I took these on the weekend. I went to IKEA to stock up on summer entertaining stuff (hopefully I get to use it lots this year). Anyway, It made me realise I have more than plenty pretty-pretty matchy-matchy housewares. I am a lucky girl.

Today we decorated while listening to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes on vinyl – both really cozy winter albums.

I even crafted up a new garland for the tree – it was just little circles cut out of scrap fabric from all those banners I made for the wedding. I just ran them through the sewing machine in a row. Easy!

In fact, I think I’m going to make a more thorough attempt at holiday crafting this year.

This is our new little media centre.

Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.

I like that I’ve contrasted our new (not so classy) gigantic tee vee with (classy) antique copies of Dickens procured in England. That is how we roll.

The new tv bench is one of my favourite parts of this set up though. It’s just from Ikea (of course) but is built rather solidly, out of wood rather than a wood-like product. It’s birch, and reminds of Scandinavian kindergarten furniture for some reason. There’s something pleasantly minimalist, and somehow friendly about it. It’s open in the back (meaning cords from all those consoles are an issue) but we rather cleverly stuck some baskets under it to hold all our various componants and controllers.

And warning everyone: because of all this I may just become even more of a hermit than I normally do this winter. But wouldn’t you too?

These are some of my new things from the shower. My cupboards just looked so shiny and pretty, I had to share.

So far, I’ve been sleeping on satiny new sheets, dining off these lovely dishes, and stocking my gourmet kithen and it’s enough to make a girl feel like she’s on holiday!

Also of note: look how my Fire King collection has grown! My lovely aunt Lisa did a little bit of sleuthing and found out that I love old fire king mugs. So she ordered a pretty little lot of them on eBay for me! Isn’t that so thoughtful! I particularly love the old pink one. I’ve never seen one like that before – isn’t it cute?

My parents recently got back from a lovely vacation in Greece and Turkey, and brought me back (along with Ouzo, Turkish Delight and olive oil soap) something I’ve wanted for quite a while:

A pouf!

It’s not the fanciest pouf (it’s large, unembellished and a plain off-white) but it makes the perfect ottoman for my vintage velvet club chair…

And a good cat bed on occasion.

The best part is it comes unstuffed, so it didn’t take up a huge amount of room in my parents luggage, and it was TEN EUROS.

Which, if you’ve ever looked at purchasing one on this continent is about 1/10th the price you find them for here.

Liam got laid off last month. Which I’ve stayed mostly quiet about, but it’s not really as big a deal as it sounds I guess. Or we’re not making it out to be a big deal anyways. We’re actually having a lot of fun, working on projects, and spending a lot of time with each other and the little kitties.

One such project was getting our attic office/studio up and running. That meant finally getting our little mac mini to go along with our sleek flatscreen tv/moniter that’s set up in front of our daybed. Now we’ve got the perfect little quiet area to relax, play some wii, work on some writing, or designing and watch a movie. Or take a nap. Or maybe have an overnight houseguest!

It’s actually probably been the thing that’s made this the easiest. Having a new delineated space to hang out in and get work done makes having two people around the house all the time a lot easier.

Today is the second incarnation of a new holiday here in Ontario: Family day. Which is actually a pretty nice reason to have a holiday. And we have kinda needed a holiday around here. Turns out getting engaged makes you a hot commodity. We haven’t had a weekend to ourselves since before Christmas!

It was my birthday this week, so we actually had a family day yesterday – my mom, dad, brother, sister and her boyfriend came over and we all had delicious exotic takeout (Pakistani curries, kebabs, nan, and handmade kulfi!). Living next to Little India is pretty awesome.

As a birthday present they also did a bit of a revamp to my bathroom – my dad built some much needed shelving (we actually have a place to put towels now!) and replaced a broken light fixture. I sewed up a cute, stripey shower curtain earlier in the week, so it’s starting to get pretty nice in there. Pretty soon I’ll be able to show it off, I think.

This week is going to be a bit of a whirlwind too. We’re throwing ourselves an engagement party, and all our nearest and dearest friends (who happen to live nearby) are going to be showing up on Saturday night – so everything’s gotta be ready for 20-30 people cramming into our little apartment (hence the home-improvement).

We’re also trying to get our “wedsite” up and running – but all we’ve been running into are technical difficulties, unfortunately.

So, in the meantime, I’m posting my little invitation graphic.

