100th Post! DIY Hot House

This is my 100th post...i'm not sure when I started down this adventure that I thought I'd get to one hundred, but here we are:)

My parents posted some pictures of their latest DIY project yesterday morning, and I absolutely had to share them with you. It seems like every summer my dad builds something new for my mom. So far, he's renovated the house, built a front deck, a shed, and a pergola...if that's not love, i'm not sure what is (although I have joked  that he could be plotting to kick mom out of the house)!

Their latest project is a hot house. Growing up my brother and I used to play in my grandparents' hot house in all seasons. I don't think we actually ever assisted with any potting or growing of plants, but we sure enjoyed making "chive soup" on the hot stove and playing house!

This is my daring mother staining the side window roof!

They built this structure from their own plan...or in the baking world, from scratch which is pretty impressive. They used some old windows from our house as well as the small old wood stove.

Good job guys!

Christmas in July Cherry Cheesecake

We went to a Christmas in July Party on the weekend, which is an annual tradition for one of our friends. Our friend goes all out, decorating her entire house (i'm talking large inflatable snow globe out front, Santa flag flying and of course a tree and lights). The best part of the evening was when a little boy walking by with his mom and dad exclaimed "Mommy, why are they pretending it's Christmas?"

I was one of many on dessert duty, and went with a very simple cherry cheesecake. This is my grandmother's recipe and when I say simple...I mean simple. It's not officially no bake because you have to to bake the crust, but it's pretty darn close. 

Eileen's Cherry Cheesecake
1 and 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
6 Tbsp butter or margarine melted
1/4 cup sugar
8oz cream cheese softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 tub cool whip
I can cherry pie filling

Mix graham crumbs, sugar and butter. Press into pan, bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes. Cool

Blend cream cheese with icing sugar until smooth. Fold in cool whip. Spread over cooled base. Spread pie filling on top.

Fab Find Friday: Bobbins

I picked these bobbins up at a flea market a while back, and for some reason they caught my eye this week. I've seen a ton of them at antique shows with wool wrapped around them and in decorative positions. They currently live in an old wire egg basket I have, but they could definitely be repurposed into candle sticks!

Happy Friday everyone:) We're celebrating Christmas in July this weekend and i'm planning to hit up the aberfoyle antique market for some design and refinishing inspiration!

Window Shopping: My Dream Come True

Chris and I spent one morning on PEI touring Charlottetown with a coffee and tea in hand. We happened across Young FOLK & The Kettle Black and quickly realized this was most definitely one of my dreams made into reality! This shop had a quaint coffee shop on the first floor and then a second floor filled with antiques and handmade unique treasures! 

An old window filled with resin and buttons

Loving the handmade letters

Chris and I almost made this barn board door handle coat rack a couple of months ago...was cool to see it completed. I think the faucet handle one would be cool in a bathroom to hang towels on. The top racks were keys in key holes...

Have you come across any cool shops lately?

Atlantic Tour: Georgetown PEI

As I mentioned in Friday's post, Georgetown is PEI's hidden gem...not terribly hidden as they have a famous restaurant in the Tourism guide, but a wonderful sleepy little town with so much maritime charm! Here are some of my favourite shots of Georgetown!

The Kings Playhouse has a traditional Ceilidh every Tuesday night! 

The little harbour/marina had tons of old fishing shacks, great patina and awesome nautical images.

I couldn't stop taking pictures!

Fab Find Friday

So we made it back safe and sound on Wednesday night. We had an amazing time in the maritimes, the wedding was beautiful, catching up with family and friends was wonderful and we squeezed in some great beach time!

The highlight on Prince Edward Island (and my fab find today) was definitely the Historic Georgetown Inn. I have never been to the east end of the island, and I must say it is worth the trip. The inn is run by Dawn and Joel. The accommodations are lovely and dinner at the restaurant makes it definitely worth the drive! Joel sources the majority of his ingredients locally, and the result is fabulous! Dawn is a great source of information about the island, and always has a recommendation for a day trip or two! If you make it to Georgetown, you must go to Basin Head Provincial Park and check out the Singing Sands Beach!

Happy Friday to you all! This weekend will be spent catching our breath and saying goodbye to dear friends. I'll be featuring pictures and stories from our trip next week.

Fab Find Friday: Singer Buttonholer

As you can probably tell, i'm a bit behind this week! Chris and I are headed to my beautiful friend Jess' wedding this weekend, and it's just been a crazy time trying to tie up all the loose ends before we leave.

The Fab Find is brought to you by my sweet friend Dixie Anne this weekend. She found me this original Singer Buttonholer complete with instruction manual and original case. This was a mega find for the green machine! Speaking of my sewing machine, remember when I told you all the parts arrived...turns out I was still missing one critical item- the rubber ring for the bobbin winder...I ordered one off ebay and am hoping it's here when we get back!

It kind of looks like a space ship!

Pristine condition

Close up.

Happy Weekend, we'll be spending it with good friends, close family and hopefully some nice weather and good food! I won't be posting until Friday of next week, but promise to bring back lots of good pictures and ideas!

Save the Date

This is my first Wedding Wednesday post...and I am making a promise (to myself and you) not to turn it into a very regular post, but thought it would be fun once or twice a month to share some of the projects i'm working on or thinking about for the wedding.

