Check out a short interview about my company on their blog by clicking here.  You can also read about what other creative Albertans are doing locally and across Canada.

Thanks Alberta Street Team!!!

till next time,

m

Before

I rent, so painting the walls is out of the question.  My original bedroom decor, which was thrown together back in 2007 when I moved from Toronto to Ohio, had a lot of yellow and warm shades of green, taupe, and some turquoise.  I wanted the room to be warm and inviting and feminine, and I used contrasting textures, stripes, and florals.

After

Fast forward 4 years, and what was once warm and feminine was starting to feel stuffy and overbearing.  My room gets a lot of sunlight, and the warm colours made me feel so hot that sleeping in on weekends was near impossible.  Things looked cluttered and that made me feel anxious.  I wanted my new room to feel cool (both in temperature and street cred) and to have stronger colours, bolder patterns, and some functional touches.

Memories from San Fran! (this is the extent of my scrapbooking capabilities)

The middle of this overhaul happened to coincide with my trip to San Francisco with a dear friend and former roommate Tammy (check out her website here.) I couldn’t go all the way to San Fran and NOT visit Britex Fabrics, a Mecca of fabric shopping out west.  I made a deal with myself that I could buy some fabric there, but ONLY for use in my new bedroom, and ONLY enough to cover pillows.  This was supposed to be an exercise in using what I already owned, after all.  The brown ikat fabric on the throw pillows is what I ended up buying.  I love this fabric, and I loved that store.  They had a glass case full of vintage ribbons!  Do you realize how much self control it took for me not to fill my suitcase with vintage ribbons!?!?

San Francisco also yielded some unexpected treasures.  A vintage style alarm clock that actually needs winding to work, no batteries or electrical cord.  I think the ticking might annoy some people, but I actually find it helps me fall asleep rather quickly.  We found that gem for $5 at a second hand store.  

The ikat style throw at the foot of the bed is actually a table cloth, and I picked that up at Gypsy Honeymoon in the Mission area of San Fran.  This store is amazing.  It’s like Anthropologie and a turn of the century farmhouse in the south of France made sweet sweet love to each other, and 9 months later, out popped Gypsy Honeymoon.  If you like old antique-y things with a story to tell, you need to go there. 

My duvet cover and matching pillow cases were repurposed from a sheet set.  Right before moving and buying a bigger bed, I had bought these sheets at Urban Oufitters that I loved, but were now (supposedly) useless to me because they did not fit my new bed.  I cut them all up, and sewed them back together again, and a duvet cover and pillowcases were born.

The bed skirt is actually my original bedskirt, but I painted a huge herringbone pattern on it in a dark brown colour.  I wanted it to look like broad brush strokes, lighter in some places and more concentrated in others, so the look was clearly handmade, without crisp, perfect lines.  Instead of buying new bedsheets, I dyed mine grey.  They were in good shape still, just the wrong colour.  Much thanks to my friend Heather for letting me borrow her washing machine to dye the sheets, and for the margaritas we enjoyed waiting for the colour to take.

Grey curtains (also made from my fabric stash) replace the yellow ones

This amazing knotted picture frame is made from repurposed wood by a Calgarian named Grayson Schalin.  He makes all sorts of picture frames, birdhouses, and custom pieces out of wood he salvages from barns in Alberta.  He doesn’t have a website, but if you’re interested in his work you can email him at sschalin@shaw.ca.   The print inside the frame is by local photographer Amy Victoria Wakefield, she is often at artisan events around the city, but you can check out her website, here. 

In true Michelle style, I finished this bedroom makeover just in time to move to a new apartment at the end of the month.  So stay tuned for a follow-up post to see how my furniture and decor fits into the new place.  And if it doesn’t work out?  Guess I’ll just have to shop for more fabric.

Till next time,

m

I love the abstract circular pattern on this fabric, and the combination of black and brown together is really growing on me.  Same with brown and grey, but I’ll save that for my upcoming bedroom makeover post.

Till Next Time,

M

I need to give a huge thank you to Fela Dales for organizing a great shoot and taking amazing photos, check out her website here, and also to Trena Laine for doing an equally amazing job on the hair and makeup for the models.  Check out her blog here for great skin care advice and to see what kind of makeup wonders she can work for you. 

Last, but certainly not least, the models Irene and Drew were fantastic and really helped bring my vision to life.  Enjoy these candid photos I took on site, and very soon you will be able to see my new products and all the great photos that Fela took on my website. 

till next time,

M

The baby shower was a tea party theme, and it would not have been possible without the contributions of Danielle LeClair-Rakoz, the fabulous designer behind Red Whine Design, a local Calgary based business that makes handmade hats, fascinators and accessories.

Check out the etsy website, and be prepared to be amazed. She let me borrow enough fabulous hats and fascinators for all the guests to wear, and the results were AMAZING!

Everyone loved wearing the hats, as you will see in the following photos. If you’ve got an upcoming party, wedding, or if you just like reliving moments from the royal wedding, you should really look into buying one of these hats, they are superb!

Gillian is due at the end of July, and her and her husband Kasey have decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise, so I went with a green/blue/yellow theme that would be fairly neutral, and match the way they decorated the nursery.

Being the fabulous lady that she is, Gillian has a collection of mismatched tea cups that she inherited from her Grandmother, which fit the theme perfectly.

