Been Busy Lately

You probably all thought I'd disappeared...

But actually, I was just a little busy.

Busy remembering.  Busy celebrating.  Busy hosting family.  Busy having fun.

Let's recap.

First up was party time.  It's not everyday your boy turns 5!!!  He had his ultimate dream birthday party-- Safari Kids Zone.  There were lots of crazy kids, lots of energy burned on the jungle gym, lots of food consumed... and one happy birthday boy.

Moving along.

I've also dealing with an independent almost 2 year old who wants to do everything herself.  The left picture is "I can put on my own pajama shorts"... and the right picture is "I can put on my own shoes".  Sure wish I had a picture of the many instances of "I can blow my own nose"-- so many innocent rolls of toilet paper unrolled and destroyed in the process.

My sister and parents were out visiting over the past week... we hit up a couple of the local spray parks in the area... and tried out one of Caleb's birthday gifts.

And we had some family time today walking along the river enjoying the peace and quiet-- while trying to keep the kids from falling into the river and biking off the side of cliffs.

This week's going to be busy too... busy preparing for next weekend when we throw the kids into the truck and head out of town on the ultimate road trip.  A 16 hour drive?  Can't wait!

Big Girl Rooms

Tis the season of birthdays around here.  On Saturday Caleb turns 5 (yikes!!) and in August Emerson turns 2.  Turning 2 means it's time to move on outta your crib.  So far she hasn't really attempted to climb out yet... but this afternoon I heard her yelling from the dining room "HELP!  MOM!  HELP!"  And I discovered this...

And because I'm such a great mom I laughed, grabbed my camera to snap a picture, and THEN helped her down off the table.

Somebody around here sure likes to dance on table tops... but can't seem to figure out how to get off the table.  The days of climbing are upon us... which means it's time for a big girl bed sometime soon.

So!  You know me... I'll probably want to switch up her room a little bit too.  Lately I've been drawn to kids rooms that have some hits of bold pattern... on the floor, on the bed... so fun.  Here are some of my recent favorites...

anthropologie

design sponge

amber interior design

house to home

apartment therapy

bliss

apartment therapy

Elle Decor

Finishing up the kitchen is definitely going to be priority around here... but once that's off my radar, Eme's room is next.  In the meantime, I think a trip to Anthro is definitely in order :)  Anyone wanna come with?

Making Progress

After 3 days of washing dishes in my bathroom sink... I've got quartz countertops, a sink, and a functional faucet!  Now we've just gotta get that dishwasher up and running...

The cabinet doors have all been made-- Doug has to get all the finished parts ready to go and it can all be sent out for spraying... slow and steady wins the race, right?

On the Menu Tonight...

Tonight we were eating Italian style.  I walked into the grocery store this morning and instantly knew that I wanted a taste of our Italy trip from a few months ago-- so I decided were were going to grill ourselves some pizza on the BBQ and throw together some caprese salads...

I've never cooked pizzas on the grill before but it was AMAZING.  I used this dough recipe-- and it worked great.  Thin crispy crusts, spicy salami, cherry tomatoes, olives, and tons of cheese-- it tasted just like the pizza we ate along the canals in Venice and the streets of Rome.  Delicious.

We also had yummy caprese-ish salads and warm focaccia bread with lots of balsamic vinegar and olive oil... the perfect dinner on our warm deck.

Even the kids were fans of our grilled pizzas...

We will definitely be repeating this menu again :)

Busy Busy Busy

Life's been busy these days... but busy with good stuff.  That's what happens when the sun finally decides to come out-- you find yourself hosting pool parties, shopping for popsicles, coordinating BBQ's, cleaning the deck, washing mountains of towels and bathing suits, heading to the lake, applying endless amounts of sunscreen, packing picnic lunches, and bathing exceptionally dirty children before bedtime... so much good stuff.

And... we've also be slowly making progress in the kitchen.  It may not look like much to you... but the addition of TEN drawers and a lazy susan is pretty exciting to me.  My un-renovated kitchen had a measly 3 drawers-- 1 small drawer and 2 teeny tiny ones-- I now have 10 and am having trouble figuring out what's going to go in them!  And might I add-- my husband decided to give me the expensive soft close drawer glides-- and glide like a dream they do...

