Ione's chocolate and bubblegum room

To say I had a vision would be putting it mildly. I knew what I wanted to do for my second child's room almost as soon as she was born but putting that plan into action took about two years. Finally, I am happy to say, these photos were taken upon it's (more or less) completion. Are we ever really done with anything?

The inspiration

The jumping off point for me was that pink dot pattern. It's on a rich chocolate background, and it was love at first sight. The rest of the fabrics were bought on various visits to the fabric store. I just picked up pieces here and there that I felt would work well with the palette and patterns that would be the main focal point such as the curtains.

The fabric that was the inspiration for the room.

The walls
While I knew I loved the pink, I thought it would be overkill and let's be honest, intolerable to drench all four walls in it. I opted to use the brown as the base but again, felt that such a dark colour might really shrink the room and rather than feeling cozy, it would feel dark and depressing.

Being a new build home, the bedrooms were very basic in terms of style or features. Aside from a large window, it was featureless and I wanted to add some type of detail that would add a bit of character to such a generic space. My husband and I always loved the look of paneling and wainscotting so that's the direction we took. It also solved the problem of how to use the chocolate brown colour without making the room too dark. Here is a photo of the completed room, showing how we treated the walls.

Wall colour is Rockeries Brown in Aura Benjamin Moore paint.

As a side note on the paint colour, I initially thought another colour charmingly named Hot Chocolate would be perfect, but once up on the walls, it looked wrong and wasn't the right base (it was warm red) to match the chocolate background of the pink dot fabric. I purchased 4 different sample pots of brown to be sure before settling on one and I am so glad I did. Not only did I end up with a colour I love, it saved a lot of money. The Aura line of paint by Benjamin Moore is simply the best and worth every penny, though I wouldn't want to have to find the right shade the hard (and costly way).

The furniture
The furniture was relatively straightforward. The bed was a hand-me down Ikea special. I love this bed for the amazing storage it offers. I keep toys and out-of-season clothing in the drawers. The frame also slides out to create another sleeping surface, sort of like a trundle bed.

The beautiful dresser is another hand-me-down but one that I received from my grandmother's house. I grew up knowing the dresser in the 'kids' room in my grandparents' home so I'm comforted to have it now in my own child's room. It makes me smile every time I see it.

The gorgeous drawer pull on the dresser from grandma's house.

 The details
 With the paint selected, fabric chosen, I made and hung the curtains, embellished with some coordinating ribbon. This was easy to do using hemming tape and an iron (aka my secret weapon for DIY "sewing" projects!).

Custom curtains: ribbon + hem tape + iron.

I also bought inexpensive painting canvases to create my own artwork that would reflect the colours and theme of the room. I did a wash in the background, watering down pink and brown acrylic paint to make a runny paint mixture. On top, I painted surreal landscapes and 'nature' scenes.

Using simple shapes, you don't need to be an artist to create art!

I added these whimsical modern flowers in a bare corner. They are so affordable and easy to install. Each flower has a push-pin that easily sinks into drywall without leaving a huge mark so it's easy to reposition the arrangement until you get it just right. I really like the shadows the flowers cast on the wall from the light that is positioned on the dresser below. It's really pretty at night.

Tiny flowers, big impact.

Lastly, la piece de resistance is the capiz shell chandelier. I had my eye on this but wasn't sure where I wanted to use it. Ione's room, with the dot motif, was perfect. It was a nice complement to the circular shapes in the fabric, but also delicate and shimmery. I also love the dramatic contrast of the white shells against the rich chocolate walls.

The capiz shell chandelier sets off my favourite part of the room.

The chandelier sets off my favourite part of the room: the reading corner. I knew we would spend hours and each night before bed snuggled up here...and we do!

Our cozy corner!

Thanks for visiting and reading! Please leave comments and share the article with friends.

Sometimes the hardest part of parenting is stepping aside

Today I had the chance to make my daughter super-duper happy but I was torn about it. Why? Not because I wasn't sure I wanted her to be happy. And it wasn't because I was having second thoughts or misgivings about giving this particular thing to her that I knew she wanted coveted. It was because I wanted to be the one to make her happy. I wanted to be the one to swoop in and give something to her I knew her little heart would love. Needless to say, in the end, I was not in the position to get it for her, but someone else was, and though it hurt me to do so, I stepped aside because I knew that in the end what mattered most was her happiness. Sometimes being a good parent really sucks.

Life from the other side of 35

So I've had a week to get used to the idea that I'm 35. There. I said it. For some people, I'm sure your reaction is something along the lines of, "So what? It's just a number." Well a week ago, heck, even a year ago, I was dreading this horrible milestone. But it seems the lead up was worse that the actuality of being 35...at least that's what the last seven days have told me.

