Spring has Sprung & Minor Tweaks

Before monsoon season hit, we were able to get a few things done outside in preparation for the patio, and it was pretty evident that spring had sprung. There were adorable little shoots popping up all over the place, and while I am by no means a gardener, I certainly can get excited about little signs of life growing from the gross, dead looking earth. A number of the bulbs and plants we planted last year in the front garden were coming up.

Aww, look at that cute little sedum guy. Still have to trim the dead stuff...have to wait for it to stop raining for more than five minutes though, which clearly doesn't look like it's going to happen.

 No clue what these little sprouts are...how I labeled things was stick a fork in the ground and trust that my elephant memory would do the rest. Alas, I can't even remember anything we planted in the fall (other than tulips haha)

Speaking of the tulips. The random friends growing in the backyard get more sun so they were a little more advanced. The older teenage siblings if you will.

Those tulips and this (hyacynth I believe) were growing where the myrtle was last year, so I'm not sure how long they were there, if maybe we just never saw them through the myrtle jungle.
 

Or perhaps it was those dastardly squirrels thinking that when I told them to "stay the *@#$ away from my bulbs" I actually meant, "take what you'd like, and disperse at your leisure". Either way, pretty colours should be on their way.


On a completely unrelated note. I thought I'd share the progress made on some dining room features. Remember Octa, the octopus chandelier?

 Well, she got a bit of a makeover...

Woot! She doesn't even look like the same Octa, eh? We're not 100% sure if she'll stay the glossy white, or if she'll change to a matte black, depends how nicely she plays with all the other pieces in the room. Her shades have jumped ship and she'll just sport a fun round filament bulb.
   The other update came in the form of some butt comfort. Here's what our dining chairs looked like before.

Brown with a pink velvety seat cushion. Now, there was nothing particularly wrong with the wood tone, it just didn't really go with the rest of the wood tones that are going to be in the room, we were going to have to re-stain them anyway, so since they needed to be sanded down regardless I decided to go with that I really wanted. And the best part is, my Nana wasn't even really upset that I decided to paint them. Thumbs up for previous owners approval.

 

Cool lines eh? (please disregard all the crap in the background, judging by the patio furniture I'd say this picture was taking about September/October haha)

Wabam! Looky looky...and this is only with primer, haven't even given them their final coats yet, then they'll look all glossy and beautiful.

And a detail shot of the new bum padding.

I love them. Jason thinks they look pretty good too. Not too bad for $7 a chair.

Kitchen Files: White Boards

   Happy Good Friday everyone, hopefully you're all enjoying a wonderful dinner of some sort this weekend, we've got two lined up to break up our organizing and cleaning before our visit Tuesday.

Not actual white boards (although we do have a giant one of those gracing our living room currently). I'm referring to our kitchen cabinets. In preparation for our first home study visit one of our goals was having the dining room and blue room (which we'll be using as nursery) cleaned out (as much as possible), and one of the easiest ways to begin doing that was to assemble the rest of the cabinets to get the big bulky boxes out of there. Hooray, we did that...but unfortunately their space was promptly filled with multiple boxes of flooring, such is the way with renovations.
   What we managed to get done was put up our three uppers, which really changed the look of the whole room (I'm still not 100% sure if I like the look of them haha, but I'll deal with it).

We put up a corner cabinet, which looked absolutely massive sittin' up there all by its lonesome, then we added two equally massive 24in cabinets that are connected with sliding doors. We mounted them high (24in above the counter top instead of the standard 18) for a couple reasons - we wanted to be able to use things like the mixer or coffee maker, or anything else that is tall under them. I didn't want a large space above the cabinets, because it's a bitch to clean, and I don't really have anything to decorate up there with. Also because we're planning on adding a shelf underneath the sliding door one (possibly the corner one as well) to house all our teas and coffees, and mugs that we use multiple times a day. I said before we bought them, that Jason wasn't 100% sure of going with Ikea cabinets, but after hanging the uppers, he was singing a different tune...even recommended them to people who are thinking of building some quick sale homes. Please disregard the pile of shims in that expansive opening, they're in a better home now.

  
Currently we only have one outlet in that area (beside the sink) so there's a power bar on the microwave that runs them all (only one at a time though, mind you. It's frustrating)  The pantry door still distracts me every time I walk by, it's like a white board just asking to be written on. I thought Jason was going to going to blow a gasket trying to put on that door haha. He lost all respect for Ikea at this point, because they don't really give you any sort of guide to attach the door to the drawers. The door is attached to two drawers and pulls out, then you can pull out the other three drawers that are in there. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of how it functions. You have to be very precise with your measurements, then screw on these clip things that snap into the drawers. As I mentioned before with the whole drywall cutting fiasco, Jason isn't the greatest at super exact measurements, so he was anxious he'd mess it up. It took a while, and a fair amount of standing staring at it before we got it figured out. The space between the pantry and the cabinet is only 9in, not large enough for another cabinet, so we're going to build a bottle rack. It's going to go from the counter to the same height as the uppers. It will serve two purposes, to fill the gap between, as well as to cover the gap behind the pantry (since it has to stick out further due to duct work we had to run upstairs).

Looking at these picture makes it seem so cluttered, oh how I dream of the day when things are complete and everything has a home. (I have tried to put the cereal away somewhere, but Jason always just ends up putting it on top of the fridge, I think he's afraid Kai will get at it, she loves Cheerios) As you can see the space on either side of the window isn't the same, we'll most likely add some open shelving to the left, to help balance it a bit. Some freakin' trim might help too, yeesh.

On to the other side of the kitchen now. These two friends had been sitting half done for a while, they were desperate for some love. The one on the right was easy peasy, we basically just had to attach the doors. The corner one was a bit more complicated.

