My HGTV Canada debut!

Now for some wonderful news:  HGTV Canada hasn't given me my own show (sadly)...but I will now be blogging for them on their website!  

Recently I was commissioned to write shop reviews of local Calgary decorating shops for HGTV Canada's wonderful Style Sheet blog:  

Style Sheet is written mainly by HGTV staff writers, with appearances by guest bloggers like me!

For my first review, I wrote about a beautiful Calgary decor shop called Melange for the Home.  I also took the accompanying photos.  You can read my review here.  

Melange is a beautiful shop.  For locals...I recommend a visit to check out their stunning Christmas decor (and maybe a little shopping)!

If you are a Calgarian and have an idea for a shop I should review, please send me an email or post a comment.  I have a list of favorite shops to review but would love your suggestions!  I hope to do at least one post a month for HGTV Canada.  I even had to get a business number for my "writing" business.  Isn't that cool?!

Please check out the main HGTV Canada website too!  They have some great home decor and renovation content.  I am also adding Style Sheet to my blogroll! 

Fine Finds: Pillows and Bone China!

As hard as I strive to become a conscientious consumer (buying fewer things of better quality), I still find myself at the mercy of pretty things sometimes.

Which brings me to some recent finds!  I was mentioning to Janet at The Gardeners Cottage in an email today that I try to use three criteria when I buy unnecessary but lovely things:  

Is is classic?  Is it beautiful?   Will I love it in 5 years?

This system really helps me to curb my aesthetic appetite and I now bring home a lot fewer trends, fewer "good buys" and much less nice but useless junk.  But sometimes, my heart just covets.  I am really trying to re-train the "reward center" in my brain which thinks that it constantly needs more stuff (and/or chocolate).

On that note, unable to harness my covetousness, here are some new finds I have recently acquired:

The opening photo shows a delightful green pillow I purchased from a fellow Calgarian who sells her pretty pillows on Etsy.  Her Lilybeth Goodies shop is full of goodies indeed, her prices are second-to-none, and she's a really sweet lady too! I have already ordered a second pillow in this pattern...a little pre-Christmas gift from me to me.  

My next find was this wee set of fine bone china, from my favorite antique store:

It is not a full set, but rather an incomplete four-piece place setting!  The set is by Royal Doulton and it is cream-coloured with a platinum edge.  There are four dinner plates, four salad plates, and four bread-and-butter plates. I am missing the tea cups and saucers (which I might try to find on eBay).  The pattern is called "Romance Carolyn H5090", if you happen to have some laying around your attic!

I really like the set and since I'm not too concerned about matchy-match with my china, I truly don't mind.  I plan to buy a new set of everyday white dishes soon so all my mismatched pieces will have a proper foundation (my current set is pale blue and white).  I would love to have a full set of very fine bone china some day, but who can justify the expense?  Many people put good china on their wedding registry, which is a very fine reason to get married, in my opinion!  David, are you reading this?

Next, in an odd twist of fate, I happened to be shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore (a grocery chain here which carries really great affordable housewares) yesterday and found these white porcelain bowls, edged in silver dots:

I think they look swell with my new dishes and let me serve a soup or pasta course and still use my new plates!  Talk about serendipity!

What do you think?  Hope you like my finds!

Our New Chandelier

A few weeks ago, our lovely new Schonbek chandelier arrived.  We had it installed immediately and I've been meaning to share some photos with you.  I am very fond of this fixture.   I should mention that I purchased the fixture from Carrington Lighting (South) in Calgary and the service was exceptional!  I've never been treated so well when buying something for my home.

Schonbek has been designing crystal chadeliers since 1870 and many of their pieces are reminiscent of a bygone era.  I love the style we chose as it reminds me of a French design with its low-slung Empire feel.  I chose a simple style and a fairly small-scale fixture (24" diameter) because our dining room is quite small (about 12' square)!

