The House Dressing Company

Written by : Ingrid

Hello everyone!  Can you believe it is already the week before Easter!  This year is flying by so fast for me – how about you?  What are your plans for Easter?  A big family dinner with turkey, ham and all the trimmings?  Do you decorate your home for Easter?

I love having Easter in the springtime for a change.  In Australia, where I’m from, Easter is always in the autumn, so it has a bit of a different feel.  My kids always hunted for Easter eggs amongst the colourful, fallen autumn leaves in the backyard.  There was often an early frost (that’s right, it’s not always hot down there!)  so they would bundle up in their boots and housecoats over their pj’s and run outside with their little baskets and search high and low for colourful egg treasures and chocolate bunnies.  They are past the hunting stage now, although I’m sure they still love a chocolate egg and bunny or two!

I was intrigued by the origins of the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs, and just why they represent Easter.  Easter, apart from it’s religious meanings, is also a salute to Spring, marking re-birth and new life.  The Easter Bunny was originally called the “Easter Hare” and because hares and rabbits are prolific breeders (UVIC will attest to that!), they became a symbol of fertility and hence a symbol of Easter and the beginning of Spring.   Also, the Ancient Romans believed that all life comes from eggs, and therefore eggs have also come to symbolize Easter and the beginning of new life and Springtime.

The first chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France in the early 1800’s and quickly spread through Europe.  The eggs were traditionally delivered to good children by the Easter bunny on the night before Easter.  He would hide them either outside or inside the house for the children to find in the morning.  A little bit like St. Nicholas but this one is a furry version with big ears!

As far as decorating for Easter goes, softly does it.  Pastel colours are perfect – purple, blue, pink and yellow, all in the softest tones.  So pretty and springlike!  Add a little nest with some eggs here and there, some pretty candles, some little chicks and bunnies and you have the perfect setting for an Easter dinner.

We have lots of Easter goodies and gifts to help you celebrate this special time of the year and to help you decorate your table.

Thought I’d give you an update on my bumblebees!  Our plan to move them from the birdhouses to their own little bumblebee houses, worked!  They have established themselves nicely in their own little places and guess what!  The chickadees are nesting in the other birdhouses meant for them.  So, our experiment worked and all are happy.  Still haven’t seen the swallows though.  Have any of you seen them yet?

Thought I’d share some pictures I took this morning in my garden between bouts of rain.

That’s it from me for this week.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter with your family and friends.  I’d be really interested to hear how some of you spend your Easter and what it means to you.  How do you decorate and celebrate?

Written by : Ingrid

Good morning everyone!  It’s a gorgeous, sunny day and it’s wonderful to feel the warmth on the old bones!   I can’t get over how busy the little birds are right now!  My backyard is full of them – eating, bathing, foraging in the freshly cultivated earth and getting nests prepared for their babies.  Have you got an abundance of life in your garden right now too?

One thing I noticed was how many bumblebees I have in the garden this year.  Did you know that the very first bumblebees of the season (those really big, furry ones) are all new, young queens?  The young queens are the only ones from their colony to survive the previous winter.  When they emerge in the early Spring, they straight away look for a place to lay their eggs – usually in an old mouse nest or in bird houses that still have last year’s nests in them.  As I failed to clean out our birdhouses in the Fall, guess where they nested!?  Yep, right in the two bird houses that I usually have Swallows or Chickadees nesting in.  So…. last weekend my husband and I gingerly took down the two bird houses, removed the bases and carefully took out the nests, with the queen bumblebees inside protecting their egg sacks.  Our intention was to transfer the nests into two older birdhouses that we no longer used for the birds, and then place them near to where they had nested before so the bumblebees would find their way back.   If anyone could have seen the two of us, they would have been in hysterics!  Here we were, trying really hard not to disturb a couple of queen bumblebees, and of course, as soon as we gently lifted out the nests, the bees angrily zoomed out and we both let out a yelp and just about jumped out of our skins!  Luckily, the transfer went well and the Queen bees have found their respective nests and all are happy again.  Now we are just waiting for the Swallows to return to the now cleaned bird houses meant for them.  Has anyone seen them yet??

Apart from noticing what’s going on with the birds and the bees, it’s a lovely time for planning and designing your plantings for the outdoors.  At this time of year, some of us tend to neglect the greenery we have indoors.  Over the winter months,  indoor plants can become tired looking and sometimes, we just give up on them.  It’s nice to replace them with fresh, new plants from the nursery but some of the smaller pots are difficult to keep looking nice.   It’s also nice to have fresh flowers in the home too, but they don’t last and often drop pollen, petals or leaves and make a mess.  It gets expensive over time to replace fresh flowers unless you have an abundance of them in your garden to pick from.

