- extra low coffee table
If I didn’t already have a (chinoiserie) coffee table that I have already DIY’d (painted turquoise), I’d consider Ikea hacking this project - I think it looks like 60’s mod Italian design. It would look pretty cool with my Olivetti Valentine sitting on top of it. I also like how the ‘hackee,’ like the Native Americans, used all parts of the ikea shelves to make it, wasting nothing.
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pretty up a party with paper
These are just too pretty, and festive. I’m a sucker for anything involving cut paper - but this little project is a combination of ephemeral and affordable that is just perfect for a party.
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twig serving platter
This is a variation on that plates-and-cups-glued-together tea tier craft that we’ve seen - but I think it’s an especially clean, modern and vaguely Scandinavian take on it.
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revamping a lamp
The cats knocked over my floor lamp with a drum shade, shattering the plastic on the inside. I freaked out - because drum shades are really hard to find, and expensive when you do (and this one was particularly cute - white canvas with a black branch pattern). Seeing this little tutorial for how to make your own drum shade a day or two later made me sigh with relief.
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tater stamped kitchen curtain
These are simple and sweet. Plus it’s cheap as potatoes and easy enough for a small child.
I was uploading pictures, when I realised I actually have a lot to share, even if I haven’t been sharing. It gets like that in summer I guess - too busy making up for our vitamin d deficiencies to spend much time on the internet.
Well, in between getting my hair-cut and a yearly physical (and having strange hands on pretty much every part of my body) I went into one of those discount housewares stores, downtown. They had a whole display of barbecue stuff, and mixed in with it was the cutest, teensiest little barbecue.
It’s a Sagaform bucket grill. It’s available from a bunch of different online retailers. Apartment Therapy recently gave it a pretty goood review. In fact, we had first seen it at an expensive gourmet shop around the corner from us here. It was 30 dollars there (not bad) and, being barbecueless we were considering getting it.
It was 10 dollars at the discount shop. There were also a bunch of pretty, matching, off-white, Scandinavian designed tools for it too. Also at a deep discount. Score. Altogether I spent 25 dollars, including tax on pretty much everything I needed. Awesome.
Last night was pretty hot. I did not feel like cooking indoors.
Instead we hunted down a bag of charcoal (not as easy as it sounds on the cusp of Canada Day weekend) and a terra-cotta tray to put the little guy on, to keep him from burning the wood on the top of my little cafe table (my genius idea BTW, and I highly recommend it - it holds the bbq in place and catches all the ash to boot - and it was cheap!).
Then we hunted down something to cook. There was not a lot left at the grocery store (again, Canada day weekend and all) but some nicely marbled striploin was on sale. Third score of the week!
The little bucket grill was pretty easy to light. There’s a bucket inside of the bucket proper that sits on top of a little second grill which is where you put the charcoal. This keeps the air circulating around the hot bits, lets the ash fall into the bottom of the bucket proper, and keeps that pretty off-white finish from burning (or from burning you - the exterior actually stayed suprisingly cool).
Altogether, it’s a deceptively simple, but clever design (them Scandinavians are good at that sort of thing it seems).
After doing a little research I learned that lighter fluid, beyond being scary, is also just generally no good. It makes food taste like chemicals. So instead we used these wax and sawdust things we usually have around when we need to start a campfire. I lit it and piled about a dozen bricks of charcoal on top of it, and that seemed to do the trick. After about 10 minutes I rearranged them to make sure they were all getting evenly singed, and then after another 10 minutes I mixed them all up, popped on the grill top, checked the heat with my hand (3 Mississippis and I had to pull it away - that means it’s hot enough) and started barbecuing.
A little while later, we had a delicious steak dinner, with some grilled asparagus and green-garlic couscous, and a salad of simply dressed tomatoes. It was pretty perfect.
Today I cleaned up the grill - everything washed right off him, good as new. I popped back the little legs on the bucket, and tucked it into a shelf. It’s like last night never even happened. He’s so compact, I’m thinking we can definitely take him camping with us later on in the summer.
If you’ve got a small deck like we do (and if you can hunt one down) this little barbecues’ going to be your new best friend. Even if you don’t have any outdoor space (in our last apartment we didn’t have any), this guys worth checking out to take camping, or to the beach.
He’s a bit more complicated than a gas grill would be, but the flavor and convenience (not to mention the price, and beautiful design) far outweighs all that in my mind. He’ll look cute sitting on your patio, but he can also be folded up and hidden away. Plus, he’s a whole lot of fun! I’m looking forward to using him all summer, but first we’re heading up to my family’s cottage for the weekend.
