Elle Decor inspired makeover: dining table area

Ok, so we left off yesterday at my little library vignette, the first part of my full-on apartment makeover inspired by an ELLE DECOR magazine my sis gave me over the holidays.

I'm so glad I relocated the bookcase to a smaller wall, and this fab blue chair from the corner of my room. With the chair in front of the bookcase, the bookcase becomes less of a focal point (as it should be), and the chair just stands out in all its blue velvet splendor - and it especially pops against the reversible carpet, whose pattern is reversed on the other side (great 'cos I can flip it any ole time I need a change).

Directly in front of the blue chair in the dining room is my dining room table, as you see here. Yup, I finally relocated the dining room table to the dining room! Remember how proud of myself I was for relocating my love seat to the dining room? (see post here http://grunge-queen.blogspot.com/2009/03/boho-sitting-room-in-dining-room.html). Well, I decided to put it back for reasons of practicality AND glamour.

See, once I extended the table by flipping up the leaf, and once I added a black silky tablecloth and positioned two matching lamps on either side (any good recipe for glamour entails a pair of lamps in symmetry, in my opinion), the look was so impossibly chic - especially with my new painting that I'm still paying off overhead - that I couldn't stand it!

The more practical part of me said this: eating is a good thing, and a vital task I sometimes forget, so if I can create a lovely nook with a comfy chair where I can savour my cereal in the morning instead of choking it down while standing over the kitchen sink, perhaps that may make the task of fueling and energizing my body more ... hallowed?


And since my desk is taken up with my computer and a few lamps, I figured this long table could also function as a work space, where I go over clippings and books and bills and work on other creative projects that entail pen and paper (I'm a tactile gal, if you haven't guessed, so I actually hand write notes to myself and others). This gilt mirror, picked up at a junk store for $3.99, was quickly transformed into an inspiration board with some of my fave clippings, photos and cards from over the years. I can look over at it while I'm working and it'll hopefully fire my creative juices.

And natch, when I have guests over, the whole thing can transform into a proper dining room table. I've positioned my two wrought iron (and silver spray-painted chairs) on either end of the table for easy access ... and more symmetry.

More to come!

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Retro Christmas ornaments from my past

Happy Christmas to all!

Hers's a pic of my parents' tree, with a much beloved teardrop ornament from the 1970s that we grew up with - there are only three or so left.

I loved these teardrops as a kid, and I still do.

It still has the old string on it, can you imagine? And it looks like the top bit is rusted!






There are only two left of this teardrop, this one and a red one, both faves.

Behind you can see a big red ball with white icing-sugar like designs on it. My Mom bought a box of those balls, in solid red and solid blue, when she was 21 and wasn't able to make it to her home for Christmas because of bad weather.

There are maybe half a dozen of these balls left, and we all love them as much as Mom does.

Speaking of being 21 and Moms, my Mom started a holiday ornament tradition when we were about 20. She gives all her girls, and now her grandchildren, a holiday tree ornament every year. It's such a nice tradition. Though I have never not gone home for the holidays, if ever I don't I know I can look at my ornaments and feel a sense of home ... and Mom, natch.

Have a lovely day.

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Lavishy lavishes vintage sparkle

Yesterday I visited one of my fave jewellery stores in TO, Lavishy, which has just opened a second location at Yonge and Eglinton.

Owner Leo designs and sells mostly new jewellery, but lately he's been picking up vintage pieces at New York flea markets and the like on his travels. Not only that, he and his talented staff use vintage pieces to display their lovely wares. I just love the way these floral enamel pins sparkle in this old silver candy dish.

Here, retro clip earrings and a vintage bracelet repose on a pretty vintage plate.










Nearby, a teacup and saucer, a pretty plate and a tiny retro dish hold pretty baubles.

I really respect and admire retailers who think this way, who produce new items but who revere and incorporate the past into their work.

How about this?

