EEEEK! Home decor & colour choices - I am decorlexic

Disaster DIY - Decorlexic 

I have lived in my little house for 12 years and have never done anything to it. Making decorating choices paralyzes me into non-action, forever stuck in the 90's. Motorcycle Man & I talk a good game to each other when it comes to decorating - ahem - or the lack of it. We aren't talking a little re-do here, we are talking the whole house - bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen, new windows, new exterior, EVERYTHING!!!! To me our house has been a thing about comfortable clutter and kitsch, nothing that would ever cause my house to be featured in a magazine. We watch all the house fixer-upper shows and wish we were friends with the Property Brothers or the Love It or List Crew, because then really we would have someone guiding us in making our tumbled wreck of a house into our haven, our nest, our sanctuary or plainly put the place we hang out. We have gone out looking at stuff and bought magazines and try to picture our house decorated and spiffed, but we always fall short & just go back to flipping the channels and saying, "Maybe next year..."

Someone recently asked me what is my style? Ummm I am not sure, I think this is why I can't figure out which directions to go in. Usually Motorcycle Man is a complete polar opposite to what I like. I seem to like warm rich colours and Motorcycle Man tends to be more subtle in colour choices.   We were looking at a style magazine today and were both drawn to a more contemporary style, but I think we are afraid to commit because we live in a 1946 house and kind of want to stick to the character of the house. Our daughter has taken things in hand with her bedroom and has decided on a two colour scheme design. At least someone is designing in the house!

We are so design challenged that we can't even pick a colour we both like for the exterior of the house. We have literally driven around Victoria on the motorcycle looking at houses to get paint inspiration, we came close a couple of times to seeing something we could both agree on. I suggested we draw our house out on paper and then take a handful of smarties toss them in the air and whatever lands on the picture is what we paint the house. Apparently Motorcycle Man doesn't share my sense of colour adventure or sense of colour humor.  Geez its just paint - Motorcycle Man subscribes to the school of thought that the colour choices you make speak about the type of person you are.  Its not like I am going to paint rainbow polka dots on the house or anything weird like flaming flamingo pink, but then again...never mind this type of thinking will just get me into more trouble in the decor/design world.

I am finding this whole process daunting because one choice leads to another on a dizzying list of possible design choices.  Picking the paint, flooring, tiles for backsplashes, type of tub, toilet (you would think picking a toilet would be easy, apparently not), fixtures and on and on and on.....OH MY!!! I wish the design fairy would just wave her little magic wand, toss some pixie dust and poof it would be done!!

Then there is the budget issue, it seems everything I pick is way too much $$$. Once I have picked something out & find out it is the top of the line I can't seem to find the almost second choice that I could be happy with. I've been told to pick a starting point, but I don't know where this is. I am a design disaster - sigh maybe I will go for a scooter ride instead......

June 15 WASN'T just the day the Canucks lost & there was a riot

I didn't put the true number of candles, if I did we would
have had a major fire and they don't allow that much
open flame without a permit......

The hearts inscription reads ~ Never drive faster than
your guardian angel can fly!  On the flip side 'Scooter Diva'

Scooter was ready for Canuck Celebration,
 but instead it was ready for my birthday celebration.

I have recovered from my Canuck induced depression and finally feel like writing a little blog post.  June 15th, may have been a bad day for hockey fans & the city of Vancouver, but for me it was my birthday.  In amongst the chaos of the evening and being glued to the television breaking news, we ate cake and opened presents.  I received pretty cool presents from my daughter and motorcycle man.  Motorcycle man told me to go buy the textile pants I want, only trouble is I haven't made up my mind.  My wonderful daughter gave me a guardian angel for my scoot and had it engraved, she also gave me a heart box with "best mom" on it.  I loved my little Tinkerbell cake it was just the right size and was so yummy!  

Vancouver June 15, 2011

I was born and raised in British Columbia and was a resident of Vancouver when I was a kid.  I have loved watching Canuck hockey since I was little and I am a Canuck fan and always will be.  Sure I would have loved it if the boys hoisted the cup yesterday, it would have topped off a stellar year.  But that didn't happen.  What did happen was as the Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson put it "A small band of hooligans" created chaos and mayhem.  There was an element in the crowd that was going to act this way no matter who won or lost, these folks were using it as an excuse to commit criminal acts. 

THOSE WHO DID THIS WERE NOT TRUE FANS.  True Fans are those who took their kids home early or the ones who stayed and showed appreciation to their Canuck team and the players of  the Boston Bruins who won the cup.  True fans are the people who left peacefully and went home.  Those who tried to stop the chaos only to be injured.  These are true fans. 

As a result of the actions of a small percentage of people, we may never see family events like fan zones again, which is such a pity and injustice to the true fan.  We lost a large part of our dignity and respect yesterday, and that is what I grieve as a  TRUE Vancouver Canuck fan. 

As a fan I want to apologize to the Vancouver Canucks team, you didn't deserve this and thank you for the fantastic year you gave us. 

I LOVE A PARADE!!! CRASHING BUCCANEER DAYS SCOOTER STYLE!

This weekend the Township of Esquimalt is holding their annual Buccaneer Days and Parade.  I was still feeling rather Euphoric over the Canuck win last night and the green & blue balloons were still on the scoot from my celebratory ride downtown.  I decided that the parade needed a little bit of Pink Mayhem (me) Canuck style and crashed the parade!  It was a lot of fun adding some Canuck-ness to the parade and people where cheering when they saw my scoot decked out in Canuck Blue.  It was a whole lot of fun!  Sometimes you just have to live in the moment and just do it!!!!!  Arrrrgh Mateys!

