A Little Girl's Room To A Sophisticated Young Lady's Room...

I am so excited to share this project with you.

All of my friends know how I love to organize and decorate...it's a true passion of mine.

I was asked by a very good friend to help take her daughter's room from a little girl's room to a sophisticated young lady's room.

This project was scheduled as a birthday surprise for a young lady turning 14.

The birthday girl would come home from school to find her room  transformed.

We talked for weeks about plans for this room.

The transformation day was scheduled for January 17th.

Here is the result...

Below is the BEFORE picture.

The plans included leaving the room paint as it was.....it was fairly recent and a terrific colour.

The room would be refreshed with new bedding, new side tables, new lamps, new accessories, a new desk area and new artwork.

Mom and I spent lots of time coming up with a plan for furniture and accessories...black & white was chosen as the accenting colours.

I met her at HomeSense to look at new night stands and accessories needed for the space.

We chatted about how this space would function and work for her daughter.

Mom made many, many fun & exciting purchases!

On the morning of January 17th, this is what we started with:

 The pine dresser and night stand were removed and replaced with small black round side tables and new lamps.

New bedding and pillows were added. I added a fresh vignette to the shelf above the bed.

The dog canvases on the wall on the left side of the bed were a nod to this young lady's love of dogs.  The fashion canvases were chosen to give this room a more sophisticated feel. 

 This was the desk area on the morning of January 17th.

 Here's how it looked at the end of the day.

The little girl stuff was sorted into groups for keeping and groups for sending to Goodwill.

A new Ikea desk assembled by Dad was installed to provided maximum homework and laptop space.

The shelves, also installed by Dad,  hold lots of basket for storage.

A new desk chair provides comfortable seating for a young lady.

 Here is the top of the closet in the morning.

All of the stuffed animals on the top of the closet were also sorted and those which held special memories were kept...while 3 large bags went to Good will.

 The American Girl dolls and wardrobe were then placed on the top of the closet for safe-keeping and as well as a vignette that is very clean & pretty looking compared to the stuffed toys.

When you enter the room now...this is what you see!

I was so excited for this young lady to come home and see her new room.

I didn't get to see her reaction, but I heard that she was jumping up & down with joy!

I think it turned out fabulous!

Aren't those accent pillows on the bed just the bees knees?

For me, it was a SUPER fun day of organizing & decorating and helping this Mom achieve a dream for her daughter.....a wonderfully newly decorated space to take her through her teenage years!

This post is linked to these great parties:

A Living Room Corner & Thoughts on Decorating...

I was paging through digital pictures the other night when

I found some pictures from our living room update from 5 years ago.

I happened upon this picture from our living room as it looked in 2006.

Back in 2006, we hadn't lived in this house for a year yet and we were still working on changes to make it our own.

We painted the entire main floor in Benjamin Moore's gingerroot.

Ron had removed the old carpet from the living room and was in the process of laying new floors and installing new baseboard.

I took this picture of the living room in progress.

 Below is the same corner today.

I changed the drapery from navy to silk drapes that are the same tone as the walls to make the room feel airy and bright.

I removed the plates and pictures and added the 'family' gallery...a wedding photo of Ron and I surrounded by photos of our parents and grandparents.

A side table from Ikea in the corner and a new a lamp from HomeSense {Clearance...$25} completed the  corner for the living room.

I made the throw pillows and quilt from Amy Butler fabrics in 2008.
With the addition of a new lamp...this is how it looks in 2011.

I forgotten how much this space had changed in the last 5 years.

I got me thinking about decorating in general.

Aren't our spaces always changing?

We add in small new things we like and weed out the things that we're tired of.

I am getting the itch to make some new throw pillows.

And thinking about adding in another layer to the 'family wall'.

It's part of the fun of being a homemaker.

The repititive chores we do over and over......they are part of keeping our house in order.

The decorating fun...that is the part that feeds our soul.

Decorating our home is an expression of ourselves...and I hope it's something that I always enjoy.

This post is linked to these great parties:

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello

Organizing Photos: Part 2~Options for Digital Photo Storage.

When I wrote my original post about how I organize photo negatives...

and how I store printed pictures...

I mentioned that one thing I had to tackle this year was the organization of digital photos.
I had mentioned wanting to try this system:

Well, Laurie from Handy Man, Crafty Woman left  a comment that her family was using an off-site service for storing their digital photos.

This was an option that I had never researched and I thought this suggestion was brilliant..... for 2 reasons.

1-If your computer crashes, your digital photos are safely stored off-site.

2-If a house fire should ever happen, your digital photos are safely stored off-site.

So Laurie wrote a post to share this information with us.

Please go over and visit her terrific blog!

You can learn more about off-site digital photo storage.

I am so glad that Laurie shared this information with me.

