Inspiration wall

his May will mark our 4th year living in our house. I still can't believe how quickly time passed. Even though 4 years seems like a long time I'm still in the process of decorating our house. I want to take my time because I want it to look perfect. Also, it takes time to find the perfect piece for each room. I don't want it to look cookie cutter or haphazardly put together. 

Now that I'm home on maternity leave I'm constantly looking at all the spaces in my house and thinking of what I can do to make it better. There's still so much I have to do for my home office, but I've been looking at the wall behind my computer desk. It's been blank for a while now and I keep looking at it when I'm working on my computer. I was thinking of doing some sort of polka dot, washi tape DIY project behind it (you can see what I'm talking about on my Pinterest home office board), but then I decided against it. Then, I came across a cool print that I got from a photographer through work and decided to frame it. It's actually the backside of his photography print. I loved the 'A' and how graphic it was and thought it would look so neat in a frame. That gave me an idea to put up some sort of art wall behind my computer. I may add to the vignette later on, but I'm liking how it's looking. Now, when I look up from my computer screen I can see my vignette and it will put a little smile on my face :-)

Here's my computer desk. It's the white Parsons desk from West Elm. It's a little cluttered,
but I like having cute and pretty things around me for inspiration.
I still have to do something about the little cubby beside my desk. It is ugly, but it
stores all my junk and my huge printer. I may paint it a white to match my desk…

Some of my pretties- my Shim and Sons fabric bulletin board and pencil cup (that I use
to display my money plant or Lunaria Annua); my lovelydesign address file;
my Teatro Verde flower vase that I use for my pens and pencils; a ceramic plate that
my son made at daycare; and my staple-less stapler that I got from Paper-Ya in Vancouver.

Since the colour for 2013 is supposed to be an emerald green I changed my screen
saver to a green. It's a turquoise green, but still…

I love my heart mouse pad.

And my pride and joy- my Phillippe Starck Louis Ghost Chair as my office chair.

Here is the wall behind my computer before I put the artwork up. It's so… plain and boring.

Now with my little artwork it looks a bit more visually interesting.

I didn't want to put anything in a frame as it could look too done up.
I used washi tape to stick the other pieces.
The illustration of me was done by an illustrator I commissioned for the magazine I work
for. I had an extra sherpa proof from my printer so I used that to hang it on my wall.
The hot pink print is a print I got with my Kate Spade watch. I've been meaning to put
it up somewhere in my house because it is super cute, but didn't get a chance to… until now.

Another view.

I get a lot of promos from illustrators and photographers through work and I always store the ones that I like just in case. It always comes in handy when I'm hanging artwork up and I need an original piece. 

Mr Clock

ur house is slowly coming together. There's still so much we need to do, but I like taking my time. That way I can find that perfect something for the space instead of rushing to put it all together. 

I've been looking for a wall clock for my husband's office for some time now. I almost bought a wall clock at HomeSense, but I decided at the last minute not to get it. I'm glad I did because I found the perfect clock last week at Chapters Indigo. Best of all, it was on sale for 50% off for $39.75. Plus, I found a coupon code online for an extra $5 off. I always make sure to google coupon codes when I'm ordering things online because you never know how much you can save ;-)

I felt that we needed something on the wall of my husband's office, right behind his desk because that wall was bare and I kept looking at it when I was sitting in the basement family room. We already have a wall of frames in his office so I didn't want to hang another picture or art on that wall. I decided that I wanted a clock. Something substantial, not so tiny. The wall clock at HomeSense was huge though and more rustic looking. The clock at Chapters Indigo was the perfect size at 15" and I liked the modern look of it. It would go well with the office décor I currently had going on.

The clock arrived yesterday- super fast delivery. I think I ordered it on January 4 (a
Friday) and it came on the following Monday.

The clock came in a huge box filled with these air pillows.

And here is the box for the clock. It's the Mr White Numbers Wall Clock by Karlsson.

The clock came bubble wrapped and secured with styrofoam on the sides.

My beauty. I love the white numbers. Some people complained about the numbers
being hard to see because they are white, but I love them.

Here is the clock hung on the wall. I made sure to hang it so that you can see the
whole clock when you are in the next room. We have French doors separating the office
from the basement family room so I wanted to make sure you can see the time.