I wasn’t sure I’d want, or need a traditional wedding registry.

We’ve been together 6 years, and have accumulated and inherited pretty much everything we need in that time, and it just seemed like an unnecessary extravagance.

But then, after six years things start to get a bit creaky and precarious, you realize the cheap stuff you got from Ikea as a student should more accurately be looked at as a placeholders, than anything with permanence.

In other words: our dishes are chipped, our towels are mismatched and faded, and our cutlery is bent and tarnished.

It’s time to invest in things that don’t come out of a boxed set for under 20 bucks. Things that, ideally weren’t mass-produced in China or for Ikea.

Being able to register for things now is a god-send – I’m old enough and wise enough know what I really need this time around, and what’s actually going to last me. I’ve already done all the research.

I just blow past the “bridal checklists” and overly-helpful, commission-getting salespeople and march right towards what I actually need, zap it with the gun thingy, and onto the registry it goes.

This time, I’m getting white bone china, 18/10 stainless flatware, and Egyptian cotton sheets.

And I don’t feel weird about it. We’ve been together, struggling for so long, it’s going to feel so nice to finally come home to nice things, things we’ll get to use for the rest of our lives together.

I’m happiest that Crate and Barrel has finally come to Canada. I know in the States that registering there is kinda cliche – but man alive! There’s a pretty good reason for that! They have the most awesome, well designed things! They have picked out all the very best, sturdiest, sexiest stuff – OXO gadgets, Marimeko tablecloths, Wustoff Knives, All Clad cookware.

You don’t know what the registry landscape was like before they arrived (just in the nick of time for me, I might add): here in Canada we have one department store (the Bay) with a very staid, very old fashioned selection of items – and that’s pretty much it. Although, I may still register there for sheets and towels, as C&B has a limited selection – and I might like a Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket – which is lovely, and a traditional item for Canadian brides (my own parents have one they received 30 years ago when they were married – and it’s still kicking around in great condition).

Interested in what I registered for? Well, I’m getting dishes called “Halo”, flatware called “Dune”, and a kitchen knife made to Samurai Sword standards.

What? Nerdy? Us? Never…

You’re probably wondering what my garden looks like right around now.

Pretty good, actually!

That’s my side of the garden on the right there (the other side with the big potato plants are my downstairs neighbors – and I didn’t think to plant potatoes, so I’m pretty jealous).

We’ve been getting a lot of rain, so I haven’t even had to do much work. Just the occasional weeding.

The only veggie I worry about is my heirloom carrots, as they got a little trampled, but even my heirloom tomatoes (which I was worried about, because I started them indoors a little late) seem to be getting big and healthy and growing flowers.

My deckside, container-bound cherry tomatoes are doing even better – they already have tons of fruit on them that should be edible pretty soon.

My little strawberry plants are having a bit of a struggle though. We have raccoon visitors, at night, and one of the plants has been dug up a couple times now. I’m keeping it inside during the night time, but I think some stronger measures might have to be taken for when the tomatoes ripen.

I’m already growing mint, which is supposed to deter raccoons – but it doesn’t seem to be working at all. Next up is tucking rags soaked in ammonia around the place. I don’t want to use cayenne, even though it seems the cheapest, easiest option, because it can irritate the eyes of animals – cats in addition to raccoons, – and my catnip attracts the occasional kitty visitor, so that would be no good.

My pink champagne scented geranium is blooming though, and as you can see here, the blooms are as bubbly a pink as the name implies. Gotta love a double duty plant that smells as good as it looks!

There are even more pictures of growing things on flickr, if you’re interested. Just click through any of the above photos to see more.

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.

This colour co-ordination happened mostly by accident.

Although (as lame as I know it is to be matchy-matchy in this day and age) it makes me kinda happy when my wellies match my clutch, if you know what I’m saying (who do I think I am, the queen?).

By the way, this picture also pretty much encapsulates everything I love about spring.

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.

1. persimmon coloured, burnished, venetian-plaster on one wall (hopefully it will look organic and not too much like a tacky faux finish)
2. 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)
3. 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.
4. some sort of window treatment so people on the deck don’t get a view of the goings on in there (probably also shibori)
5. 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)
6. find some kind of shelving unit that will fit the only available storage space there is – above the toilet.
7. 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.

We had a busy weekend planned – but then this storm happened.

Oh well, it was fun to sit and drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas specials (The Animaniac’s Christmas Special, to be specific) in the middle of a swirly, whirly, winter wonderland.

