Antique Shopping: Vineland + Jordan Village

Please and thank you.

TOPSHOP

 

She like laugh at that and a gone a Canada.

We had a pretty fantastic Saturday! Woke up all relaxed, mid-morning and lounged before heading out for some furniture shopping. Voila ici.

Yes, the tulip knockoff. And did you know they serve beer at Ikea? Something about drinking in a family friendly place like Ikea seemed badass so I felt compelled to order a bottle with my meal. Because, I mean, I am badass, so I need to do my part, you know? Next up, rugs, wall decor, new lighting for the den (above the dining table), and furniture for our gaaarden.

We're quite pleased with how everything is coming together but I have to admit that it all feels a bit too modern and sleek. In contrast, my inspiration folder is full of images that exude a non-fussy, airy, rustic farmhouse-esque/lovingly distressed feel. I'm itching to make this place more homely but need to remind myself that we're intentionally creating a space that will attract future buyers. But I'm not complaining. This isn't a complaint! I do really love each piece—but we're careful to acquire versatile items that can be used differently at another place and time.

SIDE NOTE: planning for the wedding, the ceremony, and moving into our first home all felt very natural to us. but buying a full bed set really got to me and it was as if I only now realized that I was married, had a husband, and was in this specific stage in life! and today, shopping for dining tables, was another reminder. more importantly, as we stuffed our faces with meatballs and mashed potatoes and chatted about the people in the playground just outside (we love people watching and making snarky comments), it happened; our first discussion about kids without it dripping in repulsion and feelings of anxiety/nausea. still prefaced with ifs and one thousand percent certainty that if we ever decided to procreate, it wouldn't be for at least another four or five years, but something was definitely different. and it unnerved us. It's giving me hives just typing about it right now. Have you read We Need To Talk About Kevin? Don't; if you're on the fence about children, don't! Let's change topics. We also visited Sheridan Nurseries and started up a mini garden on our balcony. Sweet million tomatoes and chives, mon friends! 

Hmm, I wonder if the secret ingredient to the fertilizer is sewage sludge. Dun, dun, dun!

Our lack of proper tools (the basics, really. pliers!) resulted in a lengthy but rewarding bike ride to Home Depot. Rewarding because I got to eat at Harvey's and Mad Italian Gelato Bar (pistachio and hazelnut). Leave me be, there were a lot of slight, barely-there inclines hills and I needed the energy! I had to mask my eyes because they looked all sneaky. But never-you-mind that, pay attention to my legs; they look so long! But, so does my torso. I'm what you call a flip phone body.

We finally celebrated Rocky's sixth birthday (two weeks late). Got him a peanut butter cookie bigger than his face!

First Impressions. / Pre-delivery inspection.

Song: Pulling Our Weight by The Radio Dept.

I was super excited about posting this but after wasting thirty minutes trying to figure out why my video wouldn't import into iMovie and an additional thirty learning how to convert it to something else, I lost steam. So, voila ici, cheesetastic effects. Of course, that doesn't explain my shoddy and shaky filming job...but how dare you judge me! Oh, and you'll notice the watermark up top—that's what you get when you refuse to pay for a program. :(

COUNTDOWN: 18 DAYS

Packing has begun and we're baffled at how many boxes our little casa requires to clear out. The dogre has been frequenting street corners.

Lightning don't strike twice / Unless the topic is dentist and the dogress' oral health.

Ahh, pistachio gelato! An indication of summer to come. The weather's been unfriendly these past few days. Maybe it's a reflection of my miserable physical state. More on that later. Because I know you care. You do care, right? Good, so tonight it'll be a sandwich-style post: fluffy happy carbs around rotten, disgusting, despicable meat. So, let's begin.

Happy carbs—a beautiful wooden cake stand, as seen on ohjoy.blogs.com...

Happy carbs—we finally "cashed in" our large plastic bag full of coins at a nearby Canadian Tire. Sure, they took a nine percent cut, but we still skipped away with about fifty buckaroos!

