Trieu Love

My Secret Project

2011-09-26T22:50:00.001-04:00

Well, not so secret anymore if I'm posting this haha. Actually, I'm not even doing this project. I'm calling it a 'secret project' because I secretly REALLY want to do it in the house, but I know I won't get the OK from J because he'll think I'm nuts! So I'm not gonna bring it up to him, unless of course he reads this post (lets see how long it will take him to notice this post). I just know it. His immediately reaction will be NO WAY. Well, I will just share the inspiration I guess.

Presenting my Secretly-Want-To-Do Project inspiration:

The Painted Black and White Staircase


Image from Your Home Only Better by Susan, along with great FAQ and tips for the project

Image from House and Home

Image from Decor Pad

Image from Eclectic Revisited

Ahhh, aren't the images so pretty? I would love to paint over our current stairs. It would look so great especially if we repainted all our current dirty trim with brand spankin' new white paint. Right now our yellowed trim makes me cringe. Oh well, one thing at a time. I think we are suppose to be working on the kitchen, or something.

Painted Kitchen

2011-09-25T22:02:00.004-04:00

After over a year of moving in we have finally tackled the task of painting the kitchen this weekend. When we moved in we immediately painted the living/dining room. At that time it was necessary to do it right away because the previous owners left us with some wallpaper that we were sure we didn't want around. We picked out the colour 'Gentle Rain' by Behr. However, we only got the living/dining room painted last year and left it at that, because we were lazy people.

More recently we have been talking about how we're ready to add some cabinetry to the kitchen. We've had the idea for a while, but just wasn't ready to make the move the past year. But we finally want to get 'er done, so I said we must paint first! Off to Home Depot we went yesterday and picked up another can of 'Gentle Rain'.

This is what our kitchen looked like before this weekend. What a mess of a 'pantry'! Very embarassed. Oh and also please ignore the jibberish written on my blackboard by some house guests. LOL

We moved everything out to the dining area, which was so quick to do. Seeing nothing in this space just feels so open and airy! We plan to sell off those old shelves and start fresh. We like enclosed storage where you can hide all the ~~clutter~~... ~~stuff~~... kitchen things.

There were the two big walls in the kitchen, plus we extended the color out to our hallway as well, so this whole floor will eventually be 'Gentle Rain'. Later down the road we will have to tackle the stairway(s) to tie the whole house together. For two days of painting (with meal breaks, NFL breaks, nap time, etc in between), which includes taping off all the edges and doing two coats of paint, we are happy with this weekend's accomplishments.

Here's a closer look at the color. The photos are probably not the most accurate depiction though. It is a grey with what I'd say is a lavenderish undertone but can also look blueish depending on time of day. Honestly I was not in love with the purple-ish hint, but I think it will grow on me and I'm sure my opinion will change once we add some more wall art and decor.

And here is the corner in our hallway. This is one place where the purple undertones in the grey really works as it ties in with the colors in the sticks. *heart*

Hope to get working on the cabinet project we have in store. Stay tuned!

I Thought It Was The End

2011-09-23T22:18:00.002-04:00

Here's a last peek at my tomatoes that I've been trying to grow since April. The plants were nice and big and leafy. Tomatoes started to grow a few months back, but they just kept growing but never ripened. Mind you, I've never grown anything in my life, so I have no idea what to do or what to expect. Pick them off or not? I just kept waiting, checking on them everyday to wait for them to turn red on the plant, but they never did, and some even started to shrivel up on the skin.

Since it started getting colder, I was pretty sure this was it for my plant. I finally plucked some green tomatoes off and left them on my kitchen counter for a coupla weeks. I just thought it was better than leaving them on the plant to die away in the cold. I really thought it was the end, that I wouldn't get to eat any of my tomatoes this year. And what d'ya know, some started turning red! Silly me, I should have done this months ago. Well now we know for next year.

Cyprus Lake

2011-09-20T11:10:00.000-04:00

We drove about 4.5 hours north this past weekend up to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and camped out at Cyprus Lake. It was the most perfect sunny fall weather (although we were a bit under-prepared sleeping at night *shivers*) and hiked to some of the most breathtaking views we've seen in Ontario. Weekend well spent with J and the girls!

Ghost Chair Wedding

2011-09-15T23:22:00.001-04:00

Isn't a reception with ghost chairs just lovely? I saw one photo of this online and thought 'what a unique idea!'. Then I googled it some more and it seems it's been done quite nicely by many. Can't imagine how much this would cost even for a small party!

Style Me Pretty has a small gallery of some more ghost chair receptions. They also look quite neat for a ceremony!

Images from Manolo Brides and One Stylish Bride

Framed Bathroom Mirror

2011-08-29T23:03:00.002-04:00

Wow, what a hiatus. Been busy at work and when that died down, I've been busy being lazy.

Here's a project done about a month ago. I had been meaning to tackle the washroom mirror since we moved in April 2010. Sometimes the simplest projects take the longest to start.

Framing your bare-and-typical-builders'-washroom-mirror is not an innovative idea of mine. It's certainly been done by many and there are many tutorials you can seek online. I sort of did this whole shebang off of memory of what I've seen on other design blogs throughout the previous months. It was until after I finished is project that I googled for a tutorial so that I could send a link to a friend to explain what I did instead of writing up my own tutorial to explain to her.

Here, see what Becca did and posted on Somewhat Simple, really nice! It was pretty much the exact same steps I took, and results were just as beautiful.

So happy to cross another thing off my to-do list!

Basil Baby

2011-07-24T23:48:00.000-04:00

Here's another one of my babies that I have been able to snip and bring in for a meal. Sadly, my spinach plants which I enjoyed two months ago did not survive. I'm ashamed to say that I may have neglected it a bit too much =(

Well lets hope my basil will keep up!

Boyfriend T-Shirt

2011-07-20T00:08:00.002-04:00

When J was in high school he was very skinny. I don't know that for a fact because I didn't know him in his teenage years, but I am basing it on seeing old photos of him.

And also the size of his old clothes.

This red t-shirt belonged to him but he has probably not worn it in the last 10 years, because it doesn't fit him. In a recent closet spring cleaning session I decided that I can be the owner of this meaningful shirt. Not that 'meaningful' means the shirt had any sentimental value, but it is 'meaningful' because the quote is totally the way I am with him! LOL! Here, I flipped the picture for you:

Yup, that's pretty much me when J talks to me. So much love <3

Jennifer & Charles' Wedding

2011-07-19T22:21:00.002-04:00

Charles is J's cousin. Charles tied the knot with Jennifer on July 2, 2011. It was a happy and sunny summer day that started off very early at Charles' home in Vaughan for the Chinese tea ceremony:

The ceremony followed at Graydon Hall in North York. It had a beautiful courtyard for lotsa memorable pictures.

The happy couple took off for their honeymoon to Hawaii, and will be moving to start their life together in Detroit. It was a beautiful wedding and I wish them all the best in a life-long journey together!

Hand Painted Wedding Shoes

2011-07-12T22:43:00.001-04:00

I had always imagined myself not wearing white shoes on my wedding day. But if not, then what color? How about something a little bit more 'out there'?

