pintrest

i have a new obsession: pintrest. i am actually shocked by how much i love pintrest. obviously, i use facebook but i never really got into myspace or twitter... so this pintrest obsession definitely caught me off guard.

if you have no idea what i am talking about i will give you a brief overview of what it exactly is. essentially, it is an online pinboard. a "pin" is a picture. when you sign up for pintrest you download a "pin it" button into your bookmark search bar on your internet window then, when you are searching the internet for recipes, diy projects, or home and garden ideas, you can hit the "pin it" button and it will create a pin for you and "pin it" onto whichever pinboard you wish. then, all your friends can see what inspires you. if they like what they see they can "repin it" onto their own pinboards. currently, i have six pinboards on the go: one for home ideas, food recipes, diy projects, fashion, books and inspirational quotes.

honestly, if you haven't already tried it, i highly recommend it. there are some really amazing recipes, quick fix ideas, diy projects... anything your little heart desires! go to www.pintrest.com and request an invite... they are trying to give the impression that it is an exclusive thing but within 2 days you generally receive your invitation invite and you can start pinning!

follow your heart

currently, i am waiting for the cupcakes i am making for my birthday to rise. they are going to be chocolate with cream cheese icing. since i share a birthday with three of my coworkers it was just that much easier to justify bringing cupcakes to work.if i were to bring them for only myself, it may have seemed "elementary school"ish, but since there are other people involved, it becomes a thoughtful gesture... i hope?

anyways, i figured i would kill some time by writing a long over due post... so, this post is dedicated to two of my favourite people in the world: my brother, duncan, and my best friend, michelle. not only are they two of the funniest, caring and honest people i know but they are also two of the most passionate, driven and accomplished people i know.

obviously, duncan plays baseketball at the university of saskatchewan. i am sure you are all beyond sick of hearing me talk about how proud i am that he is completing his engineering degree while playing a million hours of basketball a week, but sorry, i am going to say it one more time: i know i could not do what duncan has done over the past four years both athletically and intellectually and i am amazingly proud of him. this is duncan's last year playing for u of s and this weekend he scored his 1000th CIS career point. approximately 30 of those points were accumulated two years ago when his team won their national title. check out this preview for the documentary that they made about the boys and their journey earning the national title.

if you don't know who duncan is, he is number 30 and dunking in the majority of the clips. not only is it pretty damn cool that they won nationals, it is even cooler that someone found their story inspirational enough to make a documentary about it. duncan has already ordered us our copy...

secondly, i want to share a clip of michelle doing a recent performance with florance and the machine on x factor. when we were younger and people asked us what we wanted to do when we grew up, like most teenage girls who danced extracurricularly, michelle said she wanted to be a professional dancer. unlike most teenage girls who dance, michelle has achieved her dream. some may say that she got "lucky" but i know for a fact that isn't the case. she spent the summer after we graduated high school working two, sometimes three jobs, saving all the money she could manage in order to move to LA. after 9 months working jobs here in calgary and dancing in various projects in vancouver and toronto, she finally had the experience and money that she needed to pursue her dream. she is booking some of the most sought after dancing gigs in LA... it makes me so proud to see my friend who, at one time was so shy it was painful, living her dream. she deserves it.

michelle is the main dance in the trio that starts out on the left. not only is she a beautiful dancer but she is also a beautiful person. no one deserves success more than she does. i think what i admire most about her is that amidst all her success she is still the same amazingly down to earth person that she has always been - something that is incredibly difficult to maintain living in LA. check out the audition reel that gets her the majority of her gigs below...

well, my timer is going and i definitely cannot afford to burn my cupcakes. i hope they inspired you like they inspire me.

i heart you

yesterday was valentine's day!

i know a lot of people believe that valentine's day is simply a commercial holiday created by corporate giants to make an extra buck or two but i think i may have to disagree. obviously, i do not believe that you need to buy your significant fancy jewelry, a bouquet of flowers, or an incredibly over priced valentine's day card (the one i bought jesse was 8.99! next year, i am making him one) simply because it is february 14th, but i do think that it is a day where it is important to make an extra effort with the one you love. this doesn't have to mean buying into the hallmark scheme. yes, it may mean buying them a card or flowers, but it may also be doing something as simple as writing them a quick list as to why you love them (easy), cooking them dinner if they normally take care of the meals (possibly a bit harder, depending on how awful you are in the kitchen), or just spending some good quality time together... maybe i am a cheeseball but i just know that no matter how much effort you normally put into your relationship, no matter how hard you attempt to make "everyday valentine's day", your significant other deserves a few days a year (anniversary, birthdays etc), valentine's day included, where they feel extra special loved...

