Looking Back on July

Well there goes July...I can't believe how fast this summer is going!  We started our July long weekend with a BBQ with friends at their beautiful home in King City.   (I've had my eye on these chairs for a long time.)

It's hard to believe, but these are faux flowers from IKEA...had me fooled! 

We then had two very different, but equally beautiful, weddings back to back...one was a city wedding at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto & the other was a full on country wedding in Thornbury.

If you follow me on Instagram you've seen some of these pics before & know that I loooove blooms. At the first wedding the flowers were so simple but beautiful in shades of white & cream.  Absolutely stunning with the soft grey tablecloths & white accessories.

See what I mean by very different weddings...we went from beautiful all white bouquets to gorgeous full-on colourful bouquets....so pretty!

Although we had rain for days before this wedding, the sun came out & the wedding day was perfection.  It was in a field surrounded by apple orchards.   

(All photos are mine taken with my iPhone.)

If you want to see more crazy good wedding photos, check out one of my favourites, Sinclair & Moore...so inspiring!

Have a great weekend!

Adding Some Green

Just a quick post to show you how I've been adding some life and some green to my space.  Ever since my little break to the tropics, I've been adding tropical plants to my interior.   Although I love gardening, I've never really had much luck with indoor plants.  Most of these I picked up from Home Depot a few months ago, and I'm happy to say they're all still living!!!

I even added two faux fiddle leaf trees from Michael's to the dining room.  Other years I've brought my ferns inside in the Fall (which usually die after a couple of months), so I decided to try faux, and I love them!!!

(All photos are mine taken with my iPhone.)

Can't wait to take some of these outside soon...it's finally starting to warm up here, and I've just started to plant my annuals.  Changing things up a bit outside, so will have some updates for you soon.
Have a great week!

PS I've had some trouble with my computer over the last couple of months, so my posts haven't been as frequent.  Thanks for sticking with me!!!

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.)

Teen Girl's Room Before and After

Does anyone remember this room?   You know, the room I started over a YEAR ago...well it's done...well, I'm never really done, but it's basically sort of finished :).  I know all you designers/decorators out there know what I mean...done until the next Pinterest or magazine pic makes me go a whole new direction.  Anyway, here's my daughter's "finished" teen room.  (If you haven't been following along, you can read about the process here, here and here).

Here's a little peek at what it was before... a little shabby chic with pale green walls, vintage linens and soft pink accents...it was so sweet.

Ok...back to the teen room...I basically used all the furniture from before, with the exception of the gold Target side table and just painted the walls.  There's lots of cheap in this room...everything from the found iron bed, to the valance (which is simply a table runner from Homesense that I just cut in half), to the chair that a friend gave me (thanks Deb!) to the thrift store dresser and desk.  The window valance will probably change... a little too bright for a teenager in the morning...but until I find something I really like, they'll stay.  All the artwork I made...and the pompoms below are super cheap and add some dimension and texture.

Sources

Striped Bedding, Hanging Light:  Ikea

White Blanket:  Martha Stewart (many yrs. ago)

Faux Fur Pillows:  Pier1 Imports

Chevron Pillows:  Fabricland

Gold Table:  Target

Table Lamp, Valance & Pouf: HomeSense

Striped Cushion:  SuperStore

Ceiling Light:  Home Depot

All Furniture:  Thrifted

Style to Move on Style Mutt

Today I'm very excited to be over at Style Mutt Blog sharing a little bit about my family room.  If you haven't checked out their blog yet please do.  Chelsea and Cate have a real knack for mixing different styles (which is just one of the reasons I like them), and they're pros at refurbishing old furniture. 

Just to show you what I mean, here's a peek at their spaces.

Chelsea's Bedroom

Cate's Living Room

 I'll be sharing some more details of my family room with you next week so stay tuned.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

It's All in the Details

Have you ever gone into a home and just had your jaw drop at every turn?  Well that happened to me a couple of months ago.  My friend bought this home in Toronto this winter and  invited us over for the evening.  The floors, ceilings, windows...absolutely everything in his home is quality and beautiful.  Unfortunately, the owner doesn't want the whole home shared so I can only focus on some of the details.  
Because as you know, design is in the details!  

First up is the eating section of the great room,  surrounded by beautiful windows which look out onto a terrace...and check out the coffered ceiling .

Below is a little nook just to the side of the eating area...again surrounded by windows.   The doors leading out to the terrace were mostly windows with an arch at the top and moulding on the lower portion.  I thought it was beautiful how they made the doors and windows with the same detailing in this house.  The pictures don't really do it much justice, but seeing a whole wall of windows as a focal point was quite breathtaking.

The floors were a dark hardwood with a diamond inlay... absolutely gorgeous! 

Last was this curved bookcase which was actually in a round room (hence the curve).  It's in a room that has doors again leading out onto a terrace.  I believe they're making it into an office so the lighting will change.  I just thought the detailing of this cabinet was so sweet with the glass cabinets on either side and the footing.  Also, this room had dark hardwood floors in a herringbone pattern.  Here's a wider shot below. You can see how they again panelled the lower portion of the doors.

(all photos taken by me with my iPhone)

Sorry that's all I can show right now.  I'm hoping to go back this summer and take some pics of the garden because it's pretty spectacular too.

If you want to do some custom windows, doors or cabinetry in your own home, you may want to check out Hoffmeyer's Mill.  They've been around for many years and do beautiful custom work.

Have a great week!

My Girl's Teen Room Continues

My goal was to finish this room by Christmas (and last I checked it was April) but braces and a few other dentist bills (like two root canals with no dental coverage) happened, and the room has just sort of been stuck.  You can see my previous posts on this room here and here.  

So this is where this room stands now...one side of the room is done, but I decided to change the dresser which was originally against the black wall and put the white chair here instead.  The collage then had to move a little further down the wall.  I also  purchased this gorgeous knitted pouf from HomeSense, and found this very cool striped bedding at Ikea.  Oh ya, and the gold end table is from Target (which sadly is no longer here in Canada), and I may have mentioned that in my previous post.

And here's Po on my daughter's bed while she was away for Spring break.  (For a whole week my daughter's bedroom was tidy!)  Actually, this pic of Po was featured on the Style at Home Instagram in March.  That was pretty darn exciting!!!  If you scroll down their account you'll see it!

That's it for updates. 

Have a great day!!!