Birch + Bird Vintage Home Interiors

Rachel and I are about to delve into our year-end bookkeeping and, while we do keep our paperwork relatively well organized, it’s always slightly overwhelming when we repeatedly put it off for a few months at a time! But tax time is drawing near and ,with Rachel about to pull up anchor, it’s high time to put this tedious task behind us.

Ikea kindly sent us some photos of their latest organizational goodies and I am loving the look of these well sorted work spaces. My desk has six roomy drawers but it’s all to easy for them to become a dumping ground for mismatched paperwork, sticky notes and other office paraphernalia these days.We’ve spoken before about our dreams of having an actual room or studio to call our own but for now I must be content to type away at my workspace in the corner of our living room. Some of these simple yet stylish desk accessories would definitely help me keep my desktop clutter to a minimum…

Ikea

Ikea

Ikea

Whether you work from your your kitchen table or are lucky enough to have a studio space to spread out in, it’s easy for bills and other paperwork to start taking over. How do you keep your space organized? Colourful boxes, vintage crates and baskets are some of my favourite solutions…

Livet Hemma (Ikea Sweden)

Alvhem

Dwell

Do you like a perfectly clean desktop or do you like to have inspirational images and objects on display where you can see them daily? I like a bit of both and would definitely have an inspiration board nearby, if my desk wasn’t in our shared living space. I have three calendars always on the go and love the idea of a single large chalkboard calendar to fill in each month and help keep our family organized…

Janis Nicolay. Banquet feature for Canadian House & Home.

Rue. Photo by Matthew Williams. Design by Robert + Cortney Novogratz.

Stylizimo

House to Home via Bright.Bazaar. Photo by Dominic Blackmore.

Neutral colour schemes are so visually calming and make great backdrops for artists and other creative souls but I find some pops of colour to be much more energetic and inspiring, myself. Which do you prefer? And vintage touches always help warm up a space and add personality…

Casa de Valentina

Weekday Carnival

Style At Home

Whatever your style, I’d love to hear your tips on how you keep your workspace sorted and paperwork filed. I think it all comes down to filing things away daily rather than waiting until desk drawers can no longer close. Hmm, guess I’d better empty a couple of desk drawers today!

We measure time in “sleeps” around here…so only 32 more sleeps until the girls and I take up residence in Florida.  It sounds like a long ways off when we count it out but when I look at my calendar I get a little anxious.  It’s starting to fill up pretty fast and we have any free weekends left.  This weekend we said goodbye to our cats and I think I was more sad than the girls which really surprised me.  I suppose that keeping them informed along the way and filling them in on all the details worked in their favour, like I had hoped. Our house feels different without them and I wonder how long the promise I made to myself of “no more pets” will last.  Our big snow fall is melting away as the rain pours down in usual B.C. fashion and it’s about this time every year that I look out at my soggy garden and dream of the Spring.  I’m definitely not an expert gardener but I do love to put together plant pots and get my hands dirty now and then.  Succulents are one of my favourite plants and I hope they love the Florida sun.

 Project Wedding

 Flora Grubb Gardens

 iVillage

 Apartment Therapy

 Woodland Belle

 Green Wedding Shoes

 Alissa Rose

  Today’s Nest

Martha Stewart

 Stephanie Williams Photography

 Style Me Pretty

I can’t let the rain slow me down today.  I’ve got a long to-do list and I’m hoping to check off at least 10 tasks.  Wish me luck!

How was your week? Mine seemed to go by very slow in the beginning (we finally got our snow days, yay!) and then suddenly sped right on up. And now it’s Friday and we woke up a coating of very icy snow over our town so it’s another slow and homebound snow day for us, which is quite alright by me and the kids! I’ve been feeling like I’ve got a lot going on in my head, ideas and plans for the year ahead, but haven’t been making a lot of headway finalizing decisions and making headway. Do you ever have that feeling? I think it’s time to take a step back and stop adding things to my list until I’ve crossed at least one or two off!

The featured seller on Etsy this week, Jenna Rose Handmade, caught my eye and I just had to share some of her beautiful textiles with you. Jenna illustrates each design by hand before screen printing them onto natural and organic materials. She uses only non-toxic, water based pigments and mixes the colours in small runs before hand printing them onto the cloth. Her Etsy feature gives an inside look into what inspires her work and design process and I love that her patterns are completely hand drawn, not computer generated…

Yellow Honeycomb Pillow

Etsy Feature: Jenna Rose Handmade

The Ships pattern is my particular favourite and I know at least a few friends who would be happy to receive any of these nautical printed goodies…which would you choose?

Ships Bucket

1. Gray Ships Pillow 2. Ships Large Zipper Tote 3. Ships Pouch 4. Gray Ships Tea Towel

Hemp Jersey Cowl

Gray Bikes Organic Cotton Blanket

Birds of an Old-Growth Forest Poster

Honeycomb Bucket

Etsy Feature: Jenna Rose Handmade

I find the whole screen printing process fascinating and would love to take a class and try it out someday. I’m always so awestruck by talented artisans and wonder what inspired them to try their craft for the first time. And how long did they wait to actually try it before discovering that it was their calling? Who knows, maybe there’s a budding artist in all of us! Have a wonderful weekend!

Brrr…we are having such a cold snap right now!  The temperatures have been hovering around -12 Celsius and with the wind chill the weatherman says it feels more like -24.  On days like these I’m so looking forward to Florida.  Being cold isn’t one of my favourite things. We were snowed in a couple days so I had some extra time to feed my Pinterest habit and I came across a handful of kitchens I wouldn’t mind calling my own.  I guess my tastes are leaning towards the modern side of things these days.  Which one is your favourite?

 Johanna Ekmark

 BOLIG Magasinet

 Riikka Kantinkowski via Decor8

 Lonny

 Elle Decor

House & Home

Off to pack a few more boxes!  Enjoy the rest of your week.

We are in the midst of a Winter Wonderland!  It isn’t often that we have a good snow fall and it is so very beautiful.  The girls have spent hours playing outside and are sleeping soundly as a result.  I hope to take them for a walk in the snow later on this evening, one my favourite things to do.  If you haven’t already heard the news, Lily’s home is going be featured on HGTV.ca in the next little while! Pretty exciting, right?  I couldn’t help but invite myself over for coffee so I could watch Janis in action and join in on the fun.  We’ll all have to wait for the big reveal because HGTV.ca has first dibs but in the mean time, take a snoop through this lovely home.

 All images from HGTV.ca 

You’ve probably seen at least few of these rooms before if you’re as addicted to Pinterest as we are.  It’s the home of Emma over at The Marion House Book.  I’ve virtually toured many homes and it doesn’t happen very often that I love each and every room.  And this home is one of those.  It’s bright, fresh and wonderfully eclectic.   I LOVE all her vintage finds…oh, my goodness.    Emma has made a few changes here and there and you should really stop by The Marion House Book to see the “before” and “afters”.  You won’t be disappointed, I promise.