First Time Fancy

Fancy Friday Love

2012-01-27T10:30:00.010-05:00

The last Friday of January! Can you believe the first month of 2012 is already behind us? How time has flown! For us, 2012 has started off very exciting and I have a ton to share and announce over the course of the next month - so keep an eye out! With that teaser out of the way, let's see what I loved over the last week...

I would gladly take some time away in this sweet treehouse found on bliss blog last Friday. Isn't it so cozy looking?...

I loved this powder room, from theLENNOXX the minute I laid eyes on it. What a great way to take your builder basic bathroom vanity and update it with a bright colour and some door knockers for hardware! Isn't it brilliant?

Windows like this in my dining room (or kitchen), have been added to my "must-have list" for my dream home! The photo is actually from the Greenwich Hotel in NYC - care of Daily Dream Decor...

This looks like the ultimate outdoor space. I mean, it could almost fool you for a living room - couldn't it? Maybe something for us to keep in mind when we work on the back deck this spring.... No? haha

Well, my hair has been fixed up after a salon visit this week, and my outfit has been picked out! Tomorrow afternoon I am off to the Canadian Design bloggers meet-up and I cannot wait to see everyone (and hear about Blog Podium, which I am missing today!). What fun things do you have planned for this coming weekend?

It's Growing With Her

2012-01-26T09:43:00.000-05:00

When I revealed Halle's nursery back in July, her gallery wall looked like this...

Well, up until last night, it still looked like that. Since switching up the wall was on my 2012 to-do list, and her shadow box was completed, I knew it was time to cross this item off. I stand back and look at it, and think I can still make some tweaks (which I am sure I will), but here is what we have now...

So we removed the empty frame since her H is now in her shadow box. Then we added the shadow box and that little tiny embroidery hoop of fabric at the top. You may recognize it from a previous post I did on some fabric I loved. I ordered three sample and when I held that one in my hand, I knew it would look great on her wall.

So, another item sort of crossed off the list. As I mentioned, I am sure I will continue to tweak it a little. I think our owl is up a little high... and something else needs to be added to the top corner with the puppy plaques, unless I just rearrange how those three things are laid out entirely. Something just seems off - what would you tweak?

Bathroom Progress

2012-01-25T10:30:00.037-05:00

As I shared on Monday, B and my Dad have been trudging along, making huge strides in completing the bathroom reno. The floor tile was done as of Saturday night, and on Sunday they got right back to it. The last piece of cement board went up, near the shower head and then they used some thinset to mud the joints of the cement board...

While that dried, they worked on finishing up some plumbing. Us women decided to escape during that to go on a shopping trip. I was determined to find something to wear to Saturday's meet-up, but came home empty handed. I swear it's like I've completely forgot how to shop for myself people! SOMEONE help! My worries of nothing to wear were later forgotten however when the Patriots won a way-too-close-game against the Ravens to move onto the Superbowl, as well as seeing this happen...

Oh, beautiful white subway tile! You can do no wrong! B asked my father to get the subway tile started for us, as he is quite the perfectionist, so we knew we would get a straight line from him. While my Dad was busy tiling, B was installing the last piece of drywall.

{The lower hole is for the light switch for our sconces and an outlet, and the upper hole is for the thermostat for the in floor heating}

It was shortly after this that they called it a night, and it was so easy to do so, knowing that the whole room is FINALLY coming back together! Of course, seeing this progress has also given B more motivation to keep moving. Monday night, he came home from work and got back at it. He added more tiles to our back wall, and when he was done for the night (as in, he had no desire to go out into the cold and rain to cut the tiles he needed) he got the grout on the floor...

Seriously! Grout on the floor!? I'm glad we went with this nice silvery grout. Our favourite part about it was that it cost us nothing! My Dad had it left over from when he retiled the kitchen and front entrance in their home, so we snagged that at no cost!

While we had hoped to make more progress yesterday, I must admit that the bathroom looks exactly like it did on Monday night, and I'm not ready to share photos as there is still a bit of a haze on the tile that we need to scrub off. It could have been done yesterday, but instead B spent some time with Halle, while I took some time to accomplish things for myself. More to come on both the bathroom, and what I've been up to, on the side, next week...

In other news, I've had a sweet reader let me know she's having problems leaving comments on my site alone! Is anyone else have issues? If so, please shoot me an email and let me know!!

Anxieties Aside...

2012-01-24T10:30:00.010-05:00

B has been toiling away on our bathroom and making some great progress! I can't wait to share more with you tomorrow. It's looking fabulous, but by nature I am a worrier... and I have been worrying about how small our bathroom is. This is not even a valid thing to worry about, as there is nothing we can do to enlarge our space, so instead I hit up pinterest to remind myself that small can be beautiful as well...

pinterest via decorpad

pinterest via apartment therapy

via pinterest

pinterest via 6th Street Design School

The best part is that our bathroom is not anywhere near as tiny as these small, but functional spaces. Thank you pinterest, for making me feel better about our small space. I know it will turn our beautifully (not that I ever doubted that, really).

Do you have any really small, but functional spaces in your home? What do you do to make the space work better for you?

Six Months of Halle

2012-01-23T14:30:00.015-05:00

I can hardly believe that half a year has already passed since our sweet little girl joined us. In the same breath, it seems as if I have known and loved her my entire life. What would I do without her? (Okay, maybe I would sleep more, enjoy some hot showers and still get to read every single magazine that lands in my mailbox... but it's okay, I have her). Here is my little bundle of sweet celebrating six months of wonderful...

What is our Halle up to these days?...

- See the blurry little hand? Halle has been twisting and turning that wrist non-stop, as if she is wavin. She "waves" at everything! Mommy & Daddy, the puppies, her toys.... nothing at all. She just loves waving that little hand around, trying to figure it all out

- Babbling started the other week. Lots of "Ah-ma-ma-mum-mumum" and "AH-bla-bla-bla-bla". AND, sometimes, she just loves to open and close her mouth as if she were babbling... but with no noise coming out.

- Thankfully, after a few long nights last week while she was sick, we are back to 5+ hours of sleep each night... and all 3 of us are loving it!

- She is the happiest little girl - full of smiles and giggles for us, and I cherish each of those moments! Her little giggle is the best sound in the entire world!

I also need to thank ALL of you who voted for Halle in Bittersweet Photography's "Pic of the Month" contest! We found out this morning that we tied for second place! Which means we get $100 to use towards another session with Nicole this year! I can't wait! What should we use it for? Halle's one year photo's? Family Christmas Card photo's? I'm torn!!

He Soldier's On

2012-01-23T08:57:00.000-05:00

Good Morning! I hope that you all had a great weekend! I may not have made it to the salon, as I spent the weekend taking care of our recovering babe, but a lot of progress was made in the bathroom, and that makes me just as happy.

Have I ever told you how dedicated B is to what he does? Well he is! The man works all day, comes home at night and still motors away on the bathroom. Needless to say, since last week's post on the bathroom, he has made some serious progress. Another quick look back on where we left off...

Last Wednesday night, after dinner, B headed back upstairs to get to work. The first thing he took care of was to finish installing all of the cement board on the front of the tub and the area around it. Then, he switched his focus to the floor.

One of the big problems we had with the bathroom before, was how cold the floor was, especially in the winter. We always vowed that when the time came to renovate, we would install in floor heating. So my friends, the time has come and last Wednesday night, the heating system went in...

It's only on a portion of the floor, because there is no point installing it in area's we will not be standing on, like to the side of the toilet or under the vanity. Who knew a bunch of wires stapled down to sub-floor would excite me so much! I can already imagine coming out of my nice warm bath (with a glass of wine of course), and stepping onto that scrumptiously warm floor tile! Bliss! Okay, enough daydreaming and back to the work at hand. With the wires down, B's next step was to poor out a floor levelling substance, that ensured we had a nice level surface to get our floor tile down on...

Thursday evening, he was just as busy, measuring and cutting the Ditra-mat, and mudding and taping the walls.

He had the best intentions to accomplish more on Friday, but family came first. Halle seemed to be nursing a cold all week, but when she had us up all hours of the night on Wednesday and Thursday screaming and crying, we became more concerned. Friday morning I brought her to our family doctor, who told us he thought it may be Norwalk. So Friday was completely reserved for family time cuddles... and catching up on much needed sleep.

With Halle more or less back to her normal self on Saturday, B and my Dad got back to work. They started off with some work in the ceiling. Moving the location of our main light fixture, as well as the vent fan.

With that work done, it was on to the big stuff - floor tile. I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to find out we were getting floor tile! They worked all afternoon, laying the Ditra-mat, measuring, figuring out the tile placement, and finally, getting that tile down on the floor...

{Putting down thin set to lay the Ditra-mat}

{Ready for the tile to go down}

{Our lovely 12x24, light grey tile! Oh how I love it}

And that just leaves us at where they left off on Saturday evening. Sunday my parents were over once again, helping out with everything. I'll be back to share more on Wednesday. This bathroom is finally all coming together!

Did you accomplish a lot this weekend? I'd love to hear what you got up too!

Fancy Friday Love

2012-01-20T10:30:00.010-05:00

Friday is here again! What a great feeling knowing the weekend is upon us! My list is a tad shorter this week, as I spent a lot of time not only nursing my own cold, but also taking care of our wee sweet baby. But, to look on the bright side, I did find these fabulous bits...

Beautiful flooring in this apartment by Messana O'Rorke Architects, featured on desire to inspire...

Stunning photos of Sarah's home - photographed by Tracey Ayton. Make sure you head over to Sarah's blog to see more...

Can I PLEASE move into this over the top home, featured on Decor de Provence, last Friday? Everything about it is perfect!

On Tuesday, as Halle started to feel better, we took some time to whip up a batch of these delicious Hot Chocolate Cookies (recipe found on my favourite baking blog, Beantown Baker). I recommend giving them a whirl!

Carissa shared this fun stencil project that her sister tackled. She designed her own stencil, and then used a Sharpie paint pen. It looks so great, and has me wanting to do something like this.... hmmmm...

This poster from Evermade Art Prints has to be my new motto! I want to try and reduce the amount of "stuff" we have around here and try to live a bit more simply. I found myself stressed out and overwhelmed by things this past week, and not simply enjoying my time with Halle. Time to simplify around here... Less is definitely more!

Another weekend is here... and after last weekend being so crazy busy and all of us being sick, we're sticking close to home. Of course there will be some more bathroom work, and I plan to sneak off to the spa on Saturday for some "me" time, and get this hair taken care of. What are you up to this weekend?

What to Wear...

2012-01-19T10:30:00.014-05:00

So, next Saturday is the Canadian Design Bloggers meet-up here in Toronto. It will be filled with so many faces I have met before, some whom I only only met online as well as a bunch that I am sure I will have the pleasure of knowing for the first time ever. Of course, on top of these ladies the place will be filled with some really great sponsors and guest speakers...

So, aside from needing to book myself in for my spa treatments this weekend (kindly gifted to me by B for Christmas), I need to find something to wear. Being at home all day with Halle, my everyday uniform is sweat pants or yoga pants, with a tank top and sweater. If we go out, it's jeans and a tank top or t-shirt with a cardigan. I need help remembering how to dress in social environments... PLEASE!

