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)!

New book for Blogger Book Club

It's that time again - time for a new book club pick! I've just finished Divergent and Insurgent and thoroughly enjoyed them (have you read them?). Now onto something else for the book club. Here's what we'll be reading:

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

It's a bit of an oldie, and was recommended by a friend so I am looking forward to reading it. Grab yourself a copy (or re-read it if you've already read it) and come back on December 17th to add your 2 cents to the review!

What should I wear? {Holiday fashion}

Welcome back to dark nights folks! Were you affected by the time change? I was so happy for the extra hour of sleep, but I have to say yesterday at work it got really dark, really quick. Hope you all had a good weekend - mine was good (I think I found chair fabric - yay!).

Onto some really fun stuff - I'm so pleased to be over at my friend Ashley's blog Calmly Chaotic today with a guest post on holiday party fashion. If you don't already read Ashley's blog, you should - she shares her stories of mommy-hood (to twins), the Bachelor, fashion, and currently what it's like to be a serious writer (she's taking part in Nanowrimo this month).

I'm over there sharing a little High / Low for a holiday fashion look...and it just might include a little lace, a little gold, and a lot of "want". Head over to check it out!

via

Living room - chair and coffee table

TGIT...didn't you know Thursdays are the new Fridays? {I wish}. How was your Halloween? Ours was pretty good - good "traffic" from 6:30-8ish...and then nothing! I was surprised, we started being stingy with the candy around 7:30 but now we just have some leftover (maybe that was all part of the master plan...mwahaha). I noticed from twitter and facebook that a LOT of people out there count exact numbers of trick or treaters! I just toss candy out but don't keep stats. You?

Soooo our living room is starting to come together, especially with the addition of the drapes I mentioned on Monday. A couple of weeks ago in this post I wrote about what to do with my living room, the consensus was to get a lighter coffee table, since our new sectional is quite solid. I agree 100% with this advice...but haven't had any luck finding a "light" coffee table! I'm contemplating building an upholstered one (but with light upholstery, it will get dirty...and I'm not sure i'm OK with that). I don't want a glass table (safety first!), so that knocks out most automatic "light" options. I came across this one on the weekend at GH Johnson:

It's not light in colour...but it is not as solid as my current coffee table. I would love to find a round version of this exact table...but haven't had any luck (even the maufacturer of this one doesn't make a round version). This table is the sister table to my side tables (too matchy - matchy)? What do you think?

I stumbled across a few other fun things at GH Johnson:

rugs

These soft baskets are perfect laundry hampers (or stylish storage)

The other thing I've been focused on this week is finding fabric to re-upholster our chair. I have my head set on a gray-on-gray herringbone right now, but am having a hard time finding it. I found a nice fabric at Designer Fabrics, but it reads as solid from far away. I saw this other one when I was there again this weekend, but it's a bit too creamy for my tastes:

I want subtle, but not too subtle. Is that too much to ask? Any suggestions as to where I can go (Toronto) for fabric (besides Designer Fabrics and FabricLand), or where I can look online (besides Tonic Living)?