BOOKSHELF
DREAMS

If we're talking about furniture I always fall for a bookcase like this one.

I love books.

I love how they look and I love to read them. A pile of books waiting

to be read is better than a jar of candy. I love the smell of second hand book stores; it is the smell of promise. I have a small collection of hard cover books, some new and some old. Hard covers appeal to me because they suggest something closer to permanence than a paperback does, although I know that cardboard and paper are extremely temporary and that nothing (that's right-NO thing) lasts forever. If I loved a book that I read in paperback I keep an eye out for the hardcover copy in the second hand stores. then I remove the dust jacket and store it away. I love the colours of the binding and take advantage of this beautiful mix of colour in my home decor. The pictures below show the beginning stages of fireplace mantel decoration and some of my hardcover books.

Some books on my mantle.

These books didn't fit on the mantle.

There are a couple of nice looking bookshelves in our house but not nearly enough. I have an ever growing collection of paperbacks both fiction and non-fiction, essay and poetry writing. They are all in boxes,Iris Murdoch, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Graham Greene, Timothy Findlay and Tom Robbins to name justa few. I miss them. I don't re- read books much anymore but I like to see them there and remember what they contain.

I am a book snob, I admit that freely, and won't buy a book if the cover shows Oprah's endorsement (and I don't have anything against Oprah, just the suggestion that I need someone else to pick a good book for me) or if a movie has been made and the cover is the movie photo edition. I am also a furniture snob and won't by laminate. This is why many of my books are still in boxes.

When planning an extensive home renovation a couple of years ago, my husband and I dreamed of a library. We drooled over magazine photos of floor to ceiling bookcases with attached rolling ladders. The room which is now my laundry room was almost a library nook, with floor to ceiling bookshelves on three sides and two cozy armchairs for reading. Washing clothes took precedence and the dream did not materialize. We have a wonderful new home, but more than one plan for bookshelves didn't work out. If I had know that would happen I would have been more creative and had recessed shelves created in the walls of our staircase. I have seen beautiful images of that type of shelf.

My current strategy is to pile the new books in my bedroom. I have a little reading nook there and will try to figure out how to fit in shelves. I can't wait to post my results but projects are long around here and time and oportunity are short.

(the above photos not taken in my own living room are from flickr)

I'm savouring a cup of coffee and balancing both a laptop and a cat. There are many other things I should be doing, and before you suggest that I lose the word should from my vocabulary, let me tell you that I am a school teacher and there is always something to be marked or planned and prepped.

After browsing through one of my favourite blogs, La Maison Boheme, I'm thinking about colour. When an I not thinking about colour? I am so colour driven it is how I buy clothes: scan the rack for a colour or pattern that appeals to me and then pull the item out to look at it.

It's also how I select images of interiors that appeal to me.

Today, I've posted images from my own home and from Flickr that appeal to me because of colour. I hope you enjoy them too.

Flickr image-I think San Francisco-Halifax, Nova Scotia is another place to find colourful houses like this.

My desk area on a relatively tidy day. I know it needs some serious stylin'


A segment of my mantle in the living room.



I am increasingly drawn to deep orange, especially russet.

This is a photo from flckr and not my actual desk, but it might as well be.

The dregs of my coffee are now quite cold and I can no longer pretend to be savouring. Off I go to my beautiful dining room which is usually covered in my school work-another photo for another day:)

What Drives Your Style? Who do You Dress For?

This image has now become one of the most classic fashion don't images. I admire her confidence. Having style means taking risks and sometimes not getting it right.
I would wear this; I love it. I'm not sure what occasion it would be best for. Not my teaching job, that's for certain.
Is this a dress or skirt and top? I'm not sure but I love it. My husband would object but I would just tell him I'm not wearing underwear (even if I was) and that would change his whole perspective.

