Change Change Chaaaaange

Oh, hi reader! I wanted to give you a heads up that GGSS is going to undergo a teensy little transformation soon. It's possible you've noticed that for over a year, I've been posting 5 days a week. That's a lot of work. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely 100% completely totally head-over-heels love it. This blog started as a creative outlet and escape from my grad school life but has evolved into one of my favourite parts of the day. I seriously get so much fulfillment from this little corner of the internet and the feedback I get from all of you. But I also have a full-time (paying) job. And a boyfriend. And a family. And a social life. AND a burgeoning design career.  And life over here has been pretty awesome of late. Several new and exciting ventures have popped up and to be honest - there just isn't enough time in the day to do it all. (Who knew?!) So, I've decided to cut back a little. Instead of posting 5 days a week, I've decided to post only when I have something awesome and new and exciting to share. That means that one week, I may post 4 times and the next week only once. I promise I won't disappear though! I'm not going anywhere - I'm just going to ensure that the content I do share is the rich, real-life stuff. I may still pop in with a new favourite artist, a recap of some fun life event, or a mood board when the mood strikes - but most of my posts will be projects and home decor and real original photographical pin-able content. No half-assed posts here. Pinky swear.

So that's my little update! I apologize if you tuned in for something design-related and totally don't care about this change. I get it - but I know that there are a few people who expect daily posts and I didn't want anyone to worry! Things are good. SO so good. Thanks for being here through it all! xo

Just Another Mood Board Monday...

Click on mood board for individual sources.
Clare Caulfield's work can be found here.

Remnants

it's converse season!  /  scheming for an exciting new project  /

wedding plans at our alma mater with my bestie  /  someone forgot to tell mother nature it's spring #deadgrass

LINKS TO LOVE:

This place is VERY cool... but does it remind anyone else of a spruced up version of that Venezuelan high rise in Homeland? 

I will definitely be making use of Emily's bookshelf styling tips when we finally get our office bookshelf... (coming soon!)

Well, this is epic. 

This is definitely my kind of beach house.

Loved this GSD feature on Suzanne Hall of The Chalkboard Mag.

Five I Fancy

My initial obsession with Michelle Tavares' work came after spotting her gorgeous Frida Kahlo piece on the Etsy main page. From there, it was a head-first tumble into her beautiful watercolour prints. 

Here are five pieces I fancy from Michelle Tavares' Luna Reef:

1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5

A Whiter Shade of Pale

I feel like the last couple of weeks, all I do is post about art. I swear, I do have other projects on the go… just none I’m ready to share quite yet. So, in keeping with the current theme, I thought I’d share a little framing mishap. As you might have noticed yesterday (if you pay attention to details like me…) one of those mattes is DEFINITELY a different shade of white than the rest. I mean, it’s pretty much full-on cream. I know I may sound crazy, but it’s driving me NUTS. All of the other mattes are much cooler and this super warm cream matte totally sticks out.

I think I’m going to have to just suck it up and have another matte cut… which means I’m out $20. Not the most exorbitant expense or anything, but frustrating nonetheless, given that I just had that one made 2 weeks ago!

This is kind of a persistent problem with me. I feel relatively confident in many other areas of design and colour selection, but when it comes to picking the right white, or whites that complement each other, I always seem to get it wrong. Does anyone have any advice or tricks they use? I mean, maybe no one notices the discrepancy but me… but it makes me CRAZY.

*Please note that I am aware that this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of… well, everything. xo

Adventures in Framing

As mentioned here and here, I’ve been working on our dining room gallery wall. In addition to the pieces I’ve already shared, we also have two photographs I picked up from Wall Blank years ago (which used to be awesome but no longer exists in the same capacity), a print from The Black Apple, a small floral print from Ontario-artist, Janet Hill, a bun print from Elizabeth Mayville, and a piece by BC-artist Benjamin Chee Chee that belongs to the boyfriend. 

I’m still working on layout, using the method I shared here, but it will go on the wall in the dining room opposite my painted & stained dresser DIY.

I still need to pick up a frame for our Flight of the Ocean print. I brought a black one home, thinking I wanted to do all black frames. But that print looked TERRIBLE in a black frame... so I decided to do a variety of frames instead. I may spray a few of the existing frames gold to mix things up. We shall see!

I’m hoping to get the whole wall finished this weekend, so check back next week for an update!

Just Another Mood Board Monday...

Click on mood board for individual sources.

