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I recently sat down and started brainstorming how to furnish and decorate the Family Room, which will be the first priority when they move out. I am really inspired by The High Low Project, on HGTV, where the host, Sabrina Soto decorates a room with no budget, and then tries to recreate it for under the budget set by the homeowners, which is typically around $3-5K. Considering that we are starting with absolutely nothing, no couch, no chairs, and no TV, we are going to try to stay under $4K for the whole project.
Here's what I've come up with so far!
I fell in love with the Henry set from West Elm, but the three pieces that we wanted, the couch, oversized chair, and ottoman, would immediately be more than half the budget! After searching high and low for some modern looking gray living room furniture, I finally found a really nice looking set at a local furniture store, called Bob's Discount Furniture.
What you need to know next is that I have an obsession with IKEA. It's bad, and I know it. Admitting that is the first step though, right?
Anyways, this room wouldn't be complete without something from IKEA, and there will be plenty, but the first piece will be an Expedit. I know. Everyone has one. But, we're going to use it as a TV stand, and I'm going to hack it. I have plans to remove the middle divider on the top row so we have a place to put the TV receiver/DVR, and I also plan to add legs to it so that the TV is a little higher off the ground.
As I was searching for rugs, I came across this absolutely gorgeous and dark purple color, and immediately knew that I wanted that in the room. It's a high pile rug, which I am kind of concerned about with having cats, but I think it will be alright.
You may have seen this pin on Pinterest, and I knew that I wanted to recreate that look. But, I searched and searched, and couldn't find any metal trash cans that were pretty enough to do this, so I started looking at actual side tables and found this one from Target! Later, after some research, I found out that the table in the inspiration picture is actually a table from Target and not a trash can, so I guess it was meant to be.
I have plans to spray paint it our accent color - primary yellow!
Lastly, a few DIY projects. I love love love the look of poufs, but I really do not like the price tag at all. So, I'm going to DIY my own. It will also be primary yellow, although I am having a hard time finding thick enough and cheap enough yarn or something to make it from. I was recently thinking about how I could use rope, or even a bedsheet though. We'll see what I decide.
We currently have a 2' wall clock in the family room, but it's a much more traditional style, and we're looking for something a bit more modern. Without getting into the hundreds of dollars, we are going to DIY our own clock, which will end up being just over 3' in diameter. We're going to base it on this design, but make some modifications to it that we think would better fit our space.
There are more pieces of furniture that we have chosen, and some accessories, but this is the plan for the most part. Also, for the DIY items, I'll be sure to write up the directions and do a post for each one. I'm really excited for the project! So excited, in fact, that I put everything into Photoshop to see how it would look together.
I think it's looking awesome so far! I can't wait to actually get it started! What do you think?
Now that you've seen the Master Bedroom in our house, you can tell that I had a major dilemma on my hands. There are four double-windows in the bedroom, one in the closet, and one in the bathroom plus the bay window above the hot tub. If you add all of those up, that means that I would need 9 curtain rods, and 18 brackets. Curtains were a must, as we have neighbors that can see in the windows at night when the lights are on. Also, they make the room look nice!
So, looking online, I quickly figured out that it was going to cost me well over $200 dollars just for curtain rods, and I was actually looking at more like $300 for the style that I wanted.
Now, I'm a major DIY-er, so I immediately tried to come up with ideas as to how I could make this a cheap and fun project. So, I did some research and decided to make my own curtains AND brackets!
I took a trip to Lowes with my dad, and borrowed my sister's SUV, and we bought the supplies.
First, we went to the Electrical aisle, and took a look at the electrical conduit. It was going to work perfectly. Now, you have some options in size when buying conduit for your curtain rods. They come in 1/2", 3/4" and 1" diameters. I ended up choosing the 1", which is slightly more expensive, but would look better with the size of the grommets in the curtains I was eyeing.
Next, we went to the pipe-fittings aisle, and I got all the parts for the brackets. All I needed were conduit hooks (make sure you get the ones that are made for the diameter of conduit you chose). Lastly, was the hardware aisle, where I picked up some wing-nuts, some metal screws, and some "L" brackets. The "L" brackets should come with their own mounting screws. Make sure you keep those, because that's what you'll attach these to the wall with.
