Making Room for #4

I swore that with baby number 2 I would stay on top of things... be ahead of the game! Be totally prepared for his arrival. HA! I should have known better, right? Between maintaining our home, being a Mom (which includes taking Halle to different activities, outings, preschool, etc) and maintaining our social life, let's just say I'm a little further behind than I planned to be at almost 33 weeks pregnant!

My due date with this little guy is sneaking up on us quite quickly and I am anxious to have his room mostly (if not completely) finished by the time that he arrives! B has been an absolute trooper, helping me make this whole thing come together. Without him, absolutely nothing would be done! There is still a lot to do, but between the two of us, I know that we'll get there (eventually).

Unlike Halle's nursery in our first home, the space that is the nursery lacked any sort of character. It was just a bland grey box, that we were using as a "guest room" (we dumped a queen size bed in there and pretty much called it a day). Here's how the room looked the day we did our final walk through (in April of 2013).

I never got a picture of the opposite side of the room on that day, but the closet also had no trim around it, much like that little window shoved into the corner. I knew that I wanted this space to feel more cozy and have more character, so we started to discuss adding trim to the walls. We had a few ideas of what we might do, then I saw this post from Bethany over at This Little Estate and thought that her idea sounded perfect! As soon as B saw what they did he was right on board as well.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this photo of B getting to work a few weeks ago. 

I wish I had documented his process a lot better, but that photo is about as good as it gets. He essentially did the same thing as Bethany and her husband did. He ripped some MDF boards into strips, and used his nail gun to attach them to the wall. He also trimmed out the window and closet doors (as well as the bedroom door of course, to ensure it matched with the rest of the room). Then he had to fill in the nail holes, and caulk around some of the edges, sand it all down and give it too good coats of white trim paint.

By the 15th, we had the nursery looking like this (wall colour not very accurately captured below)...

By the end of that evening I wanted to have the curtains up. We had purchased some pipe from Home Depot and spray painted it black. Once it was dry, B attached it to the wall using large butterfly clips that fit in behind the drywall. We secured one side to the wall that the window is on, and the other straight to the opposite wall.

Last weekend B did the last few coats of paint on the trim, and I vacuumed and shampooed the carpets. On Sunday the crib was assembled and the one piece of artwork I was certain I wanted in here (a photo I took on Vancouver Island last summer) was hung. We picked up his dresser (which I found on Craigslist) on Saturday, but we have had to keep it at a friends place since. I'm hoping we'll pick it up sometime this weekend. For now, his nursery is slowly starting to resemble a space for a baby...

I plan to get his way too long curtains hemmed this weekend and once his dresser comes home, I can finally start to wash and put away his tiny clothes and cloth diapers that I have been amassing. It also means his closet will finally be cleaned out. That's the next big project. It needs to be disassembled, painted and a new storage system installed. We plan to do something similar to what we did in Halle's closet. It will be a whole lot better than it's current state, that's for sure...

So there you have it! Not long now till our little man joins us, and progress is slow going in his room... but we are getting there! I can't wait to share the finished space! Hopefully I will be able to well before his arrival.

Our 2015 To-Do List

With 2014 behind us, and our list reviewed, it's time for us to set our household goals for this new year. For those who don't follow me on Instagram, we found out on Christmas Day that we are welcoming a baby boy come May and are so excited! This means a lot of our to-do list will be geared towards preparing for his arrival. Here's what we have on our list...

The Front Entry:

The Stairs: Just after Christmas we both got tired of trying to maintain the carpet on the stairs. It was just dirty and dingy and hard to keep the dog fur off of it, as it seems to be where they enjoy hanging out. It made the house smell like dogs, and it was just time for it to go. B has ripped off the carpet and we are in the process of pulling staples so we can refinish them. We hope to get the risers painted white, the treads stained and some trim added to the wall side of the stairs. Hopefully this will be done sooner rather than later. 

Paint: Just after ripping up the carpet we started priming this hallway. I've found it too dark for too long down there with not much natural light, dark floors and grey walls. We plan to paint the walls the same colour as the rec room and can't wait to share this transformation.

