Dream Home Giveaway!

Sorry... didn't mean to mislead. I won't be giving away your dream home today... and probably not ever. Instead, I will contribute to the development of your dream home! This week's giveaway is brought to you by... ME! I stumbled across this book during a shopping outting for an outrageously fantastic price and thought "my readers may enjoy this wonderful book"....

Filled with all kinds of great tips and secrets, as well as a TON of fantastic inspiration photos, this source book is meant to help you turn your house into your very own Dream Home... and I want one of you lovely readers to own it!

As a bonus for me, it completely fits with my brand new Dream Home feature that I will be posting every Tuesday afternoon!

Here's how you enter!:

- You must be a follower of the blog (pretty please!?)

- Leave a comment telling me something... ANYTHING about your dream home! The location, a must have feature, or do you already live in it? Spill!

- Tweet or blog about the giveaway for an additional entry (make sure to leave an additional comment to let me know - and if you're tweeting, be sure to @FirstTimeFancy)

- Anyone can enter - be it far or near! It may cost me a bit more to ship, but worth it for all of my wonderful readers who keep me posting!

Contest is open until 11:59EST, Sunday September 19th. Winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Monday September 20th! Please make sure you leave an email address so I can reach the lucky winner next week! Good luck... and as always, Thanks for reading!

Weekend Recap

Is it over already? Is it actually Monday? *sighs* I guess I can't complain that much... I had a pretty great weekend! Friday evening I came home and discovered B had hit up Habitat for Humanity's Restore and picked up a window for us to use for the front entrance that we plan on building VERY soon! (exciting, I know!) We also had plans to go to the movie, but we changed our minds and ended up staying home to work on some projects on my to-do list. I cannot WAIT to share them with you this week. Just little ones, but fun!


Saturday B was up early and out the door to his work golf tournament. I took my time getting ready and then headed downtown to meet my brother's fiancee and the two of us headed to go and see The Way, an Emilio Estevez film at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was a great movie, and both Emilio and Martin Sheen (who stars in the movie) were there for a Q&A following the film.

Yeah, we sat pretty far back, but it was great for viewing the movie! I highly recommend it if it hits the theatres!


Afterwards I made a quick stop into HomeSense and did a bit of shopping. Some new pillows (to replace some eaten ones) and a few decor items for the fall! Successful trip indeed!


Sunday was a day full of food and football! We ate, cooked, ate, watched the Patriots in action against the Bengals and then ate some more with my parents in honour of their 35th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow! 

The delicious pear crisp I made for dessert... yum!

We also kind of celebrated someone's first birthday...

Yeah, that's a rawhide birthday card we found for him at Wal-Mart...

That's the run down. Don't want to bore you with details.... but I am looking forward to sharing some new projects with you this week... oh yes, and a giveaway is coming this afternoon! So be sure to come back!


Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Fancy Friday Love

Happy Friday everyone! I know I've been a bad blogger this week - it's just been absolutely hectic around here! I promise lots of goodies coming in the next little while. For now, here's some Fancy for your Friday!

Kate Spade's new fragrance is out... and I love the email that popped into my inbox last Friday afternoon!

It's great right? I'm still a sucker for a good ad... and I'm also on the look out for a new "scent" (if you will). Based on the description the website provides, it sounds positively dreamy, and I'm ready to go check it out in person! I really don't think the timing could be any more perfect!

Keeping with Kate and new arrivals (so many of which I could feature in here... I was thinking of doing a full post on Kate love... but decided against it...), I am soooo in love with the Beantown Charlie!

Loving the tweed and buttons... especially for the fall! Also love that it's namesake is by far one of my favorite U.S. cities!

Of course, with Fall upon us I've been thinking boots for quite some time now! I've been browsing and spotted these on Aldo's website:

Love the look of this LILLER boot, and will be hunting for something similar... maybe take a look in Aldo to see what they look like up close and personal and make a decision from there.

How about Maggie's garage makeover??

It looks fantastic doesn't it? I love the bright yellow! You'll have to head on over to her blog though to see the before. I WISH our garage looked half as good as that!

I am in love and inspired by the beautiful autmumn decor shared by Centsational Girl this morning!

Unfortunately we don't have any trees with leaves as beautiful as those close to our home, but those pillar candles have inpired me for my very own DIY project. God she is so talented, and makes things seem so effortless! Love her!

Yes, the busy week kept me from finding too many fancy things to share! A fun weekend planned though! Lots of projects to fill the time, and hitting up a TIFF screening of "The Way" tomorrow afternoon! Sunday we'll be hosting my parents for dinner in honour of their 35th Anniversary which falls on Monday! Come back next week for a giveaway and a recap of a few projects we've been working on! Happy Weekend!

