Kate Party Mini Tour!

I had a fabulous time at my housewarming/kate party yesterday and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give all of you that couldn't attend a nice little peek at how things went (and some shots of my house - finally)! Woo! Let the mini tour commence!

*Knock knock*! We'll start out at the front door:


Come on in! Not much storage space for the winter essentials but that's what you seem to get in older houses. I usually have the coat hooks filled with reusable shopping bags (to grab and take to the store) and some coats but I cleared it out for guests to use! Mat is doing a great job keeping my entry muck free and bob (my friendly ficus) is keeping the shoe rack guarded safely! Next let's peek at the rest of the living room:


The living space is pretty simple but I really like it. After touring too many dingy rentals with super disguising carpets I was so happy to end up with this house and it's wonderfully clean laminate! Yay! It's nice to have that ikea bookcase with the wicker baskets to tuck away any loose crafting projects to make the place seem ultra tidy too! Oh and I still love our xmas tree! I wonder if fraser will let me keep it up year round....probably not...alas. The main bedroom is off the living area and is super tiny. It pretty much just squeaks in our bed, some side tables, my dresser and a mirror. It is not very photogenic so we'll move onto the kitchen next:


Oh hello enormous kitchen! You're so bright and cheery! And what's this where the kitchen table should be? Oh! A table of kate's crafty goods for your xmas shopping pleasure:


It was actually a little bit of a challenge fitting all my items on our table so I added a little side table add at the end of it to get all those clutches and pouches in there! It was a ton of fun to let my friends come over and buy things too! Thanks everyone!

Now as for the rest of the mini tour, let's check out another angle of the kitchen:


There is earl watching over the festivities! Notice my ample set up ready for your hydration! I even made some treats to go with our tea:


Mmm! Sugar and spice cookies from a recipe my mom got out of a mystery novel, cranberry bliss bar (thanks sbux) and some woodland sugar cookies! Those funny looking heart sort of ones have that slit so it can sit on the rim of your tea cup for added cookie convenience. Apparently I'm used to feeding friends like jim and not my female friends so I prepared way too many treats. Oh well. Better too many than not enough!

Fraser's hobby room and the washroom are off the kitchen (on the same wall as my kate party craft table) and much like the bedroom suffered a picture-less fate. At the end of the kitchen is the hallway with our laundry area and back door:


Perfect for excess coat and banjo storage. The back door opens onto a tiny deck and staircase to the backyard. There is even a pretty sweet view of the mountains from back there (link)! If you turn back around you get a glimpse at my most wondrous crafting nook (where I'm sitting right now typing this blog post!):


The whole wall behind my computer desk is open shelving perfect for all my crafting bits and bobs and the double windows is great for natural crafting light! I'm hoping to put up all those art pieces one of these days but for now they're just sitting on the shelves. Whew! I guess that's pretty much it for our house. I've still got a long list of improvements I'd like to make (like that embroidery hoop art project) but I'll save those for spare time in the new year! In the meantime fraser and I are really enjoying living here and after the roaring feedback from the housewarming I'd love to host a few more get-togethers here soon! Perhaps crafting or games nights? A wine and cheese party even? The options are limitless! What do you think of the place?

New Additions Update

Well apparently it didn't take me very long to get to decorating that tree so I thought I might as well update you right away! I decided a tree with lights and one big blue ornament was just too sad to have on display at my housewarming/kate party that is happening today so I gave in and bought some ornaments to tide me over until I find time to craft some! Hooray! Open 24hr stores to the rescue! Behold:


For a mere $14 I got myself some red bells (shiny and matte) as well as a plethora of little glass balls (in an assortment of blues and silvers)! What fun! And hey, I've even got enough of those glass ornaments left over to decorate another 6 trees! (Funny how the only ornaments I liked came in a 100 pack...) But such an improvement from that one giant ball I had before. In fact I still think he looks a little over-sized for the tree, but I wasn't up for hurting his feelings and demoting him:


I think the tree topper is my favourite part of our tree this year! Fraser was the one who thought of the brilliant idea of putting one of the felt yeti finger puppets I made a few years ago on there and he looks right at home:


Just check out that toothy grin! Hehe! Man I love xmas decorations with personality! The gimpier and more handmade the better if you ask me! Oh! And xmas cactus got a new home as well:


Goodbye shiny paper wrapping and hello ikea pea green pot! The living space is really starting to come together! What do you think of the new improvements?

New Additions!

