What I'm Reading

I was first introduced to this book and Ree's blog through Emma's Food Coma blog. I recently ordered this through Chapters, and was so excited when it arrived last Friday. I am about 3 chapters in so far, and I have a feeling it's going to be a great read. Ree first introduced retelling her personal love story on her blog when she had writers block one day, her readers loved it, so she's retelling her blog chapters as well as "the rest of the story" in this new book.

Can't beat a good cowboy country love story...and you have to love that it's true!

Have you found any good books lately?

Goodbye Harvest

This weekend I took down my fall decorations. I am excited to decorate for Christmas, as it will be the first one in this house, and although I will miss knowing exactly where everything should go; it will be fun to start over!

Hope you had a great weekend. Have you started putting up your Christmas decorations?

Thrifted Corner

This is one of my favourite little places of our house. Almost everything in this corner was treasure hunted or "rescued" and refinished or refined. Since moving, the treasures at the end of the roads haven't been as rich (probably a good thing, as I really have no space left for new pieces), but I do miss those days!

My desk is a drop leaf table I picked up at an estate sale for $5! I stripped the top of it for the natural wood, but the legs have a chipped gorgeous alligator patina thing going on that I just couldn't remove!

The chair was bought from a friend of a friend, and is one of the only ones remaining in that gorgeous green (I painted the press-backs black)

The ladder was found walking home from the bus one day. A retirement community centre was throwing it away. In true Jessica fashion, I picked that puppy up and walked it the rest of the way to my house! I must have looked nuts to the passer-bys!It is an extension ladder and has another piece that is stored in my garage. I love it as a magazine rack!

The FYI letters came from value village, and the idea is the picture frame (grabbed at an antique show) will be turned into a cork board, so I can leave FYI messages for Chris and myself!

Have you found any good treasures lately? Do you have a favourite part of your house that just makes you smile?

Happy Friday!

It's Starting!

I have a habit of buying Christmas presents all year round, but I put a major dent in my Christmas list last weekend. This was the first year I could wrap them right away too, as I will be hosting this year and my parents are coming to me!

Although I can't officially start decorating until after American Thanksgiving (a promise I made to Caitlin my bestest American friend many moons ago), I can start thinking about my baking! Chatelaine magazine just put out their best 57 holiday cookie recipes, and I can't wait to pick out some of my favourites. Every year I attend a Christmas Cookie Club with Dixie Anne, so I always love coming up with the recipe i'll make for that!

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? Do you have any holiday traditions or recipes you rely on every year?

PS- I made the curtains from the bed sheet when I was home last week, here's a picture of how they turned out! I think they need tie-backs, but i'm pretty happy with them!

Taste of Home (literally)

When I was home last week, my grammy gave me a recipe for her favourite brownies. I tried them out last Thursday, and they are super fudgey goodness! I usually don't like nuts in my brownies, but they work well in this recipe. I will never buy a boxed brownie mix again:)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
2 well beaten eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:
Grease an 8" square pan
Mix butter & sugar, add eggs.
Add dry ingredients and pour mixture into the pan.
Bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Enjoy!

Sackville

I was "back in the Sack" as they say in the Maritimes on Tuesday recruiting students at my Alma Mater Mount Allison University. Sackville is a gorgeous small town that I adore. It's also a great  central point of all three Maritime capital cities; you can get to Fredericton, Halifax and Charlottetown from Sackville in under 2.5 hours. Here are some of my favourite shots; I didn't make it to the marshes this trip, which is another must do, but there's always next time!

 Mel's Tea Room is legendary, serving milkshakes and breakfast to MTA students for a very long time

 The Vogue Theatre is a cute one screen theatre that had midnight toonie movies when I was in school. There were a few great girls nights held at the Vogue!

 Bridge Street is a wonderful little coffee shop, they have lots of yummy tea options and their breakfast bagels are delicious!

I loved the architecture of this old church, so beautiful!

Have a great weekend!

Taste of Home

It's always nice to go home, everything's just a little bit more relaxed and comfortable; it feels good.  I had a great time catching up with family and friends, as well as taking the time to capture some of my favourite places and people!

If you're ever in Fredericton, the Urban Almanac General Store is a great place to check out. They have lots of fun house stuff from small wares to furniture. They also now serve Tasha Tea which is fun to try while you're browsing!

Pretty Steeple!

Abby & Emma were great sports with the camera!

I also got to spend some time with my "little" brother! It's Movember season as you can tell!

It was nice to spend some time at home, although I must say now that my old room has been converted to a sewing room and I have little kittens and a handsome man waiting for me, coming back to my new home isn't that hard either!

Frenchy's: Where it all Began!

For those of you that don't know, Frenchy's is a used clothing franchise dispersed throughout Atlantic Canada. This is where I really first learned to thrift shop at the tender age of 13! I always make a point of stopping in whenever I am home, and the joke is I have all the fancy stores in Toronto, but I really can't wait to get my next "Frenchy's Fix". The thing that is key about this place is that all of the items are the same price, so a designer t-shirt and a Wal-Mart one are all the same price. It's the thrill of the hunt, and one of the best places in Atlantic Canada to find great unique pieces at great deals!

