My House: Laundry, Measure Twice

I started cabinet research for the laundry room this weekend and this made me laugh:

My sad excuse for taking measurements...


And the husband's thorough, neat and um, correct version...


Yaaaa. Thank goodness for Mike, we make a great team :)

Christine

A Very Canadian Weekend...

It was a great weekend filled with hockey, book club, a date with the hubs, baby cuddles, snow, snow and more snow. Looks like we're making up for a relatively mild winter in ONE day. oh, Canada.
At least I finally got to break out my new boots!


Hope you had a great weekend, too. Happy Monday :)

Christine

Featured: Style at Home Budget Decorating

I sure love those fine folks at Style at Home, my dorky happy dance ensues every month when "magazine day" arrives! I love magazine day. Their magazine and website have provided me with oodles of inspiration so I was beyond thrilled when they asked me share some budget friendly decorating ideas for their latest blogger feature. I'm all about the budget decorating!

Hop on over to Style at Home to see the new budget artwork on my mantel and all the other great DIY ideas from some really fantastic bloggers.



Thanks so much for asking me to participate!

Happy Friday!
Christine

My House: Laundry Inspiration

You know what happens when you spend most of your time at home (besides copious amounts of online shopping, ehem), your to-do list starts to get really long. Our nursery kind of took over any other project I had in mind for the house and now that it is done I'm ready to tackle and perhaps finish a few other things.

The first project I want to tackle is our laundry "room". I say "room" because it's not actually a room but a closet in our mud room. Here's a look at the teeny, tiny, impossible to photograph space:

I actually find that it's all that I need for space, but the problem is the functionality. Those dang closet doors get in the way of putting in the laundry detergent. I actually have to close the door slightly so that I can pull out the drawer far enough and then crank my arm around to get the detergent in. Annoying. The closet is in the back of the house in the mud room so, while it's nice to be able to hide away the washer/dryer, it's just not necessary. So, if it's out in the open it just needs to look good.

The plan is to remove the doors and fancify the inside with cabinets, a countertop, paint and maybe a backsplash or wallpaper. The mud room will of course get a splash of new paint while we're at it, bye bye boring builder beige! yesss.



Here are some of my inspiration pics. I really like the layout of these images with the cabinet along the side and top with space in the middle. We don't have a window, but I'd like to put up a rod and be able to hang clothes from there.

image via precision stoneworks

This one below is probably my favourite, I love the industrial look of the backsplash!

image via casa de valentina

image via southern living

I have a feeling this project will take a while with our little munchkin around, but with all the laundry I've been doing lately it'll be so, so worth it.

Let the planning begin! yay.
Christine

Newborn Session: Pink Sugar Photography

Alice's newborn session is up at the lovely pink sugar photography. Ohmygosh, a lot changes in 3 months! I'm so happy we have these photos of our brand new, little family. I just love them (and her) to bits.
Here she is just 5 days old...



Go check out the full session over at pink sugar photography.

Thank you, Andrea. You're the best :)


Christine

Pinned (and ate!): Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another adventure in accomplishing a pin from my virtual pinboard: chewy chocolate chip cookies.

I can't entirely take credit for actually doing this pin. Okay, I can't take any credit but I did eat them, that counts for something right? My mom and sister beat me to this pin and made us some yummy valentine's goodies. They were soft, they were chewy, they were delicious.  Definitely a must keep recipe, check it out here.  Thanks Apple a Day blog for the inspiration and thanks mom and sister for the yummy goodies!

Photo and recipe from Apple a Day adapted from Anna Olson, Food Network Canada.

I would have liked to have taken some photos myself but, well, they just didn't last that long.

Christine

Valentine's Day Decor: hearts, hearts, hearts!

I've never decorated for valentine's day before and I'm not exactly sure how I managed to pull it off this year. Maybe it's because I'm not working right now and I've got tons of extra creative energy to spare, or the scheduled crafternoon date - Lord knows it's certainly not free time! Either way, I kinda like all the lovey dovey'ness in the house right now. Hearts, hearts and more hearts.







Mike and I don't really make a big deal of valentine's day (I like to think we love each other everyday), we'll probably spend the evening in front of the tv with our little lady. How are you spreading the love tomorrow?

Happy almost heart day :)

Christine

Cousins: Welcome Home :)

First, my brother moved home from Mississippi and now my sister is back from Manitoba, it's been a good year for our family. I think Alice is just as happy to have everyone here, especially her cousin Sydney.

Welcome home, family :)



Aren't these two the sweetest?

It looks like a gentle and sweet caress but I'm pretty sure it was more like a wack (see motion lines), but that's just how Sydney shows her love ;)

Happy weekend all,
Christine

Valentine's Day Crafternoon

Paint, scissors, and lots of hearts equals one fun crafternoon... which continues on because apparently 5 hours with a baby is not enough time to get a craft project done.  Either way Alice and I had a great time (those were happy tears, I swear ;) - just look at this beautiful mess...



I'm so happy I found a craft buddy, thanks Andrea (and Cole and Lila) for a great day!  Let's hope I can find the time to finish up the rest of it before valentine's day comes and goes :)

Christine

Pinned: DIY Tape Magnets

Hi my name is Christine and I'm addicted to Pinterest. "Hi Christine." For those that don't know, Pinterest is a website chalk full of inspiration setup as a virtual pinboard to organize all the great ideas out there in internetland. I've been spending way too much time drooling over fashion, home decor, recipes and tons of crafty goodness that I thought it was time I started actually doing something.

This magnet tape idea was the perfect nap time friendly project to get me started. I based my magnets of these two great sources twirling betty and little lovlies (see my pin here) and used supplies I had lying around the house. I didn't have any washi tape (which is basically just fancy masking tape) so I used scrap pieces of paper and some old magnets I already had.

It's as simple as gluing on paper, cutting up magnets and roughing up the edges so they look all tape like. Slap them on the fridge and you're done. I love how they turned out and it was so easy!






Quick and easy projects are the best, I'm all about instant gratification : ) Have you tackled any of your pins lately?


Christine

Must Eat: Chai Mini Doughnuts

My friend Karlene was just here visiting from Vancouver. We had a great week of baby cuddles, shopping, chai tea lattes and some fun in the kitchen baking chai mini doughnuts. Yu-um. Tea, sweets and girl time just go hand in hand don't they?




I think I have a thing for donuts as seen here, here and here. After making my pumpkin doughnut holes I really wanted the fancy doughnut hole pan. I got two of them for Christmas and I've been dying to whip some up. The recipe is from this "Doughnuts" cookbook and is basically a basic cake dough flavoured with black tea and yummy spices - ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg...
(similar recipe here, minus the cocoa)



The nice part is they taste best fresh from the oven (the texture is just a bit off the next day), so you really can't feel guilty for eating the whole batch. I highly recommend checking out this cookbook for endless goodies (it's a good thing they're mini).




Christine