Browsing Tag

home

Non Lingerie Related Things I Love

Anxiety, Home, Personal October 9, 2016

Jeez Louise… I keep saying “I will blog more. I will blog more.” Then I think about blogging and I seize. Blogging/writing is one of the things that anxiety has taken from me. I’m trying to reclaim it, but also trying to accept that it takes some baby steps. It’s funny, because on here I’ve always been somewhat of an open book. I believe in the power of sharing experiences, good or bad, but over the last two years, it’s become so hard. I’m not sure when or why it happened exactly but that nagging voice in the back of my head saying “no one cares. you can’t do it. you are a failure” started to take over. Ridiculous because rationally I look at what I have achieved and I am proud, but in my mind, nothing is ever good enough. There is not a point with my business where I feel I could look back and say “there. I’ve done good.” Or a point with my physical self where I could say “ok, I’m thin enough/fit enough/healthy enough.” Anxiety is not about rationality though. What a difficult thing to grapple with as someone who values evidence based thinking and rationality!

Needless to say I’ve been dealing with a lot over the last few months. Learning how to re-train my brain into more productive modes of thinking and dealing with some difficult things from the past has been rewarding and a huge challenge. On one hand I feel happy I am doing this. I want to be a good example for Isabel. Sometimes our thinking needs a facelift, and it’s ok to seek out help if you can’t do it on your own. I am a huge believer in continual self-improvement. On the other hand, it would be so much easier to stick with the status quo…

Work has slowed down somewhat over the last few months, mostly because I haven’t been adding anything new or updating any of my shops. I plan to do so soon… when I’m ready.

Mostly I’ve been working on sewing that I want to do, fixing up our house, running, and trying to stay sane. I had a lot of work opportunities that fell through in the last 6 months which were hugely disappointing (including a book. PS If you are a publisher or literary agent, I want to write a book. Contact me!). I found I was wrapping myself up entirely in my work and the disappointments felt overwhelming because I didn’t have anything else going on. I think this happens a lot with our careers, it becomes our identity. So, I’ve been broadening my horizons again.

I ran my first 5k race! Here I am with pig-tails a-bouncing with my beautiful cousin Pam. She makes it look easy! It was really fun and I felt so accomplished once I passed the finish line! I remember Pam saying “Ok you can stop running now.” Ha! It was a very hilly route which was a challenge for me.

2016-09-24 | 2016 Muskoka Brewery 5k

I also have taken on a bunch of projects around the house, because fixing up this house is my dream. I re-pointed the fire place, I repaired a water damaged wall. I patched so much old plaster. I sanded. I painted. I worked my butt off.

boutique

img_3034

This room is going to become an office/sewing room. It is so bright and airy feeling now. I’m just saving up my pennies to put in a big long desk with lots of file storage. For now, it’s a great place to do yoga and store my plants. I currently have my sewing area set up in the basement, which is nice because there is lots of space, but lets face it, basements aren’t the nicest place to spend your time… at least not mine!

img_2726

img_3035

This room was the scariest in the house because there had been water damage and we had to do some exterior repair in this area of the house too. It has been kind of a “make-do” project because eventually I would like to tear out this fireplace surround, but for now, I’m absolutely happy with the results and it is nice to have a big, bright living room to spend our time in. Previous to getting this room done, we had set up in a spare bedroom. Dan built and installed all of those floating shelves. The room still needs art, especially something big and impactful over the fireplace, but I’m not really sure what I want there yet.

I am loving this house because I have the space to display all of the things I love. I have lots of little knick knacks that remind me of this or that… things from our grandparents, things we have made, things we picked up at junk shops. Our house is filled with hand me downs and even random things picked up from the side of the road.  I love that.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. We had our first family get together yesterday at our house, and will be enjoying a turkey dinner with all of the fixings tonight. Isabel’s birthday is also coming up. I can’t believe she will be 2 already. And, of course Halloween is on it’s way which means I have costumes on the mind…

I really hope to spend more time on here. I spent a lot of time, energy, and money getting my new blog set up. Now I just have to start using it!

