For several years now I've heard about the bi-annual Christie Antique Show, but always a week or two after the event. This year by chance I heard about it early and convinced  my boyfriend D that it would be something different to do early on a Saturday morning. I would have said bright, except the Toronto area has been experiencing nothing but rain for what seems like months. While it didn't rain while we were at the show, I do wish I had brought my rubber boots to combat the mud.

I went to the show primarily to see and do something new, but I also brought some cash in the off-chance I spotted something I just had to have. Much to my disappointment I didn't see anything I wanted (and could afford) so I had to come home with all my money. Boo.

I brought my camera along to take some pictures of all the great stuff I found, but when I looked at my photographic collection later I discovered that I'd taken pictures mostly of rather odd things on offer at the show. Here is a selection of the items you could have brought home with you had you been lucky enough to attend.

Having issues with your neighbours? You'll need this for your bomb shelter - $55:

Bring realism to your next game of  'Doctor':

It's been a while since I've posted anything even remotely related to my home - first I was sick, and then my trusty computer sputtered and died. My new computer finally arrived on Wednesday, but I spent the past few days doing absolutely nothing blog related - it turns out I missed the internet dreadfully when for two weeks I could only access it at home via my phone ( it's just not the same on a 3" screen).

Anyways, back to my bathroom. The second stage of the makeover has been the replacement of what I've been calling the 'bathroom bling' - the light fixture, and the sink faucet. Here's a reminder of the old fixtures:

Here is my choice for my new light fixture:

Not bad for $59.99 right?

And here is my new faucet:

I had hoped to perform this makeover miracle for under $300, but with the unexpected installation expense I'm now aiming for under $400.

BTW - while the handyman was installing the faucet I had him install water shutoff's on both the hot and cold lines under the sink, this way the next time (yeah right) I change the faucet I can do it myself.

My very good friend Anna is getting married in July and her wedding party, myself included, hosted a bridal shower in her honour this past weekend. I volunteered to create the wedding shower favours that each of the guests got to take home to commemorate the event.

In principle the idea is incredibly simple - in practice it took a bit more effort than I had planned. The original idea is not mine – I should mention I borrowed it from a baby shower I attended this past January and modified a little.

Start with a simple mason jar. I found mine at Dollarama.

Add a personalised label with the event details. I had originally created a round label for the top of the jars, but the file was unfortunately saved on my home computer which died the Sunday prior to the shower. This meant I had to start the labels from scratch. In hindsight, it's a  good thing my original design was lost – I like the new label design much better.

These are the labels I came up with:

I used a template I found here which was originally used for water bottles. The template is in PowerPoint which before last week I was only slightly familiar with. Through much trial and error I was able to create something I’m fairly proud of.  Unfortunately you can't tell from the picture above, but the nutritional information includes things like love, happiness. trust and laughter - all  at 100%.

I attached the labels to the jars using spray adhesive I had on hand. Regular white glue would work as well.

To fill the jars you need cookies, lots and lots of cookies. I ended up making close to 300.

I used a recipe for Almond Orange Shortbread that I found on the Martha Stewart website. The only change I made to the recipe was the baking method – in order to fit into the mason jars the cookies needed to be round, and less than 2” in diameter. I tried to find a cookie cutter of the appropriate diameter but failed miserably, so I rolled the dough into snakelike forms, and then simply cut the cookies into rounds. These cookies made my apartment smell divine for days.