New home dreaming: bedrooms

In case you missed it, we're moving in the spring!

We'll be removing wallpaper and updating flooring, but I'll have to be creative with our budget to get the look I want in all of the rooms.

For today, let's talk master bedroom.

We've had the same Ikea bed for almost 15 (it was mine when I moved out before we got married.)

If you look at the footboard, you could see where the dog chewed - erm, actually the kids - had their way with it.

Our bedroom has never gotten a makeover, in the 10 years we've been living in this home. It's so basic and boring.

Most of all, I just want a grown-up bed.

After browsing some furniture stores and seeing the beds I want with price tags over a thousand, I switched gears and bought a sleigh bed secondhand, for 150$.

The look of a painted sleigh bed is so beautiful:

In white,

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or putty-colored,

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or even in grey,

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What do you think?  

We're leaning towards either of the non-white options, because I have in mind to paint out my existing night-tables white.

We are also planning on moving this rug, from our basement up to our bedroom:

It is the gray scroll tile rug from Pottery Barn. The scroll detail lines are a very creamy ivory, almost beige color. I'm dreaming of a bed in a linen color that ties into the rug, and then all white bedding and white bedside tables.

Can you picture it?

For now, it looks like this:

How embarrassing. For how uncluttered the rest of my house is, my friends are always surprised to see the garage. We hide our messy behind garage doors. haha.

We made room for the new bed frame, around the hubby's weight bench, and are filling in nicks and scratches to ready it for painting.

I can't wait to show you the finished bed!

♥.

House dreaming...

Hi friends!

I have a confession to make. I have been doing less card-making lately.

Here is what I have been doing:

1. Cleaning

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Our house is up for sale! Keeping the house ready at all times for house tours is a full-time job. Or at least more intense than the regular routine. But on the upside, the kids are getting used to cleaning up their stuff at the end of the day and making their beds to perfection every morning. I can live with that.

Wanna hear my best tip for dusting your house in a hurry? You know how the laundry always eats a few socks, so there are the odd ones with no match? I grab one, put it on my hand like a sock-puppet and race around, wiping down window-sills and moldings every morning. In 20 minutes, I've wiped down all 3 floors worth of everything, and then I just drop the socks back into the machine. You know, in the hopes that their mates will magically show up the next time around. This works great for kids, too! They think it's hilarious and I don't have to worry about cleaning products around Maia.

2. Baking

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I'm sorry to say that I have fallen into old habits with how I deal with stress. I'm choosing to not be bothered by the fact that my pants are feeling so tight lately. Because chocolate tastes so, so good. So does caramel and maple, FYI. See? I'm already calmer just thinking about the cupcakes I have upstairs in the fridge.

3. Illustrating

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I have a few sets coming out with Mama Elephant in the next little while, and just playing around with drawing and illustrating other ideas for the future.  There is so much less clean-up involved with drawing as opposed to stamping and card-making. It's suiting me better for now...

Caveat: I didn't draw that balloon-holding-girl, but she is very cute!

4. House-dreaming

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If I thought I was wasting time on Pinterest before, whoo! I am banking some serious hours lately, dreaming of what I want to do in the new house. I am eager, but I also feel a bit of crazy coming on. Do we keep an open staircase in the dining room or close it up so I have somewhere to place a buffet? Buy new sofas or keep what we have? Try our hand at bedroom molding, or leave the walls plainer? Buy a new bed or build ourselves a headboard? What kind of hardwood flooring: something light, something mid-toned? eeep.

It's exhausting.

But so exciting.

Would you like to see what I'm dreaming of? Since this has always been a card-making and party decor kind of blog, I thought I should ask first. Would it turn you off to see pictures of beds, and bedrooms, and projects that I'd like to tackle, or would that be fun?

♥.

crafty break - keeping it real.

Hey.

I miss you.

I don't have anything to show off, but I thought I'd pop in and say hi.

Our family is recovering from an easter-weekend flu, I'm trying hard to shed the 20 pounds I picked up last year (ugh - I hate how that looks in type), and I'm working on design team assignments (which is kinda hard when you're doped up on Niquil...)

It's almost party season (3 babies born within 10 calendar days, remember?) and I haven't started crafting a thing.  the tragedy.  At least Thomas requested a star wars party for his 6th birthday and I don't have anything in my stamping stash to accommodate him.  A quick trip to etsy was a breath of fresh air for this tired mama.  I will delight in serving up "princess leia's buns" and "han-burgers" - printing and cutting and hamburgers and cinnamon buns sounds pretty good to me right now.

The blog may be a bit (a lot) neglected for about another week, but I'll make up for it with 2 and 3 a day posts.  They're all scheduled and waiting. waiting. waiting.

In the meantime, how're you doing?  Anyone else trying to shed a few pounds?  Jillian Michaels and I are trying to make friends.  It's slow-going.  I keep a pouty-faced picture of a 6-week-old Sofia next to the tv so that I feel like someone gets it - how much I hate exercising. I'm hoping it turns around a bit, when I push through all the leg soreness.

Until next time, friends!

What we've been up to...

We don't have a Christmas tree up yet.  And, this is huge, considering we usually have it up the day after American Thanksgiving.  

As of this afternoon, this is our living/dining room (yes, we do have a tiny home):

When the new moldings were first going up, without any paint on them, Sofia declared that she hated them, and would be "embarrassed to have any friends over ever again!" Oh dear, someone turned into a ball of hormones and chose renovation time to let us know...

But, aren't the new crown moldings so pretty?  In case anyone would like to know, the wall color is Benjamin Moore's "edgecomb gray" - and is a bit less taupe in real life.  We've also "crowned" and painted our kitchen and little powder room, in BM's "boulevard" - a deeper, and more mauvy grey.  Very pretty.