 

Making Do with Ugly Tile

Home May 9, 2016
Green.
This house has a lot of green.
Deep, forest green.
So, as I mentioned in my last house post, Dan and I are prettying up the inside of our 1930’s beauty on a shoestring budget. That means for the time being we’re focusing mostly on paint, window coverings, lighting etc, while we do some more important structural work to the house. If money weren’t an issue, I’d gladly replace all this tile with something a little more neutral, but for now we have to make some of the more permanent fixtures work.
The purple wall colour really made the green pop.
Hi kitty!

This is our main bath. On one hand it is amazing. There is so much space, and if you know me, you know I love to bath. Baths are my thing, so a room that is almost entirely bathtub is pretty amazing. Before you say “but doesn’t it cost a fortune to fill?” we pay a set charge for up to a certain amount of water, and we never go over that amount, so other than the awful environmental impact of using so much water, it’s not a huge money drainer. That being said, eventually we’ll put in a more reasonable sized tub…. for now, I’m enjoying swimming laps during my evening bubble bath.

This room also has a shower and a sink. There is a small powder room just off of it. To me, it’s a little strange that there is no toilet in here, but also kind of nice.

This room also doubles as a laundry room. It is just off of our family room which is super convenient when I’m watching Isabel and doing laundry. The washer and dryer are currently housed behind glass sliding doors (just to reflect more of that green tile, I swear), and I hope to replace those with some sliding barn doors.

The green marble tile is a challenge. However, I don’t hate it the way I hated the yellowy-gold floral tile in my old bathroom. This tile is new-ish, it’s clean, and now that my walls are painted bright white, it almost takes on a black-ish shade. Painting out all of the oak trim really helped to neutralize the room.

Kitty is showing off our pretty stained glass windows.

Yup, even the top of the vanity got tiled.

I’m exceptionally happy with how this room looks now. It has some nice fixtures, like the big tub and steam shower, but the tile is definitely not my taste. I’m happy with how the white paint has toned everything down and will be content living with this room as is for the next several years. I would eventually like to remove all the tile and replace it with something more neutral, install a toilet and new tiled shower and vanity. The room itself is huge, and I believe it used to be a bedroom, so there is so much opportunity to have a super amazing bathroom in here.

Some people had suggested I paint the tile, but there is so much tile in here, I’d worry about it scratching or scuffing. While I’m not loving the colour of the tile itself, scratched or scuffed tile would bother me even more. For me, as long as things are clean and in good shape, I can usually survive with something a little less fashionable.

The small powder room next door to this room also has some questionable tile – mauvy purple with flowers. It’s on my fall to-do list… one room at a time.

Updating our 1930’s kitchen.

Home May 4, 2016
The kitchen in our new house was in pretty rough shape when we first saw the house. There had been some water damage across an exterior wall (which has since been repaired) which was torn down to the studs, and the flooring was starting to come up due to it’s age. There is still a lot  that I would like to do (new appliances, new countertop), but for now we’ve tidied it up with some paint, lighting and flooring on a pretty tight budget. I really love this room now. We have so much more counter space for preparing meals, and there is even a little breakfast nook (which we have yet to furnish!).

Our sunny kitchen window.

Buying the house and doing the major repairs, like replacing the furnace and taking down the chimney, sucked up a lot of our resources. We didn’t want to get into any debt prettying up the place, so we’ve chosen projects that we could DIY.  We removed all of the cupboard doors,  removed the antique hardware, filled  the holes and sanded them down, then painted our cupboards in a two-tone colour scheme with white up top and grey-ish blue down below. We took a lot more time and care painting our cupboards this time around than we did in our old house. Let me tell you, painting cupboards is an ordeal. It is not a quick and easy project. It is long, annoying, and grueling. Be prepared to have your canned goods and dishes strewn throughout the house for weeks.

One of the most annoying parts of the paint-job was that the hinges had been painted over. We had to chip away the paint in order to fit a screwdriver into the screws. That alone took us a day, at least…
We replaced all of the vintage red hardware with new chrome cup pulls and knobs from ikea. We also had to replace the hinges. Hardware adds up, but it made a bit change.
We replaced a small piece of the countertop over the dishwasher. It wasn’t even really made of countertop material, just some plywood with old tile on it. My parents recently renovated their kitchen and had a piece of wood countertop left over from their island they installed, so we were able to get that for free! I would like to eventually replace the rest of the countertops with the same, and tile the backsplash. I’m particularly proud of this little piece of countertop because I personally demo’d it. That sucker was screwed it good.