Remnants

almost bought one of these target poufs for our living room  /  did buy a new "leather" bomber

denim on denim #canadiantuxedo #notevensorry  /  jazzed it up with some sparkle

ran the mec citadel highlander race  /  switched desks at work to enjoy the spring sunshine

LINKS TO LOVE 

Love this very cool concrete paperweight DIY.

I can't believe this is an IKEA kitchen. Love the rustic industrial vibe.

Speaking of kitchens, I'll take any one of these adorable accessories, please!

Adore this floral romper.

And homemade mint iced coffee... Imma hafta try that.

Five I Fancy

These moody and slightly creepy paintings from Californian artist, Kai Samuel Davis, are some of my absolute favourites. 

Here are five pieces I fancy by Kai Samuel Davis:

1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5

Minted

Check it: two new additions to our dining room gallery wall. Last week, I lucked out and won The Sweet Escape’s Minted giveaway. You may remember Minted from this post on our holiday cards. I’m sure it comes as a surprise to no one but that credit didn’t last more than 12 hours. I knew immediately that I wanted to pick up a few new prints, given that I already have wayyyy too much stationery and I don’t need any greeting/holiday/thank you cards right now. After perusing their limited edition art prints and narrowing down my selection, I asked the boyfriend to weigh in and we ended up with these two beauties:

Flight of the Ocean by Sharon Rowan and Constellation by Annie Clark

Aren’t they stunning??? I can’t wait to get the whole wall up! 

Matted

Framed! At laaaast. I bought this adorable print from Kiki and Polly over a year ago and although I had it in my work office for awhile, it’s never been properly framed. I envisioned surrounding it with a huge white matte and a slim black frame – gallery style.

I finally got around to having DeSerres cut me a matte this past weekend (they’re lovely, btw – totally recommend) and I couldn’t be happier. I LOVE the impact the large white matte creates. I’m pretty pumped to add this to our soon-to-be dining room gallery wall – check back tomorrow to see what else I’ve got in the works.

P.S. I’d do a Five I Fancy on Kiki and Polly artist, Lisa Golightly, because I love her work so much, but I already featured the shop last year here. Check out her work – it’s gorgeous!

Just Another Mood Board Monday...

Click on image for individual sources.

Remnants

switched up our saturday morning routine  /  wedding planning google hangout sesh #sotechnology

the worst april fools' joke  /  flowers & patterns

LINKS TO LOVE: 

Jane is nearing the final stages of her bathroom reno and it looks PHENOM.

There have been so many great home tours shared lately. I would happily live here, here, here, or here.

I must do this.

This at-home teeth whitener looks intriguing… but I’m not sure about the 20-minute gargle….

Five I Fancy

Portland-based The Black Apple was the reason I discovered Etsy. Years (and years and years) ago, Nicole (of Making It Lovely) shared the source for a piece hanging on her wall, and I got sucked down the rabbit hole. Although I've yet to hang it in our house, I do have one print from Black Apple artist, Emily Winfield Martin, which will likely end up part of our dining room gallery wall.

Without further ado, here are five pieces I fancy by The Black Apple:

1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5

A Pot

After picking up a new plant last week, I was in need of another plant pot.  After some searching (see everything I found on Pinterest here), I settled on this awesome DIY from The Wedding Chicks.  I won’t run through the details here because they explain it beautifully already – but it was super easy!

I picked up all supplies at Michael’s – although I have to warn you that the adhesive and sealer in the Mona Lisa Gold Leaf starter kit were definitely past their prime. They had the consistency of a marshmallow. Seriously. If you want to try this yourself, I’d suggest picking up the individual containers of adhesive, sealant, and a package of gold leaf, so that you can ensure the consistency is right from the start. I didn't use the base coat or antiquing glaze anyway. 

I still need to transplant the plant into the pot but I’ve been waiting for a “nice” day so I can do it outside… Given that we just got another blast of sleet and snow, it may be awhile…

Please don't judge my poor sad fiddle leaf fig. To say we don't get a lot of light would be a massive understatement.

I Love Lamp

I spotted this lamp online months ago but I knew we were getting a Structube this Spring (it's in Dartmouth Crossing for you locals) and I wanted to check out the quality in person instead of ordering it online. They finally opened last week and our living room now has a new resident! 

(Well, almost... In the spirit of full disclosure, this is technically the floor model that I brought home to try; ours comes in next week)

We needed something with a super narrow profile because the space between the couch and wall is quite narrow. This lamp was ideal.

Plus, it has this great industrial vibe that's in keeping with the rest of the living room. And it was $89. Kinda hard to beat.