Hello from New Orleans!

So we packed up a jumped on a plane for New Orleans a couple weeks ago! I have never in my life been here and to see it all for the first time is nothing short of spectacular. 

[ 7 am flights are probably the least glamorous thing... ever]

We are here for 6 weeks so we rented a little house in one of the older neighbourhoods, just a couple blocks off the Mississippi River. This way we fully settle in and have some sort of routine during our stay as well as getting a full New Orleans experience. 

All our neighbours have a front porch as well and it has been amazing to see how neighbourly and friendly EVERYONE is here. I honestly keep saying to Sean "it feels like we went back in time 40 or 50 years!". The little girls on the block all love to go catch bugs, everyone has welcomed us with open arms and we even had invitations to come over for dinner after only a day here. The reality is that I know nearly every person on our. whole. block. on a first name basis which is not common back home. It has a lot to do with how close houses are here, but I think that it is also that southern hospitality that people here are raised with.

I could spend days just admiring the houses here. Our own house, although small, has incredibly tall ceilings (it goes up another foot or so from the picture rail in this shot of Wren squished between the pocket doors LOL). Every room has a fireplace and every door has a transom window over it, and I cannot get enough!

Some of our neighbours are so creative in their gardening and house paint colours that I have to document it all for future reference! I would love to bring back a little of this flavour somehow in a future project at home.

Wren in particular has just taken to New Orleans. She has a love of plants and animals and between the gorgeous blooms everywhere and the countless friendly dogs and cats that call our street home she is just in heaven.

This beachy blue house down the street has stolen my heart!

But really, every house is special and makes me fall in love.

We live across the Mississippi from the French Quarter so on the days we want to go into the city we catch a 5 minute ferry ride then take trolley cars where we need to go.

The faded out chairs on the ferry deck just make my heart sing!

And of course Wren thinks it's amazing!

You really could get lost just taking in how beautiful everything is down in the French Quarter! From the creole cottages to the townhouses to the taller buildings, everything is dripping in beauty. 

I have been so busy and excited to get out and explore that I actually haven't even whipped out my Canon at all, just shooting with my iPhone, but I definitely need to make a point of snapping some more of our little neighbourhood and I can't wait to share the rest of our stay in my next post!

Happiest of Fridays guys!

Memories

We had the best weekend at the cabin. We had our best friends out and made it a relaxing weekend to remember. There were 2 kids, 4 adults, 4 dogs and lots of laughs. They are more like family to us so it doesn't feel like entertaining, just everyone taking it easy and enjoying the moment.

One of the highlights was the boys deciding to throw us girls a private fireworks show. I think they had more fun orchestrating the whole thing really, but it was incredible. 

Lots of warm snuggles by the fire.

It was definitely the kind of weekend I treasure.

Happy Love Day

I hope you are enjoying this weekend celebrating LOVE! There is so much of this in my life in general, but specifically this year so far I've been feeling really grateful for the people around me. 

Of course, even long weekends mean work for us. But I don't really count it as work when I get to do what I love and have my family there to help.

Playing with spray paint at Quesnell Heights with Wren hehe. 

My favourite little valentine.

My most romantic valentine

My two fuzziest valentines.

'

~I hope you are surrounded by love today~

xoxo

The Good Life

Some days I get so caught up in our crazy, busy life and all the details. And on others I look around and feel like I cannot let another moment go by without mentally noting the amazing-ness of it all.

We have dogs barking, running everywhere. Dirty clothes laying on the floor in the laundry room. A fridge that has week old leftovers that need to be tossed out in it. 

Things will never be perfect, but each moment is. It's important to capture these moments, mentally, with our phone, camera, whatever. But they are passing quickly now and I feel that I need to value them more. So making more memories has been my goal for 2015, along with simplifying, and it's funny how those two things go so well together. When you aren't distracted by stuff, the people and moments sure become clearer. 

cabin life

I haven't had a chance to bring out the big camera, but I've been snapping a few phone pics of the cabin as we've been slowly unpacking and cleaning up. Things are still on the go (like the landscaping and a couple odds and ends inside) but we have been waiting so long to enjoy it that we are willing to put up with pretty much anything LOL.

