Little A & her Dad

Adair is an amazing father.  He is really a "hands-on" dad who is always happy to take care of the kids, especially when Mummy needs some "Me Time." He is completely comfortable with handling the kidlets on his own.

I adore this lovely photo of Aviva & her dad - it showcases how comfortable he is holding Little A and how content she is to be held in his arms.

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Casual Family Photos @ Christmas

Don't you just drool over the adorable peacock feather headband??

Some brother and sister love! Notice EZ's clasped hands? So cute!

A not-so-profesh photo of our little family.

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Thrifting Thursdays

So in my effort to be more thrifty {especially on maternity leave} and still maintain my love of great design, I've decided to declare Thursdays my thrifting day.  Each Thursday I will go thrift store shopping {Goodwill, Sally Ann, Re-Store, etc.}, then report on my finds.  

I usually have pretty good luck.  Here are my great finds from last week:

These chairs were what I call an "ultimate find".  I've been searching for Bergere or Louis chairs for the conversation area of our yet-unfinished chic-all-white dining room.  I picked up these chairs at Goodwill for $50 each.  I imagine it will take elbow grease & a couple hundred dollars to recover and have these chairs just the way I want.  It was SO exciting to find them. I immediately ran to the cash to pay for them even before I was done shopping. I HAD to have them! 

At the same Goodwill I found these buffet & hutch {$35 for the buffet & $40 for the hutch}.  I didn't buy them because I wanted to pace myself for the day and not overload myself {and Adair!} with projects.  I love the lines and detail of the buffet.  If I bought it, I would have put it in one of the empty spaces in my 2nd floor hallway because you could always use more storage.   I'd probably paint it a neutral colour - gray - and defintely change the hardware.

 What I really liked about the hutch was the cool wire detail in the 2 side pieces of glass.  Some may think this buffet & hutch combo is REALLY HIDEOUS, but I think it's gorgeous.  Can't you just imagine the glass part styled with all-white ceramics and all-white towels.  It would be divine.  

Maybe it will still be there today when I go thrifting!

 

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Family Room Makeover Progress Report - Black, white and...YELLOW!

 We have a GIANT 4th bedroom on our second floor that we decided to convert into a family room.  It has a large closet that we use a book shelf {I love books on display, but it's nice when they are hidden too - much tidier looking!}.

The room use to look like this {the family who lived here before us had an adult son living in the room}:

We transformed it immediately to this:

We inherited this great black leather sofa set from my sister and painted the room a soft creamy white.  But the room was a little bland for my taste.

And so it all started out with this giant dresser I found at Goodwill for $40. It's a large mid-century style piece that was in excellent shape.  I thought I would paint it white or gray, but when my interior design friend came over, she suggested a pop of colour!  YELLOW it was!  I heart yellow. 

I wish I could've taken the TV off for the photo, but it's heavy and huge!

Adair spent a couple weeks painting the dresser. It's huge and required several coats to get it to the perfect sunny yellow colour.

Now onto lighting.  The room came with a ceiling fan. Not my taste at all. And see that ugly little plastic medallion? It needed to be removed immediately. So within days after moving in {1 1/2 yrs ago}, Adair removed the light. And we've had nothing there since but a gaping hole in the ceiling...until this weekend!

The ceiling light now looks like this!

Since our budget is tight, I decided to try to spraypaint one of those ugly brass dining room lights that comes with your house when you buy it {no intention to offend those that have one, but it's not pretty or special in anyway}. My hair dresser painted one of these chandeliers, so I thought I'd try it for this space! And it works perfectly!  And it's CHEAP! The chandelier we already had, so it's just the cost of spray paint and your own elbow grease!  

And yes, of course, I have a ceiling medallion :)  But the rule of thumb for a ceiling medallion is the simpler, the better -- less is definitely more. 

But I think it's a great accent to the simplicity of the light fixture.

So there you have it! The update on our family room! Of course, I'm still working on art and styling for the room, but this is it's current state. 

Ooohhh! See the white flowers above the sofa? They are Umbra's WallFlowers and I adore them! They are easy to use and you can style them any way you wish! So fun!

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Aviva's Chic Nursey - almost done!

So after much ado, here is Little A's nursery.  Not yet entirely complete, but enough to post online. I wish I knew how to take better photos because these just don't do the room justice.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy! 

I wanted the nursery to be glamourous, yet kid-friendly.  I wanted a room that Little A can grow into.  If you know me in real life, you know that I'm not a pastel-type person, so this baby girl nursery had to be sophisticated and fun! But most importantly, this room had to be done well on a VERY tight budget {like almost non-existent - ask Adair!}.

First I chose my favourite colour palette - Black, White & Pink.  There were times when I wanted to do a gray with pink & orange accents, but the colours and style I chose really spoke to me.   My hair dresser Kara actually gave me the idea for the wall, which was essentially the jumping-off point for the entire space. 

To save money, we kept EZ's crib and dresser and just painted the wood a glossy black to tie in with the rest of the room.  

The fuschia-coloured feature wall is definitely the highlight of the room.  After much searching for the perfect pink, we settled on Behr's Tutti Fruitti colour and we're very pleased. 

