Basement Progress

This is a lovely little story about a sad depressed hurting basement.  Unfortunately I can't find any before pictures of our basement... so let me paint a picture.  Our 'finished' basement when we moved in consisted of a brown builder grade carpet that was so dirty and painted on etc if you wore white socks on it they would instantly turn black.  The walls are cinder blocks that they have stucco'd with a popcorn like texture.  And the ceiling... oh my favourite part... was plaster and lathe... but not just any plaster and lathe... it had a concrete compound built into it which meant over time it had gotten heavy and started to crack and actually fall down!  Just to add to it.. when they installed cable into the house they decided it would be smart to put a hole the size of my body in the ceiling! Yep our basement had seen better days!

Fast forward a year, Ryan, Norah and I went on vacation and came home to find that my super awesome parents and our super amazing friend had the ceiling torn down and replaced with super pretty drywall as well as pot lights installed!!!!!  SO without further ado here is what our basement currently looks like!!

The rec room of the basement is directly below our living room so it has the same bay window shape as upstairs.  Our plan is to actually build a curved couch into this space for the basement so that we can maximize on the space. The couch will be a storage couch too for storing extra pillows/blankets etc.

The built in bookshelf will be painted white and I want to install doors on it to hide Norah toys in the future

This little corner will be where the TV zone will be eventually!

Now that we have a new ceiling here is the master list of what my plans are for down there eventually!!
* New laminate flooring - we may actually go shopping this weekend for this!!
* Paint Ceiling
* Put quarter round on the edge where the new ceiling doesn't exactly meet the wall
* We can't do much about the non installation issue or the stucco'd cinder block so we just plan to paint the walls and repair any of the spots that look bad.
* Build a built in shelf similar to the current one on the other side of the bay window to keep it symmetrical
* Declutter!! Part of that happens this weekend as the current loveseat and the 2 chairs will be done soon! 

This area will eventually be the kids play zone so I can reclaim my living room for myself!! Eventually... not just yet.

Big Girl Room

Over the long weekend Ryan and I worked hard on 2 seperate projects. He worked on the basement (post to come) and I worked on Norah's big girl room.  Norah turns 2 TOMORROW (where did time go??) and I wanted to be closer to completing her room for her. 

I had bought some large wooden butterflies at Dollarama for $2 months ago! I had originally planned on decorating them with pretty paper but when Norah asked to paint on Saturday I thought hmmm what better way to get her excited for her big girl room!!!  I painted the background of them a light and a dark purple then gave her some green and some purples and let her go to town! She had a blast!!!

Next project I worked on was taking some wooden letters that my mom had bought at a warehouse sale for about 50 cents each and adding colourful paper to them.  This took about 10 minutes to trace, cut and glue with Mod Podge. Hanging them was a different story altogether!!!  These lovely things had predrilled holes and a tack. The idea was 'simple' put the tack in the hole then put the letter on the wall using the tack.  Simple in theory yes but the stupid tacks were on an angle!! When I tried hammering the letter into the wall the tack bent everytime!!!  Don't ask how I ended up hanging them... just know I went through a LOT of tacks (which I then had to unbend) and there were a lot of curse words spoken! (luckily Norah was napping!)

Remember waaaay back when we used the church pew as an outdoor bench on our porch? (here) Well on the back of that pew there were shelves that would have kept the church hymnals.  When we put the pew outside we took those shelves off and stored them in the basement because I knew they would make fantastic book shelves!  Then last summer I primed them and painted them white, I believe I did a post on that but for the life of me I can't find it right now!  We hung 3 of them in what I like to call Norah's book/art nook!  There is one more to be hung below the lowest one in the picture but we ran out of wall plugs and since the right side doesn't hit a stud we haven't hung that one yet!  I also added a simple chalkboard next to the shelves.  I have a tonne of chalk cloth so I just cut the material and threw it into a random frame we had lying around.  To complete this corner I plan to paint the little desk white and add new knobs to it.  Plus there will be a picture being hung above it shortly.

My mom brought over the purple quilt she bought at an auction for Norah.  It looks fantastic with what I had done!!

 Here is my little helper!

 Now I just need to hang her mirror, a few other pictures, paint her desk and find a proper dresser for in there and the room will be done!!! Oh I also need to clean out my crap from the closet as it is currently overrun with my dresses!!

Butterfly Tree

Lately something has been bugging me. I couldn't figure it out for awhile and when looking at photos of our old house I realized I missed Norah's old room. I spent hours making the tree for her old room and it is the only thing from our old house that I miss. Oh I was so proud of this tree in Norah's first room!

