Cancer Carrot Update

I bet you are all just dying to know what happened to the carrot!

So, I stuck the carrot into the ground on Saturday night!

The next morning, I ran downstairs eagerly anticipating if it would still be there! Boo... It was still there, untouched! Then sometime around lunch, some lucky rabbit found it. There was a little nibble taken off the top! (sorry I forgot to take a picture)
In my mind I pictured this rabbit running home to tell all his rabbit pals about this giant mythical carrot he discovered! The other rabbits didn't believe him and teased and made fun of him! He was so sad! But then, through a series of events, he meets and befriends the Princess rabbit! She believes him and they decide to go search for the carrot together! They search the entire Southwest because he couldn't remember where it was! They used the sound of Kalbi's barking to help guide them to the carrot! It took them all night but they found it! They had a feast and ate most of the carrot til their little bellies couldn't eat anymore!
This is what I found the next morning!

Haha... I was right!!
The rabbit and the Princess hopped on home and told the others about their feast! The other rabbits were salivating and apologized for not believing him! They all became friends and decided to go back together to finish the carrot! They gobbled it all up and lived happily ever after.... until they all turned into glowing orange mutant rabbits!! LOL

All gone the next morning! Let me know if you see crazy mutant rabbits running around!!

Cancer Carrot

So I bought this GIANT carrot last week to make soup broth! I got husband to hold it up next to my phone so you could fully grasp what a monsterous carrot it actually is!

Kim (my mother) came over, saw it in the fridge and yelled at me! She told me that it was from China, had crazy chemicals and if I ate it, I would get Cancer and die! Sounds extreme, but it did scare me a little bit! I was going to throw it away but I hate throwing away perfectly good food... but I also didn't want to catch me some Cancer either! I decided that I would place it outside for all the little bunnies running around! There are sooooooo... many of them outside! They must be starving because they were chomping on the weeds in our backyard! Husband said that I was going to turn them into crazy mutant rabbits from the carrot! Better them than me I guess!
So anyways, I went outside to the backyard and stuck it in the snow!

Husband thinks it looks like a giant ummm "thing" sticking out of the snow! YES, we are totally immature like that! Haha! Anyways, do you guys think the rabbits will eat it? Or will they know better and reject the carrot? Do you think they will turn into mutants? How many days do you give it, till it disappears? I say it will be gone by morning! I'll make sure to keep you guys posted on the carrot-rabbit situation! I bet you're just dying to know!! Haha!

Shopping Fail #2, 3, 4 and a double dose of Rejection

I seriously think the shopping Gods are against me... I haven't had much luck lately! *insert sad face* Let's just say that Husband has no complaints about it!

Shopping fail #2 occurred Thursday night! I was uber excited for Sephora's Black Friday Sales! They had a whole bunch of great $12 deals... but limited quantities! The sale started at midnight (so 10pm for me) and I was at the computer and ready to buy up a storm! Picked out all my items (only one was sold out... so not too shabby at all) and then went to check out! I expected the site to be slow but Sephora's Canadian Checkout pretty much CRASHED! Boo for me! I sat there and refreshed for about an hour and then gave up! Of course all the goodies were gone by the time I got up in the morning! Lets just say there was a lot of hate-mail on the Sephora facebook page from the Canadians!

Shopping fail #3 happened on Friday morning! Monster and I had to go get some vaccinations (she did very well by the way), so we were already out and about. I figured since she was passed out from her shots I might as well take advantage and go shopping. I needed to make up for not buying anything the night before! I was ready to hit up Carters and buy the monster some new things! Carters emailed me and told me that the whole store was 50% off! LIES!! Only 20% off in Canada! Seriously, I'm getting annoyed!

Shopping fail #4 should have almost been expected! New neighbour and I hit up the craft show in St. Albert where all the hipsters and cool kids go on a Friday night. I was expecting to find all these super cool, one-of-a-kind, locally made, organic, hippy things! BOO, it was a big disappointment!  It took us about 10mins to browse through the whole place! They didn't even have mini-donuts! Don't those type of things always have mini-donuts? No cool things and no mini-donuts!! I guess Hipster craft shows don't have mini-donuts, so they are not for me! Neighbour bought a $10 chocolate bar, I bought NOTHING!! Man, I just want to spend some money!!

