Monday, September 9, 2013

Nursery inspiration

As you may have noted when I put up our house tour... Henry's nursery is in pretty immediate need of a facelift.



When we purchased our home, his nursery was used as an office and had huge shelves on the wall. Joe's brother helped us out by removing them on moving day. Unfortunately, the shelves left their mark.

Nursery before; With shelves
The nursery has definitely been on my mind lately, so I've been looking around online for some inspiration. While I liked our previous nursery, I had painted before I knew Henry was a boy... it was very neutral. While I am still considering a neutral colour, I am also thinking about something with a bit more personality. 
Henry's nursery in our last home
All of that being said, the colour that I have to work with (because of the accents I already have) is orange. While I'm thinking I don't want orange walls, I've been considering the following colour combos:

1. Orange and Mint: I love this combo. It is really nice and bright and would be a colour that I could easily work with, and that would flow really well in our home.

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2. Orange and Navy: This would be a little more bold. And a little harder to change later. However, I love it! The only big problem is that I've been considering painting OUR room this colour. 

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 3. Orange and Yellow: Our last house, which was painted entirely in yellow when we moved in, gave me a bit of an aversion to yellow paint. This nursery, however, is amazing! I love the yellow here.

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I even found this mood board, which has SO many things in common with the items and themes I already have: The rug style, foxes, natural woods. The dresser even looks like Henry's dresser... but in yellow!
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I'm starting to feel ready to narrow things down. I will keep you posted on what we decide!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Cottagy Porch Décor

We spent our last week of summer here:


This is the lake at my mum and her partner, Rick's, cottage.
I love being at the cottage. It is so relaxing, and it is amazing living by the lake. Since summer holidays are over, I knew we'd be missing the cottage so I thought I might try to recreate the cottage feeling in the outdoor space at our house: The porch. While we were at the cottage, Joe and I kayaked to the island (on the right side of the photo) to go driftwood hunting. We came back with 3 great pieces. When we got home, one was a clear winner as it perfectly fit the space we had wanted to fill. It didn't even need anything to help it hang on the nail... it just worked! Best of all, we had been wanting something to hang there since we moved in, and this was free!


One problem with our porch, however, is our old wicker chairs. This might be the last season for these babies. To be fair, I have used them for 4 summers (mostly outdoors, uncovered) after scoring them for free off of Kijiji. And the chair pads were a thrifting purchase for a few bucks a piece. Needless to say, they are starting to look pretty sad, and aren't really too comfortable anymore.


So, back to my cottage inspiration. My mum bought these amazing faux-wicker chairs a few years ago at Winners for the covered porch at the cottage. Joe and I would LOVE a comfy style chair like that for our porch, especially considering we have spent most of our down time out there since we moved in. We love it! I think it might need to wait until next summer, though. That is, unless we find something great on clearance! 


Monday, September 2, 2013

Henry at 7 months

Our Henry (aka Henny, Hen, Bubba, cutie pie, etc. etc.) is 7 months old!
This past month has been so much fun with Henry. And busy! We moved into our new place, which took a bit of time to get used to for him. He's finally seeming to feel at home, which is awesome!

As you can see... our move meant that we had to give away our blue couch, so we will be doing his monthly shots on our white one, instead.




We spent this month unpacking, enjoying our new locale and checking out the neighborhood parks, going to the beach, spending time with family and friends and going to the cottage. Henry even attended his first wedding (congrats Andrew and Danielle! We loved joining you on your perfect day!) It was a relaxing month for sure. 

Henry's bigger achievements this month: Sitting on his own, *almost* sleeping nights again, eating a lot more foods and becoming a lot more social. Oh, and he got his first tooth! Enjoy a few photos from his past month!

One of the last days at our last home. Enjoying the backyard.
Still getting used to our new home: Up waaay past bedtime! 
Enjoying our new front porch!
Celebrating his cousin, Spencer's, 1st birthday!
Spending some QT with his birthday buddy, Uncle Mike!
The Kelly side
First visit to the beach... not so sure about the lake water!
Ok... SO FUN!
Cottage swimming on the dock!

Sitting on his own!

Ready to go to his first wedding! And looking pretty dapper!
Making a new friend.