Friday, October 30, 2009

Introducing...

I LOVE cake pedestals. They are perfect for making everyday goodies like cookies and cupcakes feel like an extravagent indulgence, or they can look elegant just sitting on a counter top or table. I stack everything from skulls (only around Halloween, I promise!) to cloches to candles on them to create interesting vignettes around the house, not just in the kitchen.

Another thing I love? Antique china. The more worn the better, because hey that's what plates are for right? I love the idea of someone sitting down to regular dinners on such beautiful plates. Often these plates do not come in complete sets and acquiring a set would be very time consuming and expensive. Over the years I have collected various plates that I found charming and inspiring thinking "I will do something with them someday". Well, today is that day! I want to share them all with you.

Each antique plate and base have been hand chosen and assembled by me with love. Love of sharing, love of having a purpose, and love of creating.
I have MANY more to share over the coming weeks, and until WhiteBerry Reinvented.com has been adapted to add WhiteBerry Gateau please feel free to email me with any questions on diameter, size or make of any particular plates.

Platters are full blown dinner plates, and pedestals are smaller side plates. They look amazing all staggered across a sideboard, or you even stack a pedestal on a platter for a tiered cake plate.

Hope you love them as much as I do~








Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Exciting WhiteBerry Update

We are having a baby boom over here at WhiteBerry! This week I have been on a tight deadline for finishing several pieces going into 2 different nurseries (talk about a fun job, right?). So blogging has taken a back seat.

I have some exciting new items that I will be sharing with you tomorrow that will be added to WhiteBerry next week. And the best part? They can be shipped!!! Yes, that means that all you lovely non-Edmontonian readers who have emailed me about buying WhiteBerry items can now have your chance.

See you tomorrow~

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I rarely browse through our old posts. But while looking for a specific post for a reader today I stumbled across this post from back in November 2008, almost 1 year ago. If you go back and read the post you will see that this house was my inspiration for some time. Over the excitement of Wren's early arrival and the Holiday season I completely forgot about this inspiration! But it doesn't seem that my subconcious did...

While a different color, this style of chandelier is definitely more like my new one than my old crystal ones:


This one, too, looks faintly similar:

And these two orbs? Not even similar, but pretty much exact in shape to the ones I scooped up while shopping with Rebecca!!!
Funny how that seems to work out!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Sometimes all the little things feel like a bigger job than the big jobs! The floors upstairs were done months ago, but installing new baseboards, recessed lighting, closet doors and door plinths, as well as painting have taken a lot longer to get done. We are finally in the home stretch with the only jobs remaining being painting out the trim and doors and changing out the door knobs.
Oh yeah, and decorating!


A couple readers have asked "what are door plinths?", so here are a few close ups. They are basically just a different piece of trim for the bottom of door frames. We are currently installing these on the main floor so we have had to rip up some of our new baseboards to fit them (boo!).

I am soooo behind on updating WhiteBerry these days. Part of the reason has been that often items are spoken for before I even get to painting them! (if you are ever looking for something from Whiteberry always ask because I probably have it sitting in our garage waiting to be painted!)

This little nightstand was a treasure I had for about a week when a client of mine asked for something similar for her toddler's room. I also am excited to get working on an antique dresser she is dropping by today for her new arrival's room.

To add a little touch of whimsy we decided to wallpaper the sides of the shelf area.
(yet another small job peeking out)

And to all the Canadian readers out there, if you happen to be stopping by Rona anytime soon check the clearance home decor! I scooped up 5 of these pillows with white linen zippered cases for $5 each!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Smitten With A Sofa

On Thursday my Mom and I hit Costco (you may remember how important I am there) to pick up Halloween candy. After picking up treats for all the kids we decided to treat ourselves to a stop at HomeSense. We found this awesome book on clearance for $6 so we each picked one up. If a book was ever worth it's $6 price tag, this one was. It is filled with lovely images and great rooms. The image below is one of my favorites and is actually also on the cover. I have longed for a slipcovered antique sofa for years now and this one had me drooling all over the aisle.


Not being one to sit back and day dream (oh how I wish I could just make myself sit back sometimes...) I immediately set out on a craigslist search for a similar sofa.

Ta da! This is my new find:

We pick her up on Monday night (freaky how similar their floors are though, it almost looks like it is home already~). I am in the midst of emailing my beloved seamstress Kim to get her to give me a quote on a scrumptious crinkled cover like the one pictured and I can already envision this beauty in our master bedroom or perhaps replacing our current sofa in the living room for a fun change.
All I know is that I am already picking out paint for the legs~
*a quick shout out to GillarGirl who has one of my favorite, not to mention one of the most beautiful blogs I read. She was so generous to feature our blog on hers this week and not only are her home and blogs huge inspirations but she has an awesome style. I love the way she colors and enlarges her first few words each post and thought I would give it a try too~

Friday, October 23, 2009

Changed my mind...

I loved the new chairs, but decided on Wednesday that the old upholstered chairs fit better with my dreamy new wingbacks. It actually works well, because the new chairs look really good around the kitchen pedestal table. The one thing I have not been able to find and be happy with is a new area rug. I did see a cool teal and cream one the other day but just could not commit to it... so the hunt continues.



