Finishing Touches

Decorating/organizing progress has been made this week, even though we've been crazy busy!!

I'm super happy to report that I found the PERFECT baskets for Emmy's room at my local Home Hardware. They are the perfect colour, the EXACT perfect size and I love the detail of the silver handle too! At first I wasn't sure 'bout the colour and contemplated spraying them pink or white, but when I got them home and put them in THEIR home, it was exactly what the room needed. The tan colour adds an earthy, natural feel to the room that I didn't even realize it needed!

In all their glory, each nestled into its own little cubby! How perfect do they fit, right? 

How gorgeous are those handles? Nice and sturdy so I don't have to worry about how rough Emmy is with them!

Here is the other end of the window seat!

Some hold the overflow of tights we have that no longer fit in the sock drawer!

Some hold books!

Some are empty so far. But that's a good thing since we have tubs and tubs in the basement still left to go through!

What else have I been up to? During my weekly trip to WINNERS (yes, I'm obsessed, but they are constantly getting new merchandise in stock and the only way to ensure I don't miss something really awesome and perfect for the castle is to go regularly!), I found these super cool posters!

Although I've not yet mustered the courage to fly across the ocean to visit England, Max has been and LOVED it. He promptly told me that I would adore London and refuse to come home, so I think that they are a good reflection of "us"!

It continues to amaze me how adding artwork really does make a room feel "finished". Still some things to do in the tv room, but these fun posters have gotten us one step closer to complete!!

My Big Girl

Although Emmy was the oldest child today at the Public Library's "Shake, Rattle and Read" drop-in class by about two years, we still had a fun time dancing, singing and reading. The rest of the attendees were all between the ages of three-months to one-year-old and were taking bottles, fussing for no reason and army crawling all over the room.

It took me back to when my Little Lemon was just a wee baby and couldn't walk/talk yet and I wanted to pick one of those chubby little butterballs up and have a snuggle. Emmy, however, was not really that impressed and kept saying "That baby is crying!" and asking "Why is that baby crying?". I tried to explain that sometimes babies cry for no reason, but maybe he was hungry or had a wet diaper and the only way a baby knows how to let his Mummy know something is wrong is to cry. I think she understood because her response was "I no cry. I'm a big girl!".

She certainly is becoming a big girl. Seeing her along side those itty-bitty babies emphasized that fact for me today. She is a big girl who has her own spunky, silly personality and knows what she wants. She has a lot to say and loves to learn. She loves (LOVES!) to make people laugh. I've said it before, but I'll say it again...10 million times without apology, I'M SO LUCKY to call this funny, spunky, kind-hearted little girl the absolute love of my life.

No Nap Required

I've been dreading this day for a while now, even thought I knew it would eventually come.

Although I don't think we've said our final good-bye's to the daily nap, I do think that our little Lemon doesn't need the 13 hours of sleep she's been getting lately when she does nap from 12:30pm to 2:30pm (or 1-3pm, or 1:30-3:30pm).

Bedtime has been a bit of a struggle lately. I'll put her down and then hear her cute little footsteps about five minutes later and a small voice saying "Mummmmmmmy?" from the top of the stairs. Looking back now, she likely wasn't tired enough to go to sleep, since she was having a full two hour long nap most days, and was not ready to end her fun-filled day!

So what have we changed? Well, instead of nap time we're trying to enforce "quiet time" which translates to a short period of time in her room with books/stuffed buddies she can play with, although this past weekend we traded that in for a Disney princess movie marathon while snuggling on the sofa (she's only going to want to do that for a limited time and Daddy and I want to take advantage of it while we still can). We've also moved bedtime up to 8pm instead of 8:30pm in an effort to gain back a little bit of the time lost by cutting out the nap. That means that she's getting about 11.5 to 12 hours total in one 24-hour period vs. the 13-14 hours she was getting.

Fingers crossed that these changes are for the best for all of us! I'll keep you updated!

Just for fun, here is our little Lemon tonight. She put this hat on and said "I'm Chef Emmerson!". Love her and her imagination.