My parents bought me a dress similar to this one below, for Christmas. It just has a little gold in it. I'm dying to wear it, just wondering if it's "too much", for this event... and what shoes would I wear?

{via}

But maybe this Lace Overlay skirt from Jacob is a better alternative if I want to add this feminine touch to my outfit?

I also have some money to spend at H&M, so I've been browsing their website for some inspiration as well...

I love the colour of this blazer, but I'm not too sure if throwing this on with a pair of jeans is too close to my usual outfits that I want to try and steer clear of?

I'm not so great with this stuff, so I would love to hear everyone weigh in. What are other bloggers wearing, and what should I wear! I'm excited to wear something fun, that I normally wouldn't wear when I'm with baby... and I'm pretty excited all of my baby weight is gone, so I'd love to feel and look pretty again. Who wants to go shopping with me?

Tiny Memories

2012-01-18T10:30:00.032-05:00

Don't you find that when you are at the beginning of something, you always start off with far more focus and determination? Well, I'm definitely feeling that right now as I continue along on my journey to complete as many of the projects on our to-do list as possible. Last week, I shared the first step in making our front entry closet a more organized space, and today I wanted to share the first of the few small updates that I plan to make to Halle's nursery.

A few weeks ago, I picked up this shadow box from HomeSensethat was on clearance for $10.

The colour wasn’t what I wanted (I knew that would be easy enough to change), but the sizeand shape were perfect for what I planned to display in it.

First things first, I unscrewed the back to get the whole thing apart, and then used a littleglass cleaner and elbow grease to get that stubborn sticker off the glass. Onceeverything got a quick wipe down, it was onto the painting portion.

Despite having the same turquoise on her dresser, andanother frame on her wall, I decided to use it again for this piece. I figuredthat in the future her dresser may get painted again or even sold off, andpicture frames can always be changed out – but this box I really wanted torepresent her time as a baby. So, I pulled out our left over Thai Teal and after about four coats (I made this more difficult on myself by not priming before painting), her pretty little box looked like this...

Next, it was time to start thinking about filling it. I already knew I wanted her tiny yellow tutu inside, but it was time to shop her nursery for more. First, I decided that her yellow "H", that I had purchased for the empty frame on her wall would go inside. I never got around to putting it in the frame, which I decided I could remove from the wall when we made our tweaks. The final piece, which would always remind us of her tinyness, was her little hand print we had done at six weeks, by Wee Piggies and Paws...

With my final memories chosen, it was time to get them in place. The tutu was the easiest. I simply used the pins that came with the box, and pinned the back waistband to the board. This kept it in place without damaging it, and the pins were easily kept out of sight...

The next part I wanted to get into place was her letter H. Since I knew that I wouldn't want to move this, I used my glue gun to adhere it to the back of the shadow box...

Halle's handprint was a whole other story. I knew that I didn't want to make this permanent, since I may want to switch it out in the future, but also because the back of it looks like this...

Sweet, right? How could I ever hide that forever? So, in order to attach it, I used a safety pin on the ribbon, and hid it behind Halle's little skirt. The perfect solution, so that I can still remove it to show it off when I want too!

Lastly, I wanted to add a little something for a decorative touch. So down into my craft room I ventured, and pulled out my jar of buttons. I found four that matched my colours and used my glue gun to add them to the back...

I ADORE how the whole thing turned out, BUT you will have to come back next week to see the whole thing together... hanging on Halle's fully tweaked art wall! Yeah, I'm wasting no time on that to-do list!

What have you done to preserve memories that are special to you? Have you made any memory boxes, or do you scrapbook? I'd love to hear what you do to hold onto those memories that are special to you!

Hoping You'll Vote

2012-01-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

Just taking a quick moment out of a busy day to ask a favour from my wonderful readers! Back in August, I shared some of the beautiful photos that Nicole of Bittersweet Photography took of Halle as a newborn. Well, Nicole picked one of those photos as her favourite photo for the month of July, meaning Miss Halle is a finalist in Nicole's Pic of the month contest! So, this post is to ask if you could pretty, pretty please vote for this little face...

There are two ways that you can vote!

1. Visit Bittersweet Photography on Facebook, and like her page. Then click on her Pic of the Year 2012 Album, and "like" the photo of our little Miss.

2. You can visit Nicole's website and simply vote for Halle's photo on the poll she has set up. She is #8.

Every vote we get counts, and we would LOVE to get another session with Nicole this year! If you're expecting, and due between now and July, Nicole also has a newborn special going on. Just be sure to book before the 20th of this month. To find out more about her newborn deal, you can read about it on her website.

Thanks again for your support dear readers!

Bathroom Progress

2012-01-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

It's now been almost two weeks since I have shared a bathroom update with you, and there has been quite a bit going on. As in, B has been working like crazy (when he could), to get the room prepped for drywall and cement board. When I last posted, the bathroom was looking like this...

With the frame for the tub in place, the next step was to get the plumbing and electrical done so that we could put up drywall and cement board...

B was working hard in the evenings after coming home from work, and he really accomplished a lot. When we got back from Ottawa on Saturday morning, the bathroom looked like this...

It's definitely coming along! You'll notice over the tub that we have put in a recessed area for keeping bathing necessities. B has also demonstrated to me that it will be the perfect spot for me to rest my head when taking a nice hot relaxing bath with a glass of wine. I-CAN'T-WAIT!!

Saturday afternoon my father stopped by, and the boys got back to work. First on the list, they finished the drain pipe for the toilet. They planned on installing our new vent fan as well, but the original one we purchased wouldn't fit as the rafters in the ceiling were smaller than we had anticipated. So, in order to keep things moving, B connected the shower valve and they continued putting up drywall and cement board.

We're getting closer and closer to be ready for paint and tile, and anyone who has ever done a bathroom renovation knows what a big deal that is!

Are there any projects you are working on that are so closed to finished, you can taste it? Or what reno have you worked on in the past that you were so happy to close the book on?

Our 2012 Travels Begin

2012-01-16T14:30:00.005-05:00

Bright and early this morning, B was up and off to his brand new job. It's a pretty exciting thing for all of us, and I can't wait to hear how his first day went. After giving his two weeks to his previous company, he had a few things to wrap up, and by the time that he was done he had Thursday and Friday of last week off. While he could have spent it relaxing, or working on our bathroom renovation, we planned a little last minute road trip... to Ottawa.

Now, if you're in Ontario and were watching the news, or even looked out your window last week, you'd know Thursday was the worst day this winter to be on the roads - especially travelling to Ottawa. However, we'd checked the weather the night before and it said just light snow, so we booked a hotel on Hotwire, and headed out at 6:30 on Thursday morning. Of course, what is normally a 4.5 hour drive, took us over 6, as we took it slow to ensure we arrived safely. I don't even think I could begin to tell you how happy I was to roll into our beautiful hotel room at the Hotel Indigo that afternoon...

We've stayed here twice before, as a twosome, and both times were thrilled with the room and the service. So when we booked on Hotwire and saw this hotel pop up as the one we booked we were thrilled! Actually, here's a fun tidbit about our history with this hotel, we were eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant when we found out that our offer on our home was accepted. Fun right?

After settling into our room and warming up, I called one of my friends and we made plans to drive to her place for dinner. Sadly, once we got on the roads they were incredibly slow because of traffic and weather, so we had to cancel and headed back to a diner, around the corner from our hotel, to eat.

After B and I filled ourselves with some delicious comfort food, we ordered a slice of cheesecake to go and headed back to the hotel. Once we were there we curled up, played with Halle, watched some hockey, and then B and I enjoyed our cheesecake and we relaxed together for the rest of the night...

Friday morning, the snow and freezing rain continued so we decided to take our time since checkout wasn't until noon. I called down for room service and then jumped online to check weather and highway conditions before we checked out. After discussing booking into the hotel for another night, we decided against it. We were told that the storm would die off by early evening, and we figured we could just visit with friends until then. With that decision made, we took our time to enjoy breakfast in bed...

After eating, we packed up our bags and headed out to visit a girlfriend of mine whose due date was yesterday! We hadn't seen each other since my baby shower in May, so it was great for her to meet Halle, and to give her, her baby gift as well as a bunch of the clothes that Halle has outgrown.

We visited for a few hours, then planned to get on the road. However, once we started driving, my confidence in the weather and road conditions vanished quite quickly. We killed some time in a few stores and Starbucks, before driving out to my friends house that we didn't make it to the previous night. The plan was to stay for dinner and then hit the road, but again, those plans changed after we checked the road conditions. It worked out well though, since the sight of our two little one's playing was the best sight ever...

We got to stay overnight and get a lot of visiting in. We hit the road bright and early on Saturday morning, and were back at our place by early afternoon. Just enough time for my Dad to come over and spend some time helping B out in the bathroom. I'll be back tomorrow with more bathroom updates! I can't wait to have it finished, and we are finally getting there!

Our 2012 Travel Wish List

2012-01-16T09:14:00.000-05:00

B and I both have a bit of the wanderlust. A desire to travel - to see new places, have new experiences and try new foods. You may have already caught on to this from posts like my look back on our trip to Dublin, or our road trips to Pittsburgh in 2010 and Cleveland last May. Of course, those are only just a few of our travels. Even though money is a little tighter, and Halle is here, we still intend on squeezing in a little bit of travelling this year. Here's what we have on our radar for 2012...

photos via here and here

This trip is already a go! My parents have a time share only a 10 minute drive from Disney World in Florida. My last trip there was in April 2008 with B. It was our very first vacation together. This spring we plan on returning, with my parents, as well as B's, to take Halle to Disney for the first time. Of course she won't remember it, but there will be a ton of photos, and we will always remember. Disney has always been one of my favourite places to visit, and always makes me feel like a child. This year's visit will be extra special, now that we have our own little girl to put Minnie ears on, and buy a princess dress for.

photos via here and here

We try to go back at least a couple of times a year and this year will be no exception. I have so many great memories about living here, and I still have so many wonderful friends who live there. What will make visiting even better this year, is one of my good friends is expecting a little girl any day now and I cannot WAIT to meet her and watch her grow with Halle! Bringing Halle to this beautiful city that I once called home will mean so much to me!

photos via here, here, here and here

This is top of our "wish list" this year! We've talked about visiting Chicago for quite some time, and finally, this year, the Red Sox will be in the Windy City taking on the Cubs. We would like to see the Sox play at as many stadiums as we can, and Wrigley is right at the top of our list. Here's to hoping we can swing this trip!

photos via here and here

The city where we met and fell in love! Whether we make a solo trip this September to mark our five year anniversary, or go in late November with Halle to take in Christmas in the city, this is another trip we'd love to make happen. It helps that we know some pretty awesome people who live there that we would like to see as well!

photos via here and here

I have never been to DC, and B hasn't been since he was a little boy. Combine that with the fact that two of his awesome cousins live there, and we have a road trip just waiting to happen. We're not too sure if we can squeeze this one into our budget, but we will definitely keep this on there as a wish list item.

Are there any places you plan to visit or would like to visit in 2012? Or maybe you have some good tips for one or more of the places we'd like to visit!? I think my list could go on forever... but to keep from boring you, I thought I'd keep it realistic for today...

