Free Specs

Yup.  Free.  The best kind of new glasses are the free kind.  You can get a free pair too at Clearly Contacts... I ordered these ones.  I only had to pay for shipping, and they arrived on my doorstep less than 48 hrs after I ordered them.  

What did Doug think of my new specs?  He said, "wow, you look like a nerd... but a cool nerd."  I'll take it as a compliment, right?  I have a feeling that I may look back at pictures of myself in these glasses in 15 years and go-- what was I thinking!?  But today, I love them :)

Thrifting again...

Was at the thrift store today shopping for a new project (a top to bottom house renovation that also needs some new furniture!) and found some great chairs needing a makeover.  Check one thing off the project to do list :)  As I was about to leave, I spied this little moroccan inspired side table sitting in a corner topped with a huge ugly lamp.  I thought... yes... I could do something with this...

So I brought it home.  Turns out it fits nicely in the living room, could work beside my chair in the nursery, and could be a great table between the 2 beds in the kids shared room.  Love a good find... just needs a coat of paint... now, just gotta decide on the color :)

Oh, and apparently tomorrow is 50% off everything in the MCC furniture store here in town.  I opted to not pick up the table tomorrow as I didn't want to have to brave the crowds and parking lot with my stroller and Eme while trying to carry the table to my car.  It was cheap enough already.

But, apparently there will be coffee and danishes... tempting... I may show up just for the free breakfast :)

Monkey Monday

This weekend I whipped up a little monkey for my latest and newest little niece.  Auntie Elissa's monkey club now has 7 members.  I must say, they are pretty fun to make.  And this time around I had two little helpers watching with extreme fascination as I was sewing... they started to realize how their own little monkeys came together.  Caleb think's it's pretty cool that I know how to sew and wants me to teach him how-- guess it doesn't take much to impress a 5 year old :)  Crazy to think that I wasn't much older than him when I first started learning how to use my mom's sewing machine...

Anyhow... making monkeys!  Fun stuff!  Easy to do, and super cute... if I do say so myself :)

Just had to share...

Cutest kids room... designed for a girl... but could be a little boyish too... :)

chalk white arrow

And that's all I've got to say right now... well... back to enjoying my mid afternoon coffee in a quiet house... nap time rules :)

Personality and other Things

I have been spending a whole lot of one on one time with this little lady.  

Let me tell you... she's got personality.  She's a talker-- and a loud talker when it's just the two of us.  High pitched, shrill, loud... "MOM!!!!!" is her favourite word to shriek.

When she wants to come out of her crib from her nap she starts by calmly calling out "Hi Mom!"  If I don't come, it turns to "LOVE YOU MAMA!"  Trying to butter me up.  Then, if I still don't come she has started to call out: "LISA!  COME!"  Since when am I on a first name basis with my 2 year old?

Every morning when we head out to school to drop Caleb off Eme's got all her accessories ready to go-- a bracelet of some sort (today it was my neon yellow wrist band from the most recent Coldplay concert), a tiny purple purse she got along with a McDonald's happy meals months ago swinging on her arm, inside the purse is always a hot pink bouncy ball that she got from Castle Fun Park, and she never leaves the house without her purple ray bans.  And they are usually on up side down.

`

Man, do I love this girly.

While we're on the topic of kids...

This week I had the routine mid-pregnancy ultrasound for our still-in-womb child.  I think it was my favourite ultrasound so far.  As I watched that squirming baby on the screen, all I could think about was how that baby was going to grow up into another Caleb... another Eme... another child with personality.  Can't wait!

And the gender is a surprise-- as was the case with our other children.  Doug and I can't do it-- we can't find out-- being surprised is just way too fun!

While I'm on the topic of ultrasounds...

