New around my house

I spent all day yesterday getting the majority of my Christmas shopping done so I didn't have much time to prepare a post for today. I thought I'd just share some photos of new stuff around my house. To start, I finally pulled something out of storage I've been dying to display for a few years. When I got married in 2010, Jo sent me a Moroccan wedding blanket as a wedding gift. It is absolutely beautiful and one of my most treasured possessions. I had planned to hang it in the bedroom of my new house but since that house has been delayed, I figured to hell with it, and hung it over a branch we found at my sister's cottage and positioned it over the bed as a headboard. I love that I can see it every day. And the cats leave it alone so that's a bonus. (To note, my bedroom is a dumping ground for furniture that doesn't work in any other room, and has linens picked more out of necessity than anything else so one day I hope to have my bedroom set up a little more planned/calculated)

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The AIM pendant

A while back FLOS offered me a light fixture to try, I absolutely could not say no. FLOS is one of the coolest lighting companies there is. I have to admit I had not heard of the light before and now I'm kicking myself for not having known about it sooner. Designed and created in Italy, AIM is a uniquely minimalist suspended light designed by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. In their own words, AIM is a "new type of lamp that is naturally positioned in space – like a plant – with long cables providing maximum freedom to adjust the direction and height of the light source." Similar to hanging vines, the long, free wires allow for "infinite adjustability" while providing a sense of the natural, as the wires seem to "develop and grow like branches or climbing plants". AIM also uses warm LED, meaning that it is a very low energy consumption lamp. 

When the light finally arrived I was SO excited to get it installed. Knowing I was getting 1 fixture, the only place I thought I could put it was in my bedroom as it's the only room besides my dining room and dressing room with an overhead fixture (stupid old house with bad wiring!). But when I unwrapped the light I realized it was larger than I had expected, and even more gorgeous in person. I went with black, and it's a matte finish! *sigh* (It also comes in white and polished aluminum). My husband, who is thankfully quite the handyman, suggested we put it in the corner of our living room, and he would wire a plug to the end of it so we could plug it in to the wall but mount it to the ceiling so it looked like it was wired up there. GENIUS! We both LOVE the AIM. It looks incredible in the living room. I can imagine a few of these grouped together over a dining table, or over a large desk. A few hanging in a staircase would be cool too. 

This post is in partnership with FLOS USA but all opinions are my own.

Around the house

As much as I am dying for a new house, I keep trying to keep myself from going crazy while stuck here by continuing to do small projects and picking up little things here and there I totally don't need or have room for (LOL). Here are the latest bits and bobs that I've worked on or purchased. 

First up - I got a little tired and bored with the centrepiece on my dining table. Because my house is so small and my dining space is in the middle of the kitchen, it means the dining table is prime real estate for displays. (You can see photos of what has been hanging out on my table for the past several months here). I went to Value Village Friday and found a wooden tray for $3.99, then went around the house collecting pieces I thought would work for a fall theme. I have a red and orange batik table runner I may put down too (but the cats tend to lay on the table where there's fabric on it).

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Little projects around my house

I didn't really know what to blog today and since there are a couple of new little projects around my house I thought I would just share that today (a sad day I might add - we're heading to my sister's cottage with the family to help close it up for the winter). Aside from the cat house and new paint job on my desk, I did more painting and some fabric dying which I had never attempted before. Fabric dying was quite the experience. Since I don't have a big laundry sink I'm grateful to have a backyard with half dead grass where I could make a mess without harming anything. I have had a very large piece of white linen in my fabric stash for several years that I have been dying (pun intended) to do something with. I decided I would use a piece of it for a curtain over my desk and another for a seat cushion for a chair in my bedroom. So off to the fabric store for some black dye. All they had was 'black velvet' which I assumed meant a light black. I tested a couple of strips of fabric - one bundled up tight and wrapped in rope, and the other I dipped right in. 

I opted for bundling up the fabric and wrapping it because I wanted it to look really odd with faded parts. Unfortunately not knowing what the frig I was doing, I bundled it too tight and there were too many light spots, and the fabric didn't turn out dark enough. So I had to do it all over again. 

After a second bath in the black dye the result was perfect! Much more subtle and dark but not too black. While I was at it I added all of my vintage doilies that I had dyed dark grey a while back but they turned out too blue. 

After washing and hanging them to dry, I balled up the fabric and left it like that for a while because I LOVE the look of wrinkled linen. 

In reality the lighter parts are not as bright as in the photo above. It turned out pretty awesome. My doilies are still fairly blue. Ah well. I have wanted to stitch them together into a table runner for ages but never got around to it. 

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Hotel du Pantheon

Yesterday Jo took you to Mykonos. Today I'll be taking you to Paris, specifically to the Hôtel du Panthéon. It has recently been completely renovated and is now absolutely stunning, due in part to the fabulous decor by interior designer Valérie Manoïl. It's modernized, bold (the wallpaper selections!!) yet classy and I would absolutely love to stay here. (Photos by Jerome d'Almeida) 

P.S. I worked on a little desk facelift project yesterday if you want to check it out over on my page. 

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