Quick Design Tips to Cleanse Your Palate

Now that the holidays are OVAH! It is time to cleanse your palate. Here are some quick design tips to quickly change the look and feel of your space from season to season.

Slip covers, slip covers, slip covers! You can change the entire look of your furniture to suit the mood of the season. Corduroy or flannel fabrics are great for the fall and winter, and heavy cotton poplin or twill for the spring and summer. You can have slip covers made for you couches, ottomans, dinning room chairs you name it! If you want to keep an eclectic look, mix and match slip covers…proceed with caution.

Seasonal Foliage, now that the tree is gone, it is time to think about what piece of plant life can occupy your space to give it the look you want. Bright berries, banana leaves, sugar cane, or even pussywillow will enable you to see that the possibilities are endless.

Instant art, but no one needs to know. Go to an art supply store and buy yourself a couple of large canvases. Paint the canvases to match your new colour scheme and you are in business.

Happy Holidays

On behalf of everyone here at the Network Lofts Blogger, have a happy and safe holiday season. We will be taking a little break and will look forward to hearing from you in the New Year!

Christmas in the Neighbourhood

Christmas in the neighbourhood

The holidays can be a very stressful time of year. What should be a time of relaxation and reflection can turn into a time of frustration and indignation. One way to combat these holiday blahs is to enjoy the simpler things this holiday season can offer. We are lucky to live in a city of charming and beautiful neighbourhoods; an evening stroll or a window seat in a city café can be both relaxing and heart warming.

Bloor West Village

Home to the best perogies on the planet, the bakeries in this part of our fair city offer a cornucopia of sweets and savory delights. It is not uncommon to see people carry Styrofoam containers with a sampling of different dishes from every establishment as they stroll down this stretch of Bloor Street.

Yorkville

Window shopping may not be as rewarding as the real thing, but it is always fun to look at the holiday decorations. Plus you don’t have to deal with long line-ups or pushy sales people.

The Beaches

While rolling down the boardwalk is summer fun summer fare, try taking a walk in the crisp winter air. On a clear night you can grab a warm blanket and sit on the sand…make sure you’ve got a hot bevy in hand.

The West Kingsway

Take a stroll down Bloor Street West, enjoy some of the numerous small shops and local merchants along the way. Pick up a snack in one of the enticing restaurants, or a last minute gift, make a detour and enjoy the holiday lights twinkling on pretty side streets.

Little Italy

Have yourself a slice of panetone (Italian Christmas cake) and an espresso at Bar Italia, then take a stroll on College street. Drop by Balfour books and pick yourself up a used copy of Dickens’ classics.

High Park

Right smack dab in the city, our little piece of nature is usually enjoyed in the summer and fall for the foliage. But the snow turns this treasure into a winter wonderland. Put on your boots and enjoy a nice hike…or slap on some ice skates and away you go.

The Holidays need not be expensive or stressful; hopefully our little list will give you some ideas to get yourself back into the spirit of the season.

Happy Holidays from the Network Lofts blog crew.

Fun Holiday Recipes

For this holiday season, we’ve decided to offer you a few tasty recipe ideas that we found from various internet sites and sampled thanks to Dianne one of my lovely co-workers. We enjoyed them so much we just had to share them. These festive treats will only help to enhance the Christmas ambiance you have set up in your home and your guests will love you for entertaining their taste buds. So now that you have hopefully completed all you’re holiday to do’s, read, bake and enjoy!

Taylor

Cherry Cider

Ingredients:

2 quarts apple Cider
1 (3 inch) Cinnamon Stick
1 (3 ounce) Package Cherry Gelatin

Directions:

Bring Cider and Cinnamon stick to a boil in a saucepan.
Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Add gelatin; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until gelatin is dissolved. Serve Warm.

