Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Cottage Love + Yum Snack!


Hey peeps!

How was your weekend? For us Canadians, it was a nice long one. Amazing what having an extra day does to the weekend! On Friday, I headed to the cottage with the kids while Mr. Fix-It stayed back to finish getting the basement ready for the reno to begin June 1. Holy cow, it’s been quite the process getting it emptied and cleaned! We’re getting really excited for it all to officially begin. While Mr. Fix-it was slaving away, I was doing the opposite at the cottage. The kids, my brother and my parents chilled at the cottage. The weather was beauty so the kids were in the water all weekend! Brrr…apparently you don’t feel the cold when you’re mini.
I love the May 24 weekend. It’s the official kick-off to summer and the weather truly helped to make it feel like a hot summer weekend.  

I did try to squeeze in some time in the kitchen to do some food prep for the week. Honestly, I feel so much calmer when I know what’s for dinner through the week and can eat healthy at the office. Otherwise, we’re eating last minute randomness at dinner and my lunch consists of a handful of crackers and cheese with no snacks. This lunch combo often leaves me sneaking down tothe cafeteria around 3pm for a chocolate bar which is not so good for trying to get into my summer pants! So, I didn’t have time to do a whole lot of cooking but I cut up all of our veggies and fruit. This way, I can throw some in a Tupperware with some hummus for a 3pm snack, instead of digging through my purse for a loonie to find a cafeteria treat!
I also made up the Pit Stop Peanut Butter Bites that I told you about a couple of weeks ago.

They’re really delish, easy to make, a great activity to do with your minis because all they need to do is stir and roll…so they feel like they have fully made something AND it’s a good snack for the kids to have when they get home for school or at 3pm when the chocolate bar is calling my name. You can use my recipe or one directly from the Kraft site or, I found this one “Awake Peanut Butter Snack Bites” made with ground coffee and chunks of white and semi-sweet chocolate.

Don't they look yum? The ingredients had me at coffee! You can find a bunch more fab recipes at www.sticktogether.ca

Did you enter into the Kraft contest? Congrats to the winners:

Maria Medeiros, Debbie Flynn, Rebecca Hart and Shanaz Allia.
Is one of them you? You can see the Make It Yours photo contest entries and more recipes here
Looking to join the conversation? Follow #MyKPBsnackbite on Twitter!
The rest of the week, is a busy one for us. Our good friend, Craig is visiting us from Halifax and it’s one of my favourite weekends of the year. Saturday is the Great Glebe Garage Sale…oh mama we have a mountain to sell…and Sunday is Ottawa Race Weekend. I’m not running this year but Craig is, so we’ll be cheering him on! Also, I’m almost finished a little gallery wall in our living room and want to share more basement updates and my barnboard idea. Hope to share both projects with you soon.
Talk soon.
Keep it Beautiful.

Although this post has been generously sponsored by Kraft Canada, the opinions and language are my own, and in no way do they reflect Kraft Canada.




Friday, May 8, 2015

Basement Bathroom Inspiration + Giveaway Winner!

Happy Fabulous Friday my friends!

A few things to share...

First things first, the winner of the Lampe Berger starter kit! Congratulations to...
Florence C in Newfoundland!!
Fun giveaway, would love to hear your thoughts on the kit :)
 
We're moving full steam ahead with clearing out the basement. Mr. Fix-It and I have been hanging out down there clearing out ALL.THE.STUFF! It feels good to get rid of things and it's been a walk down memory lane finding things down there. However, I'm ready for the "cleaning out" period to be over! Over! Over! All the stuff can feel overwhelming sometimes and we're really trying to reduce what we need to store. Mr. Fix-It has also been busy taking out the beams, random insulation that someone added before us and turning the basement into an empty shell for our contractor. Here is where we started...
Here's where we are right now. Slow and steady.

Between boxes, I've started to think about the end result and started with the bathroom.
You know my love of white and grey but want the bathroom not to feel so formal. I found these fab tiles and I can't get them out of my head. It's tile that looks like barnboard and some of the tiles have writing that makes them look like shipping crates. Some say "FRAGILE", "LONDON", "NEW YORK' etc. I'm diggin' it.
 
As for the vanity, I like the Hemnes vanity at Ikea. The price is right and the storage drawers are great. This week, I bought a toilet online at Lowes. I ordered it on the last day of the sale...why do I feel so victorious? Is it the fact that it was over $100 off? Or is it because I'm thrilled about ordering a new toilet? Maybe a little bit of both. Yikes.
 
I also want to share a fantastic built-in that one of Keep it Beautiful Designs readers sent to me after the post looking for your advice on the basement built-ins.
BEFORE
She and her hubby are DIYers and doesn't the end result look so great? Fresh, clean & a much greater use of space.
AFTER

What a great job. I love how the tv sits in the framing. Gorg! Christine said she will send along a final, final photo when the bookshelves are all styled oh-so-pretty. I love seeing your renos as they develop. If you have a project you want to share, send them my way. I would be happy to feature you :)
 
Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas!
 
Happy weekend :)
 
Keep it Beautiful.
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