A little turquoise for the girlie room

Just a minor tweak, but I added some turquoise to Laine's room and it is finally clean during daylight hours so I took some pictures. I think I mentioned starting the project way back here. I saw a sheet set in some kids catalogue that was coral pink and turquoise and fell in love. Here is my attempt.

A canvas with her initial (sort of, her real name doesn't start with an L but she hardly knows that!). I had a left over canvas from the bedroom art project and I saw some cute inspiration art on an episode of Pure Design and thought it would be easy enough. So a big L from a font off the computer, the canvas and craft paint was all it took. Ok, and the steady hand of my creative husband - I made him paint it, I am not at all artistic.

Her is her sweet little self reading to bunny and dolly. She is reading Wendell Gets Dressed, a favorite right now. I added a turquoise table cloth to the end of her bed as a throw blanket. It was from the grocery store on sale for super cheap.

I changed out her pink one year birthday dress that my Great Grandma made for this slightly bigger and appropriately coloured dress that my Great Grandma made.

The lovely quilt/waterproof pad my talented friend Christina did as a baby gift for Lainey Jane makes the chair coordinate nicely.

Tell me I am not the only one who gets obsessed with a colour and wants to put it everywhere. Turquoise you're still my fav.

fall colours on my mind

School is up and running and the routine is hopping. I forgot how busy it is to cart the boys off to school (in different directions) and fill out notices, pack lunch and snack, and on it goes. I have been just going with the routine, and taking advantage of having less kids around during the day by ahem, shopping.

Does that kinda explain why I suddenly stopped posting? Sorry 'bout that. Today I have an unexpected day off so here is a sneak peak. Fall has been on my mind and I have done a tiny bit of rearranging....

Hey Jo, those are the books I bought because of their colour.

I can see you cringing from here! You too sis!

At least my mother is proud of me, I got the idea from her.

There ya go. Just a touch of fall.

Uniforms?

I wear a uniform to work so all the advice you read or see on TV about having pieces that are good for work and casual wear are really not that useful for me. It means I really don't have to dress up much during an average week. So, I wear a lot of jeans. A lot. But I still want a way to look interesting, cute, and feel like myself. All while being just a little bit trendy. That's why I love What I Wore Wednesday. Did I mention I just came off 6 years straight of being pregnant and/or breastfeeding? Yikes. The figure has settled down and now the wardrobe needs to be rebuilt.

So coming up for fall I have thought about clothes and what I can feel good in, afford and mix and match nicely. Besides enjoying WIWW at the Pleated Poppy (where I am linking up today), I have taken some cues from this post about the mommy uniform at Sensibly Styled, and from Angie's Mom On The Go formulas from last fall at You Look Fab. I have also taken some inspiration from Jill at the Good Life for Less and her trendy self, I even bought her fall looks:book and it's very fun.

My uniforms or formulas are going to be based on the jeans as that is the hardest spot to fill in my wardrobe. I have 3 types of jeans and I made 2-3 formulas for each. Here is a glimpse of what I came up with.

Skinnies

I was totally inspired by Jill, Reachel, and Lisa. More dress type tunics are on my list, and I bought a darker long cardi today.

Formula #1- Tunic + skinnies + flats/boots

Skinnies comfort fit - Reitman's

Navy tunic T - H&M (as a side note, wow do they have cute stuff in that store!)

flats - can't really remember!

Formula #2 - T + long cardi + skinnies + flats/bootsSkinnies comfort fit - Reitman's

Aqua boyfriend T - Superstore ( Joe Fresh)

Grey Jersey cardi - Target (please come to Canada Target, I am begging!)

necklace - made by me

Grey loafer wedges - Payless

Straight Leg Jeans

Formula #1 - long sleeved T + straight leg jeans + flats/boots

Jeans Comfort fit - Reitman's

Grey top - Banana Republic

Multi strand necklace - Reitman's (hey, the jewelry was buy one get one free)

Black flats - Mark's Work Wearhouse (you can't see them, but they are super cute leather flats with a gathered detail)

Another version of formula #1

Straight leg jeans - GAP

Grey striped boatneck top - Superstore

Silver Hoops - Target

Grey loafer wedges - Payless (a yr or 2 ago)

Formula #2 - cardi + T + straight leg jeans + flats

This is the formula I have the most options with, I have many cardigans to choose from.

