Friday faves - Lonny

I was a bit slow getting to it but had some time to pore over the latest Lonny issue...as always there are many sources of inspiration! Here are some of my faves, following no particular trend. (All photos from Lonny July / August issue - see it in full here).



Love how clean and slightly nautical this is...and the view is killer

This headboard has an interesting take on nailhead trim

Love this entryway

I seem to like everything Moroccan and this page is no exception - love it all!

Super masculine office space

I like the mix of textures in this room with the sofa, cowhide rug, and tree trunk table

Pinterest...what took me so long?

I don't know why I was so slow / stubborn in adopting Pinterest, but thank god for it! If you aren't familiar with Pinterest, it is essentially an online bulletin board for all of your favourite inspiration pictures. This is a huge (HUGE) upgrade from my word document (not even lying) of copied and pasted photos from the web with URL's as a caption. Seriously...why did I waste my time on that? 

Thanks to Pinterest my life is easier and I have a new website to stalk for inspiration (follow me - InteriorGroupie (Heather)).

Don't believe me? Here are some of my recent pins (all from my account: http://pinterest.com/interiorgroupie/)



Follow me, or let me know what your account name is and I will build up my Pinterest network!

Cabinet curb find

A little while ago I came across this beauty-find sitting in the rain, on a curb:

What am I going to do with this you ask? Well, for starters I will be removing the ugly hardware (all of it), and likely taking out the middle wood panels of the doors and replacing them with wire mesh or glass. Then there is an option of putting it on legs to add a little oomph. I'm thinking I will use it as a liquor cabinet in our dining room. Any other thoughts?  It will probably take me a while to get to this project so keep your ideas coming!

In the meantime, here are some of my inspiration pics for this project:

 

via Honeycomb Creative Co.

via House to Home - Zinc Holloway Cabinet

via Serendipity Chic Design

 

 via Centsational Girl

via Primp





Porch saga - complete!

We (well really the Mr.) finished painting the porch this weekend! You can read about our inital saga (what took us 21+ hours to do...) here. He made great progress last weekend while I was throwing a baby shower for one of my besties (read about the shower here).

I am so happy with how it turned out, and am so happy it's done :)  Here's the before:

And the finished product:

The Mr. replaced the front and side of the main beam with wood (was ugly aluminum soffit), sanded, primed, and painted it smooth. The colour is a gray with a touch of blue although in this light a lot of the blue comes through. As with most paints it changes depending on the time of day!



Aside from that big accomplishment, we had a great little weekend with an extremely productive Saturday morning, followed by some time at a friend's pool for the evening.  Sunday we had a nice big breakfast, put the finishing touches on the porch, and then went for a bike ride to see some friends and then popped by the Toronto Jazz festival in the beaches. It was a gorgeous day on Sunday (humidity is gone!) and we finished it off with a delicious meal of Maple-Dijon glazed grilled salmon, sauteed kale, corn on the cob and some bread. YUMM. Hope you all had a lovely and relaxing weekend.

Friday faves - cool thoughts

It's hot. Very hot. As said in yesterday's post, feels like 49 C hot. I don't remember a day in Ontario this hot, but apparently we aren't breaking records (actually shocking). I am thankful that I got to spend my week in an air conditioned office. I feel for anyone who is pregnant, had to work outside or work in a non-a/c location. I bet productivity was NOT high. We do not have central a/c at our home, but have a window unit that is a godsend (albeit an ugly one) for our bedroom and for sleeping. 

To cool down, I've scoured some images that inspire cool thoughts...enjoy and happy hot friday!

via Baby Green

via Just Beautiful Things

via - I'll take the pitcher...

via - amazing use of a tarp

Bedroom drapery

Who else is melting?? It is extremely hot and humid here in Toronto - 38 C (100.4 F) BEFORE humidity, feels like 49 C (120 F).  I love summer and all, but this is hot hot hot. My Vegas friend compared the heat in Vegas to the feeling you get when you stand beside a bus...I'm pretty sure that Toronto is all beside a bus right now. It's obsene...onto nicer thoughts...

Our master bedroom is getting closer to being "done" (are rooms ever actually done??). Now it's time to look for draperies. This week in particular a couple of my favourite bloggers have posted some inspiration pics I love - like these over at Calmly Chaotic:



And these from aDESIGNdock:



As a reminder, here is our master:



It is obviously already "busy" with pattern, but I think it could handle a bit more on the drapery. I am envisioning oatmeal-coloured fabric, with a gray-ey-green-ey thick chevron.  Something a little like this:



via Pinterest (Follow me at - InteriorGroupie (Heather) )

Now, only to find this imagined fabric....while searching for inspiration pics, I came across a painted-drape DIY that turned out beautifully:



What are your thoughts on painted fabric? The drapes look great in the picture, but will they hang well? I'm a bit doubtful...there is a full tutorial on the KFD Design site here.

Here are some fabric ideas:



Tonic Living Flatiron Gray - I think this is too narrow given the pattern we already have going on on the bench and pillows.

Tonic Living Joy - this could be another option, but again I think the scale is too small.

Designer Fabrics online Tessuto Jolies/4239 - closer to the colours, but a bit bland...

I hope to hit up Designer Fabrics on Queen St. W on Friday afternoon - does anyone have any suggestions for fabric stores (or a store that might have linen-y drapes with a bit of added interest?). In the meantime, here are some of my favourite inspiration pics:



via Pinterest - love all the gold accents

via Pinterest - I like the wide spacing on these ones

via Pinterest - interesting take, I never thought of chevron sheers! Not the look for my room, but interesting nonetheless.





Hoorah! I have a red one!

Remember when I planted a nice little garden earlier this year?? When the rain seemed like it would never end?

Well the rain finally ended (and in fact it hasn't rained in Toronto since June 21...seriously - a month....) and temps are in the mid-30's, feeling into the 40's. I love love love summer, but what does this all mean? Expensive water bill coming our way :)  Our rain barrel ran out of rain a while ago and we really wanted to keep our garden going, so we've been watering with the hose.  I've given up on the aforementioned veggie garden (the spinach grew, but never got deep-green-spinachy, the basil is being attacked by something, and the radicchio "bolted" which apparently means bad things).

Our tomatoes however, are growing really well. So far unscathed by squirrels (I think they are busy in the black walnut tree in our neighbours yard), there are many little green tomatoes on the plant. And lo and behold - one red one today! Oh happy day.

Can you see it?

Here's the Where's Waldo answer:



Hoorah! Happy Wednesday folks.

Baby Shower

As you know from my sneak-peak post on Friday, I co-hosted a baby shower this past weekend in Ottawa, and it went off without a hitch!! A friend who is currently living in Belgium (see my post about that trip here) kept a BIG secret as she planned a very last minute trip to Canada to be part of the special day! Thanks R for coming (and being photographer). Needless to say, the other guest of honour (C) was pretty excited. She travelled from Vancouver herself (8 months pregnant I might add....) so I was so excited to spend the weekend with my besties.

My friend T and I planned the shower with help from the Grandma's-to-be. We had a beautiful day for the shower - not a cloud in the sky, and nice and hot!! Thankfully we had lots of shade, lemonade, and sangria on hand :)

 



 Congratulations C&M -xo-