the home, anew

I love these honeycombed vases that I spotted on Cafe Cartolina. They're from West Elm and I think they'd make a lovely addition to our home as the colours are pretty much my favorite. I've been thinking a lot about home lately. We love where we live and while it's not perfect by any means, it's suitable for the next few years or longer. We haven't put much thought into decorating and there's still boxes in our dining room corner that have been here since we moved in nearly four years ago! Shameful. Our hallway is lined with books to give away (but we're taking care of that as our local library now has a book sale cart where all proceeds go to the branch) and we've got too much clutter laying about.

We need to clear out and reorganize our storeroom. In its current state it's pretty hard to find what we want.

Our bedroom has the least amount of thought put into it. Through the generosity of a friend, we got a great lamp that nearly matches a lamp that I've held dear too for many years, so I figure this is a good start to get moving on getting the bedroom to a lovely, restful state. I'm being ruthless in the closet area and starting a pile of clothing to give away. I'd love to find a nice duvet cover, fabric for the window curtains, a lovely wooden antique headboard, and a couple night tables and call it done. But due to the amount of money I want to spend (ie, not much), it requires a lot of patience and craigslisting.

Cornelius has a few ideas for our office - getting rid of the wall shelves and instead creating a bookshelf of some sort. My main goal is to keep my desk tidy and clear of papers. We also want to achieve a paperless office, but that requires finding a tiny scanner for that purpose (we're looking on craigslist).

I am pretty happy with our living room. Our new couch is working out fine, though I'd love to find a couple of large cushions for the sofa and a winter set of curtains to help retain the heat in the winter. Also, it's time for an artwork shake up. I love the Lovely Design prints on our living room wall, but the artwork in our hallway, dining room and front entrance really need changing. Less collage dorm and more grown-up, please.

As for the kitchen, one of these days I'd love to paint the cupboards and add a nicer backsplash - but that is a huge job and I'm not sure it would be worth it since we are living in a co-op. Regardless, it's great to have goals for the house and I'm excited to make changes!

amy sedaris

I ♥ Amy Sedaris. If you don't already have her amazing book, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, then buy it now or put it on your Christmas wishlist already! Design Sponge had a great link this week to Amy's awesome apartment which will be featured in December's House & Garden magazine. I just love all her thrift store finds and how she's put everything together. I guess it's not wrong of me to want more things for our place afterall! More is more!

hutch

After a couple months of looking, we finally purchased a buffet & hutch for our dining room. We had actually spotted it on Craigslist, went out to Coquitlam to view it, but price was $250 (more than we were willing to spend) plus we didn't have a vehicle to carry it back with us. While the owner had offered to drive it over, it just meant that there would be little chance to haggle (and I LOVE a good haggle!). So we let it be. Two weeks later, we received an email from the owner saying he'd knock off a hundred bucks and he'd deliver it the next day. So we snapped it up. I haven't had a chance yet to fill it with my treasures, though I'm definitely getting some inspiration from the blog, Making it Lovely. Behind those sliding wooden doors, however, hides a treasure trove of all our board games. Monopoly? Bohnanza? Ticket to Ride Europe? Scrabble? Boggle? Yahtzee? We've got a ton more too. Lots, lots more. What can I say, we're board game geeks! Now I've got to decide if I want to keep the mirror in the hutch or cover it up with some dramatic wallpaper!