Channeling my inner Martha

Last Saturday my mum and I spent some time canning. G was at a bachelor party so I wanted to show him just how much fun he was missing ;) I have started feeling a big sense of accomplishment in the past few years when I tackle a successful kitchenesque project...So I thought I would delve a little deeper into the land of mason jars and preservatives! We aren't a huge jam family so we decided to start with spicy pickled beans (the perfect accompaniment to any caesar or bloody Mary)






They look quite lovely but we have 2 weeks until the taste test will let us know for sure! We have started a list of everything else we want to can this year (while I am a newbie my mum has definitely done this before) We are going to do sweet peppers, pickled onions, dill pickles and an antipasti type of veggie. Is it super nerdly that I can't wait to see jars lined up in my basement so I can pretend to be Laura Ingalls?
Or I guess I could just say It never hurts to be prepared.... You know, just in case?

What we have been up to

Not much! The heat has put a bit of a damper on our DIY spirit. The only cool room in the house is our bedroom so we have been setting a bit of a record with going to bed early! Last night we could still hear the neighbour's kids playing outside as we were snuggling up. 9pm!!! We had a bit of a laugh realizing we were off to bed before a 10 year old but we need our beauty rest!

I do have a few pics to post of the beautiful birthday present my mum bought me:



We are planning on hanging it on that wall at some point, but due to how heavy it is that will probably become a weekend job (as we learned hanging the TV lathe and plaster requires a lot of prep work!)
I've been really enjoying having it in the entry way, it snazzes things up, and we have been using dry erase markers to leave reminders or other notes:

Kells Garden Centre

We got a wag jag for a deal at a garden center in Innisfil. We headed over this morning to check it out and came home with a bunch of grasses:





We are going to plant them along the fence or front of the house. Add some interest to the front of the house! This picture reminds me that we need to do something with our recycling bins! Not what I want people to see when they look at our porch.

Home Grown

Garret just made us bruschetta pasta salad for dinner with our own herbs. Very satisfying to know all that watering and care has come to delicious good use!

Date night

Garret and I are planning a big night out in the city next week! Dinner at our fave sushi restaurant Sushi Couture and some home furnishing shopping!!!! My extremely generous cousins completely spoiled us with the best housewarming present!!! A gift card to one of my fave stores- West Elm (swoon) I am going to have my hands full convincing G that we need a lot of the items I have already checked out online. What I view as gorgeous additions to the ShWalsh household he tends to view as clutter!! I have tried reminding him that I went to design school and am therefore more knowledgable about these things but he hasn't fallen for that yet :( I will definitely post pictures from west elm and note the items we agree upon.
So far on my radar are the following:

* amazing graphic pillowcase the blowfish one is particularly fab
* oversized serving tray to put on our ottoman
* hammered metal serving dishes
* white glossy owl salt/pepper shakers
* pretty much everything else in the store!!!

Birthday loving. The Home edition

Look at this delightful fellow who shall soon grace our garden!! G does love our garden after all. My brother asked for some birthday present guidance so G told him I wanted a garden dweller. I am looking for somewhere cute in my garden to tuck him. I pulled out so many weeds and plants the other week I won't be able to hide him very well though.
Thanks Elliott I love him!

With a sigh of utter delight

...I can happily tell you that our back room is no longer the depository for all that has no home/belongs outside! As I said the other day G has now loaded up the shed and the back room lay empty. Thanks to an amazing visionary in the family, (no I'm not tooting my own horn here!!!!) it has been transformed into gorgeous living space! I need to get off my butt and post pics from our good camera but in the meantime please accept some iPhone visual stylings:







We are referring to it as the Back room lounge.... It will be where we retire for our after dinner cocktails! We've discussed putting the hammock in there once the snow falls too! It's amazing to have more living space. Note the doors I have yet to finish sanding (gulp) as decor. We LOVE IT! Next step is painting the floors to complete the cottagey feel.

Birthday loving. The Office edition

Alaleh just came back after taking me to a yummy thai lunch with these awesome balloons.....I feel like I am 10 but I love it!!!

The weekend in pictures

:::

We hung in the hammock with our fave babycakes, went to rib fest, ate a metric ton of ribs, then ate some more ribs, I wore a white shirt -not smart(and obvs was covered in sauce after my first rib), Erin made me cupcakes to commemorate my second annual 29th birthday.  We also had a dance party and a few other things with photos that flatter no one so I shall allow you to use your imagination....All in all a phenomenal weekend. 