The other thing I have not yet done, but am dying to see finished is my marine biology prints. I haven't even chosen a frame style so I have to get on it!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

New Old Chandelier

This is the chandelier I picked up at the Architectural Clearinghouse (check it out if you are in the Edmonton area!) for $15. It was in great condition, worked well but just felt dated.


A coat of grey paint and aged with a brown glaze made my new chandelier feel delightfully old. It just seems to fit with the room much better.

The other bonus was that our new chandelier has 12 40watt bulbs, which give us a total of 480 watts while our last one only had 6 25watt bulbs for a total of 150. This makes a HUGE difference, especially because the ceilings are so high.

Monday, October 19, 2009

New Look

You can see from all my projects how often things get moved and rearranged around our house. Nothing stays the same for long. So it is kind of funny that our blog header was actually older than most of our furniture!

I like to change it up once in a while I think it is time for something a little more fun (I think it suites our name better)~

Oh yeah, and doesn't it kind of resemble my "French" mirror???

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The perfect V-neck

Today Wren and I hit the mall for a few hours to do some Fall shopping. Usually I don't post too much fashion stuff here, mainly because I have a closet full of clothes, many barely worn and therefore I really have not had an excuse to do much more shopping over the last year.

About 2 weeks ago we woke up to 2 inches of snow (gross, huh?) when it hit me that I have barely any fall clothes! Last year I was 7 months pregnant and obviously did not buy anything worth wearing again and the year before that was our wedding and I thought spending my fall clothing budget on warm weather honeymoon clothes was a much better idea.

So I had about 4 cashmere Aritzia and Juicy sweaters to my name and absolutely no shirts... until today.

Abercrombie currently has a great 4o% off sale on all their sweaters so I scooped up some warm and cozy wool cardigans, but my absolute favorite purchase today was this shirt:


The drape and fit is unbelievable! It is roomy and comfy but has a low v-neck to give it a little something sexy. Head to your closest mall and try one on! You will fall in love too~

Antique Mirrored Dresser

This adorable dresser had been painted by the previous owner, however it was not a smooth, finished surface. So I had to completely stripe this back down to it's original dark stain.

In progress:


To give it just a little but of character I gently just wore the corners and edges down. Nothing too dramatic. Aren't the old castor feet cute? That is my favorite thing about this dresser.

One thing that adds so much charm is the old mirror. It is smoky in areas and has lost some of the reflective-ness in little spots over the mirror.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Wren's first Thanksgiving and a Halloween Festival

We have had such a wonderful couple of weeks, and of course we have millions of pictures (primarily of Wren) documenting Wren's first Thanksgiving as well as a trip to the local Scarecrow Festival.
One of the highlights was Sean's Grandpa coming to visit. Wren was all smiles while getting to know her Great-Grandfather. The last time they met she was only 3 days old so it was nice to see him again and get some pictures.

The other highlight (for Wren anyways...) was discovering my mom's tupperware drawer!

It didn't take long for the entire drawer to be emptied onto the floor. Too bad she is too young to help clean up!

She always loves playing at Grandma's house because besides the tupperware she also has a pretty fun mailbox that Wren is crazy about.


Checking for new mail


This morning we went to the local Scarecrow Festival which is a wonderful event for families and children to raise money for various charities. Since it is indoors there is no worries about the weather and it is nice and warm for the kids.

Wren and her dad at a spooky graveyard

Checking out some pumpkins decorated by local school kids

I have to send a HUGE thank you to my friend Rebecca and her PlumeAria designs. She custom designed the spoooooky raven feather and black rose headband for me specifically for this day and a birthday party Wren and I are attending on Halloween. It was just amazing and got so much attention that Wren and I are going to be in the local newspaper as well as on the nightly news (talk about good publicity!).




In case you couldn't really tell, Wren is a Lobster this year~



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Italian Chandelier Love

As much as I love shiny, sparkly crystal chandeliers (ooooh how I love crystal chandeliers!) I have always had a soft spot for the wire-y, curly lines of antique Italian chandeliers like the ones below:


(both photos courtesy of Cote de Texas)
I made a really awesome find today at my local architectural salvage yard when I spotted a light fixture that has all the right lines, but definitely not the right colors. It is a beautiful 12 armed Italian chandelier that had been removed from a home that must have had a big appreciation for the entire box of crayons! I have some painting to do, but I can't wait to share my $15 Italian chandelier VERY soon~

Friday, October 9, 2009

New Slipcovers and Dining Room Set

Remember these $20 craigslist chairs?



Well I finally got my new custom made slipcovers today and I am pretty much floating on air with excitement!!! I found a WONDERFUL local seamstress who surpassed even my high expectations. She is so awesome that I am already trying to decide which chairs will be next to be slipcovered or reupholstered, not to mention that I have shared her info with all my friends and family who are also excited to start sending things her way. Maybe I should have waited a little longer before sharing her because now I am afraid she will be too high in demand to work with me again LOL. She is that fantastic! (Hi Kim!).

I still have to steam them, but I just couldn't wait to share!!!





I just love all the details on this table. They are just so sweet and charming.



I found this teacup saucer at the Salvation Army last week and I immediately fell in love~ The pattern and colors are just so inspiring to me so I have been hunting on ebay for more of them. I have no idea what I will do with them, but I am sure I will think of something.





I hope that everyone has a great weekend, and a Happy Thanksgiving long weekend to all my fellow Canadians!
 
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