Another Year Older

It was my birthday this past Sunday. I turned 34-years-old. How did that happen? Didn't I JUST graduate from high school? Wasn't it just a few weekends back that I blew $100 at the local dance club (just kidding Mum!!) and this past summer that I did nothing but work on my tan up at the cottage?

Quite honestly, although time seems to be zipping by at warp speed and I'm not sure when I became an adult, I don't really miss any of those things (although a cottage weekend this coming summer might be fun for Emmy). Priorities have definitely shifted and ensuring that my little family is filled with happiness is at the top of my list each and every single day.

I LOVE that I am at the point in my life where I can appreciate them and this life of mine in ways I wasn't able to when I was younger and didn't realize how lucky I was. I love that we are so fortunate to live close to our extended family and share our happiness with them. I love that my husband is willing to get up at 4am to commute to work so that I can spend my days with the Lemon before she grows big and goes to school and doesn't want to spend every moment with her Mummy. I love that she lets me zerbert her belly, put her hair in piggy tails, sing SuperCaliFragilisticExpialidocious together when we drive and asks me to "rubba her back" when she crawls into bed at night. I love this life and these moments.

So how did I celebrate my 34th birthday? A delicious feast from the sea at Red Lobster followed by Menchies frozen yogurt concoctions with my Little Lemon, the Hubs and my parents. It was perfection.

I think 34 is going to be my best year yet. Can't wait to see what happens!

The Office for Two > More Progress

It's not done yet, but I wanted to share a few better quality photos! I'm also hoping that you (yes, I'm talking to you kind reader of my blog) can help us decide what colour shelves we should install above the desks because I'm waffling back and forth every day!

Here is how the office is shaping up:

Ta da! I'm so proud of myself for assembling all of this on my own! 

Some further purging is required!

Look at all of that work surface! I love how deep the desk top is!

OK, so now we need your help! Above the desks we want to install Ikea wall shelves - two above my side and two above the hubby's side. The ceilings are quite high on the main floor and this big, white, blank wall is screaming to be filled! The question is, should we go with white shelves or brown shelves? Cast your vote by commenting below!

Big, blank wall!

Which would you install above the desk? White or brown?

2013 Goose Pow Wow (in the field behind our house)

One night this week, while we were hanging out, setting things up in the new office, we heard honking. Being that our house backs onto open fields, we're pretty used to groups of geese chatting to each other - but the honking we heard this time was different. It was louder and much more intense.

We opened the back door and it was obvious by the sound (deafening, layered honking) that there were dozens and dozens of geese back there, so of course I grabbed the ol' camera and tried to capture what was going on.

Then the unimaginable happened. Dozens and dozens more geese started flying in and joining the Pow Wow. It was amazing. By the time all the meeting guests arrived, there must have been a few hundred geese back there and it sounded like they were ALL talking at the same time.

They stayed for about 15 minutes, chatting the whole time, and I snapped these pics when they started to leave (I wished out loud I had a better zoom lens!). What an amazing sight (and sound) to behold. 

Stickergate 2013

There is a decorative box in Emmy's room that had some stickers in it. Toy Story stickers.

Earlier this week she didn't want to sleep, but I asked her (ahem...told her?) that even if she didn't want to nap, she had to stay in her room and have some quiet time. I gave her some books and left. My guess is that she wasn't interested in the books I provided, because she obviously spent some time exploring her room and found the stickers.

I found a few random stickers scattered around her room earlier this week and chuckled, however she took it to a whole new level last night.

At 10pm I took a peek into her room to make sure she was sleeping and I found her awake. Singing in fact. As I got closer, I could see that she had dozens and dozens and dozens of stickers all over her hands and had made little stacks of them and was adding to them. It was terribly difficult to keep it together and not roll on the floor in laughter, but I calmly explained that it was time for sleep and we needed to put the stickers away. Then I got into her big girl bed and we had a snuggle until she fell asleep.

I guess that would explain why I had two stickers stuck to my shoulder this morning.