Happy carbs—in all likelihood, we'll be sleeping in the new casa come May 29! Yep! The contractors didn't go on strike, home inspection is next week (so nervous and excited), money, paper work, and key(!) exchanges on the 28th, and move in by the 29th. We just need to book the elevator at our current building and hire movers. Feels surreal. I know I was all ambitious about re-painting our walls gray, putting up a chalkboard wall in the bedroom, and personalizing hardware pieces (switch plates, knobs, hooks, hangers, you name it!) but we'll likely delay all of that and just enjoy the bare skin and bones of our first home. Heehee. Looking forward to having the stipple ceiling removed and shopping around for a dining table, chairs, coffee table, office furniture (inspirational desk diy here), and lighting fixtures! Oh, and an electric stove heater, of course.

     {canadiantire.ca}

Happy carbs—a little ditty that the dogre is obsessed with. She'll be performing at some cafe on the west end, come May, and we're going to take a gander.

Happy carbs—a friend and I will soon be starting our very own Toronto picnic club! We'll take turns picking the park, date, and time, and attendees will bring their own blankets and food to share. It'll be an open invite to friends and friends of friends as well! Interested? 

Rotten meat—I've been dealing with persistent toothaches since January, after I got a filling in one of my top right molars. I went back before but my dentist attributed the pain to minor sensitivity exacerbated by my clenching+grinding. She merely shaved down the filling to fix my bite and refitted my nightguard (yes, I wear one. so does the dogre. we make a very sexy couple, you know). She was wrong. In fact, what I had thought were pesky allergy symptoms may actually be the consequences of nerve damage when the filling was put in. Why else would only the right side of my face (nose, eyes, head, ears) hurt? After today's visit, she's now 95% sure I've got an infection and sent me on my way with a prescription to penicillin and pain killers, requesting a followup in two days. They shuffled me around the whole visit, and unsurprisingly, totally changed the followup date and time without even consulting me. Oh, and now they've assigned me to the head dentist, who I find eerie and fake. And scary. I'll need the dogre to escort me again because I turn into a wide-eyed trembling doe (but cuter, of course) whenever I visit the dentist. Seriously, I have a phobia of dental offices and always leave nauseated and drowsy due to exhaustion, even if it's a ten minute consultation where they adjusted my nightguard! So anyhow, the dogre hates the place. He thinks they lack general courtesy and professionalism and calls it the fast food restaurant of dental clinics. I think he's right—they rushed me, all of them in a terrible hurry and showed a serious lack of patient care. I'm likely to change dentists, but after they resolve this issue because why should I pay elsewhere for their mistakes! They've yet to charge me for any followup visits I made since January because they know it's their misstep. And now, after a google search on the dangers of an untreated abscessed tooth, I'm freaking out over jaw bone and facial tissue damage, eyes, nose, ears, and brain infection! I'm wondering how worried I should be that my jaw feels weird, that my right nose and eye have been painfully dry and sore, and that I've been dealing with severe headaches! I'm the dogre is going to give the head dentist some serious drilling because I need to be assured that the infection hasn't dangerously spread elsewhere. On a related note, here's my word of the day for you: iatrogenic—a malady induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon, or by a medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

Happy carbs—mr. L alerted my seastar, who informed me, that we had missed our seastar anniversaire this year! So, we had a late celebration, doing what we do best; we ate. And then ate some more. We also nursed three cider beers each for five hours. My alcohol tolerance has become laughable.

Happy carbs—our home is super clean out of necessity and courtesy to the unit owners, who are struggling to rent this place out. Actually, we can call this one happy carbs/rotten meat because we've been inconvenienced with twenty six viewings thus far. 26! On one evening, they showed the place to six different individuals at six separate times. I don't think the manager has a good grasp of efficiency, as her ad sucked and she isn't even screening the inquirers. She's also getting the condo concierge to do her legwork, even though it isn't part of his job description and he doesn't receive monetary compensation! It's really annoying for us because it affects when we can cook, eat, and relax. But, times are tough and I suppose people are less inclined to spend x amount of money on a shoebox we've been calling home.

Happy carbs—these awesome titanium aviators by Ray-Ban.

