Memo!

10 tips for the Black Thumb @ Kinfolk

I've brought you some flowers...

Saipua.com

To ring in the New Year 2014!

From Marco and I to you..

Here is one of our favourite websites to browse for inspiration:

http://www.freundevonfreunden.com

FvF

Saipua

Sweetwoodruff

My Luscious Backyard

Some goodies involving real flowers, but also glass, paper, metal and plaster:

http://www.saipua.com 
http://sweetwoodruff.ca
http://www.mylusciousbackyard.ca

http://www.carmenalmon.com/

http://www.papertopetal.com/

http://www.tactilestudio.co.uk/

https://www.antiquesjournal.com/pages04/monthly_pages/may08/flowers.html

Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays!

New Year's Resolutions

Be bold + decisive!

Rethink Pink...

On my wall of inspiration:

Design by Piet Oudolf

Céline- Collection: Fall 2012

Villa Planchart. Caracas, Venezuela, 1956. Designed by Gio Ponti.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003 by Oscar Niemeyer
© Sylvain Deleu

My morning with Jimmy Smith

This morning I woke up to the organ music of Jimmy Smith, an inspirational choice of my dear Marco, of course.
Instantaneous Happy Mood guaranteed!

Déjà! 2 years already!

Last night, Marco and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Already!
He invited me to join him in a cafe with our baby Lola well tucked in the stroller, and there... SURPRISE! He offered me 2 big bouquets of flowers. I love being offered flowers in a public space, it is so beautiful to be spoilt in front of total strangers who for a second share an ounce of your joy!

Once back home, there was another surprise; a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne cooling down in the fridge waiting for us to pop the cork, which we did! Our gift to each other was to spend some quality time and cook a meal together. We had watched a Jamie Oliver show that had inspired us and had decided on the menu for the night: a tray of fish with a spinach salad, salsa verde and the best potato salad in the world! We prepared the whole menu by the book, except for the Banofee pie that will have to be experimented and savoured for another special occasion. For dessert, I had already made some lemon and poppy seeds madeleines to match our vanilla ice cream.
To see the video of the Meals in Minutes show in question, go to this link.

Jamie Oliver making a salsa with extra virgin olive oil - gorgeous!

Marco and I cannot get enough of Jamie Oliver's culinary verve, he is so colourful and genuinely enthusiastic about food that you feel like cooking as soon as the show is over. And oh boy, does he love his extra virgin olive oil, Marco and I have this private joke about him, we call him Jamie Olive Oil- we love him soooo much!

Well, needless to say that we had a glorious night, cooking, eating, drinking, and celebrating our newly born trio with Lola. Yes, we sure paid a fair tribute to the Veuve's golden bubbles and finished the whole bottle that very night...

Heavenly surprise weekend

Because the whole second floor has been undergoing renovations for the last two weeks....

Because our bed and wardrobes have been moved downstairs, in the living room...

Because I have started moving like a beached whale...and because it was my birthday weekend...

 Then, Marco and I decided to get away. We finalized our destination on Saturday morning, just an hour before departure time! Marco booked a mysterious idyllic place that he found through the good tips of our friend Olivia Stren who had written an article on Picton for the Toronto Life. We drove south east for about 2 hours,....

and there we were! Ah, Picton's Claramount Inn & Spa came to our rescue just in time.

 Me, admiring the view from the window in our room, Room 7

the view on Lake Ontario

One of the room's reader's corners.

The sitting room.

This weekend getaway did me a world of good. What a splendid birthday gift! I was treated to a hot saltwater pool, to a prenatal massage, to extremely delicate foods and other delights. Total relaxation. Not much to do anyway as it was a rainy weekend ;O) We stayed in, enjoying the spa facilities and only stepped out to go antique shopping in the area - our treasure hunt had us find 3 amazing 1960s-1970s decorating books, course books edited by Better Homes and Gardens. Perfect!

Pape Manor-Work in Progress!

Our tree in the garden, from our bedroom window.

Welcome to our house!

The first piece we bought for the house was this late 1950s Sputnik brass chandelier (found at Zig Zag) to playfully greet us in the hallway!

Please don't forget to put on your slippers, we just sanded the floors.
Let me show you the main floor...

The kitchen (through the window you can see the sun/mud room, which we might get rid of). The sun comes in from the garden!

  A smart way to keep your dirty dishes away from your guests' sight! Our oldy-worldy butler's pantry, the sink is on the right by the window. We will ultimately turn this tucked-away pantry into a washroom when we renovate the kitchen.

The front room

The dining room

Now I'll take you upstairs to the second floor!

 

Our not-so-functional bathroom. To be improved, sooner than later!

Typical 1930s ventilation technique. The chimney goes into the attic and out through a pipe.

Our bedroom

The middle room or the guest room/ baby room.

The office with a walk-out balcony onto Pape Avenue- great for inspiration and relaxation from spring to autumn!

Hope you enjoyed the "petite visite guidée de la maison".

For your information:
Here is an update of the renovation works we have set as priorities for Operation Pape Manor, Phase 1:
1- Floor sanding and waxing: done before we actually moved in. It changed everything, not only the floors, but the whole look of the house.
2- The 'knob and tube' was put to code just before we moved in (hence a lot of small holes in the walls). Before we patch them, we now have to get the electrician over to shift a few switches, add more outlets, etc. Basically we need to make the electrical more functional : to be done this current week...
3-Energy-saving audit: done! Now we need to get a quote and get started with the insulation job + other energy-friendly improvements. This will have to be done before end of March in order to benefit from an Ontario energy-saving program that will refund us some of the money invested.

Painting, wallcoverings and bathroom reno will come next in Spring (Phase 2).
The kitchen and the sun room will probably not be dealt with before a year time (Phase 3).

No rush!
I am learning how to be patient ;O)

Chi va piano va sano e chi va sano va lontano!

Our first Christmas at Pape Manor!

Taking a ride at night through Toronto during the Holiday season was quite something! Torontonians can easily get over the top when it comes to illustrating their vision of Christmas, and any LED (or not) garland was used to display a certain sense of wonderland.

 As seen on Margherita Street ;O)

So bearing this possible extravaganza in mind, we decided to deck our halls in a slightly more sober way... A clear lights garland outside on the front porch, a wreath on the front door, a big tree in the living room and Pfew, done - let the magic happen!

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with the love and warmth of our family and friends who visited us. This is a very promising beginning for our adventures at Pape Manor - as a friend of ours amusingly called it. To be continued!