Party Planning 101: British Invasion

January 14, 2014March 20, 20161 Comment

Well e-friends, it’s been 1.5 months in our new home and we’ve already survivied the “ice vortex” (including 3+ day power outage), nearly completed a basement renovation, spent a few sick days on the couch, and have thrown two significant parties! We’re starting to feel good and settled, with the exception of the empty living room (we’ll get there one day). I also owe you a post about buying awesome furniture on Craigslist. But today’s post is reserved for a topic that I truly love: party planning!

My former career before joining the dark side of sales was event planning. I’d like to think that I always had it in me, and that my professional experience just made me fall in love with (some) elements even more. Over the years, I have helped to plan and execute 4 friends’ weddings, plus my own wedding, and now I’m in the midst of helping my dear sis prep for her upcoming April wedding! I also threw a heck of a 30th birthday (if I do say so myself).

This past weekend, Christian and I hosted his mum’s 60th birthday. She’s was born in England and lived there for the early part of her life. Although she’s been in Canada for decades, she still loves all things Brit – I look forward to pouring over her “Hello!” magazines every time we visit. You can take the Brit out of Britain….

Christian and I chatted about a way to elevate the fun factor of the shin-dig, and quickly landed on a “British Invasion” theme. So fun.

First, the menu. A good theme starts with some menu planning. And plan we did:

Cottage Pie (basically the British version of Shepherd’s Pie)
Bangers and Mash
Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding (our first time making either)
Classic Fish n’ Chips

We cheated and just did store bought Fish n’ Chips, but everything else was made in our new kitchen! Here’s the Cottage Pie coming out of the oven on Saturday afternoon, all bubbly and delicious

Whilst our food was being prepped and cooked, I got to decorating! I managed to find a few jems on-line, including a red, white and blue pennant banner (aka – bunting) that I strung from the ceiling.

Then it was onto the little touches, some of which you can already see in the photo above (yes, there are cut-outs of a London Bus and Beefeater on my patio doors). One of my favourite big-bang-for-little-buck decorating ideas it to find simple printables on-line. Who doesn’t have a bunch of simple photo frames kicking around the house? (yes, I removed family photos from some to make way for my British invasion). Stack ’em up and replace your framed photos with some clip art or printed pics from Google images. Here below we pay homage to her Majesty the Queen. The Union Jack flags were a steal from the Dollar Store at 3 bucks a pop:

Now that the mantle is looking festive, on to the next location = the couch! We actually had Euro-sized red cushions on our bed upstairs, so I brought them down to the join the party. My wonderfully generous colleague brought a toss cushion of the London tube map from his bed at home! The best part is that the pillow is made out of tea towel (next project anyone!?). Anyways, it came together quite nicely in our living room with the red pillows in the background:

Onto other areas: the bar! The bar menu included:

Gin & Tonic (Bombay Saphire Gin is my fave, but a friend recently introduced me to Dillon’s Small Batch Gin. It’s quickly become my “lady” gin. Delicious)
Pimm’s (apparently the second most popular beverage in the UK after tea?). Check out the receipe here, but we made ours with Pimm’s, lemonade, cucumber, blueberries and strawberries. It’s very refreshing – you can see it in the pitcher below!
Boddington’s beer, Strongbow & Guiness

Yes, even Christian’s City of Oxford bar towel made an appearance – an ode to his time spent there on exchange in university!

And finally, dessert! We opted for classic English Trifle and my favourite: Sticky Toffee Pudding. To make these mess and fuss free, I actually found these neat little disposable baking cups at Home Sense (they come in mini loaf containers as well). You actually don’t even need to put them on a baking sheet or anything and they are good in the oven up to 400F. I was able to serve out of these as well. The best part? No pre-greasing required! They are coated and ready to go in all their non-sticky goodness:

Because I’m all about the presentation, I took a cardboard cake stand (also purchased from Home Sense for just $3.99! Again: big bang, little buck) and attached a Union Jack decoration that I picked up for a few bucks at a party store on top with scotch tape. Instant pizzaz!

