It Runs in the Family

My aunt Sandra and I share some of the same qualities - crafty, creative and can make beauty out of objects others may disregard as old or trash. She has done some of the most beautiful work I've seen with DIY makeovers and wanted to share a few of them!

 Here are a few projects she has done lately:

Dresser set for her daughter's bedroom
Before

After

Headboard Before

After

 Sweet End Table 
Before

After

These are only a few and every time I go to her place there is a new piece of decor waiting for me to catch my attention.

They also did a complete 360 overhaul on their kitchen by reusing and painting their old cupboards and installing new countertops. I can't wait to show that off in a future post! 

Happy painting!

Designer piggy bank for cheap!

We are constantly finding loose change around the house - from pennies, to toonies, it's everywhere (unfortunately, more pennies than toonies!!)! We wanted one central location to throw all our change when it gets messy in our pockets (Matt is very guilty of this!) instead of finding change all over the top of the island, dining table, end tables, etc..


We had a charity yard sale last year to raise money for the Children's Heart Network and had LOTS of donations for it! This plaster piggy bank was one of the donations - so I scooped it up for one of my projects! (Yes, I made a donation to the charity for taking the piggy bank!)

Before

I removed the laces and spray-painted it silver for a quick designer style look! I used a silver "Krylon Metallic" Silver colour spray paint and covered the entire shoe in a few coats. 

After

We throw our loose change in here and when it gets full, we roll it up, take it to the bank and treat ourselves to dinner (or coffee, depending on the number of pennies inside!)

Note:  We still have yet to paint the shelf and mail desk itself!


Similarly, we also keep a jar in the laundry room for the loose change we find in the washer, dryer and our clothes pockets. It works fantastic and keeps the change from scattering itself around the house!

A Special Birthday Celebration

Today's post is for celebrating one of the most admired women in my life. She is one of the most independent people I know, self assured, tough on the outside yet she can completely melt your heart. That woman is my nana.

 

 

 
My nana was born in 1921. She met her husband during WWII and they were married in 1945. Sadly, after only 30 years of marriage, she lost her husband at the age of 53.

Since the day he passed she has raised her 4 daughters on her own, stabilized a life in her home (which she still owns AND lives in to this day), worked to support her family and managed to take care of herself as well.

Today she turns 91.

My nana is a huge inspiration to me, not only for the life she had to sustain on her own, but for the pure love that is still in her voice whenever she talks about her beloved husband.

In just 7 months I am getting married and I plan on celebrating with Matt every chance I get. It doesn't matter if you're 3 years married or 42 years married.... being together should be a celebration, especially when you have as much love as my nana and grandpa had.

So happy 91st birthday to my nana today! I love you so much!

Our Advent Calendar for 2011

Matt and I have started some traditions recently and one of them is creating activity advent calendars as mentioned in this blog post.

These are the activities we decided to do together throughout the month of December. Unfortunately, my very busy work schedule did not allow us to do all of these activities, but we tried to get most of them done (even if it wasn't on the specified day!). 

Advent Calendar Activities

1.  Wrap some Christmas gifts!

2.  Make holiday tags from recycled Christmas cards and scrap paper

3.  Create a christmas card hanging display

4.  Put up the Christmas tree, drink eggnog and exchange ornaments!

5.  Snuggle on the couch with a hot chocolate and a good show

6.  Take Simba for a wintery walk

7.  Make holiday cards!

8. Make paper & pipe cleaner snowflakes and decorate the windows

9. Make ornament gift toppers!

10. Wrap and send care packages

11. Wrap Christmas gifts together by the fireplace

12. Make a list of ten things you are thankful for. Hang it where you can see it every day.

13. Bake something together (cookies, muffins, bread or cupcakes!)

14. Sing and dance to christmas music!

15. Mail Christmas cards!

16. Attend ugly Christmas sweater party!

17. Get dressed up all fancy and go to company Xmas party!

18. Spend some time laughing and playing with Family

19. Bake a batch of Christmas cookies

20. Bake another batch of Christmas cookies and share family and friends

21. Tally up total dontations for the Children's Heart Network and donate online.

22. Make cake pop Christmas tree!

23. Tour the Northern lights

24. Make a gingerbread house!

25. Merry Christmas! Remember to love and recieve love this holiday season - that is the warmest gift of all!

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids!

Holiday Traditions

The holiday season is approaching us again and I wanted to share a few traditions Matt and I have started with each other.

Exchanging of ornaments

We started this tradition the year we moved in together. Anytime before December we purchase a Christmas ornament, wrap them up and exchange them when we put up our Christmas tree (the first weekend of December). Here are photos of our ornament exchange from our past 4 years together:

We hope to keep this tradition going when we have children;  to get them each an ornament which they can open on the day when we put up our Christmas tree. Our hope is that one day we will only be hanging the ornaments from our exchange and hope it's something our children will look forward to each year!

