2012 mini-recap and Happy New Year!

I did my Favourite Five project post yesterday, and while I was looking through the blog files I found my goals for 2012:

A few of my home goals for 2012 are:
1. Furnish / design my living room. I need curtains, more furniture, and a new layout.
2. Finish our kitchen makeover with new counters and everything that goes with them (sink, backsplash, etc.).
3. Get A/C installed (this one is really the Mr's goal...I didn't post about our new boiler, so I'll definitely have to post about A/C when we get it. ha!)

It probably doesn't help that I forgot that I set these out, but here's our progress:
1. Living Room - still needs some work, but we did buy and hang curtains, got a new couch, and found a chair that is currently being reupholstered! Coffee table has been extended into 2013... :)

2. Kitchen makeover is DONE!! See the full reveal here.
3. A/C is INSTALLED! And with our super hot summer this year it was great timing.

Now to think of some 2013 goals...until then, have a lovely New Year's Eve whether you are hitting the town, or hitting the couch :)

{via}

Friday faves - my fave five projects of 2012

I have been visiting, lounging, EATING, and all around taking in the holidays this year. The Mr. and I are currently on a little getaway enjoying some extra holiday time, but new year's is coming up which means it's almost countdown time! Amongst the million countdowns there are this time of year I am counting down my five favourite projects of the year. Speaking of countdowns...remember sitting by your tape recorder to tape  favourite songs from the RADIO every new year's eve?? ohhh life before iTunes.

 {via}

Here are my fave five for 2012:


Kitchen Reveal - we were SO excited to get this project done, and are loving every little bit of it. We are currently working on a little extra project for this space (to be revealed in 2013).

 --

DIY Doormat - this was a fun and easy project, with a lot of impact. Hard to believe I did it almost a year ago!

--

 
Cast-iron pan makeover - This was the Mr's project through and through - super rewarding to get an old cast iron pan from an antique market and fix it up! (we use it ALL the time).

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DIY cakestand - what do you get when you stick a bowl to a plate? This...

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 Curb-find stool make over - these were a great and free find...add some spray paint and cushions and voila!

There were many other fun projects over the year, and I'm sure many more to come in 2013!

Holiday wishes {all wrapped up}

I hope you are all getting ready for the big Christmas hoorah! It is litterally around the corner - stop shopping, stop wrapping, and sit back (maybe have a drink or two).

I'm already enjoying my break...I'm fortunate enough to have an office closure until January (such a good thing) so I am trying to really sink into holiday mode. I figured I should do one last post that includes this year's wrapping. Here are some shots:

 

And...I'm in for a white Christmas...

From me to you, have a happy, healthy and loving holiday season! 

My Christmas tradition

I'm over at Recreated today sharing my favourite Christmas tradition...hint...it has something to do with my tree:

Pop over and check it out!

Weekend recap {mini-Christmas}

Hellllloooo long lost friends! Thought I would give a little weekend recap to get back into the swing of things on the blog...this past Sunday was "mini-Christmas" for me and the Mr. It's a way for us to celebrate Christmas on our own, since we typically spend actual Christmas with our families. In the past we have said that mini-Christmas day is NO chores, NO work NO projects. Welllll it didn't quite go like that this year, but we haven't had a project in a while so it was basically a "gift" for the Mr. to work on a project (or at least that's what I like to think...). Before we get to the details, let's talk food...

We had Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast

and Beef Wellington with roasted leeks and brussels sprouts for dinner (so good).

I will share some of my Christmas wrapping later in the week...but for now onto the project!

A couple of weeks ago we bought an over the range microwave - we are so DONE with not having a hood fan. When we did the kitchen we toyed with putting in a hood fan, but our microwave is currently above the stove...so where would it go? It would have to take up valuable counterspace which wasn't really an option. So a microwave/fan combo was it. Well, those things have plugs that come out the top (instead of out the back), and they need a cabinet above them to be secured into the wall. Enter, project. The Mr. and his friend figured out a plan to get a new electrical wire up into the kitchen, which was then used for a new outlet above where the microwave will be hung.

Now we just wait for the electrical to be hooked up at the panel, and for the actual install to happen!

That was our delicious and busy weekend (although, more busy on the Mr's side than mine)...how was yours?