Here's the evidence I captured this morning of Stickergate:

I thought I had cleaned all of the stickers up, but when I made Emmy's bed I found this:

I think we'll keep her sticker-free:

The Office - ITW

After a full day of putting together the desk (seriously, I took a lunch break with my Dad, but other than that it was Glee (season 2) on the laptop, an Allen key and dozens and dozens of pieces of Vika Alex) here's where things stand:

We (ahem...I) have a LOT of office supplies!

Lots of tweaking to do (e.g. the drawer unit on the right hand side was missing a drawer bottom), but you get the basic idea. It fits PERFECTLY! The room is 118.5 inches wide and the total desk width ended up being 118. Nuts!

What's next? We are thinking about adding six shelves (three above each of our desks) in the same dark brown as the desk top.

Aiming to have things a little further along in here by end of the week!

The Office Transformation: A Desk for Two

Tomorrow we are headed to (ahem...my favourite place on Earth) Ikea.

Not just for hot dogs (how do they make them SOOOO delicious?), but for the pieces of our new Desk for Two that will transform the current repository for all things without a permanent home into a usable space!

(you know that episode of Friends where Chandler finds Monica's secret closet that looks like it's from an episode of Hoarders?...this is our version of that!)

End goal is to create a desk that closely, but not exactly, resembles something like this:

We want to be able to both sit at the desk on days we both find ourselves working at home, but also have ample space for storage both seen and unseen. I see a lot of Allen Key usage in my near future. Stay tuned for an update on this Desk for Two adventure!

Happy New Year from our home to yours!

I took a blogging break over the Holidays since there was SO much going on.

E.g > last minute Christmas pressie shopping, baking, making sure everything was in order for our Christmas morning feast.

Plus the little Lady was home with us quite a bit over the last two weeks, so we spent the majority of our time in "the yellow room" (aka > her playroom) building puzzles, stacking things, watching Toopy & Binoo, dressing up, playing store with her new cash register and pretend food and so on, and so on, and so on.

I did, however, find a few minutes over the last few days to finish up/make progress on some already started projects and wanted to share.

CHALKBOARD WALL:

TA DA - four coats of chalkboard paint (to ensure that over time I don't wipe away the paint) is all it took to transform this bare wall into a monthly calendar/message board/grocery list station! We love it...even if it's not 100% square. 

Love having our schedule up for reference - it's already coming in handy!

These amazing chalkboard markers were a Christmas present from my sister Kristi who is a teacher. She tells me that all the teachers use these in their classrooms > I can see why. They are semi-permanent (come off with a wet rag) so you can use them to draw calendar lines that you want to stay put when you erase your January engagements and replace them with February! Love them! Great gift!

 CONTINUING DECLUTTERING/ORGANIZING OF THE YELLOW ROOM

I think this will be one of those rooms that is ALWAYS in progress - since Emmy's taste and interest in toys seems to constantly change, but I've moved some of the adult items into other rooms and want to get some more storage bins for this monstrosity of squares to reduce on the amount of loose items. It's coming along. 

THE LITTLE LEMON'S ROOM

Every little girl's room needs some butterflies in it, yes? I love the 3D texture these Umbra butterflies add to her room.

Still on the search for some baskets to fit in those lower cubbies - she is LOVING the bench cushion and I am loving the curtains! So happy with how her room is shaping up!

We hung up my all-time favourite piece of art - the painting Max created for Emmy when she was still in my tummy. Love this beyond words. 

 PICTURE PERFECT

It's kinda crazy how hanging a few pictures can make the house feel SO much more completed - but it does!

Proud Mum - this is one of Emmy's daycare creations. Love it. 

Super dark photo, but those are her footprints in the stacked frames. 

This one is a piece of leftover wallpaper from a work project that I threw in an Ikea frame. Love the colours and pattern and also the fact that it was FREE!

Slowly but surely, things continue to come together and I am trying to remind myself that it doesn't all have to get done right now. Even if that's what I yearn for.

Our next big project is tackling the office > we urgently need to get a desk set up in there! Hoping to post about that tomorrow! Stay tuned!