The Art of Imperfection

This is a delightful little book that I picked up.
I just love it .








It allows us to accept our flaws with the same grace and humility as accepting our best qualities.
One paragraph quotes : More often than not , the desire to be perfect interferes with things getting better, and the need to be in control increases disorder and chaos.


I keep it in our bathroom to remind me.



It's such a refreshing little book because I think we women are harder on ourselves than men and are sometimes guilty of trying to do it all. And with technology and the media nowadays it seems like all aspects of our lives are exposed. The expectation is to be perfect Moms, perfect employees, and perfect housekeepers etc.

We need to be easier on ourselves and remember to accept our idiosyncrasies as endearing and instead,embrace all the "perfect moments" that happen everyday......living in the moment.

May a little grace touch your day .

Nothing Like A Funky Hat Store !

The kids and I stumbled on this funky hat store in Fort Langley the other day.
They love their hats just like their Mama. While I probably wouldn't wear a hat to a wedding I do have all different kinds of hats : the golf hat, the hockey hat, the "I don't want to get my hair wet" hat, the "want to look funky" hat .





Here are the kids' picks:

Playing around with Flicker and my artwork

I'm trying to make a Flikr badge - kind of like the square ones you see on other blogs. For some reason this has numbers on it.
Oh well, back to the drawing board !

Supposed to be recovering a chair...........

but as usual got slightly distraceted. Triple AAA baseball had just ended the day before ( a gruelling schedule ) and we were all lounging in our jammies - a perfect day to recover a chair!
But my girlfriend had other ideas and suggested we meet at Fort Langley - a historic town across the river from us. So the kids and I hopped on the ferry and off we went.

The shops are delightful there and one of my favourites is http://littlewhitehousefort.com
The owner of the boutique was in an article recently in February's Country Living when she and a friend renovated an aprtment in Paris in 2 weeks. Great article if you have it.

Here's some of the eye candy from the store and a few pics of our trip. Off to the beach today !

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Picking Colours

Still playing around and figuring out where pictures post, but the chair is my current project. I inherited frim my sweet GG (Grandpa) when he passed on but it's time for a redo. I don't feel like totally refinishing it so I'll just settle for recovering it. I got a great deal on the material - although, not my first choice, I couldn't resist - $7.00 ! I usually just jump in blind to these projects - no How To Books or anything - sometimes creativity can be a curse. Like the time I decided I needed to make a photo quilt of my parents lives for their 40th anniversary. Of course I don't even sew and had never done anything like that before - but that didn't seem to be a problem ! I was still making it at the last minute and had everything ( and I mean everything ) spread all over the house when my beloved relatives decided to visit me early ! We learned a new expression from them that visit "On t'a pris avec the culottes en bas" - We caught you with your pants down ! ...........anyhoo, I'll post a picture shortly of the final result . Until then - hoping a little grace touches your day.

So, on yesterday's post I mentioned that I had picked my paint colours for the house off of a favourite painting and here's the painting:Not the best picture but hopefully you get the idea.

For the colours I chose a light gold, a dark gold , the muted, brick red you can see there and a warm colour called crystalized honey. If I was somewhat computer proficient I'd be able to post samples or chips.

Deezinin' and Decoratin'

I designed my whole kitchen around my favourite armoir - which I just had to have - dates back to Brussels in the 1800's.

I absolutely ADORE Nancy Noel's paintings.

The clock in my kitchen.

Also had to have the wooden sign of my favourite word. It's om top of the amoire in the hallway. I guess you can tell I love amoires too !



I was lucky enough to be able to design our new home. Although a bit stressful at times, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and knew exactly what style I wanted - interior and exterior.


I created the floor plans and told the designer that I wanted the exterior to look like French country meets Westcoast Chalet ( had to have the French in there ) I was really pleased with the results and will post a picture. I'm glad I couldn't afford an interior decorator because it kind of forces you to be creative. You have to really work through things until you're happy. I kind of decorate on a wing and a prayer. I don't really have any formula except start with something you love. When I had to choose the paint colours for the house it was hard to make a decision because I'm so eclectic. I love Shabby Chic , but I also love warm colours . Overall I truly love muted colours and love to have contrasts - whether it be light and dark, soft and smooth, new and old . Finally I chose a favourite painting and chose four colours off of it - one dark, two midtones and one light. I didn't read this from any book and I'm sure being an artist probably helped. But I truly believe if you start with what you love the rest will follow. I'll post the painting tomorrow as it's too dark now to take a picture.

So that was the first time I posted pictures and they didn't exactly show up where I wanted them. Until I get a little more adept at this bloggin, It'll just have to do. Hope you enjoyed the pics anyway and will post more tomorrow.

Aug. 07, 2008 Wow - I'm blogging !

This is my first official blog post ! I really didn't think I would have time to fit blogging into my crazy life but after reading all the inspirational and creative blogs out there - how could I not?
I am officially addicted like everyone else. I read on someone's blog tips on how to get started and the tip was - just dive right in and start blogging. So that's what I'm doing - limited knowledge and all. Hopefully my blog will eventually be what I envision - a little place of serenity, somewhere to stop and rest your eyes . A place that will inspire you and most of all - a place where a little bit of grace will touch your day. So be patient with my journey as I work out the bugs of blogging.