These are hand painted shoes from Figgie Shoes, I found this via Green Wedding Shoes. If done right and tastefully, it can be a very cute way to add another personalized touch to the special day. I see some really neat stuff from Figgie's site... and what girl does not love shoes??

Another Umbrella

2011-07-07T20:24:00.002-04:00

Last night we had dinner in The Distillery District in downtown Toronto. Before getting seated we had a bit of time so we scooted over to a shop called Bergo which had tons of home decor-ish nic-nacs. I think I could have spent hours in there checking everything out, but too bad we got there a bit late in the evening and it was only 15 minutes to closing.

One item that caught my eye?

I'm not sure what is it about umbrellas and me, but I thought this was so cute. Excuse the blur as this was inside a glass display. I didn't find out the price because I reasoned with myself by asking 'Do I really need this?". The answer was no. But wouldn't it be so cute beside my pencil sharpener pencil holder?...

I fell immediately for this sharpener pencil holder when we were in the Tate Museum a month ago in London. This was my one London souvenir to myself. I was trying to avoid getting souvenirs that scream 'vacation', but rather just pieces that would look nice in my home. This one says 'STATIONERS | SUCK UK & Co | LONDON, ENGLAND", it is subtle and I love the wood texture. 15 Pounds for a pencil holder is not normally a price I would pay (anything more than five bucks to me is expensive!), but this just had me at hello.

So back to the umbrella paper clip holder, don't you think it would look so cute beside this huge sharpener? Or does that not make sense? Or I am sure you can put other things in it besides paper clips, like tacks? candy? jewellery?

The Ring

2011-06-27T19:04:00.001-04:00

I just had to share, it would be silly not to want to =) As I have told many friends, I really had no clue what I wanted my engagement ring to look like, it just really wasn't something I had put too much thought into. I am so happy that J picked this out entirely on his own, and he really nailed it <3

"New" Pants

2011-06-22T23:07:00.002-04:00

Here's another alterations post. I recently dug these pants out again. I've owned these Guess cargo pants for years now; I would say at least 8 years. Unlike this top which I said was a "mistake" purchase and I only wore it once before altering it, these pants were actually worn many many many times.

Ok I have to put it out there, the above photos really does not look that flattering. But back when I wore it a lot, it did fit me better than it does now.

You can see in the following photo how much they went through.

So even though they are so beat up and they drag on the floor because I want to wear them with flats, it is another item I don't want to part with. So I decided to alter them.

I cut off the hems that were all ripped up, and then I took in both legs to taper the fit. As you can see in the following photo, I started with the left leg and started off by not taking in that much since I wasn't sure how tight I wanted the legs. That's why there are three stitched lines, turns out I was taking them in quite a bit because the third line (left-most stitch) was the final fit. Then I mimicked the left leg on the right leg, and then I cut off the excess fabric on both legs. Finally I cleaned up all the raw edges with a zigzag stitch to prevent fraying.

Here we go, what do you think? Notice the difference?

I think I can get a few more wears from these pants this summer. Oh and of course it cost me nothing to get this new look =)

One last look at before and after:

PS. Sorry for the poor quality photos, was using a bad camera in terrible lighting.

Chic and Fun Finds

2011-06-22T19:53:00.006-04:00

Here are two fun accessories I picked up from Urban Planet just before my trip last month. Both were less than $10 total!

First are these oversized sunglasses with the splash of floral print on the sides. I loved that they are fun and summer-y. Oversized sunglasses look better on me because I have a huge head, so they make my face look smaller =P

Below I am wearing them with two very different outfits. When I bought them I really didn't think they would be that versatile.

Second is this Owl on a long chain. Its body is made up of metal leaf pieces and it dangles right around my stomach so as I walk it makes quite a bit of noise. I liked that this is a chic yet nerdy owl because it is wearing glasses.

DIY 5-Foot Patio Planters - Part 2

2011-06-21T22:35:00.003-04:00

So back in April I talked about the three 5-foot planters that I made for our rooftop terrace. I was so excited last summer to get some greens and color into that living space, especially since we were already having friends and family over for barbecues up there.

However, I actually didn't get around to planting anything all last summer because I didn't know what I should do about protecting the wood from soil and moisture, so I put that off for a while. I'm sure it was a simple solution, but I just didn't bother to think hard enough about it =P So family and friends were invited over for BBQ parties with empty wooden crates in the space.

When September finally rolled around I got my act together. Why? We were in Home Depot and I saw they were selling flower bulbs already to plant in the fall for spring bloom. I got excited again!! I bought a bunch of bulbs, plus 8 big bags of soil, and Miracle Growth.

That meant I had to solve the lining issue right away. Keep in mind I had put this off also because I didn't want to spend much money on this, otherwise with money I bet I can find solutions right away. So while there that time, I asked the HD garden center lady what I can use to line my planter, and she said just sheets of plastic lining is fine. She said they sell them in rolls in one of their aisles, OR I can just help myself to some similar plastic for *free*.

FREE? What What?

They have a roll of clear plastic at the exit that customers can cut to use to line their car trunks if they are purchasing dirty product (like soil or plants). What a great idea! We cut a reasonable length to take home, .. reasonable as in it didn't look ridiculous like we were stealing plastic ... we really did use some of it to line our trunk for the soil we were buying, but also enough to line our three planters in the patio. They were big sheets width-wise already so we didn't need that much in length.

At that point I was so excited to get planting at home! Oh yes, don't forget I am saying this was last September/October.

Anyway, fast forward to this year. I can't describe how excited I was for winter to be over. I couldn't wait for spring as I had begun to see my flowers sprouting by the last frost. Here are my tulips from the beginning of May (yes yes this post is a month overdue). Notice I only planted 2 out of 3 planters, I thought of this to be a 'test' so I didn't want to invest too much into it in case I screwed up somewhere in the process.

You can see in the following pic that I used A LOT of staples to secure the plastic liner last winter. I'm also pretty sure we need to add at least another bag of soil to top up the level, right now too much plastic is still showing.

So this was all the pics I was able to snap of my tulips (taken with my smartphone). They were in full bloom and then wilted away within two weeks after, especially after the several days of heavy rain that we had in May.

By now they've all died and some wild weeds are growing in my planters =(. I have to find time to pull them out! However I also planted Allium bulbs last fall and I do see they are going to bloom soon! Can't wait!

Ring Bearer Bowl

2011-06-21T14:26:00.001-04:00

Who would have thought out of ALL necessary and obvious things to think about for a wedding, that a ring bearer bowl would be the first thing I blog about. Would you put thought into this piece of detail? Well I came across this beauty from Paloma's Nest via Design Mom and it is the sweetest thing! There are many other pretty items from this online shop.

I have seen creative ideas aside from pillows, like a bird's nest (which I adore as well). But the simplicity of a dish with an engraved quote (or just your initials and/or your wedding date) is just beautiful. I am wondering how to make a variation of this on my own.

