Love my Lemon

The past few days have been fun-filled, busy and filled with laughter and I spent some time today reflecting on just how lucky we are to have a healthy, silly, beautiful little girl in our lives.

Emmerson is our whole world and I quite honestly could talk non-stop about how amazing she is from the time my eyes open in the morning until the second I give in and conk out at night.

Although she's knee-deep in her terrible two's, and is prone to yelling/demanding/screaming when things don't go EXACTLY how she wants them, she's also learning how to share like a big girl, how to always say please when she's asking for something and to always, always, ALWAYS give Mummy a kiss when I ask for one (he he).

It amazes me when I think about what our lives were like before we were blessed with Emmy. We were happy, busy and felt fulfilled, but she has changed us all. We are better because of her. Because we all want to be better and make the world a better place for her.

I love her with every single molecule that I'm made of and it's overwhelming and magical and more amazing than I ever could have imagined.

Oh how I love this little Lemon girl. 

We have fabric!

Today was fabric sourcing day! I'm happy to report that we found curtain and bench seat cover patterns that I'm thrilled with!

Both are fun and make me smile and have lots of colours in them so even if Emmy turns against pink in the future they can stay put and work with a wide range of other paint colours.

The super wonderful and talented Wanda took it all home with her and in a few weeks will return to install them!!

Princess Emmerson's Room

Keep in mind there is lots left to do in her room, such as:

> source fabric

> have curtains and bench seat cushion made

> hang artwork

> make padded headboard 

...however she and I both love how the "pink castle" is coming along. If you ask Emmy "Do you like your room?", she will respond with "I love my pink castle" - and what better endorsement could I hope to receive that that? 

Here it is, in pictures, as of November 22nd:

Books, toys and some of our special things made it onto the built-in shelves. Still on the hunt for baskets to fit along the bottom!

That scrolled clock might be one of my all-time favourite finds!

The box on the upper shelf is a jack in the box of the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz that my parent's gave to me when I was a little girl. How special to be able to share it with my little girl. 

If your middle name is Lemon, you kinda need to have at least ONE lemon in your room, right?

This adult sized dresser is filled to the brim with all of Emmy's clothes, and keeps her Twilight Turtle safe so that he can shine stars and the moon on her walls at bedtime. That stained glass lamp was given to Max and I as a wedding gift from my Aunt Gail and Uncle David and it fits perfectly in Emmy's room. Another stunning treasure to pass along to her. 

The room is big enough to include this cartoony table and chair set from Ikea so we can have tea parties. Behind the table is the painting Max did for Emmy when she was still the Lemon in my tummy, inspired by the artwork that hangs above Carl and Ellie's fireplace mantle in my all-time favourite movie UP!

Here is where the princess lays her head and gets her beauty sleep. 

When the room was first painted I was sure I'd made a mistake choosing such a bubble-gum shade of pink and then an even brighter pink for the stripes, but now that we are filling the room up with all of Emmy's special things, I'm tickled pink (ha ha, pun intended) with my colour choices. 

We are headed out tomorrow AM to find the perfect fabric for Emmy's curtains - can't wait to share that update and see them installed in the coming weeks!

Dressing up Ikea dressers!

It's my first DIY project on my own. No help (so far) from anyone.

I'm excited. I'm nervous I'm going to screw something up. I'm anxious to put all the pieces together and see what I've created.

For now, here's what has happened so far (in pictures, because that's always more fun):

Ikea's Rast dresser was delivered and sat in our garage for three weeks until the hubs said "I NEED a bedside table!" and I decided to bite the bullet and get to work!

I unpacked the contents of Rast box #1 and had a mini freak-out in my head. I was sure I'd never be able to figure out the Ikea instructions, because I never have much luck even when the hubs is helping. A few deep breaths later and I decided to keep going - I am raising a little girl in her terrible two's, so I SHOULD be able to assemble a dresser, right??

SUCCESS!!!! It took a whole lot longer to assemble without the hubs who speaks the language of Ikea instructions, but I DID IT!

