The Friday Five: #HappiMess with Delta Faucet Canada

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My life this fall has been slightly chaotic. Sometimes I do wonder why I decide to take on so much work and extracurricular and blogging activities. Why, oh why, do I do this to myself? Then I realize that I have so much fun doing what it is that I do that I have no reason to complain about my sometimes-overly-packed days. A couple of weeks ago, for example, I headed to Toronto to join the very colourful Tiffany Pratt and about 20 other bloggers and influencers to create a #HappiMess sponsored by Delta Faucet Canada. Here’s my recap in five points…

1. Delta Faucet Canada welcomed us into a very white event space at Andrew Richard Designs. The long white table was all set with artsy materials.

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2. Tiffany encouraged us to create and paint and sparkle up a unique clutch. I was totally frozen when I saw the palette of colourful paints. Luckily, the Tiffany and the PR crew had a spare tube of black paint, and I put it to very good use. I definitely felt more at ease once the black paint made an appearance! (Thanks, team!)

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That’s my clutch! (It sparkles more in real life!)

4. We mingled and laughed and played with paint. And then washed our hands…obviously. Here I am washing up (and pretending to be a hand model):

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 great faucet, right?

3. We nibbled on delicious eats by the Food Dudes and talked about Delta’s collection.

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5. In addition to the painting, the clutches, the food, the drinks, and the Skittles, we filled our Instagram and Twitter feeds with photos of lovely flowers from Blush and Bloom.

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It was a very fun evening, and completely different from my day-to-day university life. Kudos to Tiffany and Delta for bringing out our creative sides (and for showing us how magical sparkles can be!).

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Do let me know if you make a #HappiMess over the next couple of days!

Photo credit: Koko Photography

Uptown: Saying Goodbye to Vinyl

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…and a whole bunch of other things around the house!

Things have progressed chez moi. Things are also slow going. While I can do without the mess and chaos, I’m loving the reno. It’s so satisfying to see things getting done the way that I want them. My dad has been helping out a lot and my mom will soon be joining the efforts (I’m putting their retirement to good use).

Here’s what’s been happening…

1. My dad removed the vanity and toilet from the powder room. The nice people at the Home Depot taught us about compression valves and we gave them a try. They’re great so far. I may not have a working faucet in this bathroom but the valves are shiny and clean.

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2. On Friday night I decided to rip out the vinyl in the powder room. Took the baseboards right out as well using a spatula and a crowbar. I probably didn’t need the crowbar but it was awesome. I love tools!

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3. Before I ripped out the floor, I visited a tile shop. The photo shows some of the tiles that I’m considering. But I think I decided to go for the 1″ white matte hex tiles. It’s going to look great! I’m going to try to tackle the floor in the next week or so. Wish me luck!

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4. Dad has been doing a lot of electrical work around the house. In addition to moving ceiling and lights, he has started to replace the light switches. The square version instantly modernizes a room. The effect is really surprising (to me, at least).

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5. I finished painting my bedroom a couple of weeks ago. At the moment, the ironing board is a feature in the room – I’m working on changing that! I am very happy with Chantilly Lace.

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And that’s about it for now. More to come soon. Happy Friday!

*Due to a computer server issue, the original post vanished. I have rewritten this post.

Uptown: Priming with PARA Paints

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I am happy to report that I making progress on the painting projects in my house. (I wish I could say the same about some of the decisions that I still have to make.) The hallways were a dark deep red and the kitchen was a dark brown so I felt like the walls in these spaces needed to be primed before I painted them white. The walls were all in great shape so I didn’t do anything besides wipe them down. I probably should have lightly sanded the walls but I usually just skip the sanding step if the walls are in good shape. Tsk, tsk, right?

I used PARA Paints professional latex primer* for this job and it worked beautifully. It went on smoothly and covered the dark walls very well.

Here’s a look at the upstairs hall. The ceiling is super high and luckily my dad brought his 21′ ladder and was brave enough to deal with the high points.

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Anyway – the place is so much brighter now that the hallways have been primed with white. I am so excited about the transformation that my townhouse is going through.

* Thanks to PARA Paints for their support.  

The Friday Five: Art Toronto 2012

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Exactly one week ago I was browsing amazing collections of art at Art Toronto – Canada’s largest modern and contemporary art fair. Galleries from around the world came to display (and sell) some very special works of art – including eye-catching sculptures, photography, paintings and drawings.

Meddle by Andrew Smith, beeswax acrylic and plaster on plywood

Surrogate (monkey topiary) by Bethany Krull, porcelain & paper

Self-portrait White Marilyn by Yasumasa Morimura

as the wind carried it away by Matt Donovan & Hallie Siegal

Evocations by Andrew Fernandez, mixed media on paper

Images by me.

 

Art: Steve Ellis

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Last fall I featured some artwork that I spotted at ‘wichcraft in NYC. Since then a few people have asked me about the artist but unfortunately I had no idea who painted this very cool extra large muffin tin…

Park Ave. muffin tin, Steve Ellis

But I do now!

After a bit of investigative work (i.e., a few emails sent to ‘wichcraft) I learned that all the artwork in ‘wichcraft locations is by NYC-based artist and art instructor Steve Ellis. The series, entitled Tools of the Craft was commissioned by ‘wichcraft in 2006. Some of Mr. Ellis’ prints are available for purchase here (prices range from $150-$800).

Astor Place Percolator, Steve Ellis

Union Sq Espresso Machine, Steve Ellis

Chrystler Meat Slicer, Steve Ellis

Record Player, Steve Ellis

for MOMA Store, Steve Ellis

Images courtesy of Steve Ellis.

Many thanks to Lauren P. at ‘wichcraft for helping me out.

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