{Snapshots} Summer's End

Just some photos from the last few weeks of summer! I can't believe it's almost fall!

I stopped by my local Value Village and found these beautiful bowls. Only a few scratches on the smaller Friendship bowl, but I swear the orange one is brand new. There is no evidence of use inside or outside the bowl!

The orange one is the same size as the other two Pyrex bowls I picked up last time, so I'm glad I found the smaller one as well.

Somehow, within three weeks I picked up four pairs of shoes. The striped espadrilles were not on my shopping list but at 60% off, they got on the list.

I didn't think I would be going to the CNE this year, but I had forgotten that with a concert ticket for the Molson Amphitheatre you get access to the CNE grounds as well, so of course we went to try out some of the food.

I cannot even believe the details on this sandcastle (literally)!

Little person on another sand sculpture.

I think this was the 'Lumberjack' poutine?

Pulled pork poutine. I preferred the fries of the Lumberjack poutine but the meat/sauce of this one (different food stalls).

Red velvet funnel cake. Yum!

The Fray. Five songs into their set I realized I had seen them years and years ago! Lol, whoops!

The Fray. Still amazing live.

Isaac ran to the back of the amphitheatre and was singing in a crowd of people. Of course it was the complete opposite side of where we were... For one or two songs he also sat down with a keyboard in the crowd.

Packed venue! I hate the Molson Amphitheatre though and it was crazy windy that night.

Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly and her backup singers also ran into the crowd to sing on a mini platform.

Isaac and Kelly singing 'Don't You Wanna Stay'.

Airborne Kelly.

Kelly Clarkson.

Sometimes Spider-Man needs help too.

The CNE midway and the CN Tower.

The CNE midway. I love the colours here.

This guy was a rockstar getting the rubber chickens into the pots! His friends though, not so much.

The Dufferin gate.

{At Home} No More Saggy Seating

Last summer I went around to a few stores with my parents in search of a new couch for the family room as the current one has been with us since about 1990? It's not too saggy or uncomfortable, but it sure is ugly to look at nowadays. We didn't find anything we loved and after sitting in so many in such a short period of time, they all felt the same so we took a break from shopping.

This past weekend my mom and I went out to look again and we ended up at the Sears furniture store since my mom really liked the quality of the leather we saw the last time we were there. After maybe 2.5 hours of hemming and hawing, we put our order in for Italsofa's Aquila sofa and reclining chair!

 We're getting the black three seater sofa. There are no good pictures of this couch online so I had to take a picture of the information card the saleslady gave me. I love the legs!

 I also took a photo of the photo I took on my phone (I don't know how to transfer photos to my computer lol). We really liked the high back and it's a recliner! Hopefully it's sturdy.

It's going to be delivered June 6th so we're going to be shifting couches around in the meantime. The current family room sofa and loveseat will go in the basement (although I don't think both will fit) and then the couch in the TV room in the basement will hit the curb!

I was originally against this couch because it seems a little to modern for our house, but my mom is thinking that it will eventually move with them when my parents downsize so it's a good size. Plus, it'll give me the kick-start I've been waiting for to finally tear down the wallpaper and chair rail we've had for as long as we've had the couches! I've probably wanted to repaint the room since the wallpaper went up! Gotta love 90's decor...

I don't tidy up for "before" photos lol. Makes the "after" more dramatic, hopefully!

I  am getting ahead of myself though. Even though the sofa and chair are coming next week, I have to paint a dresser before I even start thinking about touching the family room!

{Deals & Steals} Pyrex Love

Because we don't already have enough stuff in the house, I picked up two 11/2qt. Pyrex Cinderella Mixing Bowls at Value Village. The Horizon Blue bowl is a bit more worn underneath the handle and spout with a couple of chips off the sides, but it's not totally noticeable and it was only $1.99!

They now join my mom's Homestead Bowls (I've now claimed them as mine), which are in mint condition since she hasn't used them probably since she got them!

On a side note, see those cabinets? I so desperately want to paint them white (and get rid of the laminate countertop) but I think I'm going to have to wait until next year. The bathrooms still aren't completely done, there are two dressers that I still need to paint, I need to organize and pare down our junk/stuff we've inherited, and the kitchen would definitely require my full attention.

Anyways, Happy Easter!

Woohoo, four day weekend! I'm hoping to finish my spring cleaning and sorting through things to donate, but we'll see how that goes. And I never know where to bring my stuff due to sketchy charities. Where do you bring your clothes/household things to donate?