Thats me between the monster truck & car.

I have my playoff towel on the windshield ~ my scoot is Canuck Blue!

Just living in the moment!  It was so much fun!

Seat covers by Scootalong

Do you want your scooter to look posh, have flare and be chic?  Then you will want to check out this etsy.com store Scootalong Scooter Seat covers.  I purchased a fashionable zebra cover for my little vino. Scootalong's seat covers are wonderfully well made.  It just adds that extra zip and panache to my scoot.  Check out Scootalong's store and while you are there have a look around at other  unique & beautiful items on the other etsy.com stores such as this wonderfully scented soap by Orangethyme.  (Yup this is a shameless plug for my friend & I am happy to do it!)  **In Canada the Honda Metro is marketed as a Honda Jazz.

Lovely little bag by Scootalong & soap by Orangethyme on
etsy.com made the handmade soap.

Scoot Panache!  Zebra seat cover.

Magnificent Monday - My first 'real' scooter adventure!

You can't see it but I am gleefully grinning under my helmet.

Today was a 'ME' day.  I didn't tell ANYONE that I had today off.  I spent it selfishly and completely on ME!  Since I bought my beautiful scooter in January I have gone on short hops around downtown, Dallas road and the scenic ocean drive.  It sounds lovely and it is, but after you do it numerous times you want a little more.  The weather was spectacular and it made it the perfect day to escape on my scoot.  I decided I would go out towards the airport and hopefully to Sidney.  I wasn't exactly sure of my route, unfortunately I was born directionally impaired.  This sounds funny, but seriously when we moved to Victoria I landmarked by shopping centres.  The best part about Vancouver Island is if you keep going eventually you run into the ocean, so you can't really get too lost you just get a little wet. 

Today was a gift from Mother Nature, it was brilliantly sunny and the temperature was perfect.  Today was going to be a camera day and I was going to stop and take pics of anything that caught my interest.  Since becoming Princess Scooterpie I have developed this insatiable urge to be a shutterbug.  My route started off navigating rush hour traffic at 8:00 am and off to West Saanich road.   To get out to Sidney on a 50 cc scooter you have to stay off the highway and go back roads. While tootling down West Saanich I stopped at a quaint church. A little further down the road I stopped at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on Observatory Hill (not a very inventive name).  It was pretty cool because I can see the observatory dome from my office window on the other side of town.  Vixen climbed the hill through the forest brilliantly, no problems, no engine labour it was awesome!  There is something about the smell of the woods on a hot summer day, it takes me back to when I was a child.

After that I meandered down through Brentwood Bay and then onto Sidney where I played tourist, bought apple strudel from the Sidney Bakery(the best ever) and then headed back the way I came.  I stopped at the Brentwood Bay Ferry and a nice lady offered to take my picture.  I have never felt so completely relaxed and in the moment as I did today.  There was no stress and no pressure to be somewhere.  Today truly was a gift. I am thankful that I was able to enjoy the best of Vancouver Island. I ended my road trip at 2:38 pm and could have ridden forever.  I hope you enjoy my pics of my wanderings.  

One thing I will say about today is I am so glad I wear a full face helmet.  I was doing 60K down West Saanich road and a ginormous bee that was doing mach 1 smashed into my visor!  Sorry about that Mr. Bee - I wonder if he was practicing ATGATT.......

Dreamy summer Sunday!

Today was the perfect day to kick back and just relax with my family.  My dad paid us a surprise visit which was great!  I threw a picnic together and went off to the beach.  It was wonderful just to sit, soak up some vitamin D and just chill. Oh Mother Nature I have so missed your sunny demeanor these past months, please don't tease us with just 2 days, could we please have some more sun??? PLEASE!!!!  Motorcycle man drove the van with our daughter and two of her friends and I rode my scoot.  Poppa followed behind in his truck.  Afterwards we went to a Victoria institution the Beacon Drive-in and had ice cream, they have been slinging burgers, fries, corn dogs and soft ice cream since 1958.  I have told the kids if they are hungry they can fend for themselves and there are some banana blueberry pancakes left over from the morning.  Now if I could just get motorcycle man to get motivated to get the collector insurance plates for his bike we could go for a tootle.  Here are a couple of pics from this weekend.  

Look carefully at the pic.

Kites at Clover Point.  

Sail boats off Oak Bay

Orca Topiary downtown

This was my weekend!!!!  Now if only Mr. Sun would stay awhile and chase away the winter blues for a few months!

2 MORE - BRING IT HOME CANUCKS!!!!

GO CANUCKS GO!

BOOYAH!!!!!  THE BOYS DID IT!!!! 

I am still doing the happy dance!!! The dog is still hiding due to the noise I generated during the game.  She actually went family shopping and hung out at the neighbors for the rest of the game.  I rang my broken brass bell (see previous CANUCKS post)  I went for my celebratory scooter ride downtown, tooted my horn & waved like a crazy woman.  I was wearing my Canuck jersey overtop of my coat *even with hockey it was still ATGATT!   By the way Vixen is Canuck blue if you didn't know it.  (Yup I know its a cheesy excuse to go for a scooter ride on a beautiful summer night)

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of all the other fans in downtown Victoria, it was just too busy to pull over on Government Street to stop and take a pic.  When I got home from my Canuck euphoric fest of a scooter ride, motorcycle man took a pic of me in my jersey and the traumatized doggis sitting behind me.  I made it up to her by giving her extra cookies and took her for a walk.

JUST 2 MORE!!!!!!!!!!!
BRING HOME THE CUP!!!