And the drawers too - although there was a tense moment when I was sure Ikea had not included the correct side panels in the box and I contemplated taking that hammer and smashing everything into wood chips, but I persevered and got those bad boys together! Times TWO (for two dressers)!

Then the staining and painting extravaganza began. It was significantly easier than I thought it would be, just somewhat time consuming. This is the first coat. Dark stain for the base and drawer surround and white for the drawers - both need at least another coat of paint. 

We are thrilled with the colour of the dark stain, but the white drawers need at least a few more coats to ensure that the wood grain doesn't peek through. Hoping that I can be done the drawers by Friday!

Stay tuned for an update later this week/this weekend on how the unit came together (fingers crossed) and then how these cute little, unassuming dressers look in our master bedroom transformed into sophisticated, elegant nightstands!

We're seeing red!

On our sofa!

Oh how I love Ikea. Thanks to their affordable sofa covers in multiple fun colours, we were able to update our brown Karlstad (since he had seen a rough two-and-a-half years worth of baby spit up, spills and potty training incidents) and transform him into a bright red, beauty! We love what the bright red colour does for this room against the yellow on the walls and how fun it looks!

Ta da! An easy update thanks to exchangeable covers!

Love how warm and inviting and fun this room is starting to become!

So much storage! I'm in heaven!

Now I'm on the hunt for some fun pillows that will tie everything together and echo the bright, whimsical feel of the red sofa! Then we need to devise an art plan for the room and decide if we want to get an ottoman too.

Or maybe these fun poufs from West Elm:

Living it up!

Oh it feels good to get things unpacked and out on display - especially my books!

We've made a lot of progress in the living room by putting together the Billy shelves (after assembling five of them I think I could do it in my sleep), and by loading them up with all of my wonderful books that have finally been unpacked!

We still need to get a few things to add to these shelves (maybe some fun wire baskets for the bottom shelves in the centre) and probably move things around a bit so it isn't just a wall of books, but adding them to this room instantly made it feel like home and a whole lot more cozy. Next step for the shelves is to get some MDF to create a uniform top and some moulding to make it feel like a built-in!

In progress - it's a great start, but we'll need to add some trinkets and perhaps some art on the walls to bring it all together!

Some of my all-time favourite reads!

There is still SO much to do, but this house is truly starting to become our home and we LOVE it!

Add to the fact that being so close to Grama and Grampa means that Mummy and Daddy are able to have more time to themselves and have a more balanced life, and we are all very happy that we made this move. Just this morning over breakfast we were talking about how much happier Emmy is and I really do think it's because she picks up on however her Mum and Dad are feeling. If we are stressed, she becomes stressed. If we are sad, she too has a sad day. But when Mummy and Daddy are happy, lighthearted and filled with whimsey and adventure, she is too.

A window seat fit for a Princess

It's in!

The amazingly talented Tommy of Trillium Custom Woodwork in Brantford came today and installed Emmy's new window seat slash shelf unit! She will be thrilled with it since it really is fit for a princess (and she is now constantly referring to herself as a Princess!)!

Without any permanent furniture in that corner of the room, it really felt a bit awkward and barren. Add to that the fact that we really needed some functional storage in her room to house books, special mementos and pretty, princess items and I can't get over how perfect the piece ended up.

I did some research online and found a few examples on Pinterest that I loved - from there Tommy measured and started building and here we are:

Here she is! Tons of storage space and the perfect thing to frame that window and fill the awkward space in that corner of the room. 

I'm on the hunt for perfectly fitting baskets to go in those bottom cubbies. 

I can't wait to get in there and fill those shelves with all of Emmy's favourite books (she has SO many and honestly loves them all - case in point I found her asleep at nap time with a book open across her chest, but she was sound asleep).

Next up for the Princess' room is choosing fabric and having some curtains made to fit the unique sized windows and a cushion for the seat! Exciting!

Fab Finds!

I went shopping today and scored big time at Winners. I love the thrill of the hunt in stores like that where you never know what you will find!

