Wallace Hall

I just spent the weekend swing dancing in the John Deutsch University Centre at Queen's University in Kingston for the Queen's Swing Dance Club's 20th Anniversary. Very conveniently, I have a Vera scarf that resembles Queen's blue, yellow, and red flag so that made a perfectly festive headscarf. The music by Gordon Webster and band was mind-blowing as always, and I thoroughly enjoying swinging out amidst the beautiful wooden panelling, lofty ceiling, and grand portraits of intellectual individuals!

Swing Era Collections

I've been constantly listening to 1920s to 1940s jazz music...this is what happens when I do!

Pssst! Ebony and Ivory is already available for sale in my shop on Spoonflower as fabric, wallpaper, gift wrap, cut-and-sew patterns, and homewares. Decollect is soon to be for sale as well!

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

I need to frame this glam sheet music! Then I will stare at it in its 1930s glory and daydream to the song.

Piano Makeover: After

Ta-da, the Baldwin is now white! Compared to the dark wooden before, I particularly love how the columns and pilasters are all the more Classical in its fresh new finish. For 118 years old, this piano is looking pretty spiffy!

In the words of interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe (1859-1950) "I believe in plenty of optimism and white paint!" 

Piano Makeover: Before

 We're painting our 1900 Baldwin piano! This is the before...a very red mahogany. Before the before it was painted avocado green and orange by my grandma in the 1970s! I love to play it opened up and see the mechanism moving. Also on the inside are little treasures like a pencil note saying it was fixed up on February 16th, 1921. What colour might it be for its next phase of life?

Stay tuned...

Hallelujah Chorus

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." 

--Isaiah 9: 6

Merry Christmas! Hallelujah!