Storage: B and I have agreed we'd like to add a seating bench with storage, and some hooks on the wall for hanging jackets. This will go on the wall by the front door close to my office. We think it will be a much better place for Halle to sit while putting on her shoes so the dogs are constantly running past her. Hopefully we can find time to do this.

The Rec Room:

Finish Painting: We completed so much painting down there between the summer and early December. All of the walls were done and we also transformed one wall into a magnetic chalk wall for Halle that she loves drawing on! We left one nook unpainted since we originally planned to fill it with some built in bookshelves for storage. However, when we rearranged the rec room to our new desired layout we discovered that nook is the perfect play area for Halle. This means in the near future we will need to move her toys out and finish painting that area.

Artwork: We have tons of artwork we need/want to hang down here - many pieces need some new frames so we're on the hunt for some affordable frames. Hopefully we can have these all hung before my parents come to stay with us for little man's arrival.

The Guest Room:

All of It: I don't even know where to start with the breakdown of what we need to do in here. We put this original guest room together in October of 2013 when we were welcoming some extra guests for Thanksgiving. We put it together quickly, using what we had and it was functional. However, now that we'll be moving the upstairs guest bed down here this room needs to be cleared out and we'll start all over decorating it and making it more welcoming and comfortable for the many guests that we expect with our new baby coming!

The Master Bedroom:

Storage: I'm moving this forward from last year, as I'd like to find a long low dresser for this room before baby arrives in May. It will give us more storage space in our room which will hopefully allow us to eliminate the two dressers that are in there now (one in our bedroom, one in our closet). We may use one of the current dressers in the baby's room, or we may get him a new one - we'll see what happens.

Lighting: Maybe we'll finally address the light fixture in our room after living here for two years (Yup - it will be two years since we moved in come this May!). Fingers are crossed for this!

The Nursery:

All of It: Much like the downstairs guest room, we have a whole room to work with - essentially starting from scratch. I've found some inspiration shots and B and I have begun our hunt to find pieces we love for a good price! I can't wait to start pulling his room together and sharing it with you! So much to do and I'm so excited about it!

A Look Back at our 2014 To-Do List

Well, another year has come and gone and it's a little crazy for me to think that 2015 has arrived. We have a lot to accomplish this coming year (especially before our new little one arrives in May), but before we get to that I need to take a look back at what we accomplished from our 2014 to-do list.

Exterior: (1/2 Completed)

(at the start of 2014)

Details: Our original plan was to build a railing between the two posts at the front of the house in front of the window. Instead, B ended up making us a lovely porch swing, which we love! Once it was built and put in place, we learned that there would not be enough room to put in a railing as well. As nice as it would look to have one, we prefer to have a nice place to sit, and watch Halle play in the front yard! So we'll consider this item checked off our list!

Landscaping: We has big plans to fix up the front garden and fill in our lawn and come up with some really great ideas for this area to spruce it up... LAST SPRING! Unfortunately, this item was never crossed off of our list as much as we would have liked it to. B did work on getting rid of some of the moss in our grass, to allow for the grass to grow in thicker, but maybe this year we'll finally get around to landscaping!

The Dining Room: (4/5 Completed)

(At the start of 2014)

Seating: When we started 2014, all we had were two end chairs (as seen in the above photo). We lucked out and in late January I found 4 pretty green x-back chairs and later in the summer we scored an 11 foot church pew off of Craigslist. We completely transformed the pew into a beautiful piece for the opposite side of our dining table, and we have officially found all of the seating we need for our dining room! We're loving how it all came together, and are happy this was checked off of our list!

Lighting: The light fixture actually came together a lot more quickly than we both expected. B put it together in a couple of weeks back in February as we prepared to host a dinner party for Brett's birthday. We always get compliments on it when people visit and the way it lights up the table always gives the perfect ambiance for dining. Check, check, check!!

