Too Much Rain

I'm not going to lie... I'm tempted to start counting down the hours till this week is done.  I am officially sick of rain.  Seriously... when will it stop?  Doug's been dreaming about buying a boat to fish the Fraser for years now-- and if this rain keeps up we might just have to buy one so we can escape from our house.  Enough of the drama...

The week didn't start well-- I had to say good bye to my out-of-town house guests.  Even though the house gets messy and large quantities of food start to rapidly disappear (a JUMBO sized box of mini wheats in 2 days) I am always so sad to see them go.  When you have house guests that look this cute, do you really blame me?

So my company flew home and I was left with MOUNTAINS of laundry (like seriously-- every sheet, pillow case, duvet cover, towel-- dirty) and it's been pouring rain for days.

At least I still have these two cuties to keep me company.

Although they may be starting to go a little stir crazy too with all this rain.  Caleb did cry for 15 minutes during dinner last night when he found out that T ball was cancelled due to the rain.  Poor guy.

So moving on to happier things...

I thought I'd take some time to show you all a few new things around here...

Like the new upper cabs that went up in our kitchen.  Now that our guests are gone it's going to be time to move all the other stuff over to these shelves so we can start the demolition!

They're not going be this pretty for long... soon all the junk will need a home too...

Any time my sisters come to town we do a little shopping (okay-- it's more like A LOT of shopping).  Remember how I was talking about adding some galvanized accessories to my yard?  Well I found these great planters at Ikea-- only $12.99 each.  Since it's been raining all week they haven't made their way outside yet-- so the kids have hijacked them for their toys.  They'd be pretty cute for toy storage... just saying...

And a LONG time ago I blogged about my plans for the exterior of our house when we were putting in the new windows.  Part of the plan was to put up some new sconces on either side of our front door.  I had admired this sconce from Barn Light Electric... but at $143.00 each that obviously wasn't going to happen.

But when I was at Lowes (across the border) over the weekend I snagged a pair of these... for $24.99 a piece.  Much better... can't wait for them to go up!!

10 points for me for holding up that light fixture and snapping a picture at the same time...

And lastly, I found this great throw pillow for Caleb's room at Ikea for $13.99.  Love the colors (I'm always a sucker for black & white), love the texture (kinda like a kilim pillow)-- love the way it looks in his room.  I'm quite sure he hasn't noticed it yet though :)  Guess he doesn't LOVE it as much as I do...

That's all I have to say for the moment... because if I keep rambling about how much I'm sick of the rain it's going to start to get a little depressing...

Over the Weekend

What we did this weekend...  well...

We had a spontaneous surprise birthday party for my little brother-- with homemade decorations and a hand crafted party hat-- complete with pom poms.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Caleb was probably more excited about Joel's birthday party than Joel was.  I guess spending your 22nd birthday with your three older sisters isn't all that exciting.

We also saw Coldplay (amazing!)  My little brother touched Chris Martin's hand as he ran by... surely that should make up for a lame birthday party with your sisters.

We also spent quite a bit of time in the big city.  Gotta take the sisters out shopping.  It's a rough life but someone's gotta do it...

Of course... we dragged the kids along... but they had fun.  Caleb enjoyed being a burger king.

I've been meaning to get Caleb's hair cut... but after seeing City and Colour I'm thinking we should keep growing out the top.  All we gotta do is trim up the sides and the kid would have some serious Dallas Green hair...

And then this morning it was just Caleb and I-- we went out to a local dairy farm for a preschool field trip.  Fun times had by all.  We milked a cow, fed some hay to the cows, pet the baby calves-- but of course, the highlight for all the four year olds was watching the cows make some real live mud pies.

And that was the weekend!  Our out of town guests will be leaving shortly-- back to real life :)

Roll Play

Now, I normally am a fan of the weekend.

But I happen to be a HUGE fan of THIS weekend...

