Christmas Tours

I have the day off work today so I decorated a bit for Christmas around my house. I wanted to take pictures, but my cheap little Nikon just doesn't do beautiful twinkle lights, candles, and glorious red, gold, black and green decoration justice. I do believe a new camera is in order... I could add it to my wish list for Santa :)

If you don't believe me about my camera skills, here's a quick peek at a project I worked on this week. A Christmas chalkboard. Please don't ask me why they are so distorted.

See, told you : )

I've been seeing many Christmas Home Tours these last couple of weeks, so I've rounded up a collection of my favorites.

First up Emily A Clark. How she manages such amazing decorating with 5 little ones running around is beyond me. I don't have any kids and I get stressed out sometimes.

I love her mix of textures, colours and patterns. They play so well with each other.

Next is Dear Lillie. Have a look at her living room decorated for Christmas. Keep in mind she's only lived in this house for a few months.

I am love with this picture from View Along The Way. The dark dramatic wall, the plant and the texture of the basket it sits in, pops of dark red... I'm in love.

This beautiful home belongs to Chris from Just A Girl. I'm partial to these pictures not only her home is fabulous, but she owns a Mastiff, and I had a Bullmastiff which we had to put down about a month ago, so I love seeing pics of her pup.

These are just a few of the amazing homes I've come across. Do you have any favorites?

Jen

Wallpaper Love

I've been keeping an eye on bathroom inspiration recently. I already have an idea of what I want my bathrooms to look like, but pinning down an idea is something that I struggle with, because honestly there is just too much to love. Here's what I'm crushing on...

Can you tell I'm totally loving wallpaper :)

I hope to add wainscoting and wallpaper to a powder room. Think chunky crown molding wouldn't hurt either.

I heard it's probably not the best idea to add wallpaper to a main bathroom, too much moisture getting in and peeling it from the wall. So I will probably just keep the wallpaper to a powder room.

I came across this wallpaper at Anthropologie and fell in love:

It's a little pricey at $148 a roll, bit if you only used it on the top half of the wall above wainscoting, it could be doable... sort of like this:

 

I think I will keep my eye out to see if it goes on sale and snatch it up if it does.

I'm loving these main baths:

What have you been crushing on lately?

Jen

Pretty Presents

I have a big family. There are 5 children within 8 years of each other. 4 girls, 1 boy and I am the youngest. Christmas was amazing every single year in my house, and one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to wrap all the gifts.

When I was young, my mom would call each of us kids individually into her bedroom to wrap one of our siblings gifts. She would wrap the paper around the present, and us kids would tape it down. It was so much fun because I got to see all the gifts that my siblings were getting, and I guess there was the anticipation of knowing that my gifts were being wrapped too. It's one of my favorite memories from Christmas as a child.

One of my favorite Christmas activities to this day is wrapping all the gifts that I bought. I lay everything out on a table to see how I need to package them all. Do I need boxes for some, bags for others, how much paper will I need to wrap everything, and what sorts of pretty details I can include on the packaging to make them look amazing.

Last year I purchased solid white wrapping paper, brown craft paper, beautiful green 2 inch ribbon and 1 inch white ribbon. I wrapped the box in the white wrap, cut a piece of brown craft paper about 3 inches wide and wrapped it around the width of the box, then on top of that I layered the 2 inch green ribbon and 1 inch white ribbon. I didn't take any pictures of my presents, but this is the inspiration picture I tried to replicate.

 

I even attached a piece of greenery like in the picture. I got a great response from everyone who received a present. No one wanted to rip it open, and that was my point. I wanted the packaging to be part of the present. And they looked great under my table top Christmas tree, I almost didn't want to give them away!

I already have most of my shopping done this year (I love getting it done early so I don't have to compete with crowds at the malls), so I think I'll start my wrapping this weekend.

Here's some inspiration I found that will get my creative juices flowing:

image from Michael Graydon.

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 unknown source. found on pinterest.

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I also found these amazing printable gift tags from Lia Griffith - here's the link if you want to print them out yourself:

 

And here they are in action:

 

 

Aren't they amazing. They will definitely be going on my presents this year!

 

Jen

Artwork

I had some free time this weekend, so I went strolling through Etsy looking for some artwork. I came across some fabulous pieces.

 

I think these would look amazing in mixed antiques gold frames. I would arrange them on a gallery wall, something like this:

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I could gaze at these all day :)

 

Enjoy!





Living Room Inspiration

I was playing around on pinterest collecting pieces of furniture and accessories that I  love for different rooms around the house. I thought I would try putting together a mood board, and jumped on youtube to see what tutorial I could find since I have never made one before. I found a good tutorial for making one on PowerPoint, and this is what I've come up with for my future living room. Now obviously, I won't be purchasing these exact items, as some of them are out of my budget, but I can certainly use this look as my inspiration.

1. West Elm

2. West Elm

3. Safavieh.com

4. Google Image

5. West Elm

6. West Elm

7. West Elm

8. West Elm

9. Good Image

10. West Elm

11. West Elm

12. amandacarolathome.com

What do you think?

Love this Blog...

Since it will still be a few months until I buy my first house, I need to live vicariously through others.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon veranda-interiors.com.  Melissa, the blogs author, is an interior designer, from Calgary, Ontario. She lives with her husband, who is a  builder, and their two sweet boys. Melissa's work really captures my style. She works with lots of whites and natural woods. High contrast, right up my ally.

Take a look at this kitchen

I can honestly say that this is my dream kitchen. Now, I don't have the budget for a kitchen like this (not even close!), but there are ways that I can duplicate the look. I want white cabinets, and I am willing to paint the oak ones, or whatever colour our future house has. An island is on my 'want' list, and I hope I end up with one. Since it's just me and my husband (we don't plan on having babies) I'd scrap the idea of a kitchen table and chairs, and have seating at an island, just like the one pictured above. It would be enough space for us to enjoy our meals.

And I am drooling over those oversized hanging lights. Amazing!

Let's have a look at a living room she designed

Built ins, check. Huge windows, check. Fireplace, check. Window seats, check. Light coloured couch with darker chairs, check and check. Yup, I think she read my mind when she was designing this space :) I would also like to add a little greenery here and there. A fiddle leaf tree would be nice by the far window, and maybe a fern on the coffee table. And of course, the big gaping whole about the fireplace would house our huge tv... this would not be my idea though, this would be the husbands choice, I mean, they do have to have some input right? If it was up to me I'd hang a large beautiful painting up there, maybe something abstract.

I have a big family. There are 15 people in just my immediate family alone, including my siblings spouses and children. So my dream would be to have a large enough dining room to accommodate everyone, but that probably won't happen. I love Melissa's dining room:

I love the dark grey walls. I think it looks so luxurious. And even though the walls are dark, the room as a whole doesn't feel dark, partly because of the white wainscoting and the large door ways that lead into the white hallways. I can't even pinpoint my favorite thing in this room... I mean look at the wainscoting, the big wood table, the chairs, the ceiling fixture...

One last peek into Melissa's designs: bathrooms. Here's a sampling of bathrooms she's designed:

There are no words. I love them all. Melissa you are my hero.

Please hop on over to veranda-interiors.com and check out all the other beautiful work that they have done.



Enjoy!

Pretty Pictures - Living rooms

I love looking around Pinterest. I get so much inspiration because there is so much eye candy out there.

Here's a list of a few living room's that have caught my eye recently...

1

2

3

4

unknown... anyone know?



 I love so many thing about all these photo's. They are light, bright and they have such a calming feeling. Nothing feels stuffy, or contrived. Just simple, and classic.

Enjoy your day!