That time of the month...

'm not talking about that time of the month, but rather the time to change things up around my house. I get these frequent spurts of inspiration to 'pretty-fy' my house when I go to a well-decorated house or see something in a magazine. On Friday while I was visiting my sister I was so inspired by her place. I've been to her place in the past, but I always forget how nice her place is. She doesn't spend a lot of money on things, but everything she does have looks really expensive. And trust me, she doesn't spend a lot. Most of the stuff she got were from HomeSense , Ikea, Craigslist, or clearance items at stores. The thing I liked about her place was how homey and lived-in it looked. I love spaces where it looks comfortable and warm.

One of my favourite thing in her house was her big vase filled with hydrangeas. They were fake flowers, but they looked so real and so pretty that I wanted to do the same at my house. She had filled it with white hydrangeas and filled the bottom of her vase with glass beads.

I had some free time in the afternoon today so I rushed over to Michaels to pick up some fake stems. Of course, I love my real flowers, but I love how with these you could have it forever and you would never have to worry about it dying. I picked up a bluish/gray variety of hydrangeas because they didn't look cheap and obviously fake. I bought 5 stems, but I think I could have used 2 more. However, each stem was $11.99 so I ended up spending quite a bit. I guess I'll go pick more up later... I also bought 2 bags of river rocks. They were about $2.49 each, but I think I could have bought 2 more bags. The vase I bought was huge so 2 bags barely covered the bottom.

I bought the vase at HomeSense and it was a steal at $19.99. I also picked up a few more things while I was there...

I saw this rustic looking bird cage at HomeSense and I couldn't resist getting it. I wanted something visually interesting on top of my credenza with some height and I thought this was perfect for it. It was also a bargain at $39.99! I think the regular price was $80.

Here's my birdcage from far-away.

I decided to reset my dining table setting with my new finds.

I put my vase of flowers in the middle on top of my table runner. It's quite dramatic there now. It has more of a presence since it is so big.

I also picked up 2 throw pillows for my banquette seating. I've been looking for pillows for a while now, but they are so expensive! These ones were 2 for $39.99. It has the pattern on the front and the backside is a flat, mustard colour with a different texture. It looks really expensive, but it wasn't.

Here is a quick snapshot I took of my new dining area.

My next project is wallpapering! I brought home a few wallpaper samples that were left-over from a shoot. I'm trying to figure out what to wallpaper, but I've never done it before. I'll let you guys know how that goes.

Flower power

ho doesn't love fresh-cut flowers?

Currently my house is filled with small vases with fresh-cut flowers. I guess it's all the depressing weather that we've been having. I feel like I need to see something bright and sunny in every room. The purple allium (above) are on my bedside nightstand and I just adore seeing it every morning when I wake up. I put it in a mason jar with handles. It gives it a rustic look. I'm clueless when it comes to flower arrangement so I like to keep things simple. I'd like to take a floral arrangement class one day...

I have hot pink hyacinths in my dining room area. The colour is so vibrant that it's quite striking. I must pick up more of these later on. I just love it!

I also have pink gerberas in my office. I showed it to you in my earlier blog post.

Then I have my billy buttons. They are actually not fresh. They are dried, but it looks the same as when it was fresh.

These are also dried. They are winterberry holly branches. They were even more beautiful when they were fresh.

I wish I had beautiful flowers every day. Now wouldn't that be nice?

Ready for spring

'm so over winter. Enough of the snow. Enough of the cold weather.

Even though it's not quite warm enough to be thinking about spring, I'm so enamoured with all the spring collections that are out in stores.

I made a few purchases this week that I'm really excited to show you guys.

Essie's nail polishes from the Spring 2011 French Affair Collection in Coat Azure (blue) and Nice is Nice (light lilac).

I absolutely love the name of this. So witty. This one is a cornflower blue with very fine shimmers.

This is really similar to Lilacism from Essie. Lilacism is a tad more blue.

Today I went shopping with my sister and I made a few purchases.

I picked up 2 shimmering body lotions, 3 mini antibacterial hand gels, and one hand gel holder at Bath and Body Works. Oh how I love that store...

This is the first Shimmer Gel and Body Lotion that I got. It's the Japanese Cherry Blossom scent. Smells so nice. The regular price was $12.50, but I got 2 for $18. Not a bad deal...

This is the Sweet Pea one. I love this scent.

The idea of this is that it pumps out lotion and shimmer gel at the same time.

The special thing about this is that you can select if you want more lotion or more shimmer gel when you are pumping it by turning the dial left or right. That way you can control how much shimmer you want. Ingenious, no?

I pumped it with 1 part shimmer gel and 1 part lotion. The Japanese Cherry Blossom has gold shimmer while the Sweet Pea one has silver shimmer.

The reason I went into Bath & Body Works was to get this- the holder for the mini antibacterial hand gels. My friend has one of these and she loops it around her hand bag handle. That way she always has a hand sanitizer nearby and she's not rummaging through her bag to find it. It's perfect for mothers.

Here it is with the hand gel inside.

The only negative was that the blue glitter goes all over my hand. This was the only colour I liked. The others were tie-dye and really ugly.

I picked up Cucumber Melon (one of my favourite scents), Sweet Pea, and Aqua Blossom.

I was checking out Forever 21 today and I immediately saw this Rory Beca for Forever 21 dress. It's a one-shoulder dress that is in the prettiest shade of blush pink. It's so pretty on! I love it when stores have collaborations with designers. You're able to get beautiful designer pieces for a fraction of the price. This dress was $27.80.

I also picked up a few accessories to go with this dress. I got a cream necklace for $3.80 and an earring set for $4.80.

I'm always amazed how cheap Forever 21 is.

What a beautiful tag too.

The back of the tag has a little designer bio.

I also picked up a pair of dark wash skinny jeans. They are a shorter length than regular denim jeans so they are perfect for me. I'm only 5'3". They also have zipper detailing on the bottom.

They are also high-waisted. Hides the muffin top :-)

Here are the pockets at the back. I like plain jeans like these nowadays. I really hate flashy back pockets (i.e., True Religions in particular...).

Also picked up 2 new MAC lipsticks.

This is called Up The Amp and it's an Amplified colour. It's showing up mauve here, but it's actually a mauve-y purple. I saw a girl trying this colour at the store and she looked AMAZING. It's definitely not something I normally wear, but I'm trying to be open-minded these days. Better to try it when I'm still young, no? Well, I'm actually not that young anymore...

Here's the label just in case you're interested.

I also picked up the Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Full Speed. This just came out, but don't worry, it's going to be part of their permanent collection. It's a beautiful bright coral (more yellow-based than Ultra Darling which is more blue-based). I love the formulation on these. It's an intense colour, but super moisturizing. I'm thinking of picking up other colours in this collection.

Here's the label for Full Speed.

Here are the swatches. The colours are a little off because of my lighting.

That's it for my haul this week. I leave you with some photos of fresh gerbera flowers that I have by my computer. Feels like spring already!

Aidan's Baby Shower

So I hosted my baby shower yesterday at my new house. It was so fun planning the whole baby shower and having it all come together. My colour scheme was blue, green and yellow.


On the menu were mini tuna sandwiches, mini cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, veggie tray, fruit tray, mini quiches and mini cupcakes


All the cups were personalized with all the guest's names


I ordered these cute flower arrangements from Flour Studio



These mini cupcakes were also from Flour Studio. It was delicious!


I made the banner with my future son's name, Aidan Kim


Prizes were wrapped in craft paper or cellophane


Favours were shortbread cookies that I baked with my sister, wrapped in cellophane and taped with a cute sticker


Guests were encouraged to take these cookies home with them