A Poof by any other name?

Happy birthday party day! Well I wanted to post a quick little something because I have something exciting to share with you. This year most of the things at the party were handmade (except for the flowers... I’m not that talented yet). So I found these “Pom Pom’s” all over the web... the thing is that you can find them at Martha Stewart or Michaels for like 8 bucks for 3.... which is pretty pricy for something  that is a simple pimple to make. How you ask?

You just take a regular piece for tissue paper (I found 8 was a good number) and you accordion fold them.

So once you’ve done accordion folding it, then it’ll look something like this: see! So simple! And that’s really the hardest thing, then you just separate the paper pulling it towards the center on both sides to get a full wonderful ball!

And the great thing is you could make as many as you want, hang them from the roof of even have them all over the floor! – and guess how much each one costs to make? 50 cents for the big ones and 25 cents for the small ones.... you could really make as many as you want!

So here’s some in a group! Or you can have them alone! I made one massive one, but net party I’d see how big I could actually make one... A gigantic sized one? Hmmm!

As for right now, I’ve baked some almond shortbread cookies and have some teas steeping! We’re pretty ready for the party tonight! Now just to add guests!

"Old Fashion Birthday Party"

When I was growing up one of the fondest things that I remember about my youth is spending the summers in Ontario with my grandparents. The beautiful lakes, the wonderful cooking that my grandma would always prepare (something Ukrainian smothered in sour cream) and the camp side fires beside a small lake outside of Kenora called blue lake. A particular summer the weather hot, the sky blue and the lake cool. During the afternoon I remember coming up from the lake to the camp site parched. When I arrived at my grandparent’s camper I was greeted by the familiar smile that my grandmother always had on her face, pleasant and welcoming. She had a tray of glasses filled with ice tea, the funny thing is at this moment where I grabbed the glass of the tray and began to sip on my cool tea (yes I said thank you) I remember the glasses, covered in blue stripes with sail boats and a large sunset. The funny thing is I’ve been trolling the web trying to find the exact glasses to show you all the inspiration to my birthday party this year. I loved the colourful bright cheeriness of the summery vessels (not to under appreciate my amazing BLACK AND GOLD themed party last year). So here’s what a love for old school cups and a fresh wonderful memory can offer a “Good Old Fashion Birthday Party”.

I actually did have a few hiccups on the way of design awesomeness. These fans actually were originally meant to hang from the ceiling.... which became a really big problem when I found out that living in a concrete building with a concrete roof might hinder sticking pins up on the ceiling to hold them up. So there came an idea: I used sticks and taped them to the sticks to create sunny flowers/sunset bursts (not bad right?)

Since I believe even like with decor in a home you need to have a focal point you need to have a accent wall which came out perfect in the form of a streamer wall. Call me old fashion (haha get it?) but I think there isn’t anything as beautiful as a good streamer wall.

Something that I’ve always been told by my roomie (the lovely and talented Karen) is that I tend to go crazy and hate the idea of everything I pick out then have an intense calm and love it after it completed – It’s what she calls “my creative process” Lets take a full look at the room

And some more lovely pictures of the hallway right as you enter the house and go to the main room.

At this point you might be asking yourself “Where are the people?” Yes I am one of those people that decorate a day early. If there is anything that I’ve learn it’s that the best way to have a wonderful birthday is to prepare everything in advance that way you yourself can enjoy the whole night with your friends playing games and relaxing (A tip that my wonderful mother had taught me – the ultimate party planer)

So here I am for the rest of the night, in a party ready room asking myself – Why can’t my birthday be right now? After all I’m ready. I guess the moral here is that I’m 100% prepared to wow my guests tomorrow with a buffet of amazing food and a fun packed evening with a low budget of 40$ Stay tuned! Party stories and meal menu to follow!

Amazing Patio

Remember how a few days ago I was telling you about that surprise that I was going to have finished? Well I have finally put on the last coat of finish so it’s nice and smooth and it’s ready to see. You had probably noticed in all of our pictures that we had created a side piece for the DIY sectional (for more info on how to make your own check this link out!) despite the fact that it looked a little out of place it served 2 purposes 1. It made a nice place to lean up against that wasn’t railing 2. It gave us a smidge more privacy from the office building across the street (hi guys!) So lets take a sneak peak at the before:

And a new look at the after (et voila!):

Now I’m not bragging but I was pretty pumped about the mini green pillow (as you know Karen and I love all home decor that’s green) which was an awesome super cheap find at superstore for a total of 5$... not too shabby right?

I’ll be the first to admit it’s a love hate relationship, I actually find that I love the colour itself... I just don’t know if we are in love with the idea of that colour there. So what did we do the night that we got it all set up? Well we put on some brazillian jazz (if you haven’t heard it try it you’ll love it for the next summer party you host) had a big glass of red and ate strawberries till about 1 in the AM... despite the fact that we both love going to bed early every once and a while you have to take advantage of a beautiful downtown view, with red and a sparkling candle lit party.