It will be nice to get away from the city heat - if it doesn’t rain on us all weekend.
And even then, I think it’ll still be nice.
Wow oh wow oh wow. I wish I were a member of this family.
Do I even need to explain to you how awesome this is? Awesome. Buckets of awesome. Unfortunately it is also millions of dollars worth of awesome. Those are swanky digs, even without the fact that everything in every room is a custom designed clue.
Still. A girl can dream, can’t she?
Yesterday made up for all the crappy stuff that’s happened in the last couple of weeks (including - but not limited to - the top coat on my coral-coloured, venetian-plaster peeling right of my walls - I WARN YOU ALL EXPLICITLY: NEVER EVER BUY DEBBIE TRAVIS PRODUCTS THEY ARE CRAP).
But then I was in the grocery store and they had ripe tomatoes. That is all it requires for me to be happy. Jewel bright, yielding, soft, fragrant tomatoes fresh from a local hothouse. Not just red ones - no, orange and yellow too. So we celebrated with the adding to dough of cheese and tomatoes: Pizza!
I’m not going even going to bother with a real recipe, because it was too easy to make:
We marinated the sliced tomatoes in flavored oil (garlic and chili) with a generous sprinkling of oregano, basil and salt. Then we spread out (store-bought) pizza dough on a cornmeal covered pizza stone, brushed it with a little more oil, piled on the tomatoes and shredded mozza and baked it at 400 for 20 minutes. Perfection!
After a long Sunday filled with hanging laundry on the line and digging and planting (the garden is officially dug in by the way) we relaxed on our deck and watched the stars begin to twinkle, and the CN tower begin it’s LED rainbow show, accompanied by our little pizza margherita and two cold glasses of limoncello and soda.
Meanwhile, all three kitties gathered by the window and stared at us, jealously. I don’t blame them.
My living room and bedroom are more or less in line, and my obsessive curation of excellent/pretty/functional kitchen supplies means my kitchen is pretty rockin’ - if a little overstocked.
Next up is the bathroom.
At the moment, my towels are mismatched and the theme could best be described as Hello Kitty meets pastel polka dots… Yeah, not so much an adult’s bathroom.
I’ve been thinking about putting some intensely coloured venetian plaster on one wall because the plaster there is kinda cracked - so it’s two birds one stone.
Then I was in Chinatown looking for sushi plates (we make it enough now that it seemed an legitimate expense) and we came across those super-pretty Japanese bowls that are indigo and white and have pretty little patterns all over them. Now we’re getting somewhere!
Through these inspirations, I have come up with a small, inexpensive plan that could best be described as jewel toned, rustic Japanese.
- persimmon coloured, burnished, venetian-plaster on one wall (hopefully it will look organic and not too much like a tacky faux finish)
- indigo and white shibori shower curtain (shibori is Japanese for tie-dye - but it’s much more sophisticated and graphic than normal, hippy-dippy tie-dye - although it will involve a bit of DIY craftiness)
- indigo and white Japanese decorative bowls and trays and things (basically, repurposed sushi plates - because you know how much I love repurposing). The patterns on this type of porcelain often seems to mimic the patterns on the shibori, which I think is pretty neat.
- some sort of window treatment so people on the deck don’t get a view of the goings on in there (probably also shibori)
- some kind of Japanese inspired art - that isn’t cliched or tacky (so no tsunami woodblock print - probably some kind of illustration by yours truly)
- find some kind of shelving unit that will fit the only available storage space there is - above the toilet.
- no bathmats, because for some reason our cats like to pee on them (it’s actually quite sad how many of our decorating decisions revolve around cats)
I really, totally, completely meant to post a few pictures of my holiday decorating before the holidays, but well, this was a particularly hectic holiday. On top of that it seemed like there was a snow storm every single weekend leading up to it, which didn’t exactly make me want to get out there and go do Christmassy things.
I mean, I broke my arm and had to spend Christmas Eve in Emerg, and then we actually ended up leaving my parents house on Christmas day and flying to Thunderbay to visit Liam’s parents for a week. It was all a bit of a whirlwind.
So, in lieu of correctly timed photos, here are some belated ones. As an added bonus you also get a sneak peak at the progress of my living room so far.
Even those of you who know me may be suprised to find someone as curmudgeonly as me loves Christmas. But I do.
