WINTER FUN: SNOWSHOEING!

On Saturday we went up to the North Shore mountains with a small group of friends to go snowshoeing. It was incredibly fun and the scenery was stunningly beautiful! The Dude and I were both asking ourselves why we don't do this more often. It's been almost two years since our last snowshoeing expedition.

We arrived at Mt. Seymour mid-morning before it got too crowded. The first trail we went on was pristine - we were the first ones there. So we reveled in hopping around on fresh powdery snow. I really enjoyed the trails at Mt. Seymour. They weren't too hard and the surroundings were drop dead gorgeous. It was unreal. At times I felt like I was on a movie set because it just looked other-wordly.

I'm not a fan of Vancouver winters, and as someone who struggles with Seasonal Affective Disorder this is not a pleasant place to be at this time of year. But I realized that the best way to beat the winter blues is to go out there and enjoy the season by getting into snowsports. So I'm going to try making snowshoeing a regular activity to help pass the winter in a more fun way. I can't help but be amazed that in a mere 45 minutes you can be in the beautiful wilderness enjoying all that it offers.

Do you like or dislike winter? What do you do to enjoy the season?

HOME DECOR INSPIRATION: NEUTRAL OR COLOURFUL?

These days I'm agonizing over which direction to take in regards to decorating our new place. I love neutral interiors but I also I adore the colourful boho/flea-market look. I'll probably end up doing something in the middle and making a hot mess of it.

Anthropologie is currently promoting a "Inspired by: Buenos Aires" style guide in their House & Home section, which definitely fits the colourful boho theme. It reminded me how much I love the way Argentineans decorate their homes. What's to love? Old world charm, cozy textiles, and pops of colours. Whenever I visit Buenos Aires, I'm always in awe of how it seems like it's frozen in time. Nearly everything (except various pockets of the city) looks outdated and worn down but in a way that's good, and even comforting. It's like I can return to my childhood with everything preserved and intact as it was back then. It all looks reassuringly familiar.

Here are a couple of Buenos Aires home interiors I find inspiring:

from Design*Sponge

from Design*Sponge

What makes the above two spaces work so well are that the rooms have good bones and they're huge! I mean, look at those airy, tall ceilings! In contrast, I live in a little box, so not sure if I can pull off these looks very well.

Now on to neutral spaces I find inspirational...

from The Brick House

from The Marion House Book

from Manhattan Nest

So I used to think that neutral meant cold, sterile spaces. But the examples above are far from that. They've got lots of warming elements like wooden furniture and structural details, natural textiles, and leather. The first example of neutral decor above is actually the waiting room of a hair salon, but I can seriously live in there! It's probably my favourite out of all the photos I've posted here.

I love both types of decor styles. I know for the bedroom I definitely want to go for a neutral, serene colour palette but for the living room I'm not sure yet. I'll probably want more colour and the way I'll do it is mainly via rugs and accessories since most of our furniture is either black, brown, or white. We have to cover at least 60% of the area in rugs because it's a building bylaw to protect the floors. So I might as well choose a bright rug that will liven up the space. This means I get to shop for rugs!

SHOP UPDATE: NEW LOWERCASE LETTERS!

I'm excited to introduce new lowercase letters in the LAX TO YVR shop!

For now lowercase letters are only available in letter b, letter c, letter g, and letter i. New ones will be coming soon! So far, letter g is my favourite lowercase letter - it simply looks elegant. The lowercase i definitely looks better than its uppercase counterpart, don't you think?

To celebrate I'm offering free shipping on everything in the shop until the end of February! Use coupon code FEB12 at checkout.

NEW APARTMENT TOUR

First, I have to say that we love, love, LOVE our new neighbourhood. We couldn't have asked for a better location. It's so central, and everything is a 15 minute walk away. Getting home from downtown last night was such a breeze: just one short bus ride away and lots of bus options.

Second, the pictures I'm sharing are the "Before" pictures. You can still see un-packed moving boxes in some of them. The place is all going to change over the course of the next year. The walls especially have to be re-painted.

The new place is slightly bigger than our previous apartment and has a way better floor plan. Unfortunately, it lacks a balcony, but we're getting used to it. The thing I love best is the kitchen - so much bigger, so much more storage! You can actually have two people in there.

Our current building is much older than our last place, so I'm trying to be mindful of this when I think about decorating. I want to acknowledge the unit's character in the choices I make. So who knows, the decor may end up looking a bit more conservative than I would like. Ideally, an all midcentury modern look would be best but no matter how much I love MCM I have to admit that it would be boring. Ultimately, I want the place to look and feel cozy. So expect to see more textiles!

BLACK AND WHITE BATHROOM INSPIRATION

We have moved in to our new place! All the boxes have been unpacked, and now I'm trying to figure out how to decorate our new digs.

The only room I'm certain about on how to decorate is the bathroom. Currently, it's an all-white bathroom, but I sense that it's supposed to be black and white. It's a nice change from the all-pink bathroom we had in our previous place!

Here are some black and white bathrooms I've collected from the great world wide web that I find inspirational.

from Houzz

from Design*Sponge

from The Marion House Book

from Houzz

Black and white is such a classy colour scheme. I don't think it'll ever go out of style. So far I've only managed to add a black and white bath rug and a black toilet brush to our bathroom. Things that still need to be done:

• Paint the walls above the white tiles black 
• Find black knobs for the sink cabinet 
• Find a black basket

I'm looking forward to the fact that the bathroom is going to be a quick and easy transformation. Instant gratification projects are the best!