OH, and just as a surprise... we've already managed to sneak off to one of our destinations this year. Come back this afternoon to find out where we went and what we got up too!

Fancy Friday Love

2012-01-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! Are you all feeling a little more settled into 2012, and the second week back to work? I'm definitely feeling good being back to my regular routine with Halle, and of course catching up with some of my favourite blogs when I get the chance. Here are some of the great things I found while catching up this past week...

Looking for a pretty new light fixture? What about a breath taking chandelier, like the one below from this is glamourous...

Sara gave us a look at her new kitchen flooring last week and it is looking FABULOUS! I'm itching to see more... and also has me wishing that a kitchen reno was in the cards for us this year too!!

Recently, I just can't get enough of beautiful bathrooms - so this post rounding up some of the best bathrooms of 2011, on desire to inspire, was right up my alley! This one had to be my favourite!

Last week, the fabulous Brittany of Gallery No. Eight shared a list of her favourite bloggers of 2011. I was beyond flattered that she included my humble little blog among so many other greats! You can check out her list here (it's definitely worth it!)

No question about it, this turquoise beauty, by interior designer Gina Viscusi Elson, is an absolute dream!

A fun and colourful closet space from Simply Grove. I may have started to organize my front hall closet... but wouldn't it be a tad better if it was a little more lively like this?...

The Mr of This Dusty House, did a great job refinishing this table for their kitchen... the idea belonged to the Mrs. Lovely, isn't it?

When I saw this space on The Cottage Mix on Tuesday, at first I couldn't believe that it was a kitchen. But it is... and I love it...

My hopes for this weekend is that we can put a good dent in the bathroom work. B's been motoring along, and my father has offered his services to us this weekend as well. So keep an eye out for some updates next week.

Do you have anything exciting planned for this weekend?

Off The List...

2012-01-12T10:30:00.004-05:00

Even with an extensive to-do list to tackle for 2012, I got a little distracted this week by this...

Yup, an IKEA RIBBA frame. We picked it up in the As-Is section the other week when we went to get our BISSA shoe cabinets. At $4.90, I couldn't leave it behind, and I knew that I would be able to make use of it.

It sat on our fireplace mantel for a while, until the inspiration finally came to me. For ages I've been trying to come up with some way to use an old skeleton key that I'd picked up at the St. Lawrence Market a few years ago. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do just that, and to create something new for our front entrance, using things we already had at home (I'm on a roll, using stuff that is cluttering up my office).

What I Used:
1. Left over light-weight fabric from our stockings
2. The Skeleton Key
3. Scissors
4. Double Sided Hem Tape
5. Glue Gun

It was an incredibly easy project that I was able to whip together in a matter of minutes, while Halle played next to me in her excersaucer. Quick projects are my best friend these days. If it only takes me a few minutes, then it doesn't get cast aside and forgot about for days or weeks.

After taking apart the frame, I cut one layer of my lightweight fabric, slightly wider than the back of the frame. (Note: before I starting cutting, I made sure that the back of the frame would still fit in place once the fabric was secured to it. Nobody wants to start a project like this and then find out your new art won't fit back into the frame!)

Next, I cut my hem tape into strips the same width as the back of the frame. I adhered it to the frame and them pulling my fabric tight, pressed it onto the sticky edge of the tape to secure it in place.

After doing the first side, I found the tape was much wider than it needed to be. So on the remaining sides. I cut the tape in half, and used thinner strips so that the tape wouldn't stick out past my fabric. I also had to use a few small dabs of hot glue in the corners where the fabric folded over itself. This helped to keep everything in place. Once all four sides were pulled tightly, and secured into place, the back of my frame looked like this...

Not the neatest thing ever... but it's the back, it won't be visible. So, I just flipped it over and began working on the important side of it.

I wasn't too sure if I wanted to keep the mat for this project. So, in order to make it easy to display it with or without the mat, I placed the mat on top to help me centre my key...

Next, a nice healthy squeeze of hot glue along the back of the key and I stuck it in place. I then let it dry flat on the table while Halle and I played...

Finally, I popped it back into the frame (with the mat for now), and into the front entrance it went.

At the moment, it resides on our console table, until I can decide where on the wall it will hang... and what to hang with it. It's better than I had hoped, and I am so happy that old key is finally on display and no longer hidden away among my "crafty pieces" in the basement.

Do you have any left alone projects you need to tackle? Or maybe you're like me and have finally had a chance to make use of some of the supplies you have laying around at home? Either way, I'd love to hear about some of your current crafty projects...

Full Steam Ahead!

2012-01-11T10:01:00.000-05:00

Last week we officially proclaimed our to-do list for 2012. With a lot to accomplish, and a lot of motivation, we got right down to business, starting with the first spot you see in our home - the front entrance.

The big closet thatwe put into our front entrance in late 2010 was meant to help with our storage and organization issue in this little ol' house. While it has served us well in the storage department, it hasn't been doing so hot in the area of organization...

Not pretty, right? It had been bothering me for ages, so I was happy to work on this one early on. My first step was to pull everything off that top shelf. I organized a basket of dog stuff, and the second held all of our scarves, mitts and other winter accessories. Any winter pieces we no longer needed or wanted were put into a donate bag. Our large collection of baseball caps was also sorted through - with one of B's old hats getting tossed in the trash and a couple going into the donate bag as well.

With the top shelf under control, everything came out of the bottom and it got a good vacuum. There was one pair of old boots that went the way of the trash and a few pairs that went into our donate bag.

One thing that I was really happy about, was to get that old trunk out of the closet. It took up a ton of floor space, and with shoes just piled in there, it wasn't helping us stay very organized. So, to solve the shoe storage dilemma and clear up some floor space, we headed to IKEA and purchased two BISSA Shoe cabinets, which fit perfectly on the two ends of the closet (and at $30 a piece, were easy on the bank account)...

Each drawer is meant to hold four pairs of shoes, but since we had a few pairs of sandals and some of my flats, a couple of drawers held more than four and left us with some extra space for future storage. Clear floor space also means more space to store Halle's car seat and stroller. In the end, it makes me incredibly happy to see it finally looking nice and neat...

I'm loving that clear floor space! No more shoes just randomly tossed about on the floor. Now I won't be so embarrassed when guests come over and go to hang their coats in our closet. There is definitely still room for improvement, but things are already looking much better!

Have you started to tackle any projects on your to-do list? Maybe you've just been working on purging and organizing your home too? I'd love to hear what you've been doing around your home!

Little Bits from the Past

2012-01-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

The other week when I shared some of the best gifts that wegave and received at Christmas, there was one that I forgot to mention. One of theextremely thoughtful gifts, given to me by B’s Mom and Grandmother, was thisbox of vintage handkerchiefs.

They belonged to B’s Grandmother, and they werepassing them on to me, thinking that maybe I could make some pretty doll clothes forHalle. However, after looking through them, B and I knew that we could not takescissors and thread to these beauties, so we are on a mission to find homes forthem in our little house. My twofavourites are these pretty floral ones...

This one came straight from Poland, where B’s grandfatherwas from...

And this one was purchased by B’s parents on theirhoneymoon. How could I ever cut up such beautiful pieces?

I hope that one can be added to Halle’s gallery wall in herbedroom, and that at least two can be included in the gallery wall in ourliving room.

What would you do with these beauties if they were gifted to you? Frame them, or do something unique? Were you gifted anything special or sentimental this holidayseason? Or maybe just something beautiful that you can’t wait to incorporateinto your home décor?

DIY Pirate Party Bunting

2012-01-09T14:30:00.024-05:00

This morning I shared some details of Parker's 3rd Birthday party. I would've loved to help out more with planning, but things have been a little crazy over here. At the end of the day, I'm thrilled that I even found the time to put together the no-sew bunting that hung at the party. It was so easy, and quick to put together, and the best part was that I already had everything I needed for this project on hand - so it cost me absolutely nothing!

What You'll Need:

1. Fabric

2. String/Rope/Twine/Ribbon (choose your poison)

3. Scissors

4. Double sided hem tape (I used an adhesive tape that I picked up at the fabric store, so there was no need for an iron)

First things first, I cut my fabric into long rectangles with the stripes running vertical. From the start I knew that I wanted these flags to be rectangular, to better resemble tattered pirate sails. In order to give them that ragged look, I cut different size points at the bottom of the fabric using my pinking shears - which made them look like this...

There was no measuring or straight lines involved for a project like this. When you are going for that ragged look, there is no need for accuracy or perfection, making this project a whole lot easier!

Next, I took my string and tied off a loop at the end to help make hanging it easier. With that tied off, it was time to start adding my flags. I cut my adhesive tape into strips the same size as the width of my rectangles. Then I cut each strip in half and applied them to the flags, with a small gap in between to run the string through.

{as the above picture indicates Halle was intrigued by the whole process...}

The next step was as simple as folding over the top of my flag so that the adhesive strips would meet.

... and voila - simple bunting, perfect for a little man's pirate party.

Have you been working on any party crafts recently?

Parker's Pirate Birthday

2012-01-09T10:30:00.040-05:00

Today a special little man in our lives turns 3! It feels like only yesterday that I held him when he was only minutes old...

Parker is my cousins little one - even though he calls us Auntie Kerry and Uncle B. We adore this energetic, smart and sweet little boy and have loved every second of watching him grow.

His biggest love at the moment is Pirates, no doubt fueled by his first visit to Disney World this past October. So, in honour of his third birthday, his Mom threw him a pirate themed party this past Saturday. No detail was overlooked... including the gifts that we wrapped up for him...

There were a number of pirates in attendance - including the birthday boy himself! However, the best part was the incredible cake that his Mom made for him. The lady is talented....

She used sparklers on the sides as the ship's cannon's! Needless to say, the birthday boy loved it!

I also put a little project together, to contribute to his day. Come back this afternoon for a little DIY post, and to find out what I made...

Fancy Friday Love - A New Year

2012-01-06T09:22:00.000-05:00

A New Year and my very first Fancy Friday of 2012! I loved getting back into blog reading. It seems there is no catching up on reading for me... maybe one day! Regardless, check out what I was loving this week...

This beautiful bathroom, from House of Turquoise on Monday, has me so excited to finish our own bathroom reno. Isn't it lovely?

A stunning NYE wedding inspiration shoot from Hey Gorgeous... shot in Rhi's very own beautiful home! Check it out over on her blog...

Incredibly beautiful and inspiring Save the Dates from Oh So Beautiful Paper. Make sure to check out all of the details on the post...

Shannon shared her love of converted spaces, when she shared this charming chapel conversion on Wednesday. Isn't it beautiful!?

A post on the to-die-for colour combo of navy and hot pink, from Nancy over at Marcus Design. Are you a fan?

One of my favourites since last week is my new Kobo Vox (with wi-fi) that I bought last Friday! My favourite is the zinio app that will allow me to get digital subscriptions to so many fabulous shelter and lifestyle mags! Anyone have any suggestions on other great apps, books or magazine subscriptions that I need to get for my new toy?

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The first weekend of 2012 is upon us! Do you have anything fun planned? Aside from working on the bathroom some more, we also have a 3rd birthday party to attend on Saturday. I'll have some photos and details to share with you on Monday.