Book Review - Long Way Down

Today is book review day! Just like I said in my last book post (errr...my last post...sorry it's been super busy over here) make sure to head on over to the Design Pages for Carol's review...I'll be adding mine to the comments section!

Book club reminder - get reading!

A reminder that on Monday December 17th, Carol at the Design Pages will be reviewing our most recent book:

Funny story...I initially chose this book based on a friend's recommendation...but then I looked back in my iPhone notes and she actually recommended a DIFFERENT book with a similar title. woops.

Long story short, I read this, and liked it (gasp!) - you should too. See you on the 17th for the review!

Holiday party DIY's

Yesterday I gave a peak at the Christmas party we hosted, and as promised today I will share some of the simple DIYs that we did.

Epsom salt candles
I saw these on pinterest and knew that I would be making them for our party. I have a collection of mason jars in the basement that the Mr is always encouraging me to use (ok, encourage is my word. His word may be "recycle"). How could I get rid of them when I know Pinterest is chock full of ideas? This one is super simple - put Epsom salt in the mason jar as your base, push a candle into it, and voila - candles in snow.

Bunting flags
This one is really easy and maybe teetering on overdone, but I like the cheery look of bunting flags. For these I used old scraps of wrapping paper (those ones I always keep just in case I find a present that needs a 2"x2" piece of wrapping paper - riiiight). Bunting flags are a much easier way to use up the odds and ends. I cut them into triangles and some pinking-sheared rectangles, punched two holes in the top and the laced white yarn through. Although I have different shapes and different patterns I made sure to keep everything white and red to carry a simple two colour theme.

Gold pine cones & nuts
These are leftovers from my wedding three years ago (do you get the message that I like to re-use??). I took pinecones and walnuts and spray painted them gold for some glitz. I put some in vases to complete my table runner centrepiece.

Wreath
I bought a fresh wreath from Home Depot and planned to Zhush it up. Unfortunately the last few weeks have got away from me, but I did manage to snip some berry branches from my front garden (it looks exactly like holly). Not a huge change, but it looks a bit more festive!

And finally the food. I baked a couple of weeks ago and put the cookies in the freezer until this weekend. Then I made a few recipes to round out the table including pistachio covered truffles (my new favourite) and mini pizzetas with caramelized onions and mushrooms.

 

The food was a hit, and I now have a new love for pistachios. What's your favourite new recipe for the season?

Holiday kick-off

I hope you are all in the holiday spirit now that it's December! The Mr and I hosted our annual Christmas Open House on Saturday. It seemed early when we sent the invite, but now that it has come and gone, the timing was perfect. It meant I had to get my butt in gear with baking, house decorations and the tree! Fortunately the Mr. was insistent that the tree was up in time for the party, so we had the full nine yards.

I will cover some of the DIY details tomorrow, but for now here are some photos to give a quick recap!

About 25 adults, 4 children under the age of 2 1/2, one visiting dog, and a partridge in a pear tree took part. Here come the holidays!

It's oh so quiet....

...around my blog that is...

I apologize for the lack of posting...I have some fun stuff to share, but I have been Busy (yes, busy with a capital B) at my real job...so unfortunately I'm forced into a bit of a blogger break. We are hosting our annual Christmas open house this weekend though so I hope to have some nice photos of our goodies for the event...in the meantime, we DID manage to get the Christmas tree up and decorated this weekend (good activity the day after my company Christmas party!). We don't usually do this until December, but since our party's coming up the Mr. thought (rightfully so) that we MUST have the tree up and ready.

 

I (aka the Mr.) also put up our new entry way chandelier (that I found on my antiquing mission that I mentioned in this post)

 

It's a small light, but we're limited to what we can put there because of the corner closet. I ended up having to spray paint the mounted part because when I bought it I noticed the brass had paint on it...so to clean it, I soaked it in vinegar and water....and the paint came off, but so did the "brass" finish! It all worked out well (and I think looks even better now). Here's a shot of it from the store, all lit up:

I have a million and two things on my to-do list, including a planter for the porch (not sure if I'll get to it...I will hang a wreath though!), and prepping for my party. At the end of the day, if we have wine, wine, beer, crackers, cheese, and christmas tunes we'll be good, right?

Giveaway WINNER!

