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

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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

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 ;-).

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Lisa

Glass railings and weddings…oh my

Happy Friday Everyone! I’m sorry for the lack of posts here, but with trying to get some client work completed, getting the cottage ready for a wedding, and being saddled with a bad cold, not to mention a shortened work week, it’s been a little crazy.

My hubby did manage to complete the new glass railing at the cottage and it looks as good as I thought it would 🙂

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We had a great long weekend at the cottage with all the family and I was thrilled to see that my article that I shared here online, was printed up in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday.  So fun to see my powder room in print!

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And the tent went up this week for the wedding being held here tomorrow. So exciting, we will be checking it out tomorrow to see how it’s all been set up, since two of my children are talking about perhaps getting married here as well 🙂

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Have a great weekend everyone! I’ll be back on Monday to share some of my recent mood boards.

Lisa