So after our awesome 10 whole minutes of shopping, we were hungry and needed food! There was this awesome restaurant there with a glass roof offering a 3 course meal under the stars! Haha was new neighbour and I going to have a romantic dinner under the stars? We inquired what was on the menu and it sounded drool worthy, so what the hey, why not! Stupid restaurant enticed us and then tells us that we would have to wait at least another hour to be seated!! Are you kidding me? Rejected!!!

We decided to head back to our hood and check out the new restaurant (Nineteen) that just opened! So after getting lost in St. Albert, we make it back to the hood and are seriously starving! Apparently peeps in our hood are much smarter and make reservations on a Friday Night! No tables available and not even any space to stand in the lounge! For reals? Rejected again!!

So after being rejected from two fancy restaurants, where on earth were we going to have our romantic dinner? New neighbour and I ended up at super classy... Edo!! Haha good times!!

Free feels good!

Anyone like freebies as much as I do? I doubt it...
I like free, but I don't like signing my life away, or "liking" every damn page or entering some dinky contest, or working hard to get it... or else it isn't "free" anymore!
Here is a freebie that may interest the Moms (and Dads) out there!

Johnson and Johnson want you to buy their products so they are always giving away freebies! Simply fill out this form and under "comment or question" type in "request for new parent pack". Easy Peasy!
Then in a couple weeks they will send you a coupon in the mail! SWEET!

City & Yules

Those of you who don't have little ones... ENJOY IT!! Life once you have a kid is not the same and will never ever be the same! I've been waiting for things to go back to normal around here and am slowly coming to the realization that THIS is the new normal! So, go ahead and be super selfish, have lots of ME time and let your schedule revolve around YOU!
For those of you that do have little ones... ENJOY IT!! I can't believe how much the monster has grown and has grown on me! Kids really do grow up too fast, so treasure every moment!

 

Like I mentioned before, taking the monster out is lots of work and coordination, so I prefer to leave her at home! No one really wants to drag a baby out in Edmonton weather anyways! I think I've only taken Yules out alone ONCE!! Haha! It's much easier with Husband around to help.
Unfortunately, I won't have much of a life and Yules won't have much of a childhood if we stay home all the time! So where can we go? What is there to do with a baby?

City and Baby to the rescue! This website encourages parents to get out of the house by listing events and activities each week for you to do with your child! Pretty sweet website that does all the research for you! So get out and go do something (I'll join you... one of these days *sigh*)!

Less is More

So I saw this pic floating around Pinterest... What do you guys think of it?

paloma81.blogspot.ca

 

Wowzers... Can you say OVERSTYLIZED? Seriously, it is like someone went ADHD on this room and couldn't stop! I love many of the trendy things in this room... like the ikat and chevron pillows, patterned wallpaper, round mirror, open bookshelves, animal skin rug and *ahem* black door! But it really is too much of a good thing! Know when to stop people... sometimes (most of the time) less is more!!

Comments

Hiyah Pals!
It's been a busy weekend... so no time to post! Hopefully you were all out having fun too and not waiting by the computer for a super awesome post from me!! Haha! Anyways, a few of you mentioned that you weren't able to comment without an account! I've changed the settings so that anyone can comment! So please comment away! I would love to hear what you have to say!!

Cute or creepy?

I picked up this little guy on the weekend for Yulli's room.

Kalbi gave him a good sniff and didn't eat him! Husband thinks he looks scary! I think he is cute in a sad Eeyore kinda way! What do you peeps think?

The Monster at the end of this book

the MONSTER at the end of this Book: starring LOVABLE, FURRY OLD GROVER

Yulli's pick this week is an oldie but goodie (written in 1971). It is the best-selling Sesame Street title and one of the top 100 picture books ever! This book is apparently meant to teach children to read a book from beginning to end! But Yules and I like it just cause....

 

So the gist of this book is Grover is afraid of the monster at the end of the book as indicated by the title. He begs and tries to prevent you from turning the pages! By the end of the book, he realizes that HE is the monster that the title is referring to.