You can see my sticky toffee puddings have now been topped with caramel sauce…and that a few have already been eaten – nom nom!

Playing in the background for most of the evening was Songza’s British Invasion Playlist. Oh, and we of course awarded the birthday girl with a jeweled crown and sash when she arrived – living like the Queen herself for the evening!

So there you have it – how to make a theme flow 101, brought to you by Melissa. The opportunities are endless…just remember to think beyond the napkins and include all the senses 🙂

makinghousetoronto – Volume 2!

November 22, 2013March 20, 20163 Comments

Yes friends, we’ve got some exciting news to share! After 4 long years of never-ending renovations, stories to share, pictures to post and general ups and downs, we’ve taken to plunge and bought a new home!

I have to be honest that this happened VERY FAST. It was about a week from the time that we started seriously looking at places, visited the bank for financing, and put an offer in on our dream home. We’re still in shock, and can’t actually comprehend that this baby is ours:

Yes, that’s a brand new build. In Toronto. We are over the moon excited. We have plans to put in a basement suite for rental income, however, that project is a whole lot of nothing compared to what we’ve been through at our original home in Leslieville.

We’re moving a bit north from where we are now, and will absolutely miss the charm the comes with our street and neighborhood, however, we’re so jazzed to start exploring our new ‘hood.

And what do I keep dreaming about, every single night? This. Kitchen.

There are no words. I think I’m going to have to become a professional chef. Watch out, Jamie Oliver.

So, with just a more sleeps until moving day, we are frantically packing and prepping. So stay tuned. While the DIY stories might be slowing down, we’ll still have lots to share when it comes to design, decor, entertaining, decorating for the holidays and beautifying our new (and much larger!) back yard.

Stay tuned!

Melissa

Mirror, Mirror

November 19, 2013Leave a comment

Sometimes I go a little crazy trying to find the right thing. Then I find what I think it’s the right thing, and Christian hates it. So back to the store I go. This cycle happened once already during my hunt for a mirror to put above the fireplace in our dining room.

Here’s the previous mirror (yes, it looks lovely, however, it’s borrowed from our upstairs bedroom! So was just a temporary fix):

The good news is, we finally found a great option from the wonderful world of HomeSense. At an already decent price $129.99 + a bunch of saved up gift cards, we were able to score this beauty for a mere $40 out of pocket. So, off this glam mirror went back up to our bedroom, and enter our new Home Sense friend

The final product? Stay tuned….we’ve had a few er…changes since we bought this, so let’s just say that this mirror isn’t the only thing that’s finding a new home 🙂

Summer Porch Refresh

August 6, 2013January 15, 2016Leave a comment

I’m one of those nut-cases who likes to swap and update decor as the seasons change. The air changes, the temperature rises or falls, the colours adjust and I just get inspired. Ever since we renovated our front porch two years ago, I have been adjusting the decor every so often….but I quickly realized that a) I have a pillow problem, b) it can get pricy, and c) storage of seasonal decor items creates an issue.

And then I realized that it was time to take a sewing class.

My solution is to simply re-cover my toss cushions and make smaller swaps to things like candles and art. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is my idea of a fun Saturday night. No joke.

Here’s where I started. Cute, but blah. I was so ready for some summer lovin.

Swapping our view towards the interior door and things aren’t much better. Another print from my gal Angie at Romantica Home on Etsy, and that’s about it.

PS- see the wine box sitting under the chair in the mirror reflection within the photo above? Well, guess what’s in the box….!? Okay I will make it multiple choice for you:

a) all volumes of my Style at Home magazine collection, dating back to 2008

b) wine (what a concept)

c) Justin Timberlake singing this song

d) the shards of every single piece of safety glass that we picked up off of our living room floor following the fatal glass coffee table incident

Did you guess? It’s D! Isn’t that hilarious? Actually, it’s not funny at all, but what else can you do but laugh at this point?

