My Interior Design Style...Exactly.

There was this blogger meme thingy that was going around a while back asking you to pick one picture that is 'your interior design style.' Actually, for anyone even the least bit interested in interior design it's a something you've definitely thought about "what is my style?"

Well these pictures of Peacock Pavilions are the perfect illustration of my style.

This is my dream home and exactly the type of direction I'm going to take my decor in when I have my next permanent home. It's comfortable but chic. Bright. Colourful. Patterns galore. Global. Basically every piece has a story...a history. It's interesting.

I love it.

To see much more pictures of Peacock Pavilions (boutique hotel/guesthouse built & decorated by blogger Maryam of My Marrakesh) head over to Decor8.

To see even more pictures, and to see how it all came to be, visit My Marrakesh.

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+ ALL Images are of Peacock Pavilions. Image 1 found on the blog My Marrakesh. Image 2 & 3 found on the site Decor8.

DIY Pillow

See that pillow. It's made of doilies. Yes, doilies. Most people can find a huge stack of doilies at their parent's or grandparents house. And if not they cost anywhere from 0.49-0.99 each at the thrift store.

Rachel of the blog Smile and Wave made that pillow and posted a how-to. Click here to check it out.

If I weren't going to India and, you know, and still had a couch to put the pillow on, I'd totally be making one this weekend. Heck, I might take some doilies to India and make a few while I'm there. You know, to spruce up whatever cheap sofa I'll have while I'm there.


+Picture from the blog Smile and Wave

the BEST ikea hack EVER

I've seen a lot of Ikea hacks but this has to be the most incredible one I've EVER seen.

From this:

To this:

Seriously, if I was not moving to India in 4.5 months I would totally be doing this. Copying it step by step - same colour and everything. (Maybe a darker stain to the legs). I love it.

Click here to read how Dan of the blog Manhattan Nest transformed the humble Ikea Fjellse bed frame into a chic upholstered beauty - with, among other things, a $25 wool blanket from the army supply store - genius! Seriously, a bed like this would cost HUNDREDS of dollars at West Elm, Crate & Barrel, or anyone of those other stores. Dan did it for $94. Plus the cost of the frame (which is like a whole 50 bucks for the queen size). 


Wicked.


Thank me later*.


(*and thanks to Anna of Door Sixteen for sharing this blog. I now have something new in my reader!)

Oh that reminds me.....

Earlier this week my new blog From India. With Love. was selected by Anna as one of her featured blogs for the month of October. It's a new thing she's doing on her newly revamped blog where, instead of a blog roll, each month she features four or five blogs she's hoping to bring a little more attention to rather than letting them get lost in a sea of links.

Ya, I know right! My new lil' ol' humble blog got the thumbs up from one of the big (and when I say big that's an understatement) dawgs. It's especially cool to me because Anna has been one of my absolute favourite reads for about two years now and one thing I've always loved about Door Sixteen is that it is ad free and she doesn't participate in link exchanges. It makes everything that she does link to feel...genuine. Like it's there because she genuinely enjoys it not because she was asked/paid/sponsored to mention it. So I'm genuinely flattered to be featured this month.

So what are YOU waiting for? If you haven't clicked over and given it a read yet go now. I dare you.

Thanks Anna!

6 WEEK CHALLENGE

Two posts in one day? Awesome.

So I tweeted this earlier today and it occured to me some of you might be interested..I then got the idea to make it into a sort of challenge/virtual support group (lol) and share it here.

Every now and then I get motivated to go the gym, try and get fit, and to shed some pounds. Now is one of those times. I figure, if a few of us got together, to share what’s working & what’s not, and to make it fun – we could do this together! So if you’re looking for some extra motivation to lose actual pounds/ inches/reach a fitness goal – this could be fun…and an extra way to stay motivated.

I’ve decided to keep the challenge going for 6 weeks beginning on Monday, October 17th (short notice yes but I’m ready to get started!) and was thinking that if I get 3 or more people interested I could throw up a quick blog or something that we would all contribute to in order to keep each other up to date and motivated.

If you’re interested in joining my 6 Week Challenge drop me a line at imnotreallyadiva(at)gmail.com and I’ll send you the 411!

Have a great weekend!