Just found out today that the countertops/sink are being installed on Saturday!  I can hardly wait to have new countertops in my kitchen-- I've been dreaming of them for so long now...

Oh, and I bought another 10 pounds of fresh strawberries and have been freezing a ton and making batch after batch of strawberry fruit leather.  I inherited my mom's food dehydrator and have introduced my kids to a delicious treat from my childhood-- home made fruit leather.  They LOVE it.  The first batch was ready just in time for breakfast and we may have consumed a whole lot of it first thing this morning-- just can't stop eating it...

The next batch is in the dehydrator right now and smells as good as it tastes!

Today

I may not have a sink or countertops in the kitchen today...

But I do have tons of fresh strawberries and raspberries-- picked (not by me) from the fields near my house this morning!

Yum-- they are AMAZING.  Berry season has started around here and I, for one, am a huge fan.

Now I've just gotta find a way to wash and freeze some of these berries...

Oh, and the kitchen was measured for countertops today-- hence the fact that my sink and makeshift counters disappeared. :)

Wanna take a little tour?

A friend of mine has the cutest little boy... who has the cutest room!  When they moved into a new house a little while ago I got to help out with a few of the details in this room-- so fun.  My friend happens to be an awesome photographer and snapped a few pictures of her son's room for me to share!

(my friend is not only great when it comes to photography-- but she's pretty crafty too-- check out that mobile she made-- isn't it so awesome?)

I offered my sewing assistance and used my tutorial on how to make your own fitted crib sheet to make up two different sheets in some fantastic fabric my friend purchased.  Loving the preppy prints!

The bedroom has a really fun layout-- there's a little nook off to one side that is just the right size for the crib.  My friend found these dark navy drapes at Ikea and put them up on the window (great for blocking out light during sleeping hours) and I suggested picking up a second pair to separate the space from the rest of the room.  It turns the area into a cozy tent-like sleeping space-- I love it!  I also thought the moravian star light I used in my bedroom would be perfect above the crib-- and it is!

A view of the other side of the room... loving the fun details...

I'm always a fan of keeping crib bedding simple-- instead of using crib skirts, bumper pads, and all the other "stuff"-- I like the way a fun and interesting crib sheet looks on its own.

Hope you enjoyed this little room tour!

Graduated

Caleb graduated from preschool last week.

This picture was taken BEFORE he realized he would have to go up on stage and sing with all the other kids in front of the crowd.  Needless to say... he didn't actually make it up there until the songs were done :)

But he was all smiles for the camera once again with his teacher.

Then it was time for bubble blowing, bouncy castle, and pizza.  My kind of party.

Eme... next it will be your turn...

And now that preschool's finished, I've convinced Caleb that it's time to start preparing for Kindergarten.  Really-- I'm just trying everything and anything to keep him occupied and busy... so we've been signing out stacks of books from the library and working with his reading and writing workbooks.  I'm not going to lie, I'm kinda glad the first week with no preschool is done.  And now... thank goodness for long weekends! 

Something's Missing

So this week I FINALLY hung up some frames in the downstairs family room.  I've had them sitting in my office ready to go for months-- I scored a stack of %50 off frames at Ikea during their boxing day sales.  Hanging a bunch of frames in a straight line is hard-- but I think I did a pretty good job... Doug pulled out his level when he got home from work and gave me a pat on the back :)

But... something's missing in this picture.  A couch!  I've been searching for deals-- but so far haven't been able to find something that looks good for a great price.  Hopefully I can figure out something before it gets really hot... because this is the room to be during the hot days of summer!

FYI-- the rest of the room is NOT as clean as this one side.  I had to sit in the kid's tent to take this picture... thought you might want to know that :)

Backsplash Inspiration

Do you watch Sarah 101?  I do... of course.  And I must say that the Fresh Country Kitchen that aired a few weeks ago was definitely my favorite episode.  How awesome is this kitchen?

My favorite part of the kitchen is that backsplash-- subway tiles laid in a herringbone pattern.  Amazing.  As much as I would love to do this backsplash in my own kitchen, I'm not even going to show it to Doug... because he'd either say "absolutely no way" OR agree to do it and then we'd spend the next 6 months trying to get it perfect!

images via HGTV Canada

Anyhow... nice work Sarah!

Open Shelves Thursday

Lack of blogging... means that life's been busy.

Feel's like we've been running around all over town the past few days... and really, we have.

