The House Dressing Company

What a Spring we are having!  Wild, wild weather with strong winds, rain, hail and a bit of sunshine in between.  And that’s all in one day!!!  My girls always called these days “yo yo days”.  Four seasons in one day!   That’s springtime in Victoria though!  Keeps us guessing what it’s going to do next!

This is the time of year where our thoughts turn to Spring cleaning in our homes and gardens.  There is SO much to do at this time of the year, and dividing our time between the indoors and the outdoors is sometimes tricky!  Maybe that’s why the weather is off and on like it is!  It’s making sure we find a balance to spend time indoors and outdoors to clean away all the cobwebs of the previous winter months.

I love Spring Cleaning!  It’s so refreshing to go through room by room, dusting, polishing, airing out, cleaning windows, sorting things and getting rid of some items we no longer use or need.  It’s also a time where I find things tucked away in cupboards that I can find a new use for.  Things that I haven’t looked at in a long, long time like old silver teapots, trays, candle holders, mason jars, teasets, etc.  I like to sometimes group these items and put flowers in them or display them together in interesting little vignettes.  Spring cleaning is time consuming, but oh so satisfying once it’s all done!

We do Spring Cleaning at the House Dressing too!  We’re in the process of going through our warehouse/storage area, and gathering all sorts of goodies that have accumulated there.  It’s fun finding things and giving them a new look in the store.  We found a lot of great baskets and have decided to have a basket sale. They are all 30% off, and come in all shapes and sizes.  Great for storing items or just to look good in your home.

We found some very handy clear glass cake plates too – wonderful for serving up your favourite pies, flans, cakes and fruit.  By stacking a couple of them, you can use them to serve cupcakes on two levels.

Lots of clear glass candle holders and vases were in the back, waiting to be polished up and readied for display in the store.  We had fun sorting through them and finding new uses for them.  They look great with seashells, sand, coloured stones and flowers, grasses or candles in them.

Not only have we found lots of wonderful items that we know you will love, but we have some new pieces to show you too.

This new bedding is from Pine Cone Hill.  It’s beautiful, fresh and fabulous quality.  Pine Cone Hill has a really yummy range of bedding.  You are always welcome to come and browse through their delicious catalogue and drool and if there’s something in it you just can’t live without, we can order it for you the next time we place an order with them!  What a great way to treat yourself!

I love the seashore look, and to jazz it up a bit, we now have silver starfish, shells and sea urchins.  They make a very classy seashore statement!

These new ginger jars and floating balls are gorgeous too.  There are two themes – the butterflies on soft, blue/grey background and the more rustic bird and insect floating balls that look great piled in a basket or large bowl filled with moss.

Cards have been a huge hit here lately, and we just got a shipment of very funny cards by Shannon Martin and some very pretty lino cut print cards by Angie Lewin.  Such talented gals!  We always smile when we hear our customers laughing or giggling at some of the cards we have in stock.  We are all in favour of people having fun in the store!

So, back to Spring Cleaning!  I wonder what else I’ll find!  Do you enjoy the process or just the results?  Let me know what you do to make your Spring Cleaning easier and more effective.  I’m always keen to learn new tricks and ideas!

Until next week – happy cleaning!

Ingrid

Life is full of wonderful people that we meet and some of them make the world a better place.  They live life to the fullest and embrace the people in their lives with love and sincerity. Peter Shewring was one of these kinds of people and if you were lucky enough to have met him or better yet, get to know him well, you were blessed.  He was a wonderful man and I was very fortunate to have enjoyed many wonderful times with him and his family over the last 19 years.  His daughter Leslie, her sister Diane and their mother Akiko all worked with me for 3-6 years when I first opened The House Dressing Company.  Peter and his family were instant friends and kindred spirits.

Peter left us by surprise on March 20th.  He is looking down on us I am sure.  My 4 year old daughter just said the other night, as she sat on my lap, ” I see Peter”  and I said “where sweetheart?” thinking she was seeing things in the dark, she said, “he’s that really bright star right up there mommy, he’s watching us”.  It brought a tear to my eye. We miss him dearly and it’s hard to say goodbye.  She’s comforted knowing that he is twinkling over us and so am I.

This Saturday, May 1st, we will celebrate Peter’s life with his family and friends.  He would have wanted us to gather and make merry in his honour.  If you would like to join in you are welcomed by his family.

