House & Home Online TV Show

Lisa of Canadian House & Home magazine emailed recently about the website's new online TV show that features home tours, DIY ideas, recipes and more. Here's a little bit of info from Lisa: "After producing a successful television show on conventional television networks for the past nine years (reruns still air in over 20 countries), our publisher, Lynda Reeves, decided it was time for a change. The new 12- to 15-minute online television show, airing at houseandhome.com/tv, features Lynda Reeves, Suzanne Dimma and other experts from Canadian House & Home leading house tours, decorating lessons, cooking demos, DIY projects, Ask A Designer™ segments and shopping excursions. Shows are filmed both inside the House & Home Media offices in Toronto and on location. Original content is updated weekly, and viewers can subscribe to a custom e-newsletter to receive weekly show updates." I viewed several of the shows and they are awesome, featuring some of my favourite spaces from recent issues. They included this one, the glam loft of designer Sabrina Linn. 

And this one, the most incredible basement renovation I've ever seen (in H&H senior editor Meg Crossley's home). I am totally envious as my basement is a wreck and will likely remain that way.

Cat #1 - Milo

For those of you reading this who may not know me very well, perhaps you are not aware that I have 7 cats. Yep, SEVEN. I was quite happy with 5 (which is still too many) about a year and a half ago, but the last 2 appeared at my new home and I could not turn them away. So I thought I'd do a little intro of each of the 7, and include some of my favourite photos. I'll start with the first one who took over my home.

Milo is the only cat that I did not rescue. My next door neighbour at the time had a Himalayan and I fell in love with it and had to have one. I tried to find one to rescue online but had no luck. So I found a breeder about an hour away, and my boyfriend and I went to pick one out. Once arriving at the breeder's home, I realized that perhaps we were rescuing one after all. The house was insane, a bunch of kids, cats and dogs everywhere (they bred dogs too). We picked out Milo, a blue-point, although we had gone there thinking we'd pick out a seal-point but his colouring was too gorgeous to resist. So he's been with me since about 2002. He's momma's boy. He loves me to death and couldn't care less about anyone else, even my boyfriend. He is pretty small for a Himalayan, and a ball of fluff. It is really tough to get a decent photograph of him, but here are some of my favourites (see more in his Flickr set).

Sadly, I'm back from Vegas

I arrived home from Vegas Monday night and have been home sick from work since. Vegas was incredible, and I'd love to visit again. We did alot of shopping, so perhaps next time we'll get the chance to do more sight seeing. My sister Jen's wedding was perfect. I'm so happy for her and her new husband Dave. We had a great time, had the best food, and I loved that it was such a small group of friends and family (about 25 of us). To pass a bit of time and forget the excruciating pain at the back of my throat, I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos (taken by my boyfriend or myself) from the trip.

THREE MORE DAYS!!!!

Very early Thursday morning I will be heading out to the airport with my boyfriend and twin sister to catch a flight to Vegas. My younger sister is getting married on Saturday there. Which is AWESOME because this means I had an excuse to take a vacation. If I am not mistaken, I have not had a vacation since early 2006 when I went to Puerto Vallarta. I am soooooooo ready to get the hell out of Ottawa for a few days. We will be back Monday night so I will not be on a computer for FIVE whole days. WOHOO!!! I am trying to get some posts done before I go that I can schedule to publish while I am gone. This trip means 5 days away from my 7 cats, and I'll miss them but AH MAH GAWD I will be able to get 4 decent nights sleep where I will be able to move my legs and not get woken at 5 am for a feeding. And I've never been to Vegas so that's pretty exciting. There are of course wedding things going on and a day planned to outlet shop but besides that plans are up in the air. I found an amazing cat-sitter via Flickr whom I had never met in person so we did just that on Saturday so we could get to know each other a bit, she could meet the cats, and so I could give her the lowdown on how to deal with my herd. (Crazy, I know, but she's perfect for the job). And this may mean more vacations in my future!!

Anyway, last night my little sis and her fiance gave us some little Vegas souvenirs for partaking in their big day which was totally not necessary but really sweet of them.

Thanks Jen and Dave and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Goodies from Jo!!!

I picked up a parcel on my way home from work today and holy sh*t was it heavy. I didn't think it was Jo's parcel, otherwise I would have gone home and gotten the car. My arms are still wobbly from carrying all that weight. Getting a parcel from Jo is like that feeling you get on Christmas morning. I get all giddy and cannot wait to uncover what she has found for me. Although she tends to spoil it and tells me about things she has found as she finds them but I have such a terrible memory it really doesn't matter. :)

Among the goodies are some fabrics from Ikea (there is no fabric at the Ottawa Ikea which is BEYOND RIDICULOUS and you can't order fabric on their website), Tibetan prayer flags, milk glass, sea shells, soup mugs, silver serving spoons, tiny glass bottles, a Hornsea creamer to match my canisters and coffee pot, a set of 3 Asian paintings, and a ceramic cat. A handle broke off one of the mugs (I can glue back) and a couple chips out of one of the china teacups (I can glue back), but then there's this below, which I sure as hell cannot glue back:

Ah well. It did travel halfway across the world. I bet it was pretty (she just emailed and told me this was a hanging planter). :)
THANK YOU JO!!!!