Because, some of my favorite people in the whole world are flying out for the weekend (my siblings and cute little nephew) just so we can all see Coldplay tomorrow night in Vancouver.

image

Can't wait.  If it's even half as good as viva la vida was three years ago-- it's going to be a fantastic concert.

We've all been pretty excited about the events of the weekend around here...

A few days ago we were driving in the car and were talking about how all of Caleb's Aunties and Uncles were coming to visit.  He said, "Oh yeah!  That's when you're going to Roll Play!"

It was just so cute and sincere I couldn't even correct him.  So if Caleb asks... Mommy and Daddy are going to see Roll Play tomorrow night :)

But first-- tonight we're having a little birthday party at our place-- my LITTLE brother is turning 22 today!  They're flying into town in just under an hour now... gotta start blowing up the balloons, pull out the angry birds ice cream cake and hang the "happy birthday" banner-- Joel Caleb's going to LOVE it :)

A New Line of Work

A while back I showed some pictures of a kitchen Doug completed-- remember the ikea kitchen he installed for my sister in law?  I was over at their place last week and snapped a few more updated pictures.  I just love the way this kitchen turned out!  Not bad for ikea...

There's something I keep forgetting to mention on this blog.  A few months ago Doug decided to quit his day job.  After working for a local cabinetry company for many years building and installing kitchens, Doug's decided to do it on his own!

He's been working with his brother's renovation company- -they do full scale renovations for people and Doug's now come on board to build custom kitchens.  So now their customers don't have to go to ikea for a kitchen or bathroom vanities or hire another kitchen cabinetry company-- they do it all in house.

It's a bit of a risk-- becoming self employed... and really I kind of just did the same thing last year-- quit my "day job" to start up my own business... but it's been really exciting.  Doug's been very busy building kitchens and is LOVING the fact that he is able to do it on his own... and work alongside his brother.

I may have a biased opinion-- but I really think the clients that are choosing to work with Doug (and my brother in law's company) are making a smart choice-- their quality and attention to detail is top notch... something you don't always get with bigger companies that care more about getting the job done fast than doing a great job...

And I'm pretty thankful that I've got my own IN HOUSE cabinetry guy.  Just saying :)

Well... if you're in the area and are wanting to renovate-- I know of a great company!  

And did I mention that they also work pretty closely with a local interior decorating company?  I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of fun working together... :)

Elephant in the Room

I've been searching for a piggy bank for Eme for the past few months-- and couldn't find a cute one.  So logically, I decided to branch out to Elephant banks.  I found the perfect one at Chapters.

Isn't it adorable?  It looks so cute in her room...

And I think we're officially transitioning out of the "change table" phase-- after weeks of wrestling with Emerson and pictures frames from her gallery wall going flying across the room, we're moving her down to the floor.  My baby's growing up!

Weekend Picture Recap

This kid had a great weekend...

This kid attended back to back birthday parties for some of his friends this weekend-- after over 4 hours of intense birthday party goodness I had one happy (and tired) little tiger on my hands :)

(sidenote-- I'm used to attracting attention when I head out in public with these kids and all their shenanigans-- but when you're running around town with a kid all painted up like a tiger?  it got a little out of control...)

(sidenote #2-- I knew a real moment of panic when we got home and Caleb dove face first into my white slipcovered couches.  Fortunately the slipcovers survived the attack of the tiger :)

Moving along.

This little lady decided over the weekend that she's far too grown up for her high chair...

All attempts to seat her in her high chair resulted in frantic leg kicking (bicycle riding style) and screaming, protesting, and many many tears.

Sit her in a chair at the table?  Happy as a clam.  Oh boy.

But with a happy smile like this?  How can I object?

You won this weekend my dear.  We'll see about monday...

And...........

Tada!!!  While I was dealing with tiger roaring party boy and bicycle kicking high chair objecting cutie pie-- Doug was building and installing the next few pieces of our kitchen...

