A November (or Movember) to remeber!

What an amazing month it has been! What large accomplishments... it’s always amazing to me what a little bit of TLC and some frugal shopping can accomplish. Let’s take a look at our month together projects big and small!

The first is probably the biggest accomplishment of all, the overall transformation of a room from messy and chaos to downtown vintage fabulous! I absolutely love the space now, it’s so clean and modern  but has that homey feel that we all long for. From the 1970 styled night stand re vamp (a total cost of 79.00!) or even the awesome value of the bed spread and sheets (a find that cost under 100$) it’s been quite an accomplishment.

Before:

After:

One of my most favourite inspired ideas was the “My Fair Lady Curtains” which – yes you guessed it – were inspired by none other than the famous movie! The before picture of the curtain (while it still looks nice and clean) seemed to lack the pow factor that we wanted (that and who doesn’t like thinking of Audrey Hepburn every day?).

With a little bit of thinking (and the lack of a sewing machine) we put together a creative idea using ribbon and iron on glue! A 20$ task that gave the curtains a custom designer look!

By far the biggest project of the month was the “Wall O’ Memories” where we tackle the city (possibly even coupons) to get the best deals on some frames to create a nostalgic wall to help keep the memory alive of family back home (and what better time to do it than right before Christmas?)

Although we are a frugal blog (mostly discussing our savings and our frugality... I kind of love that word) we do occasionally make expensive purchases... yes I am guilty of indulging in a vintage designer sculptura rotary phone... but I must admit, fake answering it (Are you there God?) has been the highlight of my month (well that and when I slipped on the ice singing jingle bells... or as it went when I was walking ... jingle beeeeellllllsss---aaaahhhhhhhhaaaaa)

And last but not least, the special Christmas tree that I was able to get my hands on! 70% off to boot! Now that’s saving!

Wow, what a month! Well, to all of you who are getting ready for the Christmas season.... making your cookies and wrapping your gifts. Let’s make this the best Christmas season together!

Postage and Parcels

There is something about the Christmas tree all done up that makes me want to relax beside a nice fire place and write Christmas cards (Check out the before and after christmas tree here!). Well, thanks to my woodwick candle and my active imagination that is exactly what I did Sunday night. For those of you who, like myself, rummage through card pile after card pile to find the perfect festive note to send family and friends will understand how taxing it can be to find that perfect card that says “Merry Christmas”... Thanks to Thomas I have now found the perfect card (and also the perfect dream cottage that I’ll be staying at this Christmas)

My Grandmother has already started to do her Christmas baking (yes, the sugar cookies are ready) and I can’t help but be filled with excitement at the idea that in only a few short weeks we’ll all be together, reminding ourselves of great holiday times!

I even purchased some cute holiday postage to go with the letters, as well as some special stickers and photos for each envelope! Just something to add a little special treat to those far away!

You’ll be getting your Christmas cards soon till then they'll be sitting at the table waiting to be delivered! (Check out how we re-finished the table here!) 

Gold ribbons a new!

Happy Friday everyone! It feels like Christmas is just right around the corner *peaks around corner* oh there it is! I’m sure all of you (myself included) are overwhelmed with excitement about the coming holiday season! As we got to see a few days ago in my mishap with my under estimate of lights (Check it out! Click here!) I had after a rough weekend rummaging up the right deals... in my frugal price range finally began (that’s right it’s only the beginning!) to complete the process of decorating my ever so thrifty tree find (130$! 70% off at the bay only a few weekends ago! Check that post here!) So after much decided, I decided I wanted to add a touch of class to my room with some dark silvers light golds with some mystical sprigs of twigs and whimsical ribbon flowing everywhere.... with the perfect amount of treats nestled gently under the tree (I almost feel like I should put in some “t’was the night before Christmas in there”)

So after adding all the lights... I took a few pictures and left it up for a few days just to have that feel of satisfaction (check out what the room looked like before the holidays.... click here!) Here are some very romantic pictures of the tree... and yes I was in the back drinking starbucks once more!