Here's why:

• I don't seem to care too much about being considered young. I'm happy, for the first time, to be my age because it means I'm just here, now. I'm not trying to look older to impress someone to get into a bar, and I'm not trying to be cool to satisfy my self-consciousness because I'm no longer able to identify with 20-year-olds.
• I have felt less compelled to make the effort to appear still passable for 25. If it happens, I'm sure not going to be insulted, however, I'm happy to look and more importantly, feel good for myself. Any self-improvements are purely self-motivated out of pride rather than pressure.
• I can have martinis and wine earlier in the day without appearing like a college drunk.
• I have been at life long enough to be taken seriously. At least by the people that matter, and most importantly, by me. I now take my goals and aspirations seriously, because they are an eventual reality, not just dreams.
• Life is too long or too short, depending how you want to look at it, to spend it doing something you don't like.
• The pressure is off...finally. It's a weird age; the world is no longer preoccupied with my generation. We aren't the Gen Y-ers or Millennials who are making their parents broke by living at home till they are 30 while spending 6 years in university only to graduate still not knowing what they want to do. We aren't really Generation X who are still working and building the double-income life with retirement on the horizon in 10 to 15 years. We aren't the baby boomers who are either still working to live or just learning to live without work. We are in between and I love it. Under the radar. Undetectable.
• I have to explain my behaviour far less often. Or maybe it's that I just don't care to explain my behaviour anymore. Either way, it works for me!
• My apathy works for me. I'm not being lazy, I've just decided some things like doing laundry during the weekdays or avoiding housework when it's nice out are justifiable because I've decided other things are more important, like my family and my sanity.
• I feel more comfortable with myself. I know how cheesy that reads but I'm being honest. The one thing in the past week I've noticed is that the dread of this approaching birthday milestone has been lifted, and what remains is a sort of zen-like calm and realization that things are ok, I'm ok. 
• I feel less fearful of making mistakes or worrying about how people view me. I'll make mistakes but I can learn from them, and it's not the end of the world. :-)

Now it's time to get out and enjoy the sun on this gorgeous long weekend, breakfast dishes be damned! Have a good one!

Do you have things you've learned as you got older? Please share in the comments below!

Mothers: Can we please call a truce??

This article is dedicated to the women and working moms I know who strive to make society better, one choice at a time. I've been so inspired lately by the many women I see starting their own businesses, whether they are raising kids or because they realize they want more out of their life and careers than working 9-5 for the next 30 years. For simply recognizing and admitting out loud that this rat race is not for them, this article is for you.

Can I just start by saying, "Enough already!!" A while ago I read this article on the Huffington Post about the ongoing 'mommy wars' - the supposed fight between stay-at-home moms and career moms in the (ridiculous) quest for ultimate mom supremacy. The article is titled "The Real Reason Working Moms Dislike Other Moms" and was spurred by the recent comments between the wives of U.S. politicians. One critiqued the other for 'never having worked a day in her life' while the other countered that raising 5 boys was work enough, thank you very much.

The article was written by a man, and I only mention this because he wrote a very good and balanced article on the topic - something that, in my opinion has been clearly missing from the conversation (I refuse to call it a debate). Clearly he is tired of observing one camp lobbing insults at the other, and wanted to diffuse the situation by discussing both sides of the so-called mommy war.

Now let's get something straight first off - the fact that I am referring to 'sides' doesn't mean that I agree or even acknowledge that there is a mommy-war. Maybe that is more prevalent in the U.S. or in circles that I don't socialize in, however, the only references I've heard to a mommy-war seem to be media driven, so I'm not entirely sure such a 'war' exists. But I digress...



The author, Rick Newman, discusses the undeniable tension that arises when the conversation turns to working versus staying at home with the kids. I'm not sure that I've personally ever witnessed this tension myself or seen a debate on the topic but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't envious of the moms I hear of that either work part-time, work from home or stay at home. And I don't think I'm alone. I've recently had many conversations with mothers and ALL of them result in the same conclusion: wanting to spend more time raising our children AND having a career. Unfortunately though, by the time we realize that this is what we want rather than returning to work full-time, most of us have already built a life on two incomes and can't find a way around it when the reality of going back to work slaps us in the face.


