Guest Bedroom Makeover: Dank to Dreamy

My strategy for decorating this house is to start with the worst first!
Considering that we are going to have guests in Chez Wheele in about 20 days, the basement guest room became priority.

Here is a reminder of what it looked like before. Oooh, sexy crushed red velvet... Barf.

And this is what it looks like after!

Holiday Wrapping: Brown Paper

Wrapping gifts can get a little boring with usual wrapping paper.
This year, I decided to use a boring brown paper and embellish it.

DIY Shade: Black Out Beaver

"Black Out Beaver"? It made you nervous, didn't it? Ha!

Okay, don't fret... it is all innocent.

Millie's nursery is fantastically light filled. I love that I rarely have to turn on the light in there.
Having said that, we are going to be moving Millie into her room, and out of ours. With summer days lasting much longer, the amount of light filling that room becomes a problem.

Solution - Blackout panel.
I decided to make a super easy black-out panel using items I already had:
An old airline blanket and canvas.

I cut them both to the size of the window, and stitched them together.
Easy.

Canadiana: The Nursery

With our wee Millie having been born we decided that perhaps we should find a better place for her to sleep than the bottom drawer of a bureau. :)

SOOOO, we set to turning our storage room into a nursery.
I can't find a single before photo... mostly because I am forgetful.
I think they call that baby brain.

We used a small chalk board for the door, just so Millie knows that this is her 'crib'... ha... get it... crib. It is both gangsta' and accurate at the same time. Thanks to hubby for his fondness of puns.

Canadian Cabin Nursery: Chair & Pillow

If I hadn't mentioned it before, our nursery theme is Canadian Cabin.
I figure it works if it is a boy or a girl!

Unnecessary Junking: Pakenham

It has been a while since my last blog post.
This new job has me staying much later, but is so much more gratifying than my last.
All that to say, that by the time I get home, walk the dog and eat... there is no time or daylight left to do anything outside.

Poo.

Shopping Eco-Friendly in Ottawa: Terra 20

I am sad to report that this past weekend was the first time I went into Terra 20.

What is Terra 20, you ask? Well, I asked too, and essentially it is an eco-friendly department store.

And, it totally is; it is huge, and it is inspiring.

Much of the product is locally sourced too, which is fantastic.

This is just inside the entrance; a glass waterfall fountain.

So far so good!

Unnecessary Junking: Kingston, Ontario

A few weeks ago, I went to Kingston to visit my husband who was there for a week long stay. Kingston is a super cute city with a lot of heritage. In fact, Kingston used to be Canada's capital before Ottawa was named as such.

Anyway, the hotel that Hubby was staying in was directly across the street from this Antique/Flea Market.
Yes, I know people... this does spell disaster for a chronic thrift-er like me.

These photos really don't show how huge it was - there were several barns to go through.

These were the two main buildings that greeted you from the highway.

Junking: Unneccesary Items

Okay, as you know from yesterday's post photos, I went to the McHaffie Flea Market in Morrisburg yesterday. As promised, here is what I actually brought home:

Lets start with the usual... I am always looking for a good cloche.... and, I found one.
I have big plans for this that include Jay & Silent Bob... more on that later. $3.

McHaffie Flea Market: Morrisburg

We just had an amazing junking trip to the McHaffie Flea Market today!
This was my first time to this one, which has not only an average size outdoor section, but also has an incredibly expansive indoor section.

Today's post will be mostly photographic in nature - I managed to get a few good pictures that show the wide diversity of items that we came across.

CARS! Looks like there are some red-lines in there.

Renovation: Victorian in Powell River

A few years ago, I was visiting my parents in Powell River. Their friend, Victoria, lived across the street, and was renovating a home exactly like their house. The area is called, 'the Old Townsite', and the style of home is found throughout the area. According to the Powell River Historical Site, this architecture was defined as 'the street facing gable'.

There is a fairly good chance that the second house in this photograph is my parents home, about 100 years ago. My Mom can confirm...

This house, however, is absolutely the one across the street.
Victoria and Steve had passed by this house many times, always feeling that one day they would buy it and renovate. One day, it went up for sale, and so they seized the opportunity. Of course, this is not the condition that the house was in the day they bought it...

Bench Reveal: Phoning It In

I picked up a great telephone bench (2 actually) and i have finally gotten around to re-furbishing it.
I found it at VV boutique - Value Village to those not in the know - along with all of these items.

Funnily enough, I did this project today, not because I was dying to do the telephone bench... (which I was) but more because I have been in an incredible picture framing mood. One of the items I framed recently was this huge rock band poster. It deserved to be framed simply because it comes with a great story.

Junking: The 3 Week Binge

3 weekends of junking in a row!
My hubby, myself and our friend (who showed us a whole whack of junk shops that we had not yet discovered) went junking 2 weeks in a row, followed by another with just my hubby and me.

This is a piece that will certainly need some work, but I have big plans for it.
The artwork inside is garbage, but that isn't why I bought it.