To see how I did the first tree in Norah's old room go here for the trunk, here for the leaves and here for the shelves. Norah turns 2 in February... AHHHHHH when did she get this big!!  And lately she LOVES taking her naps in our spare bedroom bed! When I say loves I mean she refuses to nap in her crib and will only nap in her big girl bed.  She is ready for the bed and the only thing holding her back is me.... This bed was mine growing up and its VERY high!!  Ryan and I just haven't found the time to drop the mattress by taking out the box spring and installing the safety railing on the bed.  Plus I don't want to move her into a room that isn't decorated!!  This is a horrible photo of the spare room but apparently its the best one I have... Since this photo we have actually turned the bed sideways into the nook on the right side.

I realized about a week ago that I REALLY wanted another tree for her room!  And when I get a thought in my mind I just can't get rid of it.  I also knew I wanted to do butterflies this time!  So I did what I always do when I have an idea... I spent a few hours hunting Pinterest for ideas and found this tree decal on Etsy. I loved it but realized the swirling branches would be difficult to do for me... I wanted to keep this simple just like last time. 

Then I found this one and thought it was perfect.  So using a pencil and an eraser I drew my tree using this one as a rough sample.  It took me all of about 15 minutes to draw the tree.  Then using brown craft paint I painted the tree.  Last time I went out and bought a can of wall paint and barely used the can and then left it at the old house... SO to keep things on the cheaper side I just used dollar store brown craft paint. I used less than half of a tube of it too and I love how the tree looks!! 

After drawing the tree I pulled out my butterfly stencil and using different colours of purple dollar store craft paint and a sponge stenciling brush I randomly put butterflies all around my tree.  This maybe took a half hour. When I was finished I took a step back and starred at it for awhile.  I wasn't overly happy with it... something was missing!  So I pulled out some green craft paint and added random leaves by hand all over the tree until I was happy.  So here is the new tree for Norah!

I do still plan on adding some 3D butterflies on the branches and the wall but as for the painting I am finished!! I LOVE this tree!!! I'm SO proud of myself!! You have to remember that I'm an accountant and although I may be a crafty person I CANNOT DRAW OR PAINT if my life depended on it!! When Norah asks me to draw Mickey Mouse she will look at my drawing and shake her head saying "No Mama Wrong!" SO just because you have zero skills doesn't mean you can't create something like this too!! I had to constantly remind myself that trees are not perfect so I really can't make a mistake with this!! 

Just for reference the walls are still a pale yellow, closer to the colour in the original photo of the spare bedroom above.  This photo makes it look beige but its definitely yellow!!  I'm so excited to decorate the rest of her room... now I just have to gather up ideas from Pinterest!!

A Smorgasbord of Stuff

I would like to start off by saying I had no idea Smorgasbord was an actual word... Who knew spell check would correct my spelling!! Moving on!

I had high hopes of writing these posts before the new year however my little lady had a horrible cold and we spent the holidays sitting on the couch watching Monsters Inc more times then I want to admit!!!!  So this is a post about all of the projects I have been dying to post for some time now!!

At the beginning of December a friend threw a Cookie Exchange Party.  Norah and I were in a sugar coma for weeks afterwards!! But my one friend made these amazing 'cookies' that I HAD to make again!  Mostly because they are SOOOOO simple!!!  Literally they are Ritz Crackers dipped in chocolate... um yep its that simple!!!  I had a bunch of candy cane Hershey Kisses on hand so I melted them up. I don't have a double boiler so I just used 2 small pots I had and put the water in the bottom one... worked just fine for me!

Then I rolled out some wax paper onto a cookie sheet and using a spoon I put a drop of the melted chocolate on the wax paper. Then put the Ritz Cracker on top and squished it around a bit. Then added another drop of the melted chocolate on top of the Ritz Cracker and smeared it around and threw the tray in the fridge so the chocolate could harden. They were DELICIOUS!!!!

Remember back Here when I showed my Quietbook pages.  Well I finally finished it and presented it to Norah on Christmas Eve.  We decided to give it to her then because we were going to church and what better place to play with it!!  Here are the rest of the pages.

I showed this page before.  I sewed a rectangle onto the opposite page to hold all of the dolls clothes. Norah LOVES that the doll has shoes... its her favourite part!

This is the cover of the book.  Norah had these 3 little finger puppets that were in a birthday card from her first birthday that she still loves playing with.  So in the interest of time I sewed another rectangle on and shoved the puppets in the front!

I previously showed the Mr. Potatohead, all I did to make the page was sew on part of Mr. Potatohead leaving the top open so the pieces could be stored inside him. (sorry no pictures) The same went for the flower counting page. You can see those here.

Finally I made a shape page using puffy paint! I traced out some shapes and cut them out of felt. Then using my puffy paint I traced the shape with a corresponding colour onto a page.  Norah has a blast matching the shapes and colours!!

