de facto redhead

So…I realized I told a white lie in my last post about my new corner shelf. I mentioned that it was the latest addition to our home, but that’s not true and I don’t know how I could have forgotten the reason why. My parents gave me a jewelry armoire this Christmas, and I could not have received a better-suited gift. Pre-Christmas, my jewelry was all over the place. A mash-up of everything was in my big red jewelry case, the majority of my necklaces were in a Michael’s craft organizer, I had bracelets and bangles in a plastic Rubbermaid drawer organizer and a large Ziplock bag, and I had a wide assortment of my most commonly worn pieces strewn around the inside of my wardrobe and on the shelves in the bathroom. It was not pretty, which is contrary to the very nature of jewelry!

The armoire my parents gave me is from Pier 1, and I am so extremely happy with it. It fits everything I own, and even though it doesn’t look like it, there is, indeed, room to spare. Welcome to my version of the Barbie Dream Home:

Hark! The corner shelf makes its second appearance in blogland! If you missed my first post about the infamous corner shelf, you can check it out here, on Dear Edna’s blog, but if you don’t care to click through the link, just scroll down to the pictures below. This shelf is the newest addition to our home, and it was crafted with the skilled woodworking hands of my dad. It’s the perfect fit for an awkward space Darcy and I weren’t sure what to do with, and now that Christmas is over, I have decorated it with all of my vintage and thrifted finds that make up a motley crew of items from my family, Darcy’s family, antique malls, thrift stores, and more. Don’t forget to click on each picture for a closer look!

A vintage plethora of goods, from top to bottom.

The items on this shelf have been found and given to me from all over the place – my grandparents’ house in PEI, an antique store in Hamilton, my Uncle Ronnie in Nova Scotia, an antique mall in New Hampshire, my mom in Espanola, and my dad, back when he used to do some national and international travelling for work.

The majority of the collection on this shelf is made up of Darcy’s fondness for creatures of the brass variety. The old-man figurine is also his (it belonged to his maternal grandparents).

There are more of my dad’s travelling trinkets on this shelf, plus a Ukrainian egg that belonged to Darcy’s grandmother, a fisherman’s bust that my Grammie painted, a pair of binoculars that I have owned since I was about six years old, and a picture of my parents in the early 1970s, which is stowed away in a vintage jar.

There are a few items on this shelf that came from my Great Mom (my maternal great-grandmother), and they include the Butterfly Gold Pyrex bowls, the drunken-looking men (which, according to an inscription on the back, were given to her by her husband in the 1970s), and her five-year diary that spans from 1968 to 1973. My Grampie made the wooden toothpick holder, Darcy gave me the vintage copy of L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside, the red elf used to “move” around my room during the month of December, the Player’s cigarette tin was bought in Edmonton, and the old milk bottle is slowly being filled with corks from the bottles of wine that have been enjoyed in our home.

You might recognize the scale and the corkscrew men because they have been featured on the blog before, but the Pyrex bowls have come from my mom, the old clothespins and vintage radio were found at my grandparents’ house, I bought the little dog for Darcy while we were Edmonton, and the penguin also comes from Edmonton (it was a stocking stuffer for Darcy, lover of all thing penguin-related).

What sorts of treasures and trinkets do you keep around your home?

This picture looks wildly out of place in light of the fact that spring is just around the corner, but there is a reason I chose it and, wait for it, it’s…LEGENDARY. OK, maybe not Barney Stinson legendary (who could ever live up that?!), but it IS news of a certain calibre. Darcy and I have moved – again – and this time we have trekked our way north, to North Bay. When I announced this at the store over a month ago, the reactions were of disappointment and some general joking that my life would pretty much be a mirror image of what’s happening in the comic above. Snow! Polar bears! Ice floes! DEATH. I, however, have decided not to die, and in a concerted effort to avoid husky Arctic men with kidnapping on the brain, am planning on embracing my new life in “the Gateway to the North.”

