{"id":9052,"date":"2014-11-19T16:46:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T21:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9052"},"modified":"2014-11-26T21:55:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T02:55:02","slug":"aurora-homeowners-gear-up-for-this-weeks-holiday-home-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-homeowners-gear-up-for-this-weeks-holiday-home-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora homeowners gear up for this week\u2019s Holiday Home Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora interior designer Wendy Neal only has a few last-minute touches to make before she opens up her Highland Court home to visitors this week as part of Pickering College\u2019s Holiday Home Tour.<\/p>\n

Ms. Neal\u2019s home is one of three Aurora homes participating on the seven-home tour, which gets underway this Friday at the Newmarket private school.
\nWhen Ms. Neal hears the word \u201cChristmas\u201d, she is a traditionalist at heart with visions of red and white dancing in her head. But, a few splashes of purple here and there reveal the designer\u2019s touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the sparkling lights,\u201d she says. \u201cI have been working as a decorator for 16 or 17 years and I have always loved putting colours together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Neal started in the business working alongside her father in Montreal\u2019s fabric and textile industry, but she was pulled to the home d\u00e9cor end of the business rather than the fashion side fairly early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the opportunity presented itself, I took some courses and I confirmed I knew what I wanted to do,\u201d she explains. \u201cI am a believer that you either have a knack for style, d\u00e9cor and putting things together, or you don\u2019t. The door opened for me to do a consult job and that led into a bigger job, and word of mouth got my business going. I feel fortunate to be able to do something I absolutely love.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is clear that this love extends to her Aurora home, which is situated just off Kennedy Street West. Glittering lights abounded when The Auroran visited last week, and now it is just a matter of minor tweaks before show time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rewarding to see your ideas, and your clients ideas, come into fruition,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

The 10th Annual Pickering College Holiday Home Tour gets underway this Friday, November 21 at 5.30 p.m., going to 9.30 p.m. The tour resumes Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are still available for the tour itself by calling 905-895-1120 x360.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s highlight, a VIP Design Tour with Cobi Ladner is now sold out, but ticketholders can take part in a design talk and book signing with Frankie Flowers on Saturday, which will be held in conjunction with a Seasonal Boutique and Caf\u00e9 held at Pickering College itself. Admission to the Boutique is free, and it runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

Each participating home in Aurora and Newmarket will be paired with local musicians, and sponsors which will provide a flavour of local dishes and products to tour-goers. <\/p>\n

Ms. Neal\u2019s home will host a cheese tasting courtesy of Nature\u2019s Emporium with Friday\u2019s music provided by musicians from The Piano Studio, and Saturday\u2019s entertainment by woodwind musicians from Pickering College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope when people come through here on Saturday and Sunday, they feel a sense of comfort, welcoming, and a sense of Christmas,\u201d says Ms. Neal. \u201cThat is what I have tried to achieve in this house. You are welcome everywhere. There isn\u2019t one room that you can\u2019t go in, or a place where you can\u2019t sit. I hope our house says, \u2018Welcome, enjoy, and Merry Christmas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora interior designer Wendy Neal only has a few last-minute touches to make before she opens up her Highland Court home to visitors this week as part of Pickering College\u2019s Holiday Home Tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-11-20-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2m0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 18:14:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}