Unbeige My Heart goes south of the border

No, not Mexico. The other border! I'm Canadian yo!

January seems to be a quiet blogging time as it is, but I didn't want to let it slip into February without explaining where Unbeige My Heart has gone. The fam and I packed up some suitcases and went to sunny Los Angeles for the first half of 2013. It's a temporary move, giving us respite from the cruel Toronto winter, and allowing my husband to explore the American job market.

This is me. And that's the Hollywood sign. And it's January and I'm NOT WEARING A COAT.

My brother has been living in our house in Toronto (AHEM - are you using a coaster under that beer bro?), and we've rented a furnished house in an area of LA called Toluca Lake. It's suburban (like most of LA), friendly and quiet. Despite the fact that we're living in a tourist haven, my husband has still been working like crazy (albeit from home) and I've been passing the time much like I did in Toronto, only with less shivering, less ice scraping, and more time spent outdoors. Although we did get a chance to pop down to Disneyland, so my daughter could do this:

This hug lingered for an awkwardly long time. Good thing she's 2 and can get away with it.

For the next 5 months or so, I'm not really sure how this blog is going to look. Maybe it will detour into somewhat of a lifestyle blog...we'll see how interesting life is over the next little while. It does feel a bit like we've unbeiged our lives, if only just temporarily!

But I hope you'll stick with me and see where it goes! Looking ahead to our return to Toronto, we're planning some exciting room renovations (the basement and maybe another bathroom) as well as some outdoor landscaping projects that I'm really psyched about.

Well, I'm off to go smell the flowers in my backyard. Literally:)

A very merry Dining Room Reveal!

We actually finished wallpapering our dining room in October, but it took me a while to photograph it. The lighting is terrible (as you'll soon see), so I needed to find the right balance of artificial light, natural light, tidiness and free time to take the photos.

And, as it happens to be December, it's decorated for Christmas! So here we go.

This is the view in from our living room.

This is good real life representation of the colour of the wall paper. The paper is called Rothbury Trellis, by Thibaut. The colour is metallic on slate gray.



Put on your sunglasses for this next shot people! The view from our hallway into the dining room. And whoops, a plastic bag full of stuff hiding behind the chair.




The buffet.

My deer head bowl from the William Ashley warehouse sale and Mr. Fox.

     My daughter pronounced x's with a hard k sound for a while. It made Mr. Fox a hilarious thing to talk about.                      Go ahead, sound it out.

My husband's ever expanding whiskey and scotch collection. He keeps receiving bottles as gifts but hardly ever actually drinks it. He loves it though. Good to have on hand during the holidays for sure.

My daughter's hand print ornament from her first Christmas last year.

I dunno. I like this guy. He's cute.

Sparkly snowflake from HomeSense.



Another holiday necessity, a well stocked wine rack.

I bought this Santa wine bottle (or tree??) topper at The Bay years ago. Any of you that shop at The Bay have a story like this. Saw it, looked at the price tag, which said something like $9.99. Go to the cash register, it rings through at $1. The Bay is notorious for this.

It adds some fun to the room. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. 

I hope you like this dining room makeover! There was quite a bit of blood, sweat and tears that went into this room (without any actual blood or tears. Some sweat for sure though).

The before-before again, for dramatic effect:

Then the more recent before, post DIY wainscoting:

And the after:

One last poorly lit parting shot. Because why not.

Turning an old wine case into a Christmas centrepiece

I was at my parent's house for dinner and noticed this wooden wine bottle crate sitting in their 'junk to get rid of' pile. They actually used it as a CD tower in their living room for years. It says Napa Valley on the side. No one in our family has ever been to Napa Valley so I don't have a clue where they got it.

Inspired by this pin, I decided to make a Christmas centrepiece out of it.

A couple of empty mason jars,

some pine branches and pine cones from Superstore,

...and some leftover faux-berries from our garland and there you have it! Throw in some tea lights and you have a DIY Christmas centrepiece made for just a few dollars.

Sharing at:

ReStore Find: Occassional Chair [After]

I have never made over an actual peice of furniture before. What you are about to witness is a beginner's makeover of a chair that was on it's last life anyways (nothing to lose).

I picked up this chair for $25 from my local ReStore. The wood is gouged in places, and it wobbles. It was made for tiny people in the olden days who sat up straight and had healthy BMI's.

First I removed the seat. It unscrewed easily and I got to work peeling off the strips of florescent duct tape.

Then I picked out tons of tetanus laden rusty staples. Seriously I was so paranoid. Even though I think I'm up to date on my tetanus vaccinations, I was still scared. I got a tiny scratch and ran screaming to the sink to scrub it with antibacterial soap.

The previous seat was pretty hard and uncomfortable (the padding was hay or something. I didn't take a picture because it was gross and I just wanted it out of my house), so I added a layer of memory foam to the plywood.

Then I wrapped it with thin batting, and (clumsily) stapled it down.

[Note: I had to UNstaple the above batting twice because a) I had unevenly pulled the batting so the edges were lumpy, and b) I covered the holes that you screw into to secure the seat. It's all about trial and error!]

Next, I stapled on the fabric, after moving it around several times to make sure pattern on the top of the seat wasn't crooked.

Doesn't that look so professional?? HA HA.

This is what us novice furniture restorers like to call "Good Enough".

FYI, the fabric is called Greek Key in Buff, and I ordered it from Tonic Living.

The wood was quite damaged, and I'm not a professional wood rehabilitator (is that a thing?) so I reached for the white paint. Several coats later, I reattached the seat, and voila!

Not bad for a first timer right? (Please say right).

Pinterest fun at naptime

My daughter doesn't always nap in the afternoon, but when she does I try to spend part of it doing something relaxing. Nap time can't be all netflix and internet surfing floor mopping and toilet cleaning!! Am I right? Ha.

Inspired by this pin (note, link goes nowheresville):

http://pinterest.com/pin/181058847490679832/

I picked up some Christmas scrapbook paper, grabbed a fine tip black pen, and I copied the idea detail for detail.

Not my idea at all but a fun way to spend nap time and add some personality to gifts this Christmas!