Now, why did we move? Well, you will notice that I started taking tripod-assisted pictures of myself this past summer, and this was because I lost my personal photographer when Darcy started a new job in our hometown of Espanola. Cue a tiring weekend commute for the next nine months and the end of our photography sessions together. It was quickly becoming pretty clear to us that moving away from Burlington was the best choice for what we wanted out of our lives, and since Darcy’s job allows for a certain flexibility between a few northern Ontario cities, we chose North Bay as the most exciting option. Neither of us have lived here before, and we are ready to settle in to our new home! (It has not escaped me that my last post was about our apartment in Burlington – a few people have asked me about my timing, and, well, my house happened to be clean before we started packing, and I hadn’t posted about the Burlington home yet, so why not then? Anyway, now you can look forward to new pictures that will be posted, oh, approximately a year from now.)

What about you, dear readers? Is anyone else on the move? Thinking about it? I can give you the name of a great company in Toronto that puts together moving-box bundles for a very decent price, and I can also regale you with campfire tales of moving about once a year for the past 11 years. The laughs! The horrors! The tears! But, oh, the memories…!

Have you ever wondered what the rest of my house looks like, beyond the one hallway I stand in to take my outfit pictures? I know I am always completely absorbed in finding out how other people have decorated their homes, and when my favourite bloggers post pics of themselves in different parts of their houses, I study each picture more closely than I should admit. It’s nosy, voyeuristic, and…fascinating! Here is a glimpse inside the place Darcy and I call home:

Welcome!

A lot of time is spent on this couch. Lots o’ TV watchin’ to do!

A wider view. It used to be mustard yellow in here – I opted for something slightly more neutral.

Can you spot Darcy’s bag of squirrel feed?

The array on these shelves just keeps growing.

One of our very few pet peeves: our only bathroom is downstairs and our bedroom is upstairs. (This bathroom was forest green when we moved in. No, no, no.)

Doesn’t everyone have at least one random box kicking around their home? I know I always do.

I love it in here! (I also painted this space – it was forest green as well!)

Part of my vintage cookbook collection.

Retro wooden canisters and Pyrex!

More Pyrex on display. This does not get old to me.

Time to go upstairs!

And we’re there.

I present, as Darcy calls it, the “staging area.” (The walls up here used to be covered in green and pink floral wallpaper….)

A closer look.

The office nook.

This picture was an $18 Home Sense score. Go clearance!

THE END!

I said (a long time ago) that I was going to post pictures of my apartment, so can you please forgive me the fact that my promise is being made good on over six months later? I have things straightened up because I cleaned last weekend, and my parents are coming to visit on Sunday/Monday, so without further ado, please the enter house tour here:

The living room! All decor and furniture is from IKEA except the throw pillows (Home Outfitters) and the TV (Best Buy).

The bookshelves, the precious bookshelves.

A portion of my bookshelf allotment. The wooden calendar was my maternal great-grandmother’s, and I faithfully change it every day. Flipping the date is one of the first things I do each morning.

Another view of the living room, and the kitchen.

The kitchen. (The chairs are from IKEA, but that’s it!)

My ladies. (And behind that door is the washer and dryer. Yahoo!!)

Another vantage point, and my other lady. I’m working on my Pyrex bowl collection – as you can see, I don’t quite have enough yet to fill the tops of the cupboards. I keep all my baking supplies in the wooden bread box, and I reach up there by standing on the fold-up step-stool you can see to the left of the fridge in the picture of “my ladies.”

I have always liked a full-magneted fridge, and I don’t think this affinity is going to change any time soon.

On the way into the Man Den…(The reflective rectangles at the top of the room are two of three licence plates we have up there – Ontario, PEI, and Alberta.)

Darcy and I spend a lot of time in here. In fact, I’m writing up this post from the couch corner you can see in this picture!

The pictures on this wall are a mish-mash of things both Darcy and I like, and most of them mean something personal to us.

The view on the way out of the Man Den.

The recently painted bathroom. I still have work to do in here, but it’s coming together slowly…

The bedroom – also known as the most incomplete room in the apartment. I don’t have anything on the walls yet, and the only other items to show are my wardrobe (which you can see here), two bedside tables, and a clothes hamper, so the colour scheme is just going to have to do! (Bed frame and bedding from IKEA.)