The Wedding Quilt

One of my Mum's oldest friends is quite an accomplished quilter. She has been my inspiration...my quilting skills are NOWHERE near hers but I do hope one day to be able to sew some pieces are gorgeous as hers.  She made Garret and I beautiful quilt for our wedding gift and it was finished just before Christmas and we picked it up.  She has everyone pose with the quilts she makes them before she sends them to their new home--we had a lot of fun posing with ours

[caption id="attachment_1240" align="aligncenter" width="388"] With this quilt and our love we will stay warm![/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1241" align="aligncenter" width="388"] our fancy quilt pose[/caption]

It is so beautiful that we currently have it on our couch because G thought that not enough people would see if it we put it on our bed. We obviously have way more visitors to our living room than our bedroom ha ha.  It is hard to see in the pictures but the quilting was actually done with a variegated thread and it looks so amazing.  We received many truly special gifts for our wedding that we will cherish forever.  We are l so blessed to have so many people in our lives that love us and spoil us so much.

 

3 months down

3 months down and we are:

• Watching Sons of Anarchy and still loving in!


• Anticipating going to see The Hobbit


• Organizing our basement..I now have a craft nook...pics to follow


• Wrapping Christmas presents...finished shopping on Monday yay


• Loving receiving Christmas cards addressed to 'The Walsh Family'


• Training Brooklyn to stop peeing in the house


• Learning how to be good puppy parents


• Planning for some family style naps over Christmas


• Thinking about New Year Resolutions (I love the promise of a new year and a new start!)


• Counting down the sleeps til Christmas


• Listing the crafting I plan to get done over the break


• Slowing down to enjoy this time, right now, that we have together

Contest #6-Sears Celebrate and Win

go here

Contest #5- Finish Canada Bosch Dishwasher

Like Finish Canada on Facebook or check out here to enter (closes midnight tonight)

final countdown for Christmas

This is one of my favourite weeks each year.  So much anticipation, and now that we are done our Christmas shopping no stress (well let's just leave it at minimal stress)  Work is quiet since many people have taken the last half of the week off so we are doing a lot of housekeeping/paperwork stuff so that we can start off 2013 with clean desks and organized files.  We were discussing favourite Christmas movies over coffee this morning and some of the top ones included:

Miracle on 34th st., It's A Wonderful Life, Prancer, One Magic Christmas (one of my personal faves), Christmas Vacation (which my family watches together every year), Elf, Muppet's Christmas Carol, Rudolph, Santa Claus the movie, It's Christmas Charlie Brown...

Update:  I just realized that I forgot my two favourite movies that take place around Christmas but aren't specifically Christmas movies. Love Actually and Serendipity.  Can quote both extensively..."Nancy"

And for an amazing write up regarding the Turtleneck addiction in Love Actually go here

Now I just want to go home and watch Christmas movies. This is the downside of our virtuous "we have no cable" stance.  I do enjoy just turning on the TV this time of year and catching the random Christmas movies that are on.  We own quite the selection on VHS and DVD at my Mum's house, but only have Elf at our place. For shame.  I am babysitting my sweet baby nephew tonight for a few hours so I think I might take advantage of their super cable and watch something festive.

Contest #5-Plunged in Debt

 

The lovely Catherine from Plunged in Debt is offering a contest to win $100.  Enter here and also have a read through the rest of her blog.  Since G and I are also a Canadian couple who are "plunged into debt" I appreciate reading about other young couples who are working their way out of it!

 

Contest #4-for those on Twitter

If you have a twitter account follow @sexwithemily she is offering 12 days of giveaways of some naughtyish things...you just retweet each day for the chance to win.

Attempted family photo and one non Brooklyn pic

We were having a snuggle last night watching TV and tried about 35 times to get a pic of the three of us.  Puppies are fickle creatures when it comes to taking photos.  This is the best we could come up with and she isn't even looking.  Most of the other ones highlight our double chins or have us talking to B trying to get her to look. Turd.

[caption id="attachment_1187" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Actually this one still is a bit goofy, but whatever...here you go blogasphere...my lil fam[/caption]

As we kept taking pictures she became extremely interested in my iPhone. So here is a creepy closeup :

[caption id="attachment_1188" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Wayne's World extreme close up. Sometimes B has droopy sad clown eyes. I think its just her smushy face[/caption]

We finished working on the spare room and decided to move the family love fest down to the mega couch. The original plan was to watch a movie, but Garret and Brooklyn barely made it through opening credits and were both snoring.  So I just cuddled up and enjoyed our little tree as I tried to tune out my loves.

