Things I am loving.....

1. I love art time. I never thought I would say that but it is becoming more enjoyable each time.

2.  I love this cake recipe. It is moist, delicious and disappears in minutes of being made. There is only 1 cup of flour and lots of carrot and pineapple......mmmmmm. (If anyone would like the receipe please feel free to email me.)  

3.  Summer parades....

4.  Tacky but fun games nights with the girls...

5.  Practing ball in the yard with two very eager ball players...

                                   

6.  Lazy Summer 'nights' down at the river .....

                                     

                                                                 

What are you loving right now?

Tim-berrrrrrrr

I love trees. I think our world is so much the lesser for not having more trees and it makes me angry and sad to see trees being cut down unnecessarily. So you can imagine my dismay when we had to come to the decision to cut down one of the trees in our yard. We had discussed it at length and we really couldn't see any other option. It was VERY overgrown with the base of the trunk splitting into about 8 smaller tree trunks. All of the growth inside the tree was dead and huge fire danger. It was also planted far too close to the house. This is the best photo I could find of it (it's the large one on the left taken in the fall when the renters were still here).

So my amazing husband set to work to trim as much of the tree back as he could safely do on his own, which made it look like this:

He had a mate come to help with the last 3 'trees'. They secured a line to ensure the tree fell in the correct way (namely not in the direction of our newly renovated home!)

So while one 'pulled' the line, the other cut and............

Down went the first one......

Down went the second one......

And there goes the last one. Then the real work began with the chain saw cutting up the felled trees for firewood.

And during all the excitement the kids only watching for the first few minutes and then they disappeared around the back to their new favourite place. Ahhhh....I love our new house.

Our front room

I wanted to share our front room next as it is a part of our kitchen area, one big room. I love the open concept and it doesn't really get more 'open' than this!

So, this is the original room:

The little doorway is the separate 'guest' entrance which we converted into an office, but more on that later!

During the renovation process:

Painting the newly sheeted walls:

When we moved in we had no where to store the kitchen cupboards so into the front room they sat for 2 weeks!

And now.......

I love this little children's corner we created. Eventually when downstairs is renovated all the boys toys etc will go down there, but until then this is where the creativity will hopefully happen.

We are still waiting for the moldings to arrive. Who knew such a simple thing could take so long. I am really happy with how things have turned out in this space though. It really feels cosy whilst still be open. It is a wonderful place for our family to spread their wings without being on top of one another. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Next I promise we will head into the bathroom. Looking forward to it!

Kitchen

Hello!!! I apologise for being away from this space for so long now. It has been a stressful but rewarding road and I needed to just be. I am so happy to be back and I have so much to share with you all. So as not to overwhelm myself or you guys, I am going to break the renovation pictures down room by room and share a little each time. I thought I would start with the kitchen as it is the heart of our home.

To go back and set the scene, this is what the kitchen looked like at the beginning:

And mid way through the construction:

And now.........

We still have lots of work to do but it is starting to really come together. We still have mouldings to put up, a pantry to build and an island to replace our camp kitchen island! We are planning on painting the kitchen cupboards a creamy colour but for now, I really like the wood. It clashes with the flooring a little but each day I notice it less and less. I love the open feel and think it is going to be a great place to entertain and hang out as a family.

So that's all I have for you right now. I will maybe move into the bathroom next time! See you then.

Birthday fun

I had a pretty relaxed birthday this year. However, this was the scene on Saturday afternoon amidst some celebrations - talk about special!

Our dear friends were here visiting from Vancouver which made it even more special. I don't believe that I have ever seen a full, perfect rainbow before and I was mad I couldn't get it all in the shot. This is the best I could do!!

As Sam and I have only a few days between our birthdays we decided to have the family dinner for his birthday. Sam loves his family, especially his beautiful cousins. He had a blast and is asking if it is still his birthday some 4 or 5 days later!!

And look how big our littlest niece is getting! The beautiful Iris......

Kevin has a new love. Not that Buddy could ever lose out to this little yapper, but Bill certainly holds a dear place in Kevin's heart. Totally amusing for all of us that know Kevin well (he is soooo not a little dog kind guy!!)

Fun at home

Sometimes when I get busy and distracted with all this house stuff, the boys get lost in their imagination and I still marvel at the things they come up with. I love every stage that the kids go through but Sam is at a particularly fun one. He is learning to play on his own and learning how to play with other kids. What are you children doing right now?

House update

Welcome to the boys new bedroom! All sheeted, painted and with a door!!! Yippeeeee...it is very exciting. All the walls are now sheeted and mudded and ready for painting.

This is the laundry....

The doors to the bathroom...

The office, lounge and kitchen are already painted and lights are connected and up!

Still no kitchen cabinets yet though. Waiting on the counter top still. However something very exciting arrived yesterday.....

The flooring!!!!!!!!!! Now it has to sit for a week or two to acclimatise. Doesn't it look beautiful?

And amongst all this excitement we took the kids to see 'How to Train a Dragon', and coloured eggs for Easter. I searched all through my cupboard and the grocery store but could only come up with green and blue food colouring. My lovely S.I.L suggested we try some natural alternatives and boiled some beets and carrots. They didn't work as well on the eggs as we had hoped but I bet they would be awesome on fabric. Happy Easter to you all.