Great School Designs

I totally agree with the premise of this article from WebUrbanist: “there’s no reason for school buildings to be bland, boring boxes.”

The article compiled a list of the fifteen best school designs in the entire world, and these two are definitely my favourites:

The Ørestad High School in Copenhagen looks NOTHING like my old high school. The interior is like a huge playground – it has swirly staircases, platforms, huge orange pillows, and glass shades that rotate with the sun.

From: http://conceptrends.com/2008/04/03/the-school-of-the-future/

The School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has the most amazing green roof I’ve ever seen – it’s HUGE, covering a span of five stories. Apparently the roof also works for insulation and conserving rainwater.

From: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/23/amazing-green-roof-art-school-in-singapore/

What are the best buildings at York? Well…

1) Glendon Manor would probably be the first building I’d put on the list. It was originally a mansion built by financier E.R. Woods, and was donated to York in 1960. It sits right in the middle of 85 acres of parkland and has its own rose garden. It was featured in Canadian Homes & Gardens when it was built in 1926, and the whole style is a lovely mishmash of Italian Renaissance and British baronial, according to the manor’s website.

2) Vari Hall won the North York Design of Excellence when it was built in 1992, and it’s easy to see why. It broke up the Ross Building’s massive, concrete dominance over the campus landscape, and softened the look of the commons as well. It’s a student hub, connecting a lot of the major arteries of the university and serving as a student hang out, meeting point and occasional protest site.

3) I’m actually not a huge fan of the newer buildings on campus like Accolade or the TEL building – they just feel too huge for my taste. I much prefer the Vanier-Winters-McLaughlin complex – all three colleges are connected by corridors and tunnels, and have this strange zig-zaggy trajectory you have to follow to travel between them. I’ve gotten lost somewhere between the three buildings more times than I can remember, but it has a smaller, more old-fashioned appeal that makes it feel like a friendly place to be (all of the buildings pretty much look the same way they did in the 60’s). I can’t find any photos of the interior of the buildings, so you’ll have to go there yourself to see what I mean.

Bloggers in New York!

Well, enough of my bloggy friends have posted their pictures now, so I can finally steal their pics and share my post about our whirlwind NYC trip as well! ;)

I was there for less than 48 hours, but crammed a crazy amount into that time. The evening I arrived, I joined the group of bloggers at the Rue Magazine launch party – it was held at Atelier in the New York Design Center, and I must admit, us DIYers were looking around at the fabulous decor and pointing to things we could totally do on our own:

Doesn’t that look familiar? ;)

I was thrilled to finally meet the infamous Eddie Ross and Jaithan:

(Left to right, Jaithan, me, Rhoda, Eddie, Camila, Marianne and Cristin.)

I was SO excited to finally meet Camila – she is a doll and she worked so hard on pulling so much of the week’s activities together for us!

Many of the Design Star contestants were at the party, and I grabbed a quick shot with Michael:

I have to say – I felt so incredibly out of place at this party! OH my goodness. I’m a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, and you pair that with having just traveled for five hours, and I just felt SO…thrifty.  ;)

The next day was pretty much dedicated to The Nate Show – but we started out by meeting up with Beth and her friend Kathleen, and were able to take a quick walk over to the beautiful Central Park:

 

Rhoda, Beth and I were perfectly color coordinated!:

Beth was absolutely as sweet as can be – and just like every blogger I meet that I “know” through blogland, I felt like I had known her forever! There are no awkward moments, just immediate friendship!

I LOVE BLOGGERS. :)

Speaking of bloggers I love, we met Megan from Modern Bird before the show:

Um, she is hilarious and FUN! I knew she would be.

I was looking forward to meeting Janell all week!:

I finally met up with her in line before the show and yet again, we felt like instant friends! And did you hear? She taped a segment on the show! With NATE! I’m so thrilled for her – she is such a lovely person and an incredible designer.

The photo shoots continued outside with Lakeitha and Erika:

How cute are they? How is it possible that every. single. blogger there was that gorgeous?

We didn’t have to wait in line for long outside before we were ushered in…but then the real wait started. ;) We waited for about two hours in separate rooms, so everybody was scattered. The staff was SO friendly and kept checking in with us over that time. I was impressed with their patience with us and their professionalism.

Our room was finally ushered into the studio, and Rhoda and I were bummed that we were quite literally some of the last few into the room -- which translated to what were probably the worst seats possible. :)

It ended up being OK, because, of course, the cameras are everywhere, and at one point or another I think everyone ended up watching the big screens above so they could see what was going on.