This aviation inspired event will be held at 3pm in the Shell Hanger, Victoria Airport, 101-1962 Canso Road, North Saanich.

They look forward to seeing you there and if you have any questions please email Dan at: dansheehan@me.com

Here is a lovely quote that I think we all strive to achieve and to which Peter certainly did.  I miss you Peter.

xo Julie

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch,
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because
you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s 60 days today until summer officially begins.  That’s precisely enough time to choose a slip cover for your summer living room or your summer cottage.  I love the denim I chose for this square armed sofa at our lake property as it stands up to all the summer fun that happens in this room.  It washes beautifully like my favourite pair of jeans.

Our Slip Cover Event (see details here) continues until Sunday, April 25th, that’s this coming Sunday.  The girls are quick to help choose from some of the classic twills and denims in a wide array of washable colours, eco friendly choices too!  Once again check out Rowe Furniture’s web site for all the furniture styles available.

Right now, I am trying to decide what to do with the old leather sectional in our family room.  It’s looking a little tired.  I think a slip covered sectional with a pullout sleeper for extra guests or sleep overs for Elliott might be in order!  Just have to pick out a fabric, that’s the fun part, and some accent pillows too!  The best part of choosing a slip cover for the area that the kids use the most is knowing that I can easily wash it if there’s an accident and I know that there certainly will be panicked calls for Mom when a spill happens!  But that’s life, better to be prepared for it than freak out and stress my body and my kids!  It’s just a sofa, we’ll remember the fun times and the happy memories snuggled together but we’ll likely forget the spills! -especially since they will be so easy to deal with, right?  Are you prepared for stress free living when it comes to your furniture?  If not, now’s the perfect time.  Receive a $100 gift card upon ordering when you pay for your order in full.  Yeh!  You can shop for accessories now!

Have a great week and hope to see you in the fabric section:)

Julie

Hi everyone – Happy Earth Week!

I’ve been researching Earth Week today, and it’s been great to find out what it’s all about.  Earth Week started 40 years ago in 1970, in an effort to raise worldwide awareness about our increasingly fragile environment.  This year, more than 1 billion people in 170 different countries are expected to take part in all kinds of environmental events and rallies.   This year, Earth Week is from 17th to 25th April, and Earth Day is on 22nd April.

This is a great time to raise awareness as well as remind ourselves again about being eco-friendly in our own homes.  As individuals, there are so many ways we can improve the way we deal with the environment in our own houses and backyards: everything from using eco-friendly cleaning products, composting, recycling and being energy smart.  Other ways we can make a difference (and I’m sure you know and practise most of these already)  include:

.     supporting local and organic foods that are in season and to eat less meat (healthier anyway!).

.     When doing the laundry, we can save a lot of energy by washing only full loads in cold water and hanging to dry whenever possible.  Nothing smells better than clothes and sheets that come off the line after being in the wind and sun all day!

.      Install ceiling fans and programmable thermostats.

.      Vacation, travel and work as close to home as possible.

.      Take short showers instead of baths and close the water taps when you are brushing your teeth.

.      Walk, cycle, car pool and use public transportation.

These are all common sense things that we have been hearing about for years but sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves about these simple actions and get back into the swing of them again.  Sometimes it’s easy to fall back into old habits and ways, and we need a bit of a wake up call!  I know for myself, there are some things I’m really good at, and some that I think I get lazy about.  How about you?   I’m pretty good at putting on an extra sweater and socks instead of turning up the heat in the house; my husband and I are great recyclers; I’ve been composting garden and kitchen waste for years and then using it on my garden, and I don’t keep the tap running when I brush my teeth!  I love buying local veggies and fruit and am trying to cut down on meat.  However, sometimes my shower is a bit too long; I fly home to Australia every year; and I drive my car to and from work.

We can be eco-friendly about how we decorate our homes too.  By buying low VOC paints, we are doing the environment and ourselves a favour.  Fabrics for upholstery and curtains are increasingly being made of sustainable materials like bamboo pulp, organic silk and cotton and even from recycled plastic pop bottles.  Upholstery foam made of soy has the same quality and longevity as petroleum-based foams.

Some carpet manufacturers are using more natural materials such as vegetable cellulose combined with recycled nylon fibre for strength and durability.

