Happy Canada Day, Eh!

Yay, the long weekend is here! Happy Canada Day to all those Canucks who check in here. Enjoy the long weekend! I'll see you back here on Tuesday.

I'm cottage bound tomorrow for a whole week (bliss). I plan on doing lots of reading and knitting (I'm trying to learn) while dipping my feet in the lake. I can't wait. And to have extra hands with Brigs will be awesome too!

I thought I'd leave you with a few cheery images of spaces designed by Canadian designer Sarah Richardson. Don't they feel summery to you?

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sara


Top Image
Images of Sarah Richardson designs from the Interior Design Show 2011 found here.

Door Love

I was lying in bed last night wondering what we should do to add some interest to our upstairs hallway. I finally had my AHA moment- add colour to the doors!  This morning I had a look for images to back up my plan and help convince Cam. Now to pick a colour. It's weird, but for some reason I feel like painting doors is more of a commitment than painting a wall. I guess because it's done less often. Regardless, I love it!

What do you think? Would you ever do it? Have you done it already? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Photos: one/two/three/four/five/six/ seven/ eight/nine/ten/eleven/twelve/thirteen

Summertime air freshener

With a toddler constantly spilling milk on the furniture and two cats who leave messes everywhere, our house has enough funky odours to keep me constantly on the look out for air fresheners. The only problem is that the majority of commercial air freshener products are so full of chemicals that I won't bring them into the house if I can avoid it (just run a Google search of what the chemicals are and what they can do to your body, and you might agree).

In the winter I love having a pot of oranges, cloves and cinnamon simmering on the stove, but it's too cozy of a smell for summer, a time when fresh air is so nice. So, I decided to cut a bunch of the mint we have growing in the garden and I popped it into a water glass on the kitchen counter. The smell is amazing! You gotta try it. If you have mint growing in your garden, just pick a handfull and stick it in some water. If you don't have it growing already, you could put some in a small pot in the house and treat it like a houseplant. So little money, such a great whiff when you walk in the room. Seriously it makes the entire kitchen smell great.

The original Pinterest

 

Before the days of Pinterest, people obsessed with keeping inspirational images from magazines (me!) had to do something that to many may sound archaic. We had to rip all those glossy pages right out of the latest issues and figure out a place to keep them. Our desk spaces weren't nice minimalist areas housing with only a bud vase, a family photo and a shiny Mac monitor. We had stacks of paper piled to the ceiling, pens without caps and caps without pens, and at least in my case, lots and lots of chaos.

Fast forward 15 years.....

I have hundreds thousands of pages lying around my office that I've torn out from design magazines for as long as I can remember. I love flipping through them. It's like reading a great design book written only for me with images i love. Don't judge, but it's one of my favourite things to do. I can't part with them. Why would I? I use them for creative inspiration all the time. But, what to do with them?

Scanning them seems like the most sensible option, but I refuse to spend the time it would take to scan each tattered piece of glossy paper. It would take years!  Ugh. And photographing them means there's always some piece of the page that's left out.

I used a binder system for a while, having one binder per topic (living rooms, bedrooms, recipes, etc.) but binders take up so much space and you have to insert each sheet into a plastic cover which can take way too long and cost too much money. As I said, I'm talking about thousands and thousands of sheets here.

My new system may not be the neatest but it's quick and inexpensive. I went to Staples and picked up a few boxes of 50 Report Covers. Each cover holds 20 sheets and you don't need to punch holes or anything. You just pile a bunch of sheets together and insert them into the folder. It takes about 10 seconds. I'm excited to say that this system may mean that I can finally, after years and years, get all the papers tidied up and put away, and I can just sit back and enjoy flipping through some of my favourite images. 

What do you guys do about this problem? Do you have any great space saving solutions that you could offer up as a suggestion? 

The shadow of red balloons

On Friday, I bought a few balloons for Cam's birthday. It was a really sunny day and I couldn't help but notice our shadow. Despite every other shadow being dark and grey, the red balloons cast such a brilliant red shadow of their own. I'm not going to pretend to care about the science of this phenomenon, but I was happy to see it and of course, capture it for Instagram!

Cool, no? Have you guys seen anything like this before? Am I totally oblivious?

DIY magnetic letters for kids

Without sounding too cheesy, I'm going to call these 'Love Letter'. I decided this after about an hour of working on these little guys when I realized that in that same amount of time, I could have made a trip to the store and picked up a package of magnetic letters and saved myself some trouble. Instead, I spent the good part of an evening cutting and gluing so that Brigs can have a complete alphabet of nice, colourful, homemade letters. It's true love, people.

I am fully confident that with these letters at his disposal, my son will not only learn his letters, but he'll be way ahead of the curve when it comes to having an eye for colour and pattern. Ahem....I'm really confident about it! Right!!! Whatever....I get a kick out of doing stuff like this.

The idea came from what is quickly becoming my favourite blog for all things craft related (involving fabric, that is), Purl Bee. I highly recommend a visit to their site, and instructions for the letters are here.

Map art by Jason LaFerrera

 

Columbia math student Jason LaFerrera has created this field-guide inspired series of bird and animal prints using old maps. Aren't they fantastic? I can't decide which I love more - the fox or the cardinal. You can see more and shop here.

Friday roundup.

Father's Day weekend is here! What are your plans?

We've been having great weather in Toronto lately so I'm really hoping it keeps up so we can spend as much time as possible outside. We're golfing in a family tournament tomorrow (gulp!!!) and then feasting with family on Sunday. Not a bad weekend I'd say!

I hope you guys have a fantastic one! Before the weekend officially kicks off, I've pulled together a few funny/interesting/beautiful/cool things from around the web that I felt like sharing. Enjoy!

- Will you be watching this tonight?

- 10 easy to do flower arrangements

- A cool idea for the garden or balcony using inexpensive IKEA boxes

- I would love one of these guys in my house

- Remember the clapper from the '80s? These guys say it's pretty easy to make your own. Here's how.

- I love this DIY for hot summer days.

- Aren't  these rugs gorgeous? I would bring them inside in a heartbeat.

- Does adding colour make a traffic jam less irritating?

- With people more interested in knowing where their food comes from, this book takes it to a new level.

-In honour of father's day, give this article a read. It's cute. 

 Image: top

Summer design ideas for balconies

Let's face it, many of us who live in the city don't have much in the way of a backyard. Even more of us don't have backyards at all, and instead rely on balconies for outdoor lounging and entertaining in the summer. At this time of year, it seems every design publication out there is boasting images of large gardens and patios filled with sofas and armchairs and tables for 8. But what about for condo and apartment dwellers?

Before I go on, I want to preface by saying that I'm not posting images of terraces. My definition of a balcony is a rectangular or small square area, no more than 10' wide by 20' long, with a railing design that nobody should have ever chosen in the first place but which is nevertheless characteristic of most high rise buildings (yuck). I say this because I feel that there are lots of design magazines and publications that feature balcony designs every summer, but they belong to the rich folk and boast more square footage than all three stories of my house combined (which isn't much, but still!).

Anyways...here we go!

 I realize there are a few images that are obviously not balconies here, but I included them because a) they are covered spaces; b) they are small and; c) they have furniture and lighting features that are really well suited for balconies.

Images:top/one/two/three/four/five/six/seven/eight/nine/ten/eleven/twelve/thirteen/fourteen