Lifestyle

For those of you who celebrated Canada Day yesterday, I hope you had a nice a relaxing day! I took Monday off as well and made it an extra long weekend and managed to catch a lot of vitamin D out in cottage town. I had such a great time! To my America friends, I hope you will be able to enjoy your upcoming Fourth of July weekend as well!

Apologies for not posting this DIY {Built-In} Chalkboard tutorial earlier, I know that I had mentioned it in this post a couple of weeks back, but here it is! I have very high ceilings at home and have been wanting to welcome my guests by my front entrance with a big piece of art for quite some time. However, finding a frame or a canvas about 6 ft tall can be quite challenging. Therefore, I decided to create a DIY built-in chalkboard for some doodling by painting directly on the wall and adding some simple trim border as the frame.

I love candles. I love them even more now that I have a home. I never use to invest in them. I thought they were only necessary for romantic baths, curing a hard day at work, or airing out the smell from cooking all day in a small condo. I have a total different view of candles now. They are THE most necessary accessory to any home! They are so darn pretty, and smell incredible. I’ve honestly got candles in every room in my house (literally, I just counted them).

I want to thank Samantha (see her food blog) for introducing me to Charmed Aroma. Not only do their candles smell incredibly yummy and decadent, but each candle contains a surprise piece of jewelry worth anywhere from $10 to $5,000!!!

Hello! How was your past weekend? I had a fantastic one, mainly spending time outdoors and spent most of my Sunday being a beach bum. The weather was perfect for a beach day, glad to say we stocked up on some beach must haves at Target on Saturday. We walked in for two beach towels and ended up spending over $200 on a number of other beach ‘necessities”, including a horse shoe set, a new cheeky palm tree print bikini, a burger pattie press (genius!), and enough sunblock for the next few visits.

Speaking of Target and warm weather, I’m thrilled to be sharing this crazy good Target collaboration with you – Poppytalk for Target. Canada’s top Pinterest Pinner, Jan Halvarson of Poppytalk launched her collection this past Sunday across Target stores in Canada. Here I share with you some of my favourite, and EXTREMELY affordable picks from Poppytalk’s collection. Can you see how I manage to spend $200+ every time I set foot in Target?

As much as I love shopping at specialty stores for premium beauty and make up products, I must say I still have a list of beauty staples that I obtain regularly at the local drug store/pharmacy. These products are a must have in my bathroom as they are all reliable, practical, and 100% affordable!

IKEA released the most gorgeous “Celebrate” press kit this week and I absolutely have to share this. Summer is all about have a great time outdoors and IKEA has put together a gorgeous outdoor setting to inspire you. Whether you’re throwing a graduation party, a bridal shower, baby shower, or just a reason to get together with family and friends, this beautiful garden inspiration will give you a few ideas to DIY.

They say that Moms are hard to shop for but I beg to differ! Father’s Day is this coming Sunday and as usual, I ain’t had a clue what to get for the Pops. I typically get my Dad the latest tech gadget, a bottle of fine wine, or some plaid shirts because you really can’t have enough of plaid (insert happy face).

This year, I decided to combine a bit of the usual with something handmade = fabulous plaid shirts from Joe Fresh (I also snatched them for $10 off at $19 a pop) + a quirky DIY Shoe Shine Kits.

Happy weekend! The weekend has officially arrived and boy am I glad. This week was a whirlwind with the start of my week LIVE on the Marilyn Denis Show (you can see my full segment on how to create a gorgeous outdoor garden oasis for less than $300), then followed by a week’s of business conferences. I can’t wait to kick back and relax this weekend, I think I deserve it … and so do you!

To kick off the weekend, I’m sharing a simple DIY project that you can work on – a DIY Outdoor Planter. Recently, I had the pleasure to learn all about planters and gardening with Peter Cantley, the garden guru and Vice-President, Floral & Garden and Loblaw Companies Ltd. I’m not sure about you, but I kill about any plant that lives, so I was so glad to get some expert advice on planting my own mini garden with some products from President’s Choice (be it floral or edibles). Peter taught us how to create a simple, yet attractive planter using three simple ingredients – Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers.

So happy to be sharing this post with you all today! Earlier this week, I was invited to appear on The Marilyn Denis Show for a SUPER fun segment – DIY Thrift Store Showdown. Where myself and Amy from LoveOnSunday were asked to shop at our favourite Thrift Shop, Value Village to create a whole space for under $500 (including DIY supplies). I decided to create an Outdoor Garden Oasis with my thrifted item and the results were fantastic! Every single item in my vignette was 100% thrifted and I came in totally below budget!

I’m so pleased to say that I WON the first ever DIY Thrift Store Challenge on the show and came in at less than $250!

Kyle and I were invited by Sarah from iYellow Wine Club for a private event at their Wine Cave earlier this week. I had NO idea that this place existed as it is hidden behind a building through an alley way on Queen St. W in Toronto. We were invited that night to sample a Spanish Brut – Cava Hills and also decadent Spanish tapas from SLICED. It was such a treat as I haven’t had much Spanish affair since our visit to Spain last year!

This was my first time introduced to iYellow Wine Club – a wine community of close to 10,000 members who love wine. How did I NOT know about this until now? I’m no wine connoisseur but I do love drinking it! I’ve come to learn a thing or two about wine in the last several years. Some of my favourites are from Spain and Italy however, we do make a trip out to Niagara on the lake once a year and enjoy the lovely local wines Ontario has to offer. Membership is free and members receive invites to wine events, wine tours and wine school classes all year around. iYellow is a place where you can taste wines from all over the world. Learn about why you love the wines that you do meet other wine lovers!

Happy Wednesday folks! A short and sweet post today, sharing a few Chalkboard/Blackboard art I’ve recently came across on Pinterest. I have been meaning to fill up the wall behind my entrance door with a piece of art. After looking at several options, I decided to go with a DIY built-in Chalkboard/Blackboard. I will be sharing my tutorial on how to create a magnificently easy version of your own at home. Literally less than 5 items to purchase. For now though, here are a few chalk drawings I’ll be using as inspiration for my wall art and also some different ways you can incorporate a chalkboard/blackboard into your home!