A little built-in in our breakfast nook

One of the things I’ve had the hardest time adapting to is our new range. First thing, just look at it. How the heck do you use that thing? I actually had to read the manual. Second, it’s a gas cook top. I’ve only ever cooked on electric, and as a result burned ever grilled cheese sandwich I made for the first two months living here.  At first I really did not like this range, but it’s really grown on me!

I really agonized over the flooring for this room. The rest of this house has hardwood (except for the extensively tiled bathrooms). I had originally envisioned tile, but we are dealing with a pretty lumpy floor and did not want to get into a new subfloor. We ended up choosing vinyl plank flooring, which was easy to install and is really easy to maintain. Dan and I are getting really good at laying quarter round.

A little place to hang our hats.

 I am happy to have kept many of the original features of the house, like the tall cupboards, but am glad it has a more updated look.  I’m also really happy the work is done (though I just remembered we still have to paint the trim… ugh).

I keep thinking back to our little apartment we shared in Orillia. We literally had one little block of counter space, which was usually filled with dirty dishes.  Now it feels like we have so much room. The four of us (don’t forget Oliver!) can be in here comfortably with room to spare, and Dan takes up a lot of space so that’s saying something! (Love you, Dan, but you are super tall)

Getting (more) settled

Uncategorized February 12, 2016

I’m really starting to feel at home in the new house and I am really loving our new community! It is so welcoming and so very quiet.

We’re slowly working on re-doing the kitchen right now. It’s got the original cabinets, counters and floors. We’re currently waiting on our new flooring to arrive. I can’t wait to get it put down. Our current tile is in rough condition, looks terrible, and is impossible to clean. And as anyone who has bought and renovated an old house, old tile can be made of scary things. I just want it gone.

We had a very hard time deciding what to do about the flooring and eventually decided on vinyl planks. Let’s face it, the carrara marble I really wanted just isn’t in the budget right now (hah! the handmade lingerie business is not that lucrative).  Our house is older and has some lumpy floors and we didn’t want to have to go through the trouble or laying a new subfloor right now, so I think the vinyl will be a cost-effective, durable, and easy way to spruce the place up.

Right now, we’re (actually I am) painting our cabinets, adding new hardware and changing out old light fixtures.  It’s looking good, but the process is so slow. Painting cabinets is so much cheaper than buying new ones, but it isn’t a quick weekend project. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar, plain and simple!! It is a process of removing hardware, washing with TSP, sanding, priming, painting, then waiting several days for the paint to cure. Of course, all of our hardware had years of paint build up on them. If you are going to paint cabinets, please, please, please, remove the hardware first!

If you plan on painting cabinets, prepare for weeks of total chaos

 It’s coming together though! I’ve polished up the old chrome trim along the counter top and we painted the ceiling too.

I’m currently on the look out for some art for the breakfast nook and something interesting to display on the glass shelves in the window above the sink. At my grandmas house she had pretty glass perfume bottles that looked so beautiful in the sunlight. I was thinking of trying to find some antique glass bottles, or possibly some pretty rocks and crystals. I don’t think I’ve ever brought this up before, but I love rocks! Not in a “crystal healing” way but in a “geology is awesome” way. 
I’ve also been working hard trying to clean up our old Heartland Stove. It was/is very, very dirty. I’m very conflicted about this range. I’m sure it was expensive when it was purchased. It is very small. I like the gas cook top (though I burned every grilled cheese I made for the first month). I don’t like the empty space above it.  I miss my old stainless steel, brand new appliances… but I’m getting used to it and I’m really trying to love this stove. I’m struggling trying to figure out how to dress up the space around it. The “hall” to the right of it is a fairly large open space.  We’ve put an Ikea island there for now and plan on putting some shelving above it… Does anyone else have one of these repro ranges? How did you style it? I’m not digging it’s location but it’s the only place that has a gas hook-up.

