Good Morning Everyone! This is going to be a short post today, as I was up late last night working on some homework for my colour theory class, and it was one am before I realized I hadn't written a post yet for the morning (nor had I managed to write my BlogPodium recap, but that's another issue).

Fiddle Leaf tree's have been pretty popular in the last year or so, and when Lindsay over at Little House Blog posted in February that Ikea sold them for $15 I headed out and bought one. I was happy with it for about a week, and then I realized that I may have a bit of a black thumb when it comes to plants. It hasn't really died, but it's no longer pretty - the leaves that have toughed it out have gone brown around the edges, but most have fallen off so my cute little tree now looks rather sad. I can't get rid of it though 'cause it's not TRULY dead.

You can see more of Keri Russell's home in Elle Decor.

Morning everyone! I don't know about you, but I can't believe we're at the start of another week already! I had a very busy weekend - I attended BlogPodium on Saturday, and had class all day Sunday which means I'm writing this at 2:30am - apologies in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

I have to say that my Saturday was amazing - I'm hoping to write-up a full post on my experience, and the wonderful bloggers I met, and the tonnes of stuff I learned, but for now I'll just say that the keynote speaker was the lovely Sarah Richardson (yes, that Sarah Richardson) which was a thrill in itself. Sunday's class was Kitchen Design. It's only a four-week course, but it runs from 10am to 5pm, so it makes for a long day. Yesterday's class was in a furniture showroom, and I have to say I never knew there were so many rules when it came to where everything in a kitchen is placed.

Today's Monday Morning Love post is a little different because I honestly didn't have the time to search the web for an inspiring and beautiful space - instead I went to my inbox. Because of this wee hobby of mine I am periodically sent media releases from companies promoting their new products. Ikea sent me an email about a week ago with some new products for October, and I thought I'd share - I think you'll understand why.

Will you be hoping to see any of the above in person? I know I'll be using the lamp as an excuse to go to Ikea next month (although I don't honestly need an excuse to go - the meatballs and icecream are usually enough inducement for me to go).

I've had some pretty good finds recently when shopping at my favorite stores - namely Value Village and the Salvation Army, and since I haven't done a Thrifty Thursday post in a while I thought I'd share a few things.

I must remember to ask mom and dad which recipes they use a lot and if I don't already have the book it comes from to keep a lookout for it.

What do you think of my finds? Would you have been tempted to bring them home?

If you've read my blog for a while you'll know of my deep and abiding love of the Eames dining chair with wooden legs, so I thought I'd share some lovely dining rooms all using the chair, but with hugely varying looks.

Now I need to let you in on a little secret I've been keeping. Last summer I was walking by my local Kitchen Stuff Plus and I spotted a replica version of the chair. I was so excited I even blogged about it, and asked your opinion on what I should do - buy the replicas, or keep my black dining chairs. The opinions were evenly split, and then my mom (who is a great sounding board for all my schemes) came down on the side of keeping my black spindle chairs. So keep them I did - for a few more months anyways.

In early spring I opened my email to discover Kitchen Stuff Plus was having a 25% off all furniture sale. Excuse me? (insert image of me mentally calculating while doing a happy dance). A savings of 25% times four dining chairs is practically one free chair! Now the sale was limited to only one item per day per customer, and I still had my black dining chairs, but Kitchen Stuff Plus has a rather amazing 30 day return policy. I therefore did what any other self-respecting lover of Eames style chairs, who also loves a sale, would do - I bought one chair a day over four days and schlepped them home (it's a 1k walk). At the same time I listed my black chairs for sale on Craigslist and Kijiji with the promise to myself that if they didn't sell within the 30 days the much-loved Eames dining chairs would be returned.
Within a few days my black chairs were sold for $200, and that meant my dream chairs were finally mine. For those of you keeping track the chairs were normally $67.49 each. When you subtract the 25% they were $50.62 each or $202.48 for four. My four black dining chairs cost $71.28, which means when you subtract the $200 I got from their sale on I got four of my dream chairs for just $74.
The moral of the story is eventually, if you're patient enough, and crafty enough you can get exactly what you want.

PS - Kitchen Stuff Plus has no idea that I'm writing this post - I got a good deal so I thought I'd share.
PPS - The KSP 25% off all furniture sale is on again though September 22nd.

Morning everyone! I hope you had an excellent weekend. Saturday was my company golf tournament, and I woke up to a torrential rain storm which continued though the morning and into the early afternoon. Thankfully the rain slowed down just as we teed off, and by the time we finished the first hole it stopped. I hadn't played since the tournament last year, but after a few rough holes I got a bit of my swing back and had a good game - I even won ladies closest to the pin. Despite the soggy conditions it ended up being a really good day.

Have you seen the new Guinness ad yet? I saw it for the first time last night and thought I'd share it with you - hope you like it as much as I do.

I've got a very busy week ahead with a heavy load at work, a condo board meeting and the first class of my new course - wish me luck in surviving it all with a tiny bit of my sanity intact.

I can't believe it's already September. Seriously - where did summer go? I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend. I've been trying to work on some painting projects, but some unfortunate hiccups has made finishing everything on my to-do list this weekend rather impossible. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen some of my setbacks. If I'm lucky I'll hopefully get a bit more accomplished today.

September, like most people I expect, always me think of back to school. It's been a rather depressing number of years since I've experienced the nervousness and excitement of the first day back at school after summer vacation, but I will be continuing with my Interior decorating courses this fall, so I suppose that means I'm heading back to school too.

When I return to class I'll be doing my homework on my dining room table, but I really wish I had a big house so I could have a designated office/work area.

Do you have a home office/work space or do you use another area of your home for homework, working on projects and paying bills like I do? If you don't have a work specific space do you wish you did?