Forgoing Christmas Gifts

Matt and I made the decision this year to not do a gift exchange for each other. Instead, we will purchase one or two mutual gifts for ourselves that will benefit the house and help us with our renos and decorating. This is something we plan on doing every year from now on. We decided to do a stocking for each other to open up Christmas morning together, but the rest of the money we'd typically spend on each other will go towards the house and other family members. We've realized we don't need gifts to celebrate the meaning of Christmas. It's enough just being with friends and family around the holiday's and be thankful for having a wonderful life together!

Charity

Last year we started the tradition of giving back to others by helping our community or children or families in need around the holiday's by participating in local charities. Last year we did Samaritan's Purse where you fill a shoe box filled with toys and school supplies for children around the world in need. It was SO MUCH FUN! We loved going around to different stores and picking out things for the shoe boxes for the kids and dropping them off at the collection centres.

Our goal is to pick a charity each year that helps children or families in need. We want to continue this with our own children to teach them the meaning of giving back. We want them to know that Christmas is not just about receiving gifts - it's about spending time with those you love and giving back to others.

This year we did something a little different. During 2011, we have been raising money for the Children's Heart Network which was inspired by my little cousin Kaylie. At just 8 months old was diagnosed with a heart defect called Pulmonary Atresia.  She has had numerous surgeries since and in spite of her condition, she is a very happy, spirited little girl.

We had a charity yard sale this summer which all proceeds went to the network. We received lots of donations from friends, family and even neighbours for our yard sale. It was nice to see the community come together and give back to something so close to our hearts.

Advent Calendar

Another thing Matt and I decided to make tradition starting this year is make an advent calendar! Except instead of little treats or toys, we made up activities to do together. I don't want to spoil what our advent activities will be, but I will try to update weekly with what we do! :)

We took some festive scrapbook paper, cut them into circles and wrote our advent activity on the back. We decided to hang them off our Eiffel Tower which sits in in our living room!

So those are some of our most important tradiations that we have started and are carrying out through the holiday's!

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Back Deck Reno

Well, we FINALLY got our back deck all done! It was a work in progress but it's finally done and we are so pleased with how everything turned out.

(Oh yes, please do not judge our back gardens... they are not complete and we won't be re-doing them until next spring!)

As much as we loved the peeling red stain on our wooden deck, we decided to go with a more neutral stain.

Matt worked SO hard on pressure washing the back deck and applying the new stain colour which we are in LOVE with!

We also had some peeling shingles on the small part of our roof that we had to get replaced this summer and finally got it done!

We replaced our existing small roof vents with 2 new (much larger) ones. The back of our house gets constant sun so we had to consider that into our design plan. We also changed the colour from a dark grey to a lighter grey (in hopes to not attract as many sun rays!)

My uncle, my dad and Matt did this in a matter of hours...I am SO impressed with the finished product!

It looks incredibly professional and we are so grateful for everyone who played a part in making the roof look so great!

Check out our house tour for more photos of our house!

Wedding Day Bliss ~ September 22nd

Today marks exactly one year from our wedding day! As exciting as it is, I started feeling the stress 2 days ago and it hit me like a wall. I kept thinking of allllllllllll the little things that need to get done and how I should be doing AS MUCH as I can now, so that closer to the wedding I will be less stressed.

I received a message from Matt's aunt Amy at 10am asking, "wonder what you will be doing one year from this exact moment?" And I thought.. hmmm... 10 am... probably getting my hair done . And then it hit me - I already have an idea of how the wedding day schedule is going to go and it's a year away - in fact, I have a timeline, a schedule and a detailed budget. I AM more organized than I feel! I just have to learn to relax and know that all our planning will turn out to be fine. And we have a whole year to do it!

I've since started making a "To Do NOW" list of the little things I can do while waiting for the bigger items to fall into place. I thought I would put my list on my blog to help keep me on track and organized.

Since I am a big DIY person, almost anything we can do ourselves, we are. Such things include save-the-dates, invitations, thank-yous, programs, menu cards, bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages, favours, centerpieces, cake topper, card box, favours,   .........we are even doing our own engagement photos! I feel like so many of these things we can do now...even though I don't have exact numbers, I can start making the small things and getting them out of the way.

To Do NOW list:

Stationary 
  •  Card Box
  •  Ceremony programs
  •  Guest Book
  •  Invitations
  •  Save the Dates
  •  Seating Chart

Bouquets
  •  Boutonnieres
  •  Bride's bouquet
  •  Bridesmaid bouquets
  •  Corsages (Moms)

Attire
  •  Headpiece (bridal)
  •  Flower girl/Ring Bearer flowers/accessories
  •  Flower girl hair piece/barrette

Other Decor
  •  Cake topper
  •  Centerpieces/table numbers
  •  Ceremony Decorations
  •  Favours
  •  Head table vases

Any wedding day advice you can have to accomplish things more efficiently?