Catching up….

So how is everyone? I’m great. I’ve had a ridiculous crazy end of summer, early fall, but it’s all good. I thought it’d be a good time to catch up with everyone and share all my news.

So first up, my daughter got married a few weekends ago at our cottage. And for those of you that follow me, you may remember my son, also got married at the cottage, the same weekend, last year.  Crazy two home grown weddings in one year…and yes, I’m still recovering. So pretty much for the months of August and September, we were busy getting the place wedding ready, which entailed having the exterior window frames painted, the beach roto-tillered within an inch of it’s life, roof repairs and of course, the never ending job of keeping critters from ripping up our lawn, for the oh so tasty grubs (we kind of failed on this point, but I’ll get to that later). We also were having a new furnace and air exchanger (which also acts as an air conditioner) installed the week before the wedding. So needless to say, I was a little stressed out about it all, until it was finally installed and working the Tuesday before the wedding….phew!

My daughter and son-in-law had decided on late fall, so that it would be nice and cool for them….well, not exactly how it turned out. We had our heat wave in mid to late September this year, so our cool fall wedding turned into a blazing hot 40 celsius summer wedding. So obviously, we cancelled the propane tent heaters we had ordered.  But at least it wasn’t raining and the a/c was working!!!

Here’s a few candid shots from the day.

wedding ready beach

wedding flowers

Bride and groom

Wedding

It was a spectacularly great day and since one of my son-in-law’s groomsmen, is a master of fireworks, we had a spectacular show once it got dark. You can check my Instagram video to see them. And you can’t even see the totally ripped up grass, courtesy of the family of raccoons that were being well fed with grubs….sigh…. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

So obviously the wedding kept me busy and just a few days before the wedding, the cottage was photographed for a design magazine. This was sooooooo exciting for me, of course, but it’s an incredible amount of work to try and get everything ready and picture perfect. So all the things I had put off and hadn’t finished, now needed to be done yesterday.  So there was alot of measuring, sourcing, purchasing, picking up, transporting of items, and of course, cleaning, lots and lots of cleaning. Here’s a few shots I took of the cottage prior to the photographer arriving.

Beach chairs

Conversation area on the deck with propane fire pit and

cottage dining room

cottage floral arrangement

cottage front porch

I’ll be sure and let you know when the issue comes out, but don’t hold your breath, it’s going to be awhile, as that is just the way it is, in the design magazine industry.

In between these two things, I’ve been working on completing a cottage reno and starting two bathroom renos. One bath is in full mode now, hopefully done in a week or two, and the other should start in the next few weeks. Here’s a little sneak peek of where the first one is heading, design-wise.

Bathroom tile selection, white and bright

Just realized the adhesive is showing on the top tile…opps. And the little squares are paint options for the clients to view. Once I have proper photos, I’ll let you know which paint colour was chosen.

And just yesterday, I was absolutely stunned to find out that I was nominated as one of the top 100 influencers in Interior Design for 2018. So if you have a minute and feel that I’ve somehow influenced your design style, I’d love your vote. Just click here or on the picture below and you’ll go directly to my name on the list.  Voting is open until Oct 10 and you can vote daily.  And just for that, I’m sending you a big hug and thank you!

Design Hounds Top 100 Influencers Nominee

 

So that’s all my news, sorry for such a long post, but I had a lot to cover. Have a fabulous weekend and to all my fellow Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your turkey day!

Lisa

How to throw a bridal shower

Well, we are gearing up for wedding #2 in as many years here in the Goulet household.  A few weekends ago, my daughter, Kayla and I threw a bridal shower for my other daughter, Ashley.  I was feeling a little out of shower world, since it’s been a long time since I’ve attending bridal showers, but with Kayla’s help as to what’s current for the younger generation, I think we pulled off a great shower.

First off, how can you throw a shower without visiting Pinterest? Tons of ideas and shortcuts for what to do, serve, eat and decorate. We both added to our Pinterest board and lol, we discovered we had both pinned alot of the same images, so great that we were both on the same page.

I was looking for an inexpensive and easy to make takeaway for the shower guests and Pinterest didn’t disappoint. We made these little hand scrubs, made with only two ingredients, sugar and lavender dish soap, perfect for gardening season. I found all the supplies needed at the Dollarama, Michaels and the grocery store.  You can find the link to the recipe on my Pinterest board, link above.

shower takeaways

And here we are in the process of making them. It only took the two of us a few hours one evening.

fullsizerender-copy

The hardest part was threading the thin purple ribbon through the tiny labels, but here’s a tip, a sharp toothpick worked like a charm.

shower takeaways

I added in a little plastic silver spoon so you can just scoop out a little of the scrub at a time.

DIY hand scrub

And here they are all ready for the guests to grab as they leave.

DIY hand scrub takeaways

We both liked the idea of a Mimosa bar, with champagne and a selection of juices, perrier and fresh fruit. This was a great crowd pleaser, if you didn’t want to imbibe, then you could have the perrier or juices on their own, garnished with fruit in a pretty champagne flute.