After some hard searching.... and a bit of TLC I got the tree on the way, putting on  my favourite Christmas CD and having a holiday eggnog I began to throw layer upon layer of decoration. Now first things first, I believe the best way to decorate your tree is to use colours of similar tone, to decorate with random patterns keeping things in uneven pairs (a cardinal design rule) so lets take a look at some ideas.

Please feel free to insert the “awws” here (secretly I love them). The hardest part was replicating the top of the blue tree that I had shown you before but as always a quick walk over to Michaels (and a 50% off coupon) my dream came to reality.

But still even after all the work that we’ve all put in, it still feels like the tree might be missing a little something... until I finally find out what that is I’ll just continue to write out Christmas cards, and wrap presents! See you Monday!

Let's be Merry!

I’m usually ahead of the Christmas game by about 4 weeks every year. Yes, I have already completed a good portion of my Christmas shopping... yes I’ve already started to do some light holiday baking but the thing that I do that is most unique is set up my Christmas tree about 2 weeks before most. I’m sure most of you remember my trip to The Bay where I found that amazing Christmas tree for a fraction of the original price? I may have put it up... and by “may” I mean did.

I’ve been so excited seeing it in the box that I could no longer wait to see it up and in action... and to my delight it was better than anything I could have expected! The tree branches are full all the way through to the center of the tree (which after my Wal-mart tree a few years back is very exciting!).

After a few hours of setting up the Christmas tree I realized that I needed to go and get some Christmas lights to perfect this Christmas tree... off I went to the only place that had Christmas lights on sale (remember the rules? On sale, Discount, or second hand) I got them for a wooping 60% off – by total luck of course – now the basic rule for trees is for every foot of tree you need 100 lights, so a 7.5 tree would need 750 lights. I being frugal and thinking that seemed over the top purchased 650 lights... and this is what happened.

So it looks like I’ll have to wait till I can get back to Sears to complete my tipped tree OR maybe I just started a new style!

From our -30 to yours! Lets start a creative week!

Not just any old tree...

As most of you know (and those who don’t know are soon to find out) I have a sick love for Christmas, yes... I am one of those people that wake up in the middle of July and put on a Christmas tune to remind them there are better times ahead (...which now that it’s -35 outside I’m slightly regretting BRRRR!) Regardless, I’ve been shopping for Christmas trees. As any thrifty shopper knows, the best sales happen in off season! I wasn’t ready for anything quite yet but yesterday mid shopping trip, I found discount trees, on sale, on sale again... yes that’s right I found a tree for 50% off the clearance price which made a 450$ tree 140$!

Now that I no longer have a car I was forced to carry it home on the subway (which to the lady across from me that saw my childish grin might have scared).

Then right when I got home (after I told my roommate about my fantastic sale) I ran straight to as many stores as I could to see what I wanted the tree to look like, a bit of inspiration?

With Christmas coming up so fast it’s never to early to get ready for the holidays, my mom always use to tell me the best way to be ready is to be done before December! In the tradition of my family, I wish you all great luck! Let’s get out there and festively decorate our homes!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

This morning when I woke up the first thing that came to my mind was how grateful I was for things in my life. My favourite season is about to befall us, Christmas has been a huge deal in my family for generations, we anxiously await it’s arrival and sadly watch it come and go every year. One thing I always remember is my mom’s amazing cooking, pastries, cookies, pies and tarts lined the white pressed linen table cloth in dishes of the most pristine white. Over in the corner you can see the family bustling over board games (scatagories is the game to try!) while we all laugh, eat and be merry.

You’re probably asking me why right now (mid November) am I bring up the holiday season... it’s not only because this year I got a good jump on the Christmas shopping. But because right now in the middle of this fine November it has decided to snow....

