Map It & Mount It

"It" being a very cool custom print that we just ordered off of Etsy, that is.

We wanted to add some new art in our main living room that was personal and Canadiana. In our search we found a lot of Toronto inspired prints...

...all which we loved, but it was the simplicity of artyMAPS and the fact that it could be customized that grabbed our attention.

We ordered the same colour as the Leaside sample above, but customized it for Corso Italia. We're picking it up today and can't wait to put it up! ***THE NEXT DAY*** Picked up our custom print yesterday and put it up right away! I had an extra frame that I got from work which happen to fit the print perfectly!

Crazy Cat Lady Game Night

Yep, you read that right. I love cats, although technically I'm not a "Crazy Cat Lady" because I only own two...and I'm married. But thanks to Yorkville's Rolo and the discovery of this on my last visit, I hosted a game night dedicated to all the feline-loving-women of the world:

I mean, COME ON! How could I NOT have a themed night?!

So I invited a few lady friends who either share my love of cats or tolerate it a few Fridays ago, to try out the game with me. The best part was that it wasn't madatory to come dressed, yet everyone came in their best Crazy Cat Lady attires (cat glasses, leopard print, etc). The event was completed with:

The front entrance decked out in Cat Butt magnets and a hanging Crazy Cat Lady action figure (both of which were birthday gifts...from two separate people).

Individual wine glasses with homemade cat labels (Matt said I hit an all time low when I was making these).

And the second best find after the boardgame. An actual cat themed instant camera from Urban Outfitters!

A cat shows up in every picture! It was fun taking pictures throughout the night and not knowing how it would turn out (remember those days?). I had the pictures developed later in the week and then mailed them out to all the ladies along with their cat labels, which I used as a thank you card.

Because I'm classy (read: cheesy) like that.

MEOW!

Laundry Room Love

If you own a house in Toronto, chances are it was built in the time of buggies and horse drawn carriages like ours. Which also means that, since it's erection (I just wrote "erection"), at least a handful of different generations have lived there before you. Actually, it's kind of creepy thinking about that...

I digress.

Point is, over those years, all those who lived there before you had some say in the design/reconstruction/renovation of your humble abode. Some of those people actualy KNEW what they were doing when they tore down walls (true story). While others were probably just exercising their right as a homeowner to do things like hang a random chandelier in the linen closet (another true story).

But one room seems to have stood the test of time, not just in our house but in many other that I have snooped in (I mean, "visit").

The Laundry room.

When I was a kid, the laundry room was the last place I wanted to be because it ultimately meant that I had to do said laundry instead of something fun like rolling around in the backyard and telling my mom I was "busy." The room itself was nice enough, kinda creepy 'cause it was in the basement, and it definitely wasn't a point of interest for anyone in the family. So when we bought our house, I still had the same feelings about our laundry room and used for it's sole purpose.

And then...Pinterest happened. And suddenly all I was seeing were photos of beautifully styled / super functional laundry rooms. And I thought to myself "Damn, who woulda thunk?"

(Already) Long story short, I decided to jazz up ours with some fun art. Since I wasn't willing to pay (much) for it, I did the next best thing: made my own art using parts of art I found online. Some would call that creative plagiarism. I call it, graphic designing.

With the help of Google, I found a t-shirt image and a "cartoon in love" face and photoshopped them together.

I also used this as inspiration:

To make this:

The quote is by Khalil Gibran, which I also found after some Googling. It's pretty deep for Laundry Room standards, I know, but I thought it was pretty cute paired with my two ogling t-shirts. And come on. "Hour of separation"! Get it? Get it? Got it.

Our first mention!

Seeing our followers slowly add up feels goood...reading your comments is very cool...having one of our posts featured on another site is down right AWESOME!

Covet Garden caught wind of our Hudson Bay Tables and featured it on their site today! Thanks for blog love ladies :)

To read the feature, head over this way.

Especially love the sketch of the table and that the deer was still included :)

Spirals in The Junction

Last Monday we took a walk through the Junction to explore (which translates into "to shop frivolously"). We passed by an art store called Articulations and decided to have a peek inside. Check out the exhibit they had on display!

Love how they made use of the space as both a store and a gallery! The store had a really welcoming feel and we ended up buying a small mannequin for sketching. The owners were really friendly and told us a bit about their open studio space and workshops and invited us to check one out in the future. This one sounded like a lot of fun:

Crafternoon
Sunday January 22nd 3-6pm
(PWYC Suggested $5)
Come get your craft on at Crafternoon! This is how it works: You bring a project to work on and we’ll provide a few extra bits and pieces to keep you inspired. Find out how awesome it is to make things in the company of other crafty pals. Cookies & Tea included!

Crafty in Corso

Our first Christmas in Corso was a whirlwind of a month full of parties, good food and bottomless drinks :)

It also meant that we had to be smart with our budget and not to go overboard. Thank goodness, we embraced the life of crafting this season and ended up with some great gifts that were personal and easy on the wallets :)

Our first project was homemade ornaments for a family Kris Kringle Ornament exchange. A visit to our local Dollarama gave us plenty of options for materials. We walked in without any ideas and came out with these:

I made glitteriffic dumbbells for my sister-in-law, who is an athletic outdoors machine who also loves fashion.

Matt made an ornament for his other sister depicting a scene of a Christmas tree faling on his mom, lol. True story. Everyone laughed for a good couple of minutes when that was unwrapped on Christmas day.

For our parents, we took a page from one of my favourite blogs, The Art Of Doing Stuff. We visited our favourite local shops in Corso Italia and put together a food gift pack with pasta, rosemary infused olive oil, mini Panetonne, waffle cookies, and paired it with our favourite bottle of Sangiovese.

Cat not included...

And finally, the piece de resistance. Our Canadian inspired guest room was missing bedside tables. But not wanting to buy new furniture, I needed a crafty alternative that would be functional and cheeeeap. So, when I found some Hudson Bay popcorn tins on sale, I turned this:

...into this:

Doesn't get anymore Canadian than that! The popcorn tins were on sale, but I had a giftcard, so they were "free." The legs came from Ikea and cost $20 for a pack of four. They were easy to drill into the tin (I only used three), but I had to be careful not to drill right through otherwise the nail wouldn't catch. If I wasn't lazy, I could have added a piece of wood in the inside of the can for extra reinforcement, but the legs seem really stable without that.

Not too bad for our first crafty Christmas in Corso :)