can somebody wake up spring?

it's been a really long winter, and i don't care if i sound canadian in my obsessive need to talk about just how awful it was. snow, ice, blizzards - we ran the gamut this year on everything terrible that winter can bring.

but now, hope is sorta starting to brew and i'll take it for what it is. almost spring. and we celebrated by buying new patio furniture. hope filled the air, cause our before was pretty boring.

we built everything on sunday, a bit of a bi-polar day switching from hot to cold solely dependant on whether the clouds were covering the sun. and we were excited, it wasn't done but the hard part was - picking out the right patio furniture. so, here it is:

we're now spending the next few weeks taking it from good to amazing, so stay tuned for new updates! more importantly though, cross your finger that summer comes, ASAP - cause the weather tonight in toronto was ominous..

i'm back!

This has officially been one of the busiest summers of my life. First off, starting a new job means that you're just busy busy busy playing catch up / pretending you know what you're doing. And that is for me, just exhausting.

On top of that though, Chris and I bought a new house! I know, I know, it certainly goes against the theme of the blog. But, after being given our notice by our current landlord (he needs the space - we were well behaved!) we decided to look into it.

check out the happy new home owners!

For us it came down to location - where to buy that wouldn't be too much house (and mortgage) for us, but would have a good resale potential should anything go wrong.

We found that in a small-ish 900sq foot townhouse in liberty village here in Toronto. The best part is we got it for a price we were very comfortable with and we can take our time making it our own over the next couple of years before we move on. Prepare yourselves for even more DIY and thrifty alternatives as we are even more dedicated to saving money - funny how a mortgage does that to you!

furniture revival continued

as you know i recently started buying, fixing up and reselling furniture. as a general rule, i focus on brass pieces. both because they're really beautiful and not that much work on the clean up.

here are a couple of my pieces - and be sure to click through to take a look in more detail.

Well, as a next step, I started finding that I was gravitating towards bigger furniture pieces, like this awesome settee:

But, it's not the most modern looking - and I thought, it can't be that difficult to recover it. Only, i have no skills in this department at all. meaning - it was time to find a course to invest in. and one that doesn't cost much money given the goal of the year. unfortunately that means the class is in Etobicoke, but its a third of the price of downtown! furtherly unfortunate, is that i'm on a wait list! but when it happens, and when i turn the above, into the below - i will be that much closer to my goal of no debt in 2013.

clean mexican night

i love Chipotle bowls - they are so delicious, but eating out is bad for two reasons with my changed lifestyle. 1) the bowls aren't clean - while delicious they are a "cheat night" event. 2) i shouldn't be eating out and spending that money - not when i can recreate something really quite similar at home.

and so, we put together mexican night! i recreated the Chipotle bowls, while my boyfriend created a burrito from the same ingredients.

Ingredients

- 1/2 an onion, chopped

- 1 red pepper, chopped

- 1lb stewing beef

- 1 tbsp cumin

- 1 tbsp chili powder

- 1 tbsp onion powder

- 4-5 garlic cloves

- 1 can black beans 

- 1 cup brown rice

- 1/2 cup chopped spinach

- Greek yogurt, salsa (no sugar added) and shredded (light) cheese for toppings

Recipe

- Heat up the olive oil, and fry the onion and red peppers until the onions start to brown and the red peppers soften

- Add the beef and spices to the onion and pepper mix

- Cook for about 5 more minutes, until the beef is cooked

At that point assemble the bowl or burrito, depending on what you'd like. And add your toppings.

it was a really nice break from the usual dinners of salmon or chicken and a healthier alternative to what i would have eaten out! let me know how it turns out for you. 

garden show groupon

i unsubscribed from groupons to prevent the urge to spend money, but i re-subscribe to one or two. i know i shouldn't have, but i really missed the emails in the morning! 

i am though being really strong, and haven't bought any up until one came through for the National Home Show. It was a two for one coupon, and was heavily promoted by Bryan Baeumler. and i am a HUGE fan of HGTV and specifically Bryan.

