About a month or so ago, I entered a draw to win some tickets to see the Tassimo Smart Talk Event in Toronto. The only reason I entered was because Sarah Richardson and Nik Manojlovich were scheduled to speak. Not in a million years did I think I would win tickets. With all the people in Toronto entering why would my name come up?

Well, it did.

My girlfriend Ms.R and I chat about Sarah Richardson all the time. Her name comes up almost every time we are together and how much we wish we could afford to hire Sarah to come and design our houses. At the very least we try our best to bring a little bit of Sarah’s designs into our own homes.

It made perfect sense to invite Ms.R to come along for the ride with me. We would have a day without our kids, chatting together in the car, drinking coffee and listening to Sarah Richardson, we couldn’t think of a more perfect Saturday.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare at the Liberty Grand in Toronto. To a lobby full of people tasting coffee brewed in the new Tassimo machine and some delicious desserts.

Ms.R and I waited and watched while our beverage hostess demonstrated the Tassimo machine. Then our turn came about and we had to choose what to try. I went with the Cappucino and Ms.R went with the Americano. Man those were delicious.

Here is the gorgeous Ms.R waiting for her drink to be made.

A little history lesson for you all. Ms.R and I have been friends for many years now. We first met when I was in University and working at little local restaurant called Angelo’s. Ms.R was friends with one of my coworkers and when the time came that we needed another waitress we made sure that Ms.R was the next one hired. I have not worked at Angelo’s for 11 1/2 years. I worked at Angelo’s for five years. Yes, we have known each other that long. Ms.R hasn’t changed one bit. She is just as gorgeous and fun as she was when we first met.

Once we had tasted our coffees and desserts, made sure that Ms.R had her ballot in for the draw to win a $10,000 Bosch kitchen it was time to enter the ballroom.

Ms.R and I went all the way to the front and managed to get great seats. We were in the third row behind the media. One of the hostesses told us to pretend we were media (because I asked if I could take photos for my blog) but, we were a little too chicken to do that so we settled for six rows from the front. Look at all the people that turned out. It was amazing.

Nik Manojlovich was our Host. He is great! I used to watch him on Savoir Faire all the time and only wish I could have another wedding so he could design it all for me. Maybe he would do an anniversary? He is amazing.

And then Sarah Richardson came out. She is just as fun, smiley and enjoyable in person as she is on her shows. She gave us great tips on decorating different rooms in our homes, mostly kitchens. Both Ms.R and I were thrilled because we are both trying to fix up different aspects of our homes and the kitchen is where we spend most of our time.

Ms.R and I actually won some coffee and got to go all the way up to the front. We were game for anything. We tried to answer all the questions and jump right in because you never knew what they were going to give away. It was a really fun time and we had a blast.

Ms.R grabbed my camera from me to make sure I was in a couple of shots. We had so much fun.

Then we had to head back to the tasting room to pick up my Tassimo machine. Each entrant that won received a free Tassimo machine, complete with a bag full of different coffees and teas to try. And while we were there we spotted Nik, so I asked him if he wouldn’t mind posing with Ms.R for a photo for the blog. He obliged and we were quite thrilled.

Thank you Ms.R for coming with me and making it the best Saturday I have had in a very long time. It was wonderful to chat and visit without the kids demanding our attention. And thank you to Nik and Sarah for making it a fun event we loved it and hope to be invited to more of these great functions. Oh yes, and a special Thank you to Tassimo for making such a wonderful product. I must slow down today or I won’t be sleeping for a week. Yes, they are that good and I am that full of caffeine.

Four and a half years ago, when we moved into our house I had a list of things I wanted to do right away.  One of them was the Loft and another was the handles on the kitchen cabinets.

When you buy a house new here, everything is an upgrade and costs a lot of money.  Simply getting nickel handles on our cabinets would have set us back an extra $500.  We did not want to add that to our mortgage so we promised ourselves we would do it right away.

Four and a half years passed. And I finally got my handles.

It was so simple.  It cost us $75 in hardware and a half an hour to install them.  And to be honest, I talked to my Sister on the phone the whole time I was installing them, so I multi-tasked.

So why did we wait so long?  I will never know, always something else to get done.  But, now that we have had them on for almost a week, I have to say that I am quite happy with the results.  So subtle, but nice.  Makes me want to put away all the little extra things on the counters and have them all bare again.  Who am I kidding, they haven’t been bare since the day we moved in!

One more thing crossed off my list of things to get done around here.  Now the biggest question of all….

Any suggestions?

For four years I have wanted to change the way our loft looked.  It wasn’t working for me, but I spent too much time sewing draperies at my table so it needed to be perpendicular to the window to drape the fabrics over the table.

Then, two years ago, the day my little Apple arrived into our lives Opa brought Hubby a desk over.  My understanding was that it was mahogany and it was going to replace the black one we already had.  Hubby’s idea was that it would be his and tuck into the corner and ADD another desk to our two desks we already had in the loft.  I was still hanging out in bed so imagine the shock I got when I finally ventured out of my room.  My already irritating loft just got worse.  And the desk blocked my creativity.