Deals, Meet-Ups, & Courage

So I just wanted to quickly pop in and share two things with you all.

First, thanks to tweeps on twitter I found out that Gap is having a pretty good promotion/deal right now. Bring in ANY pair of old/worn jeans that you no longer want/wear and get 30% of any pair of jeans from their new 1969 line. It doesn’t have to be an old pair of Gap jeans – it can be ANY PAIR OF JEANS. And yes my fellow Canadians – this promotion is for us too, I went in and checked :) (I hate it when you hear about a good deal/promotion only to find out it’s only in the U.S.) Oh, it also applies to kids & baby denim, so this may be a good time to get a pair or two for your kiddos if you have ‘em. I’m going to get two pairs on my lunch break….I think this is going on until the 20th of Oct. but you may want to double check.

Second, and this is for my fellow Canucks (if you’re wondering what that is/means you probably aren’t one!), you know how you always hear about design blogger meet ups in cities like Chicago and NYC and you always wonder – why not one here too? Well, Viatania of Verdigris de Vie, Daniella of Dress Design and Decor, and Jennifer of Rabling Renovators are in the midst of coordinating a Canadian Designer Blogger meet-up taking place in Toronto! I just got an email from them that the date will be November 20th with location/more details to come. The ladies are also setting up a site (which should go live next week) to keep us all updated but in the meantime, if you’re interested, you can drop them a line at cdndesignbloggers(at)gmail.com to be added to the mailing list. I’ll be going and I hope if you’re a Canadian design blogger, and you can make it, that you go too! I’d love to finally meet some of you in person.

That’s it from me today. Have you checked out my new travelogue From India. With Love. yet? If not, click over and take a look. With my upcoming move to India to volunteer a lot of people have been calling/telling me I'm inspiring and brave so I did a post this week on Courage. It took me a while to write and it's one of my blog posts that I’m particularly proud of. I would love your feedback and to hear what you think about it and on courage in general.

Happy Friday!

Thankful

Yes that's a (real) Saarinen Table and (real) Bertoia chairs.
They make me swoon.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I spent Sunday at my sisters with her and her boyfriend celebrating a bit early. We enjoyed a lovely meal, good conversation, and played Def Jam Rap Star which is incredibly fun. I have a lot to be thankful for and I did a quick post over on From India. With Love. Please check it out....there's also little peeks into my sister's lovely condo. Maybe I should do a tour of her place her on Apt. #412.....

(If you're really observant some of you may recognize it as we did an episode of Property Virgins on HGTV....)

The Next Chapter: I'm Moving To India!

***I'd like to preface this by saying I was planning on doing this post as a video post - my first. I knew what I was going to say, I got a fancy new camera that shoots hi-def video and it was going to be totally cute.....but I can't figure out how to get video OFF the camera ONTO my computer lmao. So I'll do a video post later.***


Yup, you read right. I'm moving to India - for 1 year to volunteer. Those of you who follow me on twitter already know this, and other regular readers might know this too from this post and this post....but for those of you who pop in every now and then you might have missed the whole thing since it was a decision that was made over a few weeks/posts.

So, yeah, that's the next chapter for me! And while I'm a bit nervous, I've never done anything like this, I'm also excited. Pursuing a career in International Development has been something I've been seriously thinking about doing for the past 2 years and I've always wanted to live abroad, in another culture, for the experience. So this will give me the opportunity to do both.

You're probably wondering when I leave. Well, it was supposed to be in November - yes, as in 3 weeks from now! But shortly after I accepted the placement offer (and in turn got accepted by the organization back in July) my sister found out that she is pregnant - I'm going to be an Aunt!!! I know, so much excitement, right?! So I asked the volunteer organization if there was any way my arrival could be postponed to the next arrival date - which is March. It was a long shot. Chances were they would find another volunteer to go in November and find another placement for me (possibly in another country). After learning about the placement and learning more about India (and thinking about the countries in the area I could easily travel to) my heart was really set on going. So I waited. And at the end of August I attended a pre-departure training with other volunteers in Ottawa for 5 days. And while I was there - I got confirmation that they would reschedule my arrival for March!

To me, this was like another sign that I'm on the right path. Cheesey as it may sound, when it comes to this opportunity everything just seems to be falling into place and working out. It's like...this is what I should be doing.