Once we got home, it was assembly time!
I started with the brackets. I got all my stuff together, and then got to work.
Each bracket will be made of one of each of the items listed above. So, I took one of each item from my supplies, and started putting them together.
Take the conduit hook and line up the screw hole on the flat part with one of the screw holes on the end of the "L" bracket. Put your screw through to hold them together.
Attach your wing-nut to the other side of the screw and start winding it up to tighten the screw around the two pieces.
You may want to use a pair of pliers to tighten the wing-nut as much as possible.
And that's that! One bracket down and now 17 to go! Really quick though!
Now, I'll show you the curtain rods. It makes it really easy to cut the pipe if you have the ability to anchor it down, so what D and I did was bring it outside, and lay it diagonally across two chairs, and then we each sat down on an end. We had measured out how long we needed the first part of the pipe to be for one of the windows, and I marked it with permanent marker. We took the conduit cutter, placed the blade on the mark, and started twisting around the pipe.
You can see how we stopped mid-cut so I could show you the indentation that the cutter was making. Depending on the brand, your cutter may tell you otherwise, but we tightened the blade after every rotation, and after less than two minutes, we had made our first clean cut.
After we made all the cuts, we brought the pipes upstairs, made marks on the wall where we wanted the brackets to be, and screwed them into the wall using two screws from the "L" bracket package. I took the curtains that I bought and hemmed, looped them onto the pipes, and then clipped our electrical conduit curtain rods into place.
These curtain rods will not have finials, as you may have noticed, but you can get creative and use just about anything as finials. We have plans to spray paint wooden balls and attach them to the end of ours, but you could also buy normal curtain finials and attach them, or even use grapevine balls, painted different colors (I actually plan to do this in another room in my house!).
And now for the final reveal!
Open curtains - with massive glare!
So, the grand total for this project. Ready? Less than $80! Yes! For real! I spent less than $80 on everything I needed for this project. Totally awesome, especially considering I had 9 curtain rods and 18 brackets to make!
Now, go out to your local hardware store and save yourself some money!
Ok, so you've seen the first floor and the second floor of our house. Now it's time to see the last part, the basement and the yard.
The basement was fully finished at one point, but as of right now, it is no longer. We purchased the house with knowledge that there were some mold issues in the basement because of a previous water issue, so we've had to do some work down there to get rid of the mold. The basement was high priority on our list when we first purchased the house, but it's kind of taken a back burner now.
But, here we go! Like I did with the rest of the house, here is a floor plan of the basement. I didn't have Microsoft Visio with me at the time, so I used Microsoft Word and made a legend at the bottom that explains what each thing is.
When you walk down the stairs to the basement from the hallway on the first floor, you come down into the open space in the basement. The area is really, really big, measuring at just about 700 square feet! There is an area closer to the utility room and there is also an area where there is a door that leads up a steep flight of stairs to the backyard.
Behind the stairs that go up to the main floor, there is a closet, which is really oddly shaped, but has a bookshelf in it, in addition to the deeper storage space that actually runs underneath the staircase.
You can see in the floor plan above that there is actually a bedroom down here too. The bedroom is a really good size, and just to give you an idea of it's placement, it is directly underneath the bigger bedroom on the first floor of the house. The bedroom even has a small walk-in closet, but the doors are currently removed for mold remediation. When the time comes, I'll paint them white to match the rest of the moulding and then hang them back up.
Through the doorway next to the shower stall is the laundry room, which is actually a really good size. There is a folding table and a space for the washer and dryer. There are no appliances in the pictures below, but you can see in the floor plan above where they are currently located. Eventually, we'd like to change the water line and electrical for the washer and dryer and get them closer to each other, but that's not absolutely necessary right now, so we're living with the current layout.
And that's it for the basement. So, we'll move onto the back yard. While the property is small, at just about 1/4 acre, it's the perfect size for us without being too much work. The backyard is so cute though.
First, the door from the basement looks like this. Please keep in mind that the house has been completely repainted now, and that these pictures are from before we closed on the property.
