honey tones

My sister-in-law just sent me this - pretty darn close to the colours I'm using! Ahhh decisions!

Source: design-seeds.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

paint help for the nursery please!

Ok need a bit of paint help please!

Here is the room for the nursery (old pic - I've cleaned it even more and the crib is set up yay!). The walls are grey, but more blue than grey.

Here's kind of where I'm going for colours and I just don't think the blue/grey really matches that well. Especially with teal (the crib sheet I made is teal as well).

I think the walls should still be grey, but more of the colours in the flowers in the middle fabric above - so could be a browny-grey I guess??? Anyway I said "grey" to the hubs and he really doesn't want more grey in the house. He wants something different because the entire house is painted in one shade of grey or another..

So I was trying to compromise with grey and maybe add a fun stencil or decal or something. Or stripes? I was playing around with the idea of light teal and grey stripes, but I'm not sure I'm up for it.

Dunno - what would you do? Help!

garden update + a colourful addition

It's amazing what just over a month can do to the growth of a garden. Well Mark had a bit to do with it... he's getting quite the green thumb! After I took the last pics, he basically went to work and started moving plants around and cutting back some of the over grown stuff. After a few of the big rains we've had his hard work has made all the difference!

And the garage is done! No more patchy grey spots... (I see there is some work left to do on the window there!)

Mark found all of these ferns behind the garage and moved them to the corner. They fill up the space nicely. He added this candle holder to the corner too as a little sculpture ;).

Last time I posted a pic of this section, there was barely anything here - now the hosta is ginormous! We'll definitely have to split that next year.

And our new addition that just came home tonight - our new sectional!

We've been wanting something bigger for a while now - although I really liked it, the small couch that was here before just wasn't great for both of us (plus Leo!) to lounge (it's now on the front porch - more lounging space!). Now we've got a place for all of us, plus guests.

We picked it from Abacus Furniture (you can see it from the Gardiner at Islington beside that crazy party store). Mark was eyeing a beige one for a bit, but when we went to see it we weren't thrilled about it. It just seemed...blah. I wanted some colour, so we took a risk and made the decision on the blue and we both love it.

The fabric is by Sunbrella so the quality is pretty good and should stand up to the elements (although we'll likely take the cushions in when it rains anyway).

We spend as much time as possible outside in the summer so this will be perfect for us to hang out!

Happy weekend y'all!

porch pillows part deux

Last night while the hubs was out for a bike ride, I set up my sewing machine on the dining room table, flipped on the computer to watch a few episodes of Glee and got started on my new porch pillows. 

A couple years ago I made pillows using some Ikea fabric I found for $4.99 a yard (so cheap!), but I left them out at night and some rascals got their nails into them. Plus they faded (the pillows, not the rascals).

I ordered the fabric from Tonic Living on Tuesday and got it in the mail yesterday - amazing. I love ordering from local companies!

Just realized this pic is a bit wacky - I feel like I'm a bit lopsided when looking at it!

I wanted something a bit brighter for summer so I thought I'd have some fun with the porch. I'm really craving colour around this house since everything is grey! The fabric is rated for the outdoors so they shouldn't fade and hopefully the little rascals will stay away. 

I've been keeping my eyes open for a little table to fit between the chairs for awhile now but haven't seen one I quite like yet.

Speaking of rascals... this is what I found in the kitchen when I came in from taking my photos. 

The little bum.

lark

I was just checking out the fabric shoppe on facebook and noticed some new Amy Butler fabrics. They're so bright and cheerful! Here are some of my favourites:

I'm picturing a pillow for this one! I would love this for the basement to add some colour.

This would be so pretty as a headboard for the bed in my sewing room.

The blue version of the first fabric. Would love to see a pillow our of this too (or perhaps a pin board cover??)

You can never go wrong with some cream and black. Not sure what I would do with this one since I'm trying to add some colour into my house!

Check out more beautiful fabrics on the fabric shoppe and amy butler's website.

grey & yellow

red tent blues

I had my first official craft market last week and it has taken me this long to talk about it because it was SUCH a bummer. Well the actual craft sale was a bummer; the company was not. It was held in a little neighbourhood unknown to me really, which is strange because I've lived in the city for so long and in many different neighbourhoods.

It didn't help that there was torential rain for the first part of the market. No that didn't help. But I managed to snag a nice red tent from a vendor through work so that was helpful. It was ginormous and we managed to squeeze about 3 other vendors under the tent with us. The other problem was there was construction right in front of the market along with a sign telling people to use the other side of the street. Not good. To top it off there was a festival going on down the street, which we were told would be HUGE driver to our market, but really it was quite the opposite because were about 2 blocks too far east of the festival to make a difference.

And maybe it just wasn't the right market for my stuff. I sold one thing and it was to my friend that I used to work with (thank god she bought something!!) BUT I have to say that the actual DAY was quite fun and a good experience (lemonade out of lemons right??).

First off M stayed with me at the sale. I thought it was funny that he wanted to stay at a girly market, but he was so helpful and admitted to having fun during the day. Also my sister K was there from the beginning and then my other sister S showed up and stayed the whole day. They were all so supportive and the marketing gene that we all got when we were born came out in full force because from the beginning they were throwing around tons of ideas on how to bring more people to the market and to my booth. I love them all so much for that.

Anyway I paid for two more market days which kind of sucks, but maybe it'll be better next time. Maybe I'll look into adding more colour to my craft stash because this time around I focused on LOTS of yellow and grey (my favourites!) and perhaps people are into a bit more colour. Who knows.

So enough blabbing and complaining! I posted some pics below from the day:

Getting ready with K


The construction (and the nice "parking spot" that M scored after he talked "construction" with the workers...)

The goods


K showing off the goods

Two of my sales people ;)

My sister S showing her crafty pipes

My very happy customer V

all that and a bag of chocolate kisses

I'll just start off by wishing y'all a Happy Heart Day. I don't care if you don't like this day. I do. Yeah sure you should celebrate your love every day of the year, but really how fun is it to have a day full of hearts and chocolate? I'm heading to the Big Carrot today and I'm going to get me some yummy fair trade stuff. Gotta get the real stuff if you're going to be serious about it.

Ok enough of that.


Yesterday I made a tote. Yay! I was thinking of Susan while I was making it. In a recent post, she talks about how the earrings she featured were totally her. Well I have to admit that half the stuff I make isn't really me. I have a slight fear of colour. Maybe it's not a fear per se, it's just that I feel best in black and grey -- mostly because I'm cheap and I think that black and grey will last for years, while colours have more of a trend factor.

I dunno.

Anyway, I was thinking of Susan because when I finished this tote I realized that it was totally me. It's not black or grey, but I LOVE it and I'm going to keep it for myself.

The best part -- as with most of my totes -- it's reversable!


This dark blue denim came from a skirt I attempted to make two years ago. It didn't really work out so I cut around the stitching to use for the bag.

Well I should get off the computer. My house is a mess. I still have to make the card I bought from Patricia a month ago for my Hubster (I tend to leave things to the last minute), and I have to go run some errands...

Take care and eat LOTS of chocolate today. You have no excuses not to.

~lealou