I sure do love the weekends :)

Open Shelves in the Kitchen

No real progress in the kitchen over the past week-- although Doug did find a scrap piece of melamine to use as a makeshift countertop on the new cabinets he built.  If we have some time this weekend the plan is to get the upper cabinets for this wall built and installed.  Once that's done I'm going to transfer all the stuff from the uppers on the other side of the kitchen over to this side and the demo will begin!

I have always loved the look of open shelves in the kitchen... and I'm sure getting a taste of it in my own house these days!  As much as I love them-- open shelves on the bottom half of the kitchen can be a challenge with a toddler... you can only imagine the kind of destruction Eme can accomplish in just a few short seconds!  I just saw this picture on pinterest and had to laugh... while it's beautiful... I am QUITE certain that toddlers DO NOT live in this house...

via pinterest

I'm hoping to have some open shelves in my kitchen-- but NOT in a place that is in any way accessible to children.  That's gotta be the ultimate make-work project.

In the meantime-- anything that could be broken or potentially be dangerous to kids will not be stored on the lower shelves in my kitchen.  It's going to be an interesting few months living like this... I can guarantee that it's not gonna always look pretty...

Sidenote... I found more of my favorite wire baskets on sale at Superstore the other day!  knowing that I was going to be living in a kitchen with a whole lot of open shelves I bought six-- at $3.50 a piece-- that's a deal I couldn't pass up...

And one more new thing in the kitchen... I've been displaying my keepsake from our Italy trip on those open shelves...

On every major street corner in Italy there is someone selling tourist-y paintings-- some of them were nice-- but I kept thinking that most of them were a little cheesy.  When were were in Florence I found this fantastic hole-in-the-wall shop that sold the most beautiful antique prints-- some that were hundreds of years old.  I fell in love with so many prints-- but ended up buying this little engraving.  It's of the Florentine countryside-- done in 1827.  It came with the mat and fit perfectly into my laptop case-- and it looks good in my house :)  No cheesy paintings of the Coliseum for me!

Anyways... there's a little update on the status of the kitchen reno for you.  Have a good weekend everyone!

In No Particular Order...

This week's been a busy one... pulling together some things for work... taking a trip into Vancouver to take pictures of a house that was renovated... taking the kids to the zoo... puttering around the yard... working on a sewing project... BBQ-ing, BBQ-ing, and more BBQ-ing... all good things!  But today it's a little rainy and I felt the need to sit down with a cup of coffee and just look at pretty things on pinterest.  So, in no particular order-- here are some of the things that inspired me.

Warning-- I'm feeling a little "random" today.  This could get interesting...

A pop of green... spring time in the bathroom is always a good thing.  Spring time in the bathroom--what does that even mean?  I don't know... but it sounded good.

Jas Design Build via pinterest

We haven't eaten dinner on our deck yet-- but come summer time-- we're out there pretty much every evening... if only dinner time on our deck looked this pretty... dinner time at our place usually includes kids refusing to eat food, spitting out food, throwing food, and then jumping out of their chairs and bolting for the swing and/or sandbox before we can stop them.

At least dinner time clean up on the deck is easy.  For me it usually involves pulling out the hose and spraying down the the table, chairs, and deck (and the kids-- I wish).  If Doug was to clean up he'd probably pull out the air compressor hose and blow it all off.  Oh how I long for warm summer evenings on the deck...

JL Designs via pinterest

I bought some boxwoods over the weekend-- now I've just got to find some old galvanized buckets to put them in and try not to kill them.  This could be difficult-- my plant killing skills are legendary.  Hopefully the boxwood's survival skills are stronger than my plant killing skills.

 Doesn't this look so charming?  I always have SUCH good intentions...

via pinterest

Um, so I bought myself a pair of coral skinnies.  And I love them.  If summer was a pair of pants-- I think they'd be coral.  Anyone out there want to disagree?

Pink Peonies via pinterest

Another charming bathroom...  This seems like the perfect bathroom to bathe a whole lot of squirming kids...

JAS Design Build via pinterest

Speaking of squirming kids in the bath tub...