Storage: We had talked a lot about building something in where our IKEA bookcase stood. Unfortunately, with so many other projects going on, this fell to the back burner. We considered it low priority since there was already a bookcase there providing some storage for us. We did however, add a small table to one corner which gave us some room for a picture frame, some house plants and lots of my books and magazines. It was a small step, but for $3 it was exactly what we needed to add a little bit of storage in our dining room. At the end of the day, I consider this step a success!
Paint: While we are getting tired of the grey in this space... and the WHOLE house, we never got around to painting the dining room as it will be a big commitment. Painting the dining room will also involve painting the family room, kitchen and upstairs hallway. For now, this has actually been moved off of our list.

Artwork: When we rang in 2014, we had no artwork hanging in the dining room. We made some baby steps (not all are permanent) by hanging a mirror, our Boston OrkPoster and a large family photo. We have some plans to add some new art in this year, hopefully this year, but for now this one is complete.

(at the end of 2014)

The Master Bedroom: (2/4 Completed)

(at the start of 2014)

Bedding: We crossed this one off right at the start of 2014. We took advantage of the white sale at The Bay in early January. We got some lovely Gluckstein sheets for a great price and they ACTUALLY fit our bed. We love them and the steel blue colour we picked is perfect with the next item we crossed off.

Paint: This was another item I took care of early on. I started painting in February and didn't finish until March (that's real life with a 2.5 year old... who is now 3.5). I picked a dark blue called "Wrought Iron" by Martha Stewart and I'm glad I did this one when I did as the Martha Stewart line has since been discontinued at Home Depot. 

Storage: I really wanted to replace our tall IKEA dresser last year. I knew something longer and lower would fill the far wall much better, but we never got around to it. Again, this ended up low on our list as we already had a dresser that was doing it's job.

Lighting: This one makes me laugh since it's been on our list since we bought the house and we STILL have not found something we like for this room. In time we'll replace that light fixture!

(at the end of 2014)

Halle's Room: (2/4 Completed)

(at the start of 2014)

Toy Storage: We made some small progress on this front, but of course the amount of toys she had in there seemed to multiply - so I'm not sure how helpful our storage additions were. I picked up some small stacking boxes for a steal, and we also got some cute giraffe hooks for her wall on clearance at Target. We did make a nice change in her closet, giving us plenty of more storage room in there and that was the biggest progress we made by far!

Big Girl Bed: We had planned to build Halle a big girl bed, but it never happened. Instead we got a good deal on a bed frame for her on Craigslist. It was perfect and we got her some plain white sheets from Target, and a pretty duvet cover that matches her room from IKEA. She loves her big girl bed... and it definitely makes her seem all grown up. It happened just in time too, as she is so excited to give her old crib to her baby!

Curtains: I was worried that the curtains were too short and wanted to add some fabric to the bottoms of the curtains. Now I'm starting to think that we should just drop the curtain rod a little bit and the problem should be solved. We'll take care of this one soon!

Lighting: We still have replaced the fan on her ceiling, though we still have plans to do so. We just havent' found something we love. I'm just hoping that we can find one for her while we are making up the nursery... I'd like her to still feel special and do something for her as we are preparing for the baby.

(at the end of 2014)

The Kitchen: (1/2 Completed)

(though the cupboards were almost done at the start of 2014, this was the photo I shared from one of our first walk throughs of the house)

Storage: We had hoped to get a seating bench into our window nook last year, but it just never happened. Over time the conversation of storage in here at evolved into talks of putting shelves into the other nook. It didn't happen last year, but we hope to do it this year and create a new home for my cake plates, stand mixer and growing collection of cookbooks.

Lighting: We never expected this to happen, but during a trip across the border in the fall we came across and inexpensive light fixture and made it over with a little spray paint in one night. We love the look of it in the kitchen, and I'm so happy we did cross this off our list. 

The Backyard: (1/1 Completed)

(at the start of 2014)

Gardens: We wanted to make some big changes out here, including garden beds for vegetables and expanding one of the gardens over by out covered patio. We managed to get some fabulous gardens that supplied us with tons of tasty fruits and veggies that we ate during the summer, but also froze to enjoy over the winter months. B was also successful at creating a run for the dogs along the side of the house which solved the problem of the dogs digging holes and destroying our grass.