The black chandeliers are actually Dollarama stickers!  $2 each, compared to vinyl wall stickers from Etsy or the like for $20+.  Very good deal. Since I was very pregnant, our good friends came over with their fancy level to help us get the chandeliers perfectly straight and even - an essential element in making this feature wall a real knock-out.

We purchased this 4 piece damask crib bedding from Walmart.com for only $70 all included. It even came with a coverlet! Although it looks great from a distance, the bumper pad shrunk by about 5 inches when it was washed, so we're disappointed, but not enough to drive back to Buffalo {a 90 minute drive + border delays} to return it. It still looks fine, and you can't use bumper pads in Canada anyway, so once Aviva starts sleeping in her crib, the bumper pad will be removed.

 We decided that we'd keep Aviva's onesies, jammies, bibs, shoes, etc. in this cute Closetmaid storage unit, so I got these adorable hot pink mesh baskets from Solutions.  The labels are actually chalkboard vinyl pieces from this Etsy seller - LOVE THEM! I just use a chalk marker {or you could simply use a piece of chalk too!} to update the labels as necessary. 

The gorgeous sans-serif letters come from the Dollar Store too. AMAZING. SIMPLE. LOVELY.

  Now. This gorgeous, swanky mirror was an amazing find from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Seriously. It was this hideous gold colour that only cost me $15. We gave it new life by spraypainting it a glossy black.  Simple and totally recessionista-chic.   We purchased the pink minky material change pad cover from Etsy.  It really brings that side of the room together.

I've been in LOVE with the Eames rocker since I first fell in love with interior design, but unfortunately it is simply beyond my budget.  I found this amazing reproduction from this Canadian company that offers free delivery.  The chair arrived only a few days after we ordered it. Very impressive. 

Both the black sequin throw pillow and the white croc material ottoman were purchased from Bouclair Home - my favourite local go-to home accessories shop. I got it on clearance for $20. It's also functions as storage! LOVE multi-purpose items! 

I have a terrible time choosing art for my spaces, especially art that doesn't have any wording on it, so I chose our most recent family photos to be the art in Little A's room.  The white frames are from Walmart! Such a great deal!  

I also purchased this print from Etsy a while back, so now you can see it prominently displayed above the Eames-style rocker!

I don't know how to get rid of the flash - I should have taken a better photo!

 The last element of the room is the lighting. I had previously blogged about a jet black crystal chandelier that I was coveting.  It was relatively inexpensive, but I decided to go with this cute chandelier from Home Depot for less than half the price of the black chandelier.  I'm so glad I did! The black chandelier, albeit lovely, was heavy and limiting, whereas this chandelier perfectly sets off the other elements of the space.  It accents without overshadowing.  And I love ceiling medallions. There I said it.

So there you have it!  Little A's modern, sophisticated nursery - a room that will grow with our little girl.  There are still a couple accents I have to add {more art!}, but I'm currently working on these projects now.  I'll blog about them when complete!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Aviva's Chic Nursery!

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EZ is TWO

Could EZ be any cuter?!

This past weekend was EZ's 2nd birthday.  

I can't believe this wonderful boy is now 2 years old.  

I just took him to the doctor today for his two year check-up, and he's in the 95th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight.  He's a tall and solid kid.  He's now longer a baby by any stretch of the imagination - he is a BOY.

EZ has a great sense of humour and likes to engage with us. He's always trying to make us laugh, and loves the attention of course!  He's a little parrot and mimics everything we say and do.  His vocabulary has really taken off, and he's also saying longer sentences.  It just seems such a short while ago that he just had a few words, now he's trying to converse with us.
 

EZ's Favourites:

• SPORTS - particularly any sport that involves a ball - soccer, golf, hockey, basketball.  He's really coordinated and can run, jump several inches off the ground, kick and throw the ball, swing a golf club, hit a hockey puck, and anything else that you can imagine.  Oh, he can also run like the wind. Seriously.  He's fast, athletic and doesn't tire easily.
• BABY SISTER - he loves "Biba" {aka: Baby + Aviva = Biba}. He loves to wake her up with smooches in the morning and hug her all day long.  It doesn't matter to him that "Biba" doesn't exactly respond back to him just yet, he loves to play with her anyway.
• THOMAS - Everything revolves around Thomas the Tank Engine.  He loves to play with his many trains and train set.  He loves to watch the Thomas show when he wants to chill, and it's probably the only kids show apart from Sesame Street that doesn't make my skin crawl and tear my hair out.
• TALKING - this kid likes to chat.  He'll chit chat with me all the day long.  He's always got something to comment on.  He's very proud of all his accomplishments, big or small, and always yells "YAY! I did it!" when he completes a task. 
• MUSIC - EZ loves to sing and dance.  He now "sings" along to hymns at church, he knows the primary songs from nursery {"Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"}, and he likes '90s Hip Hop and Lady Gaga for dancing!  We always have music on in the house and he loves to bust a move!
• CARS - he adores the matchbox cars Santa brought him for Christmas!  He's always got a car or a train in his hand.  We love to just watch him at play with his cars, making noises and really being imaginative!  He also loves the Disney movie "Cars".  We watch it in the car on longer trips, yet he asks for it almost every time we get into the car.

