A couple of weekends ago, Adam and I went to pick up our latest Kijiji purchase - a crib. No, it's not to pamper the dog (pet cribs actually exist, I looked it up). We're having a baby!

via Pinterest (source unknown)

That's why it's been a little quieter than usual around here lately. I can honestly say I've never been more tired in my life (for awhile there, it was all I could do to stay awake for dinner). There are also a few projects I had planned that I couldn't do when I found out I was pregnant (like staining our interior doors). Luckily Adam has really stepped it up and he assures me that he'll stain the doors as soon as the basement's finished (we're at the trim painting stage, which I can totally help out with).


via apartmenttherapy.com

I'm a little more than 12 weeks along (we're having an August baby) and starting to get my energy back. My stomach is also feeling better - I was never throwing up, I just felt like I had a month and a half long hangover (you know, when you feel hungry but everything you eat makes you feel sick?). I also managed to faint on the bus on the way to work one day (hello, embarrassing), but I've been carrying a water bottle around since then and that seems to be working.

via DwellStudio

My sister-in-law and a friend have already loaned me a bunch of maternity clothes and books, so for now I'm focusing on the fun stuff, like daydreaming about our future nursery (which also helps me cope with the exciting but totally terrifying reality that I'm going to be responsible for a living, breathing human). Oh, and the crib is a future DIY project, so if you have any tips on crib painting (like what kind of paint is safe to use) please share!

I'm choosing a white kitchen I can have beautiful tea towels like these. Wouldn't they be that gorgeous pop of fun colour? Etsy Seller Helen Rawlinson makes these beautiful printed towels that would be oh so perfect in our home but I think that they would be equally as lovely turned into pillows. Anyhow, just some Etsy love for today. I'm much behind on e-mail replies and business picked up over last week - although juggling it all sometimes seems like too much, life has been making my heart feel heavy these days, and keeping busy is keeping me somewhat sane. I try to remember the wise words that my Father tells me, a quote from Winston Churchill - "KBO". And on that note, I sign off  and encourage you to do some retail therapy as I have been doing. ;)

Aubrey and I visited the AyA Kitchens showroom last week and worked with a designer to come up with a potential floor plan - and a potential quote. What I really appreciated was the designer input into the room plan, she mentioned a few things that we hadn't even really considered, and reaffirmed some design decisions that we had done. A few things we have decided, 1. White Cabinetry 2. Shaker Style Doors 3. White Subway Tile 4. We're going to do hardwood floor, continuing the floor from the hall.

The floor was a debate between Aubrey and I. I really wanted to maintain consistency through the house. And since it's a small house, breaking up the floor just visually broke up the house.

And so we wait to see if we can go custom, we'll source a few prices from others. Anyone do custom, and have any recommendations? Things you wish you had thought of?

Photo found on Pinterest, Source is Michael Roberts Construction

Last Thursday evening was the start to a very busy 24 hours.

1. Thursday, 5:00pm - Aubrey gets home from work and drives me downtown to the Intercontinental Hotel. There is something I adore about driving into the downtown at night. I love seeing big sky scrapers lit up against the night sky, people dressed up going to shows, shopping, leaving the big towers where they work on Bay Street. I get checked in, and got down to some final preparations for BlogPodium, which was being hosted in the adjoining conference centre the next morning. I unpack, and do some final prep. The room was beautiful, I am a sucker for hotel rooms. I love how everything has a place.

2. 8:00 pm I attended the Interior Design Show Gala with friends (can you spot some awesome bloggers in my midst?) 10:00 pm I ate dinner alone in the Hotel Restaurant. It was kind of weird, but strangely zen eating alone. It was some quiet time I definitely needed. By 110pm, I was back in my hotel room and by Midnight, asleep.

3. Friday, January 27th 6:00 am I wake up to three different alarms (I was so nervous I'd sleep through them all!) - I order room service and Shannon texts me at 7:30 to say she's arrived and is ready to come by to help bring things to our room.

4. 9:30 am BlogPodium was in full gear. Quite simply, it was AWESOME. I was absolutely thrilled at the reaction to the event. And equally excited at the reaction to the fact that our next conversation will be in May, and the topic is "The Business of Blogging" Fun times.

And then....the event ends, I chat unfortunately way too quickly with people, I go back to my hotel room, I have lunch with my brother Peter, who was on site helping us with BlogPodium, and then continue onto the Interior Design Show. By 3pm I was back home, in my own house ....

I'm still unwinding from the high of being around so many cool people. :)

After a week of working in Toronto and a weekend of visiting friends in Ottawa, I arrived home today to discover that a) my husband seriously got down to business in the basement while I was gone, and b) my Etsy pillow covers had arrived!

Yes, the coffee table desperately needs to be cleaned. It's on tomorrow's to-do list.

Quite lovely, no? I'll likely add another pillow or two (when I come across the right ones), but I love how these guys help tie the room together. Now I'm even more excited for my white canvas fabric to arrive so I can get started on a permanent slipcover for the chair - I'm envisioning contrasting black piping. Thoughts?

