I thought I'd share

Since I've been a bit down lately, I have been up late (LATE) at night, surfing these beloved series of tubes we call the interwebs, and found some truly magnificent blogs. They are inspiring (teacup birdfeeder) and funny, and full of great ideas. I won't lie and say I don't covet the houses and their decorating budgets from the core of my being, but at least they share their design techniques and thift store finds, as well as lots of step-by-step projects...with pictures. This is key, since I need to "read the pictures" often to figure out what's going on!
Here are a few of my favourites. And their blogs have links that will take you all sorts of interesting places:

Butteryum. Lots of great recipes here. I made the stuffed shells and they turned out great. I can't wait to try the spaghetti sauce recipe.

Homebody.She's all about the thrift store furniture. I wish we had as good a system up here as craigslist seems to be for them (kijiji doesn't come close here).

The Pleasures of Homemaking. Check out her deck. I'm not sure if it'd work up here (the sea salt might eat it) but it looks great!



Living with Lindsay. She recovers a chair and it is magical. I wish I was this fabulous.

Southern Hospitality. Thanks for introducing us to beadboard wallpaper!

The image here is from Lavender and Roses.
Hopefully you'll visit these and be inspired too. :)

What I've been up to while The Owner is away

It's been a busy week here, with lots of time to get things done. And by that, I mean tackle all the projects that have been sadly lacking in completion until now.
So, as a brief rundown, I have:
1) Put up a curtain to hide the mess in the half-finished cabinet, which looks pretty fabulous if I don't say so myself
2) Put together a post for my mailbox
3) Stained the stairs
4) Finished painting around the front door, ceilings and living room touch ups
5) Installed a new peep hole
6) Retouched the paint on the door
7) Found and installed a brass mortise lock doorknob for the front door
8) Done a really cute project involving a teacup birdfeeder I found online

However, I only have photos for a few of these things because I only have my iCamera and it's dark here.

So here's some evidence of what's been happening:


The Peephole! This is the old one, I haven't taken a pic of the shiny new one yet. It is brass to match the new knob set.


The Stairs. The bottom one is unfinished, the top one has a coat of Varathane in "Cherry" on it. Because the stairs are pine and in kind of rough shape, they're not taking stain evenly, which I hope will be less obvious with a couple more coats. Also, it's so humid here that it takes about 3x longer to dry than usual.



All the stairs. The risers still have to be painted to make it look crisp, and I think it's an improvement, but only The Owner will decide.

The "I haven't posted lately" apology post, with unrelated pictures

So, just so that nobody thinks there hasn't been some kind of progress here, I'd let you know that I think I'd be a perfect field-test location for anyone who wants to see if their floors will withstand 6-10 washings with industrial cleaner during the day.
Also, I could test break/crash/fire/baby- proofness of any object!
I don't get how something so small can be so angry.

But since I don't have any progress-pictures, I guess I'll provide you with something interesting: some of my pictures from my great-grandfather, who managed to survive both the Boer War and First World War as a sergeant bugler (and later rampant gambler and drunk, because PTSD wasn't a "thing" then, so you simply poured liquor on your memory).

Interesting fact: Daniel (my great grandfather) had a brother named "Enoch". Now there's something you don't hear any more!


More relatives circa WWI.



Great Grandmother Elizabeth:


And this is a brother. Or someone. Someone to whom I am related, but no one is really sure any more. My grandmother thinks he survived the war, at any rate. It's hard to say,so many did not.

"Ya can't stop progress!"

(Points to anyone who catches the film reference above.)

Okay, so here I am, a single woman again, and now it's up to me to continue with the plan to make the house kid-safe and mostly habitable.

So...today I decided, "you know what a door needs? A handle!




Then I thought, "this handle will compliment the new curtains I made quite nicely." And while the whole effect isn't complete (because there are sheers to go underneath it all), you get the general idea. They do look more grey in photos than they really are...there is a lot of blue in them which I will try to pick up with more colour in the room in general.

The progress continues unabated

And guess what? I have even more things to report today! YAY!
While I was out getting odds and ends to begin my little linens project, Daddy was at home being thoroughly useful.


I have been kvetching for ages about these unrepentently UGLY evergreen trees out front (I continued to assert there were simply for burglars to hide behind), and today, they went away!

Then I added a shepherd's hook to hang the birdfeeder from, since I'm now actually using the clothesline again...and even more amazingly, Daddy put up the lattice on the front porch!!!


This is nothing short of miraculous. Two years, and finally, FINALLY things are progressing nicely.
Aside from laughing at an analog/digital joke and being able to explain shell script to other nerds, it's been a good week: but when other dorks call you a dork, it's time to back away from your constant diet of programs aired only on Space. :)

Even more stuff I've done

Well, once again, I've continued to work away at the house while my signifcant other embraces laziness in a way only previously enjoyed by sloths.
To that end, I have painted the trim on the house (including fixing the 'spilly painter' glops) and repainted the front porch, as well as painting the risers to match, redoing a mailbox and making my own bedding to finish up my daughter's room.
My next endevour may be making organic playpen/cradle/crib bedding and the famous "sherpa cloths", since there seems to be a rising demand for said here in Halifax. Now, I just have to scare up the cash for a serger and I'll be in business! :)

WTF happened here?

Well, it has been forever since my last post. I don't have a great excuse, only that I have been busy momming it up.
But in the meantime, I have actually been doing stuff to the house as well.
Since my last update, where I put together some cabinets that were normal looking, and a floor, and things generally looking like real people lived in the house, I have moved the bedrooms upstairs.
AJ's room was painted a wonderful "happy" green (Aura paint again, and it looks much livelier in person than on a screen), and I have added a bunch of decals from the "I love you this much" series as well as some custom bedding that is in the works.
The "master" bedroom is still very much...well...I'd say a work in progress but that would imply that work was being done. And that's not true, as I'm just sleeping there, and spending the rest of the day down here. The yellow room has become the Baby Sleeps Area, and the old bedroom will be another baby play area. The rest of the house is pretty baby-centric too. Actually, my whole life is baby centric, which is not without its drawbacks too.
However, people need posts, and pictures, so here I go, trying to add some more.
The first one...our new woodstove. It makes things HOT. HOT!!! Yay, finally. It's the first time I've felt warm since I moved here!

Now, more baby-related caregiving!