Sunday, November 20, 2011

Sheffield School

Well I'm up early on my day off, a new thing for me. I usually sleep in a couple of hours thinking it will help me recover from my adrenal insufficiency but I now understand that it makes me feel worse in the end. I came upon this realization when we had the recent time change and it really threw me off so perhaps sticking to a regular schedule of going to bed and getting up will make a great difference.

Quite some time ago when I didn't know what was making me sick I was trying my best to be optimistic and ordered the interior design course from Sheffield school at a great discount.  I have already completed my Associate Kitchen Designer course from the NKBA by correspondence in spite of my condition and thought I should give it a try. Well, getting to it never happened. Now time is running out  and even though I have a huge list of things that I want to do around this house now that I have more energy I must put them aside to focus on my course which will entail 10 or more hours a week along with working full time.
I have been inspired by many who have completed this course and seen the quality of their work and so I really am excited about what this course has to offer.

On another note I would love to share more living room photos but sadly my honey has injured his knee at work and has been on the sofa for a week now in serious pain and unable to walk let alone work. He is miserable and I hope he recovers fast the poor guy.



Have a great weekend!


Monday, November 14, 2011

Time flies having fun and living room design


It has been a busy time and yet a relaxing time too this past bit and along. I was feeling quite good and when that happens I get excited to start doing some quality of life things that we normally would pass on like visiting with Josh and Kayla and our little cutie grand precious Carrera. She is getting so big so fast and it makes me sad that we don't live right closer so we can see more of each other.





and I can't get over how much Josh is like his Dad. He and Kayla have found a great little home to rent in a nice neighbourhood and we are so happy for them.


Dad just had his birthday and I had no problem meeting up after work for a great  dinner and lots of fun. Couldn't have done that a year and a half ago.


My nephew Rob and my big sis Karen.



and my sweetie and Rob


So this is where the living room is at because Todd has taken on a roofing job that is lasting over a week and and when he gets home the poor guy is pooped.  As you can see he has practically rebuilt this room structurally and it was much needed. I can't believe what lay behind the old plaster , which by the way amounted to a ton and a half that Todd hauled out by himself in garbage pails! What a guy, no wonder he is tired. We have decided to lay new maple flooring over the old pine floors for continuity throughout the main level and I'm really happy with our decision. 


Todd loves his action movies and has practically begged for a recliner.  Nice ones x's 2 are out of our budget  and every time I mention Kijiji he screws his face up so last weekend we popped into Ikea to get him to try out the Ektorp chair and footstool combo to see if he likes them
 







and he did! Yeah! So the bonus is that they were running their buy one chair of sofa and get the other half off sale and we got them to do the same for the ottoman's. Since when we were there we noticed that the Billy bookcase was $10.00 off and so we picked up two of those as well.

Now we both loved the new grey in a linen/cotton but in the end it is almost twice the price and is not a machine washable slipcover so we stayed with the white and I'm thrilled. Mmm, I wonder how easy it is to dye a slipcover?



  The two Ektorp chairs with ottoman's will take the place of the  love seat in our new living room.
I will keep my eye open for the grey slipcovers on kijiji too. 



So here my free hand sketch I did of the living room back wall.   We will install the Billy book cases on either side of the sofa and add crown moulding and a couple of shaker style doors to the bottom for hidden storage. I planned it so the sofa will be able to sit against the wall and give us the needed room in this space.  I would love a light in the middle of the room as I sketched in but a fan will give us great relief in the summer months and so I thought I would see what a light hanging over the sofa would look like. Todd doesn' like it. What do you think? Do you think it would  be weird to have two fixtures like that? 



I went back through my binder of favourites from all the years and found this one which I still adore. I have always wanted a plate rack somewhere in our home and thought it would make a great picture rack instead which will give me lots of flexibility to change it up whenever I want. 



I also came across a picture I'd kept of this gorgeous fabric from Designer Fabrics in Toronto  and am happy to say it is still available.. I want to visit them soon and find a way to incorporate it in our renovation with either pillows or maybe some roman blinds. It couldn't be more perfect to me.

Hope you are having a great week!