It is for that reason that I almost curse the feminists of the '60s. This may seem like a harsh statement but here's my reasoning. Those feminists who fought for women to be accepted working outside the home in a 'man's world' turned into the full-time working women of the 70s. The mold was then formed for other modern women to follow in their footsteps because 'times have changed' and so, they got jobs and raised the next generation of women and mothers to think this is the way life is and should be, afterall they fought for that standard of living. And so, the feminism of the '60s seemed to manifest itself in one of the most tangible ways possible - by women being accepted into a social structure that was built around the life of men as the bread winners - where that was their only role. (And this structure I'm referring to was already around for decades by this point. We're talking a structure that was established in a post-industrial revolution society where the work week was structured to limit people to ONLY work 5 or 6 days per week, 8 hours per day so that workers weren't taken advantage of - and it's been that way ever since).

The problem with this structure is two-fold: it was designed for a world that didn't exist any longer in the 1970s, let alone now; and it was designed around workers who for the most part, didn't have to raise children and run the house as well as work full-time. Now fast forward to our society where technology has made our productivity soar yet, we are still mostly confined to very rigid job structures that, in our lifetime, no longer reflect necessity.


After being raised to believe girls can accomplish anything and watch our mothers become educated and hold full-time jobs, most of the women I speak to enjoy striving to learn and have a career. The trouble is, society isn't structured to support a balance with the roles of mother and career woman. Instead, we are supposed to do more with less time, and the only time we discuss ever managing more efficiently is our after work time. I find this archaic and completely ridiculously out-dated. We can do so much more with our time, it's a shame that for the majority, the structure of the work week hasn't evolved with our productivity.

And feminists, like the author interviewed in this Globe and Mail article, who are shuddering at the thought of women voluntarily taking themselves out of the workforce: chill out. This isn't putting women's rights back 40 years either, as this book claims. If anything, it's about being progressive and demanding a change in the way society is structured. If that means removing yourself from the 'traditional' structure of work because you want to dedicate more of your time to raising your family, so be it. Look at the huge jump of women and 'mompreneurs' in the past decade who have started their own business. It's not a coincidence; it's a sign of the times, and a sign that a revolution has already begun.


Maybe the notion I am supporting in this article will be criticized for 'wanting it all', but I think that as a society, we have changed. It's not such an unrealistic expectation for the way we live to change from one generation to the next. It has happened almost every generation before us - why do we need to keep the status quo?

I am not afraid to say that I do want it all! It's not selfish or putting me ahead of the kids and family. It's about redefining the role of a women as both a mother and wife and working member of society. I know that I would not only be a happier person, but this would translate into a happier mom and wife and family life, and by extension, a more productive contributor to society.

Instead of struggling to keep up during the week, only to be exhausted at the end of the night, have barely enough time let alone energy to spend quality time with my husband, I would have the mundane taken care of while spending more time with the kids AND bringing in money because I know I can be productive given certain windows of the day that work best for my schedule. Come the weekend, as a family we could use those cherished two days to do more than playing laundry catch-up, going grocery shopping and running all over to lessons and recitals.


The bottom line is, whether you are a working mom or stay-at-home mom, we each want a bit of what each other has. How about we support each other by trying to find ways to push through change in the structure of employment as we know it, so that we work towards a common goal rather than taking sides and arguing about which choice is best? Tell ring yoyour employer duur next review that you have feedback on the structure of your job. Let our opinions on this be heard whenever there is an opportunity. Write letters like this to the editors of newspapers and magazines to show how hard it is to choose. And most of all, let's cheer each other on while we push through change, knowing that for the time being, neither decision to work or stay at home is without struggle or compromise, but we are all driven by the same desire: to continuing improving the quality of life for our families and society as we raise the next generation of people.


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Friday night fun post

I've been working on a few posts but have to still mull them over and work a bit more on them before posting. In the meantime, since it's time to let your hair down for the weekend, here are a few fun pics of the cakes I have attempted and sometimes have even completed with success. I'll post more cakes on my Pinterest pinboard so check them out there too!

Movie popcorn cupcakes

I created the popcorn buckets by printing off stripes on my computer and printing off a clip art retro "Pop Corn" label. The popcorn is mini marshmallows snipped once or twice on one end to look popped corn kernels. Yellow food colouring was added to water and painted on with a brush and left to dry.

Moshi Monster cupcakes

These were made recently for my daughter's 10th birthday. Her and her friends play Moshi Monsters online and collect these little guys, so I thought her girlfriends would like picking out their favourite characters to eat! We (my usual cake decorating and birthday party crew: my husband and my sister) hand modeled the Moshlings out of Duff Goldman's pre-made buttercream fondant - far and away the best premade fondant to work with (and eat too)!

It's DJ Lance, DJ Lance, DJ Lance Rock!

I did not bake this cake, but I did scrape off the tacky store icing and replace it with this Ode to DJ Lance Rock of Yo Gabba Gabba! - my daughter's favourite show (and one of my favourites too). Who can resist a grown man in an orange jumper with fun fur orange hat to match?