Chandeliers

I have been collecting old jewelry, mardi gras beads, shells, sea glass, broken tea cups and more so that I could make great looking chandeliers for my home out of driftwood and other cool electrical finds at garage sales. Everyone sort of laughs at me but I felt vindicated when I found a blog with Madelaine who actually has a business doing this.  Go check it out it is so cool.

Anthropologie

I love the details inspired by India in the Anthropologie collection!

I love ruffles!

Pictures from Anthropologie.

I would like to crawl into bed right now with a cup of tea and a book these look perfect for me!

AUTISMO - Handica Festival Mon petit frère de la lune di Frédéric Philibert

I love this video sooo much. It touches me each time I watch it I cry. You can find it on youtube and get it translated if you don't understand French. To share for all big and little sisters and brothers of kids in the autism spectrum.

Wander & Wonder

 I find myself feeling extremely ambivalent about these photographs.

I love them. The background is so beautiful and mysterious and I love the colors but some of the children look sort of afraid and alone and cold to me.

The dark imagery makes me feel like something horrible will happen very soon.

There is no doubt that Melbourne photographer Jeremy Blincoe is gifted and this is part of his series "Wander and Wonder".

These photographs are so original I've seen very few photos with this fairytale feel before. 

At the same time I just can't help but feel like hugging these kids and bringing them somewhere warm.

What do you think?

Simpler more minimalist



I have been searching for a plainer background to my blog. I haven't been successful yet. I just can't do it. I was thinking that ,maybe just maybe, my background needs to be more "MATURE" or something. I know I am almost "hem hem" fty(YES this is on purpose to confuse you)  something but I still can't resist cute things. Upon reflection and much frustration playing with templates I realised that this is just like the tug and pull I experience around my home. I love modern and simple with all the "victorian/shabby/fairytale/airy /vibrant colours and pastels"  to add my own style in the details but I end up with a mish mash of styles for two reasons. One of them being that I often can't afford to do what I want to do with the space or I just won't venture yet because I don't know how or have the time. Second I have alot of beautiful things that I adore and they are either too sentimental and I just can't get rid of them yet. To keep my rooms spare and airy I constantly have to be giving things away and one or more rooms end up being crammed with stuff that I haven't found a suitable home for yet. To illustrate here are a few pictures. I want a kitchen like this:

But end up with a kitchen like this still cute but more raggedy and cluttered.





 

OHHHHHHHHH sweet paul magazine

I have just discovered this online magazine sweet paul and it has stunning photos and all kinds of interesting recipes and crafts. I love it! It is perfect for the holidays or not. It is just plain gorgeous and inspiring.

Beautiful Sheds PART II



 copyright light locations cottage on the Isle of Wight



 copyright light locations cottage on the Isle of Wight



copyright light locations cottage on the Isle of Wight



copyright light locations cottage on the Isle of Wight



copyright light locations cottage on the Isle of Wight

House of turquoise Erin featured this gem on her blog last summer. This is a cottage that you can find in the quirky locations at the gorgeous website light locations but it's the size of a shed so I put it in my ongoing series on sheds because I LOVE IT!! For more pictures on this you must visit light locations. I'm serious! The quirky locations is my favorite section there are many treasures and inspiring places there. 

Pier 1

I have a nineteen year old daughter, she is a gorgeous person inside and out.  I know I know... I know that anyone with kids can say that about theirs and mean it. I know that there is nothing special about that but but but...every mother child relationship goes through it's ups and downs and each person's relationship with each child is UNIQUE even though most of the time parents love their kids and think they are wonderful there are differences.

In my case I was forced to grow up with my daughter. I was nineteen when I got pregnant. I got married on the 2nd of March, turned 20 on the 2nd of May and had my big blue eyed baby on the 2nd of August.

I had many ideas about motherhood but not one of them was feeling so frazzled sometimes that I felt like throwing her out the window to stop her crying. This made me very ashamed and sad but we got through it and I never even opened the window except to take deep breaths.

When she was five I took her to ballet. When she was six to hip hop dance. When she was seven I took her to hockey. By then I was a single mom with no car so I had to walk or take the bus to the arena with her hockey bag in tow at least twice a week but I did it with pride. She played hockey for three years, during that time her brother was born and we kept it up, along with circus school and highland dancing.