Happy Weekend everyone!

So Maybe I Lied...

2012-01-05T10:30:00.008-05:00

Just a teeny tiny lie though. In my last bathroom renovation post, I mentioned that demolition was well behind us... apparently it wasn't. The week after Christmas, B and his Dad were working away in the bathroom. While putting up vapour barrier on the exterior wall, they noticed that the back wall that still had drywall up had NO insulation or vapour barrier behind it.

The wall is not completely exposed to outside, but it definitely get's drafty back there - so down came that wall and up went some more insulation.

With insulation up, next came the vapour barrier - followed by the drywall on our exterior wall (the one with our brand new window). Do I sound like a huge nerd if I admit that seeing that drywall go up, excited me!? Well, it did. What excited me even more, was when they built the platform for our new tub.

Why a platform for the tub? Not only will it help us with not having to bend over so far when we bathe Halle, but it also allowed B to run the plumbing underneath the tub... as opposed to through our kitchen ceiling... and the floor joists that he just repaired!

If I hadn't been busy with Halle, I'm sure I would've spent more time following along with more details of B finishing the support for our tub, and getting the plumbing ready for the shower and sink. Regardless, B got it all done and we're just about ready for the cement board and more drywall to go up... maybe this weekend?

To the left of the tub you'll see a shorter wall. We did this so that we weren't blocking natural light from the tub enclosure. A piece of glass will top that wall off, and there will be a small ledge for us to keep shower essentials. The space on the opposite side of that wall will have shelving for extra storage (something we never had in the bathroom before).

I've loved watching our bathroom come together, and hope that I can be more useful once we get to the tiling and painting portion of the reno.

Anyone else have any renovation or redecoration projects underway to start off their new year?

Our 2012 To-Do List

2012-01-04T10:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took a look back on how B and I did on our 2011 to-do list for our home. We are pretty happy with the outcome, considering all of the stuff that happened last year. This years list is no less ambitious and we're ready to cross of the items we didn't complete last year, and tackle some new items as well! To keep us more organized, I've divided our list up by the different rooms/spaces in our home. Here's what we're looking at for this year...

Front Exterior

Finish Painting thefront deck: We never quite finished this step back in July when we paintedthe entire front of our home. So this needs to happen this spring or summer!

Add Railing to the Front Deck Stairs: We don't have a ton of stairs, but it's definitely important for safety reasons - especially, in the winter months.

Find and Put up a NewHouse Number: Would you believe we haven’t had a number on our home sincewe demolished the original front entrance back in November of 2010? We need torectify this situation this year… it’s just a matter of finding the perfectnumber plaque for our home! The search is on!!

Front Entrance

Organize The FrontCloset: When we built the front entrance, we added in a nice big closet tohelp with storage and organization around here. Sadly, it’s only providedstorage and is not very organized. This year I’d love to add some new shoestorage, as I plan to repurpose a trunk that we keep in there for something else in ourhome.

Living Room

Install A NewRailing: The staircase to our basement is a bit of a death trap. When wedid the basement reno two years back, we ripped out the wall next to thebasement stairs so we could get the old tub out, and move our new washer anddryer in. We loved how not having the wall made our living room feel larger…but we just haven’t got around to putting the new railing in yet. This has tohappen this year now that so many friends have kids that our mobile… and I knowlittle Halle will start crawling at any time now!

Put in New Flooringand Built-ins: Putting in the new railing will also mean ripping the oldworn out, smelly carpet on our stairs… and in part of the living room. When wedo this, we also hope to take up the old parquet and lay some nice new hardwoodin the living room. At the same time, we will be hiring my talented father tobuild us some nice new built-ins on either side of the fireplace! I think thisis the project that I am most excited about!

Clean and Paint theBrick on the Fireplace and install a new Mantel: As you may remember, whenwe embarked on painting the living room, we also took the initiative to rip theold brick off of our fireplace. We exposed the original brick fireplace, whichas beautiful as it is, requires a little TLC. After some humming and hawing andstaring at it everyday, we have decided that when we do this room in full,painting that old brick will be our best bet. We’ve already decided on colour,you’ll just have to wait and see what we do. Of course, when all of this isgoing down, a new mantel will also be added on!

Hang Our GalleryWall: We will be putting a gallery wall of photos along our staircase, thatincludes some family photos and other fun objects… but this will have to waituntil after we’re finished all the up and down that comes with our bathroomrenovation.

Finish Recovering MyGarage Sale Chair: That poor chair has been sitting neglected in our garagefor close to two years!! I’m pretty sure I have finally found the right fabric,so I’m ready to tackle that pretty thing, and give it a new home in our livingroom! It’s about time!

Find A New FloorLamp: We’ve been living with my college grade IKEA lamp forever… and it’s timeto upgrade. We’ve been hunting for a while for the perfect floor lamp at theperfect price point, and so far no luck. I have a feeling this will be our yearthough!

Kitchen

Install Seating Benchwith Storage for our Kitchen Table: With hopes of a full kitchen reno in2013, our to-do list for this room is quite small right now. The position ofthe dining area will not change with the reno, so our only hope is to add abuilt-in seating bench, like Lindsay’s that will give us a much more cozy nookfor dining, and provide us with some much needed extra storage.

Find an Inexpensiveand Temporary Solution for some Matching Window Coverings: Our two windowsin the kitchen have some grungy, mismatched coverings that I have just beenchoosing to turn a blind eye too for the last 2.5 years. Well, NO MORE! I havesome ideas for this and plan to do something about it soon.

Upstairs Bathroom

Finish Our BathroomReno: Updates on where we stand this moment to come tomorrow… but we hopewe can cross this off of our list this month! Cross those fingers for us!

Master Bedroom

Hem our Curtains:Those bad boys are HEAVY and are getting walked on and pulled and seriouslyneed to be shortened to a proper length for our room. I’ve been putting it offfor the last year and now, it finally needs to happen.

Halle’s Nursery

Update Halle’sGallery Wall: I have a few things up my sleeve that I hope to add to herlittle gallery wall. It will fill it up and make it a bit more fun… and evenmore sentimental!

Make Halle a Toy Box:We have a trunk in our front closet that would work perfectly as Halle’s toy box… but first we really need topurge, clean and organize that space better so that we can lose the trunk. Ialready have plans for this piece so I am so ready to get that closet whippedinto shape!

Basement Living Room

Finish Trim andPainting: Since the basement is useable, all of the finishing touches downthere kind of fell to the bottom of our priorities. But no more! This spacedoes double as a guest room, and I would like to make it was welcoming aspossible for our family and friends that come to stay.

Finish the CushionFor Our Seating Bench: The foam and the fabric are already at my parents.Now I just need to find the time to head over with the zipper so that my Motherand I can sew it up. This will be a very welcome addition to our basementspace.

Hang Our GalleryWall: We plan to hang a bunch of artwork that we have both collected on our worldlytravels, on the wall between the bathroom and the laundry room. Hopefully wecan do this once the laundry room finally gets some doors (yes, that is on ourlist as well!!)

Basement Bathroom

Add a Glass Wall tothe Shower: The temporary shower curtain we are using at the moment is notideal… so hopefully we can find the time and money to install a nice glass wallin there.

Office/Laundry Room

Put up Laundry RoomDoors: We have the doors, and just like so many other projects, they arewaiting in our garage for us to get them up! There will have to be an additionto the wall added since our doors are not as wide as we anticipated, andalterations will have to be made to the doors so they are shorter… but boy willit be nice to finally have proper doors.

Find a New FilingSolution: We have so many important papers that sadly just end up piled onmy desk, making them hard to find and my desk impossible to use. We only haveone small plastic filing cabinet and I have been searching high and low for amuch bigger and more stylish option for quite some time now. We NEED to be moreorganized in this house!

Backyard

Build A New Deck:The old deck out back is rotting and not very safe. We need to build a safer,and much prettier deck – both for Halle’s safety, as well as for our love ofoutdoor entertaining!

Landscape theBackyard: This should ideally happen the same time as we build the deck.The previous owners were clearly not much for gardening, and I’m embarrassed tosay we haven’t done much better back there up till now. Hopefully this springwe can turn that eyesore around and get ready for a summer of outdoorentertaining!

On top of all of this, I am hoping that this is the year fora blog face-lift – It is definitely in need of a new look and some betterorganization. I also have a few of my own goals I am working towards that Ihope I will get to share with you this year as well!

2012 will most definitely be a very exciting and busy yearfor us… but I am SO ready for it! What do you have on your list of things you’dlike to accomplish in 2012?

ALSO - I forgot to mention yesterday that I was visiting Hilary over at My So-Called Home, answering some questions on my blogging experience. It's all part of celebrating Hilary's first Blogiversary - so pop on over and see what some other great bloggers said too, and of course send congrats to Hilary on one year of blogging!

How We Did in 2011

2012-01-03T10:30:00.005-05:00

If you're a long time reader, you'll know B and I like to make a list of projects we'd like to complete each year. We know that we won't necessarily complete every single project, but we try, without putting too much pressure on ourselves. 2011 was a crazy year with the arrival of our little girl in July, but I'd say we still did a pretty job of crossing things off of our list. Here's our year of projects in review...

- Create a Nursery for our Little Girl - DONE!
- The nursery that we put together for our Halle is filled with so much love. With DIYs that we put together ourselves, as well as a ton of handmade pieces from other family members. We love her little room... I think it's my favourite in our whole home! If you missed this one, you can check out our nursery reveal right here

- Create a Proper Master Bedroom - DONE!
- Okay, well, the room itself is not 100% completed, but it's a much better master bedroom than it was before and we definitely accomplished a lot including adding some personal artwork and making our own headboard!

- Add Half Glass Wall to Basement Shower - Not Started
- We have been using this bathroom while we renovate the upstairs bathroom. Since all of our money is going into that reno, we just have a temporary shower curtain in the basement. Hopefully we can get that glass wall up this year!

- Finish Trim in Basement Bathroom - DONE!
- Yeah, I didn't post about this one, but it's not very exciting. I hope that at some point this year I can do two weeks of proper posts on each room in our home, with more photos and some more details on what projects we've tackled.

- Finish Trim and Paint in Basement Living Area - Not Started
- Can you tell that basement has been low on our priorities list recently?
- Create Storage for Basement Living Area - Not Started
- This needs to happen in 2012!
- Get Basement Seating Bench Cushion Covered - In Progress
     - Well, I finally picked out the fabric and even brought the fabric and the cushion along to my parents... unfortunately it's not done yet! Eventually though...

- Add Doors and Trim to my Craft Room / Office - In Progress
     - There may not be doors yet, but B started adding trim to the room when we were working on some laundry room projects this past summer.

- Get Proper Storage and Organize my Craft Room / Office - In Progress
     - Last winter we picked up an IKEA dresser which has added a great deal of functional storage to my space. The desk that B built helps as well, but this is something that can still be improved upon. I guess it's kind of an ongoing thing...

- Landscape Front and Backyard - In Progress
   - We were definitely far too ambitious to think that we would landscape both areas this year. The backyard pretty much needs a complete overhaul, but at least we got some great landscaping done out front this year!