Over the past few days we've been going to BBQ's, having wiener roasts, taking the kids fishing (in the rain) at the trout hatchery, shopping at Metrotown way past the kids bedtime with NO stroller (so not a good idea) going to White Rock for a preschool field trip, T ball... the list goes on and on.

Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.

Anyways.  After all the work Doug did in the kitchen while I was out of town with the kids we've taken a bit of a break from working in the kitchen.  I have the faucet ordered now and need to order the rest of my hardware today and then everything will start arriving.  On Doug's to do list is to build all the drawer boxes, have the kitchen measured for countertops (he's handling that since he gets a good deal), build all the doors and finished parts, have it all sprayed, and then install everything :)  I'm thinking this kitchen is going to be "in progress" for quite a while!  But, if you can find the time to do it yourself, you can save a lot of $$.  So worth it.

In the meantime, I've been living with open shelves in the kitchen.  And really, I mean EVERY shelf is open.  As you can imagine... this little lady is loving it.

But as frustrating as it is to have the contents of my kitchen scattered all over the house (and in the backyard-- I recently discovered that Caleb had been commandeering my kitchen stuff for the sandbox-- nice) I really really have been loving having upper open shelves.  So, Doug and I decided to add a few more into the design!  Instead of having closed upper cabinetry where the big window used to be, we're going to have three rows of open shelves.  This is the perfect spot for all my white dishes and glassware.  Can you see it?

So, to honor the current state of my kitchen and the new plan to add more open shelves into the design, I've decided to declare today "Open Shelves Thursday".  Since my open shelves are currently not so attractive, how about we look at a few kitchens that have beautiful open storage?

via pinterest

Holder Design via pinterest

the nest

House Beautiful

Martha Stewart

This kitchen has ikea cabinetry-- amazing, right?

House Beautiful

And that concludes Open Shelves Thursday.

Dad Got to Sleep In

Like many of you Mom's out there... I was up at the crack of dawn to organize our Father's Day festivities.  We made a special mug for Daddy...

... we made breakfast... Caleb got to choose what we were eating-- crepes with blueberries... and aerosol whip cream... of course.  Every little boy's dream.

It was a busy morning.  Thank goodness I had two little helpers.  And as you can see... there sure was a whole lot of helping going on :)

More Kitchen Details and Ambulance Rides

So.... interesting day today.  Took Eme for her routine immunization... she handled it like a pro-- no tears... no complaining.  I asked about Caleb's kindergarten shots, and since the waiting room was empty they offered to do them right then and there.  Much to Caleb's dismay.  Here he thought he was just observing Emerson's shots... and then he ended up getting two.  But I promised him McDonalds for lunch and he was all for it.  No tears... no complaining.  Apparently all it takes is McDonalds.

But, then Emerson broke out into hives and started swelling up all over-- yup... she was reacting to her shots.  The nurses started to panic, ended up giving her a shot of epinephrine, and then called the ambulance to take her into emergency.  Caleb was wide eyed and more than a little excited to ride in the ambulance.  By the time we got to the hospital the swelling started to go down and Emerson was acting like herself.  We had to stick around for observation for a few hours and need to keep an eye on the little lady to make sure she doesn't have any aftershock reactions-- but... we're home and happy :)

How's that for an entertaining morning?  Enough of that drama.  Let's talk kitchen drama.  I made another decision and ordered something today.

See this window?  It needs a little help.  I do love my new window-- it comes down a lot lower than the old one so I can see the whole backyard when I'm standing at my kitchen sink.  Love that.

But I felt like it's going to need something special to make it pretty.  I do like the look of lights hanging in front/over top of the window.  At first I was thinking about something like this...

Carter & Company

And I almost ordered the Clemson Pendant when Restoration Hardware had a great sale on all their lighting a week or two ago.  

But, after thinking about it more I decided that I wanted something a bit more casual.  I wanted my kitchen window to feel more like this...

urban grace

So, instead I ordered the black Vintage Barn Pendant.  I'm so excited... I can hardly wait for the UPS guy to show up with my light.  Poor guy-- he's been making a lot of stops at my place these days.  

But it kind of feels like Christmas every time a package arrives :)

Sidenote-- I checked Ikea's website today and their double bowl farmhouse apron sinks are back on the website.  To late for me now... but if you want it... it's there!