As you can see the numbers are a bit hard to see.

And here is the clock from far away. For some reason the clock looks pretty small, but
it actually isn't in person. I wouldn't want it to be any bigger or it would overwhelm the
room.

My husband is in the process of getting a new laptop so once he gets that his desk
will be much more full.

You can still see the clock with the French doors closed.

A closer view.

You can see the numbers better at this angle.

Baby shower sneak peek

emember how I mentioned I was going to show you what I was going to be doing for my sister's baby shower? Well, here are some shots of this past Saturday's baby shower that my younger sister and I threw for my twin sister's baby shower. It was a lot of hard work, but it turned out really nice. My younger sister keeps insisting that we should open a party planning business together, but I'm still hesitant to take the plunge.

I designed these heart lollipop flowers to give out as favours for all the guests.
I had a pink, yellow, and orange colour scheme for the baby shower so I incorporated those
colours in these flowers. My expecting sister wrote personalized messages to each
individual guests in one of the petals.

I made labels for all the foods that we had made so that our guests would know what they were eating.
I propped them up with wooden clothes pins.

A preview of some of the finger foods.

I made these phyllo cups with lemon cream cheese,smoked salmon and chives on top.

My younger sister made these sliders. Aren't they so cute?

I also made these. These are endives with goat cheese, bacon, and homemade croutons.

These are french baguettes drizzled with olive oil, bocconcini, basil, and cherry tomatoes. I loved these.

My sister made these mini crab cakes and her homemade aioli. The aioli was delicious.

Here's the table spread.

We had a dessert/candy station. We put candies in little sundae cups and I incorporated the colour scheme
of the party by using yellow, orange, and pink straws.

My sister loves to bake and she made these delicious mini vanilla cupcakes with
strawberry buttercream frosting. These were a huge hit.

Another view. We also had assorted sandwiches that my mom made, a fruit tray, and
an arugula salad with goat cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries with a rice wine vinaigrette.

We hung my banner that I made on one wall.

I also hung doilies that I had painted in our colour scheme in place of streamers. I think it was much
more elegant.

Here's another look at the favours.

We also had more desserts by the living room where our guests were hanging out.

I bought these Pantone inspired cups for $2 each in our colour scheme and we stuffed it with goodies
as gift prizes at the shower.

Never judge a book by its cover?

mmm... it's hard not to when a book cover is this nice.

I'm a sucker for buying books with a nice book cover. I mean, if you're going to buy a book you might as well buy something that you will love to see in your bookshelf, right?

I love how Penguin books commissioned illustrator, Jillian Tamaki to create an embroidered book cover of some of the well-known classics. These books will hit shelves in the fall and I can't wait to get my hands on The Secret Garden. That was one of my favourite books growing up...

Here's a photo of the work-in-progress.

Photos courtesy of Jillian Tamaki

House & Home

y friend just moved into her new condo this month (btw, the photo above isn't her new place) and she asked me for décor help. She had initially asked me to help her pick out furniture for her new place back in January, but we never had a chance to meet. Well, turns out that she picked out a couch that she hates and she can't return it. She said the colour clashes with her wall colour and she's in a dilemma on what to do with it. I'm supposed to meet up with her on Thursday to check out her new place, and I've been thinking about ways to make the couch work. By no means am I an interior design guru, but I've always had an affinity to interior design and my friend seems to like how I decorated my house. I had suggested to her to possibly add a throw and decorative pillows to break up the colour of the couch and somehow tie the colour to her wall colour... Or she could try slip-covering the couch with a more complimentary shade. I guess I won't really know what to suggest to her until I see her place in person.

I think the best way to decorate a house is to decorate it little-by-little. I know with my house it took a while to finish each room. I'm still not finished, but by doing this it gives you a chance to feel out your space and figure out what makes sense for that room. Plus, it gives a house a more home-y look that isn't so matchy matchy. My friend was in a such rush to have her space all put together when she moved in that she bought her couch without bringing her wall paint colour chip with her to the furniture store.

Just today, while I was at a photoshoot I saw these pillows that were at the photographer's studio to shoot for House & Home Magazine. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful pillows because the colours were so vibrant. They were by Adam & Viktoria. What great accents these would make to a boring couch! Too bad they are a fortune at $265 each...