Wish you were here ...

I am very happy to say that Mr. Speedy and I are on holidays this week!

You'll still find lots of great new content on Yourhome.ca every day, but I'm taking a much needed break from my email and blogging.

I'll be back with pretty (and nerdy) decor finds and home renovation successes and mishaps next week!

Poll results: Emergency kits

Last week's poll asked Yourhomers whether they have emergency kits stocked with the recommended 72 hours of supplies — a particularly timely question after this week's fierce storm. (Read the full story about stocking your kit).

Despite the recommendations from Public Safety Canada, the majority of us (sadly, myself included) at 92 per cent said they don't have a well-stocked emergency kit. Only 8 per cent are prepared for an emergency!

I know I've got to rectify the situation and boost my own, rather shameful, kit, which currently consists of some Band-Aids, a flashlight and a handful of candles and matches. Hopefully I'll get it done before the next power outage!

And, while it may feel like summer has just finally arrived, our new poll looks forward to the fall renovation season — what area of your home do you plan to tackle this fall?

And, don't miss our sneak peek of what happened when Colin and Justin were let loose in the Star editor's office, along with their bland to grand hallway transformation and the latest in eco-friendly frying pans.

There's an app for that!

Want to make sure that photo is level? Or match that perfect shade of paint? There's an iPhone application for that! (Read my roundup of handy downloads for around the house).

Lately, it seems like there's an app for everything. And, on a recent visit over to the Ikea hacker blog, I discovered that tech geniuses have applied their prowess to the good old Swedish design superstore's shopping list and teeny tiny pencil combo. 

SwedeShop ($0.99 from the App Store, shown) lets you tap in your shopping list, with fields for item name, price, aisle and bin. You can also add notes, priority and even pictures!

And, if you're like me and have a tendency to blow you budget picking up bits and bobs throughout the shop, it can even keep track of your spending: just set a budget, plus your tax rate, and it keeps a running total, along with an "unobtrusive" notification (which I believe is a buzz) when you go over. 

The second one, called iShopFlat, also $0.99, lets you create a digital shopping list, including aisle, row, price, quantity, item name, and notes.

How cool is that? Or, are you attached to the pencil and paper combo?

One room is "done"!

Mr. Speedy and I have been in our new home for nearly three months now. We've had the place rewired, and patched and primed the holes. We've unpacked a few boxes, though there are still mountains to go. We've (well, Mr. Speedy and my father-in-law) re-shingled the garage roof, repaired the screen, and had a mason come in to fix our chimney. But, despite all this hard work, there haven't been a lot of really visible, aesthetic improvements, and not a single space has actually been properly finished. Until now!

With some help from my visiting brother-in-law and mother-in-law, the dining room has recovered from the colour match fail and now benefits from a snazzy coat of the ill-matching paint. I can't believe the difference it makes in how the space feels!

The wine rack/storage unit, with its fabulously swapped out handles, is still slowly getting filled up with barware essentials, and, while we certainly need a new table and chairs, it's totally thrilling to be able to hang my artwork (including this "Tea Revives You" print in sage) and slowly decorate a space that's no longer in shambles.

Next up is the living room, which also has benefitted from a fresh coat of (mismatched) paint and just needs a final strip of wallpaper hung before we can declare it done too, and start decorating away!

Decorating with social media faves?

So, after writing about that super cute Nintendo controller pillow last week, I was alerted to another, equally nerdy, series of throw pillows that I just had to share. 

Handmade by Etsy's Craftsquatch, these fleecy pillows feature familiar icons from your favourite social networking sites!

Available logos include the Twitter "t" and the bird, Flicker, Reddit, Digg, Tumblr, Facebook and MySpace, as well as a full series of Adobe pillows!

There's even a RSS feed! That one's my favourite, because it could almost be mistaken for a trendy graphic print.

How cute would these look lined up on a sofa or in your office? Or are they too geeky for your tastes?

Poll results: Soggy gardens

Just in time for that rainy (and thunderstorm-filled) weekend, last week's poll looked at how the soggy summer has both helped and hindered our gardening attempts.

My Ugly Garden learned that the weeds have benefited the most from all that rain, while gardening guru Sonia Day offered her tips and tricks for bailing out your flowers, as well as the suggestion that Fava beans love this weather!

Green-thumbed Yourhomers have also been having mixed results, with the majority, at 57 per cent, saying that the soggy summer has taken a toll on their gardening efforts.

About a third, at 29 per cent, say that the weather hasn't affected their green spaces, and the remaining 14 per cent said they don't have a lawn or garden to maintain.

This week, we're sticking to the topic of the lousy weather. Public Safety Canada recommends families have 72 hours worth of supplies on hand in case of emergency, and Vicky Sanderson offers her recommendations for a well stocked kit. Do you have an emergency kit at the ready? Let me know by casting your vote in the front page poll.

And, it's Saturday, which means, of course, that I've got loads of great suggestions for your weekend reading, including a yummy chocolate kitchen from Colin and Justin, DecoRita checking out Bullfrog and Limitless' hardworking furniture, a look at constant gardener Mark Cullen's move to the country, and a chat with the lovely, and hilarious, ladies behind the fab Mogg Blogg. 

My colour match fail

Sometimes, when working around the house, I try to be clever and limit the amount of work I need to do.