Now onto a fun last minute Christmas Gift that I made for all the little people in our life (ie. babies under 8 months).  At that age Norah LOVED touchy feely books!!  I decided to attempt to make some!  Now mine didn't turn out like I wanted but the babies still love them! 

I made the pages out of sheets of foam (non-toxic too!!) and used pinking sheers to make the edges pretty. 

Then I thought out what I could use... puffy paint was an obvious choice for 'BUMPY'.  Actually this was my favourite page of the entire book!  I used a yellow paint marker for the lettering.

Next up I had some sparkly paper left over from a previous craft.  I had planned to write 'sparkly red circle' however this was a key lesson in what not to do while watching tv... somehow I wrote Bright... OOPS!!!  I think on at least ONE of the books I got it right... Oh well!! Lesson learned!

Next up I knew I wanted to do a 'Soft' page. And since I still had a bunch of felt leftover I pulled out some green and cut an oval!

Finally I had some shiny blue material left from the wings I made for Ryan and I for Halloween and cut a triangle out.  I had some issues gluing it on but eventually it stuck on!

Finally I used a hole punch to punch some holes and tied the whole book together with some ribbon I had on hand.  This project probably took me about 10 minutes per book but the kiddos love them and I couldn't be happier with the result!!! Plus it cost next to nothing to make!!

It is now 2013 and most people are setting out their resolutions.  I have never been one for setting a resolution because I know I won't stick to it.  However this year I am setting a goal of sorts.  My goal is to organize my life... Yes its a broad topic but I have so many things on the go and everything seems to be in shambles.  Organization would be key to making 2013 a fantastic year!  To clarify a bit I have a million areas of the house that are literally a disaster!!  I need to take the time to organize them better so they are functional for us.  For instance, currently I can't even get into our storage/tool zone in the basement because there are a million boxes and tools blocking the way! Next our front hall is a disaster of shoes and coats constantly... I plan to enlist my dad to help us organize that.  Our tiny main bathroom has non-functional storage that I plan to fix up.  The office upstairs needs some serious TLC.  Our laundry room has so much space but nothing is in its place so its a constant pile of junk.  We have a huge shed but have never properly organized it so its bursting with junk!  Life just needs organizing... I have yet to figure out how to juggle work, a little lady and cleaning a house!

With all of that said... we got on our organization plan over the holidays.  Previously Norah's toys were in baskets in her play area... then we were given a toy box which I thought would answer all of our problems.  Nope... I would like to refer to the toy box as the box of 'wherediditgo'.  It wasn't a deep box but Norah couldn't get anything out of it without help and it lead to frustration on her part.  So over the holidays we invested in a toy shelf with baskets.  It has been in the living room now for about a week and I LOVE it!! Norah LOVES it too! She can get all the toys she wants and her books are even in one spot (instead of all over our book shelf) which gives me more room for MY stuff!!

Finally on the organization track, we have a blank wall in the kitchen which we had previously hung a corkboard from a nail that was left by the old owners.  The corkboard was functional but MUCH too low!  When at Ikea a few months ago I came across some awesome organizers for the wall that I loved so I picked them up (I think they were like $15 or something).  We rehung the corkboard higher and put the organizers on the wall. Now all of our bills/paperwork/pens etc that used to sit on the kitchen counter have a proper space for themselves!! I still plan to do something fun with the corkboard I just have to find the time and figure out what I want to do with it!!!

Giant Ruler Growth Chart Tutorial

Lately Norah has been growing like a weed but I didn't realize it until my daycare lady mentioned she had grown about 5cm in 4 months!!! Then I realized I didn't have a growth chart set up for her...  We have 2 growth charts but one has velcro pieces which Norah loves to pull off and the other is too pretty to mark up with pen.  SO off to Pinterest I went to find something easy to make and found this pin. Which took me to Dear Lillies website where you can buy this for $49.99.

I LOVE the look of it!!!  And it would be SUPER easy to make! SO I had Ryan run to Home Depot and get me two (I planned to make 2 of these) 1 by 6's.  Then they sat in my hallway for a month.  I had planned on staining the wood with some leftover stain I had from back when I helped a friend stain her bed. (see here) However its now super cold outside and staining outside is not an option. I could stain it in the basement but then the house stinks and its not properly ventilated... so that was going to happen.  I had also planned on bringing the wood to my parents house and staining it in their garage because they have a heater in there. But I forgot the wood when we went to visit. Thats why the wood sat there for a month!!  Then last Friday I took the day off work and decided it was time to deal with it!! I sat back and brainstormed what I could do without using stain!  Then I thought meh lets try something new. So I pulled out some brown and silver paint and mixed them one a plate.

Then using a rag I wiped the paint onto the wood letting it truly soak into the wood. I tried using a paint brush but it looked bad. The rag was the way to go! It made the paint smooth and even and I only had to do one coat!!!

