How to enjoy your Summer before it's all gone, The Camellia, Slate River

Hello! It's Summer in Slate River Valley.  We are enjoying some beautiful Summer weather and we should be laying around on the patio, reading a book, and enjoying ourselves, with a glass of Lavender lemonade or wine.  Wait a second, you said, you're not laying around? But why not? You've waited all Winter for Summer! 

You reply: 

THE GARDEN! Someone has to plant it, all the planters have to be planted and watered. The lawn needs cutting. Take a look at Thomas Jefferson's Kitchen Garden in the above photo, at Monticello. He didn't do it all by himself, he had workers. When one of our kids was little, he loved to mow the grass...he would be begging to use the lawnmower with snow on the ground. That did not last! Maybe it's time to hire a company to do yardwork, or bribe someone else to do it...

HOME RENOVATIONS! Your Kitchen may have needed Renovating years ago, and you put it off, until finally, this is the year. You order flooring, look at a million paint samples, and you press on. Of course, you've forgotten that you are still using the kitchen every mealtime...and now, the contents of your cupboards are in boxes, and you can't find anything. 

We may run a Kitchen Cabinet Class, so let us know if you are interested, just click, reply on this email. We are repainting our Oak kitchen cabinets, as we speak. Here they are below, you can see our Before (Oak) doors, the uppers are being painted white, and the lowers will be Asphalt Grey Cottage Paint. See that white door, can you believe that is the same oak door as the door behind it? 

KIDS ACTIVITIES AND YOUR JOBS. Ever wonder why you can't get stuff done? You are at work all week, then the weekend comes, your kids are in Hockey or Soccer, and you spend most of your weekends out of town at Tournaments. Let's not mention cleaning your Home, laundry, etc. Then Monday comes all too quickly, and you walk into work, wondering what fresh hell awaits you this week.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO ENJOY YOUR SUMMER NOW? 

Decide what is most important on your To-Do list.

If you're planning on painting your Furniture or your cabinets,  plan it around a long weekend, head to our store, the Camellia, to get colour advice and help. 

If jobs are being piled on your head, stop, and blow your Horn ( just like you do when you're in traffic and some idiot pulls ahead of you and puts you in danger). Speak up and let people around you know what you are willing to do, and what is clearly their job. ASK FOR HELP.

 Set aside an hour every day to sit outside, without feeling guilty. Work will always be there. Summer in Northern Ontario is fleeting. Take some time for yourself, and treat you skin to our Goats Milk Lavender products from White Oak Lavender Farm!  

Your Home, your way, get the look with Cottage Paint and DIY advice from The Camellia. 

Visit our store at 30, Hacquoil Rd. Slate River. Open Wed. 11-5, Thurs. 12-5, Fri. and Sat. 11-5, and Sunday: Noon to 5. 

www.thecamellia.com

p. (807) 475-3551

Wow! It's Falltime at The Camellia, Slate River Valley, Thunder Bay, On

    Here we are at the end of August, and it's been feeling like Fall here for the last 2 weeks. What happened to Summer? We've had frost 2 nights this week, the windshields on our vehicles have been iced up. Most of us here in Thunder Bay feel like we have barely had any Summer, and now an early Fall. Well, there is SO much to like about Fall. The colours of Fall - rusts, browns, beiges, cinnamon, dark greens, yellows and so many more colours that exude warmth and images of snuggling under a warm throw. 

I know it feels like you have barely gotten the Patio set out on your Porch, and your Garden, well, enough said about that. I was embarrassed about the state of my gardens yesterday, when I was showing a client some of my fast-growing perennials. We spotted 2 huge holes dug up by some critter. And a falling down Delphinium. It's hard to keep up with all the yardwork and weeding. 

Sunflowers always add a splash of colour to your Fall decor. Not a fan of yellow? We have beige and neural tones in the store. 

Here is a small #cottagepaint project you can try on your own.....paint an old muffin tin and turn it into a jewellery holder, or a place to store all those thingamajigs that collect on your counters. We stock Cottage Paint here at #the Camellia. 

