Tea for two.

Theres this cute little place tucked into the middle of young street in aurora called Bonsai Hill. They have over a hundred, carefully selected loose leaf teas from major tea producing regions of the world. Many of the teas are organic and fair trade products. Tea is served traditionally in-house and available for purchase so you can take it home too! Theres also coffee, homemade sandwiches, pastries...

& even traditional English afternoon tea, high tea and tea tastings made by reservations on sunday afternoons.  (ooh, fancy!)

The walls of BH are decorated with different types of vibrant original oriental artworks and gifts such as traditional Chinese brush paintings, Chinese folk paintings, paper cuts, bamboo carvings, handmade Yixing tea pots, 100% silk scarves, and some simple jewelry.

"At Bonsai Hill, you will enjoy nature, green, peace, and culture..." 

If you are in the area, I highly suggest giving this place a try. 

P.S Excuse the bad quality photos, they are from my blackberry! 

room to be creative

When I grow up (haha)... I will definitely have an entire room in my home dedicated to making crafts.



photo credits for last photo: 1. Martha Stewart 2. Pottery Barn
3. Country Living 4. Michaels
found the clipboard photo on google, forget exactly where its from?.... but Im almost positive that it is also from country living.  

DIY before/after

          

1. So after I soaked the wallpaper in hot water, then peeled it off slowly.... (caution: do not get excited it DOES NOT come off in one easy piece) you must go around and soak the wall again because you will notice that there are two layers to the wallpaper, the design and the brown paper backing. Although if you have the newer kinds of wallpaper you shouldn't have to do any of this...did you know they have 'peel and stick' nowadays?  so cool.

2. After you soak for the second time the backing will be more easily removed with a scraping tool. 

3. After that you want to go around the areas with an abrasive spongepad and remove any tiny little bits left over.

4. Then the first coat of paint, corners and edges first with a small dense-bristled brush. Then fill in the walls with a roller. repeat. 

I must say that I am so happy with it, the amount of natural light that bounces around in there now is so pretty. All I have to do now is hang up all my art, frames and mirrors, find a new duvet cover, a night table (currently my bedside lamp is resting on a pile of hardshell suitcases) and...thats it. I think.

The good thing about white is I can change the mood/tone of my room by switching up the colours of the other stuff thats in it (the art, bedspread, rugs etc.) and it is not as labour intensive & you can do it way more often. 

If I HAD to choose another colour (say, white didn't exist...haha)... my second choice would have been a muted yellow. yup, yellow. Think, Serena Vander-Woodsen  via Gossip girl. (below) Im pretty sure these pictures are older, I think in the new season her room is a little bit different but you get the idea. 

white.

For the new year, me and my sister are painting our rooms. We went to Benjamin Moore with no specific colours in mind. With the beautiful array of shades to choose from the options were endless. Leslie decided to go with a creamy baby pink "pink voille". Me being a design student, most would think I would walk away with some loud, extravagant hue. But! oh contraire!... I ended up walking away with a paint chip with a hue entitled "Simply White".  Some would argue that the 'starkness' of white will turn my room into a dentists office. But I disagree, It's...

symbolic. deep. inspiring.

no? 

new year. blank slate. new beginnings. WHITE.

a blank canvas.

its light, and airy.

will I regret this decision?.....

I think not.