- Complete Closet in Front Entrance - DONE!
   - This was happily one of the first things we crossed off of our to-do list for this year! You can check out the reveal of our front entrance interior right here.

- Better Utilize Storage and Shelving in Kitchen - In Progress
   - B started this when he added some shelving to our large kitchen pantry. It's definitely helped with storage, especially with the abundance of baby stuff we're not storing in the kitchen. I am however, unsure about how much better we can make it without renovating the entire kitchen... which is further down the line than we would like.

- Finish Front Exterior Work
  - Complete Siding - DONE!
  - Paint Front Door - DONE!
  - Paint Aluminum Siding - DONE!
  - Add Window Box and New House Number - Not Started
  - Get New Mailbox up - DONE!
... at least all of our hardwork paid off, as the front of our home is looking far more inviting these days...

- Renovate Second Floor Bathroom - In Progress
- It's been slow going since we began demo back in November, but hey - at least it's happening... and hopefully we can cross it off of our 2012 list later this month!

- Put Up Railing on Main Floor and Basement Stairs - Not Started
- This will come as soon as our bathroom is done. Pretty important considering someone is getting ready to start crawling!

- Finish Recovering my Garage Sale Chair - Not Started
- But I think that I have finally found the right fabric for it!

- Get Our Personal Artwork Framed - DONE!
- You can check out our artwork that we got framed right here

Wish List Items: A few things we'd like to see happen around here, but we didn't count on actually getting around to...

- Build a new back deck - This has been moved to next spring / summer
- Stucco the old brick on our home
- Paint the Garage Doors - DONE! (Thanks to B and his Dad!... yeah I still need to get a picture of that)
- Finish Painting our Kitchen Cabinets White - Not sure this is worth it anymore...

We had a grand total of 17 items on our list and we finished 6 (+1 wish list item), started 6 and will be moving the remaining 5 to this year's list. Not too shabby considering we also threw in having a baby and a few other unplanned projects like our new kitchen table and the living room refresh project that we tackled.

Was your 2011 a successful year for projects (either home related or personal) that you wanted to accomplish? I'd love to hear how you felt your 2011 went, and what you have planned for the coming year...

HAPPY 2012!

2012-01-02T10:30:00.004-05:00

Another year is upon us! 2011 just seemed to whizz past us, but here we are staring down 2012 already.

{via}

I hope that you all had a great time ringing in the new year, surrounded by the people most important to you! This new year I felt so incredibly blessed to have both B and Halle by my side!

What did you do to ring in 2012?

This week I'll be taking a look back on what we accomplished in 2011, and share our to-do list for 2012... will you be making a 2012 list?

The Best of the Best!

2011-12-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

Well Christmas is now 2 days past so I thought I would pop in quickly and share with you some of the best gifts that were handed out among our family members this year...

One of my favourites was this Wedgewood Baby's First Christmas Ornament that B and I gave to Halle. She was gifted quite a few ornaments, but I purchased this one back in October when we went to visit B's parents. I hope it is one that is special to her for years to come...

What do you get for the person (or couple) who has everything? That's what B and I were stuck on when it came to his parents. In the end, I found the perfect gift after scouring the web. The Smartbox gift card that we purchased for them is perfect. They love having nights away, and now they can use our gift to book one night away at one of the Bed and Breakfasts in the guidebook, located in the Northeast United States!

For my sister-in-law, I ordered her a custom return address stamp from simpleANDpretty on etsy. I picked the style below and then we bought her an ink pad and some pretty stationary to put together a little stationary set for her. It was so fun to do!

For B, I picked out a couple of lovely things to remind him of home. The Boston ORK poster...

And since he pretty much rules our kitchen (and melted our second cutting board), I ordered him this custom Massachusetts cutting board from AHeirloom, over on Etsy. A little heart resides right around the area of Boston!

Some of my favourites that I received were...

My One Line A Day Journal from my cousin. We both started them on Christmas Day together!

B got me the this journal. I already have the book, and the journal come with the checklist of all of the places. Though we have both traveled separately, and seen many of the places - I'd like this checklist to be of all of the places we have seen together. So far we've done 5 of the 1000... we better get on it!

I also got the Kate Spade teapot and cake plate I have been admiring since way back in June - thanks to my parents and my brother and sister-in-law! They were all so good to me!

B's Mom and Dad brought me some gorgeous vintage hankies, from B's grandmother! They are beautiful, and now I just need to decide how to display them.

What were some of your favourite gifts to give and receive?

B's off the remainder of this week and into the new year, and we plan on squeezing in some family time and crossing a few projects off of our to do list. I'll be back in the New Year, hopefully with a ton of bathroom updates and some other fun projects to share!

Five Months of Halle

2011-12-23T12:48:00.001-05:00

It's so hard to believe that my little girl is five months old already...

As you can tell, she's up to a lot of new things already!
- Our little girl is fantastic at sitting on her own. We're still working on the balance, but she was sitting real well all by herself for this photo shoot (Grandma was off to the side to catch her if she started to go and was unable to balance herself).
- We're getting a lot more sleep around these parts. Some nights 5 hours stretches... but a lot of 6, 7 and even 8 hour nights as well. Thank you little munchkin. Mommy and Daddy are loving it.
- She's grabbing everything... and I mean all of it! Toys, Mommy's hair, Mommy's face, Mommy's clothes.... the dog's ears.
- She loves her dogs. She can be in the middle of a crying fit and if that Harley walks into the room, it's big smiles instantly. They are the light of her life... not Mommy and Daddy.
- She's working hard at trying to crawl during tummy time. I imagine it wont' be too long before we have a mobile little girl - exciting, scary and sad all at the same time.
- She's "exploring textures". She reaches out to things and then opens and closes her hands - scratching and feeling things. Those tiny nails on many surfaces can be quite a sound though...

Thankfully B purchased a fantastic video camera as a Christmas gift and we're already recording as much as we can. I savour these moments of her transitioning from a baby to an infant... she's growing far too quickly.

Fancy Friday Love

2011-12-23T10:30:00.015-05:00

Despite doing all of the last minute stuff to prepare for Christmas, and B's parents arrival, I did manage to find some time to squeeze in some blog reading over the past week. I'm a bit of an addict, what can I say? Here's what caught my eye and inspired me...

Last Friday Kirsten shared some photos from the Alice Lane Blogger Holiday Social - looks like it was a ton of fun. I love the idea of a homemade gift giveaway, and I think it would be a fun thing to do with friends at this time of year!

Did you read about this incredible project that Danny Goldfield is tackling? Trying to photograph a child from every country in the world... but that live in NYC!? Read more over on ohdeedoh

I am always inspired by people who see things they love... and then turn around and use their creativity to make it their own. I mean, check out the Marimekko Wallpaper that NK is recreating herself in her daughters room - crazy good, right?

What a great post on Oh Happy Day on Monday! Is anyone else prepared to try making their own wallpaper gift bags? I think this is absolutely brilliant!

This is the 2012 Calendar I am currently lusting over. From Mink Letterpress via Oh So Beautiful Paper...

How sweet is this pastel kitchen, featured on Bright Bazaar on Tuesday...

Well - this is it kids, tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Halle's very first Christmas and we couldn't be anymore excited! I can't wait to share details with you, and hear about how all of you celebrated! Surround yourself with those you love. Smile, laugh, love, celebrate... and eat lots of yummy food! I'm signing out for a few days to enjoy and I hope that all of you do the same!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! (Oh, and if you are wondering... I will sneak in later this afternoon with Halle's five month photo! Yup! Five months already! Where is the time going?)

Twas The Week Before Christmas

2011-12-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

... and we're just about done. I just need to pick up two things and finish my wrapping! B's parents will be here on Wednesday and we're all just so excited for this Christmas. It was one of those weekends that truly got me into the spirit!

Saturday night we had a few people over for dinner, including my cousin, her husband and their son who is almost three. My cousin Kay and I are six months apart and we have grown up together. She was the sister I never had and we've seen each other through the good and the bad life has thrown at us. So moments like this just make my heart swell...

Seeing our two little ones, who are 2.5 years apart, looking at each other like that, is so incredible. Wasn't it just yesterday that we ourselves were just kids, having a sleepover every December 23rd wrapping gifts and watching Garfield's Christmas special? Time sure flies!

The whole night was fabulous, and we exchanged gifts with our friends and our godson. Halle got her very first Maple Leafs jersey! I was so happy!! She still needs to grow into it, but boy is it ever cute on her...

Of course, after all kinds of excitement that day, someone was tuckered right out...

Sunday, while Halle and I escaped to hang out with my Mom and Great Aunt, B and my Dad were back to work on the bathroom reno...

Our floor joists are repaired and safe, and the rest of the floor is now level. They also got to cut the new subfloor, though it's not ready to be secured down yet. Soon though! The worst is behind us (famous last words), and this thing should slowly but surely start to resemble a bathroom again, very soon! I'm beyond excited at the moment, let me tell you!

I hope to be sharing some more updates once the Christmas rush is done and over! Come on bathroom! I'm dying to enjoy a nice hot bath with a glass of wine!

What did you get up to this past weekend?

Fancy Friday Love

2011-12-16T10:30:00.020-05:00

December 16th already? Where has the year gone? Only three more Friday's left in the year, and this will probably be my final substantial Fancy Friday Love of 2011 (I imagine all of us will take a little time off to enjoy the festivities with family and friends?). In any case, I've been trying to catch up on my blog reading and here are my faves from my past week of reading...

A short and sweet post from Brittany last Friday evening was full of twinkling light goodness... exactly what I love about this time of year!

I completely agree with this post from Roncesvalles Victorian Reno Diary - I totally covet wine cellars. Especially this fancy looking one...

I'd love to get away to this Aspen ski lodge, that was shared on Verdigris Vie earlier this week.

This post, from Liz over at WALLPAPER, has me wanting to throw a beautiful Christmas party (even though I barely have time to do the laundry these days)...

A great Holiday How-To from Brooklyn Limestone this week, for some cute unconventional wreaths. I'm a huge fan of that adorable wooden spoon wreath!

You must check out this before and after of a bonus room over on the cottage mix! Lauren did a fabulous job turning a boring old, empty space into something fabulous!

This Vintage 20's Peacock Christmas party was so unconventional, but absolutely incredible! Check out all of the details over at Kara's Party Ideas...

While catching up on blogs, I fell in love with this home, featured on desire to inspire back at the end of November. It's absolute perfection!

We have so many fun things planned for this weekend! This afternoon Halle and I are headed into my office for a holiday lunch! I cannot wait to see everyone - it's been almost 4 months since we last visited! Tomorrow we are having some guests over for a Christmas dinner, and Sunday will be a bathroom work day for B and my Dad. Hoping for a little more progress!

What fun and festive things do you have planned for this final weekend before Christmas?

The Living Room - Making Progress!

2011-12-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've given you a look at what's been happening with our living room refresh. Actually, I'm pretty sure that my last post was on how we ripped the brick off our fireplace to uncover the original. Well, not much has changed with the fireplace, but we have been doing our best to spruce up the room in preparation for Christmas guests.