To the right of this picture is the small yard part of the backyard. The yard is completely fenced in, and has great arborvitaes along most of the fence for added privacy.
You can tell from the last picture that I was standing on the deck, so now I'll show you what that looks like. The deck is really cute. It's not that high off the ground, which I like, and it has a built-in bench that goes around on two sides for additional seating. I think for safety's sake, we're going to build a back for the bench, and then I'll make some outdoor cushions for comfort.
Now that the house is painted, we also have plans to paint the deck, as the two different shades of gray don't go together very well, and we want to brighten up the space a little bit.
When standing on the deck and looking straight ahead into the yard, we have a non-fruit producing pear tree, which is absolutely gorgeous. This picture also shows two of the three additional Poplar trees growing along the fence, but we had all three of them removed because not only were they breaking the fence, but they were so tall and hanging over our back-neighbor's house, and we didn't want that liability.
I can't wait to see this pear tree in bloom this Spring!
I know that I have shown you some pictures of the front of the house before, but these show off a bit more of the landscaping, which will all likely be changed in the Spring. There are a lot of shrubs right along the house and not only are they not very attractive, but they also are too close to the siding and are causing problems, so we'll be taking care of that soon too.
Some of these pictures were also taken before the house was painted and the roof was replaced, so please keep that in mind.
This next picture is of the kitchen addition and front porch by the driveway. You can really see how overgrown the bushes and shrubs are along this part of the house.
This next picture is of the corner of the original part of the house and the addition. Again, needs weeding badly, and some grooming overall.
I know that the stone on the house looks very brown, but it's not actually that brown. When you look closer, there is a lot of gray, and some dark purples too, which is why we decided to go with a darker gray paint color for the wood siding. I actually really love the stone facade.
And now for the front of the house. This first picture is before the painting and roof were done.
During.... Painting done, roofing not.
This concludes our house tour! What do you think? I am so glad that we decided to get the house painted and the roof redone. It makes it look so much better right off the bat. Now for all the other projects that we want to accomplish! The list never ends when you're a homeowner, right?!
Hear the stories and learn about the town's rich and varied heritage on visits to Tennant Creek's museums, galleries and important historical sites.
Tennant Creek and its surrounding region are rich with tales of Aboriginal culture and the more recent European settlement. Hear the stories and learn about the town’s heritage at museums, galleries and by touring important historical sites.
For thousands of years the Barkly area has been home to no less than nine Aboriginal groups, and the region boasts a number of sacred landmarks. Indigenous traditions and beliefs are held strongly in and around Tennant Creek and many Dreamtime stories are woven into its history.
When Explorer John McDouall Stuart first attempted to cross the continent in 1860 he named a creek in the area after one of the trip’s financiers, John Tennant. It was only ten years later that the Overland Telegraph was completed, opening lines of communication between Adelaide, Darwin and the rest of the world. The supporting telegraph stations still remain in Tennant Creek today and contain historical information on the town’s humble beginnings.
The Adelaide to Darwin train line would eventually follow the route of the telegraph line as well. This proved important when gold was discovered. The beginning of the last Australian goldrush, and the subsequent local goldfields would attract treasure hunters from all over the world to this once quiet outpost. The Battery Hill mine is now the site of a museum profiling life during the era and other artefacts relating to the town’s mining history.
Pick up a Historic Walk guide book available from the Tennant Creek Visitors Information Centre. Follow the self-guided walk around Tennant Creek through the town’s historical attractions to learn more about its heritage and founders.
The beautifully restored Barrow Creek Telegraph Station is located in Barrow Creek, set against the backdrop of the picturesque Forster ranges.
When asked by a fan on Twitter when Ava DuVernay would be wearing the director’s hat again for the hit series “Queen Sugar” the screenwriter revealed that she will not be directing episodes of the OWN series “for a while” in an attempt to make space for other women who wish to step into the role and take lead.
In 2017, the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film at San Diego State University released a study that revealed that the number of female directors has declined from 2015, with only 7 percent of the 250 top grossing films of 2016 being directed by women. This was a 2 percent decline from the previous year. The Center also found that women only made up 26 percent of television creators in roles like directing, writing, producing, and more; this is particularly bad because the same study also found that shows with at least one female creator had “higher percentages of female characters overall.” Essentially, more women behind the camera meant more women, written with nuance and complexity, in front of it.