Place a cinnamon stick in each glass, and add a curl of lemon rind

Recipe taken from http://drink.allrecipes.com/az/ChrryCidr.asp


Appetizer Wreath Recipe

Ingredients:
· 2 tubes (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls
· 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
· 1/2 cup sour cream
· 1 teaspoon dill weed
· 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
· 1 1/2 cup chopped fresh broccoli florets
· 1 cup finely chopped celery
· 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
· Celery leaves







Directions:
Remove crescent dough from packaging (do not unroll). Cut each tube into eight slices. Arrange in an 11-in. circle on an ungreased 14-in. pizza pan. Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing to a serving platter.
In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, dill and garlic powder until smooth. Spread over wreath; top with broccoli, celery and red pepper. Form a bow garnish with celery leaves.

Recipe from http://cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/76/AppetizerWreath63536.shtml

GINGERBREAD LAYER CAKE WITH CANDIED KUMQUATS

Cake1 cup cola1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda1 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses2 cups all purpose flour2 tablespoons ground ginger1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon3/4 teaspoon ground cloves1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg1/2 teaspoon salt1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar3/4 cup vegetable oil3 large eggs
Candied kumquats1 cup water3/4 cup honey1/4 cup sugar15 whole cloves2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise22 ounces kumquats, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, seeded
Frosting1 1/3 cups (packed) dark brown sugar1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon whipping cream2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, toasted, chopped1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preparation:

For cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour three nonstick 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Bring cola to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat; whisk in baking soda, then molasses. Transfer to large bowl; cool to room temperature. Whisk flour and next 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, oil, and eggs into molasses mixture. Whisk in dry ingredients. Divide batter among prepared pans (about 1 2/3 cups batter for each).
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool cakes completely.
For candied kumquats: Bring first 5 ingredients to boil in heavy large skillet, stirring to dissolve sugar. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Add kumquats; reduce heat to medium and simmer until almost tender, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer kumquats to plate. Boil syrup until reduced to 2/3 cup, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Cool syrup.
For frosting: Stir brown sugar and whipping cream in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; cool caramel completely. Transfer 1/4 cup caramel to small bowl and reserve. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until smooth. Beat remaining caramel into frosting until well blended.
Chop enough candied kumquats to measure 1/3 cup; mix in small bowl with 1 tablespoon kumquat syrup. Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over. Dot with half of chopped-kumquat mixture. Drizzle with half of reserved caramel. Top with second cake layer. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over. Dot with remaining chopped-kumquat mixture. Drizzle with remaining reserved caramel. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Arrange enough sliced kumquats in single layer atop cake just to cover. Mix pecans and ginger in small bowl. Press nut mixture halfway up sides of cake. Chill 1 hour. (Cake can be made 1 day ahead. Cover cake with cake dome; chill overnight. Cover remaining kumquat syrup; let stand at room temperature.) Drizzle some kumquat syrup over kumquats atop cake. Serve cake cold or at room temperature.Makes 12 servings.

Recipe from: http://epicurious.com/bonappetit/desserts/recipes/108970

Holiday Decorating Tips

It’s that time of year again, time to roll out the Christmas cookies and drag out those decorations from the attic and start your decorating. Although this festive season is loads of fun there are many people who stress over the decorating challenge. So, we’ve compiled a list of helpful hints to help ease your decorating dilemmas.

1) Decide upon an overall theme you’d like throughout your home. It could be a colour theme, a specific Christmas figure like Santa or a nativity scene, or something else you enjoy about the Christmas season.

2) Just because it’s Christmas it doesn’t mean you have to have every corner covered with your Christmas décor. Simple is very elegant and will make a dramatic impression.

3) Candles create a very warm and festive feel. If you have any vases sitting around the house, add a Christmas bow to them along with your favourit scented candles.

4) If you have a nice decorative serving bowl, fill it with ornaments for an easy Christmas table center piece.

5) Children love decorating for Christmas as well. A great way to get the kids involved with decorating is to have two trees. One for the kids to decorate and one can be your tree to decorate with whatever theme you wish.

6) Wreathes are a lovely way to add a touch of class to your home at Christmas and you can find many to suit your style.

So enjoy the holiday season and remember that family and friends are the best Christmas accessories you’ll ever put in your home.