Alright folks, the deadline has come and gone (sorry!) and here is the giveaway winner:

And this means...the big winner...is...Brittany S!!

Brittany S. said...

Can you believe I have never been to the One of a Kind Show!? I know that must seem crazy right...? That's why I really really want to go this year - so pick me! ;)

Thanks for the chance to win!

November 21, 2012 2:47 PM

So happy for you Brittany - I'll be in touch about the tickets. FYI - Brittany has a fun blog: http://www.mydailyrandomness.com

And for the rest of you -- thank you so much for entering! Make sure to pop by the RE:Styled booth at OOAK to see their projects (and get that 10% discount!).

Reminder! Giveaway deadline

Quick post today to remind you to enter the giveaway for 2 tickets to One of a Kind show - the show starts tomorrow!

To enter, head over to my original post here: http://interiorgroupie.blogspot.ca/2012/11/giveaway-one-of-kind-show-tickets.html 

Deadline is TODAY at 7pm EST - don't miss out!

Don't forget that if you don't win tickets you can still pop by the RE:Style booth Z19 to get 10% off upholstery projects and workshiops!

Weekend recap

It was another busy busy weekend, but some very exciting stuff happened! Before I get to all the details...have you entered my giveaway yet?

Saturday I went to Queen West for litterally the 4th or 5th weekend in a row (I like it there...but I've been doing so many trips that way for fabric samples, returns, and ordering)! Anyways, this trip was to pick up the fabric for my chair! Yahoo...I then went up to RE:Style studio to put the chair and fabric in Lindsey's capable hands! Speaking of...did you see my giveaway from RE:Style?? Head to yesterday's post to enter.

Then we headed to the gym, and after we got home I got busy with Christmas baking! I turned on the Christmas tunes (fully aware that it's not even December...but these things freeze perfectly!) and baked for a few hours...here are my finished concoctions (if you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen these!)

We call these "almond mice" in my family! They were my dad's mom's specialty (almond shortbread)

Gingerbread...to be iced another day!

checkerboard cookies - this is the first time I've made these...Next time I would do it a bit differently, but they taste good!

Sunday I went (where else) to Queen West to meet up with a friend for brunch at The Saint on Ossington (so good!). We went antiquing after that where I picked up a snazzy little house treat...more on that later this week.

One more thing - Don't forget to enter my giveaway for One of a Kind tickets!!

Giveaway: One of a Kind Show tickets!

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a great weekend...I did, and will share a recap laster this week...but first, I have a great little giveaway for you! As you may or may not know, the One of a Kind Christmas show starts on November 22 (that's THIS Thursday people!). The OOAK show is a tremendous display of talented artisans (did you know it's the largest consumer craft show in North America?).

Courtesy of RE:Style Studio, one of you (my lucky readers) will win a pair of tickets (because everything is more fun when you get to bring a friend along)!

If you don't know RE:Style Studio, it's the brain child of Andrea Ford, and their services include custom re-upholstery (where MY lovely chair is getting a mega makeover), upholstery workshops and 1 on 1 classes. I was there to drop off my chair this weekend and they have some AMAZING pieces.

RE:Style will be at booth Z19 at the One of a Kind show - make sure to stop by, say hi, and check out their beautiful work (*and they are offering 10% off custom upholstery and 10% off workshops for those who drop by their booth!)

To whet your appetite, here are sneak peaks of several pieces:

 Isn't this just gorgeous??

So by now, aside from thinking of all the pieces you have in your house that you want re-upholstered, you're probably thinking - how do I get my hands on these free tickets??

1. Leave a comment below letting me know you want the tickets, and who you would bring to the show!

2.  "Like" RE:Style's facebook page (and come back to leave a comment saying you did)

2. For a second entry - tweet this giveaway something like this (and come back to leave a comment saying you did):

Head over to @interiorgroupie to enter the #OOAK ticket #giveaway! cc @andrearestyle  http://interiorgroupie.blogspot.ca/2012/11/giveaway-one-of-kind-show-tickets.html

*Make sure to leave a comment for each entry.
*Contest open to anyone who will / can be in Toronto to attend One of a Kind Christmas show!
*Giveaway closes on Wednesday November 21st at 7pm EST

If you don't happen to win, don't forget to drop by Re:Style's booth Z19 for the 10% discount on upholstery or workshops!  Good luck - I will draw for the winner on the opening day of the show, Thursday November 22.

