cowboy style. {part II.}

{Boots from Lucchese Boot Co.}

I'm still enamoured with cowboy (or girl) style. These would do just fine, yes-siry. A little pricey, but a girl can dream!

canadiana.

{Sylvia Koreen photo.}

I love a classic Hudson's Bay blanket. Whenever Nick and I are in Edmonton and visiting his dad or my parents, I'm envious of their respective blankets. On Saturday, I was on Facebook and saw that Sylvia, Nick's dad's partner, had painted their hallway inspired by the blanket! I think it looks amazing. Wintery and cozy in a very crisp way. I have to store this in my memory banks for later. In the meantime, I'll go back to Craigslist and eBay to look for my own HBC blanket.

Sylvia wrote about it: Weekend project: The hallway painting was inspired by my iconic Hudson's Bay blanket (a gift from my Richard). It makes me feel so Canadian.

cowboy style.

{Image via J. Crew.}

Maybe it's the Alberta girl in me but lately I've been lusting after a jean shirt (and cowboy boots, but that's a different story).

kudos.

Remember when I said that I loved the phrase "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful?" (BTW turns out it was William Morris who said that. Duh. Thanks to the commenter who told me that!) Well, my absolute favourite thing is when usefulness and beauty are combined.

Today, after weeks of waiting (thank you Canada Post strike) I finally got the laptop sleeve that I ordered from Botene on Etsy. Laptop sleeves are usually ugly neoprene things, but not this one. It's beautiful and the best part about it is that it's beautifully made and so practical. The fabric is nicer than the pictures show and the quality of the sowing is remarkable. (I'm in awe of people who can sow since Home Ec. gave me a better education in untangling bobbins from sowing machines than actual sowing.)

So despite it's very, very late delivery, which had nothing to do with Bijal who runs this delightful little Etsy shop (again, thank you Canada Post), I'm very satisfied with my purchase. And you've gotta love some one who takes the time to wrap it up in such a cute way and handwrite you a thank you note for the purchase. (Also, when I emailed Bijal about my sleeve to find out if she knew where it was in the silly postal system, she was really sweet and even called the post office to find out where it might be despite a lack of tracking number.) So if you're in the market for a gorgeous sleeve for your electronics (she does ones for e-readers and iPads, too) take a look at Botene.

paperhearts studio.

{All photos via Paperheart Studios.}

I have some talented friends! Justine Ma is one of them. We went to U of A together before I transferred to Halifax. I don't see her very often but I love to creep on her blog to see what she's up to. She and her business partner have started a business together making beautiful things that feature their dreamy calligraphy. Check out their website and their cute blog!

guestbook.

{Image via just bella.}

Last week I discovered Christine's super cute blog, just bella. I not only love it because she's a fellow Edmonton girl but because Christine has some really great ideas on there. One of those ideas is having a guest book. I always thought that it was sort of old fashioned to have a guestbook but now that I have my own place (and a lot of guests) I wish I'd started one years ago. My parents have one at our lake cabin in Alberta and I love reading through it every time I visit. Seeing Christine's on just bella, really made me want to get one. I'm on the hunt for a blank little book so we can remember all of our guests' visits from now on.

What do you think of guestbooks? Old fashioned? Fun? Just for weddings?

new season resolutions.

I'll admit it. I'm one of those people that loves making New Year's resolutions. I had great success last year with my resolution to start saving more money. This year though it's a different story. My two this year were:
1. Complete the Sun Run. (A 10K.)
2. Get up at 7 or 7:30 am every weekday.
Well ... I've realized that New Years isn't a great time to make resolutions. In January, it's still winter which isn't very motivating, especially for exercise based resolutions. I have gotten up earlier a bit more since Christmas but it hasn't been great. Since its Spring though, I've been really feeling like some new resolutions are in order. So, along with continuing to work on the getting up earlier, I'd like to get in one more workout per week and work on my wardrobe a little.  (The Sun Run just isn't going to happen because it's in a month and frankly, I've realized that I hate running.) New season, a few new things for the closet!? Sounds like a fun time to me! I've always loved fashion, and paid attention to it, but in the last couple of years I've stopped paying as much attention to my own clothes, so I think it's a good time to get interested again. Does anyone else (the whole handful of you that read this) feel like the change of season is the time for resolutions?

P.S. I promise, no more cherry blossom photos after this one ... until next Spring anyway!

indoor clothesline.

Ever since seeing an article on Apartment Therapy I've been wanting an overhead clothes drying rack but it's pretty pricey and the store that sells them seems to be non-existant now (I would post the original article but I can't find it). I found this alternative but don't love the idea of all that hardware hanging out in our living room. If we had an amazing industrial loft with a high ceiling, maybe, but we don't. I'm more looking something like this from Apartment Therapy. I used to hang all my clothes to dry because it's better for the environment and for my clothes but our current apartment just doesn't have the space.

Any ideas on how to make one? Perhaps I should talk to that engineer I live with ...