With the holidays peeking right around the corner I am proud to say my hunt for a tiny fake xmas tree is over! Thanks to the keen shopping eye of my mother I got a lovely little 3 foot tree! I even put some little white lights on it:


Can you believe that is 135 lights? I bought a string of 35 a while back hoping to find a tree then figured it probably wasn't enough and the only other box of indoor white lights with green strings they had was a 100 pack. So 135 it is and it looks glorious! I especially love how the tree looks sitting on the doily wendy gave me:


What fun! OooOoo it looks awesome in the dark too:


Hooray for xmas cheer! Now all I need to do is decorate it, which as it turns out, has been quite the battle. I first decided to make pom pom ornaments for it but they looked awful. Sure pom poms are great, but not on that tree. They were too small and not shiny enough to really stand out. Boo. Then I decided to make those gold leafed acorns I talked about a few days ago but wood acorns are no where to be found in kamloops! Ack! So I put the one giant blue round ornament on there that my mom gave me one year and that is about it (not shown in images above - but trust me...it is sad). I'll update when I finally get decorations!

And I figured since we were on the discussion of new additions to my house I'd share a few other items I am so very excited about. First on the list? Meet bob! My new ficus:


With a lovely home next to my stripey love seat I am hoping I somehow manage not to kill him....but only time will tell on that one. My sister has a giant ficus and when I saw him (at the plant store where I got my fake tree) I decided he was destined to come home with me! Oh...and then get a name (because all ficuses need names right?)

Next on the additions? Xmas cactus:


Another living room addition I've been wanting for ages! With blooms on the horizon! Woo! Last of the new items is a floor mat:


Seriously overdue with the sloppy wet weather we've been having and our "don't get wet" laminate floors. Fraser brought this one home with him and I think it is just perfect for our winter entryway! I am still planning to finish that tshirt rag rug I've been talking about on and off since august, but this one is perfect for the meantime and this way my hours of crocheting (and re-crocheting - seriously I've remade that thing like 4 times now...) won't get mucked up as quickly! Hooray! How is your december decorating going?

In other news - I'm hosting a house warming/kate party (like a tupperware party but instead of plastic storage containers I'm selling my crafts) tomorrow afternoon! Quite a few work mates have been dying for me to set up a table of goodies they can xmas shop from and I figured it was a perfect opportunity to tie it into a belated (very belated...we moved in september) house warming too! We'll see how it turns out but it will give me an excuse to finally take some pics of the rental to share with you. Wish me luck! Oh and if you're in town send me a message and I'll send you the details so you can pop by too! Yay!

Friday Find: avrilloreti

Even though I already own the awesomest tea towels in the history of the world (thanks linds!), I find myself drawn to tea towels more than ever! What a great way to add a little personality to your kitchen decor while still having a purpose! And even though I can't come up with a good enough excuse to give in and get these, check out the amazing tea towels of etsy's avril loreti:


Ooo! That multi-coloured houndstooth is my fav! It is so warm and fantastic and really makes me want to go dry some dishes! Oh! And she has it in hankie form too! Oh my! Happy friday everyone! I'll be busy avoiding temptation - how about you?

ceramic pens + tea cups = awesome

I can't help but fall in love with these amazing doily-esque tea cups from pinterest:


Especially that one at the bottom! I mean tea and doily inspired doodling? You just can't go wrong! Now to find a black ceramic pen....

Cone-iferous Advent Calendar

I found this amazing advent calendar after browsing on the internet for a while and although it might be a little late, I still love it! Too bad I didn't come across this earlier and make everyone a cone-iferous forest of awesome:


Such a sweet idea! And super easy too! Just need to get my hands on tons of green paper and some fun advent like prizes! OOoo! Maybe next year? Man, I love advent calendars! And unlike one certain sister of mine I am able to hold off on present opening for added anticipation and fun! Have any of you ever put together a fun advent calendar before?

Gilded Acorns

With the holidays looming right around the corner I've been trying to figure out some simple inexpensive decorating ideas I can use to xmas up the house without breaking the bank. Design sponge's gilded acorns fit that bill really well and would be perfect as little ornaments on the tree:


Just a little stain, some gold leaf and wooden acorns and poof! Instant amazing decoration! It does leave me wondering:

1. where do you find those wood acorns??
2. does micheals carry gold leaf and how much would it cost with a 40% off coupon?
3. how the heck will I ever find time to get the supplies and execute this project?
and also
4. why are there no cute little fake xmas trees in kamloops or if there are why can't I find them?

*Sigh* Quite a few hurdles before finishing this project - but maybe you will be able to finish them before me! In the meantime, any progress on answering my list of wondering questions would be appreciated...