Oh, and I can't wait to share a basement update with you! Adam made a TON of progress while I was away and the transformation is pretty incredible.

So a few weeks ago I made a commitment to slow down on my sign making...

Looks like I made true on that eh?

I had to whip up this baby to add a new industrial touch to the boys bathroom.

A custom order was in store for Jennifer over at The Old Painted Cottage.

(You ever check her blog out? *swoon*)

A little something to spice up the empty shelves of my Etsy store.

Been hitting the coffee hard and decided to pay homage.

I saw a version of this on Pinterest and had to try it out.

I did make some changes though.

I have to give a shout out to my brother-in-law (who never reads this) for thinking of me and saving all this metal for me to doodle on.

(This one is headed to Classic Furniture in VA)

Made another one of these, this time on the back of a fried (burnt to a crisp) metal sign.

You can find it over yonder for sale as well.

I did not paint this one!

Just pulled it out of a trash pile and cleaned it up a bit.

Cool thing is, I love both sides!

Ahh, you do to?

You can own it here.

Made this one for another customer up in New Hampshire.

She ordered a smaller version of my original Ski Rental Sign.

As well as the Fresh Produce seen on my Signs Page at the top.

There are more to show, but either not quite done or just not ready to be shown.

Thanks to Jennifer for showing me off over at her place today!

If this is your first time here then welcome!

I promise I talk about more than signs.

Promise.

Jennifer and I spent 6 hours on Tuesday stuffing the most fabulous swag bags for BlogPodium. I'm pretty proud that this little idea that Jennifer and I had blossomed into what it is today - awesome bloggers attending, an amazing panel of experts, helpful sponsors, and a series of already planned talks for the upcoming year. What could be better than to meet up with your fellow bloggers, learn from experts, talk, collaborate and socialize.

I have to thank the Interior Design Show for hosting us, and Delta Faucets and OlioBoard for sponsoring the event. We couldn't do it without their support. I know that there was a massive waiting list because we sold out, but sign up here for our newsletter to be the first to know about the next event. And follow the hashtag #BlogPodium tomorrow to follow the conversation. It starts at 9am!

Anyhow, I'm going to sign off for the weekend because tomorrow is the big day, and I'll likely come home after it is done and sleep. :)

Anyone seen any Allstate commercials or signs?

When Mayhem strikes they are they for you!

Please excuse the cell phone pic. Oh, right. Flooded room. Who cares.

We don't have Allstate.

Or foundation insurance.

Stinks for us.

When we bought this house 2 years ago then there was no disclosure about flooding.

Our family room flooded 3 times within 3 months of moving in.

It has to be a lot of rain, which we got last night.

So now we need french drains put in around our house.

I love Mayhem (yuck).

To bad it has to hit us right in the pocketbook.

Trying to look on the bright side...

My family room floor gets a complete cleaning!

Probably won't matter after we tear up all the baseboards though:-(

Perhaps the walls will need some planking.

Just a thought.

Okay, I know I've driven some of you people crazy waiting to show the planking we did in our entry and one wall in our living room.

What can I say?

I'm a dabbler.

I start painting a sign...

...get distracted...

start painting a room...

Start writing a post...

Yeah, I get distracted easily.

Here she is though!

Completely not how it will be in a few days since I have yet to "style" anything.

I finally got to put my .50 cent light to good use.

Please excuse the fact that is crooked here.

Here is a before shot from a few years back.

BEFORE

I love how the new walls make my little coat hook thing look fabulous:-)

The ledge has yet to be addressed or dressed at all.

I have no idea what will be happening up there...

The dresser is on its way out as well.

It was borrowed and is being returned to its owner.

I liked it for the photo's though.

The trim is plain, out-of-the-can white from Home Depot.

(Behr)

The wall color is Sherwin Williams "Alabaster".

I had it color matched at HD as well in Behr paint.

The shade is from Home Depot and the bamboo rug was borrowed from the kitchen

and was here when we moved in.

Source: theletteredcottage.net via Jillian on Pinterest

This is the planks we used from Lowes.
LOVE them and would highly recommend for the price and ease of installing.

So there ya have it!
I will share more when I update the ledge and move the dresser out.

Happy Tuesday. I'm a little late to the game of Pinterest, partially due to the fact that I used Internet Explorer and it wouldn't let me use the site properly. Since transitioning to Google Chrome, I've now discovered the pure joy in the site. (And also, since downloading the iPhone App.) You'll likely see me pinning a lot at night, as I lie beside Oscar getting him to sleep, choosing a perfect oppertunity to sneak from the dark room and try to avoid the creaky floor spots that may wake him. Any recomendations on good people to follow? (You can follow me, if you would like here)
Ps., That photo is of my Dad and Me on our Father-Daughter trip to Las Vegas that he took me on. :)

I'm off to Toronto for work this week and I'll spend the weekend in Ottawa visiting a friend and her new baby girl. Adam tells me he'll have the basement painted by the time I get home, which I couldn't be more excited about. Every other project in our house is on hold until the basement is finished, so I can't wait for the painting to be done! As a reminder, our basement basically looks like this:

Unfortunately I didn't take any true 'before' photos, so picture a 70's man cave complete with half-stucco, half-wood paneled walls, a giant vinyl bar (maroon), lots of mirrors and no light. It was bad.