One of my favourite changes has been the addition of these beautiful throw pillow covers from Nudge Home. I won them in a giveaway hosted by Vanessa over at decor happy and they are just fabulous! The colours in the Dwell Studio fabrics are perfect in our room, and the quality of the cover's is fantastic!

Oh... and B's Mom also gave us that snuggly white throw while we were visiting for Thanksgiving! We love it!

This past week we came across a great area rug while at IKEA (It's the MORUM in dark gray). We lucked out when we found it in the As-Is section for $60, after admiring it in the marketplace (the same kind of luck we had with our Manstad Sofa Bed). It's nice and dark, so it will hide any dirt or stains well (perfect in a house with two dogs and a baby), and it's the perfect texture to stand up to high traffic, while still being soft and warm under foot.

Earlier this week, while Halle and I were getting the basement ready for B's parents, I was going threw all of our artwork that we have yet to hang, and was thrilled when I found some original pieces done by B's sister. I knew that this one would be the perfect addition to the room...

I also brought up my blue chevron blanket that I purchased at Indigo a while back. I think it's my favourite throw that we have...

A full room shot will also reveal that we've switched up the furniture arrangement, which I am extremely happy with. More than likely the couch and arm chair (which we are still looking for a new slipcover for), will stay where they are. Once I recover my garage sale chair, it will go where the Christmas tree currently is...

Clearly the fireplace and bookshelves still need some love, and I'm still on the hunt for a new lamp - but things will do for now. I'm happy with how the room is coming together, especially since we've only spent $100 to get it looking like this, from this...

Have you been working on any tweaks in your home to prep for the rush of holiday guests? Or are you just focusing on getting your Christmas decor up?

Seeing That Christmas Spirit

2011-12-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

I'm back this afternoon because I just HAD to share some Christmas spirit with all of you! To most, Christmas is all about that special Christmas feeling! That warm fuzzy feeling you get while wrapping gifts, putting up your tree, listening to those special songs, watching your favourite movie... and of course sharing this all with your family and friends. Well, this Christmas - Canadian Tire wanted those warm fuzzy feelings of the Christmas season to be visible to all, and they have put up the Christmas Spirit Tree right in Union Station in Toronto.

The 30-foot tree is made up of 3,000 LED lights that are powered by Christmas spirit messages from various social media channels! Cool, right? So how can you help brighten the tree, and Christmas spirit? It's super easy. You can write a blog post, tweet, or post on facebook with some positive messages of Christmas spirit! You can also head directly over to ChristmasSpiritTree.ca to write your message, or text "Christmas" to 70734.

All of your positive messages will help to light up this fabulous tree, which is on display daily until December 26th from 6:00am until midnight. If you can't make it down there in person to check it out, you can watch a live feed of the tree right here.

Have you been to see the Christmas spirit tree?? Will you be sending out some positive Christmas spirit messages to help light the tree? Oh, and how could I not leave this post without wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Falling in Love....

2011-12-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

Not too much to share today... Halle and I will be working on getting our house guest ready for the holidays. Before we really get into that, I just had to share these beautiful new fabrics from Tonic Living...

Malta, Tourmaline

Malta, Peacock

Malta, Aegean

Malta, Mica

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous? I love them and want to order sample swatches in each colour! Even though it says it is dry clean only, I am so tempted to order it in one of the blue's or the Mica to recover that garage sale chair that we bought ages ago. I'm so ready to recover that bad boy and have it in our living room after the holidays, and this is the first fabric I have found that has made my heart skip a beat. What would you do?

Have you stumbled across any beautiful fabrics recently.

Another Christmas Weekend!

2011-12-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! We had a fabulous weekend, and hope that you all did too. Friday when B arrived home from work we headed down the street to grab dinner, and Halle was an absolute doll through the whole thing! Afterwards, we headed over to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. We only left with one small stocking stuffer for Halle, but again, she was a perfect angel.

Saturday morning involved some gift wrapping and then Halle and I headed out to do some more shopping, while B did his thing in our bathroom. Our shopping trip wasn't too long, due to all of the crowds, but we managed to cross three more gifts off of our list. When we arrived back home, we were greeted with this sight...

That would be our bathroom... a view I am not accustomed to from our kitchen doorway. B was repairing the floor joists, and found the drywall wasn't attached very well to the damaged joists, and had started to sag - so out it all came. The fun never seems to end over here! He called it a day around 4:30 and the two of us got ready to head for a night out, while Halle spent the evening hanging out with my parents.

Sunday was just a fabulous family filled day. We spent the day at my parents, where my brother and I managed to sneak out to do some shopping - then we decorated the tree and watched a bunch of Christmas movies, before having a family dinner...

{The ornament we gave my parents last Christmas to tell them we were pregnant}

{Someone was loving all of the pretty lights and ornaments!}

I am just loving these holiday weekends with family... even if it leaves me with a ton of house work to accomplish come Monday morning! Which means... I better get to it!

What did you cherish this past weekend?

Fancy Friday Love

2011-12-09T10:00:00.029-05:00

Happy Friday... once again! Another wonderful and inspiring week in blogland! Here's what struck my interest...

Annie, from Sew Graceful, made some pretty winter coat ornaments for her friends this Christmas. She was inspired by some from Posie Gets Cozy... and I'd say she did a fantastic job!

I was completely enchanted by this North Pole themed gingerbread house decorating party, from Kara's Party Ideas. Oh the fun things we'll be able to do with Halle girl when she's older!

I wish I'd had a little costume closet, like the one Jen made for Chloe, when I was a little girl!

While we're talking DIY - did you get to see Christine's fabulous chairs? We've seen so much of her home recently, and I'm loving all of it!

I'd like to think that if I'd ever had my own bachelorette pad, that it would've looked something like Ana Antunes living room - which I found on House of Turquoise. It is perfectly girly and fabulous!

A post over at Full House, on Wednesday, gave us a look at how designer Benjie Jones decorates for the holidays. The image that really stuck out to me was the front door below - love the three wreaths (and the door itself)...

WANT this kitchen dining area in our home ASAP! (Lynn Morgan Design via House of Turquoise)

I was so giddy when I stumbled across this post on a life's design on Wednesday! I fell in love with this home ages ago when it was featured in House Beautiful - so I was thrilled to see it all decked out for the holidays. It is most definitely my dream home! Click over for all the holiday yumminess!

If you haven't already - be sure to check our the mind-blowing before and after's of this home on desire to inspire. What an incredible transformation!

Another festive weekend lay ahead for us! It's the weekend of cutting down and decorating my parents Christmas tree, and I also plan to do more shopping and wrapping. Saturday night, B and I are also looking forward to a date night while the munchkin gets to spend some time with my parents. Plus, I've been spending my days this week getting our home Christmas AND guest ready - so keep an eye out for those posts next week!

What fun things do you have planned for this weekend?

The Tree - 2011

2011-12-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

Growing up, my family tree was always decorated with tons of colourful sparkling lights and ornaments collected and saved for ages. Even today, my parents still trim their tree with those vintage lights and ornaments, and I love being there every year to help adorn the branches of the real tree my father, brother, B and myself venture out to cut down. However, growing up with this sentimental mish mash of ornaments and lights has always had me craving a beautifully planned out tree, and since I was about 18, I've been collecting my own ornaments in blues, whites and silvers - that now make up the tree that stands in our living room.

I love me a real tree, and I'm glad I can still get my fill when we visit my parents. (We also have plans to incorporate a real tree into our Christmas traditions starting next year). For now, we're happy with our Home Depot purchased artificial tree... and a Yankee candle that smells of balsam.

Some of my favourite ornaments? The tin Victorian tinsel that we purchased at the One of A Kind Show a few years back. It adds that extra sparkle to our tree every year...

Our tin snowflakes. We actually bought these at RONA on boxing day a few years back. They were ridiculously inexpensive, with it being the day after Christmas, and we got them for less than a dollar each!

These white porcelain ornaments I grabbed at The Bay last December, the week before Christmas. They were already marked down and I knew they would be the perfect addition to our tree... so I grabbed four.

The one ornament that makes it onto our tree each year, without being white, blue or silver - is the Jameson bauble that we bought on our trip to Dublin in 2009. It was our first trip overseas together, so it's a special memory for us.

And new to our tree this year - this sweet baby's first Christmas ornament gifted to us by my parents! I've put them front and center, and they look so sweet.

Even our tree skirt matches well. This blue suede skirt, with white fur trim came home with us from Massachusetts after our Thanksgiving trip there in 2009... and I still adore it!

I'm linking up our sparkly blue tree today with Megan over at Honey We're Home for the Holiday Blog Link party.

How do you decorate your tree? Do you keep it the same year after year like we do - or do you like to switch it up and try something new?

Demo Days Are Behind Us!

2011-12-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

Today I'm getting off the topic of Christmas, to bring you more bathroom renovation updates. As you can imagine, things are moving quite slow with B working full time during the day and having a four month old at home, but he's doing his best to get things done. Thankfully on Sunday while Halle and I were out at the cookie exchange, B and my Dad had the whole day to get things done... which included the last of our demolition. When I got home on Sunday the bathroom looked like this...

{Looking up at the bathroom from the stairs}

I was thrilled to see our new pocket door frame in place! It was no easy task for them to get it in, since it involved trying to make everything square again.

The one big surprise was that we will have to change our original floor plans. We originally planned on having the tub on the wall with our new window, but B and my Dad explained that, with the state that the floor is in (even with them repairing those floor joists), it wasn't safe. So now the tub will go along the back wall, our vanity on the right (where it originally was) and toilet on the right (again, it's original location... just shifted slightly.

So this is how the bathroom currently looks. Tonight is just a quick dinner, and then Halle and I are going to head out to try and accomplish some Christmas shopping, and give B and evening to get more done on the bathroom. We'd really like to have it done by the time Christmas arrives, and with only 17 days until Christmas Eve... it doesn't look too promising at this point. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Sending Good Tidings

2011-12-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

We're getting close people! Only 19 more days to the big day, and still a lot to be done. My goals for this week are getting some wrapping done (maybe even a bit more shopping), and to get our Christmas cards in the mail, since they'll be sent all over Canada and the United States (and one goes to Scotland). Have you got your cards ready to go? If you're running behind and don't have time to order cards, here's what we did to save some time and money.

I used my version of My Memories, to create two different cards for this season...

It was so easy to do, by just using some backgrounds and cute little images that come with the program. Once I was done designing them, we had them printed on heavy card stock and used the back for writing a message. I loved creating our own cards, and if you'd like to do the same, you can buy your very own version of MyMemories to do the same.

Just visit MyMemories.com and use the code STMMMS43778 to get $10 off your purchase of MyMemories v3, plus a $10 credit to use at the MyMemories online store. Once you

purchase it, you can download it right away and get those cards started right away!

Have you got your cards out yet? Do you send photo cards or just regular Christmas cards?

A Festive Little Weekend

2011-12-05T09:31:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We packed ours with as many festive activities as we could. Here's what we got up to...

1. On Friday night, I had to do some prep for my baking that needed to be done on Saturday. In particular - I had to crush up whole Oreos, and doing it by hand seemed to work best. Halle wanted to help...

