Hiatus.

So here's the thing.

I'm starting back at my full-time teaching job on Monday. And I still have a baby. He's turning 1 in a couple of weeks.

What that means is that this blog is going to take a back-burner. 

It might be a permanent thing, it might not. I haven't decided yet. What I know right now is that I want to focus on my job, my family, my other relationships, and doing the other things I love before this blog. So, I won't be writing anymore, at least for a while. 

That being said, I have enjoyed writing here the past three years. It has been a great way to keep people up-to-date with what I'm up to. If you still want to keep up-to-date with me, I'll still be on Facebook. Or better yet, let's hang out in real person! 

Meghan

The Things That Didn't Get Blogged About

I would have thought that maternity leave meant that I would have oodles of time to blog. Well, I was wrong! Apparently, I also had trouble blogging during the last months of my pregnancy. I got so far behind on the list of things I wanted to blog about that I have almost stopped blogging altogether!

So, I've decided to put those things to rest. Instead of detailed posts on each project, I will simply put them all in this post so that I can move on, and blog as I wish from now on! 

1. Adding interest to our sitting room: We finally got around to putting up some art work, and bought a few colourful pillows and a purple throw to add some colour and tie things together. We also found an amazing teak table on Kijiji and added some lighting.

2. Painting the spare bedroom: This is still a very boring room. But, it is better than barfy yellow!

3. The nursery: While I still have a ton of ideas to add to the nursery, (now that we know that Henry is a He!), I didn't really show much of the nursery itself. This is what it looks like now... it still has a lot of work that needs to be done. For now, Henry is still sleeping with us in our room, so this is really a glorified baby-changing room.

4. Painting our bedroom: Apparently I don't have any great photos to show this... but we repainted our bedroom a soft blue. 

5. Our en-suite bathroom: We repainted (using up the leftover light blue paint from the bedroom), took out the ugly wall cupboard and replaced it with artwork, and added a new vanity. It is a huge improvement.

Before

After

6. Updates to the sitting room: We have definitely livened up this room, and it has become my favourite place to hang out in the house!

We bought a nifty plant from Ikea, found an amazing original painting at a local thrift store, and found a great mirror to put over the liquor cabinet. 

7. Long before even moving into our current home, we bought this hutch for $45 at a thrift store. We had plans of repainting it. Then, it sat in our garage for months. Finally, we got around to painting it! Joe chose a shiny black, and we polished up the hardware to make it as good as new. It looks amazing! Now we just need to put things in it...

Before

After

I'm pretty sure there are other things that I have forgotten. On another note... we are currently in the process of updating our kitchen cabinets. I'm pretty excited about it. I will (hopefully!) give the update on that soon!

Back to Blogging...and our Big News!

I realize I have taken a very long break from blogging...Oops!
I could make a ton of excuses...but instead I'll just focus on the positive! I'm back!

Summer has been an amazing whirlwind so far. Joe and I spend 2 weeks in Europe, which was amazing. We went to the lake for a week with my Dad. I became an aunt again. And now we're just catching up on life, and enjoying the pool at home :) It's been nice.

Anyway, I guess it's about time I share our exciting news, as well!

Joe and I are expecting!

I am almost 15 weeks. The baby is due on January 30th, 2013.

As you can see from the photo, it has been easy to hide. I have been searching for a baby bump, but it's only just starting to make any type of appearance. In fact...that might even be a stretch. So, that's the best I can do! (Oh...and ignore my bedhead. I am on vacation, after all!)

14 weeks

Let The Blogging (re-)Begin!

Hello everyone!

After months of anticipation, we are FINALLY in our new place!
And for the most part... it is great!
The first few days involved living in a pile of boxes and a disorganized mess. Last weekend we put our butts into gear and unpacked almost everything (except for one spare bedroom, which is still a pile of boxes...that we will ignore for now.)

After a whirlwind of a week, things are starting to look a little more organized around here. (I will try to get a house tour up sometime in the next couple of days!

Let me re-cap our lives since the move. We have gotten around to a few little things on our to-do lists, but nothing major yet.
For example, we changed the yellowy-orange lights that lit up the front of the house:

And replaced them with bright, white lights. (This seems like a small change, yes, but you have no idea the change it made in person!)