[caption id="attachment_1189" align="aligncenter" width="388"] I'm 32 and  can still find magic when the lights go on[/caption]

Contest #3 Roots Canada

I went Christmas shopping the other day and got my youngest brother some Roots Track pants (what can I say the guy has good taste in his lounge wear) There was a contest to win a $10,000 trip to BC.  So I entered.  And so can you. Here

Contest #2- virtual piggy

Contest #2- virtual piggy

I came across this contest through twitter.  The company behind it is actually quite awesome as well!  Good luck to anyone who enters!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

My Mum is a lucky duck. Whenever we are somewhere that has a door prize, she will win it.  We have gone on a few scrapbooking retreats in the past few years and she has won something at every. single. one. It is quite a talent.  I think she has made out pretty well with various contests and raffle draws  over the years as well.  One time we were discussing this phenomena and we talked about how it would be really cool to enter as many contests possible in a year.  I loved this idea and have thought about it off and on for the past while. Last month I entered a draw in St Jacobs for various Black Friday prizes...and I got a phone call that I won a gift card to the Levis outlet!  Not the $500 shopping spree I was hoping for, but a prize is a prize!  Then today this came through my inbox and I thought that now is a good time to start. I could definitely do with some free groceries!  So, starting today, I shall be entering every contest that comes across my path.  Good chance nothing other than junk email will come of it, but then again you never know until you try.  Anyone else interested in joining me on a 2013 contest entering binge?

Merry Christmas from us Walsheses

 

Last weekend we went to the dollar store to find some cheapy decoratish types of things and may or may not have come home with a Santa jacket for Brooklyn. We are 100% turning into those people who put clothes on their dogs. It was beyond adorable to see her running around in it.  She may or may not look like a disgruntled old man in the above pic, but believe me in real life? Beyond cute.  G's mom was visiting so we had a wee bit of a festive photoshoot. Please note our amazing $12 tree and disregard the corner of our mega TV.  Since we are just finishing up our wedding Thank you notes, I don't really have it in me to also write 70 Christmas cards (or pay to mail them holy smokes stamps are pricey!) So in frugal Julia mode I am emailing people the above pic.  I feel like our "What we have been up to this year" note is known by everyone now. "got married, got a puppy still workin' on the house. Love, us"  Although part of me just SO wants to send out more mail so I can sign things 'The Walsh's'. #nerdalert

3 months old today

Happy 3 month birthday to our sweet Brooklyn/Turd Ferguson.  Even when you are peeing on the floor or trying to eat our shoes we still love you and wouldn't trade you in..  Thanks for becoming part of the Walsh family and for teaching us (mostly your Dad) patience, floor cleanliness and the general joy of snorty grunty snuggles. Love you fuzz bum!

And now photos of our sweet fur baby

[caption id="attachment_1165" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Being Ghetto fabulous in your winter jacket[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Navigating through the streets of Meaford[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1167" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Helping me write wedding thank yous. Signing her approval with a nose print[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1169" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Napping...this is when we can relax[/caption]

Neither of us have really had a dog before so this is a wee bit of a learning curve, but we are really enjoying it.  We have turned into those people who take 5000 iPhone photos of her doing cute things, laugh at her when she snores and makes funny noises and fight over who gets to snuggle with her when she is calm and wanting to cuddle up.  We are loving that she always wants to be near one of us, but we are wondering how cute it will be when she is double her size and still insisting on eating her toys in our lap.

 

 

A Christmas Tree in Review

One of our family traditions since before I can remember is getting a new Christmas tree ornament each Christmas. My brothers and I each had a series that we collected and we would always get that one and often others each year.  My Mum would diligently pack each ornament away at the end of December into 3 separate tubs one for each kid.  This year as we set up our first tree my Mum came over with my tub of ornaments.  Garret was completely shocked that the entire tub was mine.  (personally I just think he is jealous that he doesn't have a pile of his own ornaments...maybe I should get him some this year?)

Since I have 32 years of collecting ornaments under my belt I have to say that I have amassed quite the collection. I didn't want to overwhelm our tree so I just picked a few to see the light of day this year. (also part of the decision making process is we only had a few ornament hangers and I couldn't be bothered buying more. I am becoming a cheapskate in my old age I guess)