2. Then, up went the tree. We were able to get as far as getting it set up and the lights on, and just a few ornaments, before a certain baby needed to get to bed. She must've been exhausted from crushing all of those Oreo's, and helping Daddy with the lights for the tree...

3. On Saturday morning, I made some delicious baked french toast for breakfast, and we got a few more ornaments on the tree before bundling up and heading out to the Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Clause Parade. We ended up leaving before Santa arrived since it was pretty cold and someone was ready for a nap...

4. When we got home, we finished decorating our tree! I love it! (I will share pictures on Thursday...promise!)

5. The afternoon was dedicated to whipping up some delicious Peppermint Cream Bites. It was kind of frustrating, and I suggest that if you plan to tackle this recipe - follow your instincts. You'll definitely need more than 2 tbps of butter to make the cookie crust stick!

6. Sunday, Halle and I headed out to my hometown and to a cookie exchange hosted by my cousin. So many yummy cookies to eat and bring home - what's better than that?

7. While we were off sampling cookies with family and friends, B and my Dad were back on the home front working away on our bathroom! I can't wait to share more updates with you soon.

8. And I saved this till last since it wasn't actually over the weekend. On Tuesday evening (after Halle's appointment for the first of her four month shots), we took her to see Santa, and this was the result...

BIG SMILES - and we love it! I think she could just understand what the photographer was saying... who was raving about what a beautiful baby she was. Yup - we're totally in trouble.

Did you get up to any fun and festive things this weekend?

Fancy Friday Love

2011-12-02T10:00:00.019-05:00

Happy first Friday of December! We're sneaking up on Christmas, so I hope you're all getting ready and into the festive season. Here's some pretties, both festive and not, to help you get into the mood...

Did you catch Shannon's big announcement last Friday? I'm so excited for her, so make sure to go check out her new website!

Loved this gorgeous Sydney home featured on desire to inspire. The whole home was just perfect, but this room has to be my favourite...

Sweet crochet-covered lampshades from ohdeedoh. These are so sweet for a nursery or kids room, and easy to DIY. My favourite has to be those scallop edged ones!

Pretty packaging and gift wrapping ideas from 79 ideas...

Why can't our kitchen look like this beauty, from Period Living, featured on House of Turquoise earlier this week...

Looking for some fun Christmas inspiration ideas? How about these cute ideas, using Washi Tape, from The Sweetest Occasion...

This weekend, we'll be taking Halle to her very first Santa Clause parade in our neighbourhood, and on Sunday I have a cookie exchange to go to! It's been a VERY busy week around here preparing for the holiday season, but I'm so excited to get to start new traditions with our little munchkin.

Do you have any fun and festive plans for this December weekend?

Stepping Out...

2011-12-01T10:00:00.009-05:00

I wait for this day all year... seriously. This morning, Halle and I are headed out to the One of a Kind Show with a few of our friends from our Mommy Connections class, and also to see Jen speak.

I always love picking up special little Christmas gifts here, finding new vendors and of course visiting some of my old favourites. A few other bloggers were lucky enough to attend the media preview breakfast last Thursday (wish I could've joined you ladies) - and if you can't make it, you can read their reviews of the show, which I've linked to below. Of course, I'll be back next week with my very own look back at my favourite bits of the show.

One of a Kind Show Reviews from Blogland:

Lisa from Wicked and Weird

Jen from Rambling Renovators

Vanessa from Decor Happy

A Holiday DIY

2011-11-30T09:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday! I originally planned this post for yesterday, but it turned out to be more of a catch-up kind of day around the house - so here it is!

The other week before we left for Massachusetts I realized a few things...

1. This is Halle's first Christmas, and we only have two stockings (that are not even that nice)

2. Stockings can be EXPENSIVE... especially if you want matching ones. It's also not always easy to find nice ones that you like and match your Christmas decor.

3. I had a TON of extra fabric not being used for anything that could surely make some pretty stockings... that MATCH!

So, when we were packing up, I grabbed a bunch of fabric to bring with us, in hopes that B's Mom and I could put our heads together to make some pretty stockings. The night before Thanksgiving, while the men folk and Halle were taking in the Bruins game - we got to work. Here's what we did...

1. I drew the shape I wanted onto a large piece of heavy paper that B's Mom gave me. It wasn't perfect the first time, so I kept going back, erasing and re-drawing until I got the exact shape and size that I wanted.

2. Once we had it right, I cut it out and traced it onto our fabric. I made sure to trace it a bit wider to allow for the seams of the stocking.

3. Before cutting out the stocking shapes, we folded the fabric four times. The fabric I picked was thin, so we needed to double up the fabric for each side of the stocking. Thankfully I had a ton of fabric so we knew that we would be able to get four stockings no problem (me, B, Halle and then guests OR a future baby... Halle will want a sibling one day, right?).

4. Once we had the pieces cut out, B's Mom sewed the tops of two of the stocking shapes together, then sewed our seams flat so we would get a clean edge at the top of the stocking.

5. With our tops sewed clean, B's Mom then took the two doubled up stocking sides and sewed them together. I gave them a quick iron and then we flipped them right-side out - boy did they look great!....

But we weren't done yet! I'd also brought two different styles of blue fabric with me - paisley printed napkins that I'd grabbed on clearance at HomeSense before Halle was born, and some plain blue denim that I'd bought in Spring of 2010 for one of my final school projects. They match well, and would give us great coordinating stockings.

6. Lucky for me, the fold lines in the napkins gave us the perfect width for our stocking cuffs. So I cut the napkin a little wider than we needed and then ironed it flat.

7. Then it was time for B's Mom and I to really put our heads together to decide how to get the cuff on right. We could've sewed it on BEFORE we sewed the stocking together, but we were flying by the seats of our pants, so we needed to come up with a plan. B's Mom sewed my cut napkin into a loop - lining up the edging of the napkin, and then tried pinning it onto the stocking to see how it would look.

8. It worked out PERFECTLY, so B's Mom folded over the cut edge inside of the stocking to get us a finished edge inside as well, then sewed it up nicely. Our first finished stocking looked fantastic.

It took a few more days, and B's Mom was nice enough to finish up this project for us while we were out visiting a friend on Sunday afternoon, so by the time we left to head home the next morning, we had four beautiful stockings to bring home. I cannot wait to hang them by our fireplace... once we get it all cleaned up and our new mantle on there from my father.

Have you ever made your own Christmas stockings, or started any other Christmas crafts/DIY's to deck your halls this holidays season?

Makin' A List

2011-11-28T10:00:00.025-05:00

Happy Monday! We had a great time visiting back in Massachusetts, but this morning we're on the road back home... and I'm ready to get into the Christmas spirit!

Have you started your shopping yet? B and I got a lot of shopping done while we were away, and I thought I'd put together some fun little shopping guides for my readers who are still looking for some good ideas. I could've gone in a number of directions, but ultimately decided to go the traditional route of "For Him", "For Her" and "For the Kids". Here are my picks...

{1} Pendleton Merino Wool Blanket - $108.00 USD Kaufmann Mercantile {2} Ribbon Necklace - $25.00 maneggi {3} Fork & Spoon Wood Recipe Book - $26.00 Night Owl Paper Goods {4} Hand in Hand Cashmere Scarf - $195.00 Kate Spade {5} Madero Hoodie - $88.00 Anthropologie {6} Large Little Vintage Hearts Book - $220.00 sarah & bendrix

[1] Leather Head Handmade Football - $115.00 USD Kaufmann Mercantile [2] Menswear Tray (Shaving Kit) - $6.36 West Elm [3] No. 1 Decanter - $39.50 Indigo Books & Music [4] Reebok New England Patriots Vintage Applique Hooded Sweatshirt - $74.99 NFLShop.com [5] Solid Suede Palm Convertible Glove - $9.99 Urban Outfitters [6] Personalized Man Cave Beverage ID Tag - $7.00 TNTees

(1) Wooden Xylophone Toy - $48.00 Smiling Tree Toys (2) Giraffe Pillow - $25.00 Little Korboose (3) DUKTIG Toolbelt with soft toys - $7.99 IKEA (4) Reindeer Rattle - $12.00 Indigo Books & Music Inc. (5) The Original Slinky, Collector's Edition - $7.50 Lee Valley Tools (6) Secret Garden, Embroidered Penguin Classic - $16.00 Anthropologie (7) Plush Deer Girl - $65.00 PrettyPlush

Fancy Friday Love

2011-11-25T10:00:00.014-05:00

Happy Black Friday!! Despite being stateside, visiting with family, I managed to squeeze in some quality blog reading! (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for helping with Halle!) Here are my favourites from this week...

Did you see this gorgeous basement renovation reveal, over on hello lovely inc? Click on over to see more lovely!

I adore this girls bedroom that was featured on The Lettered Cottage on Monday. It was designed by Cortney and Bob Novogratz in less than a week. My favourite part? The beds! What little girl wouldn't find this room fun?

Brittany shared a yummy recipe for Apple Cinnamon Stuffed French Toast on Monday! Sounds so good, but unfortunately B doesn't enjoy "fruity" breakfasts as much as I do. So give it a try for me, will ya?

How cute are these balloon dog book ends? Found via Nursery Notations...

Yesterday, Meg shared this beautiful bathroom from a house they flipped last year! You need to see this fabulous transformation!

One adorable Winnie-the-Pooh themed Baby Shower over on On To Baby yesterday! So many adorable and perfect details. See and read more here...

This weekend we'll be squeezing in some visits with family and friends, and I'm pretty excited to start preparing for Christmas... which also involves getting the house cleaned and a little more organized. It's been hard to stay on top of everything with our little munchkin around, and a major reno underway! What do you have planned for this final weekend of November?

Happy Thanksgiving - Round 2!

2011-11-24T10:00:00.010-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends! Today we are south of the border celebrating this fantastic holiday surrounded by all of B's family. Halle's first Thanksgiving (we don't make a big huge deal of Canadian Thanksgiving back at home). I'm looking forward to taking in the Macy's Parade, watching football, eating turkey.... and MAYBE, if I'm lucky, having my usual post-turkey nap on the couch.

{via design dump}

I hope that all of those celebrating today are surrounded by the one's they love the most, and are showing their gratitude for all of the fantastic things we are blessed with!

Four Months of Halle

2011-11-23T10:30:00.011-05:00

So it's happened - my little girl is four months old already. There may still be some nights where we get less sleep, but there are also now a good number where she will sleep 7 or 8 hours! So it's all worth it... especially for all the smiles and giggles we get now, and each new milestone we reach. Here she is...

What's she up to these days?...

- Someone is in L-O-V-E with her feet. Just the other week she started stuffing her toes in her mouth... while Daddy was changing her diaper. Needless to say, diaper changes are becoming more challenging by the day!

- Just this past Monday she started blowing raspberries! She's been loving having us do it for quite some time now, and on Monday morning, I was changing her diaper (seems to be prime time for her to show us her new skills) and she just started blowing raspberries at me.

- She's on oatmeal cereal now, and has been since the day after her 3 month birthday. She's definitely starting to fill out and is a girl who knows what she likes. It's all about Heinz! She does not like Gerber cereal one bit.

- Her playmat is the place to be. She loves reaching and grabbing for everything and turns herself in circles constantly. It's one of the few places I can set her down during the day in order to accomplish things...