We bought planters for the front and back yards...9 in total! We got a good deal at the local market. Getting them home in the Rav4 was...interesting!

We also put in an automatic garage door opener, and installed a few new register covers. So, nothing too exciting, but stuff that just needed to be done.

Of course, we've taken some time to enjoy our new place, too :) Look at the poppies that began to appear the first morning we were here! We have been LOVing the backyard, the pool, the hot tub, the privacy. It is awesome.

And Mira seems to be adjusting alright, too. She even found a way to get on the roof so that she could meow at us through our window at 5:45 am. That little....

However...we have a *little* problem. We need new furniture. ASAP.
The only existing couch we had was the blue one that used to look really cute in our old place. We had plans of putting it in the basement here and to get new (at least to us) furniture for the fireplace room. But, the couch doesn't go down the narrow stairway. Back to the drawing board!

I've also been putting my creative juices to work and trying to pick out paint colours! It's exciting...but I can't seem to make up my mind. The people at Lowe's must have thought I was a crazy lady hoarding all of the paint guides and paint chips in sight!

On a completely unrelated note... did I mention it is report card season?
And did I mention that my Mum got married on Tuesday? It was a great day! Married in style :)
My Mum and Rick looked amazing and happy, and dinner was a blast. Thanks, guys!

Needless to say, it has been one busy week. I'm excited to get thinking about the projects we will take on over the next months!

Where my mind is today.

I have a lot on my mind today.
I need to get it out on paper my blog!

1. First off, I want to put something to rest. My photo of the day project. I know I made it almost 1/6th of the year through. I could keep going. But I have found the past few weeks it has just felt like another thing on my "to-do" list. It's not something I've been looking forward to, or enjoying like I thought I would. Some days it was a scramble to find something to take a photo of. So, without further ado, I think it's time I stop. So, if you've been wondering where my new photos are...well, they don't exist. And they won't. I have decided I would prefer to record this year's happenings through writing. I have found since starting to write my blog it has become such a stress reliever for me. Writing things down puts things in perspective for me, which can be a good thing as I sometime have trouble looking at the bigger picture in life.

2. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was considering going car-free at the end of this month when the lease of my lovely Yaris ends. Joe and I went into the Toyota dealer yesterday to discuss our options, and now we are leaning toward something very different. It seems crazy, and a little backwards, but we are considering upgrading to a larger vehicle. (What?!) Our reasoning is that in a year or two, we will most likely be welcoming a new little one into our family. The Yaris doesn't seem very baby friendly, so we thought of what might make more sense. On top of that, we thought about all of the things we DO use our car for, like camping and skiing and bike trips...and they all seemed like they would be easier with a bigger car. All of that being said, we will still try our best to not use the car. It would be great incentive for me to find alternative ways (biking, busing) to get to work when we move in May to a home that is more than double the distance to my workplace than our current place.

3. The travel itch has re-entered our home. This summer, Joe and I have decided we are going to go to France and Belgium, and maybe Germany. Again, this may be the last summer there is only 2 of us, so we want to get our traveling in :) I'm really looking forward to visiting with my French host family again. I haven't seen them since 4 summers ago when they came to visit me in Canada. They haven't even met Joe! I can't wait to introduce them.

4. We move in 80 days.

5. How are we going to afford all of this?

6. I love my life.

Creating a blog header

So, today I decided to try and create a header for my blog.
I googled up some tips on how to do this. I found this great blog post, describing how to do it, step-by-step.
Unfortunately, while my intentions were good, the product was not. I was not in the most creative state of mind and after about 3 hours of tinkering, I ended up making a header that I think is really sad looking. This was the first failed attempt:

I didn't think it was TOO terrible, except that you can see the copyright image over the middle pattern (which I borrowed from the net...) So, I thought I'd try something a little different, which ended in failed attempt #2:

Again, not exactly what I envisioned. In fact, almost worse than failed attempt #1! The only thing I like about it is the picture of Mirabelle (on the Left....isn't she cute?!)
I think I need to sleep on it. Maybe tomorrow I'll have more brain energy. For now, enjoy failed attempt #2 everyone!