For whom do you dress? I have read more than once that women dress for other women. This is obviously a generalization and the popular protest is "I dress for myself, thank you very much"

I would hope that everyone dresses form himself or herself, it is an expression of who you are even if who you are is someone who doesn't care about how you are dressed. Some people don't realize the message their clothing choice is sending and this has resulted in many makeover shows such as Style by Jury or What Not to Wear. I don't know any women who choose to dress badly, even if you are an Olsen twin, yet it sometimes happens as in the photo above. My own personal leanings are boho and they were before I knew the term boho. There is nothing sexy about most boho outfits, but I have no desire to be dressed in a sexy way all of the time.

Most guys, if asked what they want their women to wear, will choose tight and/or revealing clothes. In fact, I don't think they care much if it is in fashion or if you think it is flattering. If your guy likes your body, and you can assume that he does, then he wants to see it. I love the maxi dress in the picture above but I know my husband would hated it. The simple solution is to wear the dress and then slink around the house in something casual and clingy in the evening. That's my kind of compromise. What is yours? Do you dress for your man, yourself, for other women, or for success? What compromises do you make? Would you change your style if your man didn't love it? Women are inclined to want to make their man over. What if he wanted to make you over?

Comfort has to do with an attitude as well as the physical feel of the clothes. My most comfortable outfit is an above the knee denim pencil skirt with tights, low heeled shoes and an embroidered peasant blouse. Preppy meets boho. If I ventured outside there would be a colourful oversized scarf and a funky hat. This isn't necessarily an outfit that most people would describe if you asked what are comfortable clothes. For me, it is right, it feels like my second skin, I can put it on and forget about it. That is my first criteria for dressing myself. After that I choose what I like the look of, which usually means colour, a bit of quirkiness and detail. The third most important criteria for me is what looks best on my body shape. Once I have these three aspects working for me I'm dressing for myself and that means my attitude will exude confidence. Confidence is sexy.

This is what happens when you let me get near the paint.

memory troubles, keeping it under my hat

I am going crazy trying to remember a blog I stumbled across that I neither bookmarked or chose to follow and yet it was witty, clever, interesting writing, a female perspective of course and AAARRRGGHH! I cannot find it. I don't remember what it was called but I think it had a catchy titled that referred to the author as a blogger, a writer, a female????.....Suffering from brain overload is a regular part of my life. I've always been a random abstract sort of person, always just relied on my memory to keep track of things. Is it age? Is the world just too busy a place? I'm not really an organized person, although I try to be. I'm more at home in randomness. If I could live surrounded by books and art and music and creative ideas and beautiful things, if my contribution to the world were to provide peace and love and happiness to others and I really didn't have to remember things, I would be in heaven. Instead, I have to remember to check the calender to see if my teenaged son has an orthodontist appointment or the aged cat a blood test to check on her thyroid.

And of course I do have a job, a real daytime paying job, which I love and am good at but I think it drains me. I am a teacher. I love the students and I love teaching and I pour my heart and soul out but the darn job also consists of record keeping and documenting and other such concrete and organized things that it fatigues my poor brain. I have to work much harder at it than I have ever admitted, and so the overload tends to affect my personal life. I'm sure my husband thinks I'm very scatter-brained and he can't imagine how anyone would make me responsible for thirty kids. For the record I am putting word in his mouth, or thoughts in his head.

So in the spirit of keeping my scattered thoughts under control, trying to force some orderliness to my mind's ramblings and refusal to pay attention to the mundane stuff of everyday life, I have many hats to put on. I didn't mean that as a metaphor, but of course that is a topic for another day. I love hats and generally seem to suit them. When I was younger, I did sometimes wear hats but in my teens and twenties I thought it might seem rather affected. When I was in my teens nobody would wear what we Canadians call a toque and Americans call a knitted cap. It was only slightly acceptable to wear a winter coat.

