Here fishy fishy fishy...

So about my post last week-- if you guessed "fish" than you'd be correct!  I've always thought that vintage/antique pictures of fish are so cute.  As I was perusing Etsy for maps I stumbled upon the most awesome fish picture ever.  It was an 1886 chromolithograph of various fish-- and it was spectacular.  I wasn't going to buy it-- I was just admiring the fish-- but when I showed it to Doug he really liked it too!  And since Doug loves to fish I thought that it would probably be a fun addition to our home.  There's a lot of "me" in this house-- we needed a little more of "Doug" in the house.

So I bought it.  Then I waited for it to come.  As I was running out of the house for preschool pick up the other morning I found the package on my front step.  I didn't have enough time to open it (it was REALLY well packaged) so I figured I'd save it for later.  In the car on the ride home I told Caleb that there was a special package waiting for us to open at home.  I decided to play a little guessing game with him-- "Inside the package is a picture-- a picture of an animal."  "Monkeys!!!"... Caleb says.  I go on to tell him that it's a picture of something Daddy like to catch when he has free time.  "BUTTERFLIES!!!"  Caleb exclaims.  Nope-- Doug does not catch butterflies in his free time... not as far as I know.

So we get home and I begin to open the package (only after a long discussion over why Caleb is not allowed to use the knife to help... and no he doesn't have his own knife... and no he cannot have his own knife...)  And as I pull it out of the envelope I find this...

Most adorable packaging ever.  I was not expecting it to look this pretty!!  And there was a card-- I read it.  It says:

"Thank you very much for your order and for visiting Bananastrudel (the name of the etsy shop)!  We've included a 1931 BC map that we thought you might also like."

What!!!?  I guess they must have seen all the other great items in their shop that I had "hearted".  Look at how cute this freebie of a map is...

How's that for great customer service?  You really should go check out Bananastrudel for other really cool stuff.

So I love my free map.  But you know what I love even more?  My fish.  I started giggling when I saw the fish.  They are so cute.  They make me happy.  I've decided to hang my fish in the bathroom.

The fish are accompanied by Caleb's bathroom toothbrushing portraits.  Now that Eme has 4 (with a few more on the way) teeth she's going to need a toothbrushing photo taken too...

And then my photo shoot was hijacked.

Oh my.  Don't you love those post nap pre dinner hours?  You know-- those hours when the kids go a little crazy?

Anyhow.  My bathroom may not beautiful (yet) but it's fun.  And those fish makes us happy... right Caleb?

I can't believe they sat still long enough for a picture...

I may be biased-- but I'm pretty sure the cutest pirate, princess, elephant, and doctor out there are in this picture.  Oh wait-- Caleb would have corrected me for that one-- he was a SURGEON... not a doctor.  My bad.

While I don't particularly love the fact that Caleb now has a ginormous bag of candy-- it is good for one thing.  Leverage.

One last pumpkin treat...

Check out my Rice Krispies pumpkins-- I'm going to have to say that they don't look as lame as I thought they would.  Not bad for 15 minutes and someone with sub par baking skills.

Oh well.  The kids will probably still like them...

And I think I'm officially done with pumpkin flavored baking, pumpkin shaped baking, and maybe pumpkin spice lattes.  Anyone know when Starbucks Christmas drinks come out?

The plan for tonight?  Pizza party. Trick or treating with cousins.  Sugar highs all around.  Should be fun :)  My house will be handing out candy tonight-- come on by... but only if you have a costume :)

And now... I've got to go clean up all the sticky orange colored marshmallow smeared all over my kitchen...

An ode to summer

So if you're missing those warm summer evenings around the campfire-- I've got something for you.

Can anyone say S'more Cookie Bars?

via Pinterest

While I was at home visiting my family last week we had an extended family get-together to celebrate my new little nephew.  My Auntie arrives with a pan of something that looked quite delicious-- S'more Cookie Bars.  I asked where she found the recipe.  Pinterest.  Of course :)  And oh my-- they were good.  Real good.

So the other night I needed a little chocolate in my life... in a bad way.  I made a quick trip to the grocery store for some milk chocolate and a jar of marshmallow cream and quickly whipped up a pan of chocolaty marshmallow goodness.

Craving satisfied.

I like to start in the middle and work my way out :)

Don't worry-- I didn't eat it all on my own.  Doug helped.

So if you want to remember the long lost days of summer... you need to make S'more Cookie Bars, put the kids to bed, and enjoy a piece of chocolaty summer goodness.  But be warned-- you may not be able to stop after one piece-- you may be saying... Give me S'more of that!!

A Hint

I just received something in the mail today.  It's something new for the house.

Can you guess what it is?

Here are a few hints...

There's something a little fishy about these pictures... :)

All pictures via Pinterest.

Apparently I was wrong...

So I was shopping at Superstore with Caleb on Sunday night.  Of course-- it takes me a while to actually make it to the grocery section of the store.  I tend to get hung up in the home goods section.  I spied these metal bins and decided to pick a few of them up for the house.  I remembered seeing them used for storing fabric scraps over at Rambling Renovators a few days ago.  Doesn't this look great?

image via Rambling Renovators

As you may know-- fabric is a bit of a weakness of mine.  My fabric collection does not look this pretty-- those metal bins would help.

And then I remembered seeing this on pinterest the other day.  How cute is the basket of books!?  I stood there in Superstore dreaming of all the ways I could organize and store the kids toys and my crazy fabric stash with those metal bins.

image via pinterest

So I grabbed a few baskets and added them to the cart.  I asked Caleb if he liked them.  He told me they were pretty cool.  He thought we should get three.

