A Blog Worth Following...

I recently came across the blog of an Australian family who bought and intend to renovate a dilapidated, 94 room, 1700s french chateau- Chateau du Gudanes in the south of France. At the moment, they just completed getting the permits and are in the process of beginning the renovation. This has got to be interesting... definitely worth checking out.

Pretty Little Apartment

I saw this studio apartment on a blog a few years ago and absolutely loved it... and I still do...

Budget Art Using Paint Chips

Three reasons to LOVE the idea of making wall art using big box store paint chips:

1) If you have an old frame that you can reuse, this project would be totally free.

2) You can change the colours up whenever you change your accent colour. Be as creative as you like.

3) Its simple to put together- all you need is a glue stick.

My Apartment "Want" List

I know that I have not been good about posting what has been happening at the apartment but needlesstosay a lot has happened. My original wish list for the apartment has been modified a little over time and is down to the following items:

1- a living room area rug

2- a large wicker basket with lid

3- a "french-style" dresser (does not have to start off grey but will be grey in the end)

4- a long bench for the front "landing strip"

5- kitchen pendant light

6- antique butcher block

Things I love...

I don't know what it is about these photos, but I love everything about them...

 

Happy Halloween!

Here is my advice for the easiest and least expensive Halloween party decorating.

All that you need to do is take a trip to you own linen closet and then a dollar store.

What's involved:

1) White bed sheets- Remove all the accessories from the room (i.e., only keep the main pieces of furniture in the room) and drape all the furniture pieces with your white bed sheets. Allow the sheets to pool on the floor around the furniture.

2) Faux "cob-webs"- Stretch the dollar store "cob-webbing" around each of your pictures, mirrors and anything else stationary in the room.

3) Spiders- Place dollar store, plastic, black spiders in groups around the room. For the best effect, place them on top of the white white sheets.

4) Mice silhouettes- Print off the free online mice silhouettes and place them on the baseboards and stairs around you house.

Pumpkin Carving Dinner Party

Every year, Stuart and I throw a Halloween costume party the Saturday before Halloween. This year, since we have been so busy with the move and the new jobs, I decided to scale it back and have a low-key pumpkin-carving dinner party instead.
To be fair, the idea was not my own but "borrowed" from Apartment Therapy. (We even did the sweet potato/ potato bar for dinner.) 

What a success! 

Here's what's involved:

1)  Decorations- I did not go over board with decorations. Just a simple skull center piece on the table, a black tablecloth, some orange bowls for the sides, a few small, plastic spiders on the plates and napkins, a spider web bowl for the Halloween candy (a must!) and some plastic bats on the windows. Took me no time at all to set-up but still made the evening feel festive (if that's the right word?).  

2) Pumpkins for carving- We did one large pumpkin per couple. Everything was set-up before anyone arrived. I divided our kitchen counter into work spaces and laid out newspaper under each pumpkin. Each work space had a pen for marking, a knife for cutting and a bowl for scooping out the pumpkin. An iPad was passed around to give everyone a chance to look up pumpkin carving ideas on the internet.

3) Dinner- We chose to go with a mostly Mexican-inspired sweet potato bar consisting of sweet potatoes, potatoes, vegetarian chili, sauteed mushrooms, chopped green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, blue cheese, a variety of hot sauces, garlic bread and salad. Everything was put out separately and everyone was instructed to make up their own combinations of ingredients.

I had everyone arrive at 5pm and from start to finish the pumpkins took us about 2 hours to carve. The chili was made earlier in the day and was continuing to cook during the pumpkin carving. Almost everything else had been prepared ahead of time, except the baking of the sweet potatoes and potatoes and the sauteing of the mushrooms.The party turned out to be an excellent alternative to the usual Halloween costume party! Added bonus- now we all have pumpkins to display for the trick or treaters on Halloween night!