If you are stencilling, #cottagepaint is your #1 paint as it is water-based, and very easy to clean off your stencils. Check our website for our current #classes. www.thecamellia.com

Sometimes, it feels like the 100 Mile journey playing out here. We sometimes get phone calls...Do you have a store IN-TOWN? Hah...what..? Our store is one-quarter of a mile outside City limits. That's a quarter of a mile, not 100 miles, not 3 hours from Thunder Bay, just a simple 10 (TEN) MINUTES from the Thunder Bay airport. 

Once you get here, you'll be glad that you did! Plan to visit The Camellia this Fall!  

We are OPEN Wed. 11-5, Thurs. 12-6, Fri. and Sat. 11-5, and Sunday 12-5. A simple way to remember is that we are Open every day except Mondays & Tuesdays. 

Note we will be closed from Sept. 17, and will reopen on Oct. 4. 2017. 

p (807) 475-3551

How-to survive DIY renos with your spouse/partner

You may be an avid watcher of the DIY Network and HGTV. It all looks so easy on TV, everything goes so quickly and the couple gets along, and while there may be some arguments, they all laugh about it afterwards and all is ok again.

Image via Pinterest, and ScottMcgillivray.com

Let's step away from the TV and move into real life. Common things people fight over:

1. Proper Prep for areas not to be touched in Reno. This includes laying drop cloths over Furniture to prevent dust and paint splatters. Cardboard on hardwood floors to prevent damage from tools and from the paint. You try to mention this and what you get is ..." DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS YOURSELF?" Yes, I need you to put cardboard down onto the hardwood as I hate having to be on my hands and knees cleaning tiny bits of white paint off the hardwood. And please tape up the tile that was just installed, also don't want to scrape bits of paint off tile. Sigh...

Here is a cedar Tubsurround being prepped for painting with Serenity Cottage Paint. First, the surface is scuffed up with a Scotchbrite pad, then vacuumed. Next is cleaning with Cottage Paint Clean 'n Prep., let dry.  Next step is  2 coats of BIN primer to seal the knots in the cedar. ( if you skip this step, you may get bleedthrough from the resins in the knots).

2.Time Frame things have to be done in. 
You may start a Reno. when it's Summer and raining non-stop, and then the weather clears up and it's Sunny out. what you get is ..." YOU WANT ME TO WASTE A SUNNY DAY WORKING ON THIS...???!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
From your point-of-view, you started this reno. and the rest of your Rooms may be littered with all the items displaced from the Reno. area. The thread your sanity is hanging on is almost threadbare, and the thought of living in a construction zone for another however long, well, need we say more.

3. Nobody tells you about the Mess.
All those lovely Pinterest images showing beautifully styled rooms, well, they never show you the mess. There is no magic clean up fairy appearing anytime soon. You can enlist the help of a friend or another family member. Expect that you are going to be living in a mess.

4. You can't find anything. Where is that **** thing? I know we have one somewhere...! 





5. Your Family decides to come for a Visit and they make helpful( not!) remarks about how you should be keeping on top of things, and you try to refrain from grinding your teeth and yelling at them.  You listen & nod your head through clenched teeth.  




6. You visit another couple's home which has just been built by a contractor, and you come Home, look around at your mess, and feel very sorry for yourself. 

Any of this sound familiar? Sigh...we've all been there. And when your Renovation is DONE, it's all worth it, but are you still on speaking terms with each other? Hmmm. ...
Eventually, as the renovation drags, you may start work in another messy area of your house. You tell yourself that there are many areas of your Home that need attention, and you should contain your impatience, and stop complaining.
Sporadically, you look back in on the original renovation, and make a half-hearted attempt to clean up all the mess. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but wait, the END is in sight!

You get to that magical day when it's DONE! And it looks amazing! Now to get to the pile of displaced stuff that doesn't look so good in the space, maybe these were temporary solutions to a permanent storage problem ( which is hopefully solved now).

After the 2 coats of Bin primer are dry, it's time to paint 2 coats of Serenity Cottage Paint - here we are using the colour Country Manor. Hard to believe this is the same tubsurround! Looks like brand-new shiplap. #Fixer-upper worthy!

For inspiration and help with your Cottage Paint Renos, visit The Camellia, at 30, Hacquoil Rd. Thunder Bay, On. Check our website for upcoming Fall classes. 

p(807)475-3551

www.thecamellia.com

www.cottagepaint.com