Anyhoosin…moving right along. So, I needed to inject some summer life into the porch. Enter: punch of yellow! First, it was time to make some art. IKEA Ribba frame + glue gun + fabric + left over letters from our wedding cake topper = ART

Then, in true meant to be fashion, I found this adorbs print at Target for $25 to hang above our double doors:

And, out came the sewing machine to re-cover my dull winter pillows with this precious bird print. Because, who doesn’t want to put a bird on it!?

And speaking of birds, I didn’t stop there. Look at these little guys on my standing mirror: “Tweet, Tweet!”

Add a few other sun-burst touches like this little planter (for $3.99 @ Michael’s)…..

And this beautiful throw from Indigo (a steal on-line for $14.99!)

….and this porch is summer-ready! Time to mix up some mojitos and start enjoying the sunshine 🙂

Beyond our 4 walls: Tracy’s Guestroom Redesign

July 30, 2013January 22, 2016Leave a comment

I love my job, and my company. I enjoy going to work every day and work with amazing colleagues. Honestly. But, if I had to give it up and pick something completely different to fill my days, I’m pretty certain it would be some combination of decorating/ staging/ making-over people’s spaces. It just brings me such joy.

A few months back, my dear friend Tracy asked for my help with her guest room. She had this sort of pained expression on her face when she said “I have this guest room, that you can hardly call a guestroom…it’s so un-inviting! Would you be willing to help me fix it up?”.

I first laughed, because she was acting like this would feel like work for me. Hardly. I had a field day. As Tracy’s wedding was approaching, I set up a gift registry that ended up bringing together most of the items needed for a welcoming guest room. A few weekends ago, Christian and I headed to Peterborough (or P-town as the cool kids are saying these days) and completed the transformation. It’s almost like we could hear angels singing from the rafters of Tracy’s 10-foot ceilings.

First, a before picture…because who doesn’t love a good before and after!? Here we have the view from when you walk into the room. Gorgeous old wood floors, lovely blue-grey walls and a big, bright window. It’s a dream….except for the fact that it’s just…err…a bed. And a mis-matched antique floor lamp with an IKEA Lack side table:

Well, this bride-to-be had plenty of other things to do, such as plan her May wedding…enter Melissa!

The best thing about working with Tracy was that she is incredibly easy-going. Actually, she is probably one of the most easy-going people I know. Her only stipulation was that we weren’t going to paint. Well, perfect, because I’ve painted enough walls at my own house, thank you very much.

Fast forward a few months, insert a wedding shower, wedding, and the invasion of Christian and Melissa, and this is now the vision that welcomes guests as they walk into the guest room:

For the win! There are still a few finishing touches remaining, but you get the idea (for example, you will notice we have only one side lamp, and I’m working on a few additions, such as a repurposed old bench for the foot of the bed). The headboard was something that Christian and I built as our wedding shower gift for Tracy and her hubby to be, and we actually ended up reusing the duvet, which was a total bonus. Those light, airy curtains were a total at $10 per panel and I just love how they frame those gorgeous, giant windows and blow in the breeze. Ahhhhh.

My favourite “I love my husband” moment was when he suggested swapping out the light fixture. You can’t see it in the original photo, but these glorious 10 ft ceilings were adorned with….a basic builders light fixture. Womp womp.

Tracy and I are both all about finding great deals, so I promised her that the only way we would replace the light, would be with something under $50. Victory was mine at Home Depot when I scored this adorable antique-looking chandelier for…. $18! Yes!! It was already marked down on clearance to $35 and then marked down again to $18. Amazing. I was like a kid at Christmas, babbling away to the check-out lady at Home Depot about what an amazing deal it was. I do that. A lot.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the lovely blue, grey, white and yellow combo on the bed:
Purrrrrrrrdy.

