Original Art

Just thought I'd share the amazing art we were recently given.  Brian "Lex" Leuthel who is a local artist painted the one above using a combination of oil and water paints. (He's working on a pilot show right now with my husband so you may see him on TV some day soon.  I'll keep you posted.)  I wasn't quite sure where to put it, but then I decided to use it as a headboard in my son's room.   

Here's what it looks like as a headboard. 

The pic above is our "art" before which was a broken skateboard with some skateboard labels on canvass - now that's cheap decorating.

My sister, who is also an artist, painted this picture above for my daughter.  She does a lot of commissioned work and does an awesome job - thanks Shelley.  You can see the original picture below.

Here's some pics of the new art on my daughter's desk with a pom pom above.  I love these pom poms, and they're easy to make.  They remind me of a Ju Ju Feather Hat.   You can check out more pom poms with Martha Stewart.

Here's a pic of a Ju Ju Feather Hat courtesy of Houzz in case you were wondering what the heck I was talking about.

FLOWER POWER

It's been so cold here lately that I just had to buy some flowers.  

"Just living is not enough...one must

have sunshine, freedom and

a little flower."

Hans Christian Anderson

I just want to take this time
to thank everyone for all of their support.
The positive feedback has been quite
overwhelming.  I really appreciate all
the likes, follows, e-mails and comments.
Your support means a lot to me.

Have a Great Weekend!!

Collage/Art

Before the holidays I decided to paint my family room one of my favourite colours which is a gray called Metropolis by Ben. Moore.  After painting the walls my brain decided to move the furniture, which then led to a collage, which then led to extending the dining room table and repositioning it....you  get it.  Decorators do this!

(Upper pic is family room before paint and

lower pic is family room now.)

I love collages and have had many. 

I had these gold frames (below) in a box so I decided to put them on this narrow wall.   Gold is huge right now in design and looks fantastic with my taupe and gray colour scheme. A collage like this is easy, inexpensive decorating, and it adds some drama to a space.  This wall can also be seen from the front door so this provides a bit of intrigue.

On the wall above I needed some colour so I found this wallpaper which I love at Home Depot and then pasted it onto canvass.  This is another great trick to use with fabric.  If you love a fabric but don't know what to do with it,  staple it to canvass and hang it up.  

I have!  

Remember, your space should be full of things you love, so if you don't want to commit to a wallpaper or a fabric, put them on the wall!

The family gallery shown below is another easy and inexpensive art display.  I just photocopied family pictures and then placed them in inexpensive frames.  For interest, I mixed it up a bit with some black and white photos (6) and some coloured photos (3).

(You may notice Mayor Rob Ford -you know the Toronto mayor who confessed to smoking crack - hanging in our family picture gallery.  My husband thought this would be funny for Christmas and it was!!  He wanted to see how long it would take family members to notice - apparently it takes about an hour).

Warning:  this could all change.  

Actually, what I should say is 

Warning: this WILL all change.

I'm going to post before and after shots of my rooms soon.  They really have come a long way since we purchased this house.

Have a great day and get collaging would ya!!

Previous House Tour

I was just going over some old photos of our previous (like 10 years ago) 90 year old house in Toronto and thought I would share them with you.  With a lot of paint, we managed to transform each room on a limited budget.  I know everyone loves a house tour, so here goes.

The kitchen cupboards were from the 80's and had the wooden slats for handles, so I opted to just take most of the cupboard doors off and go for a French country look.  With the other doors I painted the wood out the same colour as the cabinets and put on door handles.  An easy fix.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.  I've been working on some picture/frame collages which I hope to share with you soon.

I leave you with this quote:

"THE FUTURE IS PURCHASED AT THE PRICE OF VISION IN THE PRESENT."      

Samuel Johnson

Golden Globes 2014 Hits and Misses

If you're like me, you watched the Golden Globes last night not to see who won an award, but to see what everyone was wearing.   We saw lots of black, red, emerald green, belts and lace.

HITS

Here are some of my favorites.

Emma Thompson looked stunning  in this  3/4 length dress.  I love a 3/4 length dress because it allows the shoes to be noticed.  The gold top with her blonde hair was beautiful!  My only complaint would be that it was a little tight.

This was another fav of mine - Kate Blanchett in Armani.  I'm actually not a big fan of lace, but this was gorgeous!

I love the lines of this dress.

MISSES

Those were my hits and here are some of the ones I think missed.

The dress above actually had pants under it.  Please don't ever do this.  Not a good look.

I love the colours of this dress and like colour blocking, but this dress was not a good choice for Sandra Bullock.  She has a very young face and I think the dress and the pony tail make her look like a little girl.  The dress wears her.

I thought this dress on Tina Fey was too overwhelming - like curtains made into a dress.  I think if her hair had been up and her train had been all black, I would have liked it.

Not a big fan of the palm trees.

Julia Roberts' hair and make-up were bang on but her dress was like office meets evening wear to me.  The cut of the bottom of the dress is gorgeous but I don't like the top with it.