Sarah Sarah

I feel your pain my American sisters , first the economy now this you are missing out on Sarah programming , I do know that her shows are on Fineliving, at least Design Inc is , I just called the production company that produces the show and their best advice was HGTV or FineLiving , but if you aren't getting these shows I will suggest you call fine living and ask for it , you can get these shows for your viewing pleasure , you just might need to suggest it in the masses . What will you be doing tonight , I will be glued to the season premiere of Sarah's House , it has been a long wait , but finally tonight I can look forward to a new and fresh episode from Sarah .
By the way how does she do it , have a baby and bounce right back , I never did that , it always amazes me , here she is after baby number 2 and continuing with a busy career all the while , how does she do it ? This woman needs a real maternity leave , which is 6 months to a year here in Canada.

Weekend fun

Look how happy she is Sophie got to see her very first live singing performance this girl sings 24 hours a day , she was soaking it all in, I think she may have some new tricks after seeing this event yesterday , the reason I don't have a nice picture of Mason here is because she was complaining that she didn't like the seats for this sold out event , hormones I chalk it up to hormone's , tunred out we were moved to VIP seating anyway and had great seats , all that fussin for nothing.

Mmmmm doesn't that look yummy , it is cream cheese frosting , carrot cake for my mother's husband's birthday , isn't that nice that he likes my carrot cake , me too, we didn't have time to celebrate together as we had plans to go to a theme park for fun and to see a taping of a The Next Star show.

They are getting ready for Halloween at Canada's Wonderland . We squeezed in a few roller coasters before getting into the huge line up for the Next Star live taping and finale. I was glad we could do that for our girls , Sophie saw her first live performance, they had two real bands and 6 kid singing stars that sang , they were all so talented , with the exception of the one who won, robbery I say the girl who should have won was robbed , it was fun and loud anyhoo .
This photo reminds me of when I was a child and visited this park , some things just never change, I can not believe people play these games and have to carry around these ginormous toys that are bigger than a grown man , what are they thinking ?, and then getting it home , and it taking up half a small room , craziness.
I always stand off to the side when my strong stomached family rides the type of swirling , and throttling rides like this one , I can not handle them , so I watch I don't mind, yesterday was the perfect day to go , the air was crisp fall air , not as hot as it was on our last visit just a few weeks ago . Nice bonus was that we were let in for free , that was a nice treat because it means we still have one visit coming to us for this season , it is so nice to be able to enjoy real rides with our kids, the wait was long to get to this point but it is appreciated .

Chandeliers

I think this may be the one , the dark finish the clean lines , I love it , I think it would be the perfect addition . And the price I found it at locally is $208.00

I love a gorgeous light here are some of the best.

I am adoring this fixture .
A hand touched take on a trendy beauty , I love the vintage fixture and hand wrapped cream ribbon shade.
The crowning glory .

A beautiful copy.
Shabby chic heavenly blue
White or black ??? I am loving the white.
My fave ship fixture , pure fantasy .

I thought you would enjoy some pure eye candy .

Happiness

I was so happy to receive my latest Etsy purchase in the mail a day or two ago , I went out in search of a frame and found a very nice one at Michael's for $39.00, I knew I could do better than that so off to Homesense I went and found this perfect frame for $16.00 , although it had quite a few scuff marks I though I would take it ,asked for a discount , they marked it down to $12.00 what a deal. The scuff marks were easily removed with a cotton ball and nail polish remover .

Bunkbed makeover

I have finally tackled this big project of de-browning the bunk bed , Mason was opposed at first and with the first mention that it was ok to change it ,I jumped at the chance to make it happen .Poor girl didn't have a proper place to sleep for 5 days , no worries , she will sleep well tonight .

I wanted to get the look of this pottery barn bed but not spend over $1300.00 , I found one locally for $1000.00 less than this one , amazing isn't that , but it was in the wrong finish , no problem it's me, I can paint it , well it took a lot of work but it is always worth it to get the look I want , I am so pleased with the colour change , wood if fine for floors but you may know I do not like it as a furniture colour , not for my little girls , ok a big brown bed in a boys room will work , but there is nothing like a fresh crisp white piece of furniture for a girls room , for girls of all ages as well I enjoy it too.

Ready to Roll

There are many ways to spend your advertising dollars , newspaper , Internet , car vinyl , word of mouth . When I am out around town I always notice car advertising , for small businesses especially , once I saw a car advertising interior decorating and I thought that it was a great idea and filed that for when I was to begin my business , so I went ahead and had my car done this morning , I think it is very tastefully done and doesn't shout , but will hopefully be noticed around town , I want people to check out my work on my blog and for projects to come from there , this is a very exciting time for me and my girls to see me pursuing a business that will feed my mind and soul.

