Weekend activities

I finally made my way to Christie's Antique fair on Sunday, my Mom came along with me to check out what they had to offer . I knew my husband would want this item , groovy .

If I had had a UHAUL truck I could have really had fun , I loved this horse head , but a little pricey at $850.00

How much do you want this chair ? , me too ...all the good stuff is pricey $225.00

My Mom and I met up with Jennifer from Rambling Renovators and Sarah from Cozy.cottage.cute
it was so nice to see Jennifer and Handyman and to meet Sarah too if only for a quick chat, gonna bring the family next time.

Here is my only find, and just what I was looking for , two pretty simple windows for my bunkie , $40 for the two , you can not beat that , they will be perfect .

On Saturday we headed out to a lovely park by Lake Ontario to walk with my family for Muscular Dystrophy, I was so proud my daughters both came along for the walk, our team Team Brad ( my brother) raised more than $800 and the walk raised over $23,000... what a great cause , my little brother was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy when he was 10 , he is doing great , he is very determined to keep walking which is a challenge obviously but he is beating the odds and knows his limitations , never take for granted the ability to be mobile .
After we had a nice BBQ and it was also my older brothers Birthday , I made Rodney's pulled pork , ok that was so yummy and easy give it a try , I served mine with calibres buns , sliced pickled and shredded cabbage , and extra BBQ sauce of course , it was so easy and tender .

I've been filling in the corner where the playhouse used to be to keep the dogs out of the muck really ,finding great grasses and I think all I need now is a serviceberry shrub or two and this spot will be complete , sadly the dogs are more fascinated than ever.

We have had a remarkable amount of rain lately and everything is lush and green , but we are due for some warmer dry weather and looks like it is going to start today , yeah!

I am going to enjoy as much time in the backyard as is possible ... next weekend the bunkie will have walls I hear , I am so looking forward to seeing that project move forward .

Have a great week , talk soon.

Bunkie , bricks and bahemoth

Well I hope everyone had a nice long weekend , we had some good weather some rainy weather , everything is filling in nicely in the garden , I still need to add some more to my window box but I was busy doing things other than gardening ...like building the bunkie base , yes I was able to convince my husband that Sunday was the day to get things started .

So here it is the start of our exciting new project here at home , a glorified shed if you will , it will be the perfect addition to the house , for now its a dance floor , next framing the walls and roof , finding reclaimed windows and doors , cottage pine floors , some kind of siding , the list will go on , it will hopefully evolve of the coming months.

I love these forget me nots , they came over from the neighbors behinds , I love free plants , we seemed to have gained a nice fern this year too .

I picked up a couple of galvanized deck candle holders on clearance.

Can you picture a great looking shed here , we can not wait to see it all finished , it is a little hard to imagine right now , so excited I have wanted this since we moved here , our backyard will someday be our own personal getaway.

One of the other projects we will be tackling over the summer is bricking the front steps , I have always love red brick steps and we have settled on this brick veneer , we have some work to do getting all the paint off the steps , but it will look great when its done and it is what we have always wanted.

Here is a great example of a red brick entry , don't you love it ....? I do.

We took a chance yesterday when they were calling for rain and went to Canada's Wonderland, but with the weather forecasts you really never know how a day will turn out , it turned out fine , a little rain kept a lot of people away and we enjoyed quick line ups and lots of roller coasters , I even braved the biggest roller coaster there , thought I was going to die for a moment of two , but I did it , we all did it , and I hate heights by the way ...there was a lot of screaming that helped me get through.

They had to do their spinning and turning rides by themselves , I can spin and spin ...I must be getting old.

So in case you have been waiting the winner of the Easy Decorating magazine is Andrea of www.noemptychairsblog.com , thank you for all the wonderful supportive comments.

What am I working on ?

Well I have been feeling bad that I haven't shown you anything new , I'm sure you are wondering what ever happened to Chris , wonder why she is too busy to blog , well it is just that between working part-time and family stuff and making fitness a priority instead of finding excuses not to include fitness into my day I have been very busy trying to fit everything in to each day, I am also working on a few local projects while dust bunnies grow like a family in my house. My current project is a full wall of built-in bookcases flanking a fireplace .
I will be installing beadboard into the backs of the cases today , and a bit more finishing trim and painting , hopefully it will be all done next week. I'm just thinking , maybe I need a wall of bookcases in my house too ....

Giveaway

I am so thrilled with my home being featured front and center on Easy Decorating magazine that I want to celebrate with a giveaway , so leave a comment and spread the word and I will choose a winner on Monday ....thanks for stopping by and have a swell weekend.

Planning and pricing

Here is the final plan for the backyard , with a very wet environment and two dogs the lawn has been a significant challenge to say the least , wet muddy paws all 8 of them all day long have become such an aggravation , so our grand plan is to try and eliminate as much grass as possible I think this plan addresses this problem quite well , it think we can manage this amount of grass.
With the long weekend approaching and with no family cottage calling us to come I am hopeful we will be able to tackle the base of the shed at the very least .
I suppose we will plug away at this plan a little at a time , and eventually we will get this all done , one day!
I think I may have scored a free set of french doors for the shed , cross your fingers. I want to do this project for the very best price possible , how low can you go ?

I found these photos of Mason's nails on my camera , I love this design so springy and happy ...

I really need to work on my cuticles ...

I am going to be doing a magazine giveaway tomorrow so make sure you come back please.