You may have seen that some bloggers were less than happy with The Nate Show producers and the fact that us, the bloggers, were never mentioned on air. I have to tell you that I never even thought about that – in between segments, Nate thanked us in general and those who had helped to promote his new show numerous times. He was obviously very grateful.

I guess it never crossed my mind that he would say anything about us on air. I mean, the producers did ask us to send in some of our projects, so I wondered if they would highlight some of those, but overall I never expected us to get a shout out.

I found him to be sweet and engaging, and after the show he took time to answer questions from many of the bloggers in the audience. He mentioned that he never does that, so it was a lovely gesture on his part:

Before the trip, I was obviously excited to go to the taping, but the real reason I was so looking forward to going to NYC was to meet and spend time with my blog friends – who are now women I consider friends in real life. The Nate Show was just an exciting extra of the trip!

And seriously – is he not the CUTEST?? Really.

After the show we stopped for some New York pizza:

(My friend Kate and I, deciding between cheese pizza and extra cheese pizza. ;) )

Then walked through Times Square to a subway station:

Darn it, we didn’t see ONE rat!! I was hoping Rhoda would get to see one. ;)

After a very quick stop in at a party sponsored by The Nest, we headed to Little Italy for some dinner, and then a bunch of us went to check out the view at the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center:

My new and old blog friends: Cristin, me, Kate, Rhoda and Janell.
We had a blast!

I have to give an extra special shout out to Rhoda, for inviting me along with her – she is amazing and a blast to hang out with. And my roomies Emily Clark and her friend Katie (I can’t believe we didn’t get a picture together!) were the cutest and sweetest. Between the three of them I was surrounded by southern accents for days and I was all “y’all this” and “y’all that” when I got home.  ;)

I cannot stress what a blessing blogging has been in my life. I have met so many fantastic, strong, smart women. I have had some amazing opportunities because of this blog. And I am ever thankful and overwhelmed by all of it.

P.S. We have no idea when our episode airs -- we were told to watch online, so I’ll keep my eye out and let you know! :)

Pretty Find

I'm loving this circa 1950 Chinoiserie ginger jar I found recently.  We've been busy photographing our finds for the new Pure Syle Home store and I'm bittersweet as usual about it.  {It's really pathetic...  Although I'm so excited that the store is about to open, I'm also strangely attached to the items we're selling.} 

I know it's weird & I'm sure I'll get over it soon enough, but I definitely love me some "stuff."  How about you??

Have a beautiful weekend & enjoy the weather!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Master bedroom redo: Part one

I know I promised a post about the NYC trip today, but I’m waiting on everyone else to post about it so I can copy all their pictures. ;) That’s how I roll.

So…you may or may not remember my post a couple of months ago about our bed, and why it made me cry I never made it.

I told you then I was on a search for new bedding…and I found it, over time. I big fat LOVE IT.

And oh yeah – IT FITS THE BED. Can I get an AMEN? And a hollaaa?

This process was not a cheap one, and I splurged more than once. So if you don’t like it when this Thrifty Chick splurges, please…just step. away. from. the. blog. now.

We like to sleep and we sleep as often as possible and I believe we deserve some sahhweeet bedding. And we paid for it all in CASH. :) (Don’t hate Dave Ramsey!)

So anyhoo…the transformation started with new sheets. I had my eye on a new duvet cover, and when I decided it would be the one, I knew I wanted luscious chocolate brown sheets to go with it.

We had brown before, but these are luscious chocolate brown. There is a difference:

I love that pretty detail! Oh, and did I mention they are 500 count sheets? LUSCIOUS.

And they actually FIT and stay put:

I believe the package said they fit mattresses up to 18 inches, and ours is a tad over 17 – and they really fit, they weren’t just saying that.  ;)

Total cost was $80 I believe? (At Target.) Totally WORTH IT.

Next up was a biggie – a blanket. We needed something that would go from summer to winter with no issues – not too heavy, not too light.

On a trip to Pottery Barn for my family room pillows a while back, I saw the most simple, beautiful blanket called the Fisherman Knit Blanket. I may or may not have brushed it against my cheek. I’m serious – it was crazy soft.

And so incredibly expensive. About $150 expensive. I know, stop choking. I know.

But I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was obsessed. I looked it up on Ebay for weeks, hoping to find a deal and nada. I looked it up on PB for weeks hoping it would go on sale and nothin’.

And then I saw something that sealed the deal. One customer who reviewed the blanket online said it was just lovely, but to watch out because it stretched…a lot.

Ding ding ding!!! It was the one. I knew it would fit over all sides of our monstrous bed!:

I bit my lip and went in and bought the blanket – the most expensive blanket I’ve ever owned. And it is so freakin’ fantastic, I cannot even stress it to you how fantastic it is. It is like cuddling up with a cloud.

