Anthro Spree Saturday

So since I had the weekend to myself, I did some extra girlie things! I got a great facial and went shopping :-)

Find me on Polyvore

I feel like I went overboard, but the grey pants are for work and the hooks are for our new bathroom :-)

Not so bad right? Right? ;-)

It Begins!

So I'm home alone this weekend and look what I've started doing!
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

I Must (Almost) be a Homeowner...

Because I just subscribed to Toronto Life Magazine and Style at Home!! I found out that through visaperks.ca you can get pretty great deals on those so I just went for it!!

We are 2 weeks away tomorrow!! I am starting to pack this weekend - I usually pack up pretty last minute but since I have the time I'll start with the den and at least get that out of the way.

Not much else is new - banks lowered their mortgage rates by a bit so that worked in our favour. That's about all that is new!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Question for Toronto Bloggers

One more thing - when you kids moved into your place, I assume you changed your lock or had it rekeyed? Does anyone have a recommendation on how to do that? The handle on our door is pretty nice in that it matches the mail slot and age of the house so I'm not super keen on changing it with any old lock set from HD.

I've heard we can either re-key it ourselves (??) or have a locksmith come. Any recommendations/referrals?

Pillow Lovely-ness

I just found these gorgeous pillows from Crate and Barrel through the lovely Belle Maison blog:

Sigh. Aren't they lovely?! Not sure if or where they would work in our place, but I'll have to keep them in mind!!

Dining Room Furniture - Done!!

So we went back this weekend and made the leap and ordered our dining room furniture!! We ended up going with pretty much this set, however we are going in a darker stain (more like a dark brown - less red colour) and they are custom making the chairs to have pop out seat cushions so we can re-upholster them ourselves should we decide to down the road.

The colour of the fabric for the seat is similar, but in a chenille as opposed to the microfibre. Originally, we were going to go with the "Logan" style chair (one big X on the back) but it was a tad small and when the chairs were pushed in (or being sat on for that matter) you couldn't see the X. This one gives a bit more design when just sitting there I think. We went with all arm-less chairs for the time being - figured that down the road we can add something fun to the ends if we need two more chairs, but it will be hard to order 2 more armless.

We also ordered the sideboard which was the true 'must have' for us as all of our beautiful china is sitting in a box :-(

It is a relatively traditional looking set, but I figure with a modern light fixture (maybe) we can mix it up. Ideas?

We should receive everything mid November so there is something major to look forward too!

Moving To Do List

Okay so since I am off work today recovering from a migraine, I thought I would reconsider our to do list before the move.

Find and buy house

Change address with Canada Post

Get a lawyer

Start throwing stuff out

Buy boxes/Find free ones on craigslist

Change addresses with credit cards, OHIP, drivers license etc.

Purchase new couches

Get a new bed

Purchase new linens for new bed

Rent moving truck

Cancel utilities at condo

Organize insurance for new place

Get amazing design ideas from Mrs. Limestone for master bedroom

Keep eye out for patio furniture on sale

Set up appointment to move cable

Think about security system. Thoughts?

If you have other ideas, please comment and let me know and I will add them to the list. I'm sure I'm missing a zillion things (even stuff I've already done!).

I am a lucky girl!!

So over the past 2 years, I have used the internet for a lot of things but by far the most time consuming tasks have been planning my wedding and buying a house. I've been really fortunate to get a lot of great ideas and find a bunch of great deals, but it is "meeting" people like Mrs. Limestone that makes me feel so lucky with my internet finds.

For those of you who don't know, Mrs. Limestone is a talented designer/renovator/blogger from NY who renovated her home from top to bottom, keeping many of the original details intact.

She also generously offers her design services/ideas for FREE to random people like ME. Seriously.

I sent her an email a few days ago asking for ideas on the master bedroom and in all of one day, this is what she sent me:

How gorgeous is her mock up? I love what she suggested for the alcove behind the bed - it is strangely asymetrical and the fabric draping actually makes the most of it!

I have already started looking into how to bring her ideas to life and can't wait to post an "after" photo!!

Thanks to Mrs. Limestone for her talent and generosity!

Dining Room Furniture Fun!

So still not much else new to post about. We are just under a month away and starting to get impatient!!

We have been looking for a dining room set recently. We currently have a table that was my grandmother's and 4 chairs so we are not urgently looking for something, but we do need somewhere to put our china and I don't want to get a sideboard that doesn't match a set, so hence why we've been looking for the set too :-)

We found this place on craigstlist that is local, and she imports custom furniture from Indonesia. We can find a picture of what we want and they will make it. The shipping time is long, but the savings are pretty substantial so it might be worth it.

Here is one of two tables we are considering:

It is a copy of a Restoration Hardware table. This one was in the sellers house when we got there so we could actually see/feel the quality.

The other style we are considering is this one (but with the top of the first one):

Exciting eh? Hard to decide - not sure what will work with the style of the room:

Dining Room Picture

One more

Any suggestions?

So this time next month...

We'll be homeowners! We'll be card carrying members of that club that gives you the excuse to go to Home Depot every weekend, to spend your evenings and holidays working on 'projects' around the house, and to actually have holiday meals for the family!

Holy sh*t!!!

So we've arranged to have our cable moved (thanks Rogers for FINALLY making something easy and free!!**) but are holding out on the internet because hubs is convinced we can get free internet there. We'll see about that!

Insurance has been arranged (and yes, houses built in 1905 are more expensive to insure than you'd expect!) and just have to get the info to the lawyer.

Our new mattress (yahoo for KING SIZE!) will be arriving sort of near the move in date and the couches should be ready around then too (maybe a week or 2 late). So not bad!!

I have started throwing some stuff out to get ready for packing but need to get some boxes and will eventually get moving on that. Any ideas of how far in advance we should start packing?

T-35 days

Not much else is new these days with the house. We have been hunting for a bbq and reasonably priced patio furniture but that is about it. We are T-35 days to closing - that is FAST!

Between now and then we need to change a few addresses, start throwing things out and find some boxes to start packing! Holy crap!!

In more exciting news, I bought a new hair straightener yesterday!!! I have been a loyal CHI devotee for years now but kept hearing good things about the GHD. Only thing is the GHD is pretty darn expensive!!

So I sold my CHI on Craigslist and went to Sephora with my 10% off discount and bought it!! (yes, usually I like to scour for a better deal online, but there are tonnes of fakes out there and I thought I should play it safe!).

I LOVE it!! My hair is way straighter than the CHI ever made it!! I'm so happy with my new straightener! It claims it can curl but I can't figure that out even after watching a million you tube videos. Le sigh.

Ah well - straight works :-)

One more colour option

I found this picture on the Canadian House and Home magazine's website - it might be our perfect master bedroom gray!!

It is Farrow and Ball's "Charleston Gray". Isn't it lovely? Only weird thing is the colour chip from F&B looks nothing like this picture. I'll have to bite the bullet and get a sample pot I think before shelling out the big bucks for this fancy shmancy paint. But oh, isn't it purdy?

Picking paint colours

So I know we aren't supposed to be rushing into painting etc as we don't even have the house yet, but about5 days after moving in hubs and I are going on a holiday (clearly booked pre-house). While we are away, my parents are staying at the house and have graciously offered to paint the master bedroom! We are pretty lucky :-)

We are thinking of Abalone from Benjamin Moore for the hallway (photo from the amazing brooklynlimestone.com :

We are thinking going with a dark grey for the master bedroom - there is a lot of white trim and windows in the room, so I dont think it will overpower or anything. We also love light linens so it should work. This is Chelsea Gray from Benjamin Moore:

And I think Silver Fox for the living room (eventually):

Picture