Sense of Satisfaction

Ok, ok, ok.....there was a lesson I learned while I was in school and I really think I need to apply it to everyday life as well. It goes like this: however long you think a task will take to complete, times it by 2 then add 30 minutes. The things I think I will get done tend to vary from the things that do get done simply due to time constraints...and that pesky sleep habit I have. We managed to get a bunch of stuff done this weekend, but not quite all the things I was hoping to. Since we are both DREADING finishing those doors we keep putting them off and soon it shall be December. Instead we cut the lawn, grocery shopped, cleaned bathrooms, replaced mailbox, updated our house number with some spray paint, hung mirror in downstairs bathroom, filmed part 1 of our engagement video, prepped Kitchen wall for painting, went for dinner with some awesome ladies on Fri and attempted to freezer shop. Oh and we also had a hot date at Boston Pizza. Not bad for a weekend! We learned something too- you can't just go out and buy a chest freezer...nooooo. You must pick one out, wait around for ages (see pic of Garret from Sunday) only to have them tell you it's out of stock. So then you drive all over Barrie to hear people tell you the same thing. Urgh!!! Finally found one but we can't pick it up til thursday--which was problematic as we were to get a big meat delivery Monday. Thankfully we were able to push that back a week! This also taught a valuable lesson about procrastination...as we nearly had 6 months of meat with no where to put it--bad news!
I'll leave you with a before and after.... Or you could call it the 20 min porch tweak.






Clearly we have a way to go on this porch re do!!!

Freezer shopping

Bedside Blogging

Am laying in bed but instead of sleeping in our weekend to do list is scrolling through my brain. As usual it is overly ambitious but hey...a girl can dream!

*make our engagement video ( this is getting done for sure as my friend is
Coming over with his video camera a bit later)
*Buy a chest freezer from Costco.(this has to happen as we have a large order of meat coming on Monday night)
*finish stripping the doors I started in June (blush)
*Paint wall in kitchen
*hand out block party invitations
*500 other things I will think of once G gets up and makes us coffee!!

Block Party

When we first moved in, we heard from
some neighbours that the lady who owned the house before the people we bought it from was lots of fun (ok that seemed complicated--hope we didn't lose anyone) She used to throw a party every year in the mega back yard and have neighbours over for a Pot luck BBQ. I loved that idea and G and I decided to bring it back! We are going to do this mid September and have a bocce ball/ horseshoe tournament/meet the new neighbours BBQ. Mum and I were feeling crafty the other weekend so we made some invitations:





This weekend I am going to add the where and when details and drop them off to the neighbours! We've met a few of them already but I'm looking forward to having them over to hang out in our backyard. Am just debating if I should buy Garret a kiss the cook/ grill master apron as he will be manning the grill.

I sense trouble coming....

Many a night before, Garret and I have firmly declared that we will not sleep in past 6am. We will get up and ready with time to spare! Coffee and breakfast will be made at home and we will leave in plenty of time for a stress free commute.

As the alarm begins to blare the next morning, we tend to snuggle up convincing ourselves and each other that snoozing is a far better option. We assure ourselves that we can get ready and leave the house in 7minutes flat. (this is a flat out lie...but we tell it to ourselves daily) Instead of a leisurely morning routine there we are fighting for prime real-estate--the upstairs bathroom mirror. We inevitably leave something behind remembering it as we close in on the city. Items forgotten include: sunglasses, cell phone, lunches, and one memorable morning: one contact lens!
This has all been happening in the spring and summer months. Mornings where at 6 or even before, the sun has started shining in our windows, rays creeping across the pillow causing me to bury my head further into blankets. Fall is approaching! This morning I noticed it was still dark when we finally raced out of bed. This is going to be problematic as the days get shorter and we can find better reasons to keep hibernating in our bed. Maybe I should inquire about the possibilities of working from home a few days a week. Surely no one would know I was answering emails and phone calls from
bed?!

Best laid plans

We had decided that Sunday would be it--the day we finally got around to finishing some of our to do list (frankly at this point I would be happy with starting it!!!!) However we both had a little bit too much fun on Saturday night at a family wedding. The bride looked beautiful and everything was lovely. There were a few drinks, midnight pizza and poutine, a late night dance party, and G, Elliott and Taylor had a 3am swim! (I missed out on that as I went to bed at 2am like the sensible gal I am haha)
I will post some photos as there were a few classic moments for sure--- but I only have 1 on my phone:



My Nanny hit the dance floor and we rocked out to Justin Biebers "Baby" before she retired to drink some beer and people watch.

So Sunday was spent being lazy and eating grilled cheese sandwiches perfectly grilled by my mum. We had ice cream cake for Ashley's birthday and several naps. Nothing got done but it was SO worth it!

