Merry Christmas

  

Hope you're all having a beautiful day!

 I've been a little busy with life & work, so haven't had much time to post. From my home to yours, Merry Christmas!

(All photos are mine taken with my iPhone.)

Christmas 2016 Home Tour

Nothing like a foot of snow to get me in the Christmas spirit.  Usually I have my tree up by the first week of December but I just couldn't do it this year.  And then we had a snow storm, & I was ready...just like that.  

So here's my little home tour...simplicity is my game!  This year I've embraced black in my Christmas decor (actually all over my house)...including black wreaths!  Although I'm not a green fan, I absolutely love the forest green & black combo.  Enjoy the tour!

And here's the cutest little tree in the world!  I loved this tree just on its own without any decor but decided to decorate it with white lights, burlap garland (Dollarama)  & pompoms (Michaels) .  Keeping with my kitchen & that modern farmhouse style...a little different from last year's decor.

Like I said, simplicity!  I took some very small wreaths & wrapped them in black scarves (all from the Dollarama).  I also used a lot of pinecones & placed them in urns & candle holders that I already had.

Just want to thank you all for following me & supporting me in this blogging journey.  A couple of weeks ago a few Canadian bloggers got together for a parade of Christmas home tours.   If you want to check it out it starts here.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas with your family & loved ones!

I Painted a Faux Brick Wall!!!

In an effort to make my Newmarket builder box home look a little more like New York , I decided it would be a good idea a few weeks before Christmas...what was I thinking?... to sponge paint my front hall.

  I absolutely love brick walls...every time I'm out and see one I take a pic because I just love that industrial look...I thought about doing the faux brick wall panels, the peel and stick wallpaper, or using plaster and tape.  However, if I decided I didn't like it or got tired of it in three months (which happens a lot around here), then I would wreck my walls and be stuck with it.  So I decided to buy a sponge and bought one that was for the end of a mop, like this one, which co-incidentally happened to be the exact size of the brick on my house.  Then I left the dark grey on the walls (Metropolis by Ben Moore) and used some paint left over from another project and just went for it.

So here's what I did:

1.  dampen sponge slightly.

2.  put a light coat of paint on the sponge with brush.

3. start in far lower corner and work up the first four or five rows.

4.  place sponge on the area and move back and forth slightly (lightly wetting the sponge helps with moving it).

5.  try to keep each brick above the other in alternate rows as you move up.

6.  once you do a few rows moving up, then move horizontally across the wall keeping them straight as you go.

7.  when all the bricks are on the wall, then put a little bit of paint on the sponge and dab it in between the bricks.

Bricks are very forgiving...they aren't perfect.  Don't be afraid if you screw up.  You can go back over it and make it darker. Just remember to keep your bricks straight.  If the bricks start to become uneven, you can always lengthen or widen a brick...again, bricks are imperfect.   I also did this over a few days, an hour or two at a time.  

So now my challenge is finding the right mirror and lighting...I shopped my home for lighting and like this one (above) from Homesense, but I'm not sure about the mirror....  (I know, I'm missing a drawer pull.)  

And then I decided to paint my doors a beautiful black called Vulcanite by Ralph Lauren.   This is the colour I'm going to be using on my lower cabinets for the kitchen (I know it's been a very long time coming but they are finally being painted in January...patience, people).  So it was an opportunity to test it and make sure I like it and I do, I really really do. ...I've wanted to do this for years too.  

Oh, and we got the most ADORABLE Christmas tree ever...and to bypass the annual hours and hours of the Christmas tree falling over,  I just stuck it in a basket...It might turn brown but it won't fall over! 

Isn't she the cutest little tree?   Axel has been circling it like a shark...which is why it's now up high and in a basket.  

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from my home to yours!

Christmas Home Tour 2015

So we finally got our tree up....and when I say "up" I mean way up, so Axel, the sweetest little biting puppy ever, can't get it.   It actually looks really sweet...I just put it on an end table I had and used an Ikea curtain as a tree skirt.  (This is officially my second Ikea hack haha).  I like things simple and classic at Christmas.  Not too much clutter...actually, I think with the world being a tad cray cray right now, a lot of people are feeling the simple Christmas thing.

I trimmed the tree with most of the things I had from last year but also purchased some Martha Stewart glitter garland at Home Depot. 

I added some feathers form the dollar store to the mantel...looks so pretty...like snow.

I also made some garland out of some gold & silver glitter ornaments from the Superstore and put them on my lamp shades in the dining room.

And this is the reason why there are no presents under the tree yet....Axel, the destroyer.

(All pics taken by me with my iPhone.)

Toronto Christmas Market - Distillery District

We bundled up and went downtown this weekend to enjoy the Toronto Christmas Market put on every year at the Distillery District.  It's basically a winter street festival with lots of food, Christmas decor, cafes, art galleries, beautiful architecture...basically everything I like in one location. This is one of my favourite places to go in Toronto and it's even more beautiful at this time of the year.  

If you get a chance to go, make sure you stop by Balzac's Coffee and Soma Chocolatemaker.

(all photos taken by me with iPhone)

The Toronto Christmas Market runs until Dec 20, 2015 and is a definite must see if you're in Toronto during the Christmas Season.

Working on getting our Christmas decor up this week...which is proving to be a little hard with a puppy.:(

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!