fully assembled.  Pretty cool right?  I love it against the black wall.

One other project I completed was fixing this old bulletin board.  I decided to paint the inside black and add gold thumb takes to the edge.  I then rubbed gold paint into the edges to just give it a bit more gold.  Easy to do and the result was a big change.  It actually is one of my favourite things in the room, and again, not expensive.  You can see the process of this room here and here.

My Top 10 Christmas DIY from Pinterest

via vintagegirl1.blogspot.com.au

So I've been pinning lately...trying to get some Christmas inspiration.  There are so many easy yet beautiful ideas out there.  Here are my top 10 DIY Christmas ornaments and wrap from my Christmas board.   

via boxwoodclippings.com

via starsinspirations.blogspot.com

via missrenaissance.com

via thisheartofmineblog.com

 via fleamarketstylemag.blogspot.com

 via Anthropologie

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

via makeitloveit.com

These are all so classic and yet simple.  Easy to do if you have a low budget or just want to add some homemade charm to your Christmas.

Bye Bye November

I really can't believe November is gone. But it is, and now I'm in full Christmas mode.  Here are just a few pics I've taken this month - mainly of architecture.  I took a wrong turn one day while driving around and found this beautiful church.  I seem to have a real thing for benches, so I'm going to do a post of just the pics I've taken of benches.

 I went on a local Christmas house tour this month and found my dream home!  Is this not amazing?  Unfortunately, it wasn't on the tour so I didn't get to see inside.   I'll be sure to let you all know when I move in :) 

I know it's been some time since I talked about my daughter's bedroom, but  I have made some progress and hope to update you soon.  My goal was to have it done by Christmas - we'll see!!  

Store Watch - Saturday Afternoons

Last weekend I finally had a chance to check out a store in Aurora, Ontario called Saturday Afternoons, and I'm so glad I did.    Not only did I get a chance to see beautiful furniture and accessories, I was also able to get some Christmas inspiration.  One thing that makes this store so special is that some of their furniture is made with reclaimed Ontario barn boards.  They also carry Dash & Albert rugs and Brentwood Classics Furniture (which makes Kimberley Seldon's line of furniture).

A very simple but effective way to add some Christmas to your bedroom - change out the cushions and add some greenery above the headboard.

Love these caged lights. (I'm really into the industrial look lately).  Also, I love the idea of adding some Christmas by placing wooden stars on the wall.

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Here's one little close-up of a glass Cloche that they placed over a silver candle.  It looked so sweet.  The string of bells was super cute too.  I just had to take a pic.

I seriously could have spent an hour in this store..there was so much to see.  If you live in the area, you should definitely check them out. They also have stores in cottage country - Bala, Orillia, Huntsville, Port Dover and Midland.

If you need some more Christmas inspiration, there's been a Canadian Bloggers Home Tour going on this week that you can check out here.