I think the new fixture looks grand with our old dining room furniture, which is from the early 1900's and is a Queen Anne style.  I almost chose a contemporary fixture but finally settled on one that really spoke to my heart.  And I can keep the room current with simple art, clean-lined tableware and accessories.

Art prints on the sideboard are by Albrect Durer (hare) and John Derian (tree).  The former is from art.com and the latter was purchased at a small shop in Paris.

FYI:  The fixture is called Schonbek Adagio 5103 in Antique Silver.  It is in the Schonbek in-store catalogues but not shown on their website.  Just Google for retailers or buy from your local Schonbek dealer.

P. S. The antique photo effect was added in Photoshop to give the pictures a vintage feel. 

Duvet or Not Duvet?

My favorite bedroom from Ideal Home magazine

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately contemplating bedding.

No, I'm not contemplating the usual dilemma of how many pillows.  Nor am I thinking about how to make it look nice.  I am thinking instead about making my bed FEEL insanely good.  I want it to be almost impossible to get out of in the morning!  Considering I am not a morning person, this could be a dangerous proposition.

We need a few new things in this department.  But I am torn between buying a new duvet and duvet cover, or getting us a good woolen blanket or two.

David prefers heavy blankets and layers.  So oftentimes in winter, I make up the bed with a couple of blankets (I have a good cotton one and some inexpensive fleecy ones), a quilt or two, and maybe even our little mini-duvet topper on top!  It is very cosy, but I move around a lot in bed (I have a bad back) and cannot stand heavy layers.  

I am a duvet girl.  The fluffier and loftier the better.  I like a duvet with a flat sheet under it so you don't have to wash the cover all the time.  And duvet covers are much faster to make up for busy working girls!

For winter, we currently use a king-sized duvet (turned sideways) on our queen-sized bed.  I bought it because I couldn't stand how queen duvets seemed to barely reach over the edge (12-14", although Pottery Barn's and some others have a 16" drop) and my flat sheets were always showing underneath (I don’t like having to tuck them in!).  

The king duvet seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I think a king-sized duvet is a little unwieldy on a queen bed.  For one, it hangs down too far at the foot of the bed when we turn it 90°.  When we turn it the correct way, it hangs down too far on the sides and seems to drag heavily off the sides of the bed and not puff up properly and conform to your body.  

So now I am contemplating a queen-sized duvet again.  My last one is a feathery mess and it's time for a new one.

But I also like quilts.  I bought a wonderful silk quilt in Paris (a European size 100”x100”, meaning it overhangs the side of my bed by 20”, which is a little too far, but it just looks more like a bedspread/coverlet).  I would like to use this all year round, but it’s thin, so I really should invest in a new blanket or two.  I thought  a good wool or alpaca blanket might be a nice investment.  A baby Alpaca and merino wool blend blanket goes for about $200 here, minimum.

 So now I’m conflicted.  Easy duvet or heavy blankets and quilts?

I really hate all those layers but Canadian winters are cold and we keep it slightly cool at night, around 62F (17C) and sometimes have the window open for a nice chilly draft!

I am not the kind of person who wants 10 sets of bedding.  I already feel like I have too many odds and ends and it drives me crazy.  I would rather just have one good duvet and cover and a couple of good blankets and a quilt or two.  Not all these mismathced things.  But that is life, I suppose.  It is the nature of humans to gather more and more stuff.

In the meantime, I was curious to know what your preferred bedding is.  

Do you prefer duvets or stacks of blankets?  Do you use appropriate sizes for your bed or go oversized?  Do you use a featherbed (I want one!)?  What kind of blankets do you like (cotton, fleece, wool, synthetic)?   Where do you buy your bedding?

And last but not least, what are your bedding true loves and pet peeves?

 

Perhaps we can discuss pillows in a future post!  I know that is always a hot subject.

Photos: 1,2,9:  Ideal Home

Photo 3: Pappas Miron

Photo 4: Art & Decoration

Photo 5:  David Oliver

Photo 6: Windsor Smith

Photo 7: OKA Design

Photo 8: Shoot Factory