These lamps were $49.99 a piece and will match the color palette in our master bedroom perfectly! Love the oatmeal shade and the brushed silver bases! They feel like the kind of lamps that grow ups have in their bedroom - right?

The brushed metal bases match our door knobs and fixtures nicely (it's the little details!), and the shades couldn't be more perfect for our bedroom colour palette! At $49.99 each, they were a deal-and-a-half!

I also picked up a few decorative items including this awesome but useless (functionally speaking) gem that describes exactly how I feel about this house!

Home Sweet Home is right - love the colour. Love the saying. Just love everything about this treasure that only cost me $16.99!

Making an Entrance!

We've made some great progress over the past few days and the giant pile of shoes sitting on grubby white towels at the front door has been transformed. BIG YAY!

We did, however, discover that the wall that we placed the Ikea Hemnes shoe cabinets on is not straight, and we did have to make a decision on the fly to deviate from our original plan to butt the units up together. Instead, due to the wonky wall, the units sit about 6 inches apart and have a cute little umbrella container placed in between. I really like the end result, even if it wasn't what I had originally envisioned. We haven't done much styling yet, but have plans to put a piece of artwork on a hinge to hide the security system touch pad and to mount that mirror on the wall.

Ta da! Each unit holds eight pairs of shoes.
PS: Emmy hung her own coat up in that spot. Cutie pie. 

Some of Mummy's shoes!

That cute little umbrella container is a ceramic pair of wellies - a gift from my Aunt!

I LOVE my Ikea tray that holds whatever is in my pockets when I come home. I love the fun colours and the playful feel of it!

This one-of-a-kind bowl holds about six sets of keys! 

There is still a ton to do in our foyer area, including hanging coat hooks, choosing art for the wall and getting a few baskets for under the red bench that is on the other wall. More pics to come!

Feels good to get this checked off the list, especially since each of these units took nearly an hour to put together and had 25 steps to the instructions. Nutso!

A dish of delish

I made dinner again.

And it got rated a 10 by my Dad and a 9.8 by my Mum. Although they might be the most loving and generous parents on the planet, they are very stingy when judging and wouldn't give high marks if I hadn't honestly earned them, so I trust that I blew their taste buds away tonight!

Thanks to my friend Tracy and Pinterest, I created a one-dish, three item meal featuring chicken, green beans and baby potatoes and was mmmm-mmmm-good. And easy.

The only hiccup I encountered was that I washed my hands about eight times while working with the chicken since I'm paranoid about getting someone sick by contaminating my hands, the counter, the utensils, but other than that it was very straightforward to do. The potatoes needed to be cut into cute little bite-sized portions and then the rest was just filling up the dish with the ingredients, sprinkling a pack of dry Italian salad dressing mix over the top and then pouring some yummy, melted butter on top! Did I mention how easy this was?

The assembled dish (left) before going into the oven and the yummy leftovers that I will gladly have for lunch tomorrow (right)!

The end result was super yummy and I'm feeling encouraged and excited about my next cooking adventure. Feel free to share another easy recipe you may have with me and I'll gladly tackle it - it just needs to be beginner level and relatively easy!

It's off to work I go!

Today was my first day back at work.

I will be working a shift or two per week at a local children's boutique called Jack Rabbits. We sell the most amazing clothes, but also so many other awesome gadgets and gear (e.g. diaper bags, infant carriers, character hats + matching mittens, the sweetest little shoes that squeak when walked in, and so much more). I will be HARD pressed not to spend every cent I make in that store!

It was a great day, working and being trained by two wonderful souls - and getting to meet and help everyone who came into the store. Although my dogs are barking (translation: my feet hurt), it felt good to be face-to-face with customers, helping them in a hands-on manner. It's something I haven't done in many, many years and I forgot how good it makes my heart feel to do it.

On the home front, tomorrow I hope we can tackle some more Ikea assembly (ugh) - specifically two of these fellas who will be housing the giant pile of shoes, ranging from giant to super-mini, that is currently situated at the front door!