These are my good friends from school Crystal (right) and Jessica. Crystal was the first person to drag me in to Frenchy's way back when; she had found a great pair of navy palazzo pants (remember those!), and I had to check it out:) Thanks Crystal!

This trip's haul (and I only had 30 minutes):
Great silk j.jill blouse- $3.95
Wool military j.crew skirt- $4.00
Anne Klein summer skirt with pockets- $4.00
Khaki button down safari dress- $4.95

Weekend Getaway

I'm in the homeland this weekend! I had to be in NB for work on Tuesday, so I thought i'd make a weekend out of it, and surprise my mom. Turns out my dad was the one surprised, because he showed up at the wrong airport, and I was nowhere to be found! Thankfully my friend Jessica was up for the rescue!

I'm looking forward to seeing these two ladies, we took this picture when I was home in the summer; I think it will be one I treasure for a long time. My mom, grammy and I spent almost every Saturday together when I was growing up, and I have learned a lot from both of them!

 I'm hoping to see the munchkins too, my cousins are always a must see attraction!!

I'll be sure to take some good thrifting and NB patina pics to share next week!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Lighting

Because we rent, we're limited with the changes we can make to our house. To date, all I have really done is change all of the window treatments and remove the wallpaper boarders from our spare bathroom and office. When we were in Nashville I found some amazing light fixtures that I would love to incorporate into my design one day.

 This one was in Jason Parker Counce's booth at the antique show- I love its rustic qualities.

These ones were all over the hotel, and I fell in love at first sight!

This was at Merchant's Restaurant, and I think it would be neat in a giant bathroom!

This image is from Edie's Life in Grace Blog, from her 31 days series. Edie's new kitchen features these gorgeous industrial pendants that I absolutely adore. If I had any say in the matter, these would be over top of my buffet in the kitchen tomorrow!

Happy Thursday, we're almost at the weekend:) 

Comfort Food

There a couple of things that I have found come pretty naturally to me, one of them is baking and the other is thrift shopping. I went thrift shopping on my own this weekend, and spent almost 2 and a half hours in one store scouring through the racks and shelves. There were some awesome finds including some fabric that I am going to  use to make a tablecloth, curtains and one I just couldn't pass up but don't know what I'll do with it yet.

The top piece is a vintage fitted sheet that is going to be a table cloth, the middle one is this gorgeous heavy sateen that I am thinking pillows or maybe a recovering project, and the bottom one is a light sage queen sheet that is going to be curtains for our front room. Now that the tree has lost it's leaves, Chris has requested some curtains!

Here's what she looks like currently (I went with the design on the left hand side...this was my pic to send to my mom to help with the decision):

Tonight when I got home, I decided I wanted something sweet and comforting to go with dinner. We had some apples that were starting to go soft, so I decided an apple crisp would be perfect. It hit the spot, and made me feel a bit more at home (my parents have an apple orchard, so apple crisp was a staple growing up).

I've just started a new job, so my blog may be a little less frequent over the next few weeks, but I'll be sure to check in a few times a week!

Tailgate Antique Show

I was thrilled when I found out that the Tailgate Antique Show was on in Nashville when we were in town! I knew I had at least one day on my own when Chris was in meetings, so I decided to make a day of it. There wasn't much difference between the big  shows I've been to in Ontario & this one in Nashville aside from the obvious Americana and some crazy taxidermy. They had a ton of samplers, which I dream of finding in a thrift store one day because they're far too expensive for me to pick up at a show.

 These boxes were everywhere...i'm thinking I may frame this picture as art! The colours are gorgeous!

 My good friend Dixie-Anne loves taxidermy, so I had to take these pics, I couldn't believe what they had!

 I loved these industrial bins turned into tables!

This was Jason Parker Counce's booth, I fell in love and bought lots of supplies for DIY (old keys, scrabble tiles) and of course a jar! Everything he had was gorgeous. I also bought a handmade lavender owl he makes out of vintage materials that smells amazing! I love the idea of mounting baskets as shelves!

All in all it was a great trip to the show! If you're ever in Nashville they have a flea market at the fair grounds every fourth weekend that sounds like a good time!

Have a great weekend!

A Walk Down Broadway

Chris and I were in Nashville last week for an extended long weekend. He had a conference and I got to tag along. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in Opryland know for it's Christmas spirit (more on that later), but it was the trip downtown that really made me feel like we were in Nashville. There were boot stores, honky tonks and BBQ joints everywhere you looked. Here's some of my favourite pics from our afternoon downtown.

 This was a major inspiration piece! I love love loved it and am thinking of making one myself for my kitchen, stay tuned for the DIY!

Famous Jacks BBQ, we showed up at the right time, when we left the line was out the door!

 The sampler plate was amazing!

 This was Tootsies Orchid Lounge at 2pm- it was packed! There were two bands playing, this guy was definitely better than the other option!

I loved this restaurant (Merchant's), we stopped for tea and the best peach cobbler we've ever had while we were waiting for our bus.  I thought it would be a great venue for a wedding...even their bathroom sign is gorgeous!

I may have walked away empty handed, after trying on at least a hundred pairs of cowboy boots, but we had a great day!