This house purchase was so stressful and seemed to go on for ages. I can’t remember if I mentioned that when we moved in the previous owner had left so many of their belongings behind – dishes were still in the cupboards, items still in the storage areas, and below our deck is absolutely full of old garbage. We had written a condition in the purchase agreement that the house was to be left empty and “broom” swept. When we received it there was broken glass all over the basement floor, and the front door lock had completely fallen out of the door (hah!). We were told on closing day, by our lawyers office that the previous owner was having a cleaning crew come in that morning, which obviously never happened. We were pretty annoyed to hear that the only recourse was small claims court to cover the cost of junk removal despite the fact that it was in our contract. Our lawyer advised us that it probably wasn’t worth our time pursue. Then just a week ago, I got a random call from our lawyer letting us know they had made an error in calculating our land transfer tax and we immediately owed $700. It was just that one last thing that pushed me over the dissatisfaction edge.

Overall, I was very happy with how the sale of our house went – we left our house mopped, clean and completely vacant, save for a bit of extra flooring and paint. The purchase on the other hand just left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m still happy with the house and am having a lot of fun working on it (dream come true), I always just have a hard time when people don’t follow through on things they say they would do. I always feel like I’m the nice guy who just let’s things slide, but end up with the short end of the stick. I keep reflecting back on how I could have prevented these things, but I guess that’s just the way things go sometimes!

Gardens!

Uncategorized May 23, 2012

I never, in my life, thought this house could look so neat and tidy.  Dan and I used to drive past this house on our way to work every day and I never gave it a second glance.  Now with some paint, new gardens, GRASS, and a new apple tree, it’s looking pretty darn good.

As a testament to how much Dan loves me, he dug through our very compacted gravel drive way so I could have a garden on the right side of our front stairs.  Previous to this, the gravel went right up to the stoop there.  Here’s a reminder of what our house looked like about 2 months ago:

Welcome to bores-ville!

My mom and I went out flower shopping on Saturday morning.  We each got a rhododendron, and I got a hydrangea, some veggie plants, and a bunch of annuals. We broke up some hostas and lilies from my mom’s  gardens and planted them here as well.  Dan and I also planted an apple tree at the front of our property! We have a crab apple tree in the back, so we just might get apples one of these days.

House stuff…

Uncategorized April 29, 2012

 After we moved into our house, we noticed something funny about all of the doors… at some point, all three of them had been broken into. As a result, someone had locked up the (broken) doors tighter than fort knox.  Our beautiful, 1920’s front door is split down the centre (I have patched with wood filler for the time being), and has a gigantic deadbolt screwed to it, the other side notched out of our lovely moulding.

Our side entrance, which we use most often was nothing more than an interior door with a bathroom-style lock on it.  Today my dad came in and with the help of my brother and Dan, switched out the side door with this lovely new door, which now allows some nice light to come in to the side entry way, so I will be able to see in there in the mornings.  We still have lots of work to do around there, and I will paint and put up shelves in the near future, but the new door is making a big difference.

This morning, I crawled around in the attic checking out the wiring and insulation.  As you may remember, we had out of date, knob and tube wiring through our basement and main floor which as been switched.  We were afraid we would find the same up stairs.  Luckily, it has been updated, and we can now blow insulation into our walls.  There is absolutely none in there now!  We did learn that behind the wood panelling in our front entry and hallway upstairs, is lathe and plaster… which makes me sad.  We will need to drywall in there eventually, and the plaster will make such a gigantic mess.  I almost wish we had just done it before we moved in in January.  Oh well…
This afternoon my mom and I started digging the gardens in the back yard.  My back is aching from turning up the soil.  It was so packed down and rocky.  I only made it half way through 1 garden before I called it quits.
I am so, incredibly grateful to have such a handy, helpful family.  This house has gone through such a transformation because of them. We have laid new floor, painted, insulated, re-wired, replaced light fixtures, fixed trimmings, jacked up the floors, fixed & added plumbing, scrubbed, cleaned, tiled… Everyone has just been more helpful than I ever could have asked for, and my house just feels so beautiful and full of love.
In closing, here is an adorable picture of Oliver being a ham for the camera… and Dan trying to ignore the both of us! <3