Turning a page in the book of life

I have always cherished this little adorable playhouse that my girls were given when they were small , it was a very generous gift from their Grandparents , and it has been a source of much fun play for both my girls and their friends as well as many children I have babysat over the years we have lived here, and I have had a lot of fun tarting it up adding shutters and making a built in bench and painting and adding shingles to the front peak , but it has become purely a storage shed in the winter housing our pool poles, the girls have truly outgrown the playhouse, sad but it happens. What we really need in our backyard is a bigger more functional building. I have long wanted a bunkie , some where people could actually sleep comfortable in the summer months . Looks like I am going to get my bunkie and in order for that to happen we had to say good bye to our sweet playhouse . I am happy to say it is staying in the family and a sweet little girl will be enjoying it soon , after it gets assembled if the rain ever lets up around here.

This is kind of what I am thinking , I would like french doors , which I hope to find from a restore , it is going to be about 10'x10' nice size but not too big . I want two good sized windows on the sides to allow for a good cross breeze. I may create bunk beds built in , or daybed corner bed , I'm not sure about that yet , but double bunks would allow for great winter storage , and it would be nice to have a little loft space as well. The kids are going to just love this bunkie.

This is the mess we currently have , I have a lot of transplanting to do here as well as a lot of clearing.

We have also decided not to put up our pool this summer , it just wasn't used as much as I would have liked it to have been used considering how much work I did maintaining it daily , I guess the novelty wore off after the first year. So if anyone locally would like to purchase this pool which is a 15' round pool with all the supplies , please let me know , it is in great condition.

We are therefore left with this circle of sand , we are trying to decide that to do with it , we worked so hard clearing the grass , it is trying to re-grow but since it is mostly sand I think we should do something with it , like brick around the edges and use pea gravel in the center , for a little firepit , or should we just grass it over , it is so hard to decide...but something needs to be done.

There is so much work to be done in the back yard ...it is a tad overwhelming right now actually , we tackle a little bit every season , we only can even use it half the year, so 6 months we ignore it and 6 months we try to make it better.

Here are some very inspiring bunkies.

I hope ours looks this cute when we are done , I suppose this is actually a shed but what a cute shed.

They grow up so fast

Everyone knows children grow up practically before our eyes , and luckily I will tell you I love having big kids , not just because I can have a life again , but because they are really fun and funny to have around , most of the time. How can I have a daughter this big ? it really makes me shake my head , so glad I had them young, I had Mason when I was 25 , what a good decision for me that was , I have a friend who just had her third baby , I am in awe of that , I don't think I could start all over , but I could enjoy a baby for an afternoon or so and that would be fun.
This morning I sent Mason off on a school camp trip in cottage country , I know she will have so much fun , she was ready to go well before 6:00 am , eager to get going.

Getting photos of the girls is such a challenge lately , especially of Sophie I usually get the hand , she can't hide behind this window ....silly girl , got ya!

Look at this , Dolce begging to go with Mason ....how sweet is that , how do they know ?.... he is going to miss his sleeping buddy.

Moe too pulled at the heart strings trying to come along , he tried his best to sneak out the front door , he must think we were going to Grandma's.

Good luck teachers , you couldn't pay me to ride on a bus for three hours with 40 or so 13 year olds .

Safe journey kids!!!!

Spring has finally arrived

We patiently waited and waited for spring to arrive and it finally has , as happy as I am to enjoy the warmer weather it does come with the task of cleaning out the garden , planting new and assessing what needs to be done. Late in the fall we cut down our front yard choke cherry tree , only because it was full of disease , this has left us with quite a hole in the garden . I have decided to polish up the front with more box woods this season and I have been thinking we definitely needed another tree , it is not so easy choosing a tree. Yesterday we headed off to the garden center and found the perfect tree it is a flurry serviceberry , fresh with white blooms , I will be adding more serviceberry bushes to the back yard as well, they attract birds and wild life too .

Can you see our little tree , it is a great start for this spring , I am looking forward to everything coming in and blooming over the next couple of weeks. Let's hope soon the weather will allow me to plant my window box and hanging baskets with flowers and color I need some color. Lot's of work still to be done.

This is going to make a great before photo , when the neighbours trees fill in it will be so lush here things are looking promising . I have never seen so many robin's as I have this spring, I love to see all the nature , spring is finally here, and my goodness I tell you here in Ontario we sure do appreciate it when it comes , last year at this time we were putting up the swimming pool , don't even think it is going up at all this year?

I hope you all had a wonderful time enjoying Mother's Day .

Two times the charm

I completed the nail room floor on my day off , I thought it would take only a little of my day , but in reality it took almost the whole day lots of cuts in a little room.

Doesn't it look so nice .

It looks and feels great , so much more finished . Laminate has sure come a long way. Off to get some felt pads for everything that will go in this room.

Laminate floor time.

I have been patiently waiting the 72 hours for the laminate to acclimatize and now I will tackle laying laminate for the first time. It is drop click , doesn't that sound easy?? the brand is Colorado by Goodfellow no glue laminate flooring, in apsen color , it is a deeply embossed laminate and it really looks like wood and has a 25 year warranty, amazing and it was only $1.50 sq foot I got it here in Ontario at Millwork.

There were so many projects around the house this weekend , Mason did this self portrait for art class , how cool is that ?? all those tiny little pieces.

And we completed this medieval castle , I had a lot of fun coming up with all the details , I found some extra slate tiles from our fireplace surround and attached it to the roof , might be a little over the top huh oh well there is only one 4th grade project right , its bigger than her , that is so funny.