Now the paneling, stucco, mirrors and bar are gone, the exterior walls have been insulated, framed and drywalled, and we have more outlets and overhead lighting (don't let that one sentence fool you - it was A LOT of work). Because the 'den' is so small (and framing/insulating the walls cost us more space), we decided to lose the window and create a storage room. Here's a terribly-lit progress photo:

We're thinking about adding loads of shelving in here at some point, so getting rid of the window made sense. I convinced Adam to leave the ceiling unfinished and just paint it (we got rid of that fiberglass insulation though). I figure drywall is really heavy, I'm short and it's a storage room. In other words, the cost-benefit ratio isn't good. Painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls will help it blend in and adding some simple trim along the tops of the walls will help it look more 'finished' (we're thinking thin pine strips painted the same colour as the walls/ceiling). This beautiful artist's rendering of said trim gives you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Of course we're also going to paint the floors and add baseboard. Here's another terrible progress shot - this time of the 'rec room':

You can see there's one remaining section of gross stucco. Since this room will be Adam's teaching studio and rehearsal space, we're going to cover that section of wall with pegboard to create a storage area for headphones, microphones, cords, etc. (I've come across tons of great inspiration photos on Pinterest). We'll likely switch out those lights for something nicer too.


via

The ceiling in here is pretty low, but luckily much nicer looking than the storage room's, so the plan is to paint it the same colour as the walls. With everything the same colour, the wires and pipes will hopefully blend in and the whole room should feel more open and light than it would if we 'finished' the ceiling. We've chosen Behr's Premium Plus Ultra Interior Eggshell Enamel in Desert Springs (it's kind of a greeny-grey) for both rooms:

We like that it's a paint and primer in one, and that it's durable, scrubbable and mildew resistant. For the baseboard and trim, we're planning to use the same colour we've got upstairs (did I mention we already have the paint?) - Sico's Cotton Rag Paper:

Adam and his father have already added trim to the window (and created a nice ledge for a plant or two). We're planning to use similar trim around the doors and a wider version for the baseboard (we'll also fill those screw holes and paint the window for a seamless finish).

We're still researching floor paints, but we're thinking of a colour like Behr's Intellectual:

So that's the progress and the plan, and now we'll see how much Adam can get done while I'm away!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had a weekend of napping. Yes, I napped all weekend. You see Oscar can't fall asleep without one of us lying down beside him. (I've come to grips with it. It will change one day.) And this weekend I decided that after Oscar fell asleep, instead of sneaking out of the room to do laundry, clean up the house or work - I'd just stay in the room with him.  Some naps I'd fall asleep, others I'd lie beside him and play on my iPhone while he was nestled beside me. It was so perfect just stopping to have nap time. :) That was my weekend, and now we're back to running around like crazy. :)

A lot happened this past week. It was a little nuts, but that seems to be the theme around here.

• It has been busy with work, launching new products (see my business blog for some highlights) 
• We're gearing up for BlogPodim which is next Friday. I had lunch with Leigh Ann and Jennifer on Tuesday to go over the conversation. [Picture] 
• Oscar, Aubrey and I went to the Ontario Science Centre, which was sooo much fun. [Picture] I love that we have a yearly membership - I plan on going every week during this cold, yucky weather. 
• We bought a ottoman for our living room from Chair Table Lamp after seeing Kevin do a post about new products. We've been on the lookout for an ottoman for a long time and this was perfect. More on this next week. [Picture above]

Have a lovely weekend!

1/2/3/4/5

Technically my birthday is only a few weeks away, so here are a few things I've been coveting lately, in no particular order. What's on your wishlist these days?

Happy Friday!

So these days my living room is looking more like this...

My kitchen looks more like this...

(ugh, I try not to look)

And our bedroom is getting a tweaking...

(our bedroom gets tweaked quite frequently)

I bought some furniture that is getting redone so I look like a one armed paper hanger running around painting this and that and the other.

Got to admit that it is HARD to paint while holding an eight month old in one arm!

If you have put in a sign order then be assured I'm working on that too:-)

***

Speaking of sign (custom) orders...

I have come to the conclusion that I am not a miracle worker.

Hmmm, I may have already known that a long time ago.

Anyhoo...

I will only be taking custom orders on a very limited basis from now on.

You are always welcome to ask, but be prepared for a no or a "it will be about 6 months" ;-)

More updates soon with some pretty cool before and after photos!