An hour later we get home from our grocery shopping trip.  Doug and I are unloading the groceries in the kitchen.  I look around for the baskets and they've disappeared.  Where did they go?  Well apparently-- as I was standing there dreaming of beautifully organized toy and fabric storage-- Caleb had been dreaming up a totally different use for those baskets.  Apparently they aren't baskets.  They are cages for his animals.

And wouldn't you know-- they also work great for building castles.  I've said it before-- why do I even bother buying toys for these kids?  Non-toys are so much more fun...

**sidenote-- is it just me or does this "castle" look a lot like an inukshuk?**

Anyhow... Caleb gets the baskets for now.  I'll let him have his fun.  Besides, it gives me yet another excuse to procrastinate cleaning/organizing the downstairs toys.... "I thought I was buying storage baskets but I really bought cages..."

A Different World

Life on my parent's farm-- it's a different world indeed :)

A place where daily chores are done-- complete with helpers... of course...

Where Uncle Joel shows up for dinner driving this...

And it's a place where Nana still regularly bakes buns-- again... with a helper.

Of course-- no trip to the farm would be complete without a day of shopping in the city.  These days the dynamic is beginning to change-- shopping with three kids can really make things interesting.

Of course-- shopping does have the tendency to wear them out.  I snapped this picture only after they had been holding hands for about 10 minutes on the drive home.

But best of all-- the farm is a place where I get lots of good snuggles in with this little cutie.

I'm pretty sure I don't look this cute when I yawn like this...

And now we're home.  After a quick flight home yesterday we were all happy to see Daddy and crash into our beds for some long, much needed naps. (hooray!!)

And now... unpacking, laundry, and grocery shopping.  All that fun stuff...

More Maps

I've been ignoring this blog over the past few days.  I don't have any new pictures to upload and share-- so how about some pretty pictures?  Here are some rooms with maps on display-- they totally inspired me when I was hunting for the perfect map for Caleb's room.

I currently have one of these Expedit shelving units in my basement.  It most certainly DOES NOT look as neat and organized as this :)

Single maps are great-- but how about this triptych?  I kind of just shocked myself with my vocab abilities.

A collection of maps.

I love how this big map is paired with a modern crib.  How cute is that!?

Now how about these next two hanging maps?  Unframed... casual.  Love it.

Awesome.  So is that bench.

What a great kid's room.

This map looks old.  It's pretty fantastic.

Happy Friday!!

All pictures are via pinterest.

Bright and Early

My alarm went off at 4:45 am this morning.  Why?  My flight left at 6:30 am.  This morning I realized why I no longer enjoy flying.  It's because I no longer fly solo... I've had company on every flight I've taken over the past four years.

They did really great.  And they are pretty cute.  But after several hours of entertaining them on the plane I was done.  I needed a break.  Luckily we're staying at my parent's farm for the next few days :)

And... I finally am getting some quality time with this little sweetheart-- my new nephew Cohen.  I think I'm in love :)

Educational Artwork

I've been looking for something to put up on the wall above Caleb's bed for a while now.  I wanted something unique and one of a kind.  At first I was going to do a gallery wall of his artwork-- but I soon decided that a wall full of metal frames with glass was an accident waiting to happen in this kid's room.  So I did a bit of searching around on Esty and found this.

It's a vintage map of Canada from 1936.

I thought that finding a really old really cool map was going to be difficult, but I found TONS of original old maps of all different varieties-- some over a hundred years old-- for pretty reasonable prices on Etsy.  There were street maps, nautical maps, maps of provinces, countries, territories-- everything.  Very cool stuff.  I knew I wanted to frame mine and I wanted it to be big-- so my choices were a bit limited since I wanted it to fit into the largest Ikea Ribba frame. After a bit of searching and emailing back and forth with a few Etsy sellers I purchased this old Canadian map for $8.00.  Not bad.

It almost fit into the frame perfectly-- it was slightly too big-- so we had to trim it a tiny bit so it would work.  I picked up two big sheets of white poster board and put them together to give the map a neutral backing.  The map isn't perfect-- there are a few tiny holes, rips, marks, creases, and the paper is yellowed-- but I love it.  It has  lots of character :)

I know you're all thinking-- how is this frame any different from a gallery wall of little frames with glass?  It sure looks like one great BIG sheet of glass.  But it's not.  The largest Ikea Ribba frames have clear plastic instead of glass.  It makes them lighter to hang and so much safer with young kids around.  But it totally looks like glass-- totally fooled me :)

And that is the educational artwork we put up in Caleb's room.  Now every time he goes to bed he wants us to tell him ALL about EVERY place in Canada.  Oh boy...

** I found many many more great vintage maps and charts-- if anyone is looking for a cool map-- email me and I'll send you the links to some other great finds **

It doesn't get much better than this...

It's the weekend.

And I have a plate full of Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars in my fridge. 

Yup.  It's going to be a great weekend.

I would highly recommend making them.

Just a few things...

Doug "installed" Caleb's "moose" (that's what he thinks it is) last night.  We're loving it.

We've got the vintage modern vibe going on in here with a few "Canadian rustic" elements thrown in for fun.  It's exactly what Caleb wanted-- he told me so himself :)  As if.  He really could care less about what his room looks like.  One day when he wants to paint his room neon green and chooses his own posters for the wall I'll let him do it.  I think... :) 

And just one more thing.  Tuesday was a CRAZY day.  Three doctors appointments and poor Eme got her 12 month shots (a little late-- I know-- had to wait until I knew I could walk her into the clinic myself :)  I arrived home from the public health unit at 5:45 with cranky hungry kids-- trying to figure out what to make for dinner.  And it was raining.  I rush into the house to find that Doug had just gotten home from work and was making dinner.  I'm busy and distracted, the kids are going crazy, and 15 minutes later I look over at the table to discover these waiting for me...

And chocolate.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Love you babe :)