I have had many ultrasounds over the years and I have never, ever been able to figure out how much is the acceptable/necessary amount of water to drink.  Last time it was too little too late.  This time it was WAY too much.  I had to drive into Langley for this appointment (Abby's ultrasound tech quit so a bunch of people's appointments got cancelled) and I have NEVER been that uncomfortable before.  I was desperately praying that I wouldn't have to sneeze or cough.  It would have been game over-- instantly.  I decided on the drive that I'd never drink anything ever again.  I determined that having to pee that badly was worse than childbirth.  I pulled off the fasted parallel park job ever-- I needed to move-- quick.  As I was walking towards the clinic Doug called for directions.  I told him he was on his own-- I couldn't talk-- was concentrating too hard on not peeing my pants.  I got to the front desk and told them that I needed direction to the washroom-- right now-- I didn't care if I was allowed or not.  Honestly, I'll never be able to figure out how much and when.  The ultrasound tech kept sending me back to the washroom to keep emptying... oh well.  It's all a part of the process of growing a baby!

And while I'm on the topic of being pregnant...

My maternity pants crisis has been solved.  Made a quick trip to H&M this morning and found a pair of  fantastic emerald green jeans for an unbeatable price.  It was a tough choice-- emerald, red, or mint... but the green just felt fall-ish to me... even though this week still feels like summer!

Random-ness...

Just a few random things for you on this gloriously gorgeous September Friday...

We are concluding Caleb's first week of Kindergarten!!  He started out with two half days on Monday and Tuesday and the rest of the week has been full days.  Let me tell you, he's been a Kindergarten superstar.  He's not the most outgoing kid out there, so I was a little unsure of how he would react to being left at school ALL day.  But, he's totally put his brave face on in the mornings, even when I can tell he's feeling nervous, gets into line with the other kids, and waves goodbye to me and Eme as he marches through the door.  And each day when I pick him up he tells me that Kindergarten is great :)

I had a few unused canning jars kicking around so I decided to use em up and make some red pepper jelly!  Let me tell you-- red pepper jelly is one of my all time go to snacks-- some cheese, crackers, and pepper jelly?  Yum.  The best kind is always the homemade version-- I have yet to find a store bought version that compares.  I used a recipe off the Mennonite Girl's Can Cook site-- easy peasy.

Thank you all for your feedback on shared kids rooms-- I've been shopping around to find a few things and measuring up the room to see what's going to work.  First up-- I've gotta give the room a fresh coat of paint (Caleb really did a number on his walls by his bed).  Maybe I'll even attempt it this weekend?? Maybe if I consume enough Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi??  We'll see.

I'm a little sad to say goodbye to Caleb's room... I've always loved his dresser/shelves space... cluttered little boy goodness.  But, gotta make room for....

... this little lady.  Who's been having a whole lot of alone time with Mama while Caleb's in school.  She love to shop... atta girl.  We hit the stores and the next thing I know she's decked out in bracelets and necklaces or she's on the floor trying on a pair of pants.  We're going to have fun together.

And... the bump this week.  It's growing... and that baby is moving in there!  I seriously need to get me some elastic pants... I've outgrown almost all of my regular jeans... just have the pinks and my green gap jeggings left...  but I hate maternity clothes.  They always look a little lame.

Oh, and my hardware came for the kitchen!!  I decided to skip the cheapies and go straight for the amazing ones... they really were the perfect fit for my kitchen.  Can't wait for them to go on!  Too bad my cabinetry guy's out of town for the weekend... guess it's going to have to wait a few days!

So, it's just me and kiddos over the next days... gonna have to get creative to keep them entertained!  Happy weekend everyone!

double trouble

Finding out that we're having a third child join our family is awesome-- but it poses a bit of a challenge to our family's sleeping logistics.  We have three bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs (currently used as our office and guest room).  So, what to do?  We have two options-- convert our downstairs office into a bedroom for Caleb and move the office/guest room together... or have Caleb and Emerson share a bedroom.  At first I was really thinking that Caleb would be moving downstairs... but... the more I thought about it, the more I felt a little weird about it.  He'd be all the way downstairs... separate from the rest of the family.  He is ONLY 5... we're going to try and keep everyone upstairs for the time being.  This means... double room... double trouble.

