Cut 'n Paste

My Chandelier

Last week I participated in the burning house project hosted by Paula, and I thought it might be fun to share with you the back story of my chandelier, which is my favorite item in my house.

For the past few years, I have had the pleasure to head to France several times, and love to shop the flea markets and brocants for treasures. For as long as I've gone, I have searched for the perfect chandlelier to put above my farmhouse table in my eating area. One that wasn't too big as our ceilings are only 8 ft. high, but not so small as to get lost in the space. I wanted it to have that vintage look (no mass-produced look please!) with a distinctly European flair.

For 3 years I looked, never finding something that was the perfect size and price. It seemed like something was always wrong. Then, last year we were in Turin, Italy when we walked into an Antique shop. The lovely shop keeper didn't speak English, and I don't speak Italian, however we both spoke passably good French. So we had a lovely visit and I bought some brooches and pendants for jewelry making. As I was getting ready to leave the shop, I asked her, in passing, about one of the chandeliers she had hanging in the shop. As she started talking about it, my heart sunk as I made out 1930 (which I assumed was the price). It was only as she continued speaking that I realized that she was telling me about the providence of the light and not it's price. Surprisingly, she named a price which I found to be fair and after Rick saw the look on my face, he said "let's buy it".

I was so nervous about getting it home in one piece, but the shopkeeper offered to box it up safely, and she did a fabulous job. It came home in checked luggage with the airline and believe it or not, not one crystal broke on the journey home ☺
 The shop owner and me • In front of the store

Inspiration on the Web {No. 14}

 
 
(Photo source: Cecile Boston & family home from Design Files)

Oh be still my heart, I am in LOVE with this kitchen...the vintage clock and stools take my breath away! The funny thing is that lately I have been overwhelmingly drawn to white kitchens, yet this one with its weathered wood is also a 10 out of 10 in my book. Go figure!

In my on-going quest to help you waste time on the internet (hahaha), here are some places to go and links to see which I've been diggin':

• Jennifer Rizzo - I have linked to the most amazing whole home before & after posts I've seen. She has done an amazing job on her house and it is so inspiring...By the way, that makeover to a white kitchen? Totally in love with! (see, I told you I've been digging white kitchen's lately). You MUST go ahead and follow some of the links that others have posted at the end of Jennifer's blog entry, as there is some seriously great inspiration there!
• Before & After - This site shows awesome before and after projects with links back to the originator of the project. Some great inspiration here!
• Can't wait for the premier edition of Souvenir, a new seasonal gazette featuring two of the most creative girls I know, Pam Garrison & Amy Hanna, amongst others. Sign up soon to recieve the first issue which they will send around the beginning of March!
• If you love to travel, like I do, check out the National Geographic Intelligent travel blog. There are always great photos and interesting places to visit on it.

Inspiration on the Web {No. 12}

 
(Source: Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic) 

I continue to be amazed at how many good quality, inspirational blogs there are out there in the cyber world. These are a few of the home decor ones which have been making me drool lately:

 

• Dreamy Whites
• Beach Cottage
• Home, Shabby Home

Inspiration for the Home

(Photo Credit: Country Living)

Once again this week I have been enjoying Olympic coverage. We are lucky to get tv coverage pretty much 24/7 so I've been able to see a ton of different events. I was enchanted by the Canadian ice dance duo who won Gold on Mon. night - what beautiful performances they had. As a country we were crushed when our men's hockey team lost to team USA, so I was really happy last night when they won against Germany 8-2. We keep believing and hoping that they can continue winning and get to the medal rounds. We shall see. They play again tonight. Which events have been your favorite?

In the meantime, I thought I would share some recent home decorating websites I have become enamored with. Enjoy!

• Life in the Fun Lane - Featuring a ton of DIY projects that the blog hostess has completed, she also has a stylish shabby/swedish styled home filled with white furniture (love that look!)
• Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone - With a title like that, I'm sure you will not be surprised to discover that this blog features the renovation of a Brooklyn limestone, lol!  But as someone who loves traveling, I also love how the hostess shares the interesting and exotic vacations she and her husband take. This blog features really strong photography too (which is always a plus ☺)
• The Mother-load of Home Blog Links - This link will take you to the 'Hommies' award for best home blog of 2009. There are so many awesome blogs on this list....seriously. Prepare to be majorly inspired. There are blogs for every style and taste, modern to shabby. Take a look! 

Have a lovely and peaceful day friends!

Shabby Chic and What's wrong with the doggie?

Where oh where have I been?

February has been a busy month for hubby and I! I’m pleased to share that my man has been given a temporary assignment that he is really excited about at work. For those of you unaware, Rick is a police officer. Given the nature of the assignment, I’m not going to go into details, but he is excited and I’m bursting my buttons proud of him!