Happy Holidays

Taylor

A Helpful Website

Hello all you Loft Dwellers and Loft Dwellers to be,

As you all know, planning for your new place of dwelling is a very important task. Ones home is a reflection of your style, personality, and taste. Not only is it a very personal affaire, it can also be tedious and time consuming trying to find a look you feel you could live with. After all, we can’t redecorate to suit the mood we wake up with each morning.
So, we’ve done some research and have started compiling a list of helpful home decorating websites to help you with plans for your new abode.

We’d like to introduce you to the ever so popular Home and Garden Television website www.hgtv.com . It has lots of fun links with helpful hints for everyone. My favourit part of this site is the room planner. To get here click on “Decorating” then on the right hand side you’ll see a small column that says “Most Popular” and in this column you’ll see the link to the room planner. Here you physically get to plan your room on the screen in front of you. It’s much easier to plan a room on a computer screen rather then physically moving all your furniture around all afternoon. (It’s also a fun thing to do in the office when you’re bored, but you didn’t’ hear that from me).

So, why don’t you check it out and play around and see if anything they mention catches your eye.

Stay tuned for more interesting links.

Taylor

Spicing up the wall

In the spirit of decorating I realized there was something we hadn’t touched upon which can add a lot to your loft. Any guesses???? Well, I won’t keep you waiting. The topic of the day will be artwork. No matter what pieces you have collected or are considering buying, there is always a great way to display them so they can be enjoyed by all.

We’ve contacted our wonderful designer Tara Lee and she has given us a few tips to keep in mind when displaying art.

-First off, the art must always suit the wall space. Consider the size of the wall, and the size of the piece of art. An extra large photograph on a smaller wall space can be overpowering and will actually take away from the beauty of the photograph.

-Keep in mind the rule of three. Odd numbers are more interesting to the eye. Line up three photographs horizontally for a symmetrical look, or arrange them asymmetrically for a more creative style.

-Vary the shapes and sizes of the same type and same colour object. Centre the largest piece and work your way out. This is best done by mapping out your arrangement on the floor, then transferring it onto the wall.

-Contrasting your art work with colour is a great way to make your art stand out. Use a bold wall colour then hang your piece, this can make a treasured piece shine!!

-Lastly, if you’re trying to spruce up a narrow wall space, try hanging one tall piece or several small pieces in a vertical line. This is especially great if you’ve got tall ceilings.

Talk to you soon,

Taylor

Old vs. New

Thanks for all the emails guys. We've been sorting through each one looking for themes and we came up with this question that seemed to be on many of your minds.

I've recently moved from a old victorian style home and am now the proud owner of a stylish and trendy loft . My biggest dilemma though is decorating. I've been collecting antique for over 30 years and have some beautiful pieces. My question is, how do I make my antiques work in such a modern surrounding?

Gregory

First of all Gregory, if you're planning on selling any of your antiques please notify my asap as I too collect them and will love them just as much as you did. Secondly, despite my wanting to see and possibly buy some of your antiques, I will be honest and tell you what Tara Lee our designer extrodinaire has to say about your dilemma.

Combining old with new is incredibly trendy and in style these days so keep your favourit pieces and do combine them with your new abode. Many people feel that they can only have one look in a home. Old antique furniture when arranged with the right pieces can have a very sophisticated and stylish look when put together properly. Since you are downsizing you may have to limit the amount of antiques you bring with you as your spacehas decreased dramatically. You'll need to really sit down and decide what pieces you need and what pieces you can part with.

Next, look at what furniture you'll need to purchase and what you already have. Subtle modern lighting over an antique table can really showcase the piece and bring it up to date. Old photographs, manuscripts, maps etc, framed and placed on the wall bring shear elegance to the den, office or reading nook. The trick to combining the old with the new is to be sure not to create a cluttered look. Your collection of antique tins is incredible, but how about only using three on the counter as oppose to eleven. For larger pieces such as sideboards or buffet tables ad a modern vase or urn to bring it up to date.

Well, hopefully some of these tips will have answered your questions. Keep the emails coming we're always delighted to hear from you.

Taylor