***

sometimes, i wish that there was a feature on blogger that allowed you to see when things were written. i wrote the above portion of this blog on my lunch break at work yesterday and saved it as a draft, knowing that i would be adding to it later after we had carried out our valentine's day plans. well, not only is jesse a fabulous husband and person (yes, we all knew this already) but he is also an amazing valentine. not only did he get me a dozen beautiful red roses and chocolate (something that isn't exactly "jesse") he came home early from work to clean our house. i honestly don't know what meant more to me, the unexpected valentine's day gifts or the perfectly clean house (believe me, this was no small task, we were so busy this weekend that we missed our weekly "deep clean"). obviously, he knows me well enough to know that i need a few days a year when i feel extra special loved, and yesterday, without reading the above,  he definitely made me feel that way!

so, enough with the sappy stuff, onto the more exciting stuff - our handmade heart shaped pizzas... not only did they actually look like hearts but they are absolutely delicious!

my beautiful flowers

close up

prebake

our delicious toppings:
parmesan, feta, mozza, red & green peppers, green olives, tomatoes, pesto, tomato sauce, and garlic butter (for the crust!)

looks like we weren't the only ones drooling over the thought of pizza

putting together his pizza

jesse's pizza

my pizza (yes, it is a lot messier than his)

post bake - mmm mmm!

these pizzas were so easy and fun to make! next time we may even attempt to make our own pizza dough (this was premade pilsbury pizza dough but it was delicious and worked perfectly). this was the perfect way to have a little at-home-date on valentine's day with the one you love; it was fun to cook them together, customizing the pizzas to our exact liking, and eating them was even better!

flower headband

i am officially the worst sick person. ironically, i am like a reverse hypocrondriac (this is ironic since i am overly neurotic about all other aspects of my life). when i get a cold i refuse to see a doctor until it is completely necessary (aka i am passing out due to lack of oxygen during a coughing fit). i hate taking medicine. i never "go to bed early and nurse my up and coming cold"; i think i actually believe that i can fight it off with pure will power. so obviously, when i am sick i refuse to stay home from work unless i am sent home which was the case today...

some people may like staying home from work sick- lounging around in their pajamas all day, eating comfort food and watching horrible day time television, incredibly happy that they are getting paid to do nothing. i think i too may like this if i wasn't the worst person in the world at "sitting around and relaxing". i get too bored too quick, especially when the only thing on tv are god awful day time soap operas. anyways, about two hours into my "healing sick day" i got a brilliant idea...

last year, my girlfriend, christa, bought this amazing flower crochet headband from anthropologie for some exorbitant amount of money that i was incredibly, incredibly jealous of. ever since, i have been looking for a cheaper knock off and have sadly been unsuccessful. well, thanks to youtube and my new basic knowledge of crochet i made my very own... hopefully my sickly germs don't stay alive in the wool...

my pretty flowers

the headband
(yes, it is supposed to be wider on the right side - that is where the flower goes)

finished it off with a pretty purple button i had lying around

close up

crochet

so for the last couple weeks i have been toying with the idea of learning to crochet. obviously, we are lucky enough to have grandma jessie who will crochet us beautiful blankets / afghans / mittens and hats whenever we ask, but i still want to learn how to do this myself. personally, i think our generation is completely loosing our ability to make things from scratch or by hand: for the most part, we cook premade meals that come out of packages, only bake betty crocker cakes and are neglecting to know how to knit or crochet. instead of partaking in these "old fashioned" pass times we watch tv, surf facebook and tweet all our tedious thoughts. if we want or need something we simply run to walmart or superstore.

