I have been keeping a little secret that I would have loved to share , I held a shower for my mother for her upcoming wedding , to a very kind and sweet man.

It has been a lot of fun for me , I wish I could have an outlet like this more often. I had a wonderful helper with the invitation, you know who you are, and thank you so much, they were a big hit and very fun to make.

The theme was pink of course, I borrowed many things from around the house that worked with my theme, like covering the couch with a pink blanket and pillows from Sophie's room, as well for the dining room I used a blanket, the most fun and festive are the Chinese lantern's two for $1.00 so I cleared the store , I love the feeling they give, so fun, we will reuse them for the dining tents at the wedding as well, that green huh!

It was a complete surprise and for the bride to be my mom , her first shower ,I am so glad I held one for my deserving mom, the lingerie was from classy racy , really , to hospital chic.

Now I rest.

Hangin in there

Here is my before , the entry with baby gate UGLY , which sadly is still used , for animal protection (animal from abusive child , not mine) when I need to take potty breaks during the day , or if I want to protect guests from our overly friendly dogs.
Here is my lovely after , after much stress and aggravation because those special hinges don't come with directions, and you need to perform tricks on them to get them to work , thankfully I didn't give up. It is partially painted , but I wanted it up for today so there is still work to be done. But I love it , I installed a door stop to the wall and a stop for the door to stay propped open , for the most it will be open, but it is fun it moves so gently, the dogs can't figure out what is going on though.

A little trim work to do still to fill in the gaping, and painting , and ordering a couple of push plates for the door but I really really like it , it looks good and feels better, so when it is all complete it will be such a fun feature.

I will make sure not to carry trays towards it.

Swinging door

I have filled in the whole frame now, wow that was a painful experience, but worth the blisters, I love it , and even Todd loves it , ok he probably wouldn't say love but the fact that he was hesitant and likes it makes me happy.

I have pondered about a dutch door , couldn't figure out how to make that work, so I gave up , I have thought of a glass door, but it was altogether pricey which held me back, until a few days ago I found this promotional door at Home Depot , a solid wood door with pretty panels , and I sources the hinges in black, because my other option was bright brass , can't go there. I asked my husband who works in the city to come back with these hinges , and he did, $9.00.

Here is the door , good thing I don't care about my nails , because I bent one back trying to lift this beast into the truck , there are always at least two men around when I do things like this who just watch me waiting to see me motion for help, but I never do. I can do it. It ended up beinga mere$59.00 compaired to the $132.00 price tag of the glass door which I still love , I am very happy with my choice. Come back soo to see it hung and painted , now deep grey or white paint?
And where I will put this swinging door , entering into my kitchen family room, why well I never imagined needing to close off this area, however our kitchen has the computer and our lovely daughters love to sing together , and play youtube video's over and over, while we try and watch tv in the front room, this open plan makes this difficult, as well for late night R rated movie watching I always worry the kids will come down for something and view a terrifying scene unknowingly to us , so a swinging door would surely allow us to avoid those situations.

I am sure most of the time it will remain open but it will be nice to have , and will be an added detail, another detail to make our house different from all the rest , I love it when people come over like yesterday , a woman who has the same house and saw all of the details I came up with for this house , she laughed and said she could hire me to do her house in the same manor. She had wondered how her kitchen would look with a big island , well mine has it , she asked if the builder made it for us, what a compliment, as well she thought of putting in a window seat and I could show her how it would really look because I did one here. Maybe I will get jobs just from holding an open house on my work when the time comes.

Where have I been???

So sorry to leave for so long with out any word, I have fallen off my wagon, my blogging wagon. There was a time when this shelf could barely hold a few items, however after reinstalling it and adding the brackets it has become a fun place to play with accessories. This is my newest arrangement.

I decided to repaint this cupboard in my kitchen it had just been green on the bead board so I bumped it up a bit , with this lovely blue.

I have been struggling with this path way that leads right from the sidewalk to the front door , I had a couple of steps that always shifted after a hard winter, so here is my newest try, pea gravel, I wanted a casual beachy look, yes I will have to put stray rocks back in their place but it looks so much better , and the little ones can easy maneuver it .
This is where my living room stays, in flux, I have done all that I can , I have tracked down a capable painter to finish this job , as I can not bear the thought of climbing my 20 ft ladder that I despise to risk death to finish this job , I have never hired a painter but I will gladly pay to make this issue go away , as well I need to find a good painter to work with after I start my business.
I sprayed this table to match the other black table , it was just looking so drab , now it has a nice fresh finish , I used latex spray paint , how nice and easy.

Sorry I have become a complete slacker , I haven't done anything on my own to share with you , but I am up to a few things and I will share them soon.

The weather has been amazing here , hot , really great, so I have been tending to some outdoor maintenance, and updating, ripping out some plants , cleaning things up , I have some changes planned for the near future, and I will share them for sure, I have my husband picking me up some interesting components today and I am excited to try something new very soon. I rather feel under the gun , as we have some seldom seen family coming to stay and I want things just right for their arrival.

Range hood

I have had a few requests on sharing the directions for making this range hood. I really can't do that , because it is too hard to explain, I had no directions to follow ,I as usual just wing it.

Here is what I started out with , standard hood with flat cupboards above.

Here is a good side view of the triangular piece I added to build out the doors , as well the lower portion that I built and then attached to the side of the cupboards.
See not rocket science , but it works just fine, I am one for using what is on hand before buying materials.

The compact and very strong fan.
Filler piece and bracing piece. It really is a box construction.

Sorry I can not be more helpful, it was pretty easy to do .

More Debbie Style

This fan was so amazing , the blades go opposite directions

I thought this laundry room was so amazing, look how high the ceilings are..

This laundry room , I would love one like this the marble counters, and black cabinets, love it most of all, some day I will have a laundry room...
More marble...
These tiles were so beautiful , they have a crackle glaze , and were very textural...
This wall treatment is so easy and gives such class to a plain wall....
I love those doors , I want one for my kitchen....

A little workout space , what a luxury...
And a beautiful shower , and a separate room for the toilet...
Gorgeous...

Painting

BEFORE:

AFTER: The color is Tumbled Stone , Debbie Travis , available at Canadian Tire.

Well , I had fully intended to hire a painter to do this job for me , but after buying the paint this past weekend, I just needed to test it a little by the stairs, so with my trusty pole in hand I reach high and just king of kept going, it went on very well and quickly, and before I knew it one whole wall was done, and last night another.
Although I realize it doesn't show well this is the blue walls before. I was just needing a change.
The room is still a disaster so I will show more soon.

Part deux...

The nursery...
The view of the family room from the bedroom level...
The children's bedroom's shared washroom...stunning.....
The master ..........

sorry for the darkness , I could not get enough of this room and that light , what a room....someday , someday....