my tips on a lovely home

hello!

I recently stumbled accross this post Mistakes not to make when furnishing your home

so I would like to expand on her post and add some of my advice

Mistakes not to make when making your home lovely

-don't just push all the furniture up against the walls and call it a day, look at the flow and how you use the space and the items in it. Sometimes a chair in the middle of the room just makes more sense.

-dont overlook the power of drapes. they can add a softness to a room and make it look 'lived in'

-if you don't use it everyday, put it away

-keep paper clutter in one place in your home. organize a system to file it or at least make ONE pile of paper that is waiting to be sorted. and on that same note don't bring paper into your home that has no purpose. just because 20 flyers come every week doesn't mean they need to stay for a whole week.

-keep cold water and lemons on hand at all times

-don't invest in serious wine glasses until your friends are ready to take using them seriously

-if you have natural light plants can really energize a space. add long lasting green leafy plants as well as freshly picked colourful flowers.

-everybody loves little dishes of candy or nuts

-wash your hands when you get home, leave the outside outside

-look at where you spend time in your home. ask yourself why. and more importantly why not in other place?

-you begin and end every day in your home, it is your launching pad and your retreat. if your home is too cluttered, not cleaned properly or not functional this will inhibit you every day. invest in it and it will give back to you every day.

hi team!

thats how i like to start a lot of emails at work. when i say team first they are distracted from the favor i am going to ask of them. oldest trick in the book.

okay in other stupid news my sleep patterns have been wayyyy off lately. on average i would say i am a person that needs a lot of sleep. when i don't have a certain number of hours of sleep (8) i am always yawning and get really lethargic at the end of the day, and in the middle now that i think about it. regardless, this is how i've been forever, i need my sleep.

lately though, its been go go go. up at night and not even that tired in the morning. full days of productivity and getting things crossed off the list.

i've been thinking of getting bangs lately.

pros:

-cover some/most of my never ending forehead

-haven't had bangs since i was a kid and am curious what they would look like

-CHANGE

cons:

-super high maintenance, the front part of my hair can have a mind of its own

-will need to shower more

-extra time to style them daily

-all these points are pretty much the same thing, bangs are a lot of work

i decided i am going to grow my hair out naturally. no more dying it. okay actually that is a lie i am going to dye it as close to my natural colour as possible and then let it grow out from there. the ends are so dry and i'm growing out of the blond. (literally) wow this is riveting stuff.

yuck whenever i have pasties it feels like there is fur on my tongue. maybe its spelled pasty's? paisties? okay official vote says pasties.

haha i will leave you with some advice to combat pasties-

yeah, i get reeal bad dry mouth. sometimes i dont mind though. carry around a good sized bottle of water so you dont have to keep refilling your glass.

excellent solution my friend.

found something!

this calendar is fill in the dates yourself (perfect for sporadic people like me who decide they need a calendar in the middle of july)

lists with little checkmark circles! the book that i use right now i make little squares beside every To Do item, then the square gets filled in when the item is completed.

i am SUCH a list person. without a list there are so many things just swirling around in my brain and i am paralyzed and as a result get nothing done because i can't prioritize. a list means everything is out on the table, there are no surprises, everything can be evaluated and completed in sequence.

with a list, nothing is forgotten. with a list and a calendar, its allll under control.

DIY light

i'm in love with the simplicity and weightlessness of this lamp shade. i have this lightbulb and cord combination from ikea already in my living room and right now it hosts a standard square rice paper style shade. you all know the ones from ikea that everyone has.

i'm really loving this look, although i would make mine a little larger.

found here. by the creator of Bookhou, an adorable toronto store, if you happen to be in the area.

i'm off to make homemade lemonade with a hint of basil. and a splash of vodka. summmerrrrr

i can't even believe it. but i am leaving tomorrow! tomorrow!

online check in = Enregistrement en ligne

i can't find where i am supposed to check in online on the french air transat website. whyyyyyyyy is everything in french.

things not to forget: salted caramel macaroons, picnics in parks, espresso on every corner, scooter rides through crowded streets, les enfants, the scarf dance in the ballet we saw, ordering subs in french -encore cornichons, shrek 4- its going to blow your brains out, navigo cards, secret sugar and butter crepes, paris pharmacies, taking the RER everywhere, balmy summer days, and of course being best friends forever.

i'm sad to leave the city but excited to see my boyfriend, sooooooo long. i can't wait to see him.

xox

my apologies

sorry. i thought i would have much more time then i really do to blog. i thought- vacation! i will have all the time in the world to finally update my life online. nope, not so. and to be honest, i'm okay with it. i can blog when i'm dead haha.

sorry kids! i'm outa here.

xoxoxox

stuck in giverny

so! today we took the train to giverny, which is the amazing place that monet painted his waterlilly paintings and lived. this is the photo story of the day.

it was filled with ammmmmmmazing flowers and gardens. its so hard to capture them in pictures, it doesn't even do it justice.

here are the waterlily's. beautiful no? i'd paint that shit too.

then cas and i had a nice picnic lunch by the river and sat down to relax. it was starting to get pretty hot so we found some shade.

erin: hey cas do you want to get going soon? we should go get the bus that takes us back to the train. in the meantime, im just going to make mushroom risotto in this stump .

cas: uhhhhhhhhh im just checking the train times and i think i might have some shocking news.

cas: ohhh this is not good.

cas: the bus doesn't come for another three weeks. it looks as though we are stranded in Giverny.

...how is this possible...

cas: i think i just need to lie down for a moment.

This is horrible!! i am too hot to be stuck in giverny

WHAT?!?!

erin: do you want to go try and get someone to help us?

erin: hey look because of this descriptive sign i know exactly where we are!

cas: I have an idea

oh wait! what is this!

cas: should we buy it? it could be our little house in giverny.

erin: i love it, lets buy it.

this house is NOT for sale

SOLD

and so with no other choice then being stranded in giverny we bought a house and lived happily ever.

second skin

bonjour! oh boy i've been so busy! every single day is a new adventure, but its amazing and wonderful and i know i will cherish these memories i am making forever.

again these photos are out of order and i actually uploaded all these shots about two nights ago and then we just haven't really been home so ta da! today you get the blog post but we've already done so much since these were taken.

this was a beautiful garden that had this amazing path with just roses growing on it. everything smelled so good. we also found these lemon leaves that when you touched them smelled like lemon of course but they were so refreshing.

,

we went to this cathedral, montemartre, and then had a picnic lunch of brie, mystery cheese, peaches, avacado and a baguette with butter. so lovely. things in the grocery store are much cheaper in paris it seems. like a large slice of brie was only 2 euros, butter only 2 euros. even with the exchange i still feel like that is much less expensive. even food in restaurants seems less expensive. also if you drink your coffee or wine at the bar it costs less then drinking it at a table. AND no tipping. not on meals that are less then 50-75 euros. which is most meals for us. it feels weird to be honest, wrong in some way.

yesterday afternoon we were picked up by cas's boyfriend Thomas and his father on their scooters and they took us to the fathers house in the country. it was SO much fun to ride on the scooter. this will make my boyfriend very happy i am sure because he always wants a motercycle but i didn't think they would be so fun! when we arrived at the country house cas and i tried to drive the scooter, it is standard so i figured it out pretty easily but its a hard concept to grasp and cas was having some issues. we had the most amazing dinner outside, very authentic french meal. it was lovely.

ahhahaha these birds where ATTACKING my leftovers.

rose garden fish eye lense

bon nuit!