Happy Spring! A Little Mantel Love

Happy 1st day of Spring everyone!! Hmmm, this is the weirdest Spring weather I've ever seen..our backyard is still filled with a whole lotta white stuff!

Last week I was busy with having the kiddies home with me for March Break. I was sure this baby was going to arrive then but thanks to the help of my Mum, we managed to get the rest of the closets organized (including the babe's), have fun with the kids and Mum did ALL our laundry. God Bless her!! She's the best.

Every day I think this babe is going to arrive, but to no avail. Both our sons were born on the 20th day of the month so it would be pretty cool if she decided to make her grand appearance today. Hear that baby?

Whether Spring only feels like a date on the calendar today, I'm definitely ready for a change in season.  Easter is quickly approaching and my winter mantel needed a little love.  I headed down to the basement to see what I could round up.

I have this pink, feather Easter wreath from my Nana. It was the last wreath that hung on her door before she passed away. It's girly, whimisical and my Nana loved it and so do I. I don't think I would have ever bought it myself but there is something really adorable about it. So, it found a place on my Spring mantel and it makes me smile.

However, then Mum and I headed out to Homesense to look for some baskets for the playroom and I came across a beautiful mirror that said "please take me home". I've been stalking Homesense once a week since January waiting to scoop up the perfect mirror to finish off the mantel DIY we did in the Fall and this beauty was there.

Mr. Fix-it hung it and Nana's Easter wreath went back up too. I'm in mirror heaven. I'm glad I waited for the perfect one, instead of buying something just to fill the space.

Greenery, flowers and fresh colours can give your mantel an instant pick up and it's a nice change from the heavyness that we often do for winter.

Look around your home, I'm sure you have something that says Spring. When in doubt, pick up a few bunches of tulips at the grocery store (I suggest keeping them all the same colour for continuity) and line them up in three vases across your mantel. It's a fresh.fabulous.sophisticated way to get a Spring mantel.

Keep it Beautiful.

Alicia

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Long Time No Blog! Purge the Junk!

Sorry my post went live before I was done...here is the finished one!

Hello! Hello! Long time no blog!! I'm sorry I was MIA for most of February. Between having kids down and out with the flu and colds, wrapping up work at the office, renovating our kitchen/breakfast room and trying to get organized for this baby...I haven't had a chance to blog!

I'm happy to say that the sickies are gone (I hope I didn't just jinx it!), I've started my maternity leave and the renos are coming along. Phew!

Babe is due in 3 weeks so Mr. Fix-it and I have a list of daily things that we want to get done in the next two weeks. Its satisfying checking things off. I think he's nesting more than I am ;)

Last weekend he was on "purge the junk" mode. First priority was cleaning out our big guy's room. Holy cow! How can a 4 year old have so much randomness? He's definitely our collector kid. He'll keep scrap pieces of paper "because Mummy, it isn't garbage". Okay, so that was all done while he was at school! Next step, tackle his closet. His baby brother will be moving in with him soon so we needed to create a closet that was going to be functional in holding both the boys clothes. I had taken a few pictures of our operation clean out but I have no idea where I have stored them on the computer. Grrrr. Let's just say I had no idea that closet could house so much stuff/junk. Wowza.

Once it was gone our idea was to place one of these babies...

Ikea Expedit Shelf


into the centre of the closet and attach clothes rails to either sides so that the boys clothes could be divided and storage in the middle. However, after we bought it, put it together and Mr. Fix-it carried it upstairs we learned that it was going to be too big. Argh! Have you ever tried to take apart a piece of furniture from Ikea successfully? Wasn't going to happen...so there was a corner in the baby's room that was calling for storage and the Ikea shelf had a new home.

So back to square one. Mr. Fix-it repaired, primed and painted the closet the colour of the room (Benjamin Moore November Sky) and painted and rearranged the shelves (Farrow and Ball Drawing Room Blue).


While Mr. Fix-it was busy painting, I went on the search for storage baskets. I found these square ones at Ikea:


and needed two shorter one to fit the top shelf. Homesense came to my rescue and a red and blue pair came home with me.
**

Now the boys shirts are all in one dresser and their pants and sweatshirts are nicely hung and divided in the closet. They each have a green bin on the bottom of the closet with their socks, underwear and our little guy's diapers. This way, they can reach everything they need to get dressed.








Re-painting and organizing your closet space is a fresh.fabulous.sophisticated way to feel purged of random junk that accumulates in there and leaves you feeling tidy and organized. So open those closet doors and get organizing.

Keep it Beautiful.



