Merry Christmas to All!!

We hope Santa made it to your place today, Wren was (as always) a good girl so Santa left her a whole bunch of goodies. She even got to see his reindeer! It is probably a good thing he slipped in n out through the chimney as the closer he gets the more she starts to not like him as much.

Have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are!









See you Soon
Sean &

White Christmas

Ahhh, we are in the midst of a chaotic, hectic, all round crazy week! Our flight leaves on Wednesday morning and we will be delivering the last of our holiday WhiteBerry custom paint jobs right up until Tuesday night. I am totally looking forward to feeling the plane leave the runway, then I know I have nothing left to do but relax!

But even amidst the packing, cleaning and painting I still have a little itch for some holiday magic. A few weeks ago I delivered a cabinet to a client just as her family was decorating a beautiful white feather tree (which she scored on craigslist or kijiji for $40! JEALOUS!) and ever since then I, too, have been dreaming of a white Christmas...

If I can't have one in my house I think I will still have one in my dreams this year. No matter if it is full and tall or small and sparse, I just love the look of a white tree!

And if you are still trying to finish up your holiday shopping I have to recommend an awesome little gift that Sean's Mom gave us on our "early Christmas" on Sunday: a milk frother. Totally something I would never think to buy myself but if you make a lot of cappucinos or hot chocolates at home I HIGHLY recommend throwing one of those babies in a few stockings.

THANKS BARB!!! (And Kate, LOVED your gift and can't wait to blog it ASAP!)

I am doubtful I will be back before Wednesday, so good luck with all your last minute holiday preparations and can't wait to throw a fun little blog birthday on Thursday as I turn the big 2-7!

December Candle of the Month

A little late, but better than never! Our candle of the month this month is Winter Moss by Porridge. I believe these candles are made specially for Anthropologie and I can't seem to locate a link for it, but if you are near a store I did see that they were on sale now for $14 which sure beats the $32 tag I had.

It came in this adorable little bag and with some smart clipping I think I can get the tag off gently and save it for future gifts or storage.

The candle itself has a very earthy holiday scent. I would describe it as a muted christmas tree smell, mixed with a few wood-sy notes.

The packaging didn't specify a burn time but based on the use mine has gotten I would estimate it in the 45-55 hour range. Definitely on the low side for a $32 candle but decent for $14.

If you are christmas tree-less this year I highly recommend it because you get all the smells of the holiday without the clean up!

*missed last month's candle? check it out here*

Bedroom sofa

I keep saying that I am going to update our Master Reno link, and it is high on my list of things to do since it basically looks nothing like the link anymore. But with the closet still in progress it just seems like a big job. I would say that 90% of the bedroom is finished, but if you know me at all by now you know I am a 110% kinda gal. And little bits and bobs are still coming together, like our seating area which now has the map hung I picked up for $10 at auction a month or two back.

pre-grey paint.

The sofa was a thrift store find (pre bed-bug fearing days!). I almost always walk right through any and all thrift store upholstery but this one was such a cute size. I am still planning on re-upholstering it completely in the future in a light grey, but for the time being a cheap custom made slipcover does a great job of keeping the hideous green brocade under wraps.

Even though the sofa has 2 cushions I knew that in the future I would only want 1 long cushion so I asked the seamstress to make 1 cover for both cushions. This way I can still use it after re-upholstering. It also made the cover cheaper since it was less work involving zippers, etc. for the seamstress.

another seldomly seem corner of the bedroom is the entry to our closet.

It is seldomly looked at even by me. Until it is all done I try and not even think about the amount of cleaning of work left on that project. It was a gross underestimation of work by both of us, but we can already appreciate the amount of space we have gained by extending into the attic. Our old closet basically ended right behind the yellow work light.

Sean has reinforced floor joyces, insulated everything and has all the electrical done and we have decided to call in professional to mud and tape it all nicely. We will be doing bead board ceiling in here as well.

overall it had added about 100 square feet, and while the roof is sloped there is a TON of room. Once you take into account that the hanging rods and organizers will come out at least 1.5 feet from the walls neither of us will be bumping our heads, which is always good news.

As you can see there are a few awkward challenges as far as corners and exhaust vents so we are considering investing in professional help and calling California Closets in to give us some guidance. We are still so excited about working on the kitchen that we can't quite justify the expense just yet though...

Maybe if I regain my voice this weekend I will take you on a guided video tour of the chaos that is our office/current closet. Assuming all the laundry magically gets done.

Overdue Hellos!

Happy Holidays my lovely friends! I have been going through blogging withdrawls over the last week or so, and while we have been having quite a rollercoaster of a month so far I cannot thank you enough for your comments and emails! I think I have popped my laptop open maybe 2 or 3 times at most over the last few weeks with only a few moments to read through your sweet words without the time or opportunity to write back and say

Thank You.

I have so many new and exciting things to tell you about that have built up like a pot boiling over, but to avoid overwhelming both myself and you I will spread it out a little. After the surgery I have been on a strictly enforced couch potato existance (which nearly drove me mad!) but even that didn't seem to protect me from a nasty cold that either came home from the hospital with me or was already floating around here because it hasn't been pretty. The one thing I actually want to do is sleep this cough and sore throat just won't let me.