In my opinion, a great guest room should always include the following:

Extra pillows (you never know if your guests like firm, flat, or somewhere in between. Having extras lets them decide)
The feeling of checking into a charming B&B (because, really, who doesn’t want that?)
At least one bedside lamp and one nightstand (no one wants to fumble for their phone in the night in a foreign room)
Access to a wall outlet (speaking of phones, we all need to charge our phone – make it easy for guests)
Water glass/ pitcher beside the bed (see point above re: fumbling through the night in a foreign room)
Handy guest towels (I like to put these in a basket on top of the dresser; don’t make your guests ask – always anticipate!)

Here’s a close up of the charming Eclipse bedside lamp from Urban Barn – I love the touch of glam in a somewhat “country chic” bedroom. The night stands are IKEA Hemnes in white.

I’ll be back in the coming weeks with a few more updates here….I joked with Tracy that I will likely keep going for the next year until I have it just “so”.

So there you have it….another happy customer. Okay, well she wasn’t a customer, but that’s fun to say 🙂

One day…..

Dream Bathroom: Revealed!

April 18, 2013January 22, 20167 Comments

It feels like we’ve been sidetracked with all of this flooring drama. Actually, no, not “feels like”…we really have! We’ve had the bathroom about 85% done for several weeks, but all this flooring nonsense stopped us in our tracks.

This past weekend, we managed to get a lot accomplished. There’s nothing like the impending arrival of my parents from Vancouver to cross things off the to-do list. Oh yes, we have been busy bees. We can proudly say that our bathroom is now 95% done. A few finishing touches, along with the much-anticipated arrival of our bathroom art (really? 2 weeks at customs? For art posters!!??), and we’ll be able to bump that number up to 100% finito.

But I can’t wait. Must. Share. Progress. Photos.

First of all, remember this picture?

This has got to be one of my favourite renovation-related photos of all time. Anyhoo, back in this post of yore, I shared all the challenges that we had with our tiny, oh-so-narrow bathroom: we couldn’t physically be in there at the same time, the sink literally overlapped with the toilet, the shower head hit Christian in the chest (I think I forgot to mention that one), etc etc. It really boiled down to a non-functional layout for us.

So we changed it. A lot.

Before – view as you walked into the bathroom (sorry it’s so stretched…my SnapFish album went a little crazy):

This photo does not do the narrowness justice: the entrance was just 24″….Christian and I had to do the Tango every time we passed by each other in here. So, onto the money shot:

Yes, our bathroom is now a VERY happy place.

Let’s zoom in on a few fabulous things! First, the toilet. Yep, I’m leading with the crapper. Honestly, I never thought I’d be someone who got excited about a toilet but this thing is seriously gorgeous. And comfortable! I was kind of against the square at first but I’m so glad that Christian got me on-side. It’s a conversation piece. Yep, my toilet is a real conversation starter….what can I say?

The floor tile is from the store that never ceases to make me chuckle at the simplicity of the store name, The Tile Store. Soapbox moment warning! If there is one thing you take away from this post, let it be this: do not go to big box stores for your tiles without shopping around. The tile options that are available in this world will blow your mind! We have been so surprised at all the options that are out there, many at very reasonable prices. Yes, you can get lovely tiles at Big Box stores, but if you have a specific “vision”, shop around. Go to the mom & pop shops that only sell tile…you’ll be glad you did. Don’t compromise your vision just because Home Depot doesn’t sell it.

Moving on…..we opted for a teak-look vanity. Originally, I was really feeling the ash-grey look vanity (which this very same one comes in, by the way) but again, points for Christian for convincing me of the “warmth” of teak (I love that my husband actually cares about these decisions):

We picked up both the toilet and the vanity at Toronto Vanity, where Miguel was super helpful and responsive. If you’re into a bit more of a contemporary/ modern look, this is the place to be. Most vanities come with the sink top, faucet (see photo below for a close up of the faucet), AND medicine cabinet for around $1,000. Even IKEA vanities have a hard time beating that price…trust us…we did our research. What’s great is that there are about 8 different faucets you can choose from, all for the same all-in price. Customization without all the “I love this faucet more but it’s twice the price” drama. Cuz you know I’m always the one who wants the more expensive one. Always.