Sometimes it was so hard and I would be walking behind her watching her and feeling all kinds of pressures. You know the usual financial pressures I would think to myself how am I going to pay the rent, get groceries, how will I pay the school fees you get the picture.

 I would look at my healthy solid little girl and feel like no matter what everything was well with the world and that I could make anything work and I had no choice but to make everything work because I had this beautiful girl.

Of course I am not perfect and sometimes I was mean and I yelled. I am not pretending that things weren't hard and that I sometimes didn't despair and if it weren't for lots of help from my friends and family I don't know what we would have done.

All I am trying to say is that because I was a mother of this child that particular one who is so special to me and that I saw a bit of myself in...

I was able for the first time in a long time to see myself as beautiful and worthy.

  She forced me to become a better person. She taught me to deal with stress because I couldn't let her feel it. She inspired me to be a happy person because I was a role model for her and I knew that what I said had so much less impact than what I did. She taught me to stand up for myself and take good care of myself so that she could benefit from that too.

I just love her so much and it is so rewarding. I know that my being a mother to her will never end but it's alot less work than it has been and I can enjoy her from afar. I'm not the one that she turns to as much anymore unless it's serious she has her friends for that but she still likes me and wants me around.

Yesterday she wanted me to come see her at work and GET THIS me being a design obsessed WOMAN guess where my daughter has worked for the past 3 years Pier 1. I have been going to Pier 1 since it opened. I bought my clothes there when I was sixteen and I still have the paisley purple dress I got there that I wore when I was pregnant with her.

I told her I might go see the new Christmas stuff but she kept pushing and pushing so I may have inadvertently said I would go just to make her stop but I got too busy during the day to go. When she came home she said she told everyone I would go that day and I ditched her so I apologised for the misunderstanding and she could tell I felt bad.

To make me feel better she said: "It's okay Mom Alex (her manager) says that for a mom you love me way more than any other normal mom loves her kid" I laughed but I was really touched by that.

As I said earlier I know that there is nothing special about me and that  most of the time parents love their kids ALOT and think they are wonderful but but but...every mother child relationship goes through it's ups and downs and each person's relationship with each child is UNIQUE!

Love you sweetheart
Your Mom xoxo

Beautiful Sheds PART I

Shed: a small structure, either freestanding or attached to a larger structure, serving for storage or shelter. 

I NEED ONE!!

Where I live it snows and soon on our bikes, lawnmower and other odds and ends will be hidden accidents waiting to happen.

When my partner thinks of a shed he thinks of something simple and practical. Like this...





 

When I think of a shed I have all kinds of fantasies.






Photo from Christina Strutt's new book: "At Home with Country" and founder of lifestyle firm Cabbages and Roses 

    




  When I saw this hunting cabin on beach bungalow 8 I was so inspired by the possibilities.

Sandra Foster was featured in the New York Times for more just visit link provided.




Photography by Trevor Tondro

 

 She found this little hunting shed across the creek on her land in the Catskills and turned it into a "Shabby chic retreat".

Sandra replaced the logs for porch roof with columns and brackets. She installed wavy glass windows which I adore!

She did all the carpentry herself and has all sorts of hidden secrets like the stair above which hides an old drawer for storage.

The buffet was created by making hand made shelves and installing French doors from a yard sale.

White makes everything look fluffy and beautiful!



For more pictures visit link



Thank you for sharing this Beach Bungalow 8!



 

Winter

I have been really busy lately. Not too busy to realise that we have been so lucky lately because the weather has been warm and we were close to the end of November which is rare here. Just too busy to write.

 I have taken on a new project! I will hopefully (if I complete my training successfully)  be volunteering four hours a week at suicide hotline for the next seven months and I am really inspired.

Due to this new endeavor two of my last  three weekends have been spent training from nine to five learning the proper phone techniques to make me a helpful volunteer. This has meant that at no time has there been the option to even approach a computer unless I'm at work.

Sometimes when all my work is done in between phone calls there is time and I will try to write a little but lately all my efforts have been interrupted by a constant stream of phone calls. It is my job to answer those calls after all so I don't let my writing get in the way of that either.


