PRODUCT REVIEW

this weekend n had the task of drawing up floor plans for project 109 and one of our friends told us about google sketchup ... it is a tool to create 3d models and this program was definitely not used to its full potential as my sketches were 2d ... would love to play around with this at a later time

overall it was fairly straight forward to use ... i really like the measuring tool that gave exact measurements down to the inches when selecting 2 points ... it really helped keep the drawings true to scale ... and i liked adding the details of carpet, wood flooring, tile, shingles and water to make it so pretty :)

upper floor plan

main floor plan

basement floor plan

(even the black tile around the bathroom is there)

our house on paper from top to bottom

cheers ~n

BLACK AND WHITE

it is frustrating when you fall in love with a tile that would be absolutely perfect for your space and then you receive the quote for just the supplies and almost fall of your chair ... they want $1300 to tile a 5X7 bathroom and a 11X5 laundry room and if we choose to get them to install it we would have to pay $2000!?!?!? what the what that is waaaay too expensive for this little house ...

so this weekend we headed out to the 3 hardware store chains determined to find tile for the basement bathroom and laundry room (even though we had already been before and were a little disappointed) ... rona this weekend had 15% off your entire purchase so we started there and that was as far as we had to go ... i am happy to report that it truly was a one stop shop this time ... we settled on bright white tile for the middle and a funky black argyle diamond tile to border the rooms ... just enough to add some interesting detail and the price was a lot cheaper than the quote we had from before ... can't wait to install this sometime this month

cheers ~n

BLOG SLACKER

so instead of spending time posting pictures of the bathroom ensuite dormer n decided to go out shopping and spend some money at a much loved store ... ah sephora ... what a beautiful place with so many lovely things in such pretty packaging ... how can a girl resist?

nothing better than a little bag filled with all kinds of awesomeness

behold all the bright and shiny things

sometimes it's nice to take a break from all the dust and dirt and do something girly

cheers ~n

p.s. the pictures will be coming very soon

THERE'S NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN AN ORGANIZED KITCHEN

the other night j and n made the trek to the local ikea to pick up a few more supplies to finish organizing the kitchen cabinets ... because the store is so big and we left so late we were there right until they kicked us out ... with our recyclable boxes in hand we came home and set to washing the supplies to ready them for their use the next day ...

n being way too excited and a bit nerdy about organization decided to reorganize the kitchen with j at 10:00 pm (usually n's bedtime but i was just too excited about the organizing that i probably wouldn't have slept anyways)

everything found a perfect place and by taking the time to put food in proper containers and quickly move things around so the kitchen flowed better we actually gained a ton more space in our petite kitchen ... we were debating whether or not we should put in a pantry on this one wall but both of us agreed that it would just make the kitchen feel crowded and squishy ... we've worked really hard to open up the space and make the 600 square feet on the main floor seem bigger and we are happy that we don't have to cram more stuff in for the sake of storage

one side of our kitchen ...

in love with the sunlight streaming in

from the garden doors

... still need to find the tile for the back splash

(i would show you the other side but

the capping on the half wall is too ugly right

now once it's fixed you can peak at the

other side with the dishwasher)

my favorite dishes cupboard ...

organized mugs and new cups :)

the new coffee and tea spot and cookbooks ...

love the frosted glass jars ...

so clean and organized

this corner cupboard was a disaster stuffed with all our food and appliances

... hated going in there to get stuff out

now all the baking supplies and containers have a home in here ...

i feel like i can breath when i open it up now

the new spot for the food

all our baking supplies tucked in the drawer at the bottom of the oven

all the mixing bowls, cutting boards and pasta bowls

cutlery ... all bright and shiny

pots and pans

my absolutely favorite cupboard

(and the whole point of the trek to ikea)

look how beautiful the spice cupboard looks

even though most of the kitchen has been reorganized there are still a few spots that need some major help with being organized

like the utensil drawer

under the sink ... notorious for being disorganized

the new appliance cupboard ...

not quite sure how to help this one?!?

all that tucked away in our little kitchen and with some room to spare :)

cheers ~n

p.s. new dining room table is going to be delivered next wednesday ... can't wait to show it off

TICKING CLOCKS AND PAINTED DOCKS

so i have been eyeing this amazing clock courtesy of one of my favorite canadian furniture stores for quite some time but it has been too expensive and i couldn't bring myself to spend that much ... however the other day i was driving around and i decided to go in to urban barn and the clock was on sale for 50% off ... oh and i scored a great painting as well

i want to put this on the wall between the kitchen and the living room and stairwell to the basement ... it is such a nice white and it will really pop against the chocolate brown walls in the house

not sure where this will go but it fits with our city, architecture, buildings, black and white theme that we have going on for our pictures

cheers ~n

POSTCARDS OF CHRISTMAS

the gifts of entertainment

the gifts of golf

the gifts of cooking

the gifts of things n likes

the gifts of fitness

the gift of style

the gifts of warmth

cheers ~n

POST

the other day i was picking up some groceries at the italian center and on the way to the car something at the cutest little gift shop caught my eye. it was the most perfect mailbox. it now sits in my possession and i can't wait until the outside of the house is finished so that it can be proudly collect our mail