Brunschwig and Fils 'Les Touches'...sort of

In the past, I've posted about designing your own fabric using fabric paint, and I've posted about using Sharpies to design your own china pattern, but the other day I saw this post over at Little Green Notebook and I wanted to share as obviously there are those out there who have decided to combine Sharpie and fabric for fantastic results.

Caitlin from Caitlin Wilson Designs decided to mimic the Brunschwig and Fils 'Les Touche' fabric by taking a Sharpie to an Ikea slipcovered chair. Isn't the result awesome?

  

On another note, aren't the floors in her kitchen lovely? I thought they were marble, but Caitlin posted about them here and revealed that they're actually peel and stick vinyl tiles from Lowe's.


Both images via this post at  Little Green Notebook

Favourite rooms of all time: Miles Redd living room

I'm back with a second installment of my 'Favourite Rooms of All Time" (did you see the first one?). This time, I thought I'd post about a living room that I saw back in 2009 in House Beautiful which I think is so moody, romantic and captivating. What do you think?

It's a NYC apartment for a fashion duo done by Miles Redd. I love the lacquered walls. They're so dark, but they reflect so much light that the room feels bright. And I love, love, love all the different colours going on. I love seeing rooms that aren't too matchy-matchy - that would get so boring after a while. This room implies to me that the homeowners chose items they loved rather than items that were strictly chosen to coordinate, and it so works. And the herringbone floors. Ah. Love!

What do you think? Do you like the dark walls? Would you dare? What about the colour combos? I'd love to know your thought.

Getting ahead of the chaos

 Welcome back to the work week! How was your weekend?

Things were pretty low key around here other than the fact that I'm trying desperately to organize my life and my home a bit which is proving a challenge! I'm getting busier all the time with my business (hooray!) and I'm finding I'm needing more childcare than I've had over the last few months. It's not easy to find flexible daycare options in Toronto. Here, once you've peed on the stick and got the positive pregnancy result, you immediately rush to your computer to fill out the registration forms and pay the deposit fees for a variety of daycares so that you can get on the waiting list and hopefully get a spot for when your child turns 1 and you're heading back to work (mat leave in Canada is 1 year...I know we're very lucky). After you've filled those out and dished out a considerable amount of cash, then you plot the ways you can tell your hubby that you're expecting! Maybe I'm exaggerating a teeny bit, but not much. So here I am with a 19 month old needing flexible care and it's the first time I've looked into it. Gulp! Fingers crossed I can find something soon.


Do you have a secret for feeling organized and on top of your game? If you do, man oh man would I like to hear about it! From what I gather, the secret to happiness, especially post-baby, is giving in to the fact that there will be chaos and there will be clutter in life. Everywhere. In your home, in your mind, in your purse. I'm trying to get my head around this concept, but I'm finding it a bit hard. Needless to say, I'm struggling!

It's no surprise to me that what I find most overwhelming and the biggest cause of stress is a messy house. I'm here all the time, both in a family capacity and a business one too. If I'm working on a project that has me looking at beautiful images of gorgeous homes and luxurious furnishings and look up from my screen to see the place littered with sippy cups and library books, shoes and electronics charges, I start to lose it. I lose it then I immediately proceed to self-beration for not being more on-top of things. This feeling reminds me of the article I mentioned a few weeks ago from the Globe that discussed how women are now measuring their self worth by the state of their home. I'm thinking I fit nicely into that described box! 

I've been reading up on organization over the past few days and have found pretty consistent advice from the women who have blogs devoted entirely to the subject. They all seem to agree that a little bit every day is the ticket to maintaining order and preventing chaos. That makes plenty of sense, it's just a matter of finding the 15 - 30 extra minutes in the day that they recommend where taking care of the house tops the priority list. When you're at home with a child you rely exclusively on nap time to do everything you need to do. Work, shower, exercise, clean, cook...whatever. Thirty minutes is a pretty big bulk of time. I'm trying to do it though. Today, for example, I took all of our DVDs (we had about 250) and removed them from their cases and put them into DVD sleeves inside binders. Despite the guilt I felt for throwing all of those cases the way of landfill, it has cleared up some considerable space in our TV room. I didn't go so far as to organize them by genre or alphabetically or anything as organized as that (that's crazy talk), but I love seeing more free space in my home. Now, instead of digging through piles of cases, I just have to flip through one of 5 binders to find what I'm interested in.