This necklace is new (and only about $30; Lavishy's prices rock). The vintage-inspired baubles on it like the keys and the cameo are just darling aren't they?

Lavishy is located at 2525 Yonge St. or in the Junction (west Toronto) at 3095 Dundas St. West, main phone is 416-767-7472 www.lavishy.biz

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Ring-a-ding-deal

This is my latest thrift mega find: a red rotary phone!!

I grew up with a black one and loved it. When I saw this one for $6.99 at my local thrift shop, Stretch Thrift, I snagged it.

The guy at the cash was none too pleased it was priced so low, because, according to him, the red ones are quite rare.

This one was made in Canada by Northern Electric, which means it must have been made before 1971 as Northern Electric became Bell Northern Research in that year.

I have another phone I can check my voicemail on, but I gotta say I love the old-fashioned ring on this baby and that old-world feeling of - gasp - actually dialing the phone.

Go ahead: ring my bell.

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My thrift tribute to Chanel

The new Coco Chanel flic is out, so here's my thrifty tribute to one of the biggest style icons of all time who still influences fashion today:

It's all thrift.

The pink wool-cashmere sweater with cute pockets is Chanel-ish by virtue of those pockets and the pink. The ruffle is darling too. $5.99 at my local thrift store, Stretch Thrift in the east end of Toronto.

The faux pearls: $10 at Around the Block, a great consignment store in North Toronto.

The skirt: black silky Jacob skirt thrifted for under $10 years ago. The tank is a black stretch Bedo top found for a couple bucks at my local thrift shop.

The shoes and tights are new.
Total for outfit: under 30 bucks.

What would Coco think?

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Deco Nostalgia: a look back

As you can maybe guess by new new banner up top, I'm feeling nostalgic tonight for some looks I've created in the past.

I normally don't mourn what's done on the decor front; I just move on to the next look as I'm constantly craving change in my space.

But as you know, nostalgia plays a huge role in my Grunge Queen philosophy. It's only by exploring where you've been and what moors you to this earth that you can begin to express yourself and your style through your decor.

Looking back and revisiting ideas or looks isn't unimaginative; it's celebrating the essential 'you' and can lead to a more refined style.

On the subject of looking back, I'm wondering if the impulse to collect a particular item - like I collect jewellery or head vases - isn't on some level a re-living of that initial moment of love-dom.

It paints a rather compulsive picture of collecting, but there ya go: my deep thought for the eve.

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Decor & innocence

Kids love my apartment!

This is important to the Grunge Queen. One, I'm single and sans kids and always worry the little tykes will either destroy my apartment or swallow something tiny.


But more important, the fact that my tiny nieces and nephew visited my apartment yesterday and loved it - I believe my six-year old nephew called it "beautiful" - makes me rejoice in my design style and ethic.

See, Grunge Queen philosophy goes something like this: that you're happiest in your space when it's a reflection of you, your history and your tastes, and that injecting a bit of magic here and there is good for the soul.

Play is important here as a fun and self-affirming way of exploring your style is to tinker and toy around with items in your space until you come up with an arrangement that you love ... until you start playing again.

The elements of my apartment the kids were really jazzed about - the crystal ball, the swishy gold and satin pillows, the glittery purses hanging from my bureau ... basically anything shiny and shimmery - are exactly the decorative bits and bobs that attract me the most and that I seek out in thrift shops.

So what does that mean? My take? I'm a kid! The Romantic poets, particularly Wordsworth, wrote about capturing the innocence of youth that is invariably lost as one ages.



I suppose Wordsworth believed he could connect with his inner child through poetry. Just as I believe I can connect with my inner child through the creative endeavor of decorating and "playing" in my apartment.

Decor and innocence: what an amazing concept!

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Rosey poses

It was my B-day a while ago and some charming gent brought me a dozen long-stemmed roses.

I plopped them in a gorgeous crystal vase I found at the dollar store for under $20 (the same vase I bought a former friend years ago and paid way more for!).

