the first dress

In this dreamland of white balloons,
I prance around in my gingham dress.

When summer heat comes,
join me for a picnic of sandwiches and tea?

Until then, I will be waiting here in my land of white balloons.


This is the dress I made in class. My first ever! I hope you like it.

(I couldn’t have taken these photos without Rosalyn's help! We had fun!)

japanese dress books

I took a dressmaking class at The Workroom that uses patterns from a beautiful japanese dress book of your choice.

Boy am I glad I took it. The books looked so intimidating at first (with my limited sewing skills, and the books being in japanese), but Karyn taught us how to understand it, and use it. Thanks to Karyn, I have now completed my very first dress, ever!

I am excited to show you, later on this week.

the basin

Our basin is pretty wide, 27” wide. We chose it because we were thought the extra space would be good for when we start a family. I think 2 adults, and a child could share this space, right?

But if we were being really honest, we would tell you that we chose the wider basin for Mr. Mojo. You see, he likes to sit on the basin ledge when we are washing our hands. He likes to wait for the water to warm up, and then he will stick his head in and demand for water. Sometimes from the tap, but usually he wants us to feed him from our hands.

The water has to be slightly hotter than lukewarm. He is so specific.

our bathroom : part 2

Thank you everyone for your really kind comments on our bathroom! It is the only space in our house that was completely gutted and redone. The rest of the house is pretty much the same. The bathroom will look a lot cozier with some pictures and art hanging on the walls, towels, and plants (great idea Aron!). As you can see, we still need to figure out what to do for storage, but we have time to figure that out later.

For now, look at these beautiful bathroom accessories.

This hamper for your dirty laundry
This perfect drying rack.
A place to hang my hand towel.

These are some of my favourite details I wanted to show you. It shows how much in love I am with these fixtures!

+ Labeled porcelain pulls.

+ The beautiful shape of the shower head

+ The cast iron air vent, original to the bathroom. We need to scrape, and paint it, and it will be even more beautiful.

+ The overflow drain has Mr. Addison’s name on it. So we never forget where it came from.

+ The one thing we brought back from Addison’s Inc. that was used/antique, were these beautiful wall sconces with milk glass shades. These are my favourite.

I never took baths before we got this bathroom, but now, it is one of my favourite things to do. A bath with lavender Epsom salt before bed makes me sleep so well at night.

our bathroom : part 1

Before





After

The bathroom that came with the house was a little cramped. I couldn’t even take a photo to show you where the mini sink was (it was right of the toilet, practically touching the it), or maybe I just didn’t want to step inside...(hopefully, that will be the ugliest photo I post on this space).

We enlarged the bathroom to make it more spacious, and also included an area for laundry which was not there before. The bathroom looks pretty bare right now; there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but I thought I would show you the progress we made.

Picking bathroom fixtures was my favourite part. It was pretty simple. It started with my desire to have a claw foot tub. I researched our options of getting an old one re-glazed versus a brand new one, and all my research made us lean towards a new tub. I found that the cost of getting an old tub, plus reglazing it costs about the same as a new one, and I was told that a reglazing is never as good as the original porcelain finish (correct me if I am wrong). Plus, older tubs tend to have rust spots on its bottom, and around the drain, I felt like I wanted a tub that will last a very long time. So a new tub it was! After we chose our tub, it was easy sailing from there. We just picked a toilet and basin to match.

I thought we would be getting our fixtures from different sources, but once we found Addison’s Inc., we were set. I fell in love with his store when we first walked in, I felt like a kid in the mother of all candy stores! Plus, Mr. Addison is such a charming man. Jin always brings him coffee. He likes his coffee with cream, no sugar (just in case you were wondering).

If you are in Toronto, you should visit his amazing store. You will be in for a treat.

I posted a little about it
here.

dreaming of summer

I always feel that our last holiday is the best one we had, and it is hard to imagine how the next one could top it, but it always does.

As the weather becomes more and more pleasant around here, strong nostalgic feelings keep coming up about the road trip Jin and I took last year to Prince Edward Island. It was the perfect summer trip.

I can tell that summer travel is on your minds too, as some of you have inquired about the beautiful cottage we stayed at on the island. This cottage belongs to a friend of ours, and he was very kind to let us stay there on our holiday. I am sad to tell you that, he does not rent the cottage to people he does not know. I am so sorry!

But don’t let that discourage you; I know for a fact that there are a lot of beautiful cottages for rent on the island.

I looked back at the photos from our trip and I found these ones that I quite like, and I never posted before. The ones on the beach are taken by Jin through his hat. I like the screen filter it creates. It feels very summery to me. And look how short my hair was! And that cottage looks so sweet at night.

See past posts about our holiday to the smallest province in canada, here.

What are your plans this summer?

T.G.I.F.

It has been a long week. Today, I feel the most beat.
I wish I could trade a day with Mea.

Mea? Could you take my place at work? And I will take your place on the couch.
I could sit by your window, and monitor the neighbourhood activity for you.
You can sit at my computer, and attempt to coordinate that site plan.
I could pick a fight with Mojo, and win for you. Show him who is boss.
And you can figure out that site plan, and tell me what is wrong with it.

Can we trade?
Just for one day?
Please?

T.G.I.F is all I have to say.

and, happy weekend everyone.

....

Handwashing my favourite scarves and handkerchiefs in our new basin.

All, but one, are from Portobello Rd, except for the second one in from the left. I got that one from Jinny's mom. We have a matching set.

Our bathroom is mostly finished. I promise to show you how it turned out, soon.

flower shop break

I took a break from work and went for a little walk. Spring is all around us, I wanted to catch some of it.

I stopped by my favourite flower shop, Jaidens Petals.

Dani was kind enough to let me look around and take some pictures. I love her style, and she always has the best window displays.

After a little chat, I brought back this sweet little bouquet home

That was a lovely break, now back to work I go.