 

You can watch this book here and there is a really good interactive ipad app available as well. It's amazing to see how much children enjoy this book, even after they've read it and know how it ends. I'm not surprised though, because this book still brings a smile to my face everytime I read it!

 

The most wonderful time of the year...

Today is the day after Remembrance Day (well actually the day after Remembrance Day Holiday Monday if you want to be technical)! Do you guys know what that means? It means that they play Christmas music 24/7 non-stop on the radio! It means that you can legitimately start decorating for Christmas! Yippee!!

Here are a couple pics of the foyer that I got started on! Happy decorating folks!

Black is back!

I was chatting with a friend this weekend and she mentioned that she was having her interior doors painted BLACK!! Ooooooo I love it! If you know me, then you know I pretty much only wear black!  Black goes with everything... except orange... that only works during Halloween! But black on doors? Hmmm... is that idea too radical? Black doors is actually nothing new. Apparently back in the day, doors were ordered to be painted black when Queen Victoria was mourning the death of Prince Albert! So you may see it on many traditional looking homes.

benjaminmoore.com

So pretty right? Black is back and it really is making a comeback as one of the hot new trends in home decor!

Typically you see black on exterior front doors!

rhondaepeterson.blogspot.ca

 

houzz.com

 

houzz.com

But what I am really excited about is black on interior doors! It can really add some depth to your space and spruce things up. My recommendation is painting the side of the door that faces the hallway or common areas. Black doesn't always work inside a room, especially if it is inside a child's room!

pinkwallpaper.blogspot.com

 

houzz.com

 

dgstyleblog.blogspot.com

 

awelldressedhome.com

 

This chick even painted the door from her garage black! What a great idea! If you really think about, it is the door that you probably use the most often, so why not make it fancy!

 

justagirlblog.com

 

Tell me these doors don't look good!! I would totally paint my interior doors black, but it just really doesn't go with the aesthetics of our home! So if you want a change, consider painting your doors black!



Shopping EPIC FAIL!

I've really started to feel the cabin fever set in this week! So I was determined to leave the house today and get a jump start on Christmas shopping! Husband could watch Kalbs and Yules and I could have FREEDOM!! Shopping with a baby in tow is just not the same! You either make decisions really quick and buy or you just don't buy! There is no leisurely walking up and down the aisles or digging through racks! Babies remove all joy from shopping! So if you can, I recommend leaving them at home!

I had the very good intention of waking up bright and early because we all know the early bird gets the worm and in this case SALES!! Well... so much for good intentions! Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE to sleep and waking up early is not my thing! Husband had strict orders to wake me up early, but husband also knows that if he tries too hard to wake me up, it may result in getting punched in the face! So needless to say I did not wake up early as planned!

By mid afternoon, I of course was still not ready and was contemplating whether or not to leave the house! I finally decided not to waste the day away and go out! Better late than never right? I'll brush my teeth, change out of my pajamas, put on make-up and maybe even comb my hair! Oh how a baby changes your life!

I clearly picked the BEST day to go out too! There is a billion cm of snow outside and the roads are super slick! I was also headed to dreaded South Edmonton Common! Plus it's Saturday and a long weekend! You only head there on a Saturday if you're seriously crazy or need some stress in your life! But nonetheless, I was determined to go! I wasn't going to pass up an additional 30% off at Banana!

So I finally leave the house and the roads and traffic aren't too shabby! I get to Banana and I even get prime parking! I was able to take my dear time browsing around. It felt GREAT, not being rushed or worrying if the kid was going to wake up! I wasn't even annoyed that the line up was insanely long! Things were looking up! That is until I went to pay! Low and behold, guess who forgets their wallet in the diaper bag? ME!! EPIC FAIL!!
So I guess my tip of the day is: Don't forget your wallet, you need money if you're going to go shopping!!

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Want to add some style and depth to your space? Mirrors can help brighten, expand, enhance, reflect, illuminate ... ya-de-ya-de-ya blah-blah-blah! We all know that a mirror can make your space AWESOMO!

Well I wanted a GIGANTIC awesomo mirror in our foyer. I could admire how good (or terrible) I looked before leaving the house or see if I looked half presentable before answering the door! Plus I totally had the perfect spot for it! Check out these inspiration pics!

 thecubaninmycoffee.blogspot.ca

 

Holy hotness right?? But how on earth was I going to lug a giant mirror in my little car? (although I have done it before) Where was I going to find a mirror that big? And would I be willing to shell out the big bucks for a mirror like that? Probably not!! BooHoo (insert sad face)!