You know how much I love real plants and flowers.  I’m sure you all do too.  However, I’m not against a little bit of cheating every now and then and sometimes just can’t resist the many wonderful faux flowers and plants that are available.  They are just SO EASY to care for, and look fresh and wonderful all year long!  We just got a shipment in last week of some wonderful, real looking plants – flowers, grasses and greenery.  I just have to show you how pretty they are.  I’ve even noticed some customers sniffing the gorgeous red and white poppies expecting some fragrance from them!  That’s how real they look!

We have these adorable little pots of white geraniums, white orchids, topiaried tea trees and real-looking lavender.  Perfect for a window sill in a grouping or on your dining table as a centrepiece.

We also have some picks of greens, grasses and flowers which are great for arranging in vases or using as extra special touches on your dining room table as pictured below.   These are very popular Lily of the Valley flower picks and they are really pretty and fresh looking.

We also got some willow branches and screens which are great to fill in an empty corner or even to act as a visual room divider.  They come in different heights and are either white (as shown) or natural brown.   I’m already imagining them at Christmas time with little white mini lights threaded through them…..

It’s also fun to have some fake fruit (real tastes better!) in a pretty bowl on your table.  No fruit flies to contend with!  Ha!  You could really fool them!

It makes such a difference to have a bit of greenery around the home.   The added bonus to having fake greenery is that we don’t have to spend any time on them (except to dust them every now and then!). I get to spend more time in the garden outside on my REAL plants!  Actually, I do have lots of real plants indoors as well, and at this time of the year I can’t resist buying a couple of bunches of tulips or daffodils when I pick up the groceries.

I’d love to know what your favourite flowers are – either cut, bought or fake!  How do you like to bring the outdoors in?  Let me know!

Until next week!  Check out the birds and the bees!

Written by : Ingrid

Well, here we are enjoying daylight saving again!  Hooray!  Doesn’t that one hour make a difference though!  Getting up in the morning is a little harder, but it’s so nice to have that extra light in the evening.  I’m looking forward to warmer days when I can go home from The House Dressing and get into my garden for a couple of hours, eat outdoors and enjoy walks in the warm summer evenings.  I’m also looking forward to summer style eating and cooking again.  How about you?  I know it’s still a couple of months yet before we will be enjoying some real warmth, but with the flowers bursting forth and the birds beginning to nest, it feels like it’s just around the corner!

And with the beginning of a new season, comes new and exciting stock into the stores – clothing, shoes, garden accessories and of course, furniture and accessories for the home.  We are getting new stock in almost every week now, and it’s just like Christmas when we open up all those boxes!

We just got these wonderful outdoor recycled plastic Adirondack chairs.  They are so comfortable!  All you need is some sunshine,  a pair of shades, a good book and a cool drink to spend a few hours in one of these beauties.  At the moment, we have one in blue, one in aqua and one in white.  We also have a white rocking chair, table and footstool.  The range of colours is extensive, and we have samples of all the colours, here at the store.   These chairs are maintenance free, have no splinters (ouch!), are waterproof, strong and durable, don’t need painting and won’t rot.  You can leave them out in the weather all year!  Bonus!  No need to store!

We also got some new summery table linens in.  Lovely colours – blues, greens, neutrals and soft purples.  Some are patterned, some are plain.  We also got some fun pebble mats too, with matching coasters and floor mats.  I love to hear the creative ideas our customers have for these interesting mats!   Some use the floor mats in their bathrooms, some outdoors, some use them in front of fireplaces.  There seems to be no end to their uses!

And nature girl here just loves the new ginger jars with butterfly motifs and these cute little bird feeders and plant stakes.  I can see the “bird feeder” in a bathroom with a pretty piece of soap, or filled with jelly beans or almonds (much healthier!) or even as a place to put your scouring pad near the sink, or spare coins or even your jewellry!!

I’m sure you’d love some of our gorgeous canvas prints that are very reasonably priced!  I love the white tulips and roses, and the birds too of course.  There are so many to choose from, including seaside scenes with boats, pebbles and starfish.

So, have I whet your appetite for some new, Spring goodies?  If you are looking for some new ideas and colour schemes, we’d really love to help you!

Until next time, enjoy the lengthened days and the early Spring awakening of life in our great outdoors.

Written by : Ingrid

Hi everyone – it’s been such a long time since I last blogged.  Life just gets in the way sometimes, and before you know it, so much time has flown by!

Have you all been enjoying this amazing weather?  I sure have but I have to admit, I’ve been away on not one, but TWO trips recently that took me to warmer climates.  One trip was to Mexico for a week with my husband and girls and the other trip was back to my homeland Australia, to spend time with my elderly parents.  On both trips, I was really struck by the amazing colours in the natural surroundings and the brilliant and strong light that accentuated the colours in the landscape.  Of course, I love the tropical plants and flowers and am always amazed at their sometimes gawdy colours and over-the-top enormous leaves.  It’s almost like they are showing off!  Who can blame them really, when they grow in such perfect, warm conditions and in such beautiful places.

