Tada!

We got the artwork back from the framers and hung them this afternoon. Phew. They look exactly how we planned and help to bring much needed character into the new dinning room. The framer did a good job, but after the delay excuses and joking I needed a U-haul to pick them up I don’t plan on using them again.

The background on the art is Nick and I both love England (union jack Christmas pillows) and just about all things British (especially British rock music). When our wonderful friends Jen and Todd won a vintage London Transit bus blind off EBay and they let us have the remaining stops. They framed theirs to be much taller with I think 10 stops, and looks amazing in their 1.5 story kitchen against a stone wall. (Thank you Jen and Todd)

The room is slowing coming together, but since everything is black, white or grey I need to start bringing in some more colors. I brought home some fabric swatch books to look at window fabric options, but picking any fabric is always really hard for me so curtains could take awhile. Also the height of the chandelier drives me crazy. It’s a work in progress.

Art Held Hostage

I took Nick’s birthday present to the local framer who was having a 60% off sale. They promised it would be ready in two weeks, and we planned the scheduled pick up day with time to hang the artwork for numerous visitors to come and admire the finished product. Well, the pick up day was one week ago and it is still not ready. We take turns checking in on the progress, but still the date gets pushed back for various reasons. I know the artwork is great, but I had no idea they would be holding it hostage from us. I will share photos once we finally get it back.

Great Find – The Cross

A random online search today revealed this great online store, The Cross. The merchandise is a great mix of vintage glam and found objects. The only down fall, the store is located in Vancouver so I won't get to experience their historic Yaletown store anytime soon. Below are some great products from the site, I am seriously thinking about ordering the Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis pillows.

Shoe Closet

One of the items on my to do list for the New Year was organize my office, including my shoe and purse closet. One of my first projects when we bought the house was to turn the closet in my office into a shoe and purse closet. It is a great space and makes getting dressed much easier in the morning not having to look for shoes. This past weekend I spent a whole afternoon weeding through the unworn shoes, stuffing purses to keep their shape and cleaning all the leather with non-alcohol baby wipes. Above is a photo of the finished product. I am thinking of panting the inside a color for some interest, but plain white does not distract from the shoes. I also pulled some tear images I had of some other great shoe closets.

These are individually stuffed shoes. I did not take my closet this far.

Here is Donatella Versace's closet from an old InStyle magazine. She had an equally wonderful purse closet.


This women built cabinets in her bathroom to store all her shoes. I love the library ladder, but wonder what the humidity would do to the shoes.

Belated Christmas Gift

I received a belated Christmas gift today, two union jack pillows From Karen Hilton Design. The fun color combos are a great splash of color on our dull brown sofa. I love it when Christmas gets extended!