In house related news, G got some locks put on the shed and he loaded it up with all our random items that were taking space in the backroom (and the dining room...drill press cough cough)  Pictures to follow of our awesome back room space!

And on a Wednesday we rested...sort of

Last night on the ride home we decided that we were going to do no work on the house, instead we would just head straight home and do have some quality time with the hammock.  However once we hit Barrie we began to discuss the mosquito problem and how that would hinder our enjoyment of said hammock. So we made a quick stop at our home away from home: Lowes.

[caption id="attachment_117" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="I got distracted in the garden centre and tried to convince G that this guy had to come home with us.  He didnt agree. G also vetoed a mushroom, several versions of the noble gnome and a stone giraffe. Obviously G  hates our garden!"][/caption]

 We bought 5 tiki torches, got home and loaded them up with citronella.  I am not sure if it was the citronella or the power of positive thinking, but I can happily report that I didn't get any bug bites!  woohoo!  Now we just need to buy about 35 more torches so we can cover our back yard with them.

[caption id="attachment_118" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Hammock + no Mosquitos = amazing"][/caption]

 

I had the most fun when we went in for the night.  I snuffed them out and told G that the tribe had spoken. I do enjoy throwing obnoxious culture references into our every day lives...no wonder he loves me so much!

 

The best part of the night was to come home to this sight:

 

*insert heavenly chorus of angels here

Kevin finished the shed!!!! He was going to just finish a few things on the roof yesterday when we left for work but he finished the door as well! We are both so excited that one of our first big projects are finished!  Granted it won't stay pressure treated blue, we are planning on painting it out a bit to match the house, but for now, it is done and ready to accept tools, bikes, lawnmowers and all other random outdoorsy stuff that is currently residing within the house.  Garret is going to put the lock on it tonight and then Sat morning its moving time!

 

 

 

 

 

We really need to get this done

For I feel that a reflection of yourself on the toilet is somewhat disconcerting to those visiting us. Thoughts?

Reflecting on the long weekend

We didn't manage to tackle my insanely long to-do list but we definitely got a pile of stuff done. Garret and his dad didn't finish the shed but got the roof on and hung the door frames. That was the big job on Friday. Garret was on the roof, (i was only mildly panicked) and i was in the garden for 5 hours ripping up the random undergrowth and trimming out of control bushes! Garret and our neighbours also spent a whole day working on a fence between the properties. They wanted to build fences in order to keep their dogs in, but once they finished we still found a few spots that little Wendy can squeeze through! (she's our favorite so I want her to still visit!). I started stripping/sanding the paint off the old doors which took an eternity. They somehow cursed that paint to stay on the doors no matter what! So it wast quite the speedy job I envisioned but I managed to get most of it done. The plan is to work on those a little more this week and hopefully have at least the front door ready for when we have guests this weekend. Please scroll down for a pic of how lovely I looked in my sanding gear!!

We managed to go for a bike ride and to promenade days in Barrie so at least we managed to sneak some fun in there with all that hard work!

You can tell it's a mega shed...

Because Dodsy is standing in it somehow not making it look tiny!!!

After Dark. Or....guess what we bought today

High 5ing Friday night

Garret and Kevin got a lot of work done on the shed (pics to follow) and I gardened the heck out of the back 40. We took a break and went to Promenade days downtown Barrie with The Cass/Pollock/Carew family...and now we cheers our awesomeness in the hammock. (which will be the site of many future celebrations I can feel it)
Also we just discovered whilst in said hammock that we have a resident chipmunk. He has been christened Stanislaus and we shall soon try to tame him with peanuts!

Canada Day Weekend to-do list

-watch G and his Dad finish the shed (yay)
-load shed with all random things laying around the house (eg. Drill press out of the dining room woohoo)
-clean kitchen and bathroom
-whittle down the seemingly infinite pile of laundry that has accumulated this week
-finally hang snazzy mirror in downstairs bathroom
-spray paint rusty boat trailer so we aren't "those neighbours"
-cut the junglesque lawn (most definitely a G job)
-finish stripping and prepping the exterior doors
-weed the garden and destroy all infiltrators
-take photos of everything we have done so we/I can brag online
-spend some quality time in the hammock high five-ing ourselves on a job well done