So lets take a look at our list to go:

Finish side thingy

Get bigger pillows/possible bum cushions

Finish building frames for back wall

Do mirror project for old mirror

Get unique piece of something for beside bench

Talk to plants

Find pendant lantern (or build)

Find another banana fiber rug

Almost done I can feel it. So tomorrow it’s off to home depot, than possible value village and of course one last little thing – it’s almost my birthday! – who’s happy? It’s me!

Before and Progress

We’ve come a long way baby! It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few short weeks since we took this picture here:

I know what you’re thinking. Way to show progress! We are very excited that things are finally shapeing up and starting to show really what the space had been drawn as several months before. Although I have to be fare when we were putting this little balcony together I did have some pretty crazy moments... the ones where you look at the space and say... oupps... not to worry! They ironed themselves out and everything feel together.... So lets see where we are and where exactly we started

2 months ago:

Then add some pots 1.5 months ago

Vacationing... nothing gets done.

Brings us to 1 week ago

Finally.... Here:

No we are in the process of doing something rather unique... the bad part... so far I don’t like it (and I’ll be honest I’m pretty sure Karen doesn’t either) but I’m a firm believer in order to really know if something doesn’t belong you have to finish the space and then decide, so that’s exactly what I plan on doing. -> what is it? Well I’ll show you all in a few days here once it starts to dry out!

80% and 20% to go!

This morning after I woke up and took a few pictures, after spending several hours with a dear friend searching for some unique add patio-licious pieces for the space I hit all the hardware stores and shopping malls hard! I was determined to move my 50% completion to almost, if not completely done! The finds? I found a banana fiber rug regular 45$ discounted that came to a tiny 30$ after tax! If that doesn’t excite you like it excites me... I also added some throw pillows and finally started to pot the morning glories that this morning were looking so sad.

So this morning, after adding a few things here and there – we also got some awesome patio furniture from a garage sale! That’s another story.  Ok, ok. So this morning (after sipping my coffee to the lovely Ella Fitzgerald) our patio looked like this:

After some plants and a bit of TLC and some throw cushions it looked like this:

Notice the difference? So what do we have left.... well if you can see on the picture I’ve marked out some wall space with chalk were some picture frames need to go, I also need to spray paint the old chair, find some lanterns and get a pendant light to hang. As well as finish staining the side wall... wash the whole balcony down and drink sufficiently. So how long can that take? Who knows! Only more bargain shops and thrift stores can answer that question.

Let’s bask in the effort of a job well done. For now.

DIY outdoor sectional!

My favorite word today is progress... why you ask? Because after starting this little adventure to making the best use of our outdoor space a few months ago and coming up with our brilliant budget I feel a strong excited feeling that you only get when you’ve accomplished something great on a thrifty awesome low price!

I started a little project (as all projects starts) to make our own outdoor furnishings because it’s a challenge to optimize every inch of a space when you have to buy pre built awkward sized furniture. So we searched and searched for some examples of modern decor furnishings for outside that were (a) easy and (b) thrifty! And we ran across this!

POW! BAM! BANG! Yes... the floral kind of overpowers even me but underneath? A Simple modern looking sectional for outside and that’s when a dream was born (I had a dream, where brown and purple came together as one to create so much floral patterns). So off we went to the hardware store purchased 80$ of wood and some screws with a tiny saw and off we went in progressive stages... lets follow shall we?

Stage One the first section:

Stage Two the first section meets the second section:

Stage Three introducing the BENCH:

That makes us one step closer to completion! Now to putty the wholes and get our staining on!

Back To Black

After a short absence and a beautiful trip through Europe we are back in action! We are ready to continue the balcony, phase II (notice how I used roman numerals to look more official?) of the massive balcony overhaul – the budget 500$! Can we complete it.... let’s hope so!

Now just before I get all Home and Gardens on you! I’ll just quickly go through some of my favorite parts of our euro extravaganza! We started in Amsterdam, a beautiful and really bustling place our favorite part of that country (not the reefer) was that they used bikes instead of cars! After a few days in Amsterdam we set our way to Paris... which after being there for the 5 days that we were I wanted more than anything to reconsider our balcony and do it French style! We spent the weeks after that travelling to Greece, London and Italy all of which took our breath away. The one place that we recommend everyone go see at least once in their life is Positano which was a revelation of dramatic cliffs and beautiful sea side restaurants!

Ok, ok back to the task at hand Mike. For those of you who know me, even while I was in Europe with my boyfriend I dreamt of amazing ideas for the balcony... and right when I got off the plane the first thing I said to Rhys was “I need to pick up spray paint tomorrow”. Why? So that I could begin the next phase of the patio which meant painting the old grey planter to a hot black!

BEFORE

AFTER

Just coming back from holidays I’m still a little not with the times (seeing as I actually don’t have any before or after pictures) which lead to another fun accident – dropping the paint thinner all over the kitchen floor... nothing like the aroma of paint thinner to really clear out the house. All in all we are on our way! Continuing on with Phase II we are starting to make the balcony sectional, BY HAND! I have a good feeling about it!