Straight Leg Jeans - GAP

Navy boyfriend fit T - Superstore

Green Cardi - Gap

CZ studs - Jewelry home party (can't remember the name)

Brown suede loafers - Lands End at Sears

Another version of formula #2

Straight Leg Jeans - GAP

White Ruffle T - Superstore

Brown Cardi - Banana Replubic

Blue pendant - Reitman's

Brown flats - Payless

Then I have some thoughts for bootcut jeans, but no pictures of that today.

I also made a few templates for skirts but that is also for another day.

This may seem over the top in terms of the amount of thought put into clothes. Maybe it is, that is my tendency. But I was hoping that by thinking things out I would save myself money (only buying what would work in my wardrobe) and time (in getting ready for school day mornings). It has worked in the budget department - so far - as I have bought jeans (but I really needed jeans, remember 6 years 3 babies?) and just a few tops. And when I was picking outfits, the possibilities were endless!

A new peice

I have fond memories of this coffee table at my Grandma and Grandpa B's house growing up. There is even a family legend (which is most likely true) of my Grandpa following us babies as we held onto the table and cruised around so he could polish off our grubby handprints!

My Mom has had this table in her living room for a while. Now it has come to live with us. I have no illusions of keeping it handprint free though and am planning on painting it light grey sometime soon.

It fills the space much better than the old ottoman. And it has great details...

I was going to post pictures of this sooner but I just cleared all the clean laundry off the couch today!

On Display

On a recent trip to my Mum's house I was very impressed with how she stores her earrings! Little candle holders have been transformed into jewelry display. Pottery Barn, are you paying attention? I think you should takes notes!

I am a very visual person, my mindset being "if I can't see it, then it doesn't exist". Maybe it was some issue when I was a baby but I never developed object permanence! That means if my jewelry is in a drawer, then I probably won't think to wear it.

Look how she has all her earrings out on her makeup table! They look beautiful and they are also very accessible. My kinda storage!

And now for the gratuitous cute baby shot:

Townhouse Powder Room

It seems with everything I hate while it is happening, I love to brag about how great it was once it's over. Renos are no exception. Maybe because the current reno though long and drawn out, has been relatively painless.

And since my current reno is still in the rough stages I am bringing you a flash from the past Before and After. This is the main floor powder room in all it's flower border- paintable textured wallpaper- hand stenciled glory. Yup, it was quite the work of art.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ignore the potty and step stool.

I didn't take this pic to share with the world, it just worked out that way.

This whole place was fixed up quite affordably, and the powder room was no exception. It got the same laminate floor as the rest of the main floor.

After the wallpaper was carefully removed, which took a while, it got a coat of blue paint.

The mirror came down too, it was replaced by a mirror from my Grandma B which I painted white. I couldn't part with it so the mirror is now in my baby girl's room.

The door got painted, the door knob replaced (huge difference). The new light fixture over the sink isn't pictured here.

The counters got painted and held up very well for the 3 years we lived there.

Then we hung a new towel holder and some shelves left over from our last place and there ya go.

BEFORE

AFTER

It doesn't look like much but it made a big difference at the time!

What the heck should I do with these?

Any ideas?

These are 2 full sized fair trade coffee sacks that I got for a dollar each last Christmas.

A ton of design blogs are featuring grain sack/burlap pillows but these are too scratchy for that.

I was thinking of covering the back of my Living Room bookcases with them, but I think it would get lost, they are pretty dark already.

Anywho, I like them but I am stumped as to how to make use of them. Any thoughts?