Well anyways, one day while browsing Pinterest, I found this:

 theidearoom.net

 

It was a DIY project about turning a builder basic mirror into a fabulous framed one by simply adding trim! Oh-la-la sounds simple enough and looks super good! I totally wanted that in our ensuite! Check out this inspiration pic!

 

theenchantedhome.blogspot.com



Yup, we had to have a giant framed mirror in the bathroom!  The builder said it wouldn't be a problem; pretty much just the additional cost of trim! Sweetness!

And then it occured to me (ding-ding-ding)... Why couldn't I get the builder to build me a giant mirror in the foyer as well? It could be mounted to the wall because I know I would never move something so beasty and I don't have to worry about it falling over and landing on the dog! OMG I am seriously brilliant! Builder basic mirror and trim equals way cheaper and way more convenient than searching for and buying the perfect mirror! Here's how it turned out!

Looks a little bare and sad right now, but stay tuned! This foyer will be getting a holiday make-over next week!

Self-cleaning Toilets (wishful-thinking)

Anyone building or renovating a bathroom? Well here is something to consider!

If you aren't fortunate to have a maid clean your bathroom and you have to do it yourself like me (first world problems), then you know that it isn't exactly the most desirable task! Cleaning toilets is the worst ICK!!

Besides cleaning the actual toilet, the small space behind the toilet is even worse! You have to get down on your hands and knees and there is all that gross dust that has accumulated there. Admit it, when was the last time you actually cleaned behind there? Hmmm... I thought so. And then there is the awkward pipe shape thingy down there too... ewww! Why couldn't they just make streamline-shaped toilets that go right to the wall? Oh wait-a-minute... they do!!! Check out the toilets we picked for our home!

No need to clean weird pipe shape or small space behind the toilet! SWEET! (Oh the little things that bring joy to my life!)

You can be even more fancy and have a wall mounted toilet! Check out this beauty in our powder room! I never thought I would be referring to a toilet as a beauty... but it sure is one!

 

BEWARE if you want a toilet like this though! This thing has seriously been the bane of our existence! This beast is built into the wall, so you will need mega structural support. A re-framed wall x2, re-plumbing x2, re-drywall-mudding-taping, re-paint, 3 toilets (plumber broke one and the other was the wrong one) and many months later... this is what you get! But seriously look how sexy it looks! Worth the hastle for sure! I'll post pics of the powder room once I've "stylized" it!

So if you have the luxury of picking out new toilets, keep these things in mind! Soft close lid/seats are a nice bonus too!!

"Fancy" Rugs

Here is my tip of the day!

 

Before buying furniture or an area rug, tape it out on the floor! That way you will know it fits. It will also help you visualize it in the space! There is nothing worse than ordering a piece of furniture, waiting for it to come in, lugging it all the way home... only to realize that it is too big or too small! Tape costs a buck, wrong-sized furniture is way more costly! Sounds like common sense... but really how many of us have actually done it?

We are in the market for a couple arm chairs and an area rug... so taking my own advice, I mapped it out on the floor using tape! Did you know that carpet stores can bind carpet into a rug in any size you want? That way you can have a custom rug that fits perfectly in your space. Remember how I said that custom equals fancy!! Haha and fancy isn't even that expensive. It only costs about a dollar something per linear foot for carpet binding! Best thing is that these carpet stores will let you bring home these colour boards! Then you can see how the colour looks in your space and in different lighting! Showroom lighting is not so great! You can even order a larger sample if you really have trouble deciding! They can even create circular rugs!! Hmmm... maybe Yules needs a cute pink shag rug in her room!

The Pout Pout Fish

I love books, especially children's books... maybe because the comprehension is more at my level haha!! Anyways, I often get asked to recommend some good books for kids. Most of us are familiar with the classic ones, but there are so many new ones that are gooders! So I thought that I would share some of Yulli's favourites!

Yulli's book of the week (and I use the term "week" loosely, as I'm not sure there will be one each week) is THE POUT POUT FISH by Deborah Diesen.