Bonus - Sandbox and start of playhouse: Though we didn't put on our list B was successful at building a sandbox for Halle and starting construction on a playhouse for her. Hopefully the playhouse will be completed for her to enjoy this summer!

The Back Deck: (0/1 Completed)

(at the start of 2014)

Seating: We had hoped to build some outdoor seating using pallets this past year, but it just never happened. Instead, B used those pallets to create a small herb garden for us, and also build some planter boxes that we had tomato plants in. We didn't increase our seating, but utilized the space on our big deck and the tomato plants also offered us some more privacy on the deck as the summer wore on!

There were some bonus projects we completed this year, including a makeover to our downstairs rec room, and some work we've begun in our hallway. Both of these should come up on our 2015 to-do list, more as items to finish up! I can't wait to share what we've done in these two areas!

Overall, I'm happy that we finished up what we did. 11/19 isn't too bad since we had a busy year getting outdoors, exploring, travelling and having visitors here as well! 

Back in Action

Talk about a break from blogging! I don't really have a reason for you as to why it happened, except for maybe I've really been embracing my 2014 motto of "Simplify". After completing our kitchen cabinet transformation project, we took a little break to just enjoy the start of the new year as a family. We've been getting out and enjoying being together (especially since we haven't been slammed with snow and ice like our families back east), and I've also been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing. I've been able to sell some things we don't use as well as donate a few things, and it was nice to purge a little. 

BUT, with B's sister arriving on Friday and a little dinner party planned for Saturday, we needed to whip our dining room into shape for some hosting. We've been busy bee's the last couple of weeks. The last photo I shared on here of our dining room was just after B had finished our dining table...

In the last few weeks we've accomplished quite a bit. Here's what our dining room currently looks like...

We are getting there! On the far wall we have hung a mirror that B has had since before we even started dating (it sat on the mantel in our home in Toronto). It may not be the forever solution, but for now it fills the wall and really bounces more light around in the space. We like it.

You'll notice I've also started to address our seating issue. Those four green chairs I grabbed at HomeSense for a great deal. I'd been eyeing them since November, but couldn't pull the trigger on them for $99.99 a piece. At the end of January I popped back in and was checking the clearance section, only to discover four were left at $36 each! Of course they had to come home and they are perfect. The two blue chairs on the opposite side of the table will be painted the same green colour in time. 

By far, the biggest and best addition is the light fixture that B put together for us. Of course this style is all over Pinterest, but I wasn't in love with the idea until we went to Scotland and saw a huge light fixture made from Mason jars at the Super Dry store in Glasgow. So when we got back and needed a big idea for over the dining table, this seemed the best and most affordable solution. The whole thing cost us under $300 - not bad considering the impact it makes. 

We bought the pine and the wiring and junction boxes from The Home Depot, using a gift card my parents gave us for Christmas. For the stain, we used leftover stain from the table. The woods are different (pine for the light fixture and douglas fir for the table), so the stain appears slightly different. I like that they don't match exactly, but have the same tone! 

The jars I bought off of someone local for $8 (for all 12), which was a great snag. We bought the fabric covered wire and sockets from a Massachusetts based company called Sundial Wire - definitely recommend them if you are looking to do something like this! Finally, the amber coloured filament bulbs top off the whole project. We bought 16 for $5/each from Restoration Hardware when they were having their lighting sale in early January.

I feel like it makes the most impact when it's all lit up at night. The amber lights were the perfect choice, and we're happy with how much light 12, 30W bulbs give off. The perfect ambiance for dining!

There's still much to be done around here. B and I have agreed the next big thing will be the built-in in that nook currently occupied by the far too small bookcase. The good thing about the built-in is we will be able to build it slowly. Start with a lower cabinet and had uppers afterwards. Just something to add some extra storage and character to this slowly evolving room. 

