Taking an indefinite break. I will return!
Fearlessly Finding Awesome: The Club and yes, I’ve been away for a while
So it’s been a while. But that’s ok. At least I feel like it was ok. Life happens and I got busy and distracted with all things that come with working full time, raising a child and trying to have some semblance of a life. But, I’m here now and on the cusp of redecorating our house and building out our unfinished basement, I feel compelled to write again.
I stumbled upon a blog called Vintage Revivals oh probably about a year ago and fell in love with Mandi’s design and decorating prowess. I’m forever going back and looking in awe at this transformation that I want to use as inspiration for our front room re-do.
Anyways, Mandi has started a club. The Fearlessly Finding Awesome Club that I want to take part in. Because I love awesome things and also love taking part in a group activity. Makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger which some days I really feel I need. Also, nothing gets me motivated like seeing other people make pretty things. This is what I need!
FFA #1 is called “Catch A Dream” – the challenge is to write about our own personality traits and some of our favourite things about ourselves. We then need to connect that to how we want our home to feel. Not look, but feel! So here goes..
Personality traits – I can be crazy. Like not insane asylum crazy, just quirky, strange-crazy. I am also bold! Not offensively, just happy to be out there and happy to tell you what I think. I used to be painfully shy and life is so much better on the “bold” side! I’m also very warm and loving. I’d like to also add some of my husband’s best traits, since this is a space for both of us. He is warm and kind and insanely organized.
For our home I think striking a balance between random quirkiness and organization is key. I want the space to be unique and different but not feel like chaos (insanely difficult with a 1 year old!). It should feel warm and inviting and comfortable. And lived in. I don’t want it to feel stark or museum-like. It should feel like a warm hug from your best friend or wet sloppy toddler kisses. It needs to feel this way for all members of the family, not just me!
I don’t know if we are supposed to go this far but as I was thinking about this it helped to think about what sorts of things would help me achieve this feeling in our home, particularly in our front room space. Here is a brief list of a few items –
- Storage – and lots of it. Ottomans, bookshelves etc. This helps with the organization / less chaos factor
- Comfortable seating – I want the space to be inviting for guests and a spot we want to be in the weekday evenings.
- No useless knickknacks – don’t fill the space with meaningless junk. If it’s going in the room it has to have a reason. Don’t just put that ceramic pig on the shelf to fill a space, does it have meaning? Did you find it at a great thrift store? Get it from a dear friend?
- Something for everyone – for me it’s blankets and books, for the husband a spot to entertain friends, for the kid it’s toys and books. Figure out how to work each of these elements in.
That was a really fun exercise and it makes me look at the design process as so much more than just picking paint colours and finding couches. I’m looking forward to the next challenge!
A post about summer
These last few months have absolutely flown by, I can’t believe that fall will be here in no time! Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks and I’m itching to break out the tunics and leggings. However, the weather has been fantastically warm and it will continue to stay like this for the next week at least (I refuse to look at long range forecasts and get my hopes up). So summer will continue. They call this an Indian Summer, don’t they? Well whatever it is called, I’m happy summer finally showed up and I’m happy for it to stick around a little while longer. You can get that Pumpkin Spice Latte iced, can’t you?
Here are a few of my favourite photos from this summer:
What have you been up to this summer?
The Kitchn
Had a question of mine posted on The Kitchn today and I got great answers. Go check it out!
Happy Canada Day (a little late)
Hi friends, I’ve been busy with work and so my posting hasn’t been as regular as I would like it. We were away this past weekend for Canada Day for a little family reunion with my in-laws complete with epic horseshoe battles, dance parties and many rounds of Jass (a Swiss card game). Needless to say, we had a blast. The kid took his first plane ride and was a champ!
Just wanted to say “Happy <belated> Canada Day” and “Happy Independence Day” 🙂
Here’s a few of my favourite shots from the weekend:
I’m away again this weekend so expect more sporadic posts. Hopefully life will get back to usual soon!
Busy busy busy
Had a busy last couple of days so there have been no posts… oops! I’ve got this week’s menu, a roast chicken recipe and a few other things to share. They’ll be up soon! In the meantime, here is a picture of me, the husband and the kid. We did a little family photoshoot a few weekends ago. I’m so excited to have my paws on the photos!
Here are a few things I’ve bookmarked over the last couple of days. Hope this keeps you busy until my next post!
A beautiful custom upholstered headboard
Summer Gingham (would LOVE to do this in my house.. but that’s not going to happen! Darn conservative husband.)
