Wednesday, June 30, 2010

About the house

Here are a few shots I love from around here...
... you might have seen them before but they make me happy so I am putting them up again.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

My fave necklace

I get this thing where I fall in love with a colour and that is it. I only like that colour and no others til I get burnt out and move on.
Usually, I will admit, it is a neutral like the brown trend I am just coming off. But now it is teal, turquoise, aqua. This little necklace is a nod to that obsession. Three strands twisted together of all the same beads in just the right shade of turquoise.The only problem is that it matches all my favorite shirts so it's not much of a contrast.
But it is my fave so I am OK with that.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Cheap Art

Yesterday I did a little post about the new sconces in the master bedroom.
But there is something else new in these pictures too - the art. I wanted something soothing, in blue tones and of course- cheap. Always cheap. So after buying canvases from Michaels, craft paint, and a bit of time blending colours I came up with these. I don't look too closely because they are not exactly how I pictured them but they are still pretty and they do the trick.
Now on to those bedside tables....

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Lights Reinvented

We have been slowly working on the master bedroom. Of all the renos and projects going on around here the bedroom is low on the list of priorities. A while back we got a great bed for free and it looks stunning. The rest of the room... well a bit boring.
One problem with the bed is how high it is. As I mentioned before we had an IKEA bed for most of the last 10 years and it was about a foot off the ground. The new bed is higher and to top it off has a mattress and box spring making it even higher.

So now I have to lift the kids into bed in the morning and lean way down to our bedside tables. The kids will get bigger so I am not worried about that, but the beside tables have to go. I don't know what we will replace them with yet, but whatever it is I think I might spray paint it blue. What do you think?
Anyway, the point of this particular post is the lights. We needed some reading lights and I was hoping for sconces. I knew, because we have recently had so much electrical work done, that they were going to be plug in sconces.

And where does one go if they want cheap lighting? IKEA. Well, they have cheap everything actually. As evidenced by the rest of our house. We looked at IKEA and decided we couldn't decide. There were lots of options, but nothing stood out. The sconces I had in mind were out of stock. So we left it. The next week we were having a garage sale and my in-laws brought over some stuff to sell. What was on top of their pile? IKEA plug in sconces!
Perfect, they just need a little something.... I actually like the wood but I don't really want other wood tones in this room as I want the bed to be the star. So, take off the glass, paint the wood/cork top, reassemble them, plug them in and voila!
Now we have reading lamps that look simple, silver and white. We have more room on our bedside tables. And with hand me down sconces and left over spray paint they were definitely the right price.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

a view from the outside

I was very seriously considering posting something for Lindsey at the Pleated Poppy for what i wore wednesday. There were two problems.

First my outfits are all the same, just different coloured t shirts with a wide assortment of 3 different pairs of jeans. I actually own 6 pairs of jeans (and 2 pairs of trouser jeans, do those count too?) but they are 3 styles each repeated twice. I am so very boring.

Oh. The second problem was that all my pics turned out something like this...
You get the idea. Must find a more inspired wardrobe and a full length mirror in a (well lit) room the kids can't get into. But feel free to go over there and see what everyone else wore.

So instead, I will do Before and After outdoor edition!

The playhouse. I am still very excited about how the side of our yard went from this...
BEFORE
to this!
AFTER
And the kids are still excited too. They are playing out there right now!


Then the front of the house...
BEFORE
AFTER

...with a painted front door, shutters removed, new window$, and a few new plants. Revising that planter is on the books for next year. I know I said that last year, but I really mean it this time. We are also talking about that giant tree in the front.

The tree is cool, but it was massacred by Hydro not that long ago and feels as if it might fall on our roof every time it's windy. We would hate to see it go but we are considering it. And as I have mentioned before the railing on the little balcony drives me crazy but it is pretty low on the list... oh well. We'll get there.

And these are really just after pics of our planters on the back deck. They came with the house and were just dirt before this stuff got planted. My hubs and kids got me the plants for Mother's Day.
The top planter is flowers and is filling in quite nicely. The bottom planter is herbs.
Can I just say that garlic chives taste good in just about anything? Well they do. If you want to test my theory feel free to come over and get some for yourself. They grow very fast.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

birthday time again

Smack dab in between my daughter turning 2 and my son turning 6 (and Mother's Day and my Mom's birthday) was my little old birthday. Happy 32 to me.
There was a pancake breakfast.
There was a gift with red bows.
There was ice cream cake with kids and grandparents before a dinner out just me and A.
Then a few weeks later an evening at the spa with my mom and sis.

Monday, June 21, 2010

More Jewelry Fun


I have been wearing a lot of grey lately. I was in love with grey a few years ago, then it switched to navy, then brown. Can you tell I love neutrals? When grey started to get popular for clothing a little while back, I was still too close to last grey phase to be into it.

But now I have over done brown in my wardrobe and I am tired of it. Grey is looking fresh to me and is rising in popularity in my wardrobe once again. So for my next beaded creation I made a nice chunky grey necklace.
I was loosely inspired by an Anthropologie necklace. It is beautiful and I love the colours, the chunkiness, but not really the price. Yikes.

My version took only a few minutes and cost less than $10. The length is just perfect and I like the way the beads are kind of see through.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Song Lyric Sunday

This is another song that won't leave my head once it gets in. Not a bad topic to be meditating on all day though. It is a hymn I believe, reinterpreted by Caedmon's Call, the same band who did the song that inspired the name of my little blog.