Mimosa bar

Mimosa bar

We had a ton of help with the food from the shower guests and it all came together beautifully.

Shower buffet

And a family friend, made the gorgeous cupcakes, in the wedding colours of dark purple, cream and gold.

shower cupcakes in purple and cream img_1580

Aren’t they adorable and we added in little tags that said, “I do”.

We played a few shower games and Kayla suggested that we have a wedding theme photo booth for some fun and silly photos. It was well used, and all you need is:

  •  a plain wall
  • some decorations,
  • a tripod,
  • a camera with a timer, and
  • some silly props, we got ours at a party store and Dollarama.

Here’s some of the silly results.

image-1

It was a great way to spend an afternoon with a bunch of wonderful people!

Lisa

 

 

Rustic and warm wedding table setting

Well, so far I’m hitting a new post every 6 weeks…Yikes.  I will be trying to improve my deplorable record in the upcoming weeks.  Stay tuned…..

As I previously mentioned, my son got married at the end of September at our cottage, it was a beautiful day, sunny and a little cool, perfect when you are doing plenty of eating and drinking ;-).

img_3505

This wedding was a labour of love and we had many personal touches to make the day extra special for the newlyweds.  My new son-in-law shares of love of all things decor and DIY with me, so we kind of went to town on wedding DIY decor.

img_3653

The rustic and warm table settings got many oohs and aah so I thought I’d share them here with you.  Justin, had a very specific vision for them and I just gave him a hand implementing his ideas.  I think they turned out beautifully.

fullsizerender-17-2

They had decided on terrariums for the centrepieces, together with some vintage silver vessels filled with tiny baby succulents.

img_3347

Aren’t they adorable?  We managed to get most of them done with lots of family help, on the long weekend in September.  The large terrariums were given to the wedding party as a thank you for being part of this special day and we hope they live a very long life in their new homes.

fullsizerender-copy-2 img_3351

I think the first thing that was decided upon, was to use burlap runners (hard to see in the following pics).  I found ready made ones online but they were a little short for our long wood tables, so I just sewed two together to make it work for us.

img_3562

The table numbers were printed up on paper that looked like chalkboards and we just inserted them into these budget friendly white frames.  The name tags were also printed professionally and placed in “previously loved” wood branch place card holders.

The caterers provided the gorgeous wood boards, and votives and we think that the terrariums looked absolutely spectacular on them.

Together with some beautifully simple white platters and dishes, that pop…. and…VOILA!

You have a simple, rustic yet so interesting and warm wedding table setting.

fullsizerender-copy

 

Lisa

It’s a new year and finally, a new post

Happy September! Doesn’t September feel more like the beginning of a new year, than January? It always has to me. After a ridiculous long blogging break, I’m trying to get back at it. Lots has been going on here.

The cottage kitchen was finished in late March/April and I LOVE it. I am trying to get it published so I’m very limited on what photos I can show here, but here’s a few teasers.

MelissaKewPhotographyLInteriorD-5 copy MelissaKewPhotographyLInteriorD-47 copy MelissaKewPhotographyLInteriorD-84 copy

All photo credits above: Melissa Kew Photography

We also took a short but fabulous trip to Nashville and Memphis in May. My appreciation for country music and cowboy boots has increased exponentially after this trip.

IMG_1657

The view from our hotel room.

IMG_1818

The site of a civil war clash.

IMG_1821

We both picked up cowboy boots and a friend got the same ones.

IMG_1955

We both thought this highway sign was hilarious but accurate.

FullSizeRender

In Memphis, we had to do the Graceland tour.

FullSizeRender-2

And of course, Sun Studio, the birthplace of Rock ‘n Roll.

We also had another very short trip to Quebec City this summer, where I used to live many, many years ago as a child. It is my favourite Canadian city, so old world and charming.

DSC_0052 DSC_0061 DSC_0130 DSC_0140 DSC_0160

Work wise, I finished up a condo decorating project in Mont Tremblant, a complete master bath remodel, started a new client’s living room/dining room/kitchen remodel, commenced another bathroom renovation, helped another client with the finishing touches to her mid-century modern apartment, gave a bunch of consults for painting and decor clients and I’m so excited to be starting a client’s very challenging and huge cottage renovation this Fall.

I’ll be sharing some pics of these decorating projects and renovations in the next while.

On the family front we have been very busy. Our youngest daughter graduated from her Masters program and started her first permanent job with the Government. Our other daughter got engaged and bought her first house, all in the same weekend in March. One of our sons moved back home from out west and will be going back to school this year.

And last, but certainly not least, our eldest son is getting married at our cottage, in like….less than 3 weeks. Whoa, that scares me to write that.  We are well into the throes of final decorating projects and this past long weekend, we were a beehive of activity. The beach got de-weeded (is that a word?), long grass got trimmed and manicured, trees were cut back, things got painted, take away gifts were embellished and readied, terrarium centrepieces were done, chalkboards were written on and general planning and details were ironed out.

14237647_10208383473762704_5986432373408122491_n

Lisa