Sadly I have been working on a gorgeous post about sheds and preparing for winter with beautiful pictures which is almost ready but I didn't get it posted yet and in the meantime WINTER ARRIVED.

Friday morning after twelve days of getting downtown by nine am every single day either for training with the volunteer group or going to work and feeling pretty tired I was in a good mood thinking it's Friday one more day and I'll be able to rest finally.

I walked very quickly down the little hill that leads to my driveway thinking: " Oh it's pretty mild out. It's raining again that's good. Why is the grass crunchy then, hmmmm, strange" but just kept my pace.

When I put my right foot onto my driveway I realized why the grass was crunchy but it was too late. I was already defying gravity and landed splat on my BUM HARD!!

I tried to get up with some dignity on my feet but the fact that the thin sheet of black ice was slick from the rain made that impossible. I just know I looked like a looney tunes cartoon perpetually slipping so I had to think of an alternate plan.

I had a bus to catch so portable coffee cup in hand the right side up now but much lighter since most of it had been absorbed into my clothes I scooted on my bum to the edge of the driveway and slid into the ditch with some difficulty.

My dress and leggings were not only soaked until noon but I was still picking dead grass and leaf bits off my clothes until about three pm. I survived my day at work without incident and called my partner and told him which train I would catch and that it wasn't necessary to come pick me up I'd catch the bus.

I got to the train stop just before mine and thought wow I did it I'm almost home and settled comfortably in my seat for the last leg of my journey and I FELL ASLEEP!!

I slept right through my stop and woke up at the next one just in time to get to the door. The door was making the warning beep it makes just before closing when I realized I wasn't at the right stop.

I thought: "Where am I? I never saw this stop before? Should I get off here? Maybe I was mistaken and we weren't close to home?"  I had to think fast even though it all felt like a dream.

I read the sign and realised that I was at the next stop so I jumped off the train quickly.  I walked out all tired and sleepy into an arctic wind and realized for the second time WINTER IS HERE.

I called my partner to pick me up and I had a warm and wonderful dinner made especially good because he made it and it was cold outside and went to bed.

When I woke up it was snowing... THAT'S IT THERE IS NO DENYING IN WINTER IS REALLY HERE!

RAINBOW PARTIES

Over the past few months reading all these amazing and inspiring blogs I have realised that one of my favourite things to do is look at all the beautiful pictures. When I saw this rainbow party by Clare one of the ladies at mondocherry I thought of one person my stepdaughter.

She is like a little piece of rainbow. She is mostly sunshine and from what I understand from all the stories about the past she has always been obsessed with rainbows.




Rainbow skirt courtesy of Siobhan from hip Hooray

 She is crafty and gets really excited about little things.

 She challenges me and accepts me completely

We are a what you would call a blended family and we have not always had an easy time of it but we all love eachother very much and find great pleasure in getting to know eachother.

I count myself lucky to not only have two of my own kids but I am blessed with 2 beautiful girls that my handsome partner had in a previous relationship.

I invite you to join me in the cyber rainbow party in her honor.

Cheers to you kid with love from your stepmom (for lack of a better word). I wish we could find another better word for stepmom. I mean what does that even mean STEP??!)





 Party favors!

  So what will  you be asking me to make with you when you see this?



 As seen on Brown Button made by Holly!



Will you want to make party favors?

Will you want to bake a cake?

Or decorate? You let me know sweety it is your day! Happy Birthday!

Brilliant days



Autumn Sky



Some days are just glorious.



In the train on my way to work



You don't know why everything feels so good there isn't anything special it is just a coincidence.



The sun is rising



You feel like nothing bothers you, you bump into an old friend and even though you don't have time to stop and talk and you haven't seen eachother in several years the good feelings are mutual and you feel uplifted.



Forgive the quality of these pictures I was in a moving train



The light is gorgeous the air is sweet, luscious and it smells good.



Going over the bridge



These days make all the other days that meld into one another worth it. Everything tingles and you feel lucky to be alive.

I feel that way alot in the fall because of the amazing skies there is something about the light in the fall which is like nothing else all year.