Sixteen pairs of shoes will be housed in two of these Hemnes shoe cabinets at our front door. HEAVENLY!

Farewell to the T Dot

We said our good-byes to our Toronto house this past weekend when we went to give the place a final clean-up, and I feel a bit conflicted about the whole thing. We brought Emmy home from the Hospital to that house, and it was our dream to own a house in that neighbourhood - so I definitely have bittersweet emotions swirling around in my heart after seeing it empty and knowing someone else will live there shortly.

However...I am SOOOO happy in our new home and our new city. I love the space we have here, I adore the proximity to Grama and Grampa and how easy it was to meet my Dad for lunch today. I love that the other night I woke up and thought there was a light on in the back yard, but it just turned out to be the moon and the big dipper (or little dipper...I didn't put my glasses on to make sure). I love how friendly and helpful and kind people are here.

I love how happy my little Lemon is. I love how happy and comfortable the hubs seems to be.

We are starting a new chapter. It doesn't mean that we have to forget about the chapter we just finished - it's all part of the Story of Us and I can't wait to see what happens next.

So long Toronto! We had fun while it lasted!

Be there or be SQUARE!

The Expidit shelving from Ikea that we assembled today is basically a big fat square with a bunch of smaller squares inside of it that create a giant wall of squares (hence the title of this post)!

We combined two of the 5x5 units with a smaller one row unit for a grand total of 55 squares to create an entire wall of organizational heaven!! It actually won't be hard to fill all of those squares since Emmy's toys are plentiful and Mummy has an absolute ton of books and accessories!

I quickly dumped a few tubs of books and Emmy's toys on the first shelf, but need to spread out and take my time styling these shelves nicely!

That brown sofa is about to get an ambush makeover and go RED!! Stay tuned for that!

We also managed to assemble the two Lack sofa tables that came in our giant Ikea delivery earlier this week and butted them up together to hopefully give the look of one long console table for a fraction of the price. I threw a few items on top to get a very rough idea of the type of item I'll want to accessorize with, just for some fun. 

Quick styled to get an idea of how it might look with some pretty books/items on display!

Two Lack sofa tables fit perfectly behind our new sectional sofa!

Things are finally starting to come together and the house is really starting to feel like "home".

Dinner is served

Well, I didn't burn the castle down, and the end result was edible...I'd even go as far as saying it was yummy! However, I did need help from the regular chef in our house.

My main issue is timing. I'm not familiar with the cook time on anything, therefore the beans and potatoes were done about 15 minutes before the fish. Whoops. The hubs says it just takes practice. Fingers crossed. Here's what we had:

> green beans
> baby potatoes
> salmon with a pine nut/pesto and parmesan cheese crust

Everything was going well until I checked the fish 20 minutes in. It wasn't done, even though I was going to take it out and serve it. The hubs gave me some pointers on how to check to see if it's cooked for sure and also about cooking at higher temp for a shorter period of time. 

The Sofa has landed!

Yippie Skippie - we have a sectional sofa! Please forgive the poor quality, night time iPhone 3 camera photos, but you get the idea! We chose the Karlstad sectional sofa from Ikea because of the ridiculously affordable price, and because we already have one and know it's comfy (once the stiff cushions get worked in!). We also like it because down the road we can change out the look/feel of the room by purchasing a different cover for it if we want! The other plus is that you can tweak the layout of the sofa if you choose to move it to a different room. Because you assemble it yourself, you can move the long end of the "L" shape to either the right or the left, depending on your room configuration!! So cool!!

You can also see the beginning stages of our plan to line the tv wall with bookshelves - we will also add an MDF counter to the top of seven of them that will span from wall-to-wall to make them feel a little less Ikea and a little more built-in. Hopefully we will also add a bit of molding to the top and bottom to make them feel even more like furniture.

Apparently the hubs already has dibs on the corner seat on the sofa (lucky duck, it's pretty comfy!)!

Our existing ottoman matches perfectly! YAY!

Six out of seven of the shelves aren't put together yet, but we did get the tv up!

Slowly, but surely things are starting to come together.