Festivities

We carved pumpkins last night!!!! Well, more like Ashley and I carved pumpkins last night while G and my brother Elliott watched The Unit on the couch...their contribution was more so just putting a dent in our Halloween candy stash...but let's just pretend it was festive togetherness!

Evidence:

I had to open my big mouth...

Saturday evening we had our friend Regan over to help us install the ceiling fan in the living room (that had been sitting in a box since August!) It went pretty smoothly and looks awesome--I'd throw in a picture but I updated my phone since then and deleted all my pics oops!
Garret was manning the BBQ so I mentioned to Regan he could help me change the light out in the kitchen....you know, quick project while G finished dinner. He said "that will be a quick job no worries" he moved the ladder and got to work! About 3 minutes later he said that he had spoken too soon....and my heart sank. I have come to realize that no job in our house is a quick one! Turns out that the wires were super old and crappy and he wasn't comfortable hooking the light up to them. After freaking me out that he'd have to cut a giant hole in my wall and ceiling Regan and G did some sleuthing and made it work with just one small hole. Phew! I'm realizing that no matter how small/fast we think a job will be, we need to be sure to leave tons of time to do it.
I'll put up a pic of the new light later--I'm really happy with it (thankfully!!)

Special day for a special gal

Since July, my mum's best friend Barb and I have been doing some serious sneaking. Party planning sneaking that is! My Mum turned 60 this month and we really thought it would be great to throw a surprise party for her. After many email, text and phone call planning sessions, this past Saturday came and the party was a huge success! She was totally surprised and it was even better than I thought it would be. (tears, incessant giggles etc) Lots of friends and family, laughs, cake, delicious snacks and bevies. Lots of people helped make it run so smoothly. (Barb made a ton of food, opened her beautiful home as a venue and played hostess with the mostess, Renee made a beautiful cake and some delicious appies, Nicki brought a yummy spinach dip, my brother Taylor even made a bean salad...)  The party colours were black and pink so I got G to contribute by wearing his pink shirt.  He obviously loves me since he put up with some mild mannered ribbing from Uncle Dave regarding the pink shirt!  Anyway it was a lovely lovely day. Turns out I loooove throwing parties! I guess it didn't hurt that I love the guest of honour so much--made all the running around totally worth it.

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Nearly Ta-done

Phase 1 of Shwalsh kitchen renovation is complete! Last night G pulled a feat of strength and got the fridge out of the way. (I didn't take a photo of what we found when we moved the fridge...but it was several years of dirt--belch) So we now have a fancy black chalkboard wall in our kitchen which we LOVE.










Granted this would look more impressive if id waited til the fridge was put back to take the pic...or if I used our good camera and not my phone. But still...you get the jist. Now we just need to agree on a backsplash and change the lighting (we scored a sweet track/directional light from my mum), floor mat for the door....then I think we could call it quits in here. Oh...and a pot rack, I've got my shopping goggles on for just the right one. Then kitchen is done! And we will rock, paper, scissors to see if our bedroom or the front hall is the next project.