You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. I caress it every single night:

One of my biggest complaints of our old comforter/duvet was that it wouldn’t hang over our thick, king-sized mattress. One day I finally realized why. First of all, the duvet cover had shrunk over time (the whole set was only $25 on Ebay, so I’m not surprised) and when I took the comforter out of the duvet, I laid it down to measure it.

My “king-sized” comforter wasn’t king at all – it was a queen. Yeeaaahhh. Four years and I never realized. Really? I know it said king on the package.

So off to Target I went again, to buy a real king size comforter. For reals this time. I checked. :)

The best part is that it has tabs inside so you can tie the duvet to it:

I love smart stuff. I thought only the fancy schmancy duvets and comforters had that little ditty.

And then…it was onto the duvet cover. I was trying to avoid another duvet…I just didn’t want to deal with it again. But this one at Target had been calling to me for months. Every time I went in I would put it in my cart, put it back, put it in my cart, put it back.

And one day, when I had the cash saved up, I got it. And it’s lovely:

It’s all creamy and rusty and chocolatey and soft and it’s SO US. There was very little color in the room other than the walls and drapes before, so I wanted to add a pop of something. And the rust color was that something.

The final splurge was a throw for the end of the bed. I see pictures of beds with a throw laid across the bed and it just screams luxury to me. There was a rust colored throw and shams set that worked perfectly with the duvet (also from Target):

The only part of the bed I haven’t splurged on is the pillows – the throws are all from before.

So now, this bed, that took a good 45 minutes of my life every time I made it:

Has turned into this soothing spot:

 

(Ignore the purple drapes falling off the rod, umkay? They’re going.)

And this science fair of a side:

Is now this:

Best part? It took less than 20 minutes to make, from start to finish. I have actually been known to make our bed lately. Can you believe it??

Close your gaping mouth, it’s true.

So there you have it, our new bedding, step by step. I bought everything over a couple months, as we had the cash to spend. There’s still SO much to do to this room! I’d like some pillows to fill up those shams a bit better , I need to make a (LONG) bedskirt and I have a few ideas in mind for the wall behind the bed:

Plus new lamps, nightstands and drapes! I’ve made a few other changes in here already that I’ll show you soon. The redo is going to happen slowly, but that’s how I do it best. :)

I adore how warm and cozy it is – of course the colors are perfect for fall, but we love them year round. And they work great with the greyish green color on the walls. (Valspar color called Tornado Watch, from Lowes.)

I’m trying to decide what color to do the bedskirt – cream or chocolate? Or maybe rust? Is that too much rust? We’ve gone without a skirt all this time and I really want to get one on there. I’m tired of seeing the extra dining table leaf sticking out from under the bed. ;)

I had fun taking pics for this post with a little somethin’ somethin’ that followed me home from the camera store today:

WHOO!!! :) Isn’t it amazing?! Oh my goodness…I have so much to learn! Can anyone recommend a web site that explains aperture and all that good stuff?

 

Welcome to my latest advertiser!

Retro Clock – Flip Down

For those of you who want a trendy and slick looking metallic flip down clock here is the Retro Flip Down clock, a nice piece of gadget to sit on your work desk for telling you the time. Every 60 seconds and hour, the time will flip down automatically without any need for winding or adjusting. The ony thing I’n concerned is if he makes any annoying mechanical noise when it’s flipping the time. In conclusion the Flip Down is a unique looking clock, with a sleek, modern and stylish look. You can purchase it from here. – Via – Techchee

Youthful Orange Bathroom, Milan 2010

We don’t know how many of you out there would go for a colorful bathroom design, but we consider this one to b quite appealing. Cheerful and with a juvenile feel, this orange interior is full of interesting elements and original furniture imprints. The sink is conveniently embedded in a huge sliding drawer, saving space and adding a touch of creativity to the overall design. Random words are imprinted on the mirror surface, which is an interesting approach in case the users want to read something while brushing their teeth every morning. We also like the flashy but cool orange bathtub, which complements the already mentioned bathroom furniture.

The Flip Table

The Flip Table is one of the products that I really love. I love this table because it is a great space saver, it can be a coffee table and a dinning table. Starting as a low coffee table on a solid base, the dining table legs flip out to reveal six stools for seating. With the legs flipped up, the table is at dining height. The table earns bonus points for its smart storage of the available cork dining stools, six can be stored underneath the coffee table (above, top left) and popped out for seating at the dining table. You can see how “The Flip Table” become a dinner table from a coffee table on the producer website. – Via – Treehugger