In fact, people who hate Christmas are one of my pet peeves. Don’t get me wrong, cliches and sappiness still make me gag (which is why you’ll find very few commercial decorations in my house - no dancing santas, no singing snowmen) but hating Christmas is like hating babies and bunnies and marshmallows and sunshine. It’s weird. There has to be something wrong with you. You can hate what it’s become, maybe, but I think that’s something you as an individual are totally in control of (and it’s often as simple as avoiding shopping malls for a month or two).
For example: most of my decorations are handmade, and cheaply procured. I add a little more every year, and when I look back at all the things I’ve accumulated I’m reminded of the last five years, and all the Christmases me and Liam have spent together.
In fact, all my decorations are still up, and I’ve even added to them a little since these pictures were taken (I found a beautiful plain white velvet tree skirt in the grocery store on sale - along with a neon red mini tree and I found an adorable Holt Howard, fifties-era, tree-shaped candy-dish at a Thunder Bay thrift shop).
I suppose it should come down sometime soon (I’m not one of those crazy people who leave them up for months or anything). But they look so pretty, I’m having a bit of trouble contemplating it.
I promised photographic proof of happy kitties, and here it is:
Three cats sleeping on one (unmade) bed. This occurred last Sunday - on our first morning waking up here. We had to capture it quick before they noticed us noticing them, so sorry about the messy bed.
This is also get a sneak peak of the bedroom. It’s not quite finished, but you get the idea. Cosy, bright, light, cheery. I’m calling the look: ‘Scandinavian Country Cottage’. I’ve still got furniture to re-finish and I’m not sure about that quilt (I love it, but I’m not sure it’s working in this particular spot - possibly hanging too high?). I’m also probably going to do something with that headboard so it isn’t so obviously ‘the-cheapest-bed-they-had-at-ikea’.
And, of course, it would help if the bed was actually made…
When I get settled, the very first crafty project I am whipping up to decorate my new abode is
this one I just saw on Design*Sponge.
Genius!
Handmade?
Typographic?
Throw pillows?
Doesn’t that sound familiar, everyone?
My only worry is that I won’t be able to find wool felt. It is hard to come by up here in Toronto, for some reason. Polar fleece, I can find oodles of, however, and it may have to do for this particular project (once fleece starts to get nubby and worn it sort of starts to look like felt, so it should be o.k.).
We spent the weekend at the house, and I finally remembered to bring my camera (before I started piling everything full of boxes).
This is my new living room:
I am in serious love with that pretty shade of pale turquoise. It was the perfect choice - any darker and it would have been felt like living in a Tiffany’s box, any lighter, and, well, it would have been white.
This is my new kitchen (with a hint of a back deck, just beyond the window):
The pale blue also makes all the white trim and the wood (which I am not normally a fan of beyond floors) pop deliciously.
My bedroom before:
That cream colour was all over the place (I hate cream walls, almost as much as I hate beige ones). It was gross and dirty too - definitely calling out for a coat of paint. The walls are a little wonky in places, but I like wonky. Just like chipped paint, and rusty hinges I like to call wonky walls: character.
Bedroom after:
The reason I’ve painted a single wall deep chartreuse, is that I’m going to treat it like a giant headboard. I have a bunch of white accessories (lamps, vases etc.) and they’re really going to stand out starkly against that wall.
I was worried about the colour being a little too neon, but after the second coat and a few hours to dry it really deepened. The high contrast between the bright green and the ultra-pure-white walls and trim is exactly what I imagined, so I’m very pleased.
Also: check out my bay window! I have a bay window! I have realized one of my childhood dreams (sad, I know). I’m gonna get my dad to help me build a window seat at some point, I think. Then I can sit in my window seat with mug of hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and a E. L. Konigsburg novel, just like the thirteen year old girl in me has always dreamed of.
I was surfing my regular design blog haunts today, when I stopped at this poppytalk post. I am totally digging that look.
I had seen neat little bucket stools just like those in London this summer at this great little chain diner they have all over there called Leon (I would eat out ALL the time if I had one of those around the corner from me here - and they were so cute and retro too) - such a great idea, such a great way to recycle both fabric scraps AND old paint or olive buckets.
Perhaps I’ll do something like this (with some waterproof oil cloth) on my new deck. They’d be great as additional seating when there’s company coming - totally a low rent, industrial version of the Moroccan “pouffes” I was talking about earlier in the fall. Plus they’re small and compact, easy to tuck away, and I bet you could store stuff in them too.
And all this reminded me that Liam posted a bunch of our pictures of England on flickr last week.
Sorry it took so long guys!
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