Happy carbs—an adorable anchor necklace purchased at UO over the weekend. $20!

Happy carbs—food visuals! We ate at voglie ristorante & lounge,  just north of Church and Wellesley, for a friend's birthday dinner.

Clockwise: spaghettini al pomodoro with chicken, grilled new york strip, penne alla vodka, roasted chicken supreme. I'd return! Gawd, how I love spaghettini. It's my favourite! So thin and plentiful, and easily coated with sauce...Dreamy.

Some new recipes we tried last week...

Roasted maple chicken and sweet potatoes, turkey and bacon sandwich with avocado and pesto, toasted prosciutto, apple, and cheddar sandwich with honey mustard sauce, and chocolate chip oreo cookies. All recipes here, on my online recipe box. Looking forward to baking a lemon poppy seed loaf sometime this week.

Mama's Pizza had a special event and we got deliciously thin medium pepperoni pies for $4.99 each.

Really, are you even surprised to see pizza again? I forgot to eat dinner...Oops! How about another word before I leave: sesquipedalianism—given to using long words (I can think of a couple of people who intentionally and unnecessarily use long or fancy words...heh). Bye now!

Etsy, etsy, etsy. Oh, etsy.

I want this brass shelf by Phoebe Howard. I first spied it on Habitually Chic and noticed it popping up here and there. But I can't find information on it and it's bothering me, despite the one trillion percent likelihood that we could never, ever afford it. It just tickles my fancy; it's my dream shelf. I want to have its babies.

So Apartment Therapy shared their favourite Etsy shops. And, naturally, I tirelessly scrutinized each one. Me likey Hindsvik, olive dear, and bluebellbazaar. Found a lot of wonderful pieces, and then some! Here we go...

Beautiful boxes and crates.

{CLOCKWISE: metal numbered drawer, dry gin box, vintage industrial coin storage tray, ati wood crate, 1940s electrical box, old tack box}

Some sweet prints.

{CLOCKWISE: owl and pussycat double portrait, cloaked owls, fiddle, a bit of paris}

Antique trays.

{CLOCKWISE: vintage silver plated round serving tray, large vintage chintz floral tray}

Antique tins.

{CLOCKWISE: vintage floral tin, vintage decorative meister tin, silver plated coffee container, vintage johnson & johnson band-aid tin}

More things.

{CLOCKWISE: denmark ship in a bottle, ship in a bottle, 1940s wooden bowling pins, vintage brass pineapple candleholder}

And more.

{CLOCKWISE: antique event chair, garden pal, vintage 1950s emerald floral screen printed silk scarf, simple bird figuine}

Drats! The meister tin has been claimed. I had been holding off for two weeks because we were suppose to take a trip to the antique markets, which was canceled. It was cheap too..In any case, piewacket reuses the old tins in a visually appealing way, here.

Cosas Minimas. By Blanca Gomez.

I just realized that the city illustrations artist is the very same person who created the "bonjour mademoiselle" and other works. The very prints that I had pestered the dogre about some time ago...to no avail. ho hum!

So again, website here; etsy shop here; & blog here.

I'm inadequate.

We finally have...a POSTAL CODE! Exciting. Oh, post title explanation: Rocky thinks I'm inadequate. Apparently, my commitment to eye crusties wiping is so appallingly lacking that he's learned to wipe them himself. Like a Shiba Inu...

Also, are you aware of his disability? Yes, his tongue is too big and long for his mouth. All you snooty canines of this world really shouldn't take eating so casually for granted!

I love how the Brits call their apartments, flats and their backyards, gardens. I'm going to relentlessly call our itty bitty balcony the gaaarden until you do so as well!

{apartmenttherapy.com}

By the way, if you aren't following The Selby, well, start already! You get to peek inside the fascinating homes of creative individuals.

And check out Present and Correct if you're as big of a stationery fanatic as moi.

Cute cake stands, yes? More pretty things (milkjugs, vases, dishes, etc) here.

{ohjoy.blogs.com}

For $40US, you can fancify your bikes with awesome wooden fenders!