Oh, and today I got my scheduled arrival date....6 days BEFORE my niece/nephew is due! I told my sister come February she better pop that sucker out - eat some spicy foods or something lolol.

SO that is why Apartment #412 is now empty. I decided to move home to save up some extra cash before March. It just makes the most sense financially...

And, with this new chapter in my life and this new adventure comes............

....a new blog! Again, those of you who follow me on twitter already know about my new travelogue.  It's called From India. With Love. and that is where I will blog EVERYTHING related to my upcoming move to India (and where I will blog full-time come March). Even though I'm not leaving until March I'm blogging there right now - my thoughts, preparation (I'm taking Hindi classes!)...and yes some decor stuff too :) I mean, I will have to decorate my flat while I'm there! So I'd love for you all to "follow" me over there too! If you want to follow me on my new adventure - that's where I'll be doing it...complete with lots of pictures! So go on, click over and take a look - I hope you like it! (and if you scroll to the bottom of FIWL you'll see the 'follow' button).

Just to clarify, Yes - I know I've started many blogs in the past. But to be clear as of right now, as I type this, I post on only two blogs. This one here that you're reading and From India. With Love. Some of you may want to know "Why the new blog? Why not just blog about your new adventure here?" and that is totally a valid question. To answer it I'll say...I just wanted a new space that was for this new adventure and chapter in my life. It's like.....you know when you start a new job - you buy a new outfit, or a new purse, or shoes...well, it's like that. The new blog is the equivalent of my new "outfit."


So what will happen to Apartment #412? Well, I'll continue to blog here, the type of posts that you're used to, until then the end of the year. But I'll also be blogging at FIWL. And, come the new year I'll only be blogging on FIWL. I figure come January things will start getting really busy for me and it will probably be hard to maintain both. But don't worry. I'll let you all know before this blog goes quiet :)

So that's it for now. This post is pretty long and if you've read this far thank you! I also want to thank everyone who left a comment or thoughts on moving abroad for a year. I read every single one, several times, and it blows my mind that you all take time to leave such thoughtful comments. I really appreciate it and will say it again, I have some of the best blog followers on the 'net :)

It's Thanksgiving Day here on Monday & it's a long weekend. I'll see you on Tuesday!

And don't forget to go check out my new blog (www.fromindia--withlove.blogspot.com)! And become a follower :)

The End*

On to the next chapter.

Update in the next day or two.

*kinda ;)

New FLOR tiles!

While I know FLOR tiles are a good idea (easily being able to switch out one tile when it gets dirty, creating your "own" rug pattern ) I haven't been the biggest fan of them. I dunno why. Just hadn't seen a pattern that really appealed to me (and yes I know you can get them plain....)

But I just saw these ones and LOVE them.

I love how this entire image is styled...Ohh to have all those hermes boxes...or that table...

Or you can configure the tiles like this!
(Minus the solid blue tiles which I'm not a fan of)

At just $12.99 a tile you can put together a 5x7 rug for just under $160!  I definitely see some of these floor tiles in my future (in you know - 1.5 years). Oh, they're called Sophistikat if you're interested :)

This one is pretty cool too:

Available here.

More Film

The shutter button on my film camera (Canon AE-1) is being temperamental. Sometimes it won't click. Sometimes it will.

Very annoying and frustrating.

I'm not sure what the problem is and I'm not sure what it will cost to get it fixed. Rather than go through all the hassle I'll probably just buy another one because I really miss shooting film...and the results.

Until I figure out what the problem is and resolve it - here are some shots from my last roll that I didn't get around to sharing here. Click any of them to see larger.

My little brother holding a tomato from my garden

Downtown Toronto at night. I LOVE the way film captured this.

A plate filled with lobster from my favourite hole in the wall.
The lobster here is soooooo good.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

QOTD: Any City In The World...

Question, and I promise I'll expand on my thinking later, if you were 30ish, single, and given a plane ticket plus to relocate to any city (in the world) for a minimum of 2 years where would you go? And why? Would you stay close to "home" or in your country - or would you head overseas? And yes, you would have to find a job (or so something to generate income) at some point.

Do tell......