Excuse my absence...but I'm back!!!

So I've been absent from the blogging scene for over a month now. Here are the reasons why:

1. I think the picture says it all!

Yes, I'm pregnant!!! It's my first pregnancy and I'm sick all the time. My nausea builds up throughout the day and by the evening I'm very sick and unable to really do anything at all. But on the positive side, doesn't the baby look sooo cute!

2. CORRECTIONS and then more CORRECTIONS! I teach history at a college and for this semester I fell behind on correcting. I'm still trying to crawl my way out from under all the essays, tests and assignments.

This was my stack of corrections for today- I didn't finish:(
 So basically the pregnancy sickness has put me behind on corrections and also on blogging. But hopefully this will end soon.

Smiles:)
Nancy

Harvesting

Harvesting- ahhh, it's that time of year again!

In our neighborhood it's very common to have fruit trees and gardens. We're no different- actually we are a little different. Many of our neighbors are older Italians who use their entire yard as a garden. We, on the other hand, only use a small section for a garden.

We do however have a fig tree in one corner, grape vines lining the fence and a small plot used for tomato plants.

Here are some images of the today's harvesting.

First, the tomatoes:

 We love cherry tomatoes and plant a variety of different colors. They make for such colorful salads.

Now for a very special little tomato. The pizzo tomato, also known as the vesuvio tomato, is our very favorite. They are little balls of sweetness. You can recognize this little fella by it's little point, it's almost heart shaped. Perfect to eat as snacks and my husband loves to make tomato sauce with them because there's no bitterness- just sweetness!

Second, the grapes:

 Not much to say about these- just that they're delicious! Next year I'd like to plant a dark grape vine.


Third, the figs:
Check out our fig tree:

You can see that some have ripened but many have not. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so they can continue to ripen.

 From what I hear, figs have a lot of sugar. But they are just so darn good!! I can't resist!

For those of you scratching your head and thinking "figs... in Montreal, Canada?" All I can say is "Oh, ya baby- we've got figs!" Fig trees aren't suppose to resist cold Montreal winters but there is a way to work around that. Come mid-October my husband and I dig a massive hole in the yard and tip the tree into the hole. We then cover it with dirt and bags of leaves to protect it from freezing. Come spring with dig it up and stand it up. Don't kid yourself, this is a lot of work! I'll blog about this and show pics in late October.

 Lucky for me I had a little helper to eat up all the falling fruit. He keeps the yard so tidy:)

And after some harvesting comes some re-lax-ation!

Hope you're enjoying some late summer fruit!

Smiles:)
Nancy

Linking to Between Naps on the Porch and other parties on the Link Party Page

Summer finds: chest of drawers and mirror

I'd been searching for a chest of drawers for my living room for some time and finally found one I liked on Kijiji. The chest was being sold by a dealer at the Faubourg Des Antiquités - 15739 de la Caserne, Sainte-Genvieve. The Faubourg is an indoor flea market with a good number of interesting furniture pieces- I do recommend it.

Here's the chest:

and a close up:

Check out the tiger-y wood... grrrrr! 

 I love the way it looks in the room. It has such presence. Much better than before when I only had a tiny end table that was barely visible between the two couches as in the image below.

I hesitated to buy it because under the bright florescent lights at the market it looked really damaged and scratched. But once I cleaned it with some Orange Glow and got it into my living room it looked so rich and the scratches are barely noticeable. Don't underestimate the power of Orange Glow!

 

Some things to keep in mind when buying old furniture:

1. Make sure the piece is solid, meaning the legs are strong.

2. Open and close the drawers to make sure they open and close properly.

3. Check that the wood hasn't been eaten away by bugs- you don't want to bring extra friends into your home. The best way to look for this is by taking out the drawers and examining the interior of both the drawers and the furniture piece itself.

In my case, the chest passed the test so it came home with me.

 

Initially I wanted a painted chest and looked into getting a really damaged piece that I could paint. The inspiration for a painted piece came after I saw this chest by Miss Mustard Seed. I was obsessed with it all summer- love it! There is also this huge trend in blog land with chalk paint furniture and so many of them are just beautiful. But I must admit that as much as I want to be a painted furniture girl, I kept being drawn back to wood.  

Source: google.ca via Dream it..build it..style it! on Pinterest

 

 

Also, the chest came with a mirror that I didn't want (tried to negotiate the chest without the mirror- didn't work) but then discovered that it looks great on my fireplace mantel. I like the curved top part against all the straight lines of the fireplace. So it all worked out in the end.

I paid $200 for both pieces. Not a steal but not too bad either.

Have a restful Labor Day,

Nancy 

 

linking to Between naps on the porch and other link parties on my link party page

Our wine cellar: part 3 and reveal

Our wine cellar is a huge source of pride in our home. We love it!
 We didn't have air conditioning in our home for two years but we had a cooling unit for the wine cellar. I know, our priorities are all messed up! At least we had lots of cool  wine to dink away those hot summer days:)

Here is it is- our cellar:

We are currently running low-ish on wine since we restock in fall/winter during wine making season.
We painted the walls a light buttery color, installed wooden crown moldings stained walnut, and the wine racks were also stained walnut. Yes, we stained and assembled all these wine racks- it took forever!!! The wine racks were purchased at Aux Plaisirs du Bacchus on Bernard Avenue in Montreal.
You can also see the end result of the travertine floor. It's just the right look for a wine cellar.