They were nice roses, so they lasted a good week - my thrifty tip for helping them along was to change their water every day and cut them down every day as well.

When they really started to go I cut the stems off completely and plonked them into a big rose bowl.

I've had rose bowls of various sizes since my green days growing up in the 1970s. That's how florists arranged roses then - or at least that's how roses given to me as gifts were always arranged back then.


So I hold a special place in my heart for roses in roses bowls even though it may seem a little old-fashioned.

The added bonus, natch, is that they'll last even longer this way. Funny, for some reason the red ones went before the white - maybe the whites are heartier?

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Lupins and long-ago gardens

I love Lupins. They're one of my fave flowers, possibly because they always bloom around my B-day - and they're just so funky to boot.

I saw these at the flower market and they made me nostalgic for the flower garden of my youth.

My dad planted a beautiful flower garden when we were younger, and Lupins bloomed near the stream.








Here's a pic of my older sister by the Lupins, many years ago, in our beautiful garden.

The big evergreen tree in the background - we used to call in "The Giant."


My sis with my Dad ....

Why aren't I or my twin in the garden pics? We would have been really young.

And I guess by the time we were old enough to be in pics, the camera was gone. Maybe the garden was already on the decline by then ....

My sis again, this time with "The playhouse" my Dad built in the background.

I remember The playhouse as more dilapidated, so I never really saw it in its heydey.

Funny how you can feel nostalgic for things you didn't wholly experience. Still, I love and will always remmeber the garden of our youth .....

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String curtains

True, I did buy these new but I'm telling you I'll have them until they disintegrate.

Why? Because I love my string curtains purchased in a shop on the Danforth in Toronto four years ago.

First, they make wonderful curtains because they provide privacy yet let diffused light in.











But they also make cool room dividers.

I took off all the doors in my last apartment, which was long and narrow, and hung these curtains in the doorways.

I love the look ... wah I'm feeling nostalgic for my old space ....

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Uncle Ugly

It's rather apt that the only piece of furniture my family has hung onto over the years was picked up years ago by my parents at a garage sale.

It's of no value, but somehow they've held onto it. Now I have it.

Uncle Ugly, as my folks called him, was a claw-footed table with glass on top that was out coffee table when we were younger. Here are my sisters playing around it (yes that's a turquoise Betty Crocker oven in the background).


Over the years Uncle Ugly degenerated to the point of having his glass broken and before that having coke slop onto the glass and seep underneath to form an icky-sticky layer that made neat patterns under the glass (my memory of that is so vivid I must have been the culprit!).

That's yours truly sulking over Uncle Ugly in her polyester pink pantsuit ....

By my teen years Uncle Ugly had graduated to life as a plant table in the upstairs hallway and eventually, to the cold storage room in my parents' new house, where I rescued him four years ago when I moved to Toronto.

Since then Uncle Ugly's come a long way. I spray painted him silver to give him a bit of glam, then fitted a thrifted mirror over the top where the glass used to go.

I change things up often when it comes to what I put on top of Uncle Ugly. My most recent living room manifesto resulted in some major book-piling on top. I like the look for now.

I've loved this table for four years now, though I took it for granted over the years growing up. I can remember making a Barbie house under it when I was wee, with my twin sis.


I love the shape, the curves, the bow embellishments you see on the side - and yes - even those claws.

I hope Mom and Dad never ever ask for him back!!

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Peacock thrift shirt I wore as a teen

This is my sis and me walking into the sunset in Vancouver, British Columbia the summer before grade 11 or 12 (I'm in the green skirt).

We've walked into the sunset again: she and I are currently in Ottawa for our big high school reunion, which means grunge queen won't be posting until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Then I'll be returning to regular grunge queen programming - thanks for your patience letting me stroll down memory lane this week.

I actually still have the green skirt I'm wearing in this pic. I found it in a second-hand store in Vancouver that summer so long ago, and I wore it for years. In my early 20s, after high school, I busted the seam and got it repaired. It looked kinda funny after that but I just couldn't let it go ....