I am definitely going to take advantage of this type of service!

Have a wonderful Monday!

Tales of The Changing Tablescapes of the Piano...

Decorating the top of the piano has frustated me for years.

For years, I had nothing on top of it because I was never satisfied with whatever I put there.

But after many years of playing, I think I finally have the 'knack', if you will, of dressing the piano in fun outfits.

Today I just dressed her in a very clean look.

She has been dressed in frilly outfits for months now...it was time to take a break.

Today she is wearing just a round mirror above...to break up the boxiness of the piano shape.

Some books for interest.

Two silver bookends for a little something shiny.

And two lamps bought on clearance for $25 each at HomeSense.

{I love the light from the late afternoon sun streaming in...it means winter is slowly leaving.}

Here she is all decked out for Thanksgiving.

Just a few additions to her outfit to celebrate the season.

This is the look she wore for Halloween.

Lots of black and different shapes worked in.

Christmastime brought a major change in outfit.

The lamps and books got put away completely.

Miss Piano got sparkly snowflakes and hits of blue & green.

I thought she looked lovely for the party.

For Valentine's Day, she wore romantic tones of red and pink.

The lamps came back....and family photos and some subway art completed the accessorizing.

And here she is today.

Just calm and fresh.

She might have an outfit for Easter.

Maybe not.

I haven't quite decided yet.

I think the trick to outfits for Miss Piano Top are tablescapes that are low and wide with shapes that are not too boxy.

And you can never go wrong with a round mirror and books.

 This post is linked to:

I L.O.V.E. when new decor magazines arrive in the mail...

So I opened my mailbox today and found these...

the March issue of Canada's Style At Home

AND

the March issue of Canadian House & Home.

Here are some of my favourite images from Style At Home this month:

{I really have a thing for desk spaces.}

Isn't this little dining nook sweet?

And I adore this image from Canadian House & Home:

Aren't those white lamps fantastic?

Wish I still had a little girl in the house for a space like this!

I have a date with my jammies and these magazines tonight.

And oh yeah. Sarah Richardson's new show 'Sarah 101' is on tonight too.

I can't wait.

What are your favourite decor magazines?

Happy Valentine's!! What Is On Your Menu For Today?

Here at our house, the traditional meal for Valentine's Day is homemade heart-shaped waffles with strawberries & whipped cream and bacon.

Last year, Valentine's Day was on Sunday and we enjoyed our special meal for brunch.

This year we are having our heart waffles after school at 4 pm before the troops scatter for hockey and skating practice.

Both my kids asked if we were having our waffles and whipped cream and bacon yesterday, so

I think it's a tradition they look forward to.

{The picture is from our brunch last year.}

Do you have a family tradition of a special meal for Valentine's Day?

A Baked Treat For Valentine's Day....

So tonight I am invited out for a girls' dinner and a scrapbook evening. {smile}.

I wanted to make something for little hostess gifts...and this is what I came up with.

Homemade cookies in a pretty package.

It really looks like a jar of preserves...but surprise.... cookies.

I have been saving these jars to use for some kind of food project.

I could use canning jars...but I like to save those for canning.

These jars are free.

I peeled off the labels and washed them with hot soapy water and an SOS pad.

It took a little elbow grease...but I got these nice clean jars.

I took the lids and spray-painted them black.

Then I got out my scrapbooking supplies and played around to make some bands to pretty up the jars.

This is what I built for bands...

I used scrapbook papers cut into 1.25 inches wide X 12 inches long strips to go around the jars.

{I pre-measured and it just worked out that 12 inches in length was perfect...lucky}

Red ribbon was attached to the top of the paper strips and punched flowers and foam hearts from the dollar store added the final touch.

Then I made chocolate dream cookies...a favourite at our house.

{You can find the recipe here.}

I decorated the cookies with Valentine's Day sprinkles.

Then the jars were filled with freshly made cookies...each jar held a half dozen.

I placed a square of red tissue paper in the bottom of the jar before the cookies went in.

{And really...you could just use goody bags to put cookies in, but I find that the cookies always get crushed.}

The lids that I spray-painted earlier in the day weren't dry and still smelled like paint at 3pm.

Drats!

 I decided not to stress over that....so I improvised.

I used tin foil and elastics to close up the jars....hence the homemade preserves 'look'.

I think they still look pretty swell.

I made 6 jars in total.

I plan to give out a few tonight as hostess gifts.

And I will take some over to a friend who was in a car accident yesterday and is feeling really sore today.

Hunter would like to give one to her skating coach too.

So poof...the jars of cookies will be gone by tomorrow.

But it made for a great day of fun...except I missed my mother...who is 3000 km away.

If she were here, the cookies would have tasted better and the packages would have looked prettier.

Cause to me....SHE is the original Martha.

This post is linked to:















Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello