SPARE ROOM: POST ONE

This year hubby and I decided to organize some of our bigger messes.  I love organizing, categorizing, filing, etc but just haven't taken the time to do it since we moved into our home in December 2010.  (One time at the doctor's office when I was about 7 or 8 I spent our time in the waiting room organizing and cleaning the children's play area.  I kid you not.  That says a lot about a person.)

At the end of Christmas vacation I organized our toiletry bins and medicine cabinet in the bathroom.  Disastrous, it was. (Yoda voice.)  I threw out bottles of moisturizer and shower gel that had separated into its water component and cream component.  Didn't know that could happen, did you?

In November we bought filing cabinets for the spare room and I made hubby throw away his grocery receipts from 2009 as we filed all our important documents away.  (And why do appliances come with sooo many manuals?  Will I ever actually look at them?  Should I really save them? FYI - I did.)

My most recent project was hubby's closet.  Our bedroom has a tiny closet that (barely) holds my clothing.  Hubby has been banished to the spare room where he has his own closet and dresser.  Now, before you feel too sorry for him, in our old apartment my clothing was in the spare room and his was in the master.  Hubby has a fear when I say I want to organize his closet that I am going to donate all of his most prized Vince Carter jerseys and holey underwear to the less fortunate.  This may or may not be because a few years ago he came home to find garbage bags full of his old clothes sitting by the door to our apartment...

You might remember our spare room is our "dirty little secret".  Here are the before photos of hubby's closet.  I kid you not; those piles existed.  (And, side note, I can't blame hubby for those hideous door handles.  They were there when we moved in.)

                                                                             
You may have noticed the closet is built up off the floor.  Yes, it is very weird.  No, I don't know why it is like that.  There is nothing below it and from the mudroom closet you can see that there is just an empty space underneath.

After a coat of paint on the closet doors, new cabinet pulls from Kent (and the old holes filled in with wood filler), a floor shoe rack, and two shelves (also from Kent), the closet is much more functional.  Even without the piles.  How he ever found anything in there is beyond me.  Surprisingly, even hubby admits it is an improvement.

            




                                              
A sigh of relief was heard throughout the house.  And don't worry - no Vince Carter jerseys or cowboy hats were harmed in the making of this project.  (Truth be told, the jersey and hat were once worn together.  But not since I've been around.  I don't stand for that kind of nonsense.)

It also might be worth mentioning that I just got twitter!  I posted a link on the right below my profile if you want to check it out.  Happy Monday!

YES I HERD YOU

I have a few things to post soon, including hubby's birthday cake and some (not so great) family news.  In the meantime I thought I'd just post quickly on a little purchase we made last night.  I have started to "favourite" items on Etsy that I like for future reference.  Almost all of them I'm sure I'll never buy, but it's kind of nice just for inspiration.  Anyhoo, a week or so ago I noticed a border collie magnet from PopDoggie and hubby actually insisted we buy it for our fridge.  I thought you might like to see it. :)

We thought it was oh so punny.  And since Leroy is such a sweet little man, I'll leave you with a couple of photos of him from September 2013.

Have a great weekend!

NURSERY INSPIRATION: BABY BOY

It's no secret I love interior decorating.  When I was a pre-teen girl my favourite part of babysitting was getting to stay up at night and watch TLC's Trading Spaces (which we didn't get at home) after the kids went to bed.  My tastes have changed since then - that show doesn't even exist and even if it did I don't think the concept of makeover an entire room for $1000 is still my style...but it definitely sparked my love of design.

In another life I would totally be an interior designer.  However, in this life I'm in medical school and my schedule can be totally crazy (not to mention I don't have much disposable cash).  If at some point I could swing a little interior decorating business on the side, I would totally dig it.  (Call me.  Seriously.  This is like my dream.)

Which leads me to... my best friend is having a baby!  Her baby boy is due to arrive in the next six weeks or so and she wasn't super interested in decorating a nursery.  Enter me.  I have been sending her items from kijiji and etsy all week since she agreed to let me help her.  She says I'm not being annoying buuut... :)

We have completely different styles so I am trying very hard to pick out things that I think are to her taste and not my own faves.  She hasn't decided on anything yet, but I thought for a fun post I would include some of the inspiration I've found around the internet.  D didn't like any of these things, by the way, so you may not either, friends.

My thing is way more neutral schemes in a nursery.  I don't care for pink for girls and blue for boys.  It's predictable.  I am not.  Here are a few things I like in a little boy's nursery.

This mobile from Etsy.  I think it's retro and cute.

White cribs are my current fave.  This one from Ikea seems inexpensive but I've never looked into cribs before, so who knows?

And again, with the "neutrals".  This fitted crib sheet is sweet.  It's patterned and goes with the colour scheme.  Polka dots are just great, let's be honest.  And if I was doing a scheme like this, I would probably choose a white blanket for the crib so I won't bore you with posting one here, on the off chance you find white blankets boring.

 

 This pillow which has a really cool pattern without being overboard.

Sarah Jane has really sweet children's prints.  You can find this one here.

Well, this post was just too fun.  I definitely need to do more room inspiration posts.  Hope you enjoyed it even if (like me) you have no plans of decorating a nursery of your own!  Have a nice Monday!

SNOWSHOEING

Today we went snowshoeing for the first time ever!  Hubby's mom bought us snowshoes and after Christmas all our snow melted so I've desperately been waiting for snow.  It was sooo cold out and I was still in love!  What a fun winter activity - I am totally sold.  A walk with a twist.  What's not to love?

It was such a great chance for Leroy to get to run around off his leash, too, which is too rare in the winter time.  (I'm always cold so I just hate bundling up and going outside in the winter!)  We went to the nature park and found it to be incredibly blustery and windy which was bad (because it was freezing) and good (because the wind had packed some of the snow down in drifts).  Anyway, we had a ball and it was the perfect end to a Monday work day because we all know those are the worst.

That little blob by my side is my baby running beside/ahead of me.  He was in his happy place.  Hope you found something to make your Monday a little less bleak, too!

VALENTINE'S DAY 2014

Happy almost Valentine's Day!

This isn't necessarily my favourite holiday, but I do love celebrating things in general, so I'm on board with even Hallmark created holidays.  And I love love.  So, let's just leave well enough alone. :)

One of us was a little more successful in their present giving this year and surprisingly it wasn't me!

I came home to this lovely spread this evening.  We won't be spending Valentine's Day together tomorrow due to some scheduling problems (a regular occurrence around here) so hubby surprised me with flowers, a table set with our fancy china, a little present/card, and take out sushi!  My fave!

Sushi AND a card with dogs on the front?  Someone clearly knows the way to my heart.  And on the other hand, I "surprised" hubby with this disgusting blob of a dessert.

This was my attempt at a molten chocolate cake.  I swear I made it two years ago on Valentine's Day and it turned out perfectly.  This time I quartered the recipe and I think therein lied the problem.  I was told it tasted the same but it just didn't set right and the top started to get a bit dark before the cake was really solid enough to take out of the pan...  I also kind of thought this photo was hilarious.  I used the self timer and (not on purpose) cut off my entire face except for my pout.  Ha!

Sorry, hubby!  I tried to make you a special treat!  Dinner was followed by some Olympics highlights (I ate one of those Cream Eggs) and a bubble bath is in my near future.  Make sure to love someone tomorrow!