[caption id="attachment_1153" align="aligncenter" width="388"] My maid of honour got me this as a Christmas present this year. I bought ornaments for her two girls so she bought us one for our fur baby[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This has been my favourite ornament forever. It says 1980 on the door so that is a fave for quite a while. You can see a little chipmunk inside setting up his own tree. LOVE IT![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This is an ornament that my Nana Shaw(who died before I was born) made for my Dad. I thought it was so super special when I was a kid and I loved that my Mum gave it to me. It says "Love Mom 1977" on the back.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1156" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This one is new this year as well! My MIL found it in her travels and it reminded her of Brooklyn. Note the cute little tutu![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1157" align="aligncenter" width="388"] From my Mum last Christmas...first year in our new home![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1158" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This one my friend Lauren made me in 1991! This made it on also by default for coming with it's own ribbon[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1159" align="aligncenter" width="388"] First Christmas together! My friend Erin M got me into the s'mores decorations a few years ago...how cute are they?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1160" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This guy is from a few years ago[/caption]

The series that I collected are called Mary's Angels I adore them but can see why Garret might not want a tree chock full o' angels.  So they will stay in the Christmas tub for this year.

I do love it when I see the gorgeous themed trees that people do each year, but I am not sure if I will ever be able to bring myself to do that.  One of my favourite Christmas memories is when we would set up our tree. My brothers and I would pull out each ornament and reminisce about them and funny other stories of Christmas past.  This is definitely a tradition I would love to keep up with our future Walsh offspring.

 

 

 

 

 

Dance Me to the End of Love

One of the things that I always have loved about Garret is that he will always dance with me.  I had never dated someone who was so willing to hit the dance floor...match made in heaven!  We had discussed doing something special for our first dance but never really got around to planning anything. We were at a wedding this summer where the couple had a special dance and we remarked how special that was...and yet we still did nothing about it.  Cue my mother in law who can be very persuasive--she did some googling and found us an amazing dance instructor who taught lessons just outside of Barrie.  As our wedding gift she gave us the first few lessons to get us started and we had a total blast.  Most of the dancing we had done together involved goofing around and nothing technical. We weren't sure what we had in store for us once we started classes. I thought that learning the Viennese Waltz was really sexy and a lot of fun. It surprised Garret how much he enjoyed it as well.  We didn't tell many people that we had something special planned so it was really great to "wow" some of our guests with our sweet dance moves.

Last night our friend/videographer sent us the link to our first Dance from the wedding.  It was really dark in the room so he did his best getting footage--I love that it looks vintagey.  This was the first time we got to see ourselves in action and I am pretty proud of the progress we made.  We don't have footage of those first few lessons, but let me just say we weren't quite Fred and Ginger.

 

Norman Rockwellesque

I have an annoying/endearing perhaps (?) character flaw.  I love the bejeezus out of holidays and family gatherings.  I love festively decorating, planning, organizing and general merriment associated with them.  Christmas has always been a favourite of mine--I grew up in a home that (thanks to my Mum) was FULL of holiday spirit, themed crafts and gorgeous decorations.  Some of the ones handmade by my brothers and myself aren't gorgeous per say....however we would all get an A for effort.

For reasons unknown to myself, G and I have not really decorated in the 5 Christmas seasons we have spent together.  I think our first apartment was a little bit depressing and then thanks to a decadent amount of time off work/school we would spend the holidays at my Mum's place. I think my thought process was why bother since we were going to be at her place anyway.  But this year, we really wanted to make our house feel more festive so we could enjoy the whole holiday season.  So we planned to get down to business and get things decorated this year.  Our original plan of heading to Drysdale's tree farm and Bradford Greehouses was quashed this weekend when we had the dreaded money talk.  Did it really make sense for us to go drop a bunch of cash on a tree that we then have to throw out.  Probably not. As we were getting organized for the ugly Christmas sweater party we were attending on Saturday night we noticed that Value Village was selling used fake trees. $12 a pop! We conferred and then brought one home.

[caption id="attachment_1144" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This was not really the photo I was envisioning of us getting our first tree...but I will take what I can get[/caption]

My Mum brought over all of my old ornaments from when I was a kid so tonight G and I are going to hang some up. And it may not be a perfect tree but it is our tree and that is what matters.

We have our tree, a good start on the planters out front of the house, and my MIL assembled a wreath for us so I'm feeling more festive.  I cant wait to get home tonight and finish decorating the tree...maybe I can also convince G to hang some lights outside in the dark...?