Now for a zoom-in on the backsplash, which matches the tile in the shower surround. It’s a beautiful ice-blue frosted square glass tile. Again, we shopped around and had a hard time finding anything like this for under $8.00/ sq foot….on a whim, we hit up Ceramic Tile World in the east end of Toronto, and there she was…on sale for $5.00/ sq foot. It was destiny! And I’m in love with my marble soap pump with a hint of sparkle that I picked up at the Bay…it’s so glam-squad.

Finally, the shower head. Christian loves the square look so I let him run with this one. We went to Bath City in the Beach and they were amazing. Honestly, if you want to learn everything you ever wanted to know about plumbing on a Saturday afternoon, go here. Their hours are awesome and the staff are super knowledgeable. We picked up the shower system and glass shower door from them. A+

The best part is? The shower head doesn’t even come close to hitting Christian in the chest…or head! It’s so tall! Yay! It’s a beautiful chrome finish rainfall shower and again, I’m in love. And yes, I *might* sometimes sing into the wand that you see in the photo, as it totally resembles some kind of futuristic microphone. Whatever.

What’s cool is that we really stuck to our “vision” board and things really came together! What the heck did people do before Pinterest?

So, there you have it! Our 95% complete bathroom! More to come on artwork, towel bars and other riveting finishing touches. But we’ll save that for later…too much excitement already for just one post!

xo M

The Carpets are IN!

April 16, 2013August 31, 2015Leave a comment

Yes, shout it from the rooftops and sound the gong: we have carpets! It was a looooooong wait, but last week, the carpets went in, and they are beautiful.

We decided on the Martha Stewart carpet collection at Home Depot, in “Gull”, which is a grey-ish off white. Very neutral….and so CLEAN. My heart does a little flip flop everytime I get upstairs. Let’s bask in the glory of before and after photos, shall we?

Main hallway facing the bedroom BEFORE:

And the same view AFTER:

Here’s a view of our master bedroom, just after Christian put down the plywood (following the extremely drawn-out flooring saga) in preparation of the carpet:

And a “progess” photo, just after the underlay went down:

But before we get to the final reveal, let’s take a trip back in time to 2009, from photos that we took on our very first day of official home ownership. Wowee:

Yeah, we’ve come a long way, baby…..

It’s beautiful. And our house totally smells like new car! Now it’s time to slowly put things back together….

The Flooring Saga

April 1, 2013November 19, 20131 Comment

On Thursday, the carpet was supposed to go in upstairs. This would have marked a huge step towards the finish line in our upstairs renovation. Notice I said “supposed to”….

Let’s rewind for a minute: two Saturday’s ago we put out the plea to our wonderful friends: Give us a few hours of your time, we will provide pizza and beer, and our floor will go bye-bye. Two bedrooms with laminate flooring + bedroom/ hallway with wood parquet….four hours of work, max. Progress was happening:

As the floor rip-up party continued, we kept running into sections of excessive glue and nails….someone never wanted this flooring to be removed! Then we got to the master bedroom. As Christian and his brother began pulling up the laminate, they realized that for some ridiculous make-us-want-to-egg-their-house reason, the previous home owners of our place decided to GLUE down the wood laminate flooring in our bedroom.

Yep, glue.

For those of you who haven’t worked with wood laminate, it is designed to “float” over the subfloor or old flooring. Nowhere is there ever any mention of glue.

Less than half of it came up, leaving us with this mess:

Some google searching provided several ideas on how to pull it up: we bought a heat gun and slowly melted the glue inch by inch so we could scrape it up (the most painfully frustrating method), we rented a pneumatic
chisel from Home Depot (which is the LOUDEST thing I have ever heard) to try to chisel it up, poured hot water on it (didn’t help), shoveled it (too hard on the back), yelled at it….and then I cried. 40 square feet of laminate flooring was not budging.

We were told the carpet installation company would “assess” the floor and offer suggestions on how to remove it. Didn’t happen. The carpet installers took one look at that stubborn floor and left. We were totally defeated, and stuck with our chaotic mess for at least another week.