Engaged

2011-06-21T14:01:00.003-04:00

Yes, J and I are getting married!
We got engaged on June 3, 2011 in Paris. Wedding plans are not exactly rolling yet. We have not picked a date, but we know it may be in a coupla years time. For the girly girl that I am, it really is never too early to think about all the big (and many little) details of the special day. I'll be bookmarking lots of sites for ideas of all kinds, so why wouldn't I share this journey on my blog!

I created a new 'Wedding' tab and will compile all the wedding-related posts there.

Arrangements From Two Bouquets

2011-06-13T23:18:00.003-04:00

This past two days was a fun-filled weekend. My favourite ladies in the whole wide world - my friends and cousins - came over for a wine & cheese afternoon to celebrate an early b-day with me. And of course they brought lovely flowers. This post is only about the flowers.

So from two bouquets, I got six arrangements. Here we go:

First is in our guest bedroom. Flowers just in a clear jar without its lid. Tray from India gifted from friend Rad. Betty mug gifted from my elementary school friend Rachel back in Grade 7, whom I've lost touch with since age 14.

A single flower on our picture ledge over the TV. Keep it simple.

Cut the stems really short and bunch into a short vase.

Used whatever I had around the kitchen, this one is on the dining table in my clear glass water jug.

Not sure if the first pic is too simple, but I like it. I put another stem in for the second pic. These 'flowers' all had a fuzzy texture. Over my chalkboard in the kitchen.

This one is hardly an arrangement, just stuffed some stems into my reed diffuser vases on the toilet. I thought the little white flowers looked perfect in our little white washroom.

There you go. If given a bouquet of mixed flowers you don't have to put the whole thing into one vase. Split the pieces up and spread them out around the house. I feel like the money goes a much longer way like this. Oh yeah, forgive me for not knowing the names of any flowers! =P

Growing My Own Veggies

2011-05-22T17:35:00.002-04:00

Back on the first weekend of April we planted some seeds and hoped that they would germinate and then sprout into beautiful green veggies and herbs. Honestly, it their first few weeks I don't think I gave them enough sun, and sun is pretty critical especially during germinating stage.

Long story short, basically my basil and parsley didn't make it. My spinach grew nicely though. After they grew to about 3 inches I transferred them into a bigger pot and continued to water them everyday. The following is what they looked like about a week ago.

Some leaves grew so large and tall that they were falling over so I snipped them off and made scrambled eggs with them for breakfast that morning :)

Over the past week more leaves have grown and my spinach plants are even fuller now! I'll snap some pics again later.

Below are the tomatoes. They were the last to germinate and sprout. I really thought they were a complete fail when 3 weeks came around and nothing grew. But I waited it out anyway and eventually four out of five seeds sprouted! Again this was taken about a week ago, right now they are even taller! But I think it will be a while before we see any tomatoes. Oh well, I'm patient.

I gave the basil and parsley a second try last weekend, starting all over by planting brand new seeds. Right now they are in direct 20 degree sun, hopefully this time it will work!

Shit, It's Raining

2011-05-19T22:03:00.001-04:00

This umbrella from Raindrops makes my heart go pitter-patter. I first saw it in a trade magazine while working a trade show in Toronto this past February. Definitely on my want list. I'm thinking by the time (if I ever) get my hands on one this year spring showers will be over and we'd be well into summer sunshine weather. I am normally one to complain about rain, but if I had this umbrella I'd want to walk in the rain all the time!

Scalloped Top

2011-05-19T19:41:00.006-04:00

Five years ago I bought this bright yellow top and I think I've since only worn it once. I didn't like how it fit on me and have no idea what made me think to buy it (I remember it wasn't even on sale either!). It had a droopy neckline, I like droopy necklines but this one was just made poorly and was very unflattering. I've tucked this top away for years but couldn't part with it because I thought someday I should be able to do something with it. I just couldn't let it go to waste.

Last night I finally attacked it. Instead of cutting off the excess fabric on the droopy neckline I rolled it up outwards for that.. rolled up fabric look. Then I cut pieces of black fabric and sewed it on like scales.

Below I am sharing a photo taken through the washroom mirror... a mirror that needs some windexing, LOL. Maybe instead of blogging I should be cleaning toothpaste splashes off the mirror.

I wonder if I will wear this top more now, or will it be another piece I will wear once and realize i don't like it =P

Edit: After posting this and viewing my post, I noticed my blog background is also scalloped. Hah.

New Length

2011-04-26T18:58:00.002-04:00

Hemmed two pairs of J's jeans over the weekend. I have done his other pants too, including hand-hemming his dress pants for that threadless look. Save money and hem your own pants if you can, alterations in a mall would have been $30+ for both pairs of jeans. *shakes head* . Although, I must admit this wasn't my straightest sewing job, but he didn't care, it was free! LOL

Jyuban Ramen House

2011-04-24T19:52:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we met up with old friends Eric and Katie who were back in town from Sarnia, ON for the weekend. We realised we hadn't seen each other since June 2008! Since the weather was amazing we played some outdoor mini golf and just had a great time catching up.

For dinner we all seemed to want something small and simple so I thought of the Japanese ramen house that J and I like to go to at Commerce Gate on Hwy 7. AFTER walking in and being seated we realised the place had changed owners (?) so the menu had also changed, including no sushi anymore!

One new thing that caught my attention was the new business card/chopstick holder on the table settings. I was quite impressed with this cute business card idea as I've never seen this done before.

Isn't it such a cute idea with the heart cut out? Would have been more useful as a business card though if they had included their address and phone number on the card.

As for the food, I think I liked the old menu more with the House Special Ramen. Now they still have a decent variety on the menu, but it just wasn't the same. However, one thing they still had was the crispy ice-cream, which we quite enjoyed for dessert.

It was vanilla and black sesame ice-cream rolled in what seemed like crushed corn flakes and then topped with chocolate syrup. Yumm. But so simple to make that we think we'll try it at home someday =)

It was definitely great to see Eric and Katie. Hope to see them again this summer instead of waiting another 3 years to meet up!

Time in London

2011-04-18T23:06:00.001-04:00

The clock in our living room stopped working since about a month ago, even after putting in new batteries it still ran slow. So we took it down and left the wall bare for a few weeks while we tried to get use to looking at the tiny digital clock on the stove when we are on the main floor. I always had my phone around me so it didn't bother me much. But getting a new clock was definitely on the top of J's shopping list.

We usually shop together for 'home decor' related purchases. But one day last week when J had to pass some time at the mall alone, he found this at HomeSense. He texted me to say he found something he liked but wanted me to see it first. I said just buy it if you think it's right. So he did. We hung it up. And we both really liked it.

It says Edinburgh Clock Works Co. London, England. Goes great with our living room decor and even the colors are perfect!

Maybe I should find a clock for our den too....

Fondue Night

2011-04-14T19:17:00.004-04:00

Fondue night with friends coupla weekends ago was super fun. Wonder why we never did it before?

I think I liked the pineapple and kiwi most with melted chocolate. Strawberries were somehow not around in supermarkets at the time, either that or super expensive or not in great shape.