I think I am back to work now…

Uncategorized February 2, 2012

Well, like most things, moving and fixing up our house took longer than expected, and I am sad to have completely missed the Valentines Day rush, treasuries, features, etc, etc… another year, I suppose!
However, we do pretty much have the house up and running. We’ve been living here for a full month now and it’s finally starting to feel like home. Everything is moved in, save for a few things stored at my parents house, curtains have been sewn, and I’m already planning paint colours for the exterior of our little barn-house.
Everyday, I walk down the stairs in utter amazement. I’m so proud of Dan and I, and so thankful for all of the work my Mom & Dad, cousins, uncles & aunts have put into our house over the last week. It felt like an old fashioned barn-raising here with all of my family over to help, everyone hurrying around finishing up projects. I am so grateful to have the family I have.
I’ve got my sewing machines all set up to get back to business this weekend. I am planning on retiring old designs, holding a sample sale, and listing a bunch of new things come spring. In the meantime, I am keeping Ohhh Lulu on vacation until I can get myself better organized. Plus, I’d like to give myself a break. I’ve done a lot over the last several months, between getting married and buying a house! 🙂
Though… I say that now, and I’m sure this weekend I’ll sew something up that I won’t be able to resist listing on Etsy!!!

Getting back to real life soon…

Uncategorized January 12, 2012
Life is slowly returning to normal. We still have not unpacked and are having to find our way around tools and saw dust, but lots has happened.

In the Bathroom we re-tiled over the 1970’s green tile. We can’t afford to replace the Harvest Gold Bathtub or “rose print” tiles quite yet, so we tried to think of a colour scheme that will work. We chose black stick tiles, and a sunny yellow for the walls. We are now on the search for some white, grey and yellow fabric for a shower curtain. This weekend we are going to try removing the rest of the tracking for the shower doors. Last night we replaced the fittings for the tub hot and cold handles and the spout. Dan sprayed water everywhere, a traditional plumbing initiation practice in these parts.
We painted our cupboards and laid laminate floor down over the old tile floor in the kitchen and foyer. First we put up jack posts in the basement to support the staircase which has a serious slope. Everything got painted, cleaned, and we got our appliances. Looks like a very messy, but very fancy kitchen now. I can hardly believe I’m still allowed to live here! We kept some of the quirky things, like the funny railing along the top of the cupboards and the wood panelling on the walls.
My dad and my uncle have rewired part of our basement and much of our main floor. We knew the house had some knob and tube wiring, but we didn’t realize how poorly the house was wired… so I feel much safer now.
This lovely, rotted old piece of wood was what was supposed to be supporting our stair case. It’s no wonder the stairs were a little slanty… and bouncy!

Our washer and dryer are coming on Saturday, which is great because I am starting to smell bad. We are going to hopefully be picking up a few more pieces of furniture on Sunday at an auction sale, and at that point, we will really be ready to unpack and get back to normal… Which I am very much looking forward to.

Please, please, pleeeeeeease!

Uncategorized December 4, 2011
House hunting has been the biggest roller coaster ride of my life. It seems like there is a constantly a new surprise around ever corner… Today we got to experience our first Home Inspection.

