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Happy Thanksgiving with Gratitude!

I can’t believe how fast 2012 is passing by.  And on this day of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to give out a few shout-outs of gratitude.

First and foremost, my beautiful family.  I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who supports me and 2 gorgeous glamour girls who make me so proud!!!

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Next, I am extremely grateful for all my clients – past, present and future – who allow me to wake up each day excited about another day of interior design.

And last but not least, I want to thank You – the reader of my little old Glam Blog.  To all my subscribers who receive my blog posts in their email inbox, thanks you so much for sticking with me and reading about my adventures and love of interior decor.  I really do appreciate you!!

And now, as promised, here are some pictures I took of my thanksgiving feast yesterday.  I was too exhausted last night to post them, so here they are.

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I “borrowed” the idea of using a mini pumpkin at each place setting and monogramming it with each guest’s initial. I think it turned out pretty good, although my calligraphy skills suck big time.

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We interrupt this program to introduce you to Harriett the Turkey.  She was absolutely divine!! (yes, we name our turkey each year) Winking smile

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Loved my fall inspired flowers centrepieces I bought at Longos

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And my centrepiece – boards from an old wine barrel filled with an assortment of gourds.

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I’m pretty confident my family had a great time and left with stuffed bellies. 

I hope you and your family also had a fantastic Thanksgiving whether your feast was yesterday or today!

Glamorously yours,

Christine xoxo

Inspiring Fall Tablescapes

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend, and once again I am looking forward to hosting 14 family members for a traditional thanksgiving turkey feast.

So of course, I’ve begun to think about decorating the table to ensure it is memorable and inviting.  Below are some fabulous fall inspired tablescapes that I found on Pinterest.

Thanksgiving Tables

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I normally use little place setting cards for each guest but I love the idea of using mini pumpkins instead so I may steal this idea for my table this year.

 

Thanksgiving Tables

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The use of ghost pumpkins (as I call them) is different and raises the glam factor for this table setting.

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Candles, pumpkins and a fancy cheese plate – what more could you ask for!! Oh yes…we are missing wine! In love

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If the weather is warm, why not host your thanksgiving feast outdoors.  Love that long wooden farm table.

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I couldn’t resist this shot showing a gorgeous mixture of real and silver mercury pumpkins sitting atop some straw/hay.

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So pretty….I am definitely adding a mini pumpkin on each place setting.

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I’m serving my homemade Butternut Squash soup tomorrow and these beautiful pumpkin-shaped soup bowls with the pumpkin soup terrine would have been perfect. Will have to check out Williams-Sonoma for these next year.

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Wish I had seen this picture before I headed to Springridge Farms this afternoon to pick up pumpkins and gourds.  I would have bought some straw or hay to tie around my napkins as a special effect.  Plus it would have looked great with the mini pumpkin on top of it.  Oh well, there is always next year!

All right, I think that is it.  I will take pictures of my Thanksgiving tablescape tomorrow before all my guest arrives and blog about it in the evening. 

If you are enjoying your thanksgiving feast with family and friends tomorrow, I wish you all the best.

Thanks for hanging out with me!!

With many thanks,

Christine xoxo

Happy Birthday Canada!!!

On July 1st, Canada, the wonderful country I live in will turn 144 years old!!

My good friends over at Indigo Books emailed me this great video…it’s less than 1 minute so you really should press play and watch it.  It gives you a great snapshot as to what makes this nation so great!!

 

 

Created by Indigo

 

Another great Canadian magazine Style at Home has some great Entertaining tips on hosting the ultimate Canadian celebration.

 

Canada Day party guide 

Need party tips?  Then click right here

10 Canada Day party ideas

 

Looking for something to wear this Canadian long weekend, then sign up with eLuxe, an online Canadian shopping destination!  And you will receive extra saving this weekend!! Bonus!!!

 

Spend and Save this Canada Day long weekend and get up to 30% off*! | eLUXE.ca

Hope you all have a happy, safe long weekend enjoying time with family and friends.  I’m heading up to the lake and will be celebrating with my Mommy Club for our 10 year anniversary!!  Time flies when you are having fun — our first born are all turning 10 in July!

Cheers to celebrating!!

Glamorously yours,

Christine xoxo

A Mom, two girls and tea!

Yesterday I got to spend the entire day with both my girls at their respective schools which was a perfect lead-in to this Mother’s Day weekend!

First I headed over to my youngest daughter’s Montessori school for their Mother’s Day Tea…with lots of singing and baked goodies.

Look at the pretty tissue-paper flowers that greeted the moms when we arrived!

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Then this fabulous group of children sang beautiful songs for their mommies.  Here is a snippet of one of the mother’s day themed songs:

Mya and her friends singing a song to all the mothers.

 

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We then enjoyed iced tea and baked treats that the kids had baked earlier in the week!  That mini carrot cupcake was so delish!!

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Mya then presented a drawing she made of the 2 of us.  And you’ll notice that the both of us are wearing crowns on our heads! She is definitely my little princess!