***Some additional glimpses of the night:

[slideshow]

New addition to the family

Freedom is:



That's right ladies and gentlemen....I bought a car. It is by no means a new car. In fact by vehicle standards it would be considered elderly. But, it runs, it was inexpensive and most importantly it's MINE! I have learned over the years through sharing a car with my brother, then much later with G, that sharing a car is a fallacy. The vehicle most definitely belongs to one person and the other person is just allowed to use it on (rare) occasions. I'm excited to be able to have some more freedom and no longer rely on G, my mum and public transit like I was a teenager.
Drum roll please.....



Isn't it beautiful? G and I were throwing names around last night. I suggested Burt while he thought Sally Jesse Raphael (SJ) for short was a good option.(Garret is creative and weird and that is why I love him folks) Any other suggestions for names?

Quick jobs are never quick

As I mentioned a few posts back, my cousins gave G and I a West Elm gift card (aka heaven in plastic form) as a housewarming present.  We spent AGES trying to decide what we wanted and we finally ended up buying these lights to put in our dining room:

[caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="pretty snazzy light fixture"][/caption]

We got three of them which are going to look fantastic hanging over our table and will definitely be a welcome change from the Ikea track lighting that is currently there.  The problem we are having is with the lighting plate.

This is what each of the three lights came with:

[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cover Piece"][/caption]

What we want is one of those with three holes in it to hang the three lights.  The man at West Elm assured us that we could buy that easily and we would be off to the races with our light....not so much.  Yesterday we finally got around to dealing with this and skipped off to Lowes to buy the piece so we could hang out light.  No luck there. Then we headed to Rona, and found out that this isn't something that the average store sells.  (hurrah!/also SUCH our luck)  The lighting department guy was trying to tell us we needed to buy a whole new light fixture (for instance a pendant with three hanging lights) and just replace with ours.  So this tiny easy to buy cover piece is starting to seem like it will cost us $100!  Which is crazy!!!! So we are going to google some specialized lighting places in Barrie in the hopes that a store like that might sell them.  Because it seems crazy to me that we would need to buy a whole new lightfixture when all we want is the plate part!

House warmed

Our friend Alaleh gave us a super cute house warming present this weekend:





Absolutely stunning plates from Urban Outfitters! I think they are so awesome...I need to have another couple over to dinner soon so I can use these for either dessert or side plates. They will look really cool with our white dishes and serving plates. Maybe I can convince G we "need" a new black tablecloth. How funky would that look!

Before and after (or: yes I love shoes)

I have complained before about a lack of closet space and this is the area that bothers me the most--no front hall cupboard. Until such a time when we can make the back room our mud room, (likely1-2 years from now) our front door remains the main entrance. As much as we tried to make neat piles of shoes (and G even banished a few pairs of mine to the basement!!!!) this always looked like a cluttered area and it made me nuts. One quick trip to Costco and problem solved:





Granted a shoe rack in the dining room isn't exactly a high point for design, but at least it's cute and tidy.

My mother is always right

I somewhat hate to admit this...but my mother is ALWAYS right. I used to try to fight it but over the years I have come to just accept it. She would tell me to bring a jacket, and I would say I'm not cold. Inevitably 30minutes later I would be freezing...I could go on and on citing examples but I'll get to the point of this post (but trust me the list of examples is endless)
Those of you who know me, or I should say knew what my bedroom looked like when I was growing up, could comment on my untidiness. In fact those who know my mum's obsessive tidy gene might question how I am her daughter. We would have countless "discussions" over the years about the need to have a clean bedroom. My argument was always that it took too long and that it would just get dirty again (excellent argument young Julia!!!) Over and over Mum would repeat her mantra "maintenance!!!!" if you do a little each day then it's never a big job. To which I would scoff as I put away my laundry by throwing it on the floor.....
Fast forward a few years to now. SHE WAS RIGHT!!! (And side note it is way more difficult keeping a house and yard clean than it was just my bedroom, or Garret and my teensy apartment!)
We have been away the past few weekends and going to the gym a few evenings a week which leaves minimal time for a big cleanup. So we had a chat last night about how to best keep stuff organized and you will never guess what we decided....new mantra for the ShWalsh family "maintenance"!
We are going to make a list each week with jobs on it so that we can make sure we are tackling more than just the kitchen and laundry. (and those two things sure pile up quickly too) I wonder how everyone else makes time?! Any pointers? (aside from "always listen to your mother")

Thumbs up

My brother is notorious for giving the thumbs up to everything in photos....be It movie tickets or his Wendy's burger. The other afternoon I introduced Nanny to Palm Bay and had her pose for a picture we could send to Taylor:





I should have got an "after" shot as well... She did not so much like the smooth smooth taste of palm bay, and she traded it in for a bud light lime instead!