I have seen a number of fun save the date pictures on pinterest with the wedding date on someone's shoe, hand, balloons, a barn, etc (you can see them on my wedding inspiration board here).

I found some tin number and letter tags in the bargain section of Michael's the other day when I went looking for my frame (they were $1 each. I picked up our initials and the numbers of our wedding date thinking I might be able to turn this into some fun picture or decor idea.

For the first round, I placed them on one of my wooden crates (seen here)

Then I took a close up 

Then I took a sepia toned picture

Then Chris made it Fancy (he is definitely more fancy than I)

The idea would be to send this out to all of our guests via email or facebook...since the letters only cost $8 and I did the photography myself- it's a pretty cost effective save the date option! I'm going to try hanging the numbers next with twine on my neighbours fence to see if I like that better!

Happy Wednesday:)

We all scream...

Chris' parents gifted me the ice cream maker attachment for the kitchenaid at Christmas this year. I attempted a chocolate recipe to start that was a bit of a bust due to too much chocolate (I know is there such a thing) and the batter not being cold enough.

The other night we were craving a cold treat, and we had an abundance of raspberries that were starting to get a bit soft, so we put two and two together and made raspberry sorbet. So I consulted what I am now calling the Ice Cream bible and found an easy raspberry sorbet recipe.

1. Puree 4 cups of raspberries, 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of whole milk.

2. Stir in 2 Tsp of lemon juice

3. Strain your mixture to remove seeds (I used my sifter for this)

4. Set your mixer to stir and add your batter

5. Let it mix for 20-30 minutes until desired consistency is reached (you can see it getting firmer)

6. Enjoy!

Fab Find Friday: Eyelet and Holy Lace

As Chris alluded, we ended up finding an antique show when we were up North on the weekend...I think they knew I was coming:) It turned out to be a bit of a bust for the most part until I got to one of the very last booths where a sweet lady was selling her doilies at 2 for $1 (much better than the $5 or 3 for $12 another dealer had them listed at). I bought a few and then found a great piece of eyelet she sold to me for $2 and a nice lace runner (albeit a tad holy) for $4. 

I think the eyelet would make a sweet kitchen curtain and I have plans of applying part of the lace runner on a burlap table cloth or runner!

As a side note, my slide plate and bobbins arrived in the mail yesterday...looks like I might get to some sewing projects this weekend!

Holstee Manifesto...a life shattering experience

I'm not sure exactly how I came across the Holstee Manifesto, but when I did, it spoke to me. I originally bought it for my office, but I love it so much I decided to hang it up at home...that and it says "If you don't like your job, quit", which I decided was a bit risky for an HR Manager's office!

The poster arrived a couple of weeks ago and I set out to get a frame for it. Michael's had their frames on sale for 50% off, so I bought a plain black one. Once I got it home, I unpacked the frame outside and noticed the corner was a bit rough. I set it aside and went to look for the receipt to exchange it. In the two minutes I was inside a gust of wind knocked over the frame and the glass shattered; that was the end of searching for the receipt! I framed it without the glass, touched up the corner, and it's ready to be hung.

I still haven't landed on the final spot, but i've got three picked out. I think the landing of the stairs is going to win out!

CHRIS' GUEST POST: SANS PATINA

CAR-tiquing

So, we've just returned home from a great weekend up north in Gravenhurst. We had travelled all that way to celebrate the marriage of our good friends Shreyansh and Archana, and decided to stick around for the weekend. We had a great stay at Inn on Bay in Gravenhurst, where the host and the Inn exceeded our expectations. This is #1 reason why I agree to let Jessica book B&B's as opposed to hotels when we go away. #1A is the awesome value as B&Bs are generally well below the cost of a hotel. I'm sure Jessica will get into more detail on this in one of her regular blog posts. 

AS FOR ME, I'm going to showcase some meat and potatoes as opposed to the usual girly stuff Jessica posts.

Case and Point Below. Cudos to BALA Legion for ensuring that I didn't spend the entire day Sunday inside the arena at the Antique Show.

Bala Legion Car Show: Sunday, July 1st, 2012.

1ST GENERATION (1964-1973)

FORD MUSTANG 302 - CUSTOM ENGINE

The 302 was originally
introduced in 1968

This Custom Built Ford Race Engine
is definitely not original but clearly
this was built with both beauty and power in mind

The interior has been completely restored. The driver's seat is just inviting you to sit down and go for a ride. The dash has a sleek and sexy black/wood design, and the oversized steering wheel, and wonderful PEARL WHITE shift knob makes it easy to clear all four gears, without realizing you've topped out the speedometer in what I'm assuming will only take mere seconds with this custom engine. The original 1968 included two engine options that would give most modern cars a run for their money in the half mile. 

These two engine options from 1968 carry more horses than the current base model 2012 Mustang, and the 427cid is only 20 horses short of the current 412 hp 2012 GT model.

427cid 4V V-8 390hp

428cid 4V V-8 335hp (Cobra Jet)

This vehicle will turn heads on any roadway it drives down. I call this SANS PATINA, because this car has completely removed any signs of PATINA it may have once had, and would look sexy beside any of its younger sisters produced today. THE BEST NEWS IS THAT JESSICA HAS ALREADY AGREED THAT I CAN BUY IT ONE DAY! (Only a few expenses to take care of before then, wedding, house, car loans, student loans...). 

Ahh well, a man can have a dream can't he?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRx2xzz7cJc