Duvernay’s radical, post-diversity acts assume that perhaps the systems in place to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace have atrophied beyond what’s useful; and that – all things being equal – there are always ways to take matters into your own hands – to groom talent and handpick your replacements to ensure continuity of legacy … or a seat at the table.
The late Dr. Brenda Watts Jones was the first African-American president of Atlanta Technical College and she intentionally spoke life into who would become her successor – Dr. Alvetta Peterman Thomas. She was deliberate and intentional – specifically telling Thomas who was vice president of academic affairs prior to 2008 that she “would be president.” And the grooming ensued.
But not without groundwork – dissertation level preparation.
Thomas’ doctoral dissertation research was a qualitative case study of African-American women executive leaders in two-year colleges. Five African-American women directors of instruction from a two-year college system in the southeastern United States were interviewed to examine factors that contributed to their career succession experiences.
Of the three conclusions from the study findings, Thomas found that as an appendage to racism and sexism that’s evident throughout every facet of the career succession experience, said career succession experiences were leveraged by institutional and professional factors such as supervisory and institutional support for education and career development, mentoring, and restricted network opportunities. The impending leadership crisis presented an excellent opportunity to recruit and train the untapped human resource, African-American women, for future two-year college leadership.
Dr. Victoria Seals, who stepped into the role as president of Atlanta Technical College when Thomas became president of Southern Crescent Technical College added to the literature on women in leadership and women’s career development. Her dissertation work identified and described the dimensions of support necessary for women to be successful in attaining executive leadership positions in community and technical colleges. Of the components perceived as influential in the career development of women in community and technical college leadership: guidance by senior leadership, by far, top billed.
The quality of the successor is just as important as the foresight, preparation and definitions of success of the predecessor.
First the question, ‘What does it mean to be a successful company or organizational head?’ must be asked. When you consider the profile of a “successful company” you typically think of financial performance, annual growth, valuation, acquisitions, public perception and profitability. In order to have a complete picture of what it means to be successful CEO, you cannot leave out your successor. You could have done an excellent job as CEO, but if you leave and the company tanks, your tenure was not successful. The point of successful and intentional succession planning is to create systems and company cultures to outlast you. A very successful transition to a new leader has to be a part of the CEO’s thinking: Good onboarding, great tenure, strong successor.
Start by seeing who is ready within the organization and begin putting them in positions of impact and responsibility. This doesn’t just apply for internal colleagues. If the person isn’t already an employee, bring them in and get them working. Make them a senior level vice president, or bring them in on the board and get the board comfortable with your heir apparent.
Face time with the board of directors or an advisory body of consequence goes towards the end goal: To get someone, other than you, to organically come to the conclusion that your “pick” could be your successor without you necessarily spelling it out.
Unless it is a volatile ouster, the timeframe of the transition is dependent upon the company. A lengthy, but open and transparent process that floats conversations of impending transitions early quells uncertainty and insecurity.
For example, long before he died, Citizens Trust Bank’s longtime president James Young was sure to handpick and groom his successor – Cynthia Day. Day started working with Young to succeed him in 2005 when she became executive vice president of management services. Under Young’s guidance, she worked on all aspects of the bank including new product development and an acquisition strategy. Seven years later, in February 2012, she was named president.
In other cases, the power of intentional suggestion is the catalyst for grooming.
The push that she needed to continue came from Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua, current Superior Court Judge in Fulton County and former Solicitor General for DeKalb County.
And though she has not picked her successor yet having only been in the role for eight months to date, she is inspired by the pipeline of young lawyers she is developing around her.
Another potential obstacle – revealing to your respective industry your team MVP or your deep bench creates easy targets for competitive talent pool exposure and poaching.
But sometimes, you wind up the winner.
Case in point: Julie Dash who became the first African-American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film when she broke through racial and gender boundaries 26 years ago with her Sundance award-winning film “Daughters of the Dust” joined Spelman College this fall as a distinguished professor of fine arts; and too, joins Duvernay as one of the growing cohort of directors she has tapped to direct “Queen Sugar” this season as her replacements.