I honestly wasn't sure how this would end up turning out but I figured it couldn't look that bad!!! And I was right.. I LOVE how it turned out and I'm so glad I used the silver because it gave it an awesome yet subtle shine!

Then using a measuring tape, a ruler and a marker I marked the lines onto the wood.  I made the foot markings 2 inches in length and the inch markings 1 inch in length.  This took about 5 minutes to do.  Then I freehanded the numbers.  I had wanted to use a stencil for them but couldn't for the life of me find my numbers stencil... so I freehanded it!!

 And there you have it, Norahs growth chart!!  Now we just need to hang it!! I made it so it starts at 6 inches, which means we need to hang it 6 inches from the floor. 

Santa Claus Parade!

We have been SUPER busy the last few days getting ready for the Mississauga Streetsville Santa Claus Parade!!  Ryan's new company (not sure if I mentioned it but Ryan started up his own insurance brokerage... couldn't be prouder! Message me for details if you need help with you insurance if you're local!) decided to create a float and walk in the parade!!  Oh boy was it work!!!  We decided on a gingerbread man theme!  So one Saturday a few weeks ago Ryan's entire office came to our house and we made a Gingerbread House float!!  Couldn't be happier with the result! It wasn't huge but it was perfect!!  We painted it a nice reddish brown and decorated it up with dollarstore decorations!  I don't have a photo of just the house but here is the float with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew!

The next task was costumes!!  As you saw in the photo above they turned out amazing!!! My sister-in-law made hers and my brothers! They were completely AWESOME!!!!  I had the task of making 4 pairs of brown fleece pants, 2 adult sweaters and Norah's little sweater as well as 4 hats.  SO I got my sew on and hammered them out in a week!  Then I had to decorate everything with large white rick rack!  In the end I couldn't be happier with the result!!!! Ryan got to dress up as the 'Baker' for the parade! 

Norah had an absolute blast!!! She waved and smiled the entire parade and was SO happy to be sitting in her wagon most of the way.

My nephew was 'Frosty the Snowman'.... Ohhh I just wanted to squeeze him the whole time!! He actually fell asleep for part of the parade... hilaroius!!!

Overall the parade was so much fun and we learned a lot!!! First off... 6,000 candy canes is NOT enough... oops!  Second off, it gets VERY hot no matter how cold it is outside when you are running around giving out candy canes dressed in fleece and too many layers!!

And to just finish off because I know everyone LOVES a good screaming child pose.... As much as Norah LOVED her gingerbread costume this time (remember the incident with the peacock costume here) she did NOT enjoy sitting on Santa's lap at my work Christmas Party the day before the parade....

Poor child.... Just for reference she isn't normally a screaming child... I just love those photos so much I have to share them!!! They make me laugh!

Stairway to Heaven

Yesterday when I got home I just about had a heart attack,  I was running up the stairs to grab something for Norah. I didn't have the lights on so I could barely see and on the back of one step there was a LARGE thing... It looked like a tarantula sized spider. I froze! For those of you who know me you know I HATE spiders and what I hate more than spiders are those house centipedes with there freaky freaky legs that go everywhere and they refuse to die and they secretly plot against you on how they are going to eat you!! Ok maybe that is an exaggeration but I HATE all large crawly things!! Totally just shivered describing the bugs that haunt me!!  Anyway, I freaked out and ran downstairs to grab a shoe and turn the light on. 

WELL I discovered it wasn't a bug after all.... (silly me) it was just the paint peeling off the back of our stairs... BOOO!! Not as bad as a bug but equally crappy!!  I think the old owners of our house quickly painted the back of the steps... they looked great but its a thin coat of paint... its streaky and starting to crack/peel in areas. 

Sorry for the quality of this photo I can't find my other photo! This is our stairs... will update with a better picture later.

There is nothing wrong with them other than the peeling paint... I know I need to repaint them but that got me thinking.  Remember in the old house when we wallpapered the stairs here

I loved the look but it took a LOT of work to wallpaper those stairs.  Mostly because they weren't even.  But the problem with wallpapering our current stairs would be because of the banister. The photo doesn't show it but part of the stair goes to the other side of the banister... making it VERY tricky to wallpaper.  Thats why I hadn't even considered it before. 

While browsing Pinterest I came across this which is from Martha Stewart. I LOVE this idea!!  I know I have to repaint the stairs... why not add a super cool stencil!

I'm thinking of a nice grey toned stencil of a flower or a vine.  Something neutral... I may even add the stencil into the front hall on the walls to tie the stairs in... we shall see.  First step is getting Ryan on board with a stencil we can both agree on.  I want something neutral that adds a little fun to the stairs... maybe even a butterfly or dragonfly....