Back to Blogging

After a year hiatus, I am back to blogging!

What have I been up to? Well aside from being an interior decorator, illustrator and designer, I have now become a real estate broker!

Many factors led me to pursue real estate but one of them was this book. "How to buy or build a home of your own", published in 1947. I found it amongst the many old books that line the bookshelf at  our family cottage. This book was written in post-war time and enjoying home life had become a priority again as the soldiers returned home to their families. A housing boom would start in many North-American cities along with my own, Montreal. 

This book documents how to buy a home, it has extensive home plans to build from scratch but it also discusses gardening, landscaping, decorating and organizing the home. I really enjoyed seeing all of these topics in one book about making a home. It was a different time back then, people weren't trying to find happiness by accumulating material things like we do today. Home, family, and simple values were something to be proud of.

With this in mind I chose to approach real estate as a lifestyle, as homemaking, as gardening, as decorating, and enjoying the family nest however big or small!

Throughout my blog posts I will feature lifestyle stories, decorating, diy projects, green home ideas and more...stay tuned!

Favorite Things: T is not for Tracy

Ever since I was little, I remember having this chair in my parent's house. It was fun to think that the letter "T" on it stood for Tracy but I knew it was much older than me, probably 100 years older in fact! The letter "T" actually stands for "Toner", my great-great-grandmother's family name.

When my mom and her family immigrated to Montreal from Scotland in the 1950s, they didn't bring many belongings since they were traveling by boat. They had several trunks of clothing and small objects but they sold their furniture before they set sail. One exception was this chair that disassembled allowing it to make the trip across the pond. The hand painted leaves, berries and vines have developed a beautiful patina over the years which add to it's charm.

I am proud to now have this family heirloom in my home and to tell friends who come over it's story and that no in fact "T" does not stand for "Tracy".

Housewarming Herbs

I found this box at a garage sale, it had probably been used as a gift set for wine. Even though it had a strange purplish stain on it and was missing it's lid, I was looking forward to transforming it!

Some friends of mine had just moved into a new place and I wanted to give them a housewarming gift. I love having fresh herbs in my kitchen to cook with and I thought they would as well.

My local farmer's market had just started selling herbs for the season, I chose basil, thyme, parsley and oregano. Luckily the little square pots they came in fit perfectly side by side!

The box was made of a soft wood that I wanted to try my hand at carving. I printed out and transferred the letters onto the box with carbon paper. I got out my tools from a printmaking class I had taken years ago and after outlining the design with an exacto knife I started carving out around the letters. At first I wasn't sure how it would turn out but after completing one letter I could see it was going to look great.

When all the carving was done, I painted the whole box a soft black. Next with light grey paint I used a dry brush technique to bring out the raised areas and give it the aged look I was going for.

Fantastic Frames

This is my living room before I got my new couch and redecorated. I had this beige leather one for a few years that was passed down to me. I took it because I needed a couch, it was in good shape, a neutral color...but I never really liked it! Since I didn't like the couch much I never really hung anything above it because it felt kind of temporary.

When I finally bought my new couch this is when I began to decorate and create the kind of living room I had always wanted.

I had been collecting old frames for several years, some weren't that old but some belonged to my great-grandfather in Scotland. I was never really sure what to do with them or what kind of photos or images would do them justice. I decided to hang the frames empty, after all they did feel like works of art.

From this close-up, you can see how all of the frames have a gold undertone but are very different in shape, size and detail from one and other.

This is one of my favorite "works of art" in my home.

Pot for a Plant

This metal plant pot was in the clearance section of a decorating store. It was discounted and discounted again....

To give this ugly pot a different look, I decided to cover it in jute string. I made several braids and used my glue gun to stick them to the pot. The sections between the braids were wrapped with the jute and glued every so often to keep them in place.
I bought a cherry tomato plant which looks great in my new rustic pot.