PS. Do you like my new Japanese stone bowls? It was a steal at 6 for $10!! From Market Village. I was needing an in-between size like this for soup because our rice bowls are too small and pasta bowl was too big for drinking soup. These were the perfect size and I love the color too!

Uh Yeah... This Is My Keyboard

2011-04-07T20:30:00.004-04:00

... at work.

Do you see what I want you to see?

No, I'm not talking about all the dust and guck stuck between the keys. Well, obviously you see that, but that's normal stuff (isn't it?!).

Do you see the letters E R S D F H L N M? Do they look ok?

Do you see the fading C? Well, E R S D F H L N M were fading just the same, so much that it got to the point where it slowed down my typing sometimes because I couldn't tell what the keys were anymore. And yes, sometimes I do look down to find keys, although 99% of the time I don't need to.

I finally decided to fix this yesterday during work. I was very comfortable in my seat, especially with my toasty heater on under my desk blowing at my feet, I didn't want to get up to find 'supplies' to do the job. So while seated I looked around and grabbed the first thing I saw - White-Out. But it wasn't the kind with the thin point. It was the sponge on a stick in a bottle of liquid paper. I sorta thought this would be a bad idea since I knew I should probably use a fine tip, but I used the sponge anyway.

I started with D and F which turned out OK because I used gentle dabs at the beginning. Then I started to work quicker and quicker, and sloppier and sloppier... which is why M and N now look like those ugly blobs. I don't even know why I didn't stop. I kept dabbing and thinking to myself "This is looking terrible, this is such a bad idea, I should just get up to grab one of those thin pen white-outs". Yet the whole time I was thinking how bad this idea was, I just kept doing it anyway. I was in the zone, I guess. This crazy idea took me maybe 1 minute in total, so I was in the zone for 1 minute.

I realized at the end that I missed the C. But I was too lazy to grab the white-out again to do the C, so I left it. I was out of the zone already.

I'm not sure I recommend anyone else to do this. But I've labeled this post under DIY anyway, LOL.

DIY 5-Foot Patio Planters - Part 1

2011-04-04T22:51:00.012-04:00

Last spring was our first spring in the new house. Being all excited to have your own space, you just want to do everything that people not living with their parents want to do! No, no, nothing naughty, you dirty minds, LOL, I am talking about being able to decorate as you like. And for me, having our own patio terrace got me excited to do some planting... but I've never tended to a garden before.

Blurry photo above taken from the previous owners when selling their house, so the patio furniture is not ours. But as you can see, the floor is concrete up in this rooftop terrace, so there was no soil ground to plant into. I looked into getting those plant boxes that hang off the ledge, but I wanted more planting space than that. And I didn't want individual pots of flowers either. I wanted beds of flowers!

I decided that what was out on the market was not gonna satisfy me and my budget, so I had to take matters into my own hands! We measured our terrace space, and we drew out on paper what we wanted my planters to look like, and how big.

Above was out first sketch. Picture us with a tiny piece of note paper and one pen. One of us starts sketching and the other would grab the pen from the first person and add strokes to this diagram, then the first person grabs the pen back to add more, and back and forth. This doesn't work. You will get no where by doing this, except that you've had the chance to see and talk out each others' ideas.

Above is the second attempt, I think I drew this one. Ignore the writing on it because I don't think it would make much sense to you as the calculations are specific to our needs. Also, the final product didn't look exactly like this drawing in terms of the inside cross beams, just keep reading.

I decided I wanted three 5-foot planters (and I wanted to paint them a dark dark brown). J helped me calculate how many pieces of wood we will need in total and how many cuts we'll need the Home Depot personel to cut for us because we don't own carpentry machines. So it meant all our measurements had to be accurately calculated when we are IN the store because we don't have the tools to make correction cuts after we take the wood home. Luckily we are both good math people =)

So we set out to Home Depot - several times actually, because we only bought enough wood for one planter first so we can go home and do a 'test' build to make sure our measurements all worked out, and then we made more trips after to get more wood for the 2nd and 3rd planter. So, we brought home all our wood pieces, paint, and nails, and lugged everything up 4 flights of stairs to make it to the roof top. You won't believe how much each of us were cussing in our heads about this idea, lol, or maybe you would believe it.

I'm sorry, there are no process photos, because I hadn't intended for this to be a tutorial. =P

We went right into building which was all pretty easy and quick. I am sure that just by looking at the planters you can figure out how the pieces were put together. I held the pieces in place while J hammered the nails in.

Painting took a few days though because I could only do a coat after work each day. And plus, I did all the painting myself! To cut the story short, cause there's been way too much reading already... here are my finished 5-foot planters!

What do you think?

Here's a look at the center cross beams:

Aren't they so pretty?? =D

Oh yes, in total for all the wood and paint and nails, I think I spent just around $150, I can't remember exactly because this was last summer, and I've lost the receipt. But I certainly remember being super proud of the cost because I know buying already-made planters this size would have ran me at least $150-200 EACH. Plus, I have not seen one's like mine in garden centers - not that size and that color. This is the beauty of DIY, you get the look YOU want!

I also started planting already. I will share more about my planting in a later post.

B.

Naked People Art

2011-04-01T23:59:00.002-04:00

You may be sick of another washroom-related post, but c'mon, who doesn't love washrooms? It's the best room in the house after the living room and the kitchen and the bedroom!

So let's talk about our washroom again. Maybe you didn't even wonder this, but I will answer as if you did wonder:

After this post where I talked about how when we first moved in we had to move the downstairs washroom cabinet to the upstairs bathroom. I bet you wondered what we did with the empty wall space that was left in the downstairs washroom. I bet you did wonder, didn't you! Here's the answer...

(Sorry for the flash)

Yup, we put up ~~drawings~~ sketches of (I'll explain the strike-through in a bit) naked people. Now this wasn't really planned at all. When the cabinet came down, we only knew we would frame something in that space. So we measured that whole empty wall above, went to Ikea, and purchased a frame that would be big enough to fill the space and make a statement. But we had no idea what art we would put in it.

J and I are somewhat artsy people... I guess (haha he might hit me for sounding doubt-y) @_@. We both went to artsy high schools and enrolled in artsy programs, so we had a collection of art stashed in the house.. from back in school. Post-secondary he didn't pursue an artsy undergrad, I sort of did but I don't have a lot that I'm proud of to show =P.

Anyhow, I thought I should fill the frame with something temporarily until we found the perfect piece of art or photography to go in it, so when we brought the huge frame home I went through our stash of art to see what would fit in "for now". Between the two of us in our portfolio case there was a good amount of art - paintings, portraits, landscape, pen and ink, pencil drawings, fashion sketches...

BUT, there wasn't much to choose from in terms of size, I had to get something big enough to fit perfectly in that matting. So I was only able to pick a few of our pieces that were done on those large sketching pads that we used in class. If you took an art class you would remember doing these charcoal sketches of a nude model standing in the middle of the class. J and I both had these 'practice' pieces saved. Between mine and his, guess who's made it in?