It is amazing how calming the process of purging and de-cluttering can be. Don't get me wrong, the actual task isn't so fun, but the result is addictive. You can get rid of 50% of your clothes, but I'm telling you, once you see your cleared out closet, you'll want to get rid of more. It's a very liberating feeling, and can actually make you feel like you have more stuff because everything you have, you use. Do you have that feeling?

So tell me, dear readers, do you have any strategies that you use that help you feel like your in control of the clutter and the chaos? What techniques do you use to keep yourself organized and one step ahead of the next mess. I would love to know, and I bet lots of other people would too!

Image: via Design Mom

Great sources for online art

Where do you guys get your art? I think my collection of prints started in university when the travelling poster sale passed through campus (it's a real thing, I swear). Nowadays, it seems most of what is hanging on our walls are photographs taken by friends and family (we know some awesome photographers, that's for sure), a few painted pieces by equally talented people, and a bunch of prints that I bought online.

Have you ever bought art online? There are certainly some incredible resources out there. Might I suggest a few?

Art.com. This site has everything. EVERYTHING. Pop by their site and spend hours browsing. The site has recently been re-designed so it's easier than never to find what you want. You can filter by a bunch of different categories making it simple and straightforward to find what you're looking for. Plus, you can choose your print then pick from a bunch of different framing options so that what arrives on your doorstep is not a poster tube, but a fully framed or canvas-wrapped, ready to be hung piece of art.

 20x200. This site is awesome for original photography and art pieces. Not only can you find limited editions of some beautiful pieces, but the price is incredible (think $20 for an 8x10). Amazing! You can also opt for framing from these guys.

Finally, Etsy. Who doesn't love, love, love Etsy? Seriously, it's awesome. I get lost in there for hours. Pure bliss. I've bought a few original prints from here and have been so happy with them. Check. It. Out.

Art sources:
Top - Wassily Kandinsky "Improvisation No. 31, Sea Battle"
Middle - Sharon Montrose "Flamingo No. 4"
Bottom - Black Boroque "Upcycled Dictionary Page Mod Blue Octopus"

Turkey and pie and family...oh my!

To all my Canadian friends and family who are celebrating Thanksgiving today (or who did or earlier in the weekend) I want to wish you all a very happy one and hope you've enjoyed some seriously delish meals with your fave people. It's been the perfect fall weekend here filled with crisp air and warm-hued leaves. Cam and I have been reflecting on all we have to be thankful for (a lot), and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how thankful I am to you guys who check in here and spend time with me when you could be doing a zillion other things. It means more than I can say, so thank you!

Enough cheese??? Then go eat some pumpkin pie and I'll see ou back here this week!

Image - Who wouldn't want to have a meal at that table!

Favourite rooms of all time: Barrien Benson dining room

I'm going to try out a bit of a series here for the next little while focusing on some of my favourite rooms of all time. These are rooms that I saw an image of once upon a time, and I thought them to be so incredible that I've never forgotten them. They are permanently etched in my brain and I use them as inspiration all the time - whether I know it or not.

To kick it off, I chose a dining room that was featured in Domino Best Rooms (available on newstands now for a limited time and, like all Domino magazine issues, is Awesome with a capital A!) This room was done by a great designer in Charlotte named Barrie Benson (stay tuned for a post on her work) and I absolutely LOVE everything about it, particularly the Schumacher Chiang-Mai pattern on the chairs (which I have on order for my living room - yay!), the gorgeous banquet that I imagine would have guests lingering for hours, and, of course, the round table. I love round dining tables - they're great for conversation, you can always squeeze a few more people than you thought possible and they're totally classic. Don't you think her choice of colour is amazing? It's bold but still has a hint of tradition to it. True dining room love!