I think what's blowing my mind even more than her being four months old is that I almost have five months of maternity leave behind me! Time sure is flying...

It Must Get Worse...

2011-11-22T10:00:00.016-05:00

... before it gets better. That's definitely the point we are at in our bathroom renovation. As I mentioned yesterday, B and my father have been working away on our bathroom, and it's been pretty crazy around here. Just to refresh your memory, here is where we were after our demolition day two Sunday's ago...

Next steps, involved B pulling up some of the sub floor to see what was going on down there. What he found was a mess of plumbing and all the old junk and garbage from the last renovators... as well as a bunch of notches taken out of the floor joists. Not so good, and something that definitely needs to be addressed...

While we knew this had to be taken care of, on Sunday we were blessed with really nice weather for late November, so my Dad came over to help B with a very exciting project. Installing the new window. Here's how it all happened...

The old window came out to prepare for the new one. Then, after measuring and marking, the bottom part of the old window was boarded up and the new window was framed out. Once it was framed, they were able to use that to cut the new hole...

Just before 8pm the new window was in. A long day of work but totally worth it...

It will provide us with so much more natural light in this little space, and it's high enough that there are not any privacy concerns. We also love that we were able to find it at ReStore for only $45! It will for sure make this a huge transformation. The room won't look anything like this old space...

Halle's getting a new bathroom for Christmas!

Are we the only crazies undertaking a huge renovation (again), right before the holiday season?

Happy Birthday Monkey

2011-11-21T10:00:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned last Thursday, over the weekend we celebrated our godson's first birthday. I had so much fun helping to plan the event. Here are some details of the Sock Monkey themed soiree (FYI - there was no natural light in the party room, hence the shadows in the photos from my flash)...

{birthday banner found and printed from here}

{Cake made by my talented cousin! Chocolate and banana and so delicious!}

It was a great day, and everything turned out wonderfully! The little guy got the first birthday he deserved and was so spoiled by all of the people who love him the most! I must say, my cousin and I got rather excited during the party and already started talking Halle's first birthday.... which is still 8 months away.

What gets me, is that Saturday was the one year anniversary of us getting the great news that Halle was coming! Now she's almost 4 months old...

{wearing one of my dresses from when I was a baby}

How was your weekend? B and my father also made some progress in the bathroom, so I will be back tomorrow with more bathroom renovation updates for you!

Fancy Friday Love

2011-11-18T10:00:00.018-05:00

Friday, Friday - again! Can't believe how quickly November is flying by! I'm still working on catching up on blog reading, so you'll find some oldies, but goodies on this Fancy Friday post... so here we go!

I want to try out this DIY tassel garland, from The Sweetest Occassion - probably for the holiday's this year. What do you think?

I fell in love with these pillow covers when I spotted them on Miss Mustard Seed last Friday. What a beautiful and elegant way to add a touch of the festive season to your home. You can buy them over at Dear Lillie...

Did you see the TP that Beatrice made? Love it! Thankfully she's putting together a how-to... I'd love to make one for Halle one day!

A sweet bedroom, found via desire to inspire. I'm loving the way the curtains are hung using ribbon. I like this idea for our kitchen, since it needs some new and inexpensive window treatments...

From House of Turquoise yesterday - can you believe this space is party of a kitchen!? Isn't that sectional in the window just stunning!? Wish I was curled up right there with my laptop and a cup of tea while Halle played nicely (and quietly) nearby...

I truly enjoyed reading about how the half bath came to be, over at for the love of a house. I particularly enjoyed how the vanity came to be - it was fate! And the reveal of the half bath... isn't it stunning?

So, as yesterdays post would indicate, we have a birthday celebration upon us this weekend... as well as a ton of work on the bathroom (as you can imagine). Halle is growing so fast, that kitchen sink just isn't cutting it anymore. So off we go! So much to do!

What are your plans for this weekend?

A First Birthday Celebration

2011-11-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't given any updates on the living room or bathroom - but the bathroom work B is doing right now isn't really blog worthy (there should be some after this weekend!), and the living room is at a bit of a stand still at the moment. Today, I have some inspiration for you to check out, for a party I've been helping to plan.

On the 22nd, our godson will turn 1. It's hard to believe how quickly this year has gone, but it has, and I've been busy the last few weeks helping our friends plan little D's first birthday party. It's happening this Saturday, and they loved the idea of a Sock Monkey theme.

We've all been working on planning, shopping to make the day special for the little dude, and I can't wait to share photos and details next week. Until then, here is some of the inspiration I have been collecting over on pinterest...

{pinterest via}

{pinterest via kara's party ideas}

I LOVE finger print guest books! I think they are so fun, and have a little something like this planned for the big day.

{pinterest via kara's party ideas}

{via}

D's Mommy and Daddy will be baking up some yummy Monkey bread for the event. I'm really excited about the treats table - there will be so many yummy goodies on it!

I had so much fun looking around and collecting inspiration on pinterest. It was such a helpful tool to pull everything together and give us an overall vision of what the day would look like (I think D's parents found it helpful too!) . Have you ever used pinterest to gather inspiration for an event you planned? How did it turn out?

Simplify This Holiday Season

2011-11-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it's just over a month until Christmas? Doesn't it always just sneak up on us? It always feels like we're rushing to decorate, and then before you know it, it's all coming back down again. Why not simplify your holiday decorating this season? Martha Stewart and Home Depot have come together to help you do just that... and we got a little taste of it here at home.

Last week a bright orange box arrived on our door-step, filled with all kinds of goodies to make our home brighter and merrier this Christmas season...

Some pretty ornaments, a stocking and a wreath hanger! A big huge thank you goes out to the Home Depot. If you're looking to coordinate your holiday decor - make sure to check out the three lines that Martha Stewart has now, over at The Home Depot!

Celebration: Is a beautiful line filled with whites, golds and bronzes.

North Pole: Is right up my alley! Lots of pretty silver's and blues - our colour scheme for our main floor here at home!

and of course Traditional: Red, Green and Gold galore! This is what showed up at our home - and this year, B has a great idea on how to use these items in our home. I'm excited to share with you in the future.

Which Martha Stewart line would work best in your home? Have you dropped by the The Home Depot to check out the Christmas items yet? Which would work best in your home?

Awards!

2011-11-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Late day post today. Halle and I have been busy.... with lots of Mommy and Halle time! Sorry, I'm so late jumping on this - but over the past couple weeks I've been gifted some lovely awards by some fabulous bloggers (I've had a hard time keeping up with blog reading and writing, so I apologize if you passed on an award and I missed it).

The Versatile blogger award was one that was passed on from Meg, Jen, Shannon and Beatrice! Thank you so much ladies. Here's 7 Things about me that you may not know (I had a hard time coming up with 7, so don't expect anything too exciting to be revealed haha)...

1. My educational background is actually in Communications. I went to school in Ottawa at Carleton for four years. I loved my program, my teachers and the friends I made there... and I really loved the city. I miss it, and always love going back to visit.

2. I was never sure if I wanted to be a Mom, and was never very maternal. Then, around this time last year we were blessed with the incredible news that I was pregnant! It's been a journey, tough at times, but worth it. Being a Mommy to Halle is the greatest, and I look forward to every new day with her.

3. I have two tattoos. A copyright on my back, with my birth year and "Libra" on my left hip. I'm positive there are more to come.

4. Before I decided to go back to school for interior decorating, I'd spent some time considering going to school for photography. I still love photography, and I'm learning more everyday on how to use my camera and improve the photos I take... I'm just not sure that I could do it for a living....

5. I despise clutter, and usually purge different rooms in our home numerous times a month. I try to live by the motto, live with what you love. I think paying more for quality, is best... and I definitely don't want Halle to grow up thinking that "things" and "stuff" are the most important things in life.

6. I am not a very good cook. even with me being at home with Halle all day, dinner often falls to B. Embarrassing, but thankfully he enjoys cooking... I don't, and I'm not very inspired, but I am working on it.

7. ... and, at least you got 6 outta me! I'm surprised I did that well! hahaha...

I'm pretty sure by now, most of the blogs I read have been gifted this award, so I'd like to pass it on to any of my blogging pals who may not have received this one yet. The stage is yours!

Our Weekend Excitement

2011-11-14T08:42:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, filled with things that made you happy! We sure did! I planned on doing a fun post all about my brother's surprise 30th Birthday party that happened on Saturday night... unfortunately, I wasn't able to take many photos, since we had an over tired and cranky munchkin. We did eat well though, and got to see a lot of people, so the night was a success in the end! My sister-in-law did a fabulous job planning it!

So, instead of showing you the fun that we had on Saturday, I thought I'd share some photos of the fun that we had yesterday....

I got to help a little with the shower disassembly - but B is the one that really got to have all of the fun. By the end of the day yesterday, our bathroom looked like this...

Bring on the chaos! Hopefully this whole project doesn't take a lifetime to finish.

In the meantime - if anyone is interested in buying our old vanity and mirror, it's up for grabs (just without the blue knobs). Email me if you or someone you know are interested in it - I think it would be great for a cottage or cabin, personally....

What did you get up to this weekend?

Fancy Friday Love - Never Forget

2011-11-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

It's another Fancy Friday, but before I get into all of the pretty things - we need to talk about the most important thing - Remembrance Day. Today is such an important day to remember all of those who bravely fought and represented our country - as well as those who continue to put their life on the line for us. Today we pledge to always remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, so take a moment at 11am to think about and thank them...

{via}

Since last week's Fancy Friday was such a short list (due to falling waaaay behind on blog reading), I'm hoping this weeks list will be very long! So let's get right to it!...

Did you see this gorgeous porch renovation over on House of Turquoise last week? In an ideal world, we'd have a pretty place like this in our home for me and Halle to hang out in... but I guess that is the purpose of my living room refresh project, right?

Staci is so incredibly talented (if you didn't already know that), and she proved it once again this past week when she shared this beautiful bed with us... that she made, from SCRATCH! She has some really incredible pieces come out of Switch Studio, so be sure to check it out for all of your reupholstery needs (or custom bed needs for that matter).

Love this space, in Aspen, from this is glamourous...

This space, from Decor de Provence, is fantastic - I really love the idea of turning old pallets into seating. Wouldn't it be a great seating option in a children's playroom (I'd opt for legs as opposed to castors in that situation though)...

Did you catch Christine's nursery reveal over the weekend? It's so lovely and perfect for her little wee one! I'm dying for that babe to show his or her face!

This DIY tutorial for Marquee Letters, shared on Oh Dee Doh yesterday, has me wanting to plan a carnival themed party this very second! What a fun project to tackle, to make such a huge statement for your next event!

On Monday, B got a long awaited email... his permanent residency application was APPROVED! So on Tuesday, the three of us took a trip south of the border to the Canadian Consulate General in Buffalo to get his passport stamped. From there we headed straight back to the border so that he could officially "land", but he wasn't in the system yet. So to kill some time, we had lunch in Niagara Falls - Halle's very first trip there. It was such an incredibly special day for our little family. B is here to stay!

We have another fun-filled weekend ahead of us... but again, I can't share any details until Monday. I'll be sure to fill you in early next week though! What plans do you have for this weekend?