Wren has been the most excited. She has decided to take up fishing and even has her own pink fishing pole!

After a 2 hour drive she is still all smiles.

Inside, art is getting hung as we go... the bathing beauties from Gray Malin are now hung, but as of this shot they were patiently waiting for their place of glory.

The bathrooms are my favourite! My mom picked such a great quartz that I can hardly tell it's not real marble!

Finger photo bomb! The great room is where we spend the most time so we wanted lots and lots of seating. The mantle on the fireplace is probably my single favourite thing in the house because it is one of the old support beams from the last cabin.

This room belongs to Sean and I. It has a little bit more of a minimalist vibe compared to the rest of the cabin, but we like it so we can clear our thoughts while we're here.

And of course, there's the kitchen. The butcher blog island is now in place since this shot and it is the perfect warm touch to the space. 

And why do we come out to the cabin? To enjoy the lake! My Mom did an amazing job getting this space perfect for just lounging around and taking in the scenery.

I promise to bring out the big camera in the next couple weeks and show you all the other areas that are screaming for me to share them!!

But until then, enjoy these lovely Summer days.

Style Me Pretty

A couple months ago I had the absolute pleasure to spend the day with the lovely Jacqueline Elizabeth (seriously, this girl is the coolest). She snapped some shots for the girls over at Style Me Pretty Living and today they are sharing them in their Behind The Blog feature! 

You can check out the whole thing here.

Like, Jacqueline nailed it in a major way.

Thanks Style Me Pretty and Jacqueline Elizabeth for showing me so much love!

Local Handmade Finds

I LOVE supporting wonderful Canadian based businesses, specially small ones and so I was thrilled to discover Linnden and her beautiful wraps for little girls at Urban-Cowgirl.


Too many cute patterns and designs to choose from, but you can never go wrong with black and white!


My friend, Kristi, also has an adorable Etsy shop (check it out here) and I commissioned her to make a super cute teepee for Wren to hang out in the yard and take to the park with us. We have also carted it to the splash park and I can't tell you how many kids wanted to play in it and how many moms asked about it. I picked up the fabric at Ikea (again with the black and white LOL) and Kristi even added the little pompoms up at the top to make it a little more whimsical! Wren adores it to no end.


(you can find the checked rug here)

Eeeeeeek!

I have had a ton of you wonderful people tagging me on instagram with sneak peeks of your Style At Home magazine's these past couple weeks which is sooo sweet! But I had yet to actually get my own copy until yesterday and the anticipation was killing me!

It actually doesn't quite register yet, but I cannot thank Style at Home enough for doing such a beautiful write up and photography, courtesy of the talented Robin Stubbert. 

But who I really want to thank is you. For stopping by here regularly for the last few years, for encouraging me, for giving me courage to follow my dreams. That isn't something I can't even begin to put a price on or to even fully explain. But you have given that to me and I will forever be grateful.

And if you are new here thanks to seeing the Style At Home issue, welcome! Can't wait to see you here regularly.

And I also need to thank this little person for being on her best behavior and for sharing me one long, but amazing week of shooting back in December. And for wearing jeans in the family shot and forcing out a smile despite wanting to cry (She HATES jeans LOL). Don't worry, she was paid in extra marshmallows in her hot chocolate we nearly burned in that shot.

5 years

It's official. I have a 5 year old. 

She loves purple, pink, Cars, dogs, crafting and balloons. She hates jeans.

We gave her her birthday gift last weekend(a Barbie house that was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but she stumbled onto it looking for gift wrap...). Today she asked if she was going to get any more presents and I said "no, not from us". When she saw the pile of balloons I ordered for her she light up like a light bulb and exclaimed "but you said I wasn't going to get any more presents and now I have a whole bunch!! So while the Barbie dream house was a big hit, I love seeing her over the top reactions to small surprises.

 

She is most definitely a special little person and a big bundle of fun.

 

"look Mommy, I'm floating away!"

It's amazing how much joy comes from one little bundle of energy.