A really big round-up

You may have noticed that I’ve been extremely delinquent about blogging lately. Like, for the last five months. Yikes! Not that we haven’t been making progress on the house, but it’s been slow. And I’ve been wanting to post pictures of a completed room, but we still don’t have one. UGH! I’m going to post about our kitchen soon, but for now, here’s a rundown of what’s been going on with the house and life in general since way back in August…

I started working on a simple little patio project that’s turned out to be a not-so-little project! I cleared the spot, dug down 6 inches, filled the hole with stone dust, and then Brian did a rough fitting of the pavers. Still a work in progress, like everything else!

    

    

I went to the cottage and Ottawa for 10 days in August to visit my dad and friends. Also took in the Almonte Highland Games.

 

Shingling is a never-ending job! You can see where I left off and Brian took over – two levels of scaffolding is my limit!

  

Mmmmm, blueberry picking!

I started painting the drawer components for the kitchen cabinets white, but then thought to myself, why am I not painting them turquoise. So I did. Brian came up with his own design for the spice drawer. This is still a very much in-progress job!

  

    

Anniversary lobster rolls – YUM!

Just a cod hanging out at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.

I went to Cape Breton with my dad and his girlfriend in October. The weather sucked, but there was lots of good music, beautiful fall colours, and we learned how to make fudge.

Glass shades for our upstairs bathroom sconces custom made by Ravek Architectural Glass. Thanks Pam & Oded!

I’ve been a prolific hooker these past few months – that’s a phrase I didn’t think I’d ever say about myself!

Birthday homemade pierogies and the most decadent chocolate cake ever from DC’s Cakes.

A little Santa gnome decoration I made for a soup exchange.

A belated birthday celebration at Little Red Barn with friends, pizza, and Dame Edna glasses.

Stacking firewood is something I never thought I’d do. This is our only form of heat this winter – hope we don’t run out!

Back to Ottawa for some Christmas baking and visiting, and then off to visit my dad and his girlfriend and their new puppy.

I recently learned how to make a stuffed whale at The Lunenburg Makery, and now I can’t stop making them! Meet Wanda, Wyatt, and their little no-name whale :-)

Our first Christmas in our new house :-)

Here’s hoping for a great 2019!

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want

When I lived in Ottawa, I went to HomeSense pretty much every week. Now that the closest HomeSense is over an hour away, I don’t get there very often. So when I had to go to Halifax on Tuesday, HomeSense was most definitely on my list of stops.

I was hoping to find a pendant light for the bathroom and a new duvet cover. I came close with the light and struck out big-time with the duvet cover. But all was not lost – from the lighting section, I saw something teal off in the distance. Four somethings, actually. As I got closer, I got more excited – they were pretty close to the chairs that I really really wanted for the dining area in our kitchen. Blue – check. Low backs – check. Nail head trim – check. The only not-quite-what-I’m-looking-for were the dark legs.

If I didn’t have a box of hardwood flooring and 4 bags of dog food + $300 worth of groceries in the car, I would have snapped those babies up in a second. I could only put them on hold till the end of the day, although the store would hold them for up to 10 days so I could go back and get them. But did I really want to go back to Halifax next week just for some chairs?

In the end, I headed back home chairless. And then proceeded to obsess over those chairs for the rest of the day. CRAP, I should have bought them! What to do, what to do…

BING!

Lightbulb moment!

I texted my cousin who lives near Halifax and asked her for a BIG favour – and being the awesome cousin that she is, she went to HomeSense the next day and bought the chairs for me, which I luckily was able to put on hold for another day. WOOT! Of course, this means another trip into Halifax next week, but I think I can live with that. I just hope the four chairs fit into the back of my car!

So now this is my updated kitchen mood board….

Now if we could just get to the point where we’re actually putting the kitchen together!