reno-ready.....




Oddly enough the last time I remember picking flooring and paint colours was about 3months before baby #1 was due. That time it was for my studio reno. I love the wood in this old-ish house. I got out voted. I tried many times to keep the casings, doors any panelling. No luck. White will be coming. This is the entrance to the downstairs. Hopefully we'll see it with a nifty "in the wall" area to make good use of space hang a few coats on hooks.

We have a very strict budget and the sink will not be moved but a new pedestal and flat mirror will help ease the tight feel. The rest of the bathroom has so much more room, a spa bench beside the tub and fresh white towels will be on order. Thrift stores look out, I need a few very important items.

This time the reno is a few houses away, thank goodness, at a rental we have just down the street. Being so close to a university is a great place for a rental, I only wish I could have lived a ten minute walk from campus I could have spent much more time focused on cute boys, er, I mean my studies!The kitchen is a great size with tons of light, huge windows for a downstairs suite. I really wanted to make use of the space and our amazing contractor worked so hard to help us with a great solution. Here are the before shots, the rest will follow in a month or two. We got rid of a silly closet and will cover over an inefficient crawl space. It is starting to take shape.


Back to work!

where is spring?



I didn't really go down the hill. I ran out took a few pictures, posed for a few and then ran back into the Jeep to sip on my Starbucks hot chocolate.



The boys had a great time. I want summer.



family

I saw this quote here today.
Love it. Love all her ideas!
I will find a place for it on my all after I play with lettering a little.

are you wearing green?

We had a ton of fun coming up with treats for our friends for this
St Patrick's Day!




beautiful day.....


I left work before 4:00 today to do this.......to do this.......and to do this......and this....it was a beautiful day!

oatmeal chocolate chip cowboy cookies

Last Sunday was a book store browsing and baking cookies kind of day for us. The store was big brothers idea. The cookies were his Dad's idea. I know this for sure because my wonderful husband printed off the recipe before he went into work and left it for us on the counter. So sweet of him...... We didn't mind.
We dressed up in our best cowboy hats and got right to work. (He ran off for the hat as I added the oats. He had asked what are oats for and I said, "Oats are for eating. Horses like oats." Voila, cowboy cookies were created.






Here you go partners!


Yee Haw!


baby bag quest

Quest ended.
I do believe I have found my a very important baby accessory.
My old trusty brown skip and hop bag I used with big brother just didn't seem right anymore.
My snowy day shopping treat.


baby sheets

Here is my tutorial on baby sheets.
I am not a seamstress by any means but if I can sew a straight line anyone can! Here is how I made 7 sets of sheets for our baby crib for the price of ONE set of sheets at the store. (Never mind the fact that there is not actually a store in town that carries oval sheets and I have to order them from the Alberta! Yeah, shipping is on top of that too!)
Anyway, these sheets are way cuter and only took a few hours to sew up. Shopping for fabric is fun and I hit a half off sale so splurged on a few extra meters.
Buy super cute flannel.
Trace mattress.
Sew.
Thread elastic.
Put on bed and admire your work!
I trace the mattress using a washable marker, my mattress is 2 inches high so I made a 3-4 inch wide pattern. Then sew.

My favorite new part is threading the elastic. I actually had 7 sheets sewn and procrastinated the elastic threading because it was so time consuming using the old safety pin method. One afternoon I had a brainwave of an idea to drill a hole through a dowel to thread the elastic through. It worked perfectly! It took less than a minute to thread each sheet compared to about 10 minutes the old fashioned way.


You may notice I have sewn a flower on the nice side of the sheet. This is my own invention after struggling to put on the sheets for a whole year. It really helps when you have a lack of sleep and brain cells in your favor. I sew on flower out of scraps and sew it onto the top of each sheets to I know where to start when I change the sheets.

I did make a few sets in girl colours just in case.......