DOGGIES!!

My best bud in the entire world is my dog Marley.  He's an 80lbs Goldie Poo, and by far, the best dog in the whole world. 

What's a better inspiration...?

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Awesome Wallpaper!

Cutest Fabric Ever!

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I Love Dogs xoxo

Toy Room!

I finally finished the toy room!

Here are some Before & After pics!

 AFTER!!

What do you think???

The wall colours are CIL Apricot Brandy & Crisp Linen.  I've always painted with Behr Paint and Primer in one, but Canadian Tire had a promo on Benjamin Moore's Origins Paint & Primer, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I loved the CIL colours so they matched it for me... yea, worst paint EVER.  The gold took 4 coats and could honestly use a fifth.  Stick with what you know works.  Lesson learned.

The toy room is the first room I redid in the new house and I must say, I LOVE IT!!! And, so do the kiddies.

Anyway, that's the big reveal.  Don't know what room is next... I'm in the mood for wallpaper, so we'll see what happens...

Love you Dr.Laura!!

She's not everyone's favourite, but she sure is mine.  You've gatta read this interview from the Wall Street Journal (then read the comments, they are very entertaining.)

The Mommy Wars: Dr. Laura on Stay-at-Home Moms

Occupation: SAHM

I feel like if I had a boss, I'd be fired.  I can't keep my house clean for the life of me, there are never any groceries in the house, the laundry is piled high,   I haven't successfully cooked a good meal in days (okay, weeks), and I wear yoga pants and leggings everyday because officially, my 'fat' jeans don't fit me anymore.

This whole Stay At Home Mom thing(internet slag: SAHM) is way friggin harder than I ever imagined.  I honestly try so hard to be the perfect mom, perfect wife, and perfect maid, but this shit is hard.  Especially now, that in an effort to drop off the extra 15lbs I so easily put on with melted peanut butter over ice cream and pinot grigio dinners, I've quit drinking.

My husband comes home from his big wig job in the city and I try and talk to him about how overwhelmed I am.  His solution is for me to go back to work.  Oh, there's a friggin' genius idea.  I'll give up being the primary caregiver of my own children, work 40 hours a week, come home exhausted and STILL have to do everything I had to do when I didn't work. Why didn't I think of that???  Makes me laugh :)

 Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I am so thankful for such a beautiful family and appreciative of all the hard work my husband endures in order to provide such a life for me and the kids, but, like any big wig job, being a Mom is damn hard work.  Some days I feel like I am failing miserably, but other days I am so proud of my beautiful kids and my 10 homes I have taken such care of.  I came across this article tonight, and just had to share.  It's what inspired this non-home-decor-post.  Made me laugh out loud because it is SO true. (Source)

20 funny secrets from a stay-at-home mom

By Kathy Buckworth

Humour writer Kathy Buckworth on why being a stay-at-home mom is so annoying....oh, er, satisfying!

1. The title "stay at home" is a passive-aggressive term. There is nothing flattering, glamorous or remotely attractive about the word "stay." "Too Much Woman to Be Confined to a Cubicle Farm" works better.

2. Apparently, you are expected to be "at home" for some parts of the day; particularly those parts when children under the age of 12 are in your care.

3. Repairmen are not sexy in any way.

4. Nothing very exciting happens. But you need to talk, so the best entertainment is gossip and backstabbing. It is unavoidable and addictive.

5. People will say, "Well, its not like you're working or anything" just moments before they a) sign you up for lame volunteer duties at your child's school, b) dump their own brats on your doorstep, or c) redirect all their home deliveries to your front door (even the fertilizer order).

6. Cleaning the house is not a problem, keeping it clean is. If the house is as clean at the end of the day as it was when you started, you win.

7. You cannot be late for anything, or with anything. You have nothing else to do.

8. Your perceived intelligence drops by at least 50 IQ points. You may have run the computer science department at MIT before you decided to stay at home, but two weeks into the new job and your kids will be asking Dad for help on the family computer.

9. You have no excuse for not exercising.

10. You have no excuse for not eating a healthy lunch.

11. You can be truly bored at the same time you are acknowledging that you could be exercising, cleaning the house or watching someone else's kids.

12. The minute you resign form your old position, they promote it to a higher level, increase the salary and bestow a fabulous new title on that bitch who took over from you.

13. Your husband either a) shirks all domestic duty, which makes you mad, or b) doesn't shirk any, making you feel guilty. Yay! Something new to fight about!

14. Your children expect you to be at their beck and call. Even in the middle of an emergency manicure, one is expected to drop everything and rush to the school over a perceived "sore stomach."
15. You now have time to launder the sheets.

16. Even after 5 p.m., drinking with only children in the house is still considered to be "drinking alone." What, you had a hard day or something?

17. Your children are no better behaved simply because you're the primary caregiver now. In fact, most often, they're worse.

18. If you dress nicely, neighbours are suspicious. If you dress like a slob, you've let yourself go. If you dress too old, you're middle-aged before your time. If you dress too young, you're a slut.
19. Teachers expect you to be on top of the notes they send home.

20. You're not supposed to be too tired for sex anymore.

---

Excerpted from Journey to the Darkside: Supermom Goes Home by Kathy Buckworth. Copyright 2007 by Kathy Buckworth. Excerpted with permission from Key Porter Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.