I will be seeing a drastic increase in my traveling this year and my adventures began this month. Mid-February I flew to Orange County, CA to teach at the Scrapbook Expo.  Our company was debuting a new slate of consumer classes designed by several of our design team members that were all well received.  While in town, Melissa, Rachel and I made a point to visit the Shabby Chic store one evening and I bought some fabulous bedding that was on sale. I must say; I love, love, love the Shabby Chic line, but unfortunately at regular price it is totally out of my budget. So this sale, where some bedding was 50-75% off, was very appreciated by me! I bought the duvet and pillow shams pictured in the image above. (Image from the Shabby Chic site, not my home!) I also bought some sheets to make pillowcases.  Sad to hear upon my return home that Shabby Chic has applied for Chapter 11 protection  L Even though it is out of my price range, I love that line, and find so much inspiration from it. I’m sad that the economy has knocked one of my favorites down. Hopefully they will be able to restructure and emerge strong once again.

Last Friday saw me taking a ferry over to Vancouver Island in the early hours of the morning to teach at Camp Crop-A-Lot hosted by a local scrapbook store called Treasured Memories.  The lovely storeowner, Sharon graciously worked with my wishes to be able to return home Saturday night, how I appreciated that! The ladies at the crop were very sweet and kind and it was great to teach at a somewhat local event.

My final piece of news comes with a question. I have been having problems with one of my dogs over the past 2 weeks, so took her to the vet yesterday for a check-up and blood work, and our fears were realized when I got the results today. Our Dixie has diabetes. So we’re now at a cross roads and need to figure out how we want to proceed. Just wondering if anyone has gone through this before, and if so if you can give me an idea of cost of care. We love our dogs, and with no children we interact with them a whole lot. Our house would seem very empty without her. But I also do not want to shell out a ton of money to get everything figured out. ‘Cause as much as I love her, at the end of the day, she’s a dog….So any help from someone who has been through this would be appreciated.

It's a new year!

Tick-tock, tick-tock...Happy new year to you and yours! I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Rick and I really enjoyed our break. Both of us had the good fortune to have time off from work. We didn't accomplish much, between Rick's back going out and a fierce blast of winter weather, we stayed pretty close to home. Yep, over the past few weeks we've had snow like we've never had in the 20 years I've lived in Vancouver. It started coming down before Christmas and is still on the ground today. It's been a nice change of pace, although it did limit the amount of travel and visiting we could do as our little Corolla doesn't do too well in the deep stuff :)

At the beginning of the new year I always feel somewhat nostalgic, thinking about the past year and excited as I consider the next. In 2009 I hope to have a year of change. Change of mindset and a redefinition of my life; I want to make things better, to accomplish more and to dream bigger.

I hope that no matter your goals or dreams for '09, they come true for you! 

(Big Ben clock bought in Omaha, NE...it was a great find at only $9.95)

Deck the Halls

 

Here's a project that I've enjoyed working on this week. Once again I used the Country Living kit from Stampin' Up!, and once again I used the kit contents as a jumping off point for my own project.

One tip which was new for me, and  I thought you might also find interesting, is the way Stampin' Up! suggested we color raw chipboard. For a very long time now I have used acrylic paints to color chipboard. While this is not difficult by any stretch of the imagination, it does require that I use a paintbrush and wash it out when completed. However in the kit, they provided white pigment ink, and so instead of painting the raw chipboard they suggested we apply the ink directly to it. I just know, that you're shaking your head at me saying that you've been doing this for ages - seriously, I can feel you wondering how dim I am through the computer screen. But honestly, first time ever that I used ink to completely cover chipboard! And you know what? I liked it. A lot. (smile) Anything that saves me time is a winner in my books; I love that I don't have to leave my craftroom to wash out paintbrushes! So there is my little PSA for the week, courtesy of a Stampin' Up! kit.

Here are some quick instructions on how I made the banner:

1. Cover three chipboard squares with precut aqua paper. (all provided in kit) Sand edges to distress.
2. Using white pigment ink, cover raw chipboard scalloped frames. Allow ink to dry. Apply a thin coat of glue to frame, sprinkle irridescent glitter on top of glue. Allow to dry. Shake excess glitter off and pour back in the glitter container. (all provided in kit)
3. Glue white glittered frame to aqua squares.
4. Cut three strips of pink patterned paper 1 x 12 inches. (pink paper not supplied in kit. There are enough kit papers to have used them for this step, but I wanted to use pink pastel as opposed to the colors in the kit, so chose from my personal stash). Pleat each strip to create pleated rosettes. Unfortunately I ran out of time to make a tutorial for you, but a quick google search resulted in this fabulous set of instructions from Jeanne at Dream, Create Inspire. After making rosettes glue them to the center of the scalloped frame.
5. Glue vintage game pieces to center of pink rosettes. (not provided in kit)
6. Using a Japenese screw punch, punch holes to thread ribbon through. 
7. Thread winter white ribbon through holes. (provided in kit)
8. You're done! Now display and enjoy it throughout the holiday season! 