How Does the SIMPLE IRA Plan for Small Business Work?
After much anticipation (not excluding a few “do I really need to do this” moments) the day has arrived. Dîner en Blanc dream-like picnic in Kelowna was happening tonight. The event was conceived almost accidentally by a French (who else) aristocrat entertaining his friends at the Bois de Boulogne forest-like park in the 16th arrondissement in Paris. This popular park is a destination for many Parisians and guests to Monsieur Pasquier party were asked to dress in white to distinguish themselves from other park visitors. Who can party like the French with their joi de vivre? The event was so successful that a repeat party the next year attracted more than 1000 guests in white attire and the rest is history, still in the making.Since the original gathering in 1988 in the Bois de Boulonge, Dîner en Blanc has taken on an international theme and the elegant picnics are now held on every continent from Africa, North America, Asia, Australia, and of course the originating Europe. I must say that I was quite surprised to learn that South America does not have a Dîner en Blanc event yet. I would love to be there when they hold their first one. Now that would be a party.
The event evolved into an organized affair with rules and regulations that must be followed fairly strictly. As annoying as this can be at times, I concede that to achieve the visual impact that makes the elegant picnic what it is, the organizers must demand uniformity or lose the visual effect. Guests must of course dress all in pure white, not off-white, not winter white. It has to be true white, from hat to elegant footwear (no flip flops allowed). If you don’t comply, you may be refused admission. This sounds easy enough but it does not end here. Each guest must also provide all of their picnic accouterments, from white chairs, (yes), white table (aha), white carrying baskets containing white china, silverware, glassware and a three course meal. You must bring a white tablecloth to drape over your table, white candles, a white centerpiece and guests are encouraged to add an “over the top” element to their presentation (white wigs, feather boas, white masks, you name it, it was there). To even attend the dinner one must be “on the list” or be invited by someone who is. You are not on the list? don’t despair: there is tiered system that places you on certain levels of waiting lists with specific release dates to register for the event, space permitted. Since the effect comes from numbers, don’t worry, if you place your name on the waiting list you will get an opportunity to register and participate in the Dîner en Blanc if your city offers it.
I was invited to attend the glamourized picnic by my friend Valerie, a fellow blogger of the More than Burnt Toast fame. Val is a good sport and knows how to enjoy the moment and I knew she would be a good partner in the adventure and offset my “do I have to do that” nature:). We met at my house for coffee made in my new and shiny Nesspresso and served in my new checkered McKenzie-Childs cups to discuss the event, plan the menu and divide the responsibility for bringing the required items. Coffee turned into lunch as us foodies talked about everything from food to travel to food photography to cookbooks and dreams about future joint ventures of food and travel. That’s what happens when two foodies get together. At the end of the afternoon a menu was set, list created and off we went to organize ourselves for the upcoming event.
My list included finding and purchasing a white table of specific measurements (28-32 inches), a white tablecloth and white picnic baskets. Val was in charge of finding white chairs, and a centrepiece. In addition each would need white dishes for the dinner, wine and water glasses, cutlery, napkins, and whatever would make a beautiful table setting and be “reasonable” to carry to the picnic site.
Oh, yes, the picnic site. The location of the event is a top secret “undisclosed location” to be revealed to the white clad participants only at the very last moment on the bus taking you there (yes, you read right, on a bus). More on that later.
Finding the table (and chairs) was not as easy as it may sound. Val found a couple of white chairs at a rental company, one of the few that still had some items available. Tables were no where to be found . The few hundred participants descended on every available rental place in town and cleaned out the all things white (“oh, you are with the dinner in white thing, sorry, we are all out”). We should have started earlier. Eventually I found a table that fit the requirements at a Canadian Tire store in Vernon. It came in it’s own carrying case and apparently was easy to assemble.
Getting ready for the event became a focused undertaking and was also getting expensive. It only cost $30 to register for Dîner en Blanc (plus another $30 for the wine) but assembling the all white wardrobe and picnic must-haves was beginning to add up. Especially the way I do things.