{Out & About} One of a Kind Spring Show & Sale 2012

On Sunday I hit up the One of a Kind Spring Show & Sale after years of missing it. Between 2004-2006ish, I think I went to each of the Spring and Christmas shows, a time where as a university student, I shouldn't have been looking at more stuff to buy! But beyond occasionally purchasing jewelry (some of the "cheaper" stuff, definitely could not afford the higher end stuff back then!) and shortbread for gifts from Coach House Shortbread, I would just take in the sights and I was happy to be able to do that again this year!

After doing a quick round through all the aisles, I sat down to rest my feet and see/hear what Christine of Bijou and Boheme had to share. (Details on specific items can be found in her nicely summarized post here.)

The Traditional look. 

The Transitional look, but pretend that David Dawson piece on the floor is on the easel instead... I was a little slow, apparently.

The Modern look. The more I look at those wooden octagon blocks by Studio Liscious, the more I want them.

After Christine's talk, I did another once over around the show to pick up a couple of items from vendors that piqued my interest even before going to the Show.

First up, Avril Loreti. I love the vibrant colours and seriously, the fabrics feel amaaazing!

Paint chip table runners and placemats.

Tea towels and napkins.

Pillows, totes, and handkerchiefs, oh my!

So, I either need to start up a Tea Towels Anonymous or just outright start a collection because I of course picked up another set to join these and these! The quality is great and the colours are bright and fun! I thought about gifting these but that thought lasted all of 5 seconds before I decided that they're staying with me.

I even had my eye on some linen tea towels from Coy Clothes (no photos on their site and I didn't get any at the show) and hemp/organic cotton ones like these:

 (image) from Jenna Rose
and

(image) from bookhou

Next up, I spotted Hilary Cosgrove's booth and was ecstatic!

I've been eyeing these alphabet and owl pillows for almost 2 years now!

Owl, owlet, and squirrel pillows.

Tiny bird and Winston & Squeak. I love that Hilary makes use of the scraps from other projects to make these.

Squirrel pillows and some art pieces.

The owl that I brought home!

I was also lusting after some pillows by Atelier du Presbytere (using antique linens) and Nicole Tarasick, neither of which I have photos of, but Life Over Easy's Top 15 post includes them along with other faves of mine.

These darling linen pillows from coucou salut caught my eye as well:

images from coucou salut

I guess this is really just a textile loving post since I didn't even touch on some of the lovely jewelry and wood pieces that I saw. There's always next time!

{Deals & Steals} Seriously, I Love Indigo

Last week before some window shopping, I was killing time browsing the Indigo sales racks (of course) since they're having their Winter Clearance Sale and came upon some items that I couldn't leave without! Not without some hemming and hawing though (neither items are shown online).

This moose paperweight by Zuny is the same style as some of the bookends I was fawning over in this post! They did have moose and deer bookends, but since I just bought bookends I thought this little guy would be a cute decorative piece on it's own. And at 75% off ($5.63), I couldn't not buy him! I love moose! Mooses?

And in this post, I pretty much said I wouldn't buy any more tea towels for now, but that quickly turned into a lie!

This set of three, solid tea towels was 50% ($7.25) and I probably shouldn't have bought them, but based on the model suite, I think the colours will go nicely with the finishes/colours I'm going to pick! I'm getting way ahead of myself though - they haven't even broke ground yet!

I really do have a bad habit of buying things I like but don't need, just because they're on sale. It's especially hard to restrain myself from all their lovely Lifestyle products!

P.S. Pay no attention to the bad baseboard paint job in that corner! We freehanded the painting quickly since we wanted to get the new hardwood floors in ASAP.

{Deals & Steals} Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite

I really must stop buying cookbooks, but I just can't help myself!

I already I picked up 1080 Recipes by Simone & Inés Ortega for $20 a few weeks ago and design books-wise, I now have Jonathan Adler's Happy Chic Accessorizing thanks to the swag bags from the Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup (good thing I didn't buy it in November like I had planned to!).

So then I was at Value Village last week and ended up bringing Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite home to add to my slow growing collection as well!

Healthy Appetite was listed for $9.99 so I debated for a while, especially because I know some of his books were on sale at Indigo a while ago, but in the end I caved and paid only $8.40 thanks to the 20% student discount that Value Village has on Wednesdays!

Oh, and the deciding factor? It was a signed copy and even had the ticket from the book signing stuck inbetween the pages.

Now I just need some time to go through my books and make dishes from them!

Anyways, have a good weekend everyone! I'm off tomorrow for another theatre weekend in New York. Hopefully I'll have time to squeeze in Anthropologie and West Elm! There's also a Home Goods near West Elm, I think, but I'm never in that area so I don't know if I'll have a chance to check it out.