Linoleum is making a comeback!  Unlike petroleum-based flooring products, it doesn’t emit harmful gases.  It’s made from natural materials like linseed oil, pine resin and wood dust.

At the House Dressing, we have several eco-friendly products that you may be interested in.  The Thymes Essential line has a wonderful assortment of beauty products that have no parabens, SLS/SLES, no propylene glycol, no synthetic colours, no petrolatum and no animal derived ingredients.   All the girls at the House Dressing have tested these products (aren’t we lucky!?) and we all love them.  I use the face polish and face lotion, the Hand Scrub (after coming in from gardening all day) and the body scrub.  It makes me feel good to be using an exceptional product that doesn’t have all the nasty things in it.

We have these wonderful bamboo cutting boards too, which are also eco-friendly.  Bamboo is an attractive alternative to the widespread cutting of forests.  It absorbs very little moisture, doesn’t shrink or swell and is harder than most hard woods.

Our Adirondack chairs are made from recycled plastic – another eco-friendly product!  Using recovered materials in manufacturing saves energy and reduces greenhouse gases; recycling produces less carbon dioxide, it lessens the number of trees harvested and lessens the impact on landfill sites.

We also have a large number of eco-friendly fabric samples from Rowe Furniture to choose from, if you order a sofa, loveseat or chairs from them.  They are mostly made from 100% organic cotton and the colours and patterns are lovely!  You can also buy this fabric by the yard.

I hope you will give Earth Day (22nd April) and Earth Week some serious consideration and like me, try to do better at being a conscientious friend of the environment.  How do you do you show that you care about the environment?  I’d love to hear from you!  In the meantime HAPPY EARTH WEEK!

Ingrid

Have you ever wondered where glass comes from and noticed how much of it we have in our lives?  It’s quite amazing when you start thinking about it – everything from the jar that holds the morning jam, the mirrors in which we brush our hair and teeth,  windows, car windscreens, light bulbs and so many other practical items.  Hard to imagine our life without this wonderful manmade substance.

I learned a lot by researching about glass.  It’s fun to find out new facts about things we take for granted every day of our lives!  Did you know that glass is a combination of sand (in the form of silica) and other minerals that are melted together at really high temperatures.  Other materials can be added to produce different colours or properties.  It can also be coated, engraved or decorated.  Chemically, glass is more like a liquid, but at room temperature, it actually looks and feels like a solid.  Weird eh?  At high temperatures, it becomes soft and liquidy, and this makes it easier to pour, mould, blow or press into all kinds of shapes.

A natural form of glass occurs within the mouth of a volcano.  This happens when the intense heat during an eruption melts sand to form Obsidian.  This substance is a hard, black glassy type of stone.  Man first used this material as tips for spears.  Glass has been around for a long, long time!!!

Glass is used extensively in decorating with everything from glass tables, mirrors, candlesticks, vases, ornaments – you name it.  I’m sure you could make a list as long as your arm of all the glass pieces you have in your home.  What you do with these pieces is really whatever looks good to you and your imagination is the only thing that will limit you.  Glass looks best when it is kept clean and sparkling.  I use a bit of vinegar and water and it makes them sparkle and shine.

This is a picture of a beautiful, old pottery vase that was my Mum’s.  She gave it to me when I was in Australia in February and I brought it home in my suitcase, filled with socks, underwear, t-shirts, and a prayer that it would arrive unscathed!  I love this vase – it’s full of memories of my childhood home and my Mum using it to display her flowers in.  The two glass floats were found on the beach near Sooke by my Mother-In-Law and my husband when he was a little boy.  I like the way these pieces look together.  It’s fresh and airy and the soft greeny blue glass complements the colour of the vase.

Wandering around the store, I found some lovely pieces of glass that I thought you would like to see pictures of and maybe inspire you to make your own glass vignettes at home.

Another piece I really love in my home, is this large hurricane.  In the winter months, I fill it with wee pinecones, at Christmas time I fill it with baubles or fake snow and a candle.  At this time of the year, I fill it with sea shells and my one pretty little red starfish.  It’s amazing how something as simple as this can set the tone for your decorating style, and it’s fun to use your imagination!

I hope I’ve got you thinking about glass and it’s many uses – both practical and creative!  Have fun… use your imagination and let me know what you have created!  I’d love to get ideas from you too!

Have a great week!

Ingrid