don't get me wrong, i love modern technology; obviously, i have and use facebook, i follow twitter and i pvr all my favourite shows but, i also know how to sew, cook, bake, clean and enjoy reading novels (yes, real books made of paper that i hold in my hands, not words off my kobo or electronic e-reader). personally, i am proud of the fact that i can sew on jesse's buttons and make him his favourite banana muffins from scratch just like jesse takes pride in his ability to change a tire, fix a leaky faucet and start a fire from scratch. yes, i am completely aware that i am sounding fairly sexist right now, gender typing our roles but so be it. unfortunately, very few of our friends posses the same abilities hence why i have come to the sad conclusion that for the most part, our generation is completely ignorant and unappreciative of the skills and pastimes of our previous generations. if we never learn how to do any of theses things we will be unable to pass them along to our future generations and the art will be completely lost - it is really sad to think about.

lucky for me, val knows how to crochet and is willing to teach me! so, last night i went out after work and got a set of crochet hooks and my first chunk of wool, headed over to val's attempted to master this "waffle" style pattern. honestly, i found it incredibly difficult (to my credit, apparently it is a harder pattern, but it is my favourite, so i really wanted to try it). while my fingers are incredibly agile on a keyboard, they seemed awkward with a crochet needle and wool. my stitches were either too tight or too loose or just plain wrong. after about a half hour of crocheting and recrocheting the same 6 inches over and over only to have to unravel the entire and start from scratch after val checked it, informing me that it was wrong, i was definitely read to quit. thankfully, val had faith in me and a good two hours later i finally got the hang of it and really started to enjoy myself.

unfortunately, i do not think i picked the prettiest wool. i chose this rainbow / multi colour wool since i thought it would be easiest to learn on; in my head, the multiple colours would make the stitches i had previously done / were about to do, more visible. while this theory was definitely a correct one, i am not sure how pretty it is going to look. it is either going to look colourfully kitchy or like a grade 6 art project when i am done but i think i am okay with that. i think i will just be happy that i finished an entire blanket(although i have gotten a good hold of the pattern, now i have to deal with emi who seems to think my spool of wool is a toy...). hopefully, my next one will be a bit more elegant. 

i think it may end up a scarf, i am running out of wool

weekend projects

this weekend jesse and i made our first collaborative work of art. although we have already bought one commercial painting from ikea (which we do love), it is definitely important to us that we make our own original art. this project was really easy and we bought everything we needed for it from home depot (jesse's kind of art project, for sure!).

finished product

so, like i said, friday night we went and got everything we needed for the project: two six inch wide pine boards, walnut stain, ivory spray paint and a front door mat. that same evening we stained the pine so that it would be dry by the morning.

Jesse staining the boards

before and after

Emi and I watched while Jesse stained... haha

on saturday morning when the boards were dry we started the second step: the spray painting! basically, the rubber door mat acts as a stencil, creating a beautiful and intricate pattern!

Centering the stencle

First Coat

Four coats later on either side...

after the spray paint dried we cut the boards in half and then centered industrial velcro on the wall and the back of the wooden panels. after that we just popped them on the wall! i love how they look. obviously, they aren't perfect, but that is what i like the most about them!

half way up

obviously hanging them was jesse's job

I wasn't sure about this velcro but it worked like a charm!

finished product

after we hung these up i started on the second project of the weekend: the trunk. jesse's parents had this trunk in their basement that used to belong to a family member and i asked if we could borrow it since it was hiding away in a storage room.  obviously, they said yes!