P.S. I have lots more to share with you on the ongoing projects. Remember the breakfast room reno? It's still going on and operation playroom organization happened...again! Stay tuned. Have a great weekend.

Fabulous Friday: Breaky Room/Kitchen Reno

Happy Friday everyone!!

Excited for the weekend? Been a long week? After getting back from vacation, this work week feels like it has crawled by. However, on a fun note...I'll be starting my maternity leave in 4 weeks. Yeah!! Countdown is on.

With the time crunch of baby #3 coming, we have a list of projects that we want to start and finish. The breakfast/kitchen reno and nursery are our top two. So...here's the plan.

Breakfast Room

This is a room off the kitchen that currently holds our kitchen table and a lamp. Yup, that's it. It's a space that is reaching out for some love. This is what it looked like when we bought the house. Yikes!

We needed to say good-bye to the forest green and peeling linoleum floor. So we laid new floor, painted the room Farrow & Ball Pale Powder, added a kitchen table, chairs, drapery and a lamp. It has been the place we eat our breaky and dinner through the week.

It's now time to make better use of the space. Our kitchen is pretty small, so all my platters for entertaining have been hanging out in a moving box in the basement since move-in day. Anytime I've needed them, I dig them out and return them back to the dungeon afterwards. So, why not build storage in the breakfast room to give them a new home?

THE BREAKFAST ROOM PLAN:
- install base cabinets along one of the walls (we bought them from RONA)
- order and install counter top
- Mr. Fix-it build open shelves on top of counter to keep it pretty
- Have the sliding glass door to the deck replaced with french doors (I'm super excited about this part)
- Build a desk

I'll remind you that our kitchen looked like this when we bought the house...yup...brutes!

We removed the random fish decal wallpaper, painted the kitchen, replaced the appliances, laid down new hardwood floors, painted out the cabinets and counter top (BTW, this is a great way to spruce up your old counter), added new hardware and drapery (check out my post on DIY NO SEW ROMAN BLINDS). However, we figure while were doing the makeover in the breakfast room, why not order in new counter tops for the kitchen.

Seeing how March 27th is our baby's due date, we're working with some tight timelines. A tip to remember when doing a renovation yourself or with a contractor is, HAVE A SCHEDULE! Life is busy, so having a plan allows you to figure out when you can work on things and when you can't.

Here is what we have planned for the rooms. I tried to make this collage bigger but this is where my techie skills end! I forgot to add that we need a new sink in there too. I'm having a hard time finding one I like. Any suggestions in Ottawa? We're liking either a really deep stainless steel sink with a small side sink or one big stainless farm sink. Hmmmm.

It's going to be a busy weekend but I'm hoping to have a few step-by-step tutorials to share with you as we move ahead!

FYI...I'm now blogging for the Ottawa Mommy Club. Not sure what countertop to choose for your kitchen? Head over to OMC and check out my latest blog...What Countertop To Choose?


Have a great weekend.

Keep it Beautiful.

Valentine's Day DIY

HOLA!

We're back from our trip to Dominican Republic and we had a fabuloso time!! It was so great to have a week of hot sun, sand, swimming, sunkisses and food. We were stress free and had a great time with our kiddies. Loved it! Here are my boys...

It's back to reality here in Ottawa and back to the cold weather.

Can you believe its February already? How did that happen? What happened to January? I think because our kiddies were so sick in January that it just came and went. Yikes.

February, the month of love. I saw this cute little envelope in the Pottery Barn catalogue and thought I could create my own for my kiddies. With a few supplies from Michael's and the good 'ole Dollarstore, a Valentine's envelope was born....

Here was my inspiration:

Honestly, it was so easy that I don't even think it needs a step-by-step. I just bought thin foam for the envelope, glued up the sides, cut a triangle for the flap and hot glued on the ribbon for the trim and a few hearts for the opening. It's a cute way for your little ones to store their Valentine's or I plan on leaving a little Valentine in there each morning. You can hang them on their door or on their chair for when they come down for breakfast. A fresh.fabulous.sophisticated way you can add a little Valentine's love.
**Sorry about the red square in the middle, I added the kids names to them with white sticker letters which look adorable but want to keep some privacy*.

Keep it Beautiful.

Get Your Pack On!

Happy Friday everyone!

It's been a busy week in our household trying to get our kiddies healthy and rid of the flu, but one of the things I've started to do is pack for our trip to Dominican next week. Do you write down lists of everything you need to do? Or are the lists stored in your head? I'm a write 'em down kind of girl. I definitely got it from my mum. Since I've been little she's always had a few running lists going on post-it-notes stuck to the kitchen counter.

I find writing them down keeps me in check and organized, otherwise I will definitely forget something (especially at 8 months pregnant...the baby has stolen my brain).