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Closet Doors

Why do I get so damn obsessed with the dumbest things?
Today, I was painting the kids toyroom when I shockingly noticed I over looked one thing.... the closet door knob.  Such a juicy detail that I can go bananas with.  So then, I became obsessed.
I've been online all friggin' day looking for the perfect door knobs.  I found some wicked stuff...

Real Wood

Myterra Gemstone Hardware

Graham and Green

Myterra Gemstone Hardware

Graham and Green

Etsy.com

 

 

 

Ebay

They light up when you touch them!!!

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Historic Home Hardware

It's a bunny! Check out all the other animals.  Awesome.  Martin Pierce

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EBay

Just wrong!

My Favourite by far is the Amethyst knob.  But they come with a hefty price tag, and really, aren't that practical.  And, I am loving the wood ones because I would deck those out in a custom paint job.  I'll have to decide on something!!

1955 Kerns Rd.

I finally got my new house numbers up. And, I love them.  I knocked the old ones off from above the garage in like 2 seconds.  They were pretty nasty.  Some dinky plastic things and there was spider nests behind them.  Yuck.  I sanded down the wood and then painted over the section where they were.

It's like they never existed.

Then I drilled in my new ones.

Weird what a difference new house numbers can make.

Hopefully this weekend, Ryan will get up our new light fixture.  It's been 2 weeks.  My max is 4, then I hire someone.

I really wanted the iron house numbers from Restoration Hardware.  They weren't too pricey, but I thought I'd double check EBay first.  And what do ya know, I got my beauty numbers for half the price, and they are way nicer than RH.  ALWAYS, check ebay before you buy anything!!!

Still got a lot of work to do outside.  I've ordered my new door, but it'll be 8 weeks before it gets here.  I'm going to do a post about local door shopping soon.  I also have a solid plan for my exterior.  Can you believe I finally have a plan!  I had a little designer help, but I am confident that it's going to look amazing.  I just need a wee bit of cash to get 'er all done...haha...just a wee bit.  wink wink honey.

Next Project...

I may not be blogging for a bit since my next project is a big one!  The first room that I have decided to tackle is the kid's playroom.

Before we moved in....

Now that we've moved in... (and this is clean!)

The toy room was actually last on my list of rooms to decorate, but I came across this inspiration picture on Houzz.com, and fell in love.  The kids and I took a trip to HomeDepot (the Orange Store as James call it), and bough a few gallons of paint.

Stay tuned.  This may take me a week or so to get done.  I have to paint all the trim and the ceiling and have a few pieces of furniture that need a coat of paint before they make it in the room.  But first, I need to clean up all the toys...not fun!

Can't wait to see how it all turns out!

My Fireplace Was Bugging Me.

First of all, just want to remind you to sign up for my email updates... over there, to the right...

Anyway, I woke up this morning and for some reason, my fireplace was irritating me.   So I gave it a mini make over.

Some before pics.  That brass - my, oh, my.

I removed the Brass pieces and brought them to the garage.  I gave them a light sand.  I was hesitant to sand the brass because it scratched easily, and i could reeeeally see the scratches, but I was more worried that the paint wouldn't stick because the brass was soooo shiny.  In the end, I am glad I gave them a light buff.  The paint is quite thick so you can't see the scratches at all.  Good call Cait.

I sprayed them with Rust-Oleum's black heat resistant paint.  It only takes about 1/2 hour between coats to dry, so I managed about 5 light coats through out the day.  It didn't need that many coats, but I sprayed really lightly, so to make sure I covered everything, I just kept going.  Besides, the kids thought it was hilarious that I was painting the fireplace.  They love watching!

I was terrified I wouldn't get the damn thing back on, so I took precise mental notes while taking it off. It went back together with ease!  Just a few screws here and there..

Ta Da...

What do ya think?  Looks good eh?!?  Not bad for a $7 dollar makeover!
And you thought I'd paint the stone...silly Sharon.  NEVER!

Update:
Here's a pic of my mantle today (Sept. 2012). I've spruced it up a bit!

 
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Home Stories A2Z

Grandma Hluchy's Great Rice

I think I am subscribed to some 75 different blogs and shopping websites.  Every morning, I wake up and shuffle through my emails to see if anything interesting catches my eye.  Today, I see in the subject line "Grandma Hluchy's Great Rice"... Cha Ching...Jackpot.

A slovak recipe from Grandma Hluchy's kitchen beats any home decor update any day!  THANK YOU AUNTIE VIOLET.  I'll be attempting this recipe tomorrow for dinner.

Thought I'd share..

Grandma Lookey’s Rice

March 1982 revisited June 18, 2012

Fry Onions and Oil, when onions are translucent add a bit of butter

Wash & Drain 1 cup of rice

Fry for 5 minutes – add Salt & Pepper, nutmeg and ginger (Nice

little pinches)

Boil 2 cups of water

Add water to rice – cover, turn off element, and let it sit for ½ hour

(or til rice is done)

You can add a chicken boullion to the boiling water for more

flavour

When rice is done, fluff it up and add parsley flakes, fresh or dried

for a nice look and

taste.