Having a Christmas tree is a bit of a challenge with three young cats around.

Ornaments are batted at, jingle bells are jingled at inappropriate times (like while sleeping) and trees are invariably climbed and subsequently toppled.

Last week we had to run out and switch our lights from gorgeous, over-sized, specialty orbs (not so environmentally friendly, but Christmas is a time of indulgence) to boring, old, white LEDs (environmentally friendly, but kinda hurt my eyes to look directly at).

We also picked up some more plastic ornaments. I love glass ones to bits, and I covet my mothers collection of antique ornaments (passed on from her grandmother and mother), and I’m sure they’re about a zillion times better for the environment, but they are just so impractical.

Finding plastic ornaments that aren’t tacky (in other words: look like glass) is strangely difficult, requiring an across town search for them. All because I can’t have glass ornaments around the house until my kitties get old enough to know better than to break open a glass ornament and eat it.

For future reference to me: having three kittens in one apartment is not the best idea ever. Try to pace yourself next time. Maybe adopt one cat at a time, next time?

Sometimes I feel weird that all I post is cat pictures anymore (crazy cat lady=me).

But I think my kitties have more fans than I do – it seems even our Vet’s office checks up on them via the web.

Plus this is the internet. I think it would be inappropriate if I didn’t post pictures of my cats.

Well, the kitties are still quite happy. When it snowed last week (which was super-pretty, and I’m very sad I didn’t get pictures of it, but I was in a lot of toothy pain) they were in love with the little flakes, watching them fall.

It’s definitely a four seasons kind of house. The ginormous maples scattered throughout the neighbourhood had just dropped their leaves a couple weeks ago – all at once. Everything on the street was covered in a good foot of orange leaves overnight.

Living in the old apartment was kind of isolating from nature. You couldn’t hear the rain fall, or sleet hit the windows like you can here. You couldn’t even just step outside to check the weather, because the windows didn’t open very well and you had to go out into the hall, down the stairs, through another hall, through the lobby, and out the front entrance. If we were parked in the parking garage, you didn’t know what it was like outside at all.

Here, I’m wondering if we keep the windows open in the spring, whether we’ll be able to hear birds singing in the mornings. It’s been a long time since I’ve been awoken by that.

Being stuck inside with gaping wounds in your mouth makes you notice these things I guess.

But being stuck in, means I’ve been cooking up a storm. Liam made me pancakes on Sunday morning, yum, and in the past week, I’ve made bacon and potato soup, re-fried beans and Spanish rice, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti carbonara and futomaki roll sushi (with egg, pickled turnip, japanese cucumber, and crab sticks).

We took advantage of the amazing, carnival like, local, Asian grocery store for the sushi. If you live in Toronto, and you’ve never been, you need to go. We also found shelled edamame, pickled ginger, and chocolate mochi there to go with our meal (along with a pink bottle of sake I had bought, well, for it’s bottle).

We’re going to make sushi more often now, I think. It gets easier the more you do it, and then Liam can take leftovers for lunch and stop buying questionable mall sushi.

So, yeah, things are pretty good,

And my head is almost healed,

And we’re almost unpacked,

And there are little kitties in the windows,

And they’re watching the last leaves blow out of the eaves.

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…

I am still very much enjoying my new digs. Something about this place just makes me happy.

I am also enjoying this bit of Indian summer we are having here (normally I’d worry about global warming, but right now I’m in love with watching the leaves change on the enormous trees we are on eye level with up here – a month late, but still nice – it’s like living in a giant treehouse).

I had a hunch in the old apartment that everything I owned looked dingy because they were being infringed on by their dingy surroundings. I have been proven right, as all my things look beautiful here. The honeyed hardwood and pale walls make all my pretty little knicks and knacks shine!

Even the cats are happier here (I will show you photographic proof of this later).

Also making me feel good: doing laundry whenever I want. It’s a small thing, but I really appreciate it.

Tomorrow though, I am getting my wisdom teeth out. I am pretty happy about this too, as I’m not exactly going to miss the little chompers, but it’s going to make me even more exhausted than I already am. So if I’m quiet for a little while, just imagine me on pain killers and be thankful I’m not deigning the internet with my whacked out presence.

This is the prettiest corner of my new apartment. It’s the only period door left in the place. This is what I mean when I say the place has character.

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.).