This is art by J

I chose his. I actually did this whole art-picking thing while he was out one day, so he was surprised to come back to what I had chosen to frame. I myself was kinda surprised something more colorful or 'finished-looking' didn't get framed, I really wasn't 100% sure about doing this, but we put it up anyway and it really grew on us. Now this 'temporary' piece has been up for almost a year.

Time for the disclaimer: J was looking over my shoulder while I was writing this post and he wanted to make sure I mention that this was a sketch. A SKETCH. Not a drawing or a painting, not some fancy thing he spent hours on. It's a rough sketch done in class where your teacher only gives about a minute per model pose. Ya know, just in case you think that's all he's got; just want to make sure you know he can do more than this. LOL. Kidding, I must admit I do think he is quite good with traditional art mediums but he just doesn't (have the chance to) do it enough. He's really good! But then I might be biased too =P

What do you think?

The washroom is really small so it was a tight squeeze at the door to get a good picture. You can see it is pretty much all white with only the black and white art, and I do love that we've chosen to keep it so simple. Sorta makes me think American Psycho-ish (I'm gonna get brownie points from him for making a movie reference in my post =D) if you minus the girly diffuser vases.

I don't think we have any of our own art up in any other part of the house. Maybe it would be nice to consider that.

Painting at Work

2011-03-31T12:46:00.000-04:00

This is what I do at work.

It's actually a money bank. Would make a fun kids gift don't you think?

Help Japan

2011-03-29T21:50:00.002-04:00

In Japanese legend, anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish, such as recovery from illness or long life.

Just purchased this Paper Cranes poster from This Paper Ship with 90% of their proceeds going to the American Red Cross to help Japan. I know there are many routes on the www right now we can take to contribute in aiding Japan, this is one of my small donations and a meaningful addition to my home.

Our Great Great Shower Curtain

2011-03-29T21:05:00.002-04:00

Another bathroom post =P

Our first shower curtain was actually just a simple white shower liner we bought with plastic curtain rings, probably under 10 bucks. If you use these you'd probably know they don't last, you almost have to replace the liner every few months because it starts to tear at the holes on the top due to constant tugging on the liner when you get in and out of your shower.

So we went shopping for a new shower curtain and were determined to get something that would last, and this meant investing a bit more moolah into it - but J has no problem with that when he knows he's getting quality results, yippie! I suggested we go with the ones with the huge gromets on the top for the shower rod to go through, therefore completely eliminating the need for ugly plastic curtain rings, AND they will never rip, AND it looks sooo much classier.

We looked at curtains with color and patterns and decided with such a small space we should keep it all white to keep it feeling more open and airy, and we could add in color through accent pieces in the washroom. So we picked one that was about $40, and it was the best choice ever!!

Seeeeeeeeeee

The curtain (outer) layer falls on the outside of the bath tub, and it has a second liner layer that falls inside the tub. The liner layer is snapped onto the outer layer all across about 2/3 way up from the bottom. It can be removed anytime for machine wash.

This photo was taken with me standing inside the tub.

The rest of the 1/3 at the top is a shear fabric which is great to let in more light during your shower and you also feel less enclosed (in case you are claustrophobic or something, but we're not).

The only downfall of this beautiful shower curtain was that it didn't come with magnets on the bottom of the liner layer to secure to the tub. I was use to having these magnets on all the cheap liners we use to buy, it helped hold the liner in place to prevent water splashing out the sides of the tub. So, before we threw out our old cheap ripped up shower liner, I cut out their 3 magnets, plus three 2x2inch squares of the old liner... And I hand stitched them onto our new liner.

Sorry if the photo is unclear... or sorry if it is too clear and you see dirtiness on that corner, this was taken after months of use, we've since given it a wash and it looks brand spankin new!

I basically did this sewing three times, once on each bottom corner and one on the bottom middle of the liner. It was maybe a 20min job but such a great idea to reuse and recycle to get what I wanted. No more flowy liner in the shower! Do this if you have a magnet-less liner!

(Like my cabinet doors?)

I really pat myself on the back after this one! =P

I shared this here:
Hope Studios
Sugar Bee Crafts

Above My Desk

2011-03-28T21:55:00.003-04:00

Here's a look at what sits right above my 'desk'... quotations because I don't actually use my 'desk' as a desk. My sewing machine currently sits there, whereas my laptop is quite permanently stationed downstairs on the coffee table where I sit on the floor and use it every night while I watch TV.

This post is just me documenting the little memorabilia that is showcased in our den right above said 'desk'. I don't think the general public would be very interested in this.

I want to make a point to mention that I keep a lot of junk (especially from travel and from friends). I keep them in boxes and bags thinking someday they would be of some use. More often than not, I am wrong. As a kid I liked to display on shelves every memorable item that I kept, but we all know that just becomes clutter to the eye. I knew I had to be selective in what I put out because there was just way too much, plus I had limited space because I share the space with J.

We put up 4 Ikea white Lack shelves, two long and two short which we scored off of Craigslist, and arranged them all on the wall above the desks. Pictured above is one of the short shelves with 'stuff' that made the cut to be my permanent (for now) display.

From left to right:

Pig mirror from Cousin Jess on her trip to Asia (Hong Kong?) on top of my sketchbook
Slanted Windy City shot glass from our long weekend road trip to Chicago, August 2010
Large Doraemon piggy bank and white pig piggy bank, both from my childhood but don't know who gave it to me, love both
Purple Geisha figurine from my trip around Japan with Rad (she got a ~~pink~~ blue one), September 2007
Behind are alphabet blocks that spell BETTY, given to me from San on my birthday, year forgotten (sorry San!)
Heart shaped clear jar of folded stars from J when we first started dating, I feel guilty that I don't recall the occasion for this gift (anniversary? my birthday? valentine's?)
Customized wooden stamp of my Chinese last name from Cousin Nancy during her trip to Asia.
Photo frame with pic of Rad, Me, and San - as my going-away present before I left to live in Japan, Feb 2007. I later found a note from San hidden in the frame behind the picture =)
Photo of me and Mom at high school graduation, Oct 2002.
Photo of me and J at dinner on our 1 month anniversary, Sept 2005
Large green scrapbook that I started (and never finished) intended to document our first whole year of dating, lots of photos of trips and memorabilia, but somehow incomplete =S
Blue stuffed seahorse from J as one of my Xmas gifts, we have an inside joke about me wanting a horse but this was all he could afford to buy me (for now), Dec 2005

Here's a closer look:

I think once we work on the guest bedroom this summer to change it into a work room, the things in the den will get some moving around. Hope things will come along nicely!

Featured

2011-03-28T20:34:00.002-04:00

Teehee!

I got mentioned on Fireflies and Jellybeans for my bath mat, woohoo!

Easy Glass Cabinet Door Face Lift

2011-03-24T21:32:00.001-04:00

When we moved into this house we didn't inherit much from the previous owners. Well, there were the standard things like all the kitchen appliances. They also left window coverings including all blinds which we kept, and curtains in the bedrooms which we have taken down. In terms of permanent fixtures there weren't any, except one...