Of course like many things the snow has given an even bigger build to the excitement that special day and deep down somewhere halfway across our amazing country my mom is looking out her window at this same time in beautiful anticipation as her lawn gets covered in the white blanket.

One last thing.... I did do it, against what everyone wanted. That’s right, I like the holiday department stores had some festive music this morning while I sipped on my coffee as I walked to the way. Let me be the first to say it to all of you.

Happy Holidays.

Oh Canada!

In Canada it is that time of year that we remember the story of our countries proud history, a moment where generations before us men and women sacrificed their lives to protect this beautiful country we call home.

When I was on the LRT (the most amazing underground train transportation ->when you come from somewhere that only has one bus in the whole city all mass transportation is amazing <-) wearing my poppy... a tradition I got into a long time ago to help remind me that the world is bigger than just me, I noticed everyone on the LRT was wearing a poppy which made me feel really connected, how amazing is it that one symbol can connect all of us so?

So in the true patriot way, I’ve decided to show the most beautiful rooms that include poppys:

And some more.....

It doesn’t matter where you are what time of year it is, you can always remember the great gift of freedom that they selflessly gave us. Here’s to our troops – Thank you – From two guys a girl, and Canada.

For those of you who are just joining us guyonthe-move is updated every monday, wednesday and friday with fantastic tips and cool tricks to keeping your home modern at a frugal price!

A Wall O' Memory

Sorry for the delay everyone! I’ve been slaving away the last few days to do a bit of extra work to complete the eclectic mural wall I was talking about a few weeks ago. I’m usually one for big art but being miles and miles away from home I wanted to do something special so that even if I am billions of miles away (maybe even more) then I can always look at the wall and think of them. ->insert gushy flashback smile here<- so that being said I had to go to literally every discount shopping center to find the right frames so it could look similar to this:

Here’s a rundown of the frames cost:

From IKEA, Urban Barn, Homesense and my local DOLLARSTORE a total of 50.50$ is the total cost for the whole bunch of frames (keep in mind that the largest frame cost me a whopping 19.99) which roughly makes each frame to be about 3.88$ Not bad right? Here’s the final look:

I also added a few special touches; this picture was just from a regular magazine... Interested to see how I made the chairs? Click here!

This picture is the STARBUCKS Christmas 2011 blend....

All in all a pretty great days work.

 For those of you who are just joining us guyonthe-move is updated every monday, wednesday and friday with fantastic tips and cool tricks to keeping your home modern at a frugal price!

My Fair Curtains

A few weeks ago I had this crazy idea to personalize my curtains. I wasn’t sure how at the time, I just knew that I wanted them to echo the French modern theme that now had become my room! So Rhys, Karen and myself went to brain storming our great ideas.... it had to be cheap, easy and really flavourful.

I find the best way to be creative is to take a picture of what you have, take it out of the space you are decorating and just look at it whenever and something amazing will come to you. I kept thinking of lines, symmetry (and for some reason the black and white scene of my fair lady).

So what I did is simply add ribbon to the window treatments using easy sow tape (the type you iron) which only cost 3.99 an the ribbon of 2.99 for 9.1 meters. I matched the ribbon up to the chairs (which you can see here) and wanted something that echoed the bed spread as well (which you can see here) let me show you the simple steps I did to bring life to the drapery.

First step is to cut the pieces of fabric to size with matching easy sow tape then to iron the tips so they are folded inward (to give a more seamless look) then pull off the tape and begin to iron tape side down to the curtain:

Iron all the way down to completion, once finished let it set (or it will come off, I learnt the hard way) for five to ten minutes. Repeat on other curtain.

Having a flashback to the earlier my fair lady picture yet? So after some simple hard work and a pit of ironing... as I was never much of a wiz when it came to sowing I have to admit easy sow tape can save a lot of trouble. Enjoy the after pictures.

In case you're just joining us, guyonthe-move is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and friday with thrifty fun and easy ideas to keep your home looking modern and chic!