It's got these swing/pull out carousel things that make it a functional corner cabinet, versus the usual on all fours with your head stuck in it trying desperately to reach that damn pot that you need, but your arm it just that much too short, cursing yourself for even putting it all the way back there in the first place. We've all been there. So I was happy to get something with a pull out function. This cabinet, while being large (just over 4ft) was relatively easy to assemble, the the pull out function had a ton of parts but was also pretty easy to put in. Although, Jason did feel a little cramped shoved in there, and I quote, "Who the hell designed this!? Oh, I know, someone without shoulders!" He's always good for a laugh. We still have to build them up and mount them, but unfortunately we can do that until the outlet beside the stove gets moved up about 10in. It's seriously just floating there in the middle of the wall.
   We were hoping to get the floor in there before we had our home visit, but we're picking our battles haha, there was just too much to do. Once she comes though, we've got a long list of things we will have to get done before she comes back, and the kitchen floor is definitely one of them.

Nursery Mood Board: Calm & Serene

Since we had no heat last week, I had far too much time on my hands to put together some nursery mood boards. Since we can probably have little one by the Fall, it's like we just found out we're pregnant and I can start planning all the fun baby stuff. So be prepared for a considerable upswing on the baby post front. Since we're hopefully going to be installing the floor in our future baby room within the next few weeks (it's the same floor that's going in the dining room so we plan on doing the two rooms at the same time.) I came up with a few different possibilities of what I could do to make a gender neutral baby room. We have a pretty blank slate, and have to get most everything for the babe (who doesn't when it's your first right?) So, without further ado, here's my take on a calm and serene nursery.

I feel calmer already, don't you? I feel like it would be easy for a child to sleep in here. Since we've got no clue on age or sex of the child, I'm trying to keep them as neutral as possible.

1. The flooring is an engineered hardwood from Armstrong, as for the walls, either paper them all with Farrow & Ball's Lattice wallpaper, or just do one wall behind the crib and paint the rest of the walls white, or a soft gray. I really love the look of this paper, with it's soft subtle wave, going from this to thick.

2. A simple white & soft gray curtain from Ikea, with a patter that sort of mimics the wallpaper with a vertical pattern.

3. This great light is one I've had saved for a while now. I'm not sure where you could buy it, but you could probably DIY it with some marginal effort. Some leather strips, or painted rope perhaps?

4. I'm all for having art above the changing area gives baby something to look at, as well as you when you're half asleep putting the diaper on backwards or upside down.

5. A great zebra watercolour, that would go in a white frame.

6. Another thing I think is good to have above the changing station is a mirror, I find they can help to distract baby (especially when they're a little older and in that facial recognition stage). Any mirror would do, you could even DIY a frame around an existing mirror, or just paint a current one white.

7. Another super simple DIY project you could whip up. An embroidery hoop, and some gradient thread, and you've got something that could be tailor made to fit any room. (Inspiration from Etsy)

8. I love clocks, old school, digital, funky, traditional, clocks. I think there should be at least one in every room. (As long as they're quiet, few things I hate more than loudly ticking clocks) Why not start teaching the importance of punctuality early?

9. I love llamas even more than I love clocks. They're pretty awesome, after having met a few on our honeymoon, I love them even more. Therefore a picture of a llama seems very fitting for our child.

10. There's no such thing as too much storage when it comes to a nursery. Put up a floating shelf to house some cute animals, nic-nacs, books, or anything that may not be great for tiny inquisitive hands.

11. Books play a very important roll in our lives, and we plan to instill their value in our children as well. The love of books starts with a great pair of book ends, like these from Restoration Hardware. Okay, so maybe that's not where it starts, but it certainly doesn't hurt right? 

12. A lamp is a good thing to have near the changing area for late nights when you may not want to turn on the overhead light, but still need to be able to see.

13. This stuffed mouse, is so adorable, and is sure to become a favourite. It reminds me of a silk rabbit that I had as a child that my Nan made me. (the shop has rabbits too)

14. A modular storage system (like this one) can be a handy place to store toys that aren't cute enough to be displayed, or more books. They're low enough to the ground that baby can access things by themselves, which can be great for when they're a little.

15. We're going to reupholster one of our wing back chairs for the nursery, but it doesn't mean I can't covet other sleek great looking rockers. I love the look of the walnut legs on this option.

16. Pillows (especially a long one like this) are great things to have laying around, so you can have something to beat your husband with. Kidding, he'll probably want to beat you because you have so much.

17. I like the idea of using a dresser as a changing table, because it gives you that added storage for necessities like extra diapers, and wipes, and the 50 different outfits you may want to change them into. (here's a similar looking option for considerably less)

18. This super cute mobile, would literally help the wee one count their sheep to fall asleep. 

19. I love the lines of this midcentury looking crib from Dwell Studios. All the look of times gone past, without the negative effects of not being up to date with safety standards.

20. Keep the crib looking great with some simple grey bedding.

21. I love a good rocking horse, my grandpa made the one that I'll be using in our nursery, but this one sort of reminds me of the one he made.

22. Who says a laundry basket can't be cute? Since little people clothes take up less room, just use a large weaved basket to store the pint sized dirty clothes.

23. Jason isn't a huge fan of rugs, but I like having one underfoot. Especially in a nursery, where the inhabitants tend to spend a fair amount of time of the floor. And one that


So there's my take a calm and serene nursery. When I'm putting together a board like this it's mostly for inspiration, I wouldn't necessarily choose every option in here. I know my bank account definitely wouldn't choose every option in here. When I go into any room, I find something I like, then either search and search and search for something similar, or get something from a thrift store, or find something I can do myself. I think it's great to have something as a jumping off point though. Stay tuned for more nursery boards.