It got me thinking about the relationship between the colours and textures in nature and the colours and textures we can bring into our home decorating in the form of furnishings and accessories.  Of course designers have been taking inspiration from nature for ages, but sometimes, if you’re not sure what colours you’d like in your own home you can look to nature to see what colours you are naturally drawn to and go from there.

Some people are naturally drawn to the cool colours of green and blue whilst others love the vibrant colours of yellow, orange, pink and red.   Natural textures and neutral tones are a favourite too, and are often used as a background to the other, more flamboyant colours.

Here are a few ideas and thoughts I had using my pictures from the two trips and pictures of some products we have in the store.

If you love the blues and greens of the tropics,  you can bring these colours into your home with pillows, vases, placemats, rugs and bedding.

If you are drawn to the many shades of coral, yellow, orange and pink that you see in so many beautiful flowers in the Summertime, here are some examples of how to bring these colours into your home.

Of course, during the summer, our inspiration in decorating often comes from the seaside and all the wonderful, natural textures and colours it brings.  Things like pebbles, sand, driftwood, shells, starfish,  textured, neutral coloured fabrics and wicker.

And how could I forget the beautifully coloured plumage of the tropical birds and the vibrantly coloured fish that I saw on my trips! Talk about inspiration!  Here is a photo I’d like to share of a cheeky Rosella parrot sitting on the telephone wire overlooking my parents’ backyard.  He’s holding a stem of seeds and having afternoon tea in the sunshine before a dip in the birdbath below him.  Imagine having all those colours in your house!!  Wow!  Isn’t he gorgeous?

“With glowing heart”, I’m so happy to be back in this beautiful part of the world with it’s soft skies, silvery blue waters and deep green trees.

Enjoy the early Spring and all the lovely colours it brings!

Written by : Julie Cove

In all my years of working with customers who are conscientious about making their house a cozy home I have always found that one of the biggest differences you can make in a room besides the paint is the style and scale of the furniture.  Above I have featured one our our favourite rooms from the Pier-nice hey?  Do you choose items that reflect your personality and your lifestyle?  I find that this is key to putting together a cozy room so that when you are using this room you feel completely at home because it’s you, thru and thru.  Each of us has a style that is uniquely ours and we are constantly refining it to reflect our values.  We are fortunate to own a lakeside cottage that I enjoyed decorating thus my design style for this summer oasis was chosen to reflect the lazy carefree days of summer and with easy care washable slip covers and lots of bare wood floors for shoes and wet feet to easily sneak thru without destroying carpets.  Here’s  peek at a corner of our living room at the lake.  We love this room and we pile all of our guests in here snuggling on the down filled sleeper sofas for movie night or as pull outs for slumber parties.  Do you have a cozy room that you love being in?

At home, upholstered furniture, cozy wool rugs and hall runners, are suitable for our family since the sandy shore is miles away.  However, my little ones can still enjoy playing with ease in a home that allows for “oops and yikes” to happen and no one loses an eye!  Creating your perfect space takes careful consideration and attention to the details of style, scale, size, fabrics and not to forget care & washing instructions especially if you have pets and little ones- even us big people can spill our red wine quite effectively! -don’t you think?

At The House Dressing Company we work hard to offer you our wisdom and expert advice as you choose your new furniture.  We assist our clients by  giving our customers the much needed time with specific information and recommendations to assist them with selecting the perfect fitting pieces reflecting their vision for their home.  We understand that most home owners don’t replace their furnishings very often and that it is a big decision in a household to invest in new furnishings.

We take pride in our customer service so that you can make your decisions for any new furniture with confidence.  Our team will assure that you have the right scale for the room, the correct dimensions to fit the space, and a pleasing style and fabric choice that reflects your personal style.  Previously, Helen McIntyre was our design consultant available to assist you with this.  However, she has recently switched gears and moved into a brand new career in Real Estate- watch for her in Sidney.  We wish her much success and will miss her as will some of you who have worked with her.  Have you met Liz and Ingrid of our store’s team? Both of these gals have worked on our team for a few years now.  Liz has an extensive background in design with formal training in the fashion industry and then years of styling and design in retail.  She is thrilled to be able to assist you in the store Thurs- Sunday for your furniture design needs.   Ingrid also has many years in retail with a sharp eye for style and design and loves our customers (and they love her too) and enjoys assisting them.  Ingrid is available most weekdays in the store.  She is also one of our contributors on this blog and will be writing more frequent content for you-aren’t you glad?- she’s such a good writer!  Both of these gals are valuable members of our team whom our customers have grown to love.  Ingrid and Liz will be ready and waiting for you and your furniture design needs, so pop in when you are ready and they will be happy to help you.

Change is good!  And a change in your surroundings from ordinary to extraordinary makes you feel great!  Life is meant to be lived to the fullest- don’t you think?  Creating the perfect environment plays a big role in living a cozy lifestyle since most of us spend a great part of our lives in our homes.  So be sure you love your home and your furnishings and if not, give us a dingle , we can help and we would love the journey of working with you.