I'm just thrilled with how quickly we've been checking things off of our to-do list so far. The bedroom has had some progress as well, and I hope that today I can finally finish getting paint on our walls. It's a much slower process now that I have a two-year old underfoot at all times! She is one busy and curious little girl!

What have you been doing to keep yourselves busy? Anyone been hibernating inside and making big changes to their homes?

The 2014 To-Do List

Well, it's been a while since I've been able to put together a to-do list for our home! The last one I put together was in early 2012, but we didn't get to tackle most of it as we began preparing to move in early February. So, a new year is upon us and after tackling a few projects in my office, the kitchen and Halle's room last year, 2014 proves to be exciting! Here's what's on our list:

The Exterior

Details: Top of our list is a railing for our front porch. We'd like to build our own that looks like this, between the two posts on the front porch, and along the side.

Landscaping: We definitely need to work on the existing garden, but we'd like to add more to the front lawn as well... we just need to come up with a solid plan before Spring arrives!

The Dining Room

Seating: We need to find chairs! Two chairs at the heads of the table isn't going to cut it for much longer. I have some ideas of what I would like, but it's all going to come down to what we can afford. The search is on (and has been for a while already actually!)

Lighting: After removing the tiny, builder basic chandelier that hung in this room ages ago, I've spent a lot of time drooling over beautiful light fixtures for the dining room. (My top pick is this beauty from Restoration Hardware). Since my top pick is well over our tiny budget, we've opted to go the DIY route. We've already started to purchase materials, it's just going to come down to finding the time to assemble it all! Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later that we get the chance to shine some light in this space!

Storage: That niche that currently houses our too small IKEA bookcase needs to be addressed! Our plan is to fill it with some beautiful built ins. I'm thinking of something like this, but with some cupboards (rather than drawers) on the bottom.

Paint: The grey is actually quite nice (they picked the right shade), but it's becoming a bit overwhelming in a climate that is generally very grey! I'd like to lighten it up, but it's a matter of finding the perfect colour (I'm thinking cream or pearl), and then finding the time to tackle it. It's going to be a big undertaking and will mean painting a few rooms as the dining room is open to our living space and front entry way.

Artwork: It is quite obvious that we have a huge empty wall glaring at us! I've gone back and forth on how I'd like to fill the wall with artwork. I think I've finally come to a conclusion and would like to put a number of enlarged personal photos from our travels in this space. I just need to decide what I want to use for frames. I have a few ideas.

The Master Bedroom

Bedding: We've been struggling with sheets that do not properly fit our mattress since we first bought it in the spring of 2012. 2014 will be the year to FINALLY correct this!

Paint: I'm thinking a rich deep blue. I think it will really cozy up the room for us!

Storage: Since this photo was taken we've brought two nightstands into the room, but we need to do more! Our tall, narrow IKEA dresser is not really cutting it. We could use the extra storage space, and a longer dresser will fill the wall at the foot of our bed much better. I'm really liking the Emmerson 6 Drawer Dresser from West Elm or the Hendrix Extra-Wide Dresser from Pottery Barn.

Lighting: It's funny that when we first bought our home we said that the light fixture in our master bedroom would be the first thing we would address. Here we are, almost 8 months after we got the keys and the old fixture still hangs in our room! Maybe this year it will finally get the boot for something more our style. 

Halle's Room

Toy Storage: At the moment Halle has a lot of toys in the living room and basement, but I think more should be kept in here to play with. The only storage we have in there at the moment is her dresser and bookshelves. I plan to build some crate style boxes that we can stack up for books that she loves the most and some of her soft toys as well!

Big Girl Bed: We had a double bed in her room at the rental, but it takes up far too much room in this space. After some searching and discussing, B and I have agreed to tackle building her a bed this year... maybe in the spring/summer?

Curtains: We've got the curtains hung, but they are too short. I am still searching for the best fabric, and think I have found a winner - now it's just a matter of ordering it and adding it to the bottom of her curtains!