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And here is present #2: a stunning DIY art project!  I am absolutely floored by how fabulous this keepsake piece of artwork is.  And it is so easy to do.  Just glue the crayons to the top of a canvas, turn on the blow-dryer at high heat and watch the melted wax drip down the canvas board!!  And voila, you have a piece of original artwork!!

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Oh and look how amazing her printing is getting!!

Here we are enjoying some tea and baked goodies together. Look how proud she looks after giving me her precious mother’s day gifts!!

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After tea, I rushed down to the Medieval Times Castle in Toronto to volunteer at my oldest daughter’s Grade 4 class field trip!  Mackenzie and I had a great time watching all the cute Knights joust and sword-fight, while wearing our crowns and eating with our fingers!

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I am incredibly lucky to be the mom of these 2 precious little girls who I know love their mommy very much!  I’m looking forward to spending this weekend with my family – and getting a ton of kisses and hugs!

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My wish is that you too have a wonderful Mother’s day weekend filled with lots of love.  And if you are not a mom, then I hope you get to spend some valuable time with your own mom!!

 

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

 

Glamorously yours,

Christine xoxo

Christmas Rewind 2011

Wow….I can’t believe 2011 is almost over.  I shut down for a bit over the holidays to spend time with my husband and 2 daughters.  It’s not too often that the girls and I have our #1 man for a solid week….so I decided to just focus on the family!

But I did promise you a peak into my Christmas decor so here is “Christine’s Christmas Rewind”. We had a wonderful holiday with family and friends over on Christmas eve AND day!!   A bit crazy and hectic, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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My darling glamour girls in front of our white Glamour tree in the living room.

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Every year I purchase a few new ornaments for my white glamour tree.  This year my husband bought me this gorgeous chandelier with lots of bling from a Christmas Store.  Isn’t it gorgeous!!

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Another chandelier ornament I got this year…..and believe it or not, I got this one at Wal-Mart.  I love mixing high and low ornaments on my tree.

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My white tree is always a Blue/White & Silver theme with lots of birds and diamond crystal motifs.

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I haven’t been into tree toppers for the last few years and instead prefer to add fullness via decorations at the top.

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Another new chandelier ornament I picked up this year.

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Diamonds are always a girl’s’ best friend!!

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The four of us have personalized silver ornaments on the tree each year!

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This is my fireplace mantle in the living room….again all glamour with lots of sparkle!

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Don’t you love my ice crystals….they look like diamond chips or frozen ice chips on my mantle.

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This is my stunning 3-piece mosaic Christmas tree that greets visitors when they walk into the front foyer.  It can look blue or purple depending on the light.

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This is my console table in the foyer.  Unfortunately, my purple feather wreath fell off the mirror above so I just set it behind my purple decor boxes.

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If you look in the mirror you can see one of my 2’ foot Santa on the staircase landing.

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The girls love my miniature purple trees and of course, the purple Diva Deer (as we nicknamed her).  She oversees the family room purple tree!

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And here is our purple passion Christmas tree that resides in the family room!!

 

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And of course, we all have ornaments that reflect our personalities!   Yup, that fancy shoe is mine!  Winking smile

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A Mickey Mouse keepsake from one of our Disney March Break vacations.

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Our eldest is a budding equestrian.

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Our youngest is the dancer of the family.

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Butterflies, birds and peacock feathers is a common theme with our decor this year.

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I purchased a few fun ornaments like this chevron one and the polka-dot one below!! (sorry for the blurry shots)

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I chose orange and green accents to offset all the purple this year.

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I used lots of purple wrapping paper to pretty up the bottom of the tree.

 

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We hosted 15 guests on Christmas eve and had a seafood extravaganza of lobster, crab and jumbo shrimp.   Mmmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

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My husband is the cook and I set the table….one of my most favourite things to do when we are entertaining.

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This year all my guests took home this crystal diamond ornament used as a napkin ring.

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Place settings are also a must!

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One of my favourite traditions each holiday season is putting a cracker by each place setting.  Everyone wears their silly paper hats and each person has a chance to read out their funny joke to the table.  My holiday crackers are actually purple but they look blue in this picture.DSC06835

And then this is what we woke up to Christmas morning!l Open-mouthed smile

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Hope you too had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Thanks for hanging out while I did a not-so-quick Christmas rewind.

All the best heading into new year’s eve!!

Christine xoxo

 

 

All Photos: Decor by Christine

Decorate As You Dress: Pumpkin Orange!

So how do you like my pumpkin orange nail polish???  Perfect for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, don’t ya think?

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So in honour of everything to do with Thanksgiving, let’s take a peak on how to incorporate this gorgeous pumpkin orange into your home decor this season.

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All images via Pinterest

 

 

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Dabble Magazine & #What’s Trending!!

So, have you had a chance to soak up the latest issue of Dabble Magazine?  It’s chock full of exquisite interior design, food and travel

 

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In addition, there’s a fun little recap of the first ever Dabble Magazine Day on Cityline!!  Oh yea…who else do you see below?  It was my first time ever on Cityline and it was a total blast!!

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I also had a chance to talk about my favourite pattern….check it out below along with my fellow design contributors The Moggit Girls and Lisa Canning.