While sourcing for snacks

While sourcing for safe snacks for our school to sell for fundraising, as the amount of kids allergic to nuts and peanuts has jumped from 3 to 10 or was it more , what ever it was it was a huge increase and all 3 and 4 year olds , sad trend I am seeing , so hunting for peanut free donuts lead me to find new and wonderful sources yesterday , what a fun day for me, nothing brings up my mood like a great shop and new sources for clients and my best client , me . Wool , I love wool sisal , its gorgeous , and renewable ,it is the only carpeting I would buy , I think the colourful sample would be gorgeous for my children , they are so tactile.
This also on stairs as a a runner. The store had hundreds of samples of synthetic carpet I find the 4 foot square area , the only area worth looking at in my mind , I was in heaven.
These would be so gorgeous , really I can't tell you how much I love them , I can see them as a runner, did you know wool repels dirt, it is a very green product, no plastic here .
I had a lovely surprise while shopping today I spotted a little liquidation shop , popped in and my Aunt Nancy works there , small world what a nice surprise. That green chair is $149.00
I really want this table , where could it go , is it a good office piece, I think not.

Family room

When I posted the other day to show you the before and after of this room a commenter noticed that it was not a most updated shot as the ceiling wasn't completed , true, I was lazy and did not get the room all up to its Sunday best look , well this morning it was all set the couch was freshly cleaned and the room was tidy and flooded with the nicest light , so we had a little photo shoot . Lots of angles to show you , I am really happy with this room , there are many bigger family rooms , but this is just right for me , it appeals in every way , how could I live with popcorn ceiling again.

Great news , I recently bought a small steam cleaner for the carpet and upholstery , I used it on my floral settee and it came out nice and clean , it also cleaned up a huge juice spill out of the kitchen rug and the dog barf on my other rug, hello the whole downstairs is wood and tile and everyone messes the rugs, but not a problem now that I have my very own steam cleaner it has been worth every peenny already , little green bissel ....

Another Blue kitchen

Since I was showing you the evolution of my kitchen that I have been working on for the past 5 years , I thought since I found this photo I would show you my first house's kitchen , it too was basic builder oak cabinets that I painted white. My husband made brackets which added charm to this very small kitchen . I loved the wall color , I believe it was mineral green by Martha Stewart . I wish I had been confident enough to tile the back splash , when we had this house you couldn't even find subway tile , just bathroom tile really , tile has come along way in the past 10 years. We had those roller bamboo shades that I made ties for instead of the stings and pulley it came with them, we installed pergo flooring , which was much nicer than the sheet vinyl , I hated it it never looked good , so the laminate was an improvement but I hated the sound of it , hollow , cheap , but still better than ugly tile and ugly vinyl , hey I don't have what I would like to have either. We added crown moulding to the bulk head but just above the doors, which proved to be a dust collector , which is why we added trim all the way up in this house it adds height to the room to continue the treatment up to the ceiling especially if painting.

So there it is my very little kitchen, it was cute and little , oh I can see how much more it could have been . I can't help but wonder what it looks like now?

The kitchen reno's

What a difference , I am so happy
with all of the work .


Here is the photo of the kitchen in 2003 , I painted the cupboards right away this awful shade and rubbed on a glaze, my husband added the beadboard and trim to the bulkhead , notice the glaring white appliances, so glad they are finally gone. I found the color of the cupboards sucked up all the light , which gets lovely morning sun but that is it.

Although I disliked the tiles , they were supposed to be wood floors but the by-laws changed and I had to choose tile , instead of ripping everything out , I covered almost all of it with my big island those girls couldn't fit in there now, building it was a family affair .
This was the first try two door and open areas , the baskets were a pain and I needed more closed storage, good thing the doors were Ikea so we just went back and picked up two more . I later glazed the doors more and more to hide the shadows.
My very first tile job, it is worth trying it is not that hard to do , I rented a tile saw , grouting is that most annoying step , which I assure you is done.
The computer hutch that my husband built , the last thing he built as I took over all construction after that .
Here is the current evolution of the island , very functional , and hardworking , oh wait I changed the hardware recently to stainless bars.

The range hood I figured out how to build just by trying this was my second attempt , it went so smoothly , not all thing I build do and the new appliances , what a dream I love them .
The two fixtures instead of one .
Old cast iron three bowl sink that we installed , we took out the brand new stainless small one the builder gave us , and added this dark faucet it is cheap though , wish we had a better quality faucet.
The swinging door , much better than the baby gate that was there , which is good for dog containment .
Progress .

Cute but I knew it could be better.

And the faux tin panel that I glued onto the ugly dishwasher , I didn't want stainless as it would be two stainless squares side by side eventually , I wanted the dishwasher to blend , it does but it wears a cute coat of "tin."