I'm sure there's much more to add here, but Little A is crying so I need to get back to her now :) 

 

Happy 2nd Birthday EZ - WE ADORE YOU!

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Aviva - Month One

 I should have posted these on the 3rd, but alas, that didn't happen {New Mummy Brain?}.

She's still cute, despite posting these photos a day late.

Little A is ready for her close-up.  She literally stopped crying when I starting snapping the photos.

Then she quickly decided that she'd had enough of the "Mamarazzi" and returned to crying. Oh well!

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Getting back to a routine for 2011

 I think the key to success is planning. In an effort to stay on track with my 2011 goals, I started planning my days to get into a routine early with the kidlets. When I was home with Ezra, I struggled to get into a routine because of my personal health issues {remember the nerve damage?}, then we spent most of my mat leave in flux because we were moving.

Yesterday was my first day home alone with Little A after the holidays. We were pretty successful in achieving all the was planned yesterday.  We got up "early" {like mat leave "early" - 8am}, and first on the itinerary was to go for a walk, except Little A decided to take a nap.  She was up most of the night, so the nap was needed, but now she's cramping my plans! 

Instead of freaking out about not following my self-imposed schedule perfectly, I decided to organize Ezra's room & the family room instead. It was a good lesson for me that it's okay to go with the flow {which isn't my style AT ALL!}. I'm a total planner and if I don't  follow through on something, I feel like a total failure. That needs to change.  I need to learn to relax and enjoy being at home a little more.

So anyway, we ended up running errands, going for a walk, and doing laundry for the rest of the day.  All in all, it was a good day at home.

TODAY is another story.  Little A is turning nights into days, so we were up most of the night.  I turned off my early alarm this morning, and forced myself to get both me and Little A up by 9am.  Then we both fell asleep on the couch till almost 1pm! We're like a couple of teenagers!  So much for my plans to organize Aviva's room and the kitchen pantry this morning.  Little A's been a little grump all day, so she needs to be held ALL THE TIME.  The only time she's not crying is when we're cuddled on the couch. 

Needless to say, we've haven't accomplished much on the"to do" list today.  So much for our routine! We'll try again tomorrow. 

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Eleven for 2011

• Learn to prepare healthy, homemade meals & snacks for my family
• 30 mins {at least!} of cardio daily
• Choose water instead of soda
• Run the Toronto Womens Half Marathon in May 
• Scrapbook with friends once a month - yay for crop nights!
• Read more parenting books to educate myself for the toddler years
• Love my husband more
• Fold & put away laundry immediately
• Take a yoga or dance class weekly
• Blog daily {or at least more frequently}
• Complete and post all my upcycling projects on the blog

BUT WAIT...there's more!!! Maggie, ever the over-achiever, can't have just 11 goals for 2011!

• Take a college course while on mat leave {photography, graphic design, a language?}
• Plan for a family trip
• Finish the dining room!

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Aviva's Birth Announcement - Better Late than Never

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Merry Christmas!

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A Sample...

Hello friends.  Sorry for neglecting my little blog.  I forgot how life-consuming a newborn is.  Hopefully I will be back soon with regular blogging...

Until then, here's a sneak-peek sample of the amazing photos my friend Megan took of our newest addition, Little A, this past week.    

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EZ's first haircut!

Ez had his first haircut on November 20th at a salon in our town that specifically cuts children's hair.  When booking his appointment, the receptionist asked how old he was.  When I said he was only 22 months she was shocked.  I told her that our little guy was pretty much bald until he was about 15 months old.

En route to the salon! Looking so cute!

Here we have some "Before" photos...

The very cool Race Car seat that would be EZ's!

And so we begin with a little water...

Here come the scissors!  The stylist was QUICK with those scissors. No fooling around when the toddlers have such a short attention span.

In addition to cool chairs, TVs playing, the salon also provided toys to offer some distraction.  My son, of course, chose the truck.

Let's just say EZ didn't love the hair dryer.

So we let the curls air dry for the most part.

The salon even gives out balloons at the end, as well as a certificate and a lock of his hair in a little organza bag.  So cute!

We also treated him to a Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train whistle.

 All in all, I'd say EZ's first hair cut was a big success! 

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The Hair...

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time.  But we've had major technical difficulties in our house.  

Shortly after beginning my pre-mat leave vacation, my computer crashed.  Seriously.  It just gave up the ghost.  I knew it was coming.  The computer had the death rattle in her voice every time she turned on.  We knew the end was near.

We just didn't imagine it would be at the most inopportune time EVER. 

Anyway, after much anguish, time and because of the generosity of my parents, we have a new computer.  An iMac no less.  We are so completely blessed.  

Now I'm able to blog and upload gratuitous photos of my new hair extensions - oh yes, and lots of photos of my 2 kidlets too. Ahem.

My sister jokes that I look like a Kardashian.  I think that's a compliment? Anyway, my life is all about the hair now.  Thank goodness I'm on mat leave so I have time to do my hair.  Just kidding.  Right?

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