I remember when we were shown the house, both the upstairs bath and the downstairs washroom had a over-the-toilet cabinet. The upstairs one looked like this:

This photo was taken from the property listing when the house was on the market. I don't have a photo of what the downstairs washroom looked like. Anyways, when we moved in, only the downstairs washroom cabinet was left for us, and the cabinet in the photo above was gone (with the previous owners).

My immediate thought was that we don't really need storage in the downstairs washroom, all it really needs is a place to put extra toilet paper, which we solved by purchasing this, but ours is silver:

So I had J take down the downstairs cabinet and bring it upstairs to the bathroom. All the screws were still in the wall of the bathroom from the previous cabinet so there was no nailing or drilling involved for us in making this swap. Immediately this created more storage for us in the bathroom which was much needed for all our toiletries... we have lots =P

The doors on the cabinet are clear frosted. They still sort of bothered me because I could see the shape and color of all the things inside. So I went for another quick fix by shopping for some gift wrap, cut it to the size of the glass and taped it on from the inside.

Ta-Da!

This easy DIY cabinet door make-over was actually one of the first things I did early in our move-in stage. J and I shopped together for this paper pattern and agreed we both liked the blue and dark brown demask print. This decision basically set the color theme of the rest of the bathroom:

It's why when my friend San let me make my own decision on her towel gift to me, I chose the dark brown towel with blue lettering, it was to match my cabinet door paper pattern.

and it's why I went with the dark brown place mats to make my long bath mat.

There are still plans for this small bathroom, the next big thing is changing up/out the mirror! Hopefully I will get to that this summer.

Do you like the pattern we chose?

He's Just Not That Into You

2011-03-24T10:06:00.002-04:00

Watched this movie at home last night. I am always up for a chick flick even knowing all of them are pretty much the same kinda stuff. However, I think I really liked this one!

I liked how although each character had their own love story they were still linked to other characters in some way to form a full circle. And it was realistic that not everyone had a happy ending.

I liked the character 'Gigi' even though she really was the most annoying one, LOL, probably every guy's nightmare haha, but she was the most fun to watch. Unlike 'Beth'... is it just me or Jennifer Aniston is ALWAYS in the SAME kind of roles?! And not to mention she ALWAYS LOOKS the SAME too! Hairstyle, wardrobe, character personality. She really doesn't take risks at all, and has really been type casted.

Anyways, I would watch this again, I think it was a fun movie. Maybe not so fun watching with a bf beside you, every 20 minutes in the storyline I heard J go "I don't like this movie", haha!

Image taken from IMDB

Placemat Bath Mat

2011-03-23T23:15:00.005-04:00

This has got to be the simplest and quickest "project" (if you can even call it that, cause it was so easy) I've done to-date.

In our bathroom we've always used a white towel on the floor. Then we started talking about getting a nicer looking mat, something bamboo-ish or teak would be nice to get that spa like feel. So I searched the web for some options. Knowing me, I was wanting to spend something like.. 2 dollars.. on this. So when I saw options that were $15-30, I said "No Thanks!"

While in my local Dollarama one day, looking at placemats because we needed placemats for our patio table and in the dining room, I found some that I thought could be our bathroom floor mat!

The dark brown color tied together with the bath towels that my friend Sandy got for us as a housewarming gift. They were personalized towels from Lacoste with our names embroidered on! I know I know, in this post yesterday I JUST talked about how I don't want to fill the house with our names on everything, but this was a gift and we loved it. San even let me pick the color of the towels and I went with the chocolate brown with baby blue stitching.

Anyways, so the brown placemats in Dollarama felt right. I bought 4, plus a piece of those grippy things to put underneath so that the mats won't slide around on the floor when you step on them.

I simply connected the placemats with clear heavy duty tape. When the 4 pieces were all connected I realised it looked a bit short in the length of our bathroom, so the next day I went to purchase one more to make it 5. It's now the perfect length!

What do you think? Does it look strange? Can you tell they are obviously placemats put together, or no? That's what I was kinda worried about but then I've gotten use to it and it feels great!

This whole thing cost me 6 bucks (5 placemats + 1 gripping thingy @ $1 each). Yeah yeah, it wasn't the 2 bucks I wanted to spend, but definitely worth it still, and sure beats spending $30!

And if anyone is wondering if there's problems with mildew or anything - I did this over half a year ago and they are still in place and looking perfect.

I shared this here too!:

Thinking of Paris

2011-03-23T11:42:00.002-04:00

We have a Paris trip coming up in June, I'm excited and dreaming of the beautiful city.

Paris image from here.

Photo Frame Trays

2011-03-23T00:16:00.005-04:00

I'm not much of an accessories girl. My everyday jewellery includes my silver star earrings, my 'couples' ring (J has a matching one), and my jade ball necklace (chain from my dad, jade is my mom's). All are very subtle pieces and I don't take them off, even in the shower or for bed, and they stay on with everything I wear.

But when I do feel like changing things up on a particular day, I do have a selection of fun pieces (fun = non expensive) that I now keep at a convenient reach. I use to just pile them into a junk drawer or stuff everything in a zippered make-up bag so it was hard to see what I have or dig for what I want, but then I realised it'd be nice to have it more organized in an open space.

I didn't want it to look like just jewelery randomly laid out on my dresser, so I made trays for them. I picked up two 8x10 black frames that have a deep inset, broke off their easels so they would lay flat, purchased some scrapbook paper at Dollarama, and voila.

I like the paper patterns, but not sure they are too busy with all my jewelery on top, I can live with it for now though. Below is what the underside looks like. You can see I snapped off the easel, and I put a glob of hot glue on each of the four corners to act has 'legs'.. I was afraid the metal components on the back of the frame may scratch the surface of my dresser so I wanted to raise the tray off the surface by adding the glue dots.

The two green scallop-edged dishes are just little sauce bowls I had in the kitchen and could spare (we have way too many), and the large printed bowl with the lid is Tiffany's from my cousins this past Christmas! Oh yes and I do worry about tarnishing, so those pieces are kept in the baggies and the Tiffany's bowl with lid.

I do have more jewellery than this, but only these made the cut as "I probably will where these more, and those less"... 'those' being the ones still piled in a junk drawer or stuffed in a zippered make-up bag. Actually, I only made the tray on the right first, and lived with it for a few months. Then I realised the pieces were still really jumbled together so then I decided to make the second one to spread things out more, and added the bowls for better organization.

Side story: The whole green bowl of rings were all bought at once at a recent trade show I worked at in Edmonton. I had a sudden urge that day thinking to myself "I don't have any fun cocktailish rings, lets just buy a bunch here and end the need to ever have to buy any". Don't you like my thinking? So there they are.

Do you like my jewellery trays? =)

I shared this post here:
Type A
Trendy Treehouse
My Backyard Eden
Somewhat Simple

Initial Hooks

2011-03-21T20:30:00.002-04:00

A while back we were just walking around HomeSense (Winners / one of my favorite places to 'scavenge' for homey stuff) and I came upon these wall hooks and thought these would be so cute in the house. I knew I wasn't the type to prominently put our names (first or last or initials) all over the house as decor, but a small touch here and there wouldn't hurt. So I picked up a B for me and a J for Jimmy. I was also surprised that it didn't take much convincing for J to agree on this item, he liked it too!

