Irish Eyes are Smiling: For Grandma

Hello friends. I'm writing this post with a heavy heart. What started out as a joyful weekend quickly took a different course early Saturday morning. J and Gus and I were out at the lake when we got the call that my grandmother's health had taken a turn for the worse. She's been in a home for the past few years and has been slowly deteriorating in mental capacity. At 94 years old, she had lived many lives over. We made it back to the city in time to say one last goodbye, say one last I love you and give her one last kiss on the forehead. She slipped away peacefully late last night.

my auntie Terry, my mom, me and Grandma

I'm sad to have lost her, but if anyone has qualified to get into heaven and deserves to enjoy it - it is my Grandma Bruneau. Born Catherine Corrigan in Ireland in 1917, she met my Canadian grandfather during the war and moved to Canada to raise her family of 5 children, including my mom Norah, the youngest. She went on to have 14 grandchildren (we all grew up fairly close to each other) and now many great-grandchildren.

She was an ever-present Grandmother. She lives in all my childhood memories due to her frequent visits up north to see us and our many trips to Winnipeg to visit her and my grandpa. She was - in one word - joyful. Humour was her weapon, defence and charm of choice. She always had a joke and could always laugh at herself. She lightened up tense situations and made us all take ourselves a little less seriously. A devout Irish Catholic - she shunned judgement for love, acceptance and forgiveness. She was truly a special lady.

She was a girly-girl's grandma. We had tea parties for hours in her basement, using only the finest china and drinking cup after cup of irish tea (a bit of tea with lots of milk and heaps of sugar). She let me play in her make-up and she was never seen without her Amway rose cream blush. In fact, on the morning she passed, she work struggling to breath, about to take her morphine and the only words that came out were 'make-up...' This makes me smile - as I too can only imagine getting through my life struggles with a little blusher to make me feel more confident.

Grandma, you will be so so missed. I love you. I thank you for being the best grandmother a little girl could ask for. Let's still talk often - okay?

The Story Behind...call for submissions!

Hey all! Thanks for your super sweet feedback on the new blog design!

In honour of this special day, I'm introducing something new here on the blog. I'd love to have you friends become more involved in the blog...so here's your chance! I'm starting a new column called 'The Story Behind...' and I'd love for you to send me a snapshot of your fave pretty/charming/awesome thing - whether it's a piece of clothing, a piece of jewellery or an accessory, an item in your home, a thrifted item - and tell me the story behind it. For example, a post could be 'The Story Behind...Amy's Chevron Lamp' or 'The Story Behind...Melissa's Vintage Bracelet'. I'll post my favourites right here on Lather. Write. Repeat.!

The cool thing is that I know many of you don't have blogs and this will be a great way to have you share with us! If you don't have a blog, be sure to include your Facebook page or Twitter profile so I can link to you.

I can't wait to see them and read your stories friends! You can email them to me at lhume1@mts.net and I'll be sharing my own stories behind in weeks to come.

*any questions drop me a line here or on Twitter!

Have an amazing day and a wonderful long weekend friends!

New Look!

It's here!!

After much back and forth with my wonderful designer - Mervi from Design by Wushka - I have my new blog look.  I love how it has maintained my previous design, but a little more simple. I wanted to fully utilize the screen and make things a little more distinctive. Hope you like it!

Be sure to also check out Mervi's blog and Etsy shop!

Style Peek: linen tank + cuffed denim shorts

Hey everyone! I'm super excited today...my new blog design is going live very shortly! I've been working with a very cool freelance designer out of Finland (that alone sounds cool) and she's been working with my existing design but simplifying it and enhancing some elements. I can't wait! 

Plus there's a long weekend starting tomorrow. Woo hoo! J and Gus and I are off to his cabin in Killarney for some quiet time and I can't wait. Wedding crunch is ON and I've been having a few stress meltdowns about it. I know everything will be fine but when I get super busy I get overwhelmed...then come the tears....but no tears allowed for such a fun time so I'm bucking up. There. Pep talk to self.

Here's what I wore today. It's like an outfit representation of my personality. It has my fave colours (turquoise, white and navy), my fave textures (linen, soft cotton and denim) and my fave pattern (floral!). Love. What outfit would be a representation of your personality?