The home inspector was amazing, way more thorough than I had anticipated, and hardly found any serious issues with the house… considering its age I was expecting some major problems. I would 100% recommend to anyone buying a home, to have a home inspection. I actually feel reassured knowing that there aren’t many huge problems with the house. I was happy to find out we have a new roof, new shingles, a new furnace, a solid foundation and updated plumbing.
However, we did find one very pressing “issue;” Knob and Tube wiring connected to the “new” electrical panel. As far as we can tell it looks like there is just a small amount of this wiring which will need to be replaced to bring it to code and make it insurable… but we can only see what is visible in the basement. We are now rushing to find an electrician who can do an inspection and give us a quote on a Sunday so that we can get our insurance quite and have the financing finalized. I can’t wait until this is over and paint colours and floor plans become my biggest worry… I would love to hear other peoples experience with this type of wiring. I am expecting this to be a very costly repair (expecting the worst and hoping for the best), even with the upgrades that have been done, but feel like it would be worth it for the amount we love the house and the condition the house is in.
So, if all goes as planned and we are able to get the wiring fixed (and hopefully the price of the house adjusted accordingly…), we should be moving at the end of the month. But, we all know from the very important lesson learned from House #1: until you are actually in the house, anything could happen! So I am doing my very, very best to NOT GET EXCITED.
But I’m not doing a very good job… I’m already day dreaming and mentally planning everything out. Fantasying about having places to put all of our stuff… Yearning for a backyard for Oliver to run in (However small it may be…)
The house itself is quite unusual; I passed it by so many times because, well, it looks kind of weird. It has a Gambrel Roof, which you don’t see a lot of in this town. It is half brick and half white stucco & board. It has a little bit of everything going on; one Dormer that creates the cutest little window seat in the stairway, oversized wood moulding around doorways and windows, pale wood floors, and the largest bathroom I have ever seen – complete with an avacado green bath tub. But a Bath Tub all the same! Oh…. to have a bath… The more and more time I spend in the house, the more and more I fall in love with it – even the wood panelling.
After looking at 20 homes or so (we have literally looked at every house in our price range in town that does not have a serious structural issue), I feel like we are really making a good choice. I’d even go as far as to say that this might just be my dream house. We put offers on a total of 5 houses:
1. The DIY house – which has sideways light switches installed in the trim around a door, the electrical pannel was behind the kitchen cupboards, and had two bathrooms side by side…
2. The Red Roof House – my second favourite house; it had lost of character but sold for over asking…
3. That 70’s House – in hindsight I don’t know why we put an offer on this one…
4. The ‘Estate Sale’ House – the sellers took a week to respond to our offer (6 days beyond our deadline date!!!)… and countered with more than double the deposit and not a dollar lower than asking. Not surprisingly, that house is still for sale, despite another offer being put on it.
So, necessary renovations aside, I am still so happy (and nervous) and looking forward to getting all of this unfun stuff out of the way! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
On that note – if all goes well I will be closing shop around Christmas and re-opening Mid-January 🙂

Cookies and Hair Colour…

Uncategorized March 16, 2011
Yesterday was a busy day… I haven’t even sat down in front of my sewing machine in about a week. Today I will try to finish up all of my orders (they come in bunches!).
However, I got alot of “at home” stuff done. I made 2 loaves of bread, 2 dozen of my Grandmas cookies (check out her chicken scratch writing – makes cooking from her recipe cards like
cryptography), cleaned out my closet and donated a ton of stuff to Goodwill, took Oliver for a nice walk along the ice-covered lake, then took him to the vet in the afternoon.
The cookie recipe is a recipe that has been passed down through 3 generations! My grandma made them, my Mom made them, and now I am making them (however, with much less sugar!). Does anyone else have any recipes that have been passed down like that? They are so yummy, and the perfect cookie to make when you can’t decide what kind of cookie you want. They have peanut butter, coconut, chocolate chips, oats, and they should have rice crispies, but I was all out.
As for Oliver, I must say, I am so happy with the vet I found here, she is the first vet that I have had that seems to really care about the animals and our attachments to them. Oliver got his nails trimmed, his yearly vaccinations, a quick check up and some medicine for an on-going ear problem he has been having.
While we were there I noticed 2 very solemn faced guys in the waiting room who left without a dog… they either were having to put an animal down or had a dog that was pretty sick. I’ve been so lucky to have a very healthy Oliver, and I can’t even think about the day that I might have to make a decision like that. Oliver is such a huge part of my life, he sleeps all snuggled up to me at night, sits by me on the couch, on my lap in the car, by my feet as I cook, and right now is sleeping with his head on my laptop as I type. I’m not sure what I’d do without my monster, 32lbs pug.

In other news, exciting news. I changed my hair colour. I’ve been blonde for years, for far too many years. My hair was getting pretty brittle and dry and flat and paired with my pale skin, it just wasn’t doing anything for me. So, I dyed it back to my natural colour and I love it! I might actually go a tad more red….