Lighting: I'm not a big fan of the, uh, FAN in Halle's room but it does serve it's purpose in the summer months. Just like many homes on the West Coast, this place is void of central air conditioning. However, since it really doesn't get all that hot here and the evenings cool off nicely, I'd say her ceiling fan is not entirely necessary and we could get away with replacing it with something much prettier and buy her a fan that could sit atop her dresser or a future nightstand! We'll see how this all goes. This is more of a "nice to change" item.

The Kitchen

Storage: Since we've redone the cabinets (updated photos to come this week!), we've also discussed adding a seating bench in the window nook, using cabinets. We plan on looking at both Home Depot and ReStore to see what we can find. This will not only add some cozy seating, but also an opportunity for some extra storage in the kitchen (and we can make whatever cabinets we find match using leftovers from our Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation kit!). 

Lighting: We've already replaced the light fixture over the sink, and are planning a new light for the dining room, so we'd also like to address this light over our kitchen table. It's not bad, just not really us!

The Back Yard

Gardens: Just like out front, we need to address the landscaping in the backyard. Right now it's pretty bland, and we've had some issues with the dogs digging holes. This year we'd like to make some changes and hopefully even include some raised garden beds where we can grow some of our own vegetables.

The Back Deck

The Back Deck

Seating: Our back deck is pretty huge, and a great spot for entertaining. Last year we managed to purchase a pretty nice dining set off craigslist (from a family whose home we viewed and I fell in love with... but it didn't tick enough boxes off of our must have list), but there is plenty more room to fill. Last year we talked about building an outdoor sofa using old pallets to put at the far end of the deck (pictured above). Maybe this summer will be the year for us?

I know this seems like a pretty long and ambitious list (I'm good for those), but nothing on this list really NEEDS to happen this year - most are just, nice to haves and we'll see how well we do! We'd like to make our house a home, but we also want to focus a lot of time on our family and enjoy Halle's littleness! 

Do you have a list you plan to tackle for the new year? What big projects are you hoping to start and/or finish in 2014?

My 2014 Motto

I've never really been one for resolutions. I just never found that I really met them, like many others and found them to be a "waste" if you will. However, over the last month I've done a lot of reflecting on the past year and thinking about how I want the next year to go.

As great as 2013 was, I found myself stressed a lot of the time. Always worried about the next step and what I needed to do to get there. I found I really didn't spend as much time as I should living in the moment. So the word I want to focus on for 2014 is "Simplify"

I really want to simplify in every aspect.

At Home - On top of my own decluttering and organizing that I've been slugging away at since we moved, I've signed up for Apartment Therapy's January Cure. I'm hoping I can really take this month to go through our home room by room and donate or sell all of the things that we no longer use or need. If it's something we may need in the future, or use seasonally I'll be packing it away in a place where it belongs. It's time to reduce the amount of stuff we have and only focus on the things that we need. SIMPLIFY!

Family - Family is obviously #1 for me! As much as I enjoy decorating and making our home feel like ours, I need to find the perfect balance with everything. I need to take more time out of every day to play and be with Halle. As much as I want her to use her imagination and learn independent play, I could also play more and read more to her. I also want to take more time for us to get out and do family things together.

Exercise - I haven't done enough of this recently, and in this gorgeous place we live I don't know why I've been avoiding it. Not only have a friend and I been discussing getting in shape to run a 5k, I also hope to get out and do more exploring and hiking with B and Halle. We didn't do a whole lot after we moved, so this will be the year we do it! It's time for us to spend more time outside!

Diet - By diet, I don't mean go on a diet. I mean the general food we are eating! I hope to make simpler, healthier meals that we will all enjoy. Cut out a lot of the junk we sometimes eat, and try to make life easier in many ways. A healthier happier diet, and meals that aren't as heavy and time consuming to make! Cutting down on the time it takes to make food, means more time to spend with Halle!

Spending Habits -  I guess this has a lot to do with other items listed above. This year we need to spend less money on things we "want" and focus on the things we really "need"! We need to do a better job of not just picking up "this and that" while we are out shopping. I want to get back to meal planning so we only buy the healthy groceries and snacks that we need, which will cut down on the grocery bill as well. It's time for us to start spending wisely and saving more!