Dream Home - Bringing it Home

Last week, we escaped to Oia, Santorini. Today, I'm going a little less Meditteranean and making it a little more local. I know it's not quite as fancy, and the views really can't compete, but I wanted to highlight how much the beautiful homes that I find can really differ. This house stands not to far from our own little Toronto casa. It's part of what I love about our area of the city. Small family homes, mixed in with some million dollar estates!

I must admit, from the outside this plaster and stucco home doesn't blow me away. It's more the interior that I love.. and the fact that it backs onto Lake Ontario. Not quite comparable to the sea views in Greece - but about as good as it get's here in the Big Smoke.

The living room looks like a perfect spot to kick back with family and throw on a movie or catch your favorite TV show. As a bonus, it's quite obvious from those glass paned doors that the views of the lake are just lovely.

I love that even though the TV is mounted over the fireplace, it doesn't become a focal point of the room. With all of the big lovely windows, and the pillars surrounding the fireplace your eyes are immediately drawn to other lovely features. Well done!

I may not be in the main cook in our twosome, but big kitchens are always on my checklist! I'd make some changes to this room, like the light fixture, but that commercial sized stainless steel fridge is a definite selling point for me. So.Much.Room (for B's delicious cooking).

I would also gladly wake in this bedroom every morning, with that little walk out deck to more views of the Lake. Yes Please! This room has so much potential to be whatever your little heart dreams, and what can beat that entire wall of windows?

Then of course, there is my favorite bit. The outdoor living and views of the lake. The pictures don't acurately capture quite how lovely this would all look in the middle of a gorgeous Toronto summer, but living close to this area of the lake, I'm well aware!

That back deck would be perfect for entertaining. A nice big stainless grill, some outdoor furniture and a fireplace! Perfect place to sit back and enjoy that view of the lake!

This could all be yours for only $1.9M! Check out the entire listing here. So how about it readers? Do you have a dream location that you would love to live in? Where do you want me to scout out beautiful, drool worthy homes? Or maybe just the right home for you! Leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I'll search out a home in your desired location!

After the Weekend

What a great long weekend! I hope everyone else can absolutely say the same thing. We enjoyed kicking back and spending time with friends. Enjoying good food and checking out everything that was going on in the city. Even though the weather didn't want to cooperate here, we made the best of what we were given and really enjoyed ourselves! Would love to share some pictures... but didn't really take any, just soaked up every moment instead!

I'll be back later today with the second home in my new "Dream Home" feature!

Fancy Friday Love

Can you believe it? The first Friday of September is upon us. Man, this summer went by quickly! Thankfully, it's a long weekend and I plan to enjoy every single second of it... with BBQ's, drinks, the CNE and a Blue Jay's game on Monday afternoon. I'm going to extend this summer feeling as long as I can (despite my love of the coming season...). Enough about me and my weekend - onto the pretty things...

Found this posted on this blog, that I stumbled across, this past week, and it wasn't only pretty, but also one of those things that made me go "hmmmm"....

Also loving these vintage zipper flower brooches/hair clips from Re-Zip It (Etsy store shared by Sarah from Hennessey House)

I found my dream kitchen...

It was shared on Desire to Inspire on Wednesday. I love every single detail about it... and plan on keeping this filed away in my inspiration folder for future reference!

How awesome is this Magnolia Leaf wreath made by the oh-so-talented Centsational Girl?

GORGEOUS!... I may have to try this out!

I know it's a short list this week, but it's been a pretty crazy one for me! Hope you all enjoy this one last HOORAH of summer! Make it count!

Welcome September!

As a child I was not a fan of September... for the most part anyway. Who wants to go back to school after a glorious summer of absolute freedom? I never looked forward to the first day back... ever!

With the continuous march of time, my outlook on the month of September has completely changed... especially this year. This September brings so much for me to look forward to!

September 12th: Our pillow eater Harley-boy will turn 1! No longer a puppy...

Eaten Pillow (from last night after he escaped from the Crate)...

Pillow eater...

September 13th: My wonderful parents will celebrate 35 glorious years of marriage! WOW!

September 14th: BACK TO CLASSES FOR MEEEEE!!

September 20th: B and I will celebrate 3 years of dating. Can you believe it... only 3, and I've already owned a house with him for over a year. We must be nuts! 

The very first photo of us together - September 2007

September 25th: This one is quite a doozy! Not only will I turn 25 on the 25th (CHAMPAGNE BIRTHDAY!), but one of my closest girlfriends from University will get married on this day as well. It will be quite the celebration!

September 30th: This day will mark one year of me blogging!

Lots going on this lovely month of September! With so much to celebrate I figure there will be a few giveaways... but before I jump on that, I'd love some ideas! I already have a couple things up my sleeve, but since they are all about my readers, I'd love some input from you guys! What would you like to see, and I'll do my best to bring it for you!

Hope you're all looking forward to this month as much as I am!