It also didn't stop me from cracking the whip once in a while, reminding Sean that these stairs aren't going to finish themselves! I usually don't push him much, but we had a birthday party planned for last weekend and I had my heart set on at least finishing up all the messy work (like plastering, sanding, painting, etc...). And he didn't disappoint, on top of already caring for Wren and me and working at the restaurant. But the most exciting thing he did was bring in this buffet before the party that I had been working on.

You may remember me mentioning it all the way back in February, but it slowly became crowded by more pressing pieces. The fact that this needed to have 9, yes, a whopping 9 layers of paint sanded and scraped off didn't make it much of a fun job, hence the lack of motivation.

But we got it done (excluding the 2 handles we didn't get on in time for the party) just in time to bring it in last Saturday. Sean really made my day with this one!!

He also made sure that our new-old door pediment was up. At 1am he was drilling holes for wall anchors, but it was soooo worth it.

We decided to go with a slightly cooler white than the walls, just enough to make it contrast ever so slightly in person.

And it adds a ton of much-needed character to the tall, blank wall. Now we just need to track down a new light fixture and we can check the entry off our list!

But the biggest of the jobs he managed to tackle these last weeks were the stairs. Not so much laying the flooring, because while it is a time consuming, tedious job we have done enough floors to feel comfortable with it. The much bigger job was repairing the walls from the carpet and getting them pretty enough to have simple, clean, white risers.

After installing the smooth, woodend back plate for the risers he platered and repaired all the edges. Once the plaster was all dry he had to set up yet another bubble (much like the one we did while spraying the railings) to keep all the dust under control when it was time to sand it smooth.

With a few passes of the palm sander and a fresh coat of paint they blend in perfectly and are exactly what we envisioned.

I don't even mind the exposed wood, it was just that ripped, torn and ugly drywall that was really driving us mad!

Our poor wall of sea-side paintings took a little beating with all the hammering and banging and will definitely need to be leveled!

We wanted to get a little creative with the stair treads and try a different pattern with the wood. With long, linear lines for the main step contrasted by vertical planks between the railings all the way to the edge. Almost like a little trim going along the staircase.

Sean also did a fantastic job on the landing! He turned those lengths diagonally for added interest. Already it feels like night and day and all we can keep saying to each other is "why did we wait so long to attempt this?". And I know why, because we like to give ourselves unreasonable and stressful deadlines to get this stuff done...

But it hasn't been all work and no play. When Saturday rolled around I ventured out of the house for the first time in nearly 2 weeks to pick up the goodies. We did a variety of cupcakes again (we ordered 45 cupcakes and will be eatting them for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next wee!) as well as all Wren's favorites from Duchess (our favorite local bakery!). I was so excited to finally use this tiered garden tray I've had laying around for the last couple years...

As well as getting to use some galvanized metal name plates that I found at Anthropologie a LONNNNG time ago for $3. They always seem to get forgotten at the back of the drawer, but with all this time on my hands I was sure to bring them out!

Wren's big 2nd birthday party was a blast, and to follow it up on Sunday we had a brunch with my family where Wren got to meet Santa for the first time. She is absolutely enthralled by Santa movies, books and music but when it came time to actually meet her latest Hero this was about as close as she would get.

But all in all it was a fabulous weekend with good food, friends and memories. And more good food!

(and I think I gained back at least half the weight I lost with this whole ordeal, which is a GOOD thing!! It was starting to feel like the skeletor was looking back at me in the mirror)

Anyways, it is SOOOO good to be back and I can't wait to share our December candle of the month as well as some exciting news from Sean!

Winter Wonderland

Daddy here reporting for Blog duty! I must say it feels kind of nice to be back.

Ahh yes ........ classic outdoor festivities! The crisp cold air, joy of Christmas, warm hot chocolate, and of course to top it off was sleigh rides and fireworks. Even though it was almost -15c we (including one recovering mama) couldn't be kept inside any longer!

Wishing Everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday!









I don't know why but this last picture kind of reminds me of the zombies in "Zombieland"

Anyways,
See You Later

Blog Design Giveaway Winner

I really really want to thank you all again for your comments and emails!! I had a rough few days after leaving the hospital due to a reaction with my pain medication which was equal to or worse than the whole appendix situation itself, but I think I am on the mend and hopefully tomorrow I will be out of bed and back to a somewhat normal routine. I honestly have no idea what shape I would be in right now if it weren't for all the help my parents have offered with taking care of Wren and the pampering that Sean has given me! But regardless, I am not the kind of girl who can stay still for long so it has been a loooooong week and a pretty hard one as I sit in bed thinking of all the things I should or could be doing otherwise.

But ailments aside we have decided to continue with our plans for Wren's birthday this weekend (thanks to a lot of help from my parents again!) and so Sean has been pulling all the stops and working furiously to have the stairs almost ready. I say almost because it turns out that the trim we need for the edges is now 4 weeks from delivery so we will just have to be patient. We have had to get creative, learning to make it up as we go to get the look we are after but I think we may have just pulled it off! I'll let you be the judges of that though.

So I apologize for the lack of interesting content around here the last few days, but trust me when I say that it has been MUCH harder for me to take a break from blogging and decorating than it has been to force myself to sit and watch boring daytime TV all day.

And I also apologize for leaving you all hanging as to the winner of our most recent giveaway for a full blog redesign package! The lucky winner is Ali and if you could drop me an email as soon as you see this I will be sure to pass it along to Digital Confections and you can get started with your new blog layout.


Adios amigos!