What do you want to focus on in the New Year? Are you making resolutions, or do you have your own motto that you want to follow? 

A Little To-Do List

Well, it's that time of year. People are thinking a lot about resolutions, goals, plans, to-do's... all of it. I'm no different. I have a lot on my mind these days - life, family, friends, our wedding, work(?), our rental... and more. My mind is constantly working these days and I find it hard to turn it off sometimes, so I decided it was time to sit down and try to write down some of my goals and to-do's for 2013.

Family

- Find a "Memory Chest" for Halle: This falls somewhere between family & rental, but I feel it falls more on the family side of things. I want to find or make a wooden chest that I can paint, and then store keepsakes for Halle in. I have her first year calendar, some special cards, certain outfits and a few other books, etc. that I want to put away for safe keeping for when she is older. This is high on my priority list as many of these items are scattered around the house and I don't want them to go missing/get damaged.

- Organize our "Memory Box": No surprise that I have a box full of ticket stubs, brochures, pieces of paper, napkins, boarding passes, etc. from the past 5 years that B & I have been together. Unfortunately, when they are sitting crammed into a box, they aren't making us smile all too often. The other week I picked up a "Smash Book" from HomeSense, and it's perfect. It's essentially a scrapbook that isn't meant to look pretty & that is all that we need. I'm determined to get this book filled up, so we have a sweet book we can flip threw together.

- Finish our 2012 Family Year Book: I've started and come so close to finish up a photo year book. I have a few photos that are missing from the month when we were computer less - so I just need to pull those together and finish cleaning up pages that I started. I'm hoping that I can finish this up before Halle turns 2! 

Rental

- Finish the garage sale chair: Yup - that garage sale chair is making some progress and I hope we can finish it up before Spring hit's. Even before the Super Bowl would be great. The more seating we have here for the big game, the better!

- Paint a canvas for Halle: I've already found the inspiration for what I want to paint for her, and I have a canvas in the basement that I plan on painting over... now I just need to get on it.

- Finish painting Halle's final bookshelf and hang it: I'm so close to finishing this one and it will make such a huge difference in her room. This little girl has SO MANY books and a bunch are sitting in a box in her closet. I can't wait to get them out and into a better rotation of reading with her. (My Dad built this shelf around the time Halle was born... so it's been sitting around unpainted for far too long, so it's time to finally cross this off my list).

- Paint the dresser in our dining room: This will probably come after all of the items above, but I hope I can get on this soon. I'm not overly bothered by the wood finish on it at the moment, but I'm sure as I spend more and more time in the Dining Room, it will bother me more.

- Find or Make a Dining Room Table: This is more of a wish list item. We don't NEED the dining room table, but I wouldn't mind having a bigger space for entertaining friends out here. It would also be nice if it could be a larger space for me to work on projects. Maybe this is something I can start pricing out soon.

Life

Life is a lot harder to write out than these first too. I've been thinking a lot recently about what I would like to do... all of the time. Work wise. I've spent a lot of time wondering what my future looks like when it comes to work. What drives me? What am I truly passionate about? The biggest part of me always seems to be wanting to help people, and I feel like if when I get back into the working world, I am inclined to want to be a part of the not-for-profit sector. I want to do something that betters life for other's. 
In the meantime, I want to work on being a better Mom to Halle. I've done my best to reduce how much time I spend on my phone/online while I am with her during the day. I find these to be unnecessary distractions. I've already removed Twitter off of my phone, and I'm leaning towards doing the same with Facebook. Most of my blog writing and reading is done while she is napping or in bed at night - but even at night, I find I prefer dedicating that time to B, and spending time with him. At the end of each and every day this little family of mine is what is most important and I want to spend a lot of time focusing on them this year.

What is on your list of things that you want to accomplish this year? What are your goals or to-do's and what will you do to encourage yourself to check items off of that list?

How We Did in 2011

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...