Mason Jar Meals: cute and functional!
What’s that? You want to see one more shot of my family? Well, OK, since you asked so nicely…
Little treat: Cinnamon Sugar
A little taste of childhood, well for me it is, anyways! We always used to sprinkle this yummy combo on top of buttered toast (still a favourite way to enjoy it, just minus the butter since I am dairy-free). This morning I decided I would stir a little into my Americano (with almond milk).. uh, YUM!
Here’s what I’ve been enjoying for breakfast lately – some sort of caffeinated beverage, two pieces of 12 grain toast with a smear of peanut butter and sliced banana.
Come to think of it, a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top of the bananas would probably be pretty yummy too. MUST REMEMBER THIS FOR TOMORROW!
What are you eating for breakfast these days?
Almond Milk Recipes
Since going dairy-free I have been enjoying my coffee with almond milk. Just a regular, commercial brand that I picked up at the grocery store. I was trying to figure out what else I can do with it so I googled “Almond Milk Recipes” thinking it would return a bunch of results about cooking/baking etc. with almond milk. Boy was I wrong (in a good way, not like that time I typed “hotmale.com” rather than “hotmail.com” when I was about 14.. hah!) instead I got a bunch of recipes to MAKE YOUR OWN ALMOND MILK. I don’t know why I didn’t think that it was possible to do, perhaps because I think of it like milk and I’ve never once thought “oh, I’ll just go milk a cow so I can eat cereal this morning”.
The recipes look really easy, I’ve collected a few of them that I want to try over the next couple of weeks. I’ll update this post once I find one that I like!
The Creamiest Almond Milk + a dessert recipe <a side note, this looks like an awesome blog, she’s got a section called “Reskills” where she explores teaching readers how to re-learn forgotten living skills that people had in previous generations, sewing, growing your own food, cooking meals from scratch, very cool!>
A whole bunch of different almond milk recipes, with reviews
The ubiquitous about.com version of the recipe
Elana’s Pantry version + a link to a recipe for using the leftover almond pulp
I figured out I can probably just substitute almond milk for milk in virtually every recipe. First on the list to make will probably be these – Almond Milk Pancakes and here’s another recipe by the Non-Dairy Queen. I think I’ll be perusing her website on my lunch break today!
1 dress down, a few more to go
Success! I managed to make the Prudent Baby Most Flattering Shirt Dress over the weekend and it was pretty easy! I had a few fumbles, but for my first dress (first article of clothing, really) I think it looks pretty good. I wore it on the weekend to go see Wicked with my mom and sis.
I wasn’t able to get a full shot of me in it (no one home + no tripod = slanty half pictures of me in the dress) so I snapped a few on the hanger. All pictures were taken after the dress had been worn for about 8 hours and it got pretty wrinkly. I wore it with a funky gold/copper belt and strappy copper sandals. It was the perfect outfit to take in a matinee at the theatre. (By the way – isn’t Wicked the best show ever? Man, if you haven’t seen it and ever get the chance to, do it! I loved it to pieces).
The directions were very easy to follow and even though I had never sewn with elastic thread or bias tape I was able to figure it out with a little help from google. I found these instructions helpful:
Single Fold Bias Tape Tutorial (with photos)
Sweet Shirred Summer Dress Pattern (help with elastic thread sewing)
I messed up a bit on the elastic, so I would recommend you go slow. Like Jaime from Prudent Baby, I had to take in the sides of the top after sewing the middle with elastic as it was a little balloon-like. But after a little adjusting, I’m happy with it. A good start to my Summer of (Almost) no Pants. Next up some skirts!
Menu Planning Monday
Sigh. Back to work this week, so the husband is going to be starting to cook a few meals to take some of the burden off me. Still going strong with the dairy-free meals!
Monday – (HUSBAND COOKING DAY) BBQ Steak with Corn and Asparagus
Tuesday – Appy night – chicken tenders, steak bites, green salad
Wednesday – Spaghetti with Sweet Cherry Tomatoes, Marjoram and Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Jamie Oliver
Thursday – Grilled Chicken Tostadas from Martha Stewart
Friday – Chicken Stir-fry
Saturday – Just me so I’ll do something with leftovers, maybe a salad since I never seem to eat enough of them!
Sunday – I’m out at Wicked with my mom and sis and the husband will be at his parent’s house, so no meal needed
Our favourite meal from last week was the roasted chicken with potatoes. I’ll post my adapted recipe soon!
dohdums 