This picture book written in rhyme is about a cute little fish with a pouty face! He thinks that he is destined to be glum and sad all the time because his lips are pouty! He swims around the ocean meeting other ocean creatures that tell him to cheer up and to stop being such a downer. To which he replies that he can't because he is a pout-pout fish! Then all of a sudden this beautiful girl fish swims up and kisses him! He then realizes that he isn't a pout-pout fish at all but in fact a kiss-kiss fish! Then he swims around and kisses everyone!!

I think it is totally adorbs! Yulli had no comment! And Husband thinks that the girl fish is a skank! Bahaha!

Word Cloud Art

Did you notice the super awesome picture of a giraffe in Yulli's room? It is actually a word cloud in the shape of a giraffe! I customized it by picking all the words and color combinations etc. I did this using a nifty little program called Tagxedo!!

Tagxedo is super awesome and FREE which makes it the best thing ever! It is a little confusing to figure out at first, but once you play around with it a bit, it's pretty straightforward. There are many options and lots you can do with the program, but I just wanted to create cute wall art so I didn't dive in too deep!

Once you've created your picture, simple save it and print. I chose to send it to an online photoshop (like Black's or Walmart) to have it printed on photopaper. I think it makes it look a little less homemade!!! Homemade doesn't have to look homemade! Slap this puppy in a frame and ta-da you have custom art!!

Here is one that I made for Kalbster! It's in the shape of a bulldog!!

Did I mention that Tagxedo is FREE! Yuppers, FREE baby! So for a few bucks (price of the print and frame) you can create some super cute custom artwork too! Custom equals FANCY!! Cheap, easy and fancy... what more can you ask for? Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?? LOL

"Painted" Wall Stripes

I've been ooohing and aaahing over painted wall stripes and knew I wanted them somewhere in our new home! I decided that the nursery was just the right place, especially after drooling over these gorgeous inspiration pics I found on Pinterest!

NewArrivalsInc

ApartmentTherapy

 

BuyModernBaby

 

Oooh aaah, super cute right? Only question now, was if I was actually brave enough to do it! I watched and read a billion tutorials on how to do it right... I mean how hard can it be? It's paint, tape and straight lines... nothing fancy... what could go wrong? Well if you have ever used tape and paint you know what you end up with looks nice from far but far from nice! My OCD-ness would just die if I ended up with lines that looked like this!

Mommy Loves Coffee

Another thought that held me back was What if I hate it down the road? Is it going to be a real pain in the butt to change later on? I have real commitment issues when it comes to decor, color or anything too trendy! So after obsessing over it for a while... I decided to take the less-committal road and just put up a tree wall decal instead! :( Not quite what I had in mind but they look pretty cute too... just check out these nurseries!

Project Nursery

CheapChicNursery

And then I had a DING-DING-DING moment as I was looking for trees (rare but I do get these moments sometimes)! I could just put up wall decal stripes! Does such a thing exist? It must! Especially if they have all these other fancy decals, they must have something as simple as a stripe! So off I set on a mission to find out! Seriously what on earth did we do before google? Anyways, wall decal stripes DO exist and they exist in different colors and thicknesses! Oh the choices!! Of course I ended up choosing white... remember the commitment issues with color? I ordered them from here, but there are a few places that sell them (just google it)!

You would think that once they arrived in the mail, I would be uber excited to slap them on the wall. But I was also uber preggos and really didn't want to do much of anything! So they sat in the box for a good while until we realized we better get the nursery in order before the little monster decided to make her appearance! The stripes come 3 on a giant sheet which is super annoying. It makes it super difficult to apply one stripe while trying not to crinkle the other ones still on the sheet. Husband and I are pretty anal about things being perfect, so these stripes had to be really straight! I was very impressed with these wall decals because we probably peeled and re-adjusted the first stripe a gazillion times and had no problems. Once we got the first one on, the rest was easy peasy lemon squeezy!! Here is the finished project!

Check out the super crisp clean lines!! No paint bleeding here! Pretty sexy if I do say so myself!

 

No one has even noticed that these stripes are actually decals until I pointed it out! Best part is that they are removable AND reusable! How do you like them apples?