Oftentimes, this results in more work for Mr. Speedy and I.

Case in point: my attempt at colour matching the paint in two of our rooms. We liked the shades used in these rooms when we moved in, and they weren't totally destroyed in the re-wiring.

Being ever the thinker, I decided that if we could just match the colours, we'd only need to repaint two walls (one in the dining room and one in the living room), saving ourselves some work.

We used the colour matching tool at the local hardware store, then tried to match it to paint chips we brought with us. It looked perfect in the store. On the wall, not so much, as you can see here in the dining room.

The colour is close, but we'll definitely have to repaint it all. Same with the living room, too.

I've learned my lesson: any attempts at shortcuts are only going to create more work. And, I've got loads upon loads of painting to do! But, as a bonus, at least Mr. Speedy likes the new colours better than what we had inherited!

This labeller is 'Plug and play!'

I'm the kind of girl who gets excited over organization. I adore alphabetized DVD collections and Mr. Speedy's habit of arranging CDs alphabetically by artist, then subdividing the artist's works by release date. Pair those systems with a little bit of tech, and, well, I'm over the moon.

So, I was really excited when Brother's new P-Touch 1230PC labeller landed on my desk.

While I may have been mocked for describing it as "Plug and play" (apparently, for some people, organizing and labelling is considered 'work' rather than 'play'), this nifty little device is super easy to use —the software you need is installed on the device, so you just plug it in to your PC (yep, you need Windows XP or Vista to run it, which is sad news for all-Mac households like mine) and start printing away!

Within minutes, my water bottle, phone and filing cabinet were marked as my property, and I even spread the love and made some labels for my colleagues too.

You can use different fonts and sizes, add symbols and even print vertically, on a variety of labels.

The labeller will be available at mass-retailers mid-month and is currently available at brother.ca.

Going ga-ga for gaming decor

When it came time to find the perfect first anniversary present for Mr. Speedy, I turned to Etsy.

I scoured pages and pages of one-of-a-kind, handmade goodies, looking for something that reflected his interests and was at least a little bit useful.

And, while a pair of Space Invaders cufflinks won out, I was mighty tempted by a lot of the fabulous video game-themed home decor on offer.

I mean, really, how cute is this cushy-looking retro NES controller back pillow?

Ever since I first laid eyes on it, I've been ready to curl up with Super Mario Brothers and test whether I can still rescue the princess in one sitting.

At $39 US, this hand-stitched fleece pillow from the shop of EstelleDeParis is a great throwback to the classic console of my childhood, and would provide an extra touch of comfort during marathon adventures on more contemporary systems.

It measures 46x23cm, and the pillows are made to order, so if you're eying one for your geeky gal or guy, allow about three weeks for it to be made in addition to shipping.

I'll definitely be keeping it in mind for that hopefully not too far off day when we're ready to amp up the decor of our yet-to-be-decorated red, black and white gaming den!

These weekend warriors are worn out!

When I left here on Friday, I was both anxiously anticipating and thoroughly dreading a weekend filled with working on my house. I was excited because it was a chance for Mr. Speedy and I to continue to personalize and settle into our new home, as well as get some much-needed maintenance out of the way. I dreaded it because, well, I spend my days in front of a computer (as does Mr. Speedy). Manual labour is more than a little bit out of my realm. Plus, it's often dirty and difficult — so given the choice, I'd opt for brunch and mimosas any day.

But, of course, we want the best for our home. So, we braced ourselves and settled into a weekend of work, complete with four (yep, that's twice a day) trips to the local hardware store. And, it was certainly a busy one!

For starters, despite the bad weather, the garage roof was stripped, with the new shingles going on this coming weekend. I can lay no claim to this accomplishment, barring some moral support and the delivery of food and beer. Much thanks to Mr. Speedy and my father-in-law, both for the hours of hard work and for not falling of the roof.

I was, however, useful in other tasks, I promise! For example, I learned what spline was (beyond being a funny word, it's also the cord material that holds the screen into the frame) and even purchased my very own spline, along with a screen repair kit, which was installed during one of the weekend's many rain storms. Take that insects!

Plus, I replaced the knobs on my wine cabinet. Yes, it's a wee task, but it made a huge difference, taking it from granny-style to contemporary in five minutes flat. Plus, I used wood filler to cover up the extra holes — surely that gives me some DIY cred? Next up are the hall closets, which I'm totally ready to tackle!

I (yes, me, with just a little bit of supervision!) tackled patching the main floor walls, eliminating all those pesky nail and screw holes and moving dings. Then, after a bit of a paint matching mishap (or disaster, if you asked me yesterday. It doesn't match. At all. So I've got to repaint everything anyway. Arrgh), my mother-in-law offered up a lesson on cutting in, and we got the repainting started. Hopefully, we'll get the rooms done soon, so I can share some finished shots! (When I find my camera cord, hopefully tonight, I'll upload the photos of the wine cabinet makeover!)

And, last but not least, the basement was surprisingly transformed from a scary cave to a proper living space, through the very cheap fix of a working overhead light. I'm thrilled that it no longer looks like a place for trolls and spiders to lurk!

So, after two tough days, it was time for takeout and loads of sleep! We're still recovering, but all of those tired muscles should be back in fighting shape in time for round two this weekend!