I'm happy that all the kids will be sleeping upstairs across the hall from Doug and I-- but the thought of these two sharing a room is a little scary to me...  Will they ever sleep again?  Will I ever sleep again?

There are a few issues that will need to be overcome to make this work.  First, the kids have somewhat different sleeping schedules-- Caleb goes to bed later and is usually awake earlier.  Secondly, Emerson is a VERY light sleeper-- oh dear.  And lastly-- Caleb is SUPER territorial about HIS toys, HIS space, and HIS bedroom.  It's going to be an adjustment for us all.

And then there are other things to consider... how do I make a somewhat smallish bedroom functional for two kids?  How do I make the room cute and fun for a boy and a girl?  That's going to be my challenge for the next few months.

So, here's what I'm thinking.

First of all, beds with built in storage.  If Caleb does ever move downstairs, he's going to need a bed with drawers since the room is really small.  Instead of bunkbeds, I've decided that I'd like to use two separate beds with drawers since I think they will give us the most flexibility in the long run.  This means we're scrapping the idea of having a dresser in the room.  We'll have to outfit the closet with some super clothing/toy organization to help with the storage situation as well.

Design by Tammy Conner via TradHome Spring 2012

If Doug has time, he might try building the beds to hopefully save us a bit of $$.  If we run out of time... we'll be running on over to Ikea for their Brimnes twin beds :)

Now... how to make the room work aesthetically for both a boy and a girl.  Well, not too sure how it's all going to happen yet.  But so far here's what I'm thinking:

• I'll keep the walls light and fresh
• I definitely plan to add some vintage charm with artwork and accessories
• Go for some graphic pattern-- maybe black and white?  maybe some stripes?
• Maybe I can fit a chalkboard wall in there somewhere...

Here's some pretty pictures that are inspiring me...

Love the feel of this space... and that storage is amazing!!

via Manhatten Nest

Double beds... check.  Cute vintage charm?  check.

lonnymag.com

Loving this art wall.

odeedoh

This one too!

gen's favorite

Oh yeah, and I like this one. 

lonnymag.com

Love that graphic black and white with the pops of red...

west elm blog

Chalkboard wall... stripes.  That's two from my list!  Oh, and great storage inspiration!

Lisa Sherry Interiors

This room is pretty much shared room perfection in my books... just need to squeeze in two beds and my two kids could more right in :)

design by Black and Spiro via decorpad

We'll see what happens...

Okay people... so now you've gotta tell me... do your kids share bedrooms?  How do you make it work?  How did you ease your kids into it?  Any tips for me?  Please help!  I'm feeling a little worried :) 

Feeling Peachy

Bought a big box of peaches for $10 this week... it provided lots of peach filled fun-- pie, jam, smoothies, peaches chopped and frozen for future use, and as of this morning... fruit leather.  I love peaches.

But let me tell you-- as of today, I'm all peached out.

A Budget Kitchen Reno

Since my own kitchen renovation is taking so so long to finish (we're still working on it-- I promise!) I thought I'd share my good friend (and business partner) Andrea's kitchen renovation with you all.

Some of you have already seen the before and after's on her blog or on our Lark & Lily Interiors Facebook page  but I thought I'd put them up here in case any of you missed them!  

Alrighty... let's get down to business.  Here is the before:

And the after!  Pretty gorgeous, hey?

A full gut job was not in the budget for this renovation-- so Andrea and her husband put the bulk of the $$ towards scraping the ceiling and the beautiful white quartz countertops.  They saved a ton of money by using the existing lower cabinets.  After a coat of paint they look super cute and charming.

The wall separating the kitchen from the dining room was taken down and Andrea found an absolute steal of a deal on the stainless steel vent by doing a bit of searching on ebay.