Dusty from the days spent in the basement

it was in rough shape

so, before it was going to be able to hang out in the living room it needed to be dusted and polished. obviously, i didn't want to do anything too drastic since the value of the trunk actually depreciates if you alter the original material but something needed to be done so i turned to google where i found this amazing recipe for an olive oil and vinegar polish - it worked wonders!

right hand side has one coat of polish and the left is the original

oil and vinegar polish

Finished product

trunk turned side table

Finished product!

so, all and all we are really happy with our new, original wall art as well as the antique travel trunk! another productive weekend and we are all tuckered out....so please excuse me while i go join my two loves on the couch to cuddle! happy sunday!

be our guest

this morning i had the pleasure of waking up bright and early to these two hooligans...

what a beautiful little family i have haha since i had the whole day ahead of me i decided that i was going to be as productive as i possibly could. if you read my blog regularly, you know that i have been talking about painting the door in my kitchen for a few months now - all talk and no action. well, i decided that today was the day to follow through with this little plan of mine.

jesse taping the window casing

although i was a professional painter for an entire summer while i was in university (har har har) jesse still felt the need to tape the casing surrounding the windows so that i ended up with a "clean edge" - having a contractor as a husband tends to take little do-it-yourself weekend projects to a new level...

no, he didn't bother to change into painting clothes. there was absolutely no getting him out of his onsie. if you are wondering where this gem of an outfit came from, let me fill you in. my mom had bought this for my dad or brother and neither of them wanted it (hmm, i wonder why?) so she gave it to jesse since she knew he "loves long underwear". obviously, she was right - jesse is a fan. after jesse was done with the painters tape he sanded down the door for me so that i didn't have to tsp. i hate tsping. after he was done, i wiped down the dust and started to give the door its first coat.

first coat

we actually colour matched the paint to the curtains in the eating area - the whole purpose of painting the door was to bring the blue from the curtains into the kitchen and onto the far wall by the stove, evening everything out. the colour turned out amazing and i am very, very happy with the new pop of colour in the kitchen!

finished product

after i was done the door i realized that not only did i have a ton of extra paint but i had a ton of extra time left in my day. why not paint the guest bedroom night side tables and chest of drawers too? honestly, i had been wanting to tackle the guest bedroom for months. i bought these really amazing retro side tables a few months ago with my mom from the interfaith furniture store (my favourite) and have been too busy to refinish them until now. jesse thought i lost my mind when i first brought them home; since they were melamine he was positive i wouldn't be able to refinish them but i was determined. i just sanded down all the melamine, gave them a few good coats of paint and now they look amazing!

original, dated tables

painted

after i was done the side tables i decided that i was going to tackle the chest of drawers. this chest has been sitting in our upstairs living room being used as a front entrance table since we first moved in nearly a year ago. this chest of drawers was in jesse's bedroom when he still lived at his parents - apparently, it was one of the first pieces of furniture that val bought when she moved to calgary so it was in definite need of a makeover!
 

the "before"

originally, val had painted the top, so i had to sad the entire thing down

vandalism! it took me forever to sand that out...

the first coat

of course emi had to get right on in there.

i am the most excited about this chest of drawers. it is possibly my favourite piece that i have refinished to date. i think what makes it so special are the beautiful, hand painted knobs i splurged on from one of my favourite (and incredibly over priced) stores, anthropologie.

the original hardware

the new knobs!

the finished product!

once everything was sanded, painted, dried and all the hardware was put back on i moved it all back into the guestroom. i actually have found this room fairly hard to decorate since it is so huge. it would be easier if we had an unlimited budget and were able to buy a ton of oversized furniture but, alas, we don't and i have had to work with limited resources! i will say that i am very proud of the fact that this entire make over cost us less than 50 dollars! while i did pay 10 dollars each for the side tables, the chest and rocking chair were free. we spent about 35 dollars on paint and 15 dollars on the knobs. the bed, bedding, and curtains came from my old room in my parents house and i collected all the little decorative knickknacks over time. finally, i am pleased with how it looks. take a look at the before and after of this room:

blast from the past - right when we moved in, before we even painted, yikes!

our previous guest room - very bare...

and now, the new and improved guest room - ta da!

    

words cannot express how happy i am with this room. i am actually going to move all my workout clothes, bathing suits and comfortable, lounge clothes into the chest of drawers in here. i also have a lot more room for my accessories like scarves, necklaces and purses! originally, i bought that flower hook set for our room but jesse hated it and said it was too "girly