Now it's being used as a makeshift cover for a thrift store stool. I'm going to get it made into a pillow because I love the green peacock print. So I'd say this 1960s skirt still has some mileage left in it!!

See you in a few days, and take care!!

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Blue jewel earrings

My sis and I bought these earrings the summer before grade 9, at the Ottawa Exhibition - and I still have them.

We wore them a lot in grade 9, and so did our pals! The fun thing about being young: wearing eachothers' clothing and accessories!

So as we prepare for our highschool reunion this weekend, here's my tribute to grade 9 fashion, and to hanging onto special things that hold fond memories: my grade 9 class pic.

This is one of my fave pics of myself. Quelle hair! I threw a bottle of blond hair dye on my hair - stupidly - hence the brassy look.

I'm wearing my fave royal blue wool sweater here, with a black scarf I bought the year earlier and wore to death for a few years - wonder what happened to it? I lent the sweater to a friend and never got it back, alas - it still smarts that she never gave it back nor recognized how important it was to me.

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This is me in grade nine

You know that Barenaked Ladies song, "This is me in grade 9"?

Since I'm off to my highschool reunion this week I'm taking a trip down memory lane ....

And this really IS me in grade nine, my first day at Canterbury High School for the Arts in Ottawa, next to my (fraternal) twin sis, right.

Yes, my glasses are the size of my head.

I agonized long and hard over my outfit: my fave skinny jeans (in style again), a cotton tee worn under an oversize cardigan borrowed from my sis, and plastic beads picked up the year before in England - plastic beads were ALL the rage back then (as they are again now). You can't see them but I think I wore flats - either that or the very strange boxer-inspired boots I picked up that year. Old army bag I bleached a fish-belly white, don't ask me why.

My sis's look was a little more 1980s pop: Billy Idol hair, plastic red earrings and kerchief at the neck, Flashdance-inspired cut sweatshirt with Esprit de Corps jacket over top (God we wore that thing from grade 8 until it must have disintegrated), and best of all, those red harem pants, bought that summer in some strip mall in Weyburn, Saskatchewan with our dear cousin Clayton.

We were still so green, and I think our innocence and enthusiasm showed through in our garb.

That was the best autumn of my life. And Canterbury was a great school. So looking forward to being there again.

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Grunge queen at 16

If I told you exactly what year this was, I'd have to kill you.

I'm off to my -- high school reunion near the end of this week, so this week's posts will be somewhat nostalgic in bent.

Can you tell which one is me? I haven't changed much, have I?

I was a grunge queen at 16. The turtleneck and shoes were new (but I had the shoes since grade 8!), and I picked up the funky paisley skirt at a second-hand shop in Ottawa for next-to-nothing. It came with a very retro jacket with three-quarter sleeves and a huge yoke collar, and the waist on the skirt was so huge I had to get the skirt cut in half by my seamstress to wear it!

I loved that skirt and its funky purple and maroon swirls. Why did I get rid of it?

And that blue leather coat? It belonged to my mom when she was younger, and my sis and I wore it do death when we were in high school. Why oh why did we get rid of it, and where did it go?

This is a look I'd wear now, a pretty timeless retro go-go 1960s look. Pretty sure I wore this ensemble with silver hoop earrings too.

Ah, those were the days.

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Obsolete tools

With the recent gift of a wood grainer, pictured here, I realized I have a little collection of industrial tools forming - all of which were given to me as gifts, come to think of it.

Mark Taaffe of World Headquarters at 2885 Dundas St. West in the Junction gave this wood grainer to me. I love it. It looks like there's a patent number and a 1911 date stamped on the handle on the back.

If you're like me and need some help figuring out how this would have been used, I'll tell you what Mark told me: this would have been run down the length of say, a cupboard that had been painted, to create a grainy effect.

Doug Killaly of Post & Beam Reclamation, another Junction gem at 2869 Dundas St. West specializing in architectural salvage, gave this to me a couple years ago.