Are you planning on going on vacation soon? If you're looking for packing lists, just google them...there are tons online (although I often find they include the most random things). Here are a few tips and tricks that I thought I would share with you that help me when travelling to a hot destination with kiddies.

BE ORGANIZED!
Most families I know, the mama does the packing. This is no different in our family. I pack us all up and Mr. Fix-it packs the car (it's his responsiblity to figure out how to play Tetris with our luggage).

I find, the more often you pack, the better and more efficient you get at it. We packed the car so many times last summer with trips here and there that I'm sure I could pack us all up and in the car in an hour by the end of the summer. It makes you realize that you really don't need as much stuff as you think!

TALK TO YOUR KIDS!
Get those kiddies amped up for your vacation! Last year when we were heading to the sunny South we had to wake up around 4am to get to the airport. Normally if I woke up our big guy at that time he would be a bear. However, he was so excited to go to the beach that it didn't matter what time it was, he was ready! Hopefully this tactic will work again this time.

Talk to them about what they want to bring on the trip so that you don't pack the wrong thing or forget something that they just assumed you would bring. For example, I was going to pack our big guy's Trunki (see pic) to stash his stuff for the airplane. (On a side note, I love this little case. Its sturdy and they can ride on it through the airport!).

However, he quickly reminded me that he didn't want to bring his Trunki this time, he wanted to bring his Thomas the Train suitcase. He looked at me like I had two heads, like of course I would know that. Okay...now I know. Glad we had this discussion.

PACK FOR THE PLANE!
In a dream world, your kids will sleep through the whole plane ride. In reality world, prepare for them to get bored and want to walk the aisles. You might want to pack a few fun things for them to do. Check out my post Oh the Places We'll Go for ideas on what kind of activities to pack for your kids.

DON'T FORGET THE LOVEY!
If you don't remember anything, just don't forget the lovely or pacifier!! In our house it's called the "binkie" and God help me if I forget them. I'll have a sticky note on the door before we leave..."Did you bring the binkie"???

SHOP EARLY!
If you know that you're going to be hitting the beach in December or January, try to pick up summer clothes at the end of the summer prior. You'll get great deals, but most importantly trying to find summer clothes in December and January is tough! I know I've had that challenge this year. The stores are just starting to get their Spring/Summer lines in now, so the selection is limited. If you are going in the next little while, I found that Children's Place and Gap has the biggest selection of kids summer stuff.

DON'T BRING YOUR WHOLE CLOSET!
The beauty of packing for a hot vacation is that your clothes are light and take up much less space then packing for a ski vacation where you need mucho sweaters and gear. Remember, when your spending a week or two at the beach, you're likely going to be in your bathing suit all day and really just need clothes for dinner and going on any excursions off the resort.

A tip that I found works really well when packing for everyone, including myself, is I pack outfits rather than just a bunch of random pieces. So if we're there for 7 days, I pack 7 different outfits and an extra one just in case. For the kids, I'll probably pack an extra few outfits bc Lord knows our little guy can't get through any meal or snack without having his meal all over him ;)

And don't forget to pack (or remind your guys to pack), a couple pairs of pants. Often, restaurants on resorts require men to wear full pants in the evenings.

Also, do you really need your giant stroller? Likely not. The travel strollers have come a long way since these flimsy babies...

Even when our little guy was only 3 months, we brought down our travel stroller and it worked like a dream, held all our beach gear and didn't take up much space.

Do you need a crib for your room? Don't forget to bring a crib sheet, sometimes they will provide one but sometimes not.

PACK A BATHING SUIT IN YOUR CARRY-ON!
Often times when you arrive at the resort your room isn't ready (especially if you have taken an early flight). If you have a bathing suit for each person in your carry-on or beach bag then it's easy to change into when you arrive at the resort and hit the beach!! Otherwise you'll have to open up your nicely packed suitcase in the lobby of the hotel and look through everything.

IRON and UNPACK!
If you are going to a resort, you're likely there for a week or longer. Unpack! Make the space your own and you'll feel organized. Sometimes I iron my clothes before I pack them. Once we arrive at the hotel, any wrinkles that have happened en-route usually just flatten out when you hang them up with the humidity.

WASH IT ALL WHEN YOU RETURN!
You might as well just park your suitcases next to the washing machine when you get home. I find that with the humidity in the air down in the resorts, that everything usually needs a good wash.

Those are a few tips and tricks to help you stay organized and sane when heading to a warm destination. Do you have any to share?

We're very excited to feel that hot sun! See you in February!!!

Keep it Beautiful.



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