As you head into your weekend, be sure to visit my friend Linda's blog as she is hosting a Winter Cheer Giveaway which is starting today! Linda is super-duper creative, so anything handmade by her is going to be awesome. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

The winner is...

Shannon who posted on Dec 09 at 9:02AM! Congratulations. I will be emailing you as soon as I get this post up to get your mailing address.

(Winner was selected by entering the amount of entries into random.org, the site then randomly selected a number which I matched the the corresponding poster).

A warm thank you to each of you who posted on the Winter Cheer giveaway and shared your hobbies. It was very interesting to see what kinds of things you enjoy doing. I plan on posting a crafting project tomorrow and will be announcing Winter Cheer giveaway #3 on Monday, so be sure to check back!

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Now for a complete topic jump, I wanted to share with you a fascinating interview with one of my favorite interior decorators and photo stylist; Carrie Raphael. It can be found here at Restyled Home, an awesome home decor blog, which is published by a fellow Canadian. Carrie's work may be familiar to some of you as she has had her home featured several times in Country Living (the above photo is from one of the articles about her house) and has also styled articles and photos for them. Enjoy!  

A wee glimpse...

into my studio. This is a full shot of my inspiration board. I posted a little piece of it in the fall, and now, here's the whole thing for you. Some of my favorite things on it: some original artwork from my friends Rebecca Sower, Pam Garrison, Amy Hanna, Sally Jean, Marilyn Healey and Tracy Scheurer (of Junk 2 Jewels fame), old photos and ephemera, vintage findings, my initial...there are a few empty spaces from things I recently took down to use in artwork, but you get the overall idea.

Hope you liked this little peek into my space. I'd show you more....but then I'd have to clean it (ha ha ha!). Hopefully sooner rather than later I'll get it to a stage where I'd feel comfortable sharing it with you :)

Inspiration on the Web {No. 5}

I am certainly not the first person who fills her plate to overflowing. But I've been caught in a 2 week cycle of being severely overwhelmed - like panic mode overwhelmed. I made a huge old 'to-do' list and am feeling somewhat better as I keep crossing things off of it each day. But I wanted to give you a little idea of why I've absent for so long. Hopefully I'm on the upswing as I gradually feel more and more on top of things.

One of the things that I have been delinquent on is responding to three sweet girls who gave me the 'I love your blog' award which has been making it's way around the crafting community.

A huge ol' thank you to Jen McGuire, Beatriz Jennings and Catherine who each made my day with their siting of my blog.

The rules for the award are - (1) The winner can put the logo on their blog. (2) Link the person you received your award from. (3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (4) Put links of those on yours. (5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

So without further delay, here are a few of the blogs which I enjoy visiting (it goes without saying that I also really like the blogs listed on my sidebar...if you haven't checked them out, I invite you to do so):

• Me Ra Koh Photography blog - This blog is equal parts inspiration and tips. I've recently found her site and am hoping to take a course with her soon!
• Fresh Vintage - Colleen is funny, takes wonderful photos and is so generous to bring us along on her garage sale and junkin' trips. Pure eye candy for vintage lovin' girls.
• Velvet Strawberries - This blog is connected with a store run by vintage lovin' gal Andrea. She also posts beautiful photos.
• Robyn Werlich - I have long been an admirer of Robin's classic scrapbooking style. She is probably my favorite artist currently in the industry. She has am amazing way of working with cardstock and stamps. Seriously inspiring!
• Heather Ann Melzer - Heather and I go wayyy back in this industry. It's been such a trip to watch her change from a paper artist to a digital designer powerhouse. Her blog is full of family, home improvement projects and scrapbook ideas.
• Euro Antique Market - *sigh* If any site most exemplifies my taste in home decor, it's this blog.  The images always confirm to me that I was really meant to live in the countryside in  Europe rather than have a suburban North American existence. I also love the play list which is on the blog.
• Karen Russell - This gal has got *it*. An incredible ability to design fab scrapbooking product and a fierce, mad talent for taking everyday photos that really tell a story. She makes me want to be a better photographer and I always leave her blog feeling like I've had a visit with a friend.

Enjoy!

ps - the photo at the top is from a huge map book of Detroit which the girls (Teresa, Rebecca, Charlotte) and I bought and split while in Michigan this summer. Hoping to get that page framed soon as Rick and I have decided where we plan to put it in the house.