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I’ve been dealing with a massive headache for about 12 hours now and I’m not sure what or who to blame it on – perhaps the 20 degree celsius drop in temperature overnight, or the 3 times I flew out of bed in the middle of the night at the sounds of a cat barfing (each time a different cat). All this to say I have little motivation for blogging at the moment but I pushed through my misery to put together a selection of photos from this website that in a previous post I refered to as the Brazilian Selby. Enjoy. (And no need to feel sorry for me – I did arrive home to find a little package in the mail which made me feel better).

Seriously cool design by Serbian architectural firm Sinestezia. Clever storage, sexy room dividers and a clean modern palette. Ideas to steal here readers. A family home that adapts and changes to this young family’s needs. Love it!

Let me say first that this is a sponsored post. YES!!!!! I love a sponsored post especially if it involves a flight to Sydney, a fab city suite, a day to shop till I drop (my money not theirs boohoo) and then an invite to the launch of Freedom‘s autumn collection on Wednesday. Great design and style don’t need a great big price tag to match so I can’t wait to see what Freedom, one of Australia’s leading furniture and homewares purveyors has in store. Promise I’ll let you know as soon as I can. I’m excited!

As Jo mentioned yesterday we’re back to blogging on weekends. I think I’ll stick with the theme I had ended off with back in December of my blogland favs of the week as that was relatively painless to accomplish in the midst of my usual weekend activities of laundry, groceries, house chores, parental visits and whatever else popped up. But I will be breaking that up with random posts, like for example, new work going on at my house. Today is a random post as I had a busy week and wanted to share a few things before the work week starts up.

Thursday was quite eventful. It started with a little party after work for the launch of the 2011 Interiors issue of Ottawa Magazine. I was SO STOKED because as you may recall back in the beginning of December I mentioned in this post there was a photo shoot at my home. I was interviewed and photographed for this issue of Ottawa Magazine, which happens to be the first time I’ve gotten a shout out locally for being a blogger with some degree of success. And Thursday I finally was able to get my hands on a copy. The story is a page and a half with a rather large photo of me in my kitchen, as well as a shot of my dining room. The photos were taken by Dwayne Brown, who is super talented and SUPER nice, especially when he found out I was interested in photography. He gave me some tips, explained everything he was doing and let me watch as he tweaked the photos on his laptop. And writer Patrick Langston stopped by the house one afternoon and hung out with my husband, myself and our herd of cats and we had a lovely chat about moi and the blog. He also sent Jo some questions are a couple quotes from her and included in the article. Despite having been featured in several magazines around the world, I have to say this one I’m most proud of. Thanks to everyone at Ottawa mag, Patrick and Dwayne!!

***UPDATE: The story is now up on the Ottawa Magazine website HERE!

I had to leave the Ottawa mag party a bit early to make it home for a meeting with our architect who was going to show us his first set of drawings of the additions we want to do to our house. More excitement! It was so great to finally get a visual of how the house is going to look. We talked for a while and came up with more ideas for my husband and I to ponder. He left some drawings with us, and I scanned them and showed my parents and the next day got some feedback from my father. I really liked his ideas so I tweaked the drawings of the main floor to incorporate them. Below are the drawings so far. The red lines delineate the current home (our current office at the back of the house isn’t delineated in red because it needs to be torn down and rebuilt because it is not adequately insulated). We haven’t discussed details like window placement or exterior/interior finishes yet so windows you see on the drawings are just there as an idea. I cannot wait for this work to start – THIS HOUSE IS TOO FREAKING SMALL!!!

The title of this post ends with “and a cat” – so this is the cat part. Most of you should know by now that I am a huge lover of animals, and I must since I have 7 cats in that tiny house above. I’m always willing to help out a cat in need of a good and forever home when I can – and I almost brought this poor little guy home from PetSmart the other day for my parents who are currently pet-less but the timing could not have been worse so no happy ending there. But I would like to help out a reader here in Ottawa, Elfriede, who first emailed me back in October. Her son rescued a cat whom he dropped off at her house saying he would find her a home and so far has not. She asked if I could take her in because she didn’t want to have to take her to the shelter and although my answer was NO WAY, I told her I would be happy to post some photos on the blog in the hopes someone would be willing to give her a home. Elfriede would keep the cat but her new husband has asthma and cannot be around cats. Here is a bit of info Elfriede told me: My son has named her “Gretchen”. I took her to a vet a few months ago and he determined that she is female, 10 years old, and a mixed breed (himalayan and tabby). He gave her all the shots and a check up and issued a clean bill of health. What I know about the cat is that she is totally lovable, very affectionate, and in winter, when she stays inside, she is content to just sleep or watch cat-tv through our picture window. In the warm weather she prefers to be outside and explore. She never ventures far from the house. She likes to be around people and likes to snuggle up to anybody who wants to participate. If anyone out there thinks they could provide a home for Gretchen, please email me (desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com) and I can get you in contact with Elfriede. Gretchen is SO CUTE and I wish I could take her but that could mean the end of my sanity. Here are some pics:

It’s Saturday and it’s normally WINKS day. Well it was until I lost my WINKS mojo. I’ve tried mixing it up with reading guides. I love reading guides. It’s all about lurking on sites and sharing the blog love. There have been new old house posts and January weekend holidays. Now it’s time to get back to work but I’m having a mental block. I need your help. I need your suggestions. What do you, the readers, want on a Saturday? Monday to Friday is all about desire and inspiration, stylists and photographers, architects and designers. What should the weekends be?

I have one thought that I’d love some feedback on. I’m hoping to make Saturdays a little more interactive. We have such great readers. You are talented and opinionated, generous and have great taste (of course). Some of you are truly gifted professionals and some of your are stylish amateurs. Some of you are lost, looking for inspiration. I’d love to see Saturdays as a day where readers can send in their design problems or questions and the DTI readers can go for it. A reader, let’s call them “A”, sends a picture of their problem. The rest of you, let’s call you “B to Z”, share your ideas, give your opinions, have a voice. Dissect, discuss, shake your head at a horrible room and help find a solution.

So what do you think? It’s time to dissect, discuss, shake your head at a horrible suggestion and help find a solution. WINKS isn’t dead and gone. Fabulous links are always coming in. Reading guides will always be popping up but… What to do with a Saturday? 🙂