Janette in Port hope

I was looking for fabrics for various decor projects around my newly-renovated house. I think I was being a bit of a snob when I gave Frabricland a miss and instead was dragging home samples from Designer Fabrics and InVu Drapery, both in Toronto. One day I happened into a Fabricland (on Ottawa Street in Hamilton where I purchased bargain priced custom drapes at Peter's Drapery; I went pretty far afield for some things) and there on the discount table at FabricLand was just enough of the perfect Ikat type fabric for the two cushions I was wanting to cover. Ten bucks! So then I went into the Oshawa store in search of a fabric to reupholster a bench I'd bought on Kijiji. Rich persimmon heavy weave. Perfect. And good service to boot. At the same time I saw some fabric for sheers, much nicer than the fabrics I'd been looking at in the ready mades. I have since decided to do sheer roman blinds with the fabric instead of typical sheers. Went back to Fabricland hoping to find clear rods but they only have one kind of neutral cream colour. They do have clear circly things for stringing the cord though. Cord only comes in white. I did join the Fabricland 'club' in order to get a discount on my fabric purchases. I probably won't use it again. I've pretty well shot the bolt on my new decor . I'm posting pics but I haven't made the Roman blinds yet but you can get a sense from picture how well the sheer tones in with the drapes.

I had three large limited edition prints and one small vintage print framed by Frames and Pictures. I was happy, happy, happy! Here's why. I'd researched online for reasonably priced framing and come up with a number of possibilities, this business being one. However, I first went to Michaels because they had a 60% off sale. I was so stunned by the cost of framing the first print (at 60% off it was far more expensive than I could ever imagine though I had excellent service there) that I gathered them up and went directly to my second choice. There the most helpful owner pointed out a huge wall of discounted frames (he buys up lots and keeps them in a warehouse) plus another large wall of regular priced frames. There was exceptional choice and I managed to find three of my frames in the discounted section. I picked a bronze metal frame in the regular priced section because it was so perfect for the print. To give you an example; one print ended up in a 2 ft x 2.5 ft hand-painted Italian wooden frame. It didn't need to be matted because the artist had left a wide border when she ran off the print. The owner suggested it. Total was $120. The perfect colour and modern shape. I love it. In fact I love all four; they give me great pleasure. The framing is the icing on the cake with any painting/picture. I'm so glad I found Frames and Pictures. Just in case you're wondering this IS a legitimate review; I didn't have a clue about this business beforehand.