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But the most exciting thing for me in the latest issue of Dabble Magazine is my brand spanking new column called “#what’s trending” with a focus on what everyone is talking about in the design blogosphere and twitter.    Hope you enjoy reading all about this gorgeous and funky pattern called Chevron AKA the zig zag. 

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Hope you enjoyed a sneak peak into the latest issue of Dabble Magazine.  And don’t forget to subscribe for all the latest news on Dabble!!

If you want to know #what’s trending in home decor then contact me online or via twitter…I’d love to hear from you

Glamorously yours,

Christine xo

Cityline & Dabble Day: Tips on Styling an Étagère

WOW!  What a fantastic week it has been for me professionally and personally! 

1) The Dabble Magazine Day show on Cityline aired on Tuesday, July 12th!!

2) I had a group of great women join me for breakfast that morning with lots of champagne and OJ to watch and celebrate my debut on Cityline!

3)  I’ve had wonderful feedback and comments from many, many people on Facebook and Twitter!.  So thank you very much!

So if you didn’t get a chance to watch it live, then you can click on the link to see it via the Cityline website

Oh, and this really excited me also!!

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It may seem insignificant to some but it’s a big deal to me –  especially when you are trying to build up your business –-  my name and company name was on the website as a Guest Expert!!  Whooo Hooo!

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So just to quickly summarize the styling tips I shared in this segment:

· Think in layers when placing items on the bookshelf and in different heights (i.e.: glass bowls layered in front of the picture.)
· When selecting objects, be aware of the scale and color. Objects shouldn’t blend in or get lost on the shelves. Beware of adding too small decorative items that will just end up looking like clutter

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· Books are wonderful home accessories, so showcase the most beautiful ones in your collection.

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· You can arrange the books by size, subject and color. And don’t forget to place books horizontally as well as vertically – it adds a nice rhythmic pattern to the shelf

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· Most people love symmetry when styling their shelves….it provides some structure and balance to the room…especially if the rest of the room has more chaos – like kids toys, etc. – this can be accomplished through matching book ends
· When grouping objects together – just remember the basic rule of threes — objects tend to look better when gathered in odd numbers, like 3s or 5s

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· Adding objects such as shapely ceramics, decorative boxes, small sculptures, family photos and original artwork makes your bookcase more visually appealing and personal.

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And because I was so nervous I totally forgot this last point I wanted to mention which was:

· Don’t forget about the background of your shelf….in this case; the shelves are open so you can see the dramatic painted dark wall…which helps your decorative pieces stand out stand out.
· Or you can paint or wallpaper the back of bookshelves to add a pop of colour and really bring the shelf to life

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Well I hope you enjoyed watching this Cityline/Dabble Mag segment as much as I enjoyed taping it.  Have a lovely weekend!!  Cheers!

Christine  x0x0

Dabble Magazine, Cityline and ME!!

What are you doing tomorrow at 9am – that would be Tuesday, July 12th at 9am or if you prefer afternoons…than how about 2:00pm?

Why you ask?  Because one of my career aspirations is coming true tomorrow!!  I’m appearing in a design segment with other fabulous Food & Design contributors from Dabble Magazine on Cityline.

It’s an action packed hour with Kimberley Seldon  and her daughter Raleigh on stilts!!  yes, that’s right – stilts!!  Dabble Chef Corey James Burgan  prepares a Caesar Salad to die for and great tips for having a great picnic!

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In this photo: , Corey James Burgan, Raleigh Gilliam Seldon, Nicholas Rosaci (photos), Christine Da Costa (Erin Mercer

 

Dabble’s DIY guy AKA Mr. Chic-ster Nicolas shows everyone how to create a funky étagère

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And I get to provide tips on styling a modern informal étagère versus a formal more traditional étagère.

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Do not ask me what Tracy and I were laughing about after my segment….I swear to god it is all a blur to me right now.  When I watch the episode tomorrow it is going to be totally new to me also!!

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In this segment Nicholas and I were teamed against Kimberley and Tracy and Corey and Raleigh to see who could set up a picnic table the fastest.

 

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I won’t tell you which team won!!

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Then we showed Tracy what each of our favourite item was to bring to a picnic!!

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A great pic of Dabble contributors, Kimberley and Tracy

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End of the show Kimberley and I were all smiles!!

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Thanks so much to Kimberley for this great opportunity and to everyone at Cityline for making my first time on Cityline so much fun!

Hope you will be watching tomorrow!!

Christine xoxo

Dabble Magazine – 2nd Issue is Live!!

Hi Everyone, 

The 2nd issue of Dabble Magazine is live!! The latest issue focuses on Santa Monica, Kimberley Seldon’s hometown….so be sure to read the latest issue here

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And then of course, be sure to head over to page 32 and catch my latest Industry Profile with Jeffrey Herr, the Curator at Hollyhock House in Hollywood.  Hollyhock House was the very first project in Los Angeles that Frank Lloyd Wright designed — It’s quite fascinating!!

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Hope you are enjoying Dabble as much as I am and please share…..what do you like to dabble in??

 

If your home is craving some glamour, then contact me online or in person! I’d love to help!

Glamorously yours,

Christine xo

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