I love the newsboy caps, and have three of those each in red, navy and chocolate brown. I recently bought a squashy small brimmed hat which did not appeal much to my husband but he would just have me get another newsboy. I don't suit the current trend with berets since I have a smallish head and they are being worn pulled down on the head quite snug. I need a brim so the fedora suits me as do most other styles of hat with a round brim. I have a favourite straw sunhat but will definitely be working on adding to my collection of brimmed hats and perhaps seeking some more colour. As a vegan, wool and leather hats are not on my list. I am learning to knit and crochet hats but I'm still in the practice stage.

Unfortunately, even though tradition states that men remove hats indoors and women may leave theirs on, this wouldn't go over well in my place of work. I abhor the sight of men in ball caps eating in restaurants. I explained to my students that men traditionally remove their hats as a sign of good will, a gesture that indicates they have no weapon hidden there. I suppose that would seem strange to them. Why would we assume a man might be carrying a weapon but a woman would not? A weapon could be carried in a coat or purse or any pocket, so why are we uptight about hat rules? All good questions, really, and of course I had no answer. It seems to me that if we are going to teach young men to remove their hat indoors then we must have the same rule for women too.

My son, who hates his curly hair, wears a toque whenever he is in public. This includes wearing it to school and I've noticed that the high school allows students to wear their hats. I should have become a high school art teacher. I could probably wear my hats to work then.

Love the different textures of this paintable wall paper called anaglypta. I have lately been thinking that I would use a piece to create a headboard effect for my bed. My bed is a simple wooden frame with no head or foot and is set against a sloping ceiling so that there is just a small bit of visible wall behind the bed. It is King size so I would create a long and low piece. A frame made of the same wood as the trim in my room, surrounding a piece of the anaglypta, would be an elegant headboard substitute. Since my room is blue and cream I may not paint the anaglypta. Or perhaps it should be painted and I would use a cream colour.

The room above is my living room and it still needs decorating work. The windows remain curtainless because the layout of the windows isn't conducive to a balanced look of rods and drapes. I would love wood blinds or Roman shades but the windows are beautiful solid fir and drilling holes into the wood is not an option! Much to my surprise I find that we are private enough to forgo window treatments. I now turn my attention to the walls, which are still a little bare for my taste. The window seat surround cries out to be decorated but I just haven't found the right pieces. Small pictures in black frames, colourful plates, a stencil? I just don't know yet.

So many project ideas and so little time. We have lived in our renovated house for a year and a half but there is still much to do, very little time and very little budget.

Halloween

I'm an artistic sort of person but generally I'm no good with halloween costumes. I disappoint myself every year by not coming up with a fabulous costume, and I work in a field where a costume is expected if not mandatory. I think some of it has to do with not wanting to spend money on something I will probably never use again. I have a new plan, which is to start a dress up trunk and fill it with items that could be used and reused for costumes. There will be no ripping and staining with ketchup, which is my son's idea of turning old clothes into a halloween costume.

Here are some ideas for which I will begin to collect old clothes and accessories. I'd love to hear from you about other suggestions.

flower child

tacky bridesmaid (80's bridesmaid)

potted plant -I'm thinking of a hula hoop at waist height and mid calf height, a fabric tube creation will be the flower pot. The hoop pot would be held up by ropes over my shoulders and the ropes could be covered in green leaves. If I wear green on top and a big flower hat I would be a potted plant. Ambitious.

mother earth-a matronly outfit and attach birds, plants and other animals randomly all over

a teenager-dress in all black and wear a toque, carry a skateboard

a gypsy just because I would love the clothes required. I would want to get a really good wig of long dark hair.

a book worm-how would I make myself look like a worm?

I'm running out of ideas already.....I kind of like corpse bride, but I don't like wearing lots of gunk on my face all day

a box of tissue-decorated cardboard box and white paper shaped like a pulled out tissue -I like a costume that can be removed easily and my regular looking self is all ready to go.

I saw a girl with a fantastically simple costume. Using one of those clear umbrellas that curve down around the shoulders and decorating it with translucent streamers she was a jellyfish. She wore pale blue clothing but it was a very removable costume which, again, I really like.