I liked that they were ornate letters but still clean looking being in the block shape. I also liked that it was black on black so the letters are subtle and don't really stand out unless you stood closer to see.

Edit: Is that two lighter spots on the wall? Never noticed this due to the lighting in the room while we were painting. It's definitely not noticeable in real life.

The initial thought was to put them on the door in the bathroom as towel hooks. However, as we started living in the space and using the bathroom everyday I noticed we had no need for extra hooks in there because there were already two bath towel racks and one hand towel hook. And we never leave clothes in the washroom either so I decided to put the hooks in the bedroom.

My first try was to nail them to the back of the door so that they're only seen by us when the door is closed and not by guests touring the house. However, maybe I wasn't using enough force to bang the nail into the door, because it was almost impossible to get a nail through the surface! I didn't want to force it or get Jimmy to try, and I also started to think I didn't want to ruin a door by putting two holes in it cause they are SO EXPENSIVE. So I changed my plan and nailed them to the wall right behind the door.

So they are still hidden when the door is open, and I still have the full wall space to the left of them for future plans (wall art?). So far J's hook has been useful to him for a pair of pants and a shirt at the end of the day, and mine I don't actually use LOL! I started by hanging my robe there, but then I got into my old habit again of just throwing my robe into my basket of other clothes on the floor. So for now I just hang one of my (DIY!) necklaces on my B.

(Hmmm, I'm trying to imagine that door knob... not in brass...)

Can Never Have Too Much Seating

2011-03-17T09:57:00.002-04:00

Hello, again. It's been a long time, again.

This, again, is two months overdue, but I it's never too late to share something pretty. Look what I picked up at the funiture trade show (TCHFM) in January as a show sample!

Isn't she a beauty? She's since been put upstairs in the den right beside our bookshelf, looks great! So far I haven't sat in her at all, but I don't feel guilty knowing she may just be completely decorative and non-functional - money still well spent! I'll post pics of the den some day.

Entrance Rug

2010-12-01T19:45:00.009-05:00

Inspired by all the DIY rugs out there, we purchased a plain blue runner for our entrance and I made my own trellis stencil to create this pattern. I am thinking this saved me a lot of moolah compared to buying one already printed with a pattern. Quite happy with the results :)

Here's how I did it in an nutshell:

- Create a stencil in Illustrator, one that can be repeated

- Print stencil onto paper, then trace it onto acetate with a marker. Or just print straight onto acetate too, I just didn't

- Score out your pattern with an exacto knife

- With chalk, draw a straight line across and down the rug to find the center point, tape the stencil down in the middle. I wanted to work my way out from the middle so that i can prevent the pattern from ending up off-centered. The two lines also helped me keep my pattern straight.

- With paint and a sponge brush I dabbed onto my stencil, becareful of bleeding but it is inevitable because of the nature of the rug, just don't overload the brush with paint.

- Remove stencil and repeat the step for a continuous pattern.

- Let dry and enjoy!

edit: Just linked this to Hope Studio's Tutorial Tuesday!!

Master Bedroom Walls

2010-07-04T18:29:00.001-04:00

This post is almost 2.5 months overdue (there are many overdue posts actually) but I guess it's never too late. Here's what the striped wall looks like in our master.

Before:

Removed the wallpaper and taped off our stripes:

After:

It's been long enough for me to have forgotten the color of the paints. The green is like a pastachio and the lighter stripe is a light celery I guess...

I would say this room is still in major progress, we have focused on all other areas of the house since painting this room and moving the bed set in, it's just one of those things you don't touch yet because no one will really see it.

Tin Can Makeover

2010-06-03T00:10:00.000-04:00

I have a few tin cookie containers that I've kept to store art and craft supplies, just thought I would give them a makeover so everything would look more cohesive when I stack them together on a shelf. So far I've completed one....

I think I like where it's going, hope the rest will turn out well!

New Baby

2010-06-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

Finally have my hands on my new laptop!

Isn't she beautiful? Especially compared to my old love? I didn't end up getting the one I posted about before, and I am super happy with this decision! Now what should I name her? (Yes I think it's a SHE =P)

Steam Clean

2010-05-09T22:35:00.002-04:00

We've moved into the new place for over three weeks now! Cannot say we are done settling in yet, but we have definitely gotten comfortable. I haven't posted at all about the new home, so there's lots to catch up on.

The first thing on our checklist once J got the keys was to enter and attack everything with cleaning product! We had sponges, Mr.Clean, CLR, Windex, vinegar, rolls of paper towels, vacuum, broom, mop, a steamer.. we were ready to go. He was in charge of scrubbing every inch of the kitchen (which was left pretty nasty!) and the two bathrooms, and I got right to the walls and the window coverings.

Walls
The house came with two walls that seemed selectively wallpapered by the previous owners. One wall was in the master bedroom in which they have chosen to just put up wallpaper in the middle of one wall.. to act as a headboard...

Not only is the placement strange, and print is so not us! We knew for sure that this was one of the first things to do when we moved in - tear that paper down!

The second wall was in the dining room with the following pink paper:

This wasn't so bad. I could actually see myself living in this. But we were already determined to get paint for the rest of the walls in that room, and also thought if we were going to move all the furniture in and THEN in the future decide we may not like the pink and want to tear it down, we might as well do it now all in one shot.

So while J scrubbed the kitchen I had myself equipped with everything I needed to tear down wallpaper. I had never done it before so I did some research online for easy instructions. I had my vinegar and warm water solution, my steamer as some people said steam will speed up the glue breakdown process, and my chisel in case I needed to scrape.

So I had in mind thinking this could be a long process based on what I've read. But turns out maybe it was for the people working on walls that have had paper up for decades. Our home was built just about two years ago, so the wallpaper is relatively new. And also I bet the previous owners did a pretty half-ass job putting them up... Because I started in the master bedroom by finding a small bubbled edge of the paper, made a small tear, and then just continued pulling the paper away from the wall.. effortlessly!

I didn't use ANY of the tools I brought!! I just kept tearing and tearing. I was done both walls in no time! What was left was just scrubbing the walls down to remove any extra glue residue and then let the walls dry completely before painting, which I will post about next time!

Windows
Since I unexpectedly ended up with such an easy job compared to J who was still slaving away at the grease-covered stainless steel appliances, I had to scrub all the windows and blinds clean. All our windows came with some great blinds from Blinds To Go (as per previous owners). But they definitely didn't keep the blinds very clean. Since there has been construction of new row townhouses directly in front of our front side for the past year, and the previous owners like to open their screen windows for air, it was inevitable that the blinds were all built up in dust and dirt.

I first started with Windex and paper towel. But my hands got so tired from scrubbing and it was a pain to get into the corners and around the string of each blind to get it spic and span. I just knew there had to be a better way than Windex. Then I turned to my steamer!

The hot steam broke down the dirt in no time and I just had to run a rag across the surface once to get the dirt off!!