Can you guess what it is?



It's a wood block floral pattern stamper, from Hungary if memory serves, and was used to stamp patterns on clothing.

I love that it's stained blue. Doug mounted it on a little stand, so now it's a decor object just like my wood grainer.

A man gave this to me many years ago as a Christmas gift - he found it in a Paris flea market and the tool generated much conversation around the holiday tree in the south of France that year ....

We never figured out what it was used for.

I think I'll be haunting the salvage and junk shops for other old artisan-type tools and implements such as these. Is there such a thing as feeling nostalgia for items you've never experienced before? Let's just say I appreciate their artisan handy bent and their history, known or not. And the tools make for neat decor groupings.

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Emotional decorating, part deux

I truly believe we shop and buy largely for emotional reasons - when we're stressed, sad - even happy. Grunge-queen is no exception, except I revel in decorating my home and even injecting a bit of nostalgia in my wardrobe with items that conjure up happy times from my past ... all found at the thrift shop, natch.

On my way home tonight I took a quick peep in my fave local thrift shop, Stretch Thrift. I saw a glass or crystal bell on display that was pretty garish, but I thought how lovely it would be to have a little tinkle sound to announce, say, dinner or maybe even drinks.

Lo and behold my eye zoomed on on this darling brass number made in India - a dinner bell JUST like the one Mom and Dad had while growing up (except the one from childhood HAD no bell and I always missed it)!

Price? Two bucks.

Now I'll have to have a dinner party. Or maybe I could use it for the cats in the morning? Not that they need a bell to remind them, ferociously hungry felines that they are ....

Meanwhile I grew up with a clock EXACTLY like this, an Ingraham of Toronto clock in this exact green hue that Mom and Dad hung in their retro 1950s kitchen, in the decorative wood yoke above the sink.

I found it in a junk shop for $15 (bartered to $13 as that's all I had) and was so pleased to find it worked.

Crazy that I can be emotional about a clock, but hey, I used to dash down our killer steep 13-step stairs when getting ready for school as a teenager and would glance at that thing umpteen times to ensure I'd catch the school bus on time (we lived in a rural area so yes, the school bus was a necessity even for an 18-year old).

Now I have this positioned so that I can see the time when I leave and come into my apartment.

And this painting, which I've posted elsewhere, I bought at Stretch Thrift for $39.99 'cos it reminded me of how I saw Heaven as a child- as a desert wasteland of sand and sun where people slept on the rooves of houses like the one depicted here ....

I love having these emotional reference points surrounding me in my little nook of a pad - they reinforce where I've been and who I am and give my soul a sense of home.

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Nostalgic, emotional decorating

When I was a little girl I used to root through my older sister's drawers (sorry sis) just because I loved all her baubles and what not.

I don't think I've ever told her this (probably 'cos then I'd have to admit to the rooting), but I was intrigued by the way she arranged all her jewellery boxes and trinkets in her top drawer. They were just thrown together like you see here, but I found the contained clutter charming.

Now I always dedicate one top drawer to my precious baubles - an old faux pearl choker I bought for my grade 12 grad party; a black bead bracelet I bought at the Bancroft Gem Festival in the same year, on a lovely family trip; antique pins given to me by my mom and aunt; an old cameo dug up at a garage sale in my teens.

Another treasured decor-related tradition I took from family, this time from my mom: lining my drawers with whimsical wrapping paper.

I've saved this wrapping paper from the 1970s that my mom folded into one of my drawers when I was a little girl. It's crumbling in parts but I simply can't let it go.

Now whenever I find wrapping paper I love I pick up a sheet and line my drawers with it. I do the same with old roles of pretty wall paper I'm pretty sure have lost their stick.

GRUNGE-QUEEN PHILOSOPHY

You can incorporate the things and ideas you love from your past into your decor, even if they're hidden. There's no reason why your home has to be sanitized of emotional references.

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