The menu was the easy part. Val offered to make a salmon with cucumber sauce that eventually evolved into a gorgeous ballotine of salmon stuffed with crab and cream cheese. For dessert she was to make a panna cotta with roasted balsamic cherries. Can’t wait. My part was to bring a first course and a side dish to go with the salmon. A chilled soup (peas? Beets? Avocado-lime?) and a potato-vegetable salad in champagne vinaigrette were appealing to me and made the final cut. But we are not there yet.
Several runs to Home Sense, Chef’s Edge, Home Outfitter etc. yielded most of what I needed. I found two square white storage baskets that I thought could work as a picnic baskets and purchased two. A long white linen tablecloth, napkins, white salt and pepper shakers, large white cups to serve the chilled soup in, white ceramic milk bottle with caps to carry the chilled soup and a couple of smaller ones for cream for the soup and half and half for the coffee (yes, coffee too, we are foodies). I found a white thermos to be filled with coffee at the coffee house downstairs (decaf Americano for two). A couple of white ceramic dishes for the bread and cheese. Coffee cups. What else? Oh, white clothing. I will not get into the “I had so many before the fire”. This is done. So I had to find something new. As luck would have it I found something right across the street from where we live at Jigsaw Clothing. A white linen dress from Italy that was flowing enough to make me comfortable and a white scarf (gift from Jigsaw owner Tracy). White hat from the Bay and white Italian sandals eventually completed the ensemble. See? I can cooperate.
My part was simple to prepare but between the phone calls with the kids, a couple of errands, the usual household activities and calls with my gal-friends it took me all day. I shelled three bags of peas for the chilled pea soup, then added them to sautéeing leek together with fragrant mint leaves from my rooftop garden. A homemade vegetable stock linked everything together and the peas boiled happily for a short while before being puréed in a blender to a very smooth and silky consistency. Into a jar and into the fridge it went to chill for the dinner.
The potato-vegetable salad I could make with my eyes closed because it is a standard feature in my all-vegetarian kitchen. I steamed baby potatoes, then peeled and halved them and tossed while still warm with a champagne vinaigrette made with Dijon mustard and finely chopped shallots. I didn’t want to add any of the other vegetables yet because they can lose their green colour from the acid in the vinaigrette. I steamed the green beans, sliced a few radishes, ribboned a radicchio, trimmed a handful of pea shoots and shelled a few more peas, all to be added into the salad in due course.
I packed the white picnic “basket”, wrapping silverware in white linen napkins, nesting glasses in larger cups separated by more linen and tied white chiffon fabric “handle” over the basket to help me carry it in a little bit of “style”. Almost ready to leave.
Val came a little early dressed in white with white hat and jewelry looking fresh and in anticipation of a fun event. I quickly got dressed.
The camera and lenses went into a white nylon bag that I could carry on my back. The table in it’s own carrying container on the shoulder. The basket with the chiffon “handle” in my hand. You get the picture, and “elegant” is not the right word.
We settled everything in my Hummer, picked up the coffee at Blendz Coffee downstairs and a little extra cheese and grapes at Urban Fare and headed to the pick-up location where we were to board a bus (Oye) with all our paraphernalia and be transported to the as of yet secret “undisclosed location”. After traveling for half an hour in search of St. Paul’s Church we finally realized that it was a block from where we started. Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone. In spite of being 15 minutes late all the buses were still there and no one was boarding yet. We parked the car, schlepped all our items on our shoulders and headed for the adventure.
The bus was full with beautiful young people, energetic, exuberant and dressed to the hilt. Val and I definitely brought the average age up by a couple of decades (sorry Val). Ratio of women to men was high but still, a few men were there in white trousers and white linen shirts, some even in white suits (where did they find those?).
I won’t lie to you. Standing in the lineup, dragging the heavy items a couple of steps every few minutes and not seeing the end of it was getting me down. I should have had a wheeled carrier for all this stuff. I didn’t realize we’d have so long to walk. I tried to keep my thoughts to myself but still, occasionally I had to express some of it to Val who was in pretty good spirit in spite of the “hardship”. I told you we were a good match.

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