These clocks at the Felt Store booth were neat

This antique copper bathtub In the Ikea Canada had to be one of the most photographed things at the show - with good reason - it's was stunning in person.

Ikea Canada impressed again with this display of grouped Hektar Pendants

This display of their paint colours by Farrow & Ball was really pretty

I really wanted to take this lovely gold flush mount light from Living Lighting on King home with me - I think it would look pretty in my foyer

There were some many wonderful things to look at, that it was hard to take it all in. Looking at the hashtag on Instagram later I saw lots of things I had somehow missed.

Did you guys go to the show this year? Did you go gaga for the copper tub like I did? What was your favourite booth?

Here are some of the great cards I’ve found. Click on the image to go to the site to download the cards.

Confetti Thank You Card by Thanks Lot

Bunting Thank You Card by 74 Lime Lane

Sequins Thank you Card by Love vs. Design

Bicycle Thank You Card by Thanks Lot

Flamingo Thank You Card By Creature Comforts

I’m crazy I know, buying yet another project before finishing (ahem – starting) so many other projects, but it’s an almost perfect match to my living room console, so I couldn’t not get it. Right? Plus it was only $40 (if you don't count the gas I needed to drive an hour each way to get it). It does need quite a bit of work, and while I’m normally a ‘wood should look like wood’ purist, this is a piece that may need to be painted given the many chips in the veneer, and the damaged foot. I also need to source some more chopsticks as this piece has got damaged trim - just like the console did. The hutch will go in my dining room so I’m trying to figure out if I do have to paint it what colour might work with the kitchen’s dark blue floor, and the piece's brass hardware. Once it’s finished will help add some needed storage to my dining room (and will replace my old dresser which is the next item to go into my January Cure outbox).

Anyways, the Junction flea was pretty neat with a wide variety of vendors and items for sale. I did bring home two things that I thought were pretty.

I bought both the vase and the bowl from the same vendor (wish I had remembered to get her name) for $40. I think the glass bowl looks a bit like an overturned iceberg. The white porcelain vase says ‘Kaiser – Germany’ on the bottom, but I couldn’t find a similar vase online to see if I got a good deal or not. It doesn’t really matter though as I’m happy with my purchases.
This weekends task for the January cure was to organise my kitchen, make myself a new recipe and buy myself flowers. I did buy myself flowers as you can see from the picture of my new vase above, but I completely failed at the other tasks. On a positive note I did continue with the outbox task and sold two furniture items on Kijiji, and made myself $80 which covered the cost of the hutch and the pretty flea market purchases.

My front Hall closet - before

I’m a BIG believer in using all the same hangers (preferably wood ones – Ikea sells packages for a good price, and so does Homesense) - this by default will make your closets look neater, so I was a bit dismayed to find some other types of hangers when I opened the door and really took a look.

Use hangers that are all the same - it makes a big difference

The wire hangers were the first items to get added to my outbox, and were quickly followed by a couple of jackets I no longer wear, an old purse, and a pair of winter boots (I had bought a new pair just before Christmas). While cleaning out the old purse I discovered this which I’d forgotten I had:

My front hall closet - organized

Next I moved a few steps over to get started on my linen closet. I opened the door, and then was completely and utterly overwhelmed. Take a look - see overwhelming (I can't believe I'm sharing my disaster with the world).
I decided to take the easy route and started on my actual linens. I pulled everything out and discovered I had an awful lot of sheets for a home with only 1 bed. I also discovered I had a whole selection of never opened new sheets and pillowcases at the bottom of the big pile. I ended up adding about half my old sheets to my outbox, so that section of my linen closet is looking a lot better. When I looked at the rest of my closet I lost my organizing mojo, so it will have to wait for another day.

Slightly more organized

The tasks for the weekend were three fold – I was to mop my floors, buy green cleaning products, and buy myself flowers. If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I don’t have any difficulty buying myself flowers so that task was easily completed. I was less successful with the other two. I only managed to mop three rooms – my living room, the kitchen and the bathroom – my bedroom and dining room currently have random piles of stuff everywhere that I need to find homes for, and I was too lazy to move them to mop.

4 days later and the flowers I bought for #januarycure still look good

A post shared by Michelle (@eamonnandjack) on Jan 10, 2013 at 6:37pm PST

The last task for the weekend was to buy new ‘green’ cleaning products. I already have cleaning products, and while they may not be ‘green’ I can’t see the point in buying new stuff until I need some – wouldn’t throwing out what I already have be just as bad for the environment as using it? Other than buying some toilet cleaner (because I needed it) I’m putting this task in the ‘not completed’ column. I will commit to buying green products from now on, so this task will eventually migrate over to the completed column.

The sellers photo

Are you guys doing the January cure? Are you having any success?

• Organise front hall closet
• Organise linen closet
• Change overhead light
• Add a rug

Bedroom

• Organise closet
• Add window coverings
• Get two matching bedside tables
• Paint the walls

Bathroom

• Organise medicine cabinet and under the sink
• Replace the shower curtain rings

Living room

• Organise the bookshelf and media cabinet
• Add more lighting
• Get some more storage
• Add window coverings
• Paint the walls

Kitchen

• Organise my cabinets – make better use of limited space
• Paint the ceiling
• Update the lighting
• Remove the weird (ugly) wall organiser

Dining Room

• Repair walls and paint
• Get more storage
• Add window coverings
• Change the overhead light

Its funny that when you only list 3-5 things per room the list seems rather manageable even though some of the things will be big jobs (I’m looking at you dining room walls). You probably noticed that the first thing for almost all the rooms is to organise. I’ve got so much stuff that isn't organised in any particular way (Er, I guess that  means it’s disorganised) that I can’t find anything (my tape measure for example).

Day 2 of @AptTherapy #januarycure complete #Iadded3thingsinsteadof1 #Imarebel

A post shared by Michelle (@eamonnandjack) on Jan 3, 2013 at 8:11pm PST

My blog underwent a couple of makeovers in 2012 starting with this post, but I have to say I’m quite pleased with it’s current look which I revealed in November.
And last but not least was my Almond Cream puffs. This post is a favorite not just for it’s a gastronomic delight, but the pictures make me drool, so I think my photography skills are improving.
So there you have it – my favorite posts from 2012, and no, it hasn’t escaped me that almost half of them are relating to food. I wonder what I’ll say were my favorites from 2013?