Apart from the Christmas decorations, I'm most excited about having my dryer hooked up again.  A family of 5 does not function without a dryer in the winter... there were not enough surfaces to lay out our wet clothes this afternoon...

One thing that hasn't changed:

The chalkboard wall is here to stay.  And semi-dressed for Christmas.  The kids were thrilled to come home from school and find the advent calendar moved to the kitchen.  Days 1 through 12 were opened upstairs in our bedroom.

It's a beautiful life!

crafty break: 1st day of school.

The first day of school. 

This little missy is treating it like she's been around the block a year or two...  she packed her backpack, helped to put her lunch together, and chose her outfit the night before.  There was a test run in the clothes, and some preening in front of the bathroom mirror.  She was edible.

Sofia has also been full of advice for Thomas, who will be (for the first time) spending all of his weekdays out of the house: where to sit on the bus, how to ask for a bathroom break in french,  and what to do to make new friends.  I've so loved listening to their little conversations in the last few weeks.  Her confidence has translated into reassurance and encouragement for Thomas, and for me too.

Even Maia will be starting preschool a few mornings a week.  All I can think to say is to offer a fat "good luck" to her teacher. ha ha.  She is such a funny kid, and full of affection when you get to know her, but she doesn't make it easy.  As soon as there is mention of "school," she starts yelling "I don't want to go school!"

I think she's yelling it in this picture, actually.  You can see the "sch" syllable coming out of that little mouth!

Oh, Jesus, watch over my tiny loves this year...

My mommy heart is excited and in knots all at once.  

a crafty break: lunchtime.

Part of being a stay-at-home mom, I think, is acting as your family's historian.  I mean, who else will document and be able to re-tell what life was like?  What it was all about during their childhood years?  When they get all angry and teenagery on me, I want to be able to show them what really happened.  It's as much for my protection as it is for nostalgia's sake...

I hope you'll forgive me this crafty break, but sometimes I feel like sharing something other than cards :)

This is the anatomy of a lunch-hour with miss Maia, age 20 months.

What'll it be today, Maia?  A peanut-butter sandwich (she's very vocal and determined to get what she wants.  On little things like what to eat for lunch and what to wear for the day, I'm already indulging her.)

A customary inspection of the meal usually ensues.

Pouring water on her food.  It also usually comes to this.

The now soggy sandwich no longer looks very appetizing.

The feet.  At the beginning of lunch, the feet are both dangling.  But, inevitably when the food becomes boring, one foot disappears from its proper position...

And finds itself here.  The peanut-butter sandwich takes a distant second place to looking for toe-lint.  So gross.

How'd you like me now.  

and the sandwich?  all over the floor.  start the lunch-time dance all over, mom.

nobody said it would be easy all the time, but nobody prepared me for how hilarious it can be, either.  

be back with some cards later today, promise.

handprint decorations: crafting with the littles.

Hi there -

This is my 200th post!  I can't believe that I am slowly nearing a year of blogging - it has been an amazing ride so far, and definitely a sanity-keeper for me.  All of your sweet comments put a smile on my face, and sometimes, a much-needed smile on a particularly gloomy day :)  I promise a little giveaway on my 1 year blogging-birthday - less than 2 months away!

What better way to celebrate going forwards with my little blog, than to take a tiny look back... Last year, the kids and I (and even the hubs) did a little Christmas craft together that you might enjoy taking on in your own home.  When I pulled it out last week, it was really special for the kids to put their hands back on their canvases and see how they've grown...

I pre-painted the thin canvases (we got them at our local dollar-store, 3 for a dollar, and they measure about 4x4inches), and then the real fun began.  I had Thomas model the steps for you - and what a happy model he was, probably because I was encouraging a mess for the first time in a long time!  We smeared white craft paint on his fingers and a bit of his palm, and then let him press it down on the blue-painted-canvas.  Instant snowmen and snowdrift!

Then, with toothpicks and different colors of craft paint, he was able to create top-hats and scarves for his little men...

I love this picture - my boys took the crafting very seriously... ha ha.  (and oh!  my old laptop... I loved you 'til I spilled coffee all over your keyboard... I really didn't mean to kill you like that...)

A whole family of handprints!  From left to right - Sofia's, Maia's (she was only about 8 months old - look at the tiny fingers!), Amar's, mine, and Thomas'.

Hope you enjoyed my look back!  If you happen to make some finger-print art with your family for the holidays, I'd love to see it!  Link it up in my comments section.

featured!

I'm so thrilled to have a little shout-out on the paper-smooches blog today!

check it out

scroll down a bit to see my mustached-mug card :)

I'll be back with a card tomorrow!  There is absolutely no natural light for picture-taking right now, and also - go ahead and take a break before I bombard you with more Christmas goodness...

By the way, we're thinking of putting up our tree soon... thoughts?  chastisements?  support?

Have a good one!

A crafty break: henderson harbor mini-getaway

Just thought I'd share the reason why there isn't a card on my blog this morning :)  We met up with another family of 5 and shared a lake-front-cottage for the weekend.  It was loud and so much fun!

the view from our balcony of lake ontario

trying to figure out where our friends are at!

late nights made for some cranky mornings :)

nothing that a delicious zucchini bread can't fix (thank you, Paula Dean!)

mmmm.... why can't we get this stuff in Canada?!

smoothies for the kids

and lots of giggling thrown in...

walks on the beach, all bundled up

our weekend home

practicing our cursive writing...

all the kids, minus Maia.  And yes, Liam is quite the little poser!

roasting marshmellows in the fire-pit

chubby bunny.

so calming and beautiful

marshmellow faces

so cute, hee hee!

silly faces, and zoolander on the left...