so, i bought it. and i planned on going with my parents and boyfriend on the friday that Bryan was going to be there. planning fail 1 - turns out i misread the calendar, and not until i was on the way to the show did i notice that in fact, it wasn't until the next week he'd be there.

i shook off the disappointment though, and headed in. planning fail 2 - my boyfriend was working a little late, and the ticket was for 2 person admittance, at the same time. luckily on this one, the security guard was really understanding and let us in separately.

we first of all tackled "Canada Blooms" which was a large room of individual floral and garden displays. i don't have a garden, but i did once work for a greenhouse, so i have great appreciation for flowers and gardens - it was great, some really beautiful things. my only true complaint was that it wasn't big enough and there weren't a ton of deals on flowers - which i was hoping for. take a look at some of the displays.

There were tulips everywhere, and in really great colour combinations. i love this tulip bed - it screams spring!

In addition to tulip, pussy willows were also everywhere. 

a really eye catching garden display - certainly beats a gnome!

not quite flowers, but these succulents still managed to be the most beautiful thing i saw at the show.

once we were done with Canada Blooms, we moved on to the actual home show. and i have to say i was really disappointed! i went with the wrong expectations, i definitely thought there would be more decorative and furniture stands - given we're not doing a big reno, i didn't find a ton that was helpful to me. 

the one thing though that i did find, and that i'm really excited about was Casalife. it's a furniture store in Liberty Village here in Toronto, and they have amazing stuff - what caught my eye at the show was a sputnik chandelier. but, for my budget friendly ears, i was the most excited when she told me of their upcoming warehouse sale. it takes place April 4 - 7 out on Brown's Line - and keep your eyes peeled here as we get closer to the date.

overall, i would have been disappointed if i had paid full price. but, it was a really great (relatively) cheap Friday night out and I had a good time.

hair disaster! DIY solution.

so my hair is FRIED. which i can only blame on over bleaching and use of heat stylers, pretty constantly. unfortunately as a reflection, my hair is falling out all over the place - well not falling out so much as snapping off.

which means i'm pretty desperate to find a solution before i lose all my hair. insert a DIY hair mask, with ingredients i had in my kitchen. oil is a great moisturizer and will help my dry and fried hair. egg has protein which when your hair is over processed it is in great need of.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

4 tables spoons of olive oil

Saran wrap

Mix the ingredients together, it will turn a light yellow and look a little fluffy when complete.

Once it's all mixed up, and ready to go, apply the mixture to dry hair, making sure to focus on the roots.  once all the mixture is in the hair, put your hair up in a top knot. i was really surprised, but the mixture doesn't drip and doesn't make the hair overly wet, nor sticky. it's actually a really perfect consistency for a hair mask.

once your hair is in a top knot, wrap your hair in saran wrap and leave on for 15 - 30 minutes.

 i left mine in for 30 minutes. when it was time to rinse it out, it was a little solid in my hair. easy to get out with a quick shampoo and conditioner to give the hair a little more moisture.

overall, the next morning i don't find it to be a miracle cure, but it is a little less awful - which given the state of my hair, is a great development! on the plus side, not being able to dye my hair will certainly help save me money in the long run.

let me know how it works for you - i certainly am curious to know how it works if you're not starting from such an awful place with your hair!

bye bye bar cart

ok, so i wasn't lying before when i said i had ignited a love affair with kijiji. and, after this morning, it has only got stronger. why you ask? and what could this possibly have to do with becoming debt free?

well, i love to vintage shop - spending a weekend antiquing is my idea of a good time, but i don't have the money or space to keep it all right now. so, i've opened an etsy store to resell my finds. check out Orange Cats Vintage.

as you'll see, i love brass pieces, i think they just add so much character and charm to a room. and my biggest sale to date was a recently purchased brass bar cart, that i cleaned up a little and resold for double what i paid for it! it's really interesting how when staged and with a little dusting how much better a product looks and how much more someone is willing to pay for it. it helps people to imagine what the piece could look like in their home.

the money i make from reselling these pieces will go to the debt, and make me that much closer to paying it off in its entirety.

here is the piece, once i had cleaned it up a little - the problem was saying goodbye in the end!