On Good Friday, Christian decided to give the floor one last shot. He got his circular saw, set it to a shallow setting, and literally cut out the floor.

It worked. My amazingly patient and persevering husband tried everything, even after I had given up and admitted defeat, and he found a solution.

A few sheets of plywood to level the floor with the rest of the room, an we were set for carpet installation….and a relaxing Easter weekend!

IKEA date night

March 25, 2013March 20, 20161 Comment

Date night has been a little lacking these past weeks as Saturday nights are spent passed out on the couch after a full day of work, and weeknights are spent (trying to) catch up on household chores that didn’t get accomplished on the weekend!

We originally were going to do the “wait at the doors when the store opens” trip to IKEA first thing in the morning, but I convinced Christian that we could turn our little shopping spree into somewhat of a date night.

Our mission? Get the materials for our first IKEA hack! Haven’t been to the IKEA Hackers website?? You are missing out on a lifetime of furniture recreation opportunities! Go there….NOW….I will wait…..

Ok, so back to “date night”: our mission was to purchase PAX wardrobe sliding closet doors for our newly built upstairs hall closest, as well as interior shelving to help create storage inside. After conducting a lot of research, we quickly learned that other sliding doors are either a) way overpriced, or b) just plain ugly. IKEA Pax are inexpensive and come with a 10 year warranty! We’ve had the full wardrobe system in our bedroom and its been going strong for 3+ years.

But back to date night. Our first stop was food, including this odd sparkling pear drink that was rather delicious:

Horse, or no horse, we were getting meatballs:

After a romantic dining experience in the IKEA cafeteria (for future date night reference, they are licensed!) it was off to pick up our goodies. Our original plan for interior shelving was to use Expedit, but we quickly realized that adjustable shelving was way better, so we instead picked up the deep Billy Bookcase. For the exterior doors, the glossy white ones we wanted we on sale (score! Like these ones but in white). A few $1 ice creams later, we were ready to rock and roll

The best part of the night was actually fitting everything in our car. Saving on the doors + saving $50 in delivery = successful trip to IKEA!

Mark my words: never buying a car without a hatchback again!

Happy shopping 🙂

Okay, now there’s REALLY nowhere but up from here…

March 8, 2013March 20, 20161 Comment

We thought we had hit rock bottom in the renovation. That night where everything was going wrong, and then our coffee table broke? Yeah, we were pretty sure we were movin’ up and movin’ on. Nope.

The tub is in (yay!) but not draining properly. Christian first assumed that he’d made an error in connecting the bathtub to the drain. We had a plumber help with the rough in and then Christian did the rest. So, off to Home Depot for another drain kit and another $25 down the drain (no pun intended. Okay, maybe it was). After hours of work and more failed attempts, it was clear that this wasn’t the core problem. A few inches of water would take an hour to drain. Not exactly our dream bathtub.

So, we called another plumber and he was at our place within an hour. He quickly found the culprit: someone had done a handy-man special to our drain in the past. And by handy-man special, I mean literally plugging the larger pipe with some sort of goop in order to affix the smaller pipe arm to it. Check it out:

A plumbing professional I am not, but I can tell you pretty quickly what is wrong with this picture….doesn’t it look like chewing gum was used to seal this? We learned that this was linked back even to our old shower not draining properly. We’re starting to se an unfortunate theme based on the five-elbows-to-make-a-pipe situation that we uncovered a few weeks back.

So, out it came. We are so happy to report that the new tub is draining perfectly, however, our powder room and only other bathroom in the house (well, toilet and sink at least) looks like this:

We have now added to our list the need to re-drywall the back wall of the powder room. Currently, we have no light or mirror in there….so I’m doing hair an make-up at work this week. Or not at all. I’m kind of over it.

And our spirits? Shall we NOW tentatively say: “there’s no where but up from here?”. Better not jinx it.

happy healthy huggetts

a lifestyle blog for those looking for a bit more "happy" in their life.