Recycling with style

This weekend cannot come soon enough! I am making my very first trip to an antique show and I could not be any more more excited! With my newly found hobby of constantly searching for house accessories and scouring second hand stores of used furniture that is in need of some TLC (did I tell you about my fantastic coffee table for $7.99?), I think I am ready to take on the mother load.

On Saturday, I, along with my boyfriend who I'm sure would rather be doing anything BUT this, will embark on a short road trip to Dundas, ON for the Christie Antique Show. I'm in search of the perfect china cabinet for my dining room that I can lovingly sand and refinish. After reading last year's article on the twice-annual Christie Antique Show in Style at Home Magazine I am so stoked about starting my own makeover madness of marvelous finds. The article describes the Show as "a mind-blowing 10 acres of vintage goods from more than 300 dealers." Could there be anything better to do on a Saturday??

Stay tuned for the before and afters. I'm bringing my piggy bank!

Why I wish Arren Williams would come over and visit

For the past couple of months (and by couple, I mean since December), I have been trying to get my house into a livable state. We moved in at the end of December, and immediately started painting every possible wall in the house. We ripped out the carpets, sanded, stained and varnished the floors. Now comes the time to start adding the finishing touches and making the place 'ours.'

It has been quite along process as we both work full time and can only really give'r on weekends. And not every weekend feels like it should be a work weekend, so we often take breaks and decide to watch the Real Housewives of Orange County marathons instead. And by 'we', I mean 'me.'

I'm not very familiar with interior design rules. I do read style and decor blogs religiously and of course I have a subscription to Style at Home, but this fine art is much harder than one would think. The rooms in my house are all different colours... I have an array of warm and... well, cool shades covering every inch of every room. Do they compliment each other? I doubt it. But I think they look good and it makes me feel good to look at them. The colours were incredibly difficult to choose, but now that the painting is almost complete, I'm not changing them.

Furniture, however, is a whole other story. I have been in search of the perfect hallway table, a place where I can throw my keys, the mail and piles of flyers we seem to get every single day. I found the most perfect one, along with three other tables that I thought would fit my hallway perfectly. I narrowed it down to two -one was a chocolate brown little guy, with a drawer and the second one was an iron-looking table with a wood and glass top, that came in a set with two lamps and a mirror. Although the chocolate brown table matched perfectly with the living room furniture, it seemed to get lost in our hallway. The iron table gave the hall a lot of character, but I was afraid it wouldn't match with the floor tiles. I ended up buying both, leaving it up to the man of the house to decide which one we should keep. He chose the set. A wise choice indeed.

It is unreal the things you have to consider when decorating a place. I'm always influenced by the ease of it as shown on HGTV, I get excited and come up with all these ideas, but when it comes down to it, I can't match two solid colours together and make them look good. I envy Arren Williams, Karl Lohnes and others gifted with the incredible taste for interior design. Why is there no 'interior decorating for dummies'?

Why junk food is really, really good for you

We've all been through this. Wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed. Only to do it all again the next day. Work is so hectic that the week feels like one extremely long day. Then it comes. The God-sent Friday. You leave the office at about six or seven in the evening, excited to start the weekend.

At work, every one wants a piece of you. So much to do, so little time, that eventually you find yourself dreaming about what you have to do the next day at the office.

Some people go to the gym to blow off steam (crazies), some people shop... Me, I like to do nothing. On a Friday night, I like to crack open a can of Steamwhistle and read through my Friday edition of the Mississauga News.

Do I want to cook dinner? If you met me, you'd know the answer is 'no' for any other day of the week as well. But Fridays... Fridays are special. Fridays you can kick your feet up... not worry about anything. There are two mornings of sleeping in ahead of you! Is that not the best feeling ever?

On a Friday, I like to turn to another gourmet dinner option - McDonald's. There is no better feeling than taking that paper bag with your favourite combo (quarter pounder with cheese meal), putting it on the front seat of your car while you drive home. When it takes every strand of self control not to dig in and grab just one fry while you drive. The scent fills your car and your breathing slows down, allowing you to enjoy every particle of deliciousness around you. You can feel every part of your body relaxing as you take in the warmth of the deep fried meal that's so close, yet so far.

You park in your driveway, grab your McDonald's bag and head for your front door. Breaking into a subtle jog, just to get to it faster. You can feel the warmth radiating from the bag.

Finally, you sit on the couch, open the bag and see the heavenly shine of the golden arches. It's here, you're here... and you dive in. Every bite is better than the previous one. Why is it not possible for sandwiches to go on for ever?

It's that moment right there, where the whole week doesn't matter. The divine taste is so fulfilling, as if nothing else exists in the world.

And when you polish off the chocolate milkshake that completed your meal and reach for a can of that Steamwhistle, just pop your Blue Crush DVD in and an hour and a half later, you're back on the fitness train!

Picture credit: Worth1000.com