Houses Gone Wild

Animal print wild, that is!

While reading Apartment Therapy yesterday, I came across a post called Is There A Line Between Quirky and Eccentric? The author, Jason Loper, discusses the differences between quirky and eccentric designs - honestly,  I use them interchangeably - pot-AY-to, pot-AH-to!. 

But he posts about this house in his neighbourhood as an example to eccentric design. This house looks like it's got a major case of go-big-or-go-home. And while I think it's cool, would I want it on my (hypothetical) house? Hell to the no. There's also a building in Toronto that has huge animal print on it (pictured below), but it resonates a bit better with me because it would probably help to draw attention to your business.

Here's the photo from the post:

Here's the building on Bloor Street West (at Dundas Avenue) in Toronto.

Is this a new trend I don't know about..? For me, animal prints are on par with tattoos. I like them...in small doses... and um, on other people. They're just too far out of my comfort zone for me to commit to them in my house or with my clothes. My sister, on the other hand, is in a whole other ballpark when it comes to animal print. She loves the stuff - can't get enough. Well, maybe she'd draw the line at a leopard or giraffe print house :-P

What do you think of animal print? Do you have any in your home? On your home? Or maybe you just have it sprinkled here and there in your wardrobe...

A Little Caulk Goes A Long Way

If you're laughing at this post title, you're not alone.


Seriously, I can't read that title out loud without laughing. I also can't hear the word "duty" without laughing either. A couple weeks ago I was in a meeting with my coworker, Kim, when her supervisor said, "Whose duty is that?" and we burst out laughing. Ohhh geez. Judge me all you want. That's how I get my jollies.


So anywho, on to the post. 


I posted several weeks ago about repainting my bathroom window frame. If you take a look at the "after" shot, you can see there are gaps in between the window and frame. Every time I took a shower those gaps were just asking to be filled, but for some reason I thought it would be a lot harder to do. When I went to Home Depot with my Dad on Father's Day, he helped me pick out the right kind of caulk and lent me his caulking gun for the job. When we were at the register paying (and by we, I mean "he".. it was only $2 after all and he was buying a bunch of other stuff) I said, "Dad, don't forget to lend me your gun." The cashier was like, "Whaaaaaa?..." I'm not sure if she was more surprised that I called this guy Dad (we look NOTHING alike) or that I was asking to borrow his gun lol I assumed the latter and clarified so she wouldn't think we were crazy. 


When I got home, I googled how to remove old caulk*, and then got to work. 


I filled in all the gaps around the window - as it turns out, there was very little caulk in the window. There couldn't have been more than a foot's worth. Unfortunately, when I was working on the bottom of the window, a huge strip of paint came off and I haven't had a chance to repaint it yet, hence no "after" shots of the window. 


I did, however, manage to caulk a bunch of other things in the bathroom while I was at it. Caulking is such a little thing, but it made the bathroom look a lot less dingy.


Here are some before and after shots:


The vanity may or may not be breaking free because I routinely sat on it so I could sit super close to the mirror to apply mascara..... Lesson learned! I apply my mascara from afar now!

This one might be a bit less obvious. I recaulked where the short side of the tub edge meets the tile. 

All in all, I caulked the window, the vanity, the tub (as shown) and the exterior of the tub where it connects to the bathroom floor. For $2, I'd say (Dad's) money well spent!

*There are more steps involved, but for me, removing old caulk basically consisted of cutting it away with a utility blade, scraping away any residue, and then thoroughly cleaning and drying the area.

I Made The Switch...

...to Disqus!


I was really hesitant because I had such a hard time figuring out how to leave comments properly on other blogs that use this program... to the point that I didn't leave comments for a while. And I really apologize if anyone reading this blog is having the same issues. The problem I had was that I was leaving comments using my personal Gmail account and I didn't like that it posted my comments with my whole name (first and last). If you're having this same issue, create an account. I know I know... "I have to make another account for something and remember another password??" ...you're probably thinking... Once I made an account, I realized the program is great and that bloggers can respond to readers' comments. The comment thread is just a lot better - easier to read. I've never actually had to sign in to Disqus to leave a comment - once I made the account, I just stayed logged in - it's great! 


Send me an email if you're having issues leaving comments here and I'll try to help you out.

Happy 144th Birthday Canada!

My fellow blogger, Kerry, from This Tinder, is visiting me in Toronto this weekend! She's been on vacation for the past 2 weeks, but she'll be back home as of Sunday and back to updating her blog and her Etsy page.


Kerry, Kevin and I are gonna be oot and aboot today (aka "out and about"... and no, Canadians don't really talk like that) checking out the parade (maybe), going to the beach, going out for dinner, watching some fireworks. I'll bring my camera along and update you of all the fun later on. 


To all my fellow Canadians, enjoy your holiday, eh! ...yeah I don't really say "eh" either, but I know some people who do!


Here are some gratuitous Canada Day fireworks photos I took back in my university days. Enjoy!

The Frame That Almost Was...

For Christmas 2010, my brother bought me an Ork poster of Toronto. I love maps and these ones are especially cool because they section off your city by neighbourhoods. My one looks exactly like this:

I went to Michael's a couple weeks after my brother gave it to me with a 40% coupon and BALKED when the salesperson told me how much it would cost to frame. I thought, "That poster will never see the light of day..."  


Fast forward to my mat cutter purchase!


My friend, Gary, and I went to Value Village in an attempt to find a frame big enough for my sweet Toronto poster and stumbled across this shelf of huge posters! Score! 


Unfortunately, the poster I wanted was located above a rack of used bras (ewwwwww...) and I couldn't reach the frame properly (too short!), so Gary chivalrously offered to get it for me :-) What a good friend!

The "Can't Beat The Feeling" poster looked perfect and was only $14! Literally less than 10% what I was quoted at Michael's with the 40% off coupon! I asked the cashier for a tape measure so I could ensure it was big enough to hold the Ork poster, which is 24x30 inches. I can't remember exactly how big the frame was, but it was something like 24x32..... 

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

It looked so HUGE on the shelf! I thought for SURE it would be big enough. There were no other frames bigger than this one and I'm not even sure that standard frames come any bigger than this... Does anyone know? I can play the waiting game forever if I know (heck, even if I think) it's going to save me at least $200! 

In other news, we saw these cute puppies that looked like they were being purchased hehe. They were pretty much crazy (like their owner lol) and they wouldn't stay still for a photo, but then as soon as they were still, I took a blurry shot. 

Anyone have any good Canada Day/long weekend plans?