They already had the white subway tile sitting in their garage (free's alway the best way to go!) and constructed a few white floating shelves in place of upper cabinets.  When you have such beautiful dishes-- they've gotta be displayed, right?

Since the existing cabinetry was being reused, they could not add a whole lot of extra counter space.  The addition of the peninsula/island really helped, but more was needed.  Andrea-- the best deal seeking internet shopper I know-- found the industrial stainless steel counter top (on the left side of the picture) for a crazy awesome price-- it adds a lot of extra prep space and gives the room a cool vibe.  Love it!

The upper cabinetry on the fridge side of the room was kept-- just repainted and given fresh polished nickel hardware-- courtesy of the Home Depot Martha Stewart collection.

I just love this transformation! 

Hope you all enjoyed this little before and after-- feel free to check out our Lark & Lily Interiors facebook page if you want a sneak peek into some of the projects we're working on :)

Kindergarten and such...

I remember when I bought my first car, got my first apartment in the city, and started going to university.  I felt old.  Real old.

Today I took my child for his first day of kindergarten.  I'm ancient!  How am I old enough to have a child attending school??  They really do grow up so fast-- Caleb AND I :)

Thank goodness Caleb was ready-- he's been counting down the days and was excited to get there this morning.  As we marched down the street hand in hand towards the school's front door his steps did start to slow as we got closer... he whispered that he was a little nervous.  I told him that I understood and that it was totally fine to be nervous!  And, he did great-- looked a little shell shocked at times... but was excited to be there.  We'll see what happens when next week hits-- full day every day kindergarten... yikes!  It could take him time to get used to it, but I know that he'll love it.  He's ready.

In other news, I ordered some knob options for my kitchen from Hardware Hut and they arrived today.  Good prices, fast shipping.  I would have loved to get the knobs from Restoration Hardware to match the bin pulls we already installed, but at $11 a knob?  That was NOT going to happen.  I need 23 knobs!  You do the math.

I could not find a local place that sold knobs in a polished nickel finish-- not nice ones.  So I decided to order online.  I'm actually liking both options that I got so far... 

They both look great alongside the RH bin pulls and work with our appliances.

The one on the left is half the price of Restoration Hardware knobs, and the one on the right is a tenth the price.  Now I've just gotta decide!  Do I want the really cheap option that looks and feels okay, or go for the reasonably priced option that looks and feels like a real winner... tough call.  

I'll let you know what we decide!

By the Way...

I've been working on another little project lately...

It's been in the works for about 4 months now... and should hopefully be completed sometime around the middle of February.

Wow, do I ever not enjoy taking preggo pictures... so awkward and unflattering.  Almost as awkward as telling people you're pregnant... Oh well.

Just thought I should officially let the cat out of the bag.  Some of you local people may have been wondering about me lately-- yes, I've been gaining weight... but it's for a good reason :)

I already had an ultrasound at around 10 weeks as I'm not so good at remembering dates and such.  It was fun to get a sneak peek at the little babe... and when we eventually told the kids about Baby #3 we showed them this picture and said that the baby was waving at them saying "hi guys!!".

They totally bought it.  They loved it.

Anyhow.  Onto other things... like fun relaxing weekends!

We did pretty much nothing.  Sat around, played street hockey with the kids next door (they all think Doug's their new bff), had a lot of BBQ's and yummy food, and finished Sunday night off with a hayride at the farm.  I chose to stay off the hay wagon and take pictures.  A ride through the field-- can anyone say hay fever and allergies?  No thanks.

And 1-2-3 everybody look away... Except for Eme-- who's staring at the dogs coming out of the barn in terror.

Gorgeous nights... I love September on the west coast.  One of my favourite times of the year.

And after a day of eating outside, running around in the dirt, and picking blackberries... I had two dirty kids to bathe and put to bed.

But dirty kids are happy kids :)