It’s been a long time coming

I’m busy working on a couple of things at the moment: getting our home ready for the move, cleaning and packing, working on next week’s post about our new family room and dining room, and preping for a quick trip to Kingston to see some family.

Instead of cranking out some old, tired content, I thought I’d take a minute and share some snapshots in time of me while I was growing up, and how they relate to my journey as a home decor and DIY bloggers.

It was written in the stars!  I should have been in home decor and DIY from the get go. These memories are gems! Gems I tell you!

Let’s start with Easter dinner at my Gran’s when I was maybe three or four.  I’m a little girl full of sass, I sound like I smoke a pack a day, and by god I love chocolate.

My Gran, in all her infinite wisdom and etiquette, had set the table with a beautiful centrepiece of chocolate bunnies, eggs, baskets etc.

No one was allowed to have chocolate until dessert…even me, the only child at the table.

I barely made it through the appetizers before I was pleading with her “I need the chocolate. I want the chocolate. Please the chocolate.”

Gran was having none of this, and after telling my parents to deal with me (you read that right) I was sent upstairs to one of the guest rooms. K?

Well, not even 5 minutes up there and everyone at the main table started hearing the sound of furniture scraping on the floor.

One by one they come up to investigate.

Guess what I was doing? I was re-arranging the furniture of course! Each time someone came upstairs a different piece of furniture had been moved around.

Little 4 year old me was busy re-aranging the bed, the dresser, the desk and the side table instead of pinning for the chocolate centrepiece.

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Fast forward 5-6 years: I’m sitting in my bedroom planning another massive collage on my bedroom wall. Mind you, I’d convinced my parents to paint my walls lime green and keep all our encyclopedias in my bedroom.

I had images and posters in a gallery wall collage, perfectly cut-out from the pages of vogue, in-style, teen beat, collected from candy wrapper and girls’ life.

You can be sure I was using thick opaque tape to create seamless collages on binders, my wall, and anything else I could find.

Cute boys, pretty dresses and lots of beautiful people all perfectly laid-out. It’s like I was mastering Pinterest and gallery walls before they were even a thing!

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Growing-up, our family friends held wood working workshops for kids. You could host a birthday party, go make a craft, or just hang-out and learn how to use a hammer.

I love it there! I spent hours there, hanging-out, eating donuts behind the lumber stack, and building crooked birdhouses. I will always remember that place for the fun I had and the feeling of empowerment that comes from building something on your own.

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Jump forward 4 years ; I’m watching Trading Spaces marathons and judging alllllll of Heidi’s looks, because girl’…. no, just no.

HGTV was on just as much as YTV or MTV. I was soaking it all up before things like Pinterest were around. My mom never seemed to mind watching TV with me either, so we watched a lot of HGTV together before bed.

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Jump forward another 6 years and I had managed to convince my parents that my bedroom should be in the basement. In theory I had a HUGE walk-in closet, my bedroom, and a bathroom.

Granted, the basement was almost always somewhat moist, the ceilings were low, and it opened into the game room so my brothers and their friends were always there – it was hardly a feminine retreat.

Within two months of living down there I had DIYed the closet  like something out of the Devils Wears Prada with a table in the middle for all my jewelry and myriad of thrifted purses and bangles on chairs and funky hooks.

If there had been a fire down there you would have found one giant ball of melted plastic.

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While working at my first job in grade 12, one of my coworkers (male, 17) asked me “if the carpet match the drapes.” Let me be clear, I did not understand what he was really asking.

So, being the person I am responded “of course, my mother has a decorator,” and walked away.

THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! The carpet matches the drapes because my mother has a decorator.

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A couple of years into university and my residence room was cool and chaotic – a reflection of my life; party beads strung on door handles, piles of books next to my computer, sports trophies as doorstops, cleats and my gym bags littered everywhere.

Do you see what I see? A twilight poster. I haven’t always had stellar taste, it was downright questionable at times!

This was not the most home decor oriented time in my life, but I remember it fondly because I found a way to incorporate aspects of my sports life into my space without making it look completely like a gym locker.

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My first real apartment was in Kingston while I was doing my masters at RMC.

This was a great place: 2 bedrooms, two floors, 2 parking spaces, half bath and full kitchen, backyard all for 900$ within walking distance of Princess st. It had a horrendous layout and a sketchy neighbour who kept trying to break into my apartment.

I didn’t have the time or budget to do much with it though – I definitely did not have a kitchen or dining room table, but I did have a vacuum and a guest bed.

My home office was the most lived-in place in the house; I spent hours in there working, reading, watching Pretty Little Liars on my laptop and skypping with friends.

It’s almost like I was training myself for how to live in awkwardly/small spaces, with no money or time to do anything about it – perfect training for life in PMQs!

The rest is history – our first apartment together in Gagetown was referred to as “the hobbit hole,” and then our first PMQ, this current one, and now we’re onto the next one!

It’s been a long time coming, but home decor and transforming the spaces around me has been a part of who I am since the beginning. Hopefully this little jaunt down memory lane was enjoyable and gave you all some insight on where I came from. Remember, I’m self-taught and haven’t actually studied in home decor, it just comes naturally!

Do you have any cute stories from growing up? Ones where it shows a clear predilection for a talent you are now known for?