Thy Mercy My God - Caedmon's Call

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue
Thy free grace alone from the first to the last
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast

Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here
Sin would reduce me to utter despair
But through Thy free goodness my spirits revive
And He who first made me still keeps me alive

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart
Dissolved by Thy goodness i fall to the ground
And weep for the praise of the mercy i've found

Great Father of mercy, Thy goodness i own
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son
All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine!
All praise to the Spirit whose whispter divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine!
Alleluia!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Pretty in Pink

These beauties came from my front garden. I am not much of a flower person but you can't argue with pretty, fragrant and free. If you know me, you know these are perennials planted by the previous owners that I have pretty much ignored. There are more blooms to come and that makes me smile.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Beading

I got some jewelry making pliers and such for my birthday from my sister (cough, last year, ahem) and a Michaels gift card from my in-laws this year.

I was inspired by a necklace knock off I saw on a site called Lemon Tree Creations. I thought I could easily make it, and that is what started this all off.

The inspiration
In the last 3 weeks I have made 4 cute little necklaces and I have a few more ideas brewing. Here is the necklace that started it all....

The real reason I decided to try making my own necklaces is because I can't seem to find anything quite my taste in the stores I can afford to shop in.

I like those long chains on other people but on me they just settle around one side of my chest (not a great look) and then get into everything when I bend over. The very dainty feminine pieces aren't really me. I don't really go for super oversized chunky things either, so that eliminates most choices out there right now.

But I decided little miss L is big enough (and girlie enough) not to rip things off my neck, and I could use a little something extra in my outfits. Even this necklace that I made is smaller and shorted and simpler than the one it is copying.

It is pretty cheap and pretty fun and just pretty so expect to see more creations soon.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

10 + 3 Challenge

I am of course behind due to the interruption in computer access but I thought I should address the 10 + 3 challenge.

Jen the one who inspired this challenge stopped a few weeks ago, without me really noticing. Actually I stopped on my own around the same time. It seems as though the point of the challenge was to live a more healthy life and in the end it was actually getting in the way of being healthy so I stopped.

2x 8kg kettlebells new for my birthday.
It opens up a whole new world of 2 handed exercises.
I am still going to aim for 3 kettlebell workouts a week. Last week with R's birthday party and our family trip I *GASP* didn't do kettlebells at all. That was the first week since early February that I skipped. It is all good though, I feel like it was a nice break for my body. The week before that I only got in 2 workouts, but besides these 2 blips I have worked out 3 times a week since this whole thing started.

Drinking water as a goal has not been a priority. I find if it is busy at home, I just don't think of it. The funny thing is I have become very aware of how crummy my body feels when I am dehydrated. So I won't be letting this goal slide anytime soon. I will still aim for 6-8 glasses a day. In fact it's 7 am and I have already had 2!

Food journalling was the real last straw. It is what made me stop the official challenge. It was great for a while, don't get me wrong, I was fascinated to see how quickly the calories add up and identify some foods that just don't fit with my goal of being healthy. I was surprised to see that if I ate healthy choices for every meal, I could even have a small chocolatey snack and stay easily in the range I was aiming for. I also discovered that I didn't loose a ton of weight on very restrictive calories (1200 a day, don't worry, not crazy low, just the minimum recommended number). When I aimed for 1500 a day I lost more weight and when I tried calorie cycling I did even better. So the ongoing plan is to do a version of calorie cycling but not to record calories every day, just if I want to see what is going on with my diet. The modified plan is this: 2 days a week very healthy and low carb, 3 days a week moderately healthy, and 2 days of more liberal diet.

But how did the challenge benefit me in the weeks I was sticking to it? Have I noticed any differences from when I started exercising regularly (February remember)?
Well, I have triceps. That is a first for these little arms. I have much better posture, I really notice this and my shoulders are hardly ever sore anymore. My legs and hamstrings in particular are very solid. My tummy, especially lower abs, is improved, probably more flat than it has ever been, at least since before the 3 pregnancies. I am in pants that have been untouched for a year and just bought my favorite jeans 1 size smaller. And the numbers? I am down 10 lbs. Not bad I think.

So that is the update and the plan.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Good Hair Day

Hey, ya gotta catch these moments when they happen.
Not every day is a good hair day.And besides, I like this top. It's in my current favorite colour.
It matches my eyes. Which have perma-bags under them these days. What's with that?
And one shot of the little princess as she was
brushing her teeth when I took these and wanted in on the action.
FYI I edited out the toilet with the lid up just for you. What can I say? This is the potty the boys use.

I was also pretty inspired by the what I wore wednesday over at the Pleated Poppy, coincidently that blog is another current favorite. Think she could come move her house up here? Especially the kitchen, yummy. And the loft. Total inspiration for the basement here. You really should go look over there.
Right now, OK?
Go look.
See you later.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

And we're back

The Mac has had an eventful month visiting the home planet, I mean Mac Store, receiving a new mother board, then off to a different Mac Station to receive a new hard drive. I am very thankful for our warranty that basically means we got a whole new computer for free! Also thankful for our external hard drive and for a hubby that knows what all that means and how to implement it.
Anyway.

I did try posting from the laptop but it was not working too well. So now after the absence of the Mac and the family trip/6 year olds Birthday party I am finally back. I will try to be catching up this week on both bloggity blogs.

Notice anything new in this picture? Hopefully, we can explore that topic and many others in the next few days.