A Clean Slate & A Blank Canvas

I didn't get around to blogging yesterday and really should be silkscreening some things right now, but if I don't do this now, I probably won't get around to it at all this week. After wanting to repaint our upper level for several months now, Matt and I finally did just that last Friday. His colour of choice was a dark greenish-grey to mimic a chalkboard and my colour of choice was white, hence the title of this post.

This is what that same wall looked like before we started painting:


Thank goodness the dark wall is just a temporary thing for Matt's next film project. (It will be painted white to match my workspace after he's done shooting.) I had previously told him that he wasn't allowed to film any more movies in our home. Since I work from home and need to be able to move around and make noise at any given point, filming a movie in the same environment can prove to be difficult. But in marriage, you learn to compromise. And so while Matt got his wish to film part of his next project here, I also got my wish (below):

In all his years of riding a bike, Matt has never worn a helmet. Until now!

Something new that I'm trying these days is having my desk up against the wall. If you're familiar at all with feng shui, then you know this isn't the best position in which to have your desk. Not only do you have something in front of you, blocking chi, but your back is left vulnerable. But for practical reasons - facing the other way meant I'd have to use a huge and unsightly extension cord - I set it up like this for now. Plus, all the cables and cords are kind of eyesore so at least this way they are less visible.


The main reason I wanted white walls is because I thought they'd make for better product shots. A good amount of natural light and decent photography skills don't hurt either, but I thought the wall colour before just didn't go anything for my items.


At least now I have a blank white wall to work with. My workspace is still a work-in-progress as there are a number of other things I want to get from here to complete it. I'm loving my new Judy dress form and red Lerberg rack though.


Those are all the photos for now. To see more from our fun day, you can go here. Sorry, Tara, no other after shots yet :)

You gotta have some...

Faith, that is. In the words of George Michael (the faith part) and my mom (the soup part). This is a new personal piece that I've had floating around in my head for some time now. It stems from the past several months and what I think of as "my transitional period". Since my departure from Fresh Collective I've felt like I've been struggling to stay afloat, financially and emotionally and so this piece is a reminder to myself to stay positive and trust that things will be fine. When you're having soup for lunch (practically) everyday though, it's hard to believe sometimes.

Growing up, my parents had the hardest time getting me to eat my soup at dinner time. My mom would always say "it's good for you", like that would make me want to finish it faster. So go figure that in my adult years, I'm actually digging it as a meal, 1) because it's fairly cheap and 2) because it's fast and easy to make (out of a can or box). Campbell's makes some pretty tasty soups these days.

So yesterday, after almost resigning myself to living as a starving artist for who knows how much longer, I got a couple of possible painting commissions (one c/o my sweetheart) as well as another possible children's book. They are all still up in the air a bit but it's all about having faith, right? Keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

My new Ikea desk (c/o an unused wedding gift card, thankfully) is going to be delivered shortly, so I should go.

It's about time!

Spring seems to have sprung finally and that means I will be bringing my bike out of hiding very soon. All efforts to find our little bike pump today were futile though, and there are no gas stations with air close to us (at least according to Matt the last time he was out in search of one), so we're spending Sunday indoors.

We did enjoy the beautiful weather yesterday as we were given free tickets to the National Home Show by our very generous real estate agent. Unfortunately since we went on a Saturday, the place was a bit overcrowded to our liking and not really what we expected, though we both weren't sure what to expect there. Basically it was a lot of different vendors there trying to get you to spend money on their products. Great if you have a disposable income, but right now we don't. So it was more about generating ideas for us.

***Edit: I forgot to mention that the highlight of the trip for Matt was his 5 minutes in a $3400 massage chair. He couldn't stop talking about it after we left. I didn't want to sit in it for fear of what I'd be missing later on... and I'm sure the chair was very soothing, but if we ever spent that much on a chair it'd have to look darn good too. And well, massage chairs to me are an eyesore not a design piece ***

Lately I've been obsessing over my home office space as well as dreaming up ways of decorating our place. When we first moved in I was more than happy to stick with the colours the previous owners had painted the walls upstairs.


But I think with the new season, I'm ready for a new look, especially since my office faces the kitchen. I'm leaning towards white walls or at least brighter ones in my workspace. It would make it easier to photograph items for my shop too.

And I would really love to get this desk but it's a little out of my budget at the moment. So I will likely just make my own from the different table tops and legs that Ikea carries. It's amazing how much more they charge for adding a few drawers to a table.