The menu consisted of some traditional tea party items, like cucumber mint sandwiches, 4 different kinds of tea, homemade sparkling ginger honey lemonade, and scones.

There were also some more modern takes on classics, like smoked salmon and Boursin bites, and curried chicken salad sandwiches.

The cake, a strawberry shortcake, was made by our friend and fabulous baker Ellen, and it was delicious!

The party favors were little gift bags with 4 different kinds of tea bags inside, and I made custom labels with little bird characters to replace the tags that normally come on individually wrapped tea bags.

I’m not into playing games at baby showers (No, I don’t want to guess the smell in that diaper), but I am into craft time, all the time, so for a little interactive fun I made a whole bunch of stuffed birds out of the coordinating fabrics that the decorations were made out of, leaving one seam open.

At the party, everyone got a slip of paper to write down a wish for the baby, and then we all tucked our slips of paper into each bird and handstitched the seam closed.

Then the birds were placed on a mobile frame I had constructed with wooden dowels and yellow ribbon. The final result was super adorable, and mom-to-be loved it! The original idea for this mobile, and the pattern for the bird came from the fabulous Spool Sewing website.

There were lots of fresh flowers around, including lilacs from Gillian and Kasey’s backyard.

Thankfully, the crazy Calgary weather cleared up enough for us to spend some time outside sipping tea in the garden!

In lieu of a gift registry, Gillian asked that everyone bring a book from their childhood, to build a little library for the baby, and as she opened the gifts, we all oohed and aahed over books that we loved as kids, or that some of the guests remembered reading to their children.

After the party clean up was all done, us non-pregnant grown-ups made mojitos and kicked back for a few minutes, after a successful day!

Lastly, I need to extend a huge THANK YOU to Heather, Ellen, Gina, and Jennett for helping with the clean up, and for being fabulous in general.

Till next time,

m

heartsmith rings photo from http://www.kielmead.com/jewelry.html

Stay tuned, after tomorrow I can post photos and blog about all the crafting I did for an upcoming tea party themed baby shower.  No lame shower games, just awesome DIY fun, don’t miss it.

Till next time,

m

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted something, the whole month of May was crazy/awesome.  Headed out to San Francisco for fun and inspiration scouting and shopping for the upcoming Boarding School fall/winter collection.  There will be lots of awesome fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks, so stay posted!

Here is another custom project for a customer.  It’s a fabric/leather contrast bag, and the coolest thing about this fabric is how there are so many different “neutral” colours, that it really can go with just about everything.  As much as I love a brightly coloured bag, sometimes a neutral really hits the spot.

In the next little bit I’ll be posting about bedroom makeovers, DIY baby shower projects, and all the cool stuff I saw in San Fran that I want to share.  Oh, and new bags.  Always new bags.

Till next time,

M

This client’s bag was clearly very well loved, but showing signs of dedicated years of use.  The leather (previously a vibrant red by the looks of the zipper tape and seam allowances that had not been exposed to the elements) was starting to fade in some places, and stain and darken in others.  In high stress areas around the zippers on the front of the bag it had torn, and been mended, but it looked like those mending stitches were getting ready to pop as well. The lining had already been replaced once before, and was looking ready to go again.

The vinyl piece of fabric that separated the pockets on the front of the bag from the rest of the bag was cracking and flaking in places.  Aside from those issues, the hardware was in good shape.  The zippers worked fine, the O rings were sturdy, and the magnetic clasp was in fine condition, so I was able to salvage most of the hardware and recycle it onto the new bag.

I did toss the tiny grommets and snaps on the strap however.  Once set, you can’t re-set these items of hardware, and I personally thought their scale was a little awkward in comparison to the rest of the bag.  The grommets were really small compared to the O rings that had to go through them, so I replaced them with 1/2″ grommets instead.  The strap was too thin in my opinion, so I made it a bit wider, and instead of those oversized snaps, I used permanent rivets.  I didn’t really understand the snaps, because if your bag was laden down with lots of stuff (as most women’s bags are) the snaps could disengage and everything could spill out onto the floor, which is never good.

On the interior, I used a fun lining fabric, which was reinforced to give it a bit of a longer lifespan.  I added a cellphone/keys pocket, and made the zippered concealed pocket a bit bigger. Instead of a vinyl fabric, I used a cotton/poly twill to separate the front pockets from the rest of the bag.  It is sturdy, and won’t crack or flake with time.

I love me a good before and after, so you can expect to see more on my blog in the future.  Sometimes they will be related to bags and the business, and sometimes they will just be for funsies.  I’m currently redecorating my bedroom, so look for that post in the future!

If you have a beloved bag that needs some TLC, shoot me an email and let’s see what we can do to revive it!

Till Next Time,

m

Brides…ahem…are you reading this?  What a thoughtful gift for your bridesmaids, sweet leather and fabric clutches for the big day!!! Call me!

I took some liberties with the lining fabric, cause boring lining are against my religion.  The only problem with picking beautiful fabrics to line my bags in, is that before cutting into the yardage, I always go through this totally selfish moment where in my head I’m thinking, “what sort of thing could I make for myself with this fabric instead?”  Don’t worry, most of the time it ends up as the lining I intended it to be…most of the time.

Till Next Time,

m

Like this post on design*sponge declares, custom is the new vintage.  Get your trend on.

Till Next Time,

M