This Fall, I will be watching two of my friends children after school.  Not every day, but possible every day.  We are all looking forward to it as we love these two boys and we think it will be a good experience for everyone.  But, the loft was driving me nuts.  And I was trying to imagine the boys up there doing homework on these desks that were no longer very functional, but piled with papers, boxes and junk.  And yes, that could all be put away, but I lost the inspiration to do that and Hubby just kept leaving the stuff on his desk because (and the desk that is folded down was actually under the window until Saturday when we needed it, it held a lot of stuff that is on my actual sewing table).

Saturday night was my breaking point.  Hubby was scheduled to leave on Monday for a work trip and I was down to my last week of summer to get this loft in shape.  I proposed a quick idea to Hubby that originally only involved going to Ikea and purchasing a bookshelf.  Sunday morning I realized that the wall for the bookshelf wasn’t painted and to get that done would mean removing the bookshelf another time, which of course means it would never get painted. Our new plan needed paint and a bookshelf.  Being Sunday everything opened late so we cleaned out the room then headed out.

My job was to paint the black desk white and Hubby’s was to paint the two white walls Platinum.  Within just a couple of hours we were assembling the bookshelf and loading it up.  It took a complete 24 hours to get it all done, but that includes drying time, children time and sleep time.  If I had only realized that it would only take us that long a couple of years ago I would have done it then.

And now, my creativity is back and I want to use the loft again.  And hopefully homework and playtime will be much more enjoyable, just look at that floor space!  It isn’t my complete ideal, but it is a long way from where it was and every time I walk up the stairs I am happy to see the room instead of angry at it.

*Note: the computer will move to the other white desk sometime next week, the longer we let it cure, the harder the paint will be.  Thus avoiding chips.

What do we do on one of the hottest days of the summer?

We bake chocolate chip cookies that’s what. It just worked out nicely to stay inside, do a few chores, make some cookies and have a nap. Once we finished all of that we went in the pool.

I wanted to take a photo of the newest bunny in the neighbourhood, but it got away before I could get my camera out. I know bunnies are cute, but when they eat half your garden and make your dogs crazy, they aren’t so much fun. My neighbour is trying to catch them, but he has had no success yet. Will see if he can catch and release them all before winter sets in. Either way I will be wrapping all the plants and shrubs in chicken wire this fall.

Thank you all so much on your wonderful comments on the baby’s room. I do love it and have already found and picked up a few more little things to decorate. J was a little sad that Hubby hadn’t painted his room yet. And although Hubby wasn’t going to do it right now, I reminded him that A’s room was painted and the baby’s room was painted, it is only fair that J’s room gets painted too. When J was born we did A’s room too so he wouldn’t fell left out. So now, we will paint J’s room. Hooray!!! That will leave only our room, the bathrooms and the stairway to paint, this is a huge step. We only finished painting our last house when it was time to sell. My Dad keeps offering, but Hubby wants to do it all.

Now, I am off to have some cookies and head up to bed, to read of course before falling asleep. I won’t have much time for reading soon, I need to finish up the last few books on my nightstand.

I know the walls are bare, but I just haven’t found the right things to put up yet. I think we definately need a shelf or two and something to match the little green surfboard pegrack on the window sill (that will be hung near the door when I get to it). I need to pick up a dresser for J’s room and move over the baby sized dresser from his room to here. But the essentials are in and the rest can come later on.

The paint colour is Pratt and Lambert “Angel Food” done up in Para Paint, wall and trim, eggshell in matte finish (say all that in one breath). Now Para is a Canadian company, but I thought I should be specific with what we used as I have had inquiries before. Truthfully, Hubby and I usually just go for eggshell finish in a basic latex. But, my Father, the painter by-trade, picked up the paint for us and decided that this was the best finish for the baby’s room. And he was right. The matte look makes it look even softer than expected. And I think I mentioned that I never thought I would choose pink for a bedroom, I am much more a purple girl, but this one just kept coming back to me.
Add to that the fact that my Mother picked me up this wonderful quilt down at the beach. I was looking for something beachy like the ones from Pottery Barn, but since PBK doesn’t ship to Canada and they don’t have one close to the beach, I went with this one. It has cute little Angels on it and the colours were great. A little of everything. The pinks in it matched the paint colour perfectly so that is how the room came to be pink. My Mom also picked up some sheets at PBK in Nashville (had I only known she would go there). They are called Tropical Toile. In other words toile done up, beach style. Sadly the beach line at PBK has now been discontinued (at least online, but my Sister is on the lookout for some stuff on sale) so I cannot pick up anymore Tropical Toile or all things beach at this time.

And I wanted to address the fact that there is a crib and a bed already. I did this for J too, had a bed in his room from the get go. It makes nursing at night so much easier and on those nights when the baby just won’t settle, I don’t have to keep Hubby up till all hours when he needs to go to work the next day. This was the deal I made when we agreed that I would not have to go back to work. I do all the night time duties and he gets to sleep. Some of my friends think that is awful and he should have to get up too, but I disagree. First of all, I am nursing these babies, and second of all he works hard so we can have me stay home with them, so I let him sleep. A lot of his friends were jealous when he was coming to work all refreshed and they were up all night with their kids, but I felt better knowing he could function. I don’t have important meetings and only have to impress myself so it was ok if I was functioning at half mast.

So, this is the baby’s room… She is getting ready to arrive as we only have four weeks left, but I think she might arrive just a few days or so early. Just my hunch.