 

We use an old wine barrel to decorate a corner of the room and we got some wooden wine boxes from our local liquor store to hide some wine making supplies. Tip: In Montreal if you ask your local S.A.Q. for some wooden boxes they'll give them to you for a small donation.

 We have a small bistro table in the room, mainly for good looks. We don't actually drink in the room because it's cold in there (10-12 degrees celsius). 

View from the wine room into the living room. We installed an exterior grade cedar wood door. Ideally, the wine should be in a dark room and the door shouldn't have glass. But I wanted to be able to see into the wine room from the living room so we decided on this door. The room is large enough that the light that flows in doesn't disturb the wine

View into the wine room from the living room. Love it!

The light fixture was purchased at Home Depot and it's the right size. color, a style for the room. Just to add some pizazz we also installed a decorative medallion.

I think it's now clear to everyone that I love my wine. Every year since we've been married Tony and I have made wine, about 200-250 bottles each year. We also like to buy some inexpensive bottles and of course we love it when our friends bring us gifts of wine bottles- hint, hint! LOL- just kidding:)

Smiles,
Nancy

linking to Between naps on the porch and other parties on my Party Link page

Our Wine Cellar: part 2

My last post about our wine cellar mainly dealt with the construction and all the other necessary, but not so pretty, stuff. So today we'll begin to talk about the pretty.

But first, more of the necessary stuff:

 The walls went up. Because of the high humidity, it's necessary to use green humidity proof drywall.

 Then we planned the layout of the travertine tile floor.

 A water tile saw was used to cut all the travertine. You'll need a water saw to cut any natural stone tile.

And then we got to work installing all that tile.

Now, before I actually reveal the end result, I'll show you some of the inspirational images we looked at when building the room. You'll notice from our above construction images that we tried to mimic the light colored floors and wall colors in the following images:

Source: shelterness.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: google.ca via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: marcelbedard.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: designinteriorideas.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Check back tomorrow for the reveal!!

Smiles,
Nancy

Help a friend out: living room

On Monday I introduced you to a good friend Lena who asked me to help her out with some decorating ideas for her dining room, living room and bedroom.
You can check out the suggestions for her dining room here, and today we'll be looking at her living room.
Here is an image of how the space currently looks:

There are a ton of great features in this room: the window lets in a lot of light and is nicely situated, I like the light paint color, the crown molding and the wood floor. Lena mentioned that she wanted to get rid of the brown drapery and I think she is on the right track.

Suggestions: I'd like to see a brighter color, yet still light, used for the drapery. I am thinking in the blueish or greenish tone. I think a solid color would work best since the drapery cut off from view by the couch.

Here are some inspiration images. You'll notice that the paint or furniture colors are reminiscent of what Lena have in her space:

Source: decorpad.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: omurtlak5.bloguez.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: omurtlak5.bloguez.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: eclecticrevisited.wordpress.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Once you've selected your drapery color, you'll need some brighter colored decorative pillows for your couch. You already have the pillows so simply buying some pillow covers will do the trick. The pillows are where you can have fun with pattern and color.

Some suggestions:

Available at Iconic pillow on Etsy shop

Available at Pillow top and More Etsy shop

Available at theTurquoise Iris Etsy Shop

Also, you have those two pictures on the wall of the fireplace but I'd prefer to see them on the right side of the window and you can even add another two pictures to make a large square of four pictures. I'm sure you could easily find pictures of your baby boy to display:)

Where you currently have the two pictures I think you can go with a collection of small round mirrors.

Here is an example of what I am thinking:

Source: furnitureonnet.com via Nancy on Pinterest

The store Zone on St. Denis boul. has some great looking small round silver framed mirrors that would work well in your space.

Now for the fireplace:
Lena mentioned she thinks her fireplace looks unfinished and I kind of agree with her.

Here are some inspiration images for a fireplace surround:

Source: google.ca via Nancy on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Nancy on Pinterest

These two above images are simple and sleek. The following is a little more classic.

Source: elyounes.com via Nancy on Pinterest

You can find some ready made fireplace surrounds at any local hardware store. I also believe that Langevin Forest has some options. Otherwise, if you have a handy person in your entourage, a beautiful surround can be created by simply buying the moldings and cutting them to size.

Another concern Lena had was about her shelving unit in the corner of the room.

The shelf is dark and I think lining the back of the shelves with some decorative paper or painting it the same color as your walls or one of the colors in the fabric for your decorative pillows would really brighten it up. Also, collect the books together into larger piles and then place a decorative light-colored item on the other side. Another idea would be to purchase some pretty decorative baskets and then collect your books into the baskets in the shelf. This would create a sense of uniformity and is simpler than trying to make a shelf appear neat. The collection of vases is very pretty!

Hope this helps!

Lena and I would love to here your comments and suggestions.