Aqua cardigan - Gap

White linen ruffled tank - Old Navy

Cuffed denim shorts - Gap

Floral belt - Nevada at Sears

Navy flip flops - Joe Fresh

Necklace - Gift!

Toenail Polish - Turquoise & Caicos by Essie

Have a great evening friends! See you soon with a whole new look!

Style Peek: slouchy sweatshirt + embroidered skirt

So I was totally inspired by Linda over at Little Tin Soldier's pairing of a slouchy sweatshirt and chic skirt. Her blog is fab so you should check it out! She does the cutest illustrations to go with her outfit posts. But back to the sweatshirt...I love the idea of juxtapositions, mixing and matching the unexpected. Doing it in real life? A little harder. So this is my baby step. Plus hey - I'll take any excuse to go to work feeling like I'm half in my PJ's!

Slouchy blue sweatshirt - Forever 21/Faith 21

Embroidered skirt - Gap

Gold flats - Steve Madden

Necklace - local boutique Silver Lotus

I'm not sure if this totally worked - obviously nowhere near as flawlessly as Linda did it! What are your thoughts, hit or miss? I'd love to know what you think. I'm a work in progress...

Have a great night friends! I'm about to cook dinner (starving!), do some painting for a commission I'm working on (awesome!) and finish laundry (bo-ring!). How about you?

Before and After: Vintage Photobooth Sign

Well hello! I almost forgot to share with you this sign makeover (okay, we should call it a MAKEUNDER) that I did for local photographer Erin. She had already hired Lather Creations to remake a bench a while back and was looking for a sign to use at weddings for her photobooth so guests would know what it was. This was my kind of challenge!

I had originally planned to use a vintage frame and build a piece inside for the sign but after some trial and error, I decided to repaint an existing sign with all the hanging hardware and structure in place. I went a thrifting and you won't believe what I dug out of the pile...I looked pretty silly buying it in the middle of July. Never mind buying it at all!

Pretty special eh? Hopefully someone got some good holiday cheer from this snazzy decoration. I was ready to take it in a WHOLE new direction!  After some serious priming (don't skip this step kids) to cover up the past discretions...I painted the entire sign a pale linen cream, then used a brownish-grey to fill in the hand-drawn lettering. I don't care to use black, it's just too stark. Some vintage photo tabs on the edges frames the sign.

How's that for Extreme Makeover: Sign Edition??

Another great thrifted item saved from the landfill and made to be beautiful again! Have a lovely evening friends!

Style Peek: embroidered skirt + floral top

Flash sale. Have you ever heard a more glorious phrase? This is what I overheard while browsing in the Gap on Friday. Don't ask me how I ended up there...sometimes you are just drawn in...like somehow your spirit knows that the skirt you've been coveting will be 40% off the already reduced sale price due to a 3-hour only FLASH SALE! Okay, I know I'm not supposed to be shopping, because my mom has started monitoring my spending habits over my blog. But I can't lie to you all and I really wanted to show it off!

So my love affair with the belted skirt continues, and this time I really wanted to try mixing tonal prints. Since this is now the only printed bottom I own (except dresses) I gave it a shot! I mixed it with this pretty pink floral top that my sister made for me - yes made - how talented is she?? I gave her an old H&M top I love that is dying and she's been recreating it for me in my fabrics of choice! Yes, I'm a very lucky girl. Plus I had a very cool social media conference today so I felt like dressing up a little girly!

Floral top - made by my sister!

Embroidered skirt - Gap (on sale now)

Brown woven belt - Old Navy

Brown flats - Aldo

Earrings - Aerie

Hope you all had a fab Monday friends! Have you experienced the flash sale phenomenon? Did it suck you in too??

Linking up to this month's EBEW challenge:

Youth is Bliss

Happy weekend to you all! I hope you had a memorable one. I had one of the best days I've had in a long time on Saturday, when three girlfriends and their kids came out to visit Gus and I in Gimli for the day. We had hummed and hawed over the not-so-great forecast but decided to make the best of it. It turned out to be a fantastic day, a little cooler and very breezy but still lovely. We bbq'd, hung out, took a trip to the beach and floated in the giant lake-turned-wave pool. The kids squealed at everything - from chasing Gus around to finding rocks to dipping their toes in the massive waves. It was truly joyful! 

Here's a few pics to share with you...

Doesn't seeing things through the eyes of a child make everything brighter?

How was your weekend friends?