Friday faves

It's Friday....it never fails to come again but sometimes I wish it could come so much sooner!

I came across this beautiful pillow earlier this week and thought it would look amazing on my to-be-upholstered chair:

via Anthorpologie

Pretty, right? $128 pretty? hmm...meanwhile I'm trying to find a christmas party dress for under $150. ha...pillow? dress? pillow? dress?

Life is all about tough choices people.

Happy Friday!

Another coffee table option...

My quest for the right coffee table continues (will it ever end?). I think we all agree that this table isn't quite right for my space, so my friend Ashley from Calmly Chaotic recommended this puppy:

GUS* Modern Root Table {via Modern Karibou}

It's kind of cool...I like the faux-wood grain on top, and the wooden legs. The size and shape are right too, AND it's made in Canada. The bad news? It's sold out and back ordered (everywhere) until mid-January. This might be an option, because God knows it takes me forever to find something I like, but what I am hoping is that I see a similar option on Craigslist or Kijiji that I can refinish (minus the "crack" which the Mr. suggested would be a great place to balance a wine glass in...). If you see a round coffee table for sale PLEASE send it over to me? Ok? Ok. Thanks.

I did check out the side table version of the above table so I could get a sense of the finish:

 

As you can see, the grooves are actually quite deep...which explains why you can see them from far away, but it also means that they can be nasty dust collectors! this side table was in the store's basement and had a bunch of dust in the grooves...I had a minor flash to me cleaning the coffee table with a q-tip...not sure I want to go there but I guess we'll have to see how desparate I am once January comes around!

Weekend recap

Phew...why do weekends go by so fast? If you are off today, hoorah for you! I was at work, so no extra time although I think I really could have used it this weekend.

So...here's the little weekend run down...

Friday night the Mr. and I went to see Rick Mercer film.  It's a super, fun thing to do (that's free!) on Friday night - make sure to watch it this Tuesday, you may see the back of my head! We also went to Milagro Cantina for dinner (tasty mexican).

Saturday morning, I went all around the city- hit up Home Depot where I got a wreath (it's on my porch but needs some zhushing...so be a bit patient on that one), then I headed to the salon to get my hair cut - usually it doesn't take long to do my hair, but I think my stylist was slow on saturday because I was there over an hour! Luxiourious, yes...until I started stressing that I would get a parking ticket (don't worry, I was safe).

Then I trucked over to the west end to order my fabric for my chair! yahoo...so excited to get that project off the ground (side note: these chairs became available again...and were on sale....but I was really looking forward to having a custom project that I'm sticking with the upholstery project!). I stripped and re-stained the legs of the chair on Sunday (with help from the hubby - he held the flashlight when I was doing the second coat in the garage at 9:30 last night!). After ordering fabric, I took a quick look for Christmas party dresses (if you missed my post here, I would love that blue dress but it's sold out). I saw this one:

French Connection via  

Loving this dress...it's more expensive than I wanted (particularly after dropping $$ on chair fabric), but it's a contender...ugh I hate waiting until the last minute to buy something...on the off chance someone else will wear the SAME THING to the party!

Anyways, after the no-luck-dress-speed-shop-at-two-stores, I went to a furniture store to look at a coffee table, followed by 1 HOUR in traffic to get home (grrr...a bunch of exits / on ramps to the Gardiner were closed, which meant Lakeshore (where I was) was a nightmare, and some north/south streets were also closed due to water mains breaking). Not the best traffic luck...but it didn't end there...Saturday evening we went to Costco and then to Ikea, where I was pumped to get a few fun details for Christmas.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast (homemade waffles and bacon anyone?), hit the gym (had to after that breakfast), and spent some time outside because it was warm and nice. I stripped and re-stained the legs of the chair, and then we made a delicious dinner which included stuffed squash:

Yumm....From the new issue of LCBO's Food & Drink (available in Ontario)

Sunday night was topped off with Amazing Race, and like I said before, a couple coats of stain (and yes, we could have had them done with the re-upholstery, but we wanted to have some hands-on involvement in our project!).

Hope you all had a great (albeit maybe more relaxing weekend)!