Happy Halloween!

I had high hopes for halloween decorating this year. Andrea and I even made a crafternoon of it, but alas, my plans to "finish up when I got home" kinda didn't go much further. I did get some googly eyed mummy jars made which, I have to say, are one of the easiest (therefore, best) crafts ever.

Here's a look at the halloween decor happening over here... simple and easy, just the way I like it.

There's nothing scarier than full fledged winter in October. Welcome to Alberta, folks.

It's Alice's first halloween tonight and I'm super excited to take her out for some trick or treating! What will we do with all that candy she's too young too eat???

Happy Halloween!!

Christine

Around Here...

raiding my mom's craft room for a certain someone's first birthday (!!), hop on pop with opa, bath head, fabric shopping, candy for "the trick or treaters", tunnel vision, "food", picked up a few cuties from IKEA, cotton candy sunsets.


just being cute, epic bedhead, being cute again, mistaken for twin boys at the grocery store, birthday dinner for Mike, helping aunty shop, a spooky crafternoon with my favourite craft buddy, yep - snow, floral elbow patches - I want to steal this from Alice's wardrobe.

Happy Friday!! I've got some serious costume work to try and get done this weekend. Can you say procrastinator? ugh. Hope you have a good one!

Christine

find me on instagram. username: justbellablog

Instagram Blurb Photo Book

I'm a huge photo junkie, always have been, but I just don't have my good camera handy at all times. It's too heavy, too big and well, sometimes I'm lazy. I love having my phone at my fingertips ready to capture all those everyday moments and I literally have thousands of photos to show for it.

That's a whole lot of memories just hanging out on my phone, so when I found out Blurb had easy to make instagram books I jumped on the chance to create one. Blurb links up to your instagram account so it was easy peasy to make. I have a lot of photos (it's a bit ridiculous) so I'm dividing this year up into two. Here's a look at part one:




I'm super happy with how my book turned out. It's just an itty bitty 7x7 book, perfect for quick easy flipping. I opted for the soft cover version but you can also order hardcover. I'm really impressed with the quality of the book and the instagram images actually look pretty good.





I was thinking I might add some hand written captions for a personal touch, but for now I love flipping through checking out that cute baby, some delicious food, token feet shots (haha) and some really awesome memories. I think this might be an annual thing.

Christine


p.s. Blurb is offering a 15% off coupon code right now - FALL15OFFBOOK, click here to check it out.


disclosure: after receiving my instagram book, devouring it, loving it, I signed up to be a blurb affiliate which means if you click through my link I may make a commission off your purchase. I think it's important to keep things fully transparent, so consider yourself fully disclosed. I only support products I think are awesome and that I think you might think are awesome too :) 

the little things: A Pretty Notebook

I don't know what it is, but since becoming a mom I find my mind is always going a mile a minute. Do this, clean that, don't forget this! Sometimes I feel like I'm running around doing a million things and yet nothing gets done. Scattered might be a way to describe my brain lately (mom brain I think they call it?? arg).

One of the things that helps me feel focused is to write things down. I'm a visual person so seeing things on paper really helps and is it just me or is there no better feeling than crossing something off your list? I may or may not write something down after I've done it just so I can cross it off ;)

I've been such a sucker for cute notebooks lately. Having something pretty to look at somehow makes things seem that much easier (the coffee might help too ;)

Rifle Paper Co Notebook from Anthropologie (gifted to me by a sweet friend)

How do you manage your never ending lists??

Christine

Around Here... Vancouver Edition

so long prairies, hello ocean and mountains, beautiful day for shopping, hitting up the new west elm store, gorgeous white rock, birthday colouring, a day full of pretty white dresses, happy birthday Karlene - love ya!, reunited with my girl.

And that concludes my Vancouver adventures! Such a great trip but it's nice to be home with my loves :)

Christine


find me on instagram. username: justbellablog

Vancouver Part Two: Blend 2012 Event

As excited as I was to check out the interior design show during my Vancouver getaway (blogged here), I was thrilled to hang out and mingle with some amazing, creative and inspiring bloggers that night. Sponsored by IKEA Canada, Blend 2012 was such a fantastic party. So many beautiful, friendly faces and even some surprise guests showed up - the wonderful Tommy Smythe and Suzanne Dimma and Mark Challen from Canadian House & Home Magazine.

I was too busy having fun and chatting away to take many photos (bad blogger). Please excuse the poorly lit iPhone photos and quite possible the most unflattering lighting ever.



Great food, great people and some pretty awesome swag and door prizes. I think I had horseshoes up my butt that night (I swear I hardly ever win anything!), that's me up there with the swanky Delta Touch Faucet and I also won the most beautiful painting by Michelle Morelan. I can't wait to hang it in my home, I'll be sure to update you with where it ends up!

Thank you also to my pal, Karlene for shipping these not-so-suitcase-friendly pieces home to me! I think there were a few takers had it not worked out ;)



The party was held at the St. Regis hotel where I envisioned myself enjoying my solo room with late night snacks in bed and a long, luxurious sleep in... but of course I was up at the insane hour of 7:30am wide awake. Why does that always happen??



A huge thank you to IKEA and to Victoria, Barbara, Karla, Nancy and Danielle for organizing such a great event - you gals did such a great job.

Thank you also to all of the super sweet bloggers I met for being such a friendly and welcoming bunch of people and for making my "first blogger meetup" not so scary. I had so much fun and hope I can make the trip again next year!

Christine

Vancouver Part One: IDS West

I love Vancouver - the ocean, the mountains, the sweet salty air *sigh*, I really do feel relaxed whenever I'm there. I made the treck out west for the Interior Design Show and Blend 2012 blogger party. Yep, blogger party. To say I was nervous to meet my "internet friends" (how nerdy does that sound?) was a bit of an understatement, but from the very first moment my fears were eased. This was the sweetest, most welcoming group of people ever. I was welcomed with smiles, hugs (I love huggers) and loads of chatter.

I kicked off my weekend meeting up with Amy, Sara and Kerry. I had so much fun hanging out with these girls. As expected we had tons to chat about, it's so nice meeting people you know you already have so much in common with. We bonded over coffee and then headed over to the Interior Design Show (IDSwest) to take in a presentation from Tommy Smythe, the fabulous designer and co-star to Sarah 101, Sarah's House, Design Inc...

getting cozy with my peeps - Sara, me, Amy and Kerry.

After soaking up Tommy's wisdom, advice and hilarity we toured the show and soaked up all the beautiful inspiration. This really was a great show - well-edited, visually stunning and worlds away from the halls full of jacuzzis and hot tubs I'm used to. So many gorgeous details...




Definitely a unanimous show stopper  was the Aya Kitchens booth designed by the talented Kelly Deck Design. Couldn't you just live in this thing?

Although the show was not huge, there are so many things I think I missed. It was such a fun day. Talk about inspiration overload, but in the best possible way.

Next up, a recap from the party!!

Christine

Thankful

Happy thanksgiving to all my Canadian peeps out there! I am so thankful for all my wonderful family and friends and especially for these two...



This is a sneak peek from a mini session we had with my pal Paula Scherr, I can't wait to see the rest. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend, I'm off to my second thanksgiving dinner tonight stretchy pants in tow!

Christine