reno update 2

We started the kitchen floor today.  Yay we have half a kitchen floor of grey tiles!  Plumbing, kitchen cabinet installation and more flooring this week.  Next week, kitchen backsplash and bathroom tile job.  

Here are some pics:

bathroom vanity

living room with fridge for sale

breakfast bar and post

Rosh Hashanah

tabuleh salad

place setting

apples and honey

honey cake

apple walnut cake

chocolate chip cookies

apples

crown challah

olives

tea roses

spicy horseradish

Tabouleh Salad recipe from Bonnie Stern

Honey Cake recipe from the Kinnereth Cookbook

Apple Walnut Cake recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from In the Sweet Kitchen

byo- baggy winecoat

Believe it or not, this product from Menu A/S gives bring your own wine to a whole new level:  enter the baggy winecoat designed by Jakob Wagner from Denmark.   So cool!

via incredible things

via funky downtown

nice quote

Happy Friday.  Weekend again.  For me it’s been one long weekend as I am off from work renovating and getting life-stuff done!

I saw this on Highway Design and wanted to share the message. Thought it was cute.

via highway design

reno update

I spent this week assembling Ikea furniture.  It was a productive yet emotional week becoming one with the Ikea brand of products.   I started with over 20 boxes of items to assemble between the kitchen and master bathroom. 

For those of you who have never assembled Ikea furniture here are my words of advice:  Ikea is always right!  It is inevitable that at some point during assembly you will hit an Ikea instruction wall, or in my case an Ikea mountain.  Say you are working on a cabinet that has a glass component that flips out.  It looks like the mechanical flippy part sits one way on the wood but you try and try and for some reason, the holes do not match up.  Enter Ikea mountain. Frustration mounts, self doubt kicks in and this is the part of the assembly process where you question why a part does not fit right, question whether something is missing, or look for consolation from the smiling guy in the assembly book who seems to have everything figured out and is mocking you.  Guess what, Ikea is always right.  You are wrong. Don’t try to fight it.  They spend big bucks on design/R&D and quality control not you.  My advice is to take a deep breath and get a second pair of eyes.  That typically does the trick for me.  It doesn’t matter how many times you “swear” the instructions are wrong.  They’re not.  You are.  Ikea is always right. 

I can proudly say that I have 19 of the 20 pieces assembled and look forward to the next steps in the instruction books, wall mounting! 

On a different topic, I finally decided what wallpaper I am going to use.  It’s something from Graham and Brown and you’ll have to wait for the surprise.

In the mean time I will leave you with some kickass wall art that I found/love/want/enjoy by American, contemporary artist, Jen Stark.

via david report

via myspace

home owner

Today, I became a home owner. 

It is my first time purchasing a home and I think its kind of cool that I own something with someone.

In light of my new, big purchase, I am dedicating the month of September to all things renovation and interior decor on the blog.  I will be posting pictures of the demo, reno and decor of the condo plus cost saving tips and findings in my hunting and gathering of materials.

October will be dedicated to entertaning as I am sure I will be doing a lot of that once the place is in shape to host guests!

In the mean time, I appologize for my spotty postings in August.  Preparing for home ownership is quite the task especially if you are taking on the reno project yourself (with the help of family) instead of contracting out.

Stay tuned.

In the mean time, I liked this image to symbolize my new asset!

via glorious wall stickers

ice cream sandwich

Nothing says summer like ice cream.  This past week in both the Toronto Star and Toronto Life magazine, I have read ice cream sandwich reviews.  Apparently, ice cream sandwiches are getting some press and recognition in Toronto newspapers.

I love the idea of serving ice cream sandwiches at events.  Not only are they easy to eat (minus drips), they are fulfilling, fun and customizable to your guests likes.  Whether it is choosing an innovative casing like a brioche, brownie,  traditional cookie or wafer, choosing a non-traditional ice cream or customizing the outside a la ice cream sandwich rolled in gummy bears, chocolate chips, pop corn, or caramel, you can have a lot of fun with these desserts.

Here are a couple of ideas I like that I have seen in the blogsphere:

via spicy ice cream "chocolate chili spicy ice cream sandwiches" from David Lebowitz

via bon appetit "chocolate dipped ice cream sandwich"

via saucy sprinkles

via tartlette "vanilla bean chocolate ice cream sandwich"

via toronto life "ice cream brioche"

posters

Just under two weeks away until I take possession of my condo and renovation vacation.  Leading up to September 1st, as you know, I’ve been stock piling all sorts of items from tiles, to wood, paint, an entire Ikea kitchen, a couch, some eames chairs and a vitra table.  Next on my list is posters/wall art.  I made the decision to support independent artists/graphic designers and will attempt to decorate my walls only using the work of artists that I find on Etsy/online.   So far, here are some of my choices:

love poster by madebygirl.com

the photographer via fotofoto

via the big harumph