my home

lately

i've been doing a little of this....

hiking. strapping on my boots, and spending hours alone in the forest. along with this, determining that i am, in fact, in far worse shape than i originally thought. 

hanging at got craft? with some super awesome and friendly vancouver crafty folks.

blogging. hanging out. designing. all those things. 

moving into my new apartment - new and improved with corner apartment, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a view of the mountains.

FINALLY getting my beading and jewelry making supplies back within reach - and trying to get my head to slow down with all the design ideas.
lots more, of course. and now that i'm in our new space, i can get a bit more of a routine going on... (thank goodness). which means.... more and better blogging. thank goodness.

a little piece of home

i live in an area of town that some people shy away from. i get side eyed a lot when i mention my area, and people are hesitant to come visit. i live just north of parkdale... which some people call 'brockton'. it's filled with a weird and wonderful mix of people - little portugal comprises a large portion of the residents, so my street is filled with hipster parents, single renters, and old portuguese grandmothers - including one who recently helped me get my car out of the snow with her bag of salt, and broken english.
it's one of my favourite places in the world. there's a mix of lovely little shops and restaurants - and close enough to ossington that i get all the benefits of the bars and restaurants that i could ever dream of - and yet, far enough away that i get a little neighbourhood, and all the perfect things that come from tree lined streets, and friendly old portuguese men.
and yet, there is still some hesitance from people. the bars aren't polished. the restaurants hang vintage curtains, and despite how lovely and smiley its inhabitants are, people often only see the broken down convenience stores and old flashing neon lights of the chinese/canadian food store on the corner. so no matter how hard i tried, i could never convince people of its charm. people who could never ever get past the dirt around the edges.
christian mackie has pulled together a wonderful collection of photographs that display brockton in it's finest hour. gritty, not always warm, and yet still home. he portrays the spaces that could be seemingly heartless and off-putting  and pulls out what all of us who live here, love about it. the wonderful architecture that one only gets from living in an old house; the wonderful juxtaposition of old and new; discarded items that decorate the streets. all the things that give this space it's character. all the things i love about brockton.
check out his brockton set here. and, all of his other photos here. great website. you can also find christian on instagram.

inspiration in the living room

the living room. oh, the living room. i have this issue with living rooms. i want every room in my house to be one.
i grew up in a home where there was a family room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. and the living room did not have much living done in it. it had the most uncomfortable sofas, the least amount of 'fun things' (in the eyes of a child), and was furthest from the kitchen. not ideal. i always promised myself that every room of my apartment or house would be fully lived in... and so a living room would be a gathering space.
a capture of books, comfortable things like blankets and pillows, and a museum of art and other loved things, a living room should be a centre point. and that's how i would organize mine to be.
keeping the mess to a minimum, in a room that's truly 'lived' in? that's the hard part.
mismatchy, filled with books, art and memories on the walls, and lots of comfortable things... my perfect living room. throw pillows that can serve as seats. chairs that people aren't afraid to sit in. blankets for cozy movie watching. mirrors and paintings; books and plants. everything about my daily life that can be captured in one place. shouldn't the room named for life, be the one that indicates how you do your living?

really, any way to display things that mean something to me, are perfect. i keep a lot of things - tickets from shows, postcards and letters from friends, and paintings or drawing i'm given. and i'm SO lucky to be surrounded by many many talented people. so i make a point of displaying everything i'm given. in frames, on the fridge,  in easels... whatever it needs to be shown to every visitor in my home. bits and pieces pulled together in actual curated collections on the walls and shelves.

shelving... the cornerstone of a living room. to avoid having 'things' all over, shelving provides spaces and galleries for goodies. making them somehow neat and organized (even if you've just thrown them on a shelf). even if art is temporarily stuck on the wall, in patterns with other recent finds... it all means something (AND gets it off the counter). next time, i'm building my own shelving... that perfectly suits my space, and me.

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inspiration in the kitchen

if there are two place in my home that i insist are clean and sanitary, it is my washroom, and my kitchen. i'm obsessive. i frequently take my gas stove apart, and clean it down to the gas burners. i organize all of my dried goods in glass jars and old classico pasta screw top containers (which are the best - for cups also). i de-box granola bars, and isolate them into baskets; i organize tea by bagged or loose leaf, into ikea containers; i lazy susan the shit out of my spices. it's all relative to the amount of time i need to spend in there (lots - when your main food group is tofu, you need to utilize those seasonings friends), and i want the space that i prepare my food to be spick and span.
about a year ago, the house where i rent my apartment was all of a sudden home to a ton of mice. i'm talking hear them in the cielings type infestation. it was no one's fault - construction men left the doors wide open for almost a full year, which meant lovely little tiny fuzzy creatures wandered their way into the warm gates of heaven. my landlords and i waged full on mouse warfare, including the apolocalypse of mice - when the exterminator came. let's just say, i was the happiest woman on earth when all of my dried goods - all trapped nicely in glass containers - came out unschathed. it was like a pat on the back. i'll never change.
confession: i clean my kitchen floor with all purpose cleaner mixed with vinegar and lemon. on my hands and knees. with a rag. it's a process, and i will also never change that. but man... it's so worth it.
so, i take my decorating (but really, organizing) of my kitchen so seriously, it's not even funny. really - this is not a laughing matter. and i'm always looking for inspiration. here you have my faves.
remember what i said about glass jars folks? and remember what i said about it not being a laughing matter? this is serious business. save your dry things. mine are even colour coordinated (because i eat boring food) which makes for nice counter top decoration. popcorn, rice crispies, quinoa, oatmeal, lentils (brown - of course), quinoa pasta and rice flour. all comprise this beautifully boring spectrum of beige-y goodness on my counter. 
but seriously. everything in glass jars, a better world does make. 

i'm all about the shelving. after living somewhere with see through cupboards, you realize how important the aesthetic of matching dishes, and coordinated dinnerware is. doesn't need to be a matching set, just needs to be coordinated from the 'colour palette' perspective (sorry... we're getting too interior design-y here). 
and, i love that pig. 
OH! and rugs in kitchens. win.

all stacking, all the time. cartons on cartons on cartons. as long as you stick with what you like, you can never go wrong. i always joke that my boring taste in colours (think moss green and pale blue on white and/or beige) makes for easy peasy moving... i never have to worry that things in different rooms won't match. when you buy what you like, things will always go together. plus, when you wash your dishes, and you have a green spatula, green frying pan, green curly straw (i have no shame), and a green knife, drying on your green drying pad... you look like you have your life so planned out it's intimidating. 
(i don't).

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