Right side - DIRT! Left side - CLEAN!

Afterwards the job became so much easier. I even lent the steamer trick to J for the greasy range hood he was working on. It became so easy to scrub he shoulda used the steamer right from the get-go and it would have saved so much time. Oh well, we know next time!

Cleaning is never fun, but it felt sooooo much better to know we were bringing our stuff into a place we trust/know is clean because we did it ourselves.

More on house progress to come!

Orchids Gift-wrapped

2010-05-09T00:01:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is Mother's Day so J planned dinner out with his family tonight. This morning we went grocery shopping and decided to pick up flowers from the flower department in the supermarket. We went with orchids knowing his mom likes them and they will definitely last longer than the usual bouquets of roses/carnations/etc. For the affordable price of $12.99 of course it came in a simple pot and no fancy wrapping.

But that is no biggie to me because I knew I can throw something over that pot in no time. First I thought to use scrap fabric - I have a bag of old clothes I was getting ready to donate so I went through that first but decided I better not cut up any clothes since those can be going to good use by others. So I went through my 'gift wrap' supplies and just grabbed some pink and white tissue paper, trimmed it to size, wrapped it up the pot and first secured with a large elastic band, and then just tide a bow around with a cute brown ribbon. Ta-da!

Happy Mother's Day!

Credenza Inspiration

2010-04-12T22:20:00.003-04:00

Was over at Design Sponge clicking around and fell in love with this credenza makeover featured there back in January.

I am thinking that if J ends up getting the couch from Mobilia that I posted about yesterday, this will make a lovely partner for it in the dining room side of the living/dining open concept space. I wonder if I will find a piece like that to makeover. J just looked over my shoulder and saw me writing this and said he doesn't like it at all. I'm not going to prepare myself to convince him, I just think he will slowly see the style that I'm envisioning for everything to go together. I'm very patient about that. =)

Couch Shopping

2010-04-11T01:28:00.003-04:00

We have been couch shopping for the last two to three months. As we weren't moving into the new place until April, the initial shopping trips were just to scout out what's out there, and get a feel of what we like and don't like. But now that the closing date is getting closer, I guess J is stepping into the stores as a more serious buyer - which can be both exciting and tiring (when you can't find something you like!).

His ideal living room sofa right from the get-go was a sleek streamlined black leather couch - nothing poofy, saggy, bulky, and too high. He is an extremely particular person, that is if he has an image of something in his head, he will likely not settle for something else that isn't exactly what he imagined. We looked at handfuls of leather sofas, nothing seemed to have been our cup of tea. A couple have come close, but nothing that wowed us.

Above is from The Brick, not a place we thought to visit at all. And I would say this sofa is only somewhat close to what we would like.

This one is from Sears, which he fell in love with last week! But it was being discontinued in the store, so the sales person required for the floor sample to be sold as a set which, we don't need. On top of that it was a mismatched set (!) of the black sofa, a grey loveseat, and a red ottoman... all in different fabrics! We went back a second time and J tried to see if he can get just the black sofa, but no can do. So we had to move along.

During this whole couch shopping journey, I have seen more that I liked than he did. He wants leather, and I have been trying to make him see the prettiness in other comfy couches. But I can't be too pushy as it's his house and he's buying his furniture. If you ask me, these are some that I like:

As you can see I was leaning towards the lighter colors, and something I can sink into with big cushions around me. But of course this isn't what he wants, although I can see all the comfort in his eyes when he test-sits on them, LOL. We just couldn't find that midddle ground. Until today....

We walked into Mobilia on Woodbine and Hwy 7. First of all I must say we have been into countless furniture places in town, both big box stores and smaller places. We walked in, and straight out of, many because they just weren't our style. But we went through Mobilia today and actually spent some time absorbing their selection of modern furniture. We saw this one, and we both thought this was it.

It's light in color which I like, sleek and streamlined and not poofy or saggy which he likes, and has pretty wooden legs. Can you believe J wants it even though it isn't leather? We looked through the fabric swatches and just knew it doesn't look right in leather. And we didn't love the other fabric and color choices either. It was this one on display, the light grey, that looked the best. We called it the 'eco' sofa cause that was just the feeling we got from it, and it was a nice feeling (maybe it had something to do with the green plant in the space). Minus the metallic zebra cushion, everything about this was calling out to us to take her home. And the fact that J's in love with something that he totally didn't imagine looking for, just better inforces that it's the one.

But he didn't buy it yet. We took the pictures, and thought we should come home and think about it some more. See if we still feel the same about it in a week or two so to make sure it wasn't just some impulsive infatuation. What do you think about this eco-sofa?

Which Color??

2010-03-24T21:37:00.005-04:00

It's really time for a laptop upgrade. I have had my current one since January of 2007. It doesn't sound like thaaat long ago, but it sure looks like it's gone through some serious beating. I love it the most for it's crystal clear screen, and it's certainly done everything I've needed it to do... except now it just feels like the right time to upgrade.

Well, I really don't have the best reason to get a new one, except that I just want to, I have not spoiled myself with a huge purchase since.... since buying this laptop 3 yeas ago. For pretty much the same price now, I can get something that will work much better, and look much better.

My mom has also been asking me to find her a very inexpensive one just so she can do her occasional online banking, and watch TV shows that I download for her. So I thought: why not just give her mine which is perfect enough for her to do just those things, and I can get my new one without feeling guilty that I am abandoning my old buddy.

I already have a brand and model in mind, now my dilemma is picking a color. I am not the kind to really settle for a plain black or silver gadget; if it comes in colors, I will take a color. But what happens when you're given more than one pretty choice??

I am loving the Shimmery Gold and definitely considering the Hawaiian Yellow. If I did want to go the safe route it will be the Jet Black or Icy White, the other colors don't really speak to me. My number one choice was the Shimmery Gold, but I have not seen it in stores in person, and I can't even find a proper picture of it online anywhere. I am afraid it will not come looking like what I imagine it to be, as this picture really doesn't show it clearly. I can't find reviews on it either, as if no one has bought this yet. My second choice being the Hawaiian Yellow, I can totally see myself using, but am afraid it isn't the most conventional color that I can guarantee I won't get bored of.

What to do what to do.

Image from Sony.ca

New Danglies

2010-03-07T14:33:00.001-05:00

Picked up a pair of new dangly earrings yesterday. Definitely an impulse buy. I've noticed myself gravitating towards golds even though I used to be an only-silver gal, these might be my fourth pair of big gold earrings and I am loving them.

Alice in Wonderland

2010-03-06T00:00:00.008-05:00

Going to watch Alice in Wonderland tomorrow with J and a group of friends. I think it should be good. I know of Burton and his style and am familiar with some of his works (J is a huge movie fanatic and I learned most of my movie trivia just from listening to his constant rambling about good films =P), but I must confess that out of Burton's list I have only seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember really liking that (especially in IMAX), so based on that one Tim Burton film I've seen and enjoyed I will look forward to Alice. I hope to be blown away by the make-up and costumes and scenery.

Image from IGN.COM