 

From the Montreal etsy shop, red tail fender.

Lastly, you might be tired of my city poster gushing but A Cup of Jo brought new ones to my attention and seeing as how it's my blog and all, well here they are:

 

Originally found here.

I suppose it's time to study for my test now...which is in less than two hours!

Metallic lucite.

I'm struggling with sleep again. I kid you not, for years I have been telling the dogre that I view his abilities to fall asleep immediately, anywhere, as the most enviable super power (well, maybe next to the power to conjure up food on whim, and puppies...and money). So, I've been going to bed later and later until I finally just didn't sleep at all. And let me tell you, my body is not feeling as fresh as it did when I pulled all-nighters in my highschool years. I feel like a zombie. The good that came out of a sleepless night was that I finished an assignment. It's ridiculous but I'm nearing the end of both courses again. Here's the shoe I used—I tickled my own fancy and added a floral pattern on it!

Since I was still up, I worked on the mother's day cards.Roughly traced and re-coloured a cute design I saw over at Rifle Paper Co. But never-you-mind that. Let's dive in to the pretty things we scored over the weekend!

The dogre and finn's friend held a launch party for her newly opened and fantastical shop, Tabula Rasa, of all things beautiful—old, new, and reworked. It was jam packed and us dogre household didn't fail to bring on the socially awkward. Actually, let's backtrack. Before we headed to the shop, we went to one of our happy places, DT Bistro, where I ran into a former coworker. So how awkward am I? Well, look:

  Tyler: What's up?!

     Me: Good.

Good! In any case, it was good running into him, which is rare for me to say, because I'm that person who will cross to the other side of the street and study my shoes rather than make banal chitchat and niceties with you. The dogre is going to harass me now—he was already huffy when he learned that he models. Back to the launch party, it was retardedly packed and all I wanted to do was thrift through the goods! I'd say a fair portion of the items are in a similar price range as Aritzia ($35 tees) while the rest is more attainable for the likes of me. Case in point, voila ici (I wonder if you're tired of this yet), my new twenty dollar purse!

Awesome. So many compartments. We also met the dogre's twin, in mannequin form.

What else, what else...We were suppose to watch How to Train Your Dragon but couldn't part with the fifteen buckaroos each per tickets. So, naturally, I went and spent ninety dollars at Pottery Barn. Very sensible, I am. Don't judge me! It's all part of sprucing the new casa up for when we resell it, you see...Cute LED lanterns, an antique bar tray, and a floral accent place mat for laptopping in bed (the dogre constantly scorned me for overheating it).

I'm envisioning a hearty mix of stripped wood, metal, and lucite pieces. For example, a lucite coffee table, yes please! Eh? You can do one better and offer me a trunk? Please and thank you.

More neat stuff (yes, neat) at Lonny, an online magazine.

The management company is showing our apartment to potential renters and it's such a nuisance. But the place has never looked so pristine. This afternoon, a guy came to check it out with four friends. And I have to say, I was sweaty. Not because they were hot, but because it was a gang of gays (is that offensive at all? hope not. I just love alliteration, as you're well aware) and after some exposure to stereotypical gay men (former coworkers) I've become sensitive to how "observant" they are. I was very nervous about how they felt of my decorating choices and meekly answered any and all questions they threw my way. I would have fed, bathed, and tucked them into bed if they so commanded it. I was in a room full of Anitas, really (inside joke. don't even).

Links, links links (easier than uploading images):

Cool personalized clear tray. Oh so nice.

And bags.

The most beautiful (and expensive) toaster I can only dream of having.

Half the price of this wonderful Burberry utility jacket here.

Hideousness over at j.crew (I can't believe such words came out of my mouth fingers) .

But this chambray shirt encourages me look the other way:

A sweet bracelet.

A cool but overpriced leather bike frame bag.

An illustrator mesh tool god.

A dream.

A great new (to me) inspiration blog.

Lollipops we will (yes, dogre, yes) soon order.

A collaboration of note design studio and abici results in enviable bikes:

And lastly, Rocky hangs with the likes of Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, and leggy ladies.

Or not...