You may laugh at this-- I did at first-- but honestly I think this is absolutely genius.  FOR REAL.  I wouldn't need this contraption for my youngest kiddo-- my oldest is particular skittish at the thought of getting water in the eyes.  I want one!  Do you think it comes in size 5T?

via pinterest

I warned you that this was going to be random.

This image reminds me that I have a stack of frames I scored at ikea for half price waiting to be hung in my office downstairs.  Gotta get on that!

Atlanta Homes Mag via pinterest

Cute kitchen clutter.  Not all kitchen clutter is cute (you should see mine right now-- not cute) but this is...

via pinterest

While this bedroom isn't particularly spring-y... I keep coming back to it.  I think it's all the layers that make it interesting...

via pinterest

Okay, that's it.

No, wait... I can't help but throw in a few pictures of the kids.

Waiting to get on the train at the zoo...

Caleb kept trying to play it cool-- but I caught him trying to cover up these HUGE grins as the train took off.  He loves the zoo.

And Eme in her pink croc's.  She's in love with them-- I think she'd wear them to bed if we let her.

K, now I'm done.

What's inspiring you these days??

Happy Little Easter Bunnies

Easter weekend is not complete without an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Grandma planned a fun Easter hunt around the farm and much fun was had by all.

Eme didn't hunt for eggs and treats-- she just wandered around the farm looking cute.

Those ponytails-- worth all the effort it takes to put them in?  I think so.

Easter egg hunt was followed by a whole lot of jumping.

And after all that chocolate and "hopping"...

The kids began to look a little "bunny-ish"... 

Spring Sprung

Well I think we can officially say that spring is here?  Please let it be so...

Well, to kick it off-- I figured it was time to give the flannel bedding the boot.  A few nights ago Doug and I just couldn't seem to fall asleep-- the flannel was too much.  So I pulled out my white bedding.

But, I really need a little color in there.  It needs something fun.  Andrea and I signed out samples of the Dwell Studio/Robert Allen Vintage Plumes fabric for a client to see and now I want it in my house.  Having all kinds of gorgeous fabrics sitting around my house is going to be dangerous-- let me tell you.  So I'm thinking that the jade colorway would be perfect on the two Euro shams on my bed.  How fun would this be for summer?

The second runner up is the Vintage Blossom in Jade-- also a Dwell Studio/Robert Allen fabric.  I found this fabric locally for a great price-- but it's not quite as fun as the vintage plumes.

And I also like the Birch colorway in the living room.  How am I going to decide?

Enough about fabric.

Well, we definitely enjoyed the sun today.  We kicked off the day by taking the kids out for breakfast and then went to a local greenhouse to pick up some plants!  This is Eme's favorite face nowadays... every time we're in public and someone starts smiling at her she gives them a stone cold stare.  Just exercising her serious side I guess.

We took the kids to the petting zoo to see the goats and sheep.  I got my farm girl on and managed to catch one of the skittish little goats.  Doug was impressed.  It wasn't really that hard-- I was wearing a plaid shirt-- after all.  Eme kind of liked it at first...

But as soon as it even looked at her she would start running away as fast as possible, violently waving her hands back and forth, saying: "no, no, no, no, NO!!"  Guess she's not a farm girl at heart.

Then we headed home for the afternoon to do a little yard work.  I was working in the front yard with Caleb doing a little weeding and planting a few new things-- I head around back to grab something and find this...

We've been talking about leveling out a section of the backyard and putting in a little rock wall for a while now-- Doug figured there was no time like the present to get started.  As you can imagine-- Caleb was overjoyed at the fact that there was dirt flying everywhere.  He grabbed his own shovel and dove right into the middle of the action.

Next came a freezie.  And this happened...

Then he crashed from the sugar high a while later and almost fell asleep during dinner.  We decided to call it an early night and both kids were in bed by 7:15.  That almost never happens.

Well, hope you're all enjoying the weekend-- and a little spring time fun :)