End of "NO"vember

Garret and I had tried our best to make November a "No"-vember. I have to be honest and say it wasn't a full on "NO" but more so of a "less"vember. Does that count for anything? I made more of an effort with meal planning and when we grocery shopped I bought sandwich stuff so that if we didn't have leftovers from dinner we could bring sandwiches for lunch. We have both been doing Isagenix shakes for breakfast so that has seriously limited the Great Canadian Bagel/Tim Hortons runs. I have definitely treated myself to a coffee on a few mornings (and I am SURE G has too) but at least I stopped the habit that we had formed. We went on a date to the movies, and then each went once separately, but I had some remaining dollars on gift cards from last Christmas (super surprise to find that when cleaning out my wallet!--see Mum being unorganized sometimes can lead to awesomeness/free movies) We ate out a couple of times, but did it on a special cheap wing night, and planned for it as opposed to just being super lazy and ordering pizza. The night that Brooklyn got sick we ordered pizza but that I feel can be given a pass. All in all review---if we can just keep this organized at least with food and making coffee etc then we are good. As for the not spending, we did buy a dog and then spent the GNP of Sweden to ransom her back from the Vet but those were clearly not planned costs.
Our goal is to move into December and try to keep planning ahead! We have made a list of all our Christmas gifts and have got a good headstart on buying them so we can avoid the mall rush and the impulse buying that comes with late season shopping. We have really pared down our list for others, and this year our gift to each other is our healthy dog. The Turdmeister.  NOTHING is going on credit cards this year so this whole planning ahead thing is going to come in handy!
How is everyone else doing with their shopping? Anyone done yet?

Memory Keeping and a fair bit o' cheese

I was thinking today about how much memory keeping is something that has become a habit for me. Something that I like to do and it obviously shows through a lot of my interests: I love to journal and blog,write letters, take photos, scrapbook, instagram etc It is something I have always done. I while back I found a pile of old journals at my Mum's place and it was interesting to remember some of what I did when I was a lot younger (PS...I was boy crazy at 13 yikes)
It is interesting to me because I feel like if someone asked me what my life was like I would probably describe it as being relatively average, but when I look through my instagram feed or my blog archive I love being able to see all those moments that stand out. The silly, crazy, funny,heartwarming ones that make me realize that my life is more than just average. It is extraordinary. I am working on a new Scrapbooking album called Project Life and it is all about highlighting those special moments and even those mundane once that make your life yours.  There is always the bad stuff that happens, but for right now I have a husband who is so darn handsome I can barely stand it, a wonderful and supportive family/extended family, a beautiful healthy sweet baby nephew, a puppy who already makes me nuts but I couldn't live without (*see recent vet bill #barf), hilarious and creative friends and a beautiful house that we are making a home (and about a billion other things but let's keep the list to the essentials) Really cheesy today not sure where this is coming from... but I feel like that little girl in the commercial "I love my hair, I love my Mum, I love my life" It really is great to have hobbies that bring me so much joy as I do them, and can remind me when I search the archives how far we have come.

Crafts for Christmas--update

I finished my first knitting craft project (hurrah!)  I gave it to Nanny early because she needed a hat and I needed to see if it would fit her. It did and she loves it...mostly loves it just because I made it, but I think the colors are really fun and look great with her black coat.

[caption id="attachment_1130" align="aligncenter" width="388"] The Nanster modeling this season's newest trend: handmade multi-coloured hats....get them now while you still can[/caption]

My goal of another hat and infinity scarf are slightly behind schedule.  My main knitting time has been lunch hour at work and I have forgotten it at home Mon-Wed this week.  I know what I am doing now so I could technically work on it at home, however I know that Brooklyn will be very interested in wool.  I was trying to scrapbook last night and she was very contentedly sitting with Garret until I started doing something and she wanted to "help"  I now have teeth marks in my Breaking Dawn ticket stub I was trying to glue down.  Perhaps she is a puppy crafter like her mumma?

My plan is to try to get on top of the knitting in the next few weeks and see how it goes. I dont want to rush it because nothing is more frustrating than realizing you have messed up a row of knitting and you have to undo a bunch...I am speaking from experience as I had to do that with both the hat and the scarf.    In the meantime craft wise I have a December daily scrapbook project I am working on and I am DYING to get my quilt started.  One thing at a time right?  My usual modus operandi is to have 15 different crafts on the go at one time and then inevitably none of them get finished in a timely manner.  My Mum and I just finished a baby quilt for one of our God daughters that took a good 6 months from when she was born.  So tack on the 9 months Erin was pregnant and I knew a baby was coming....that's a lot of lead time!

The Scary One

I didn't want to write about this when it was happening, because I didn't know the outcome.  Now that it is more sunshine and roses as opposed to doom and gloom so I can discuss. Thurs and Fri Brooklyn was clearly not feeling very well.  We spoke with various other puppy loving friends and they said her upset tummy was likely due to stress or a change in food.  Saturday morning it became very clear that we should probably take her to the vet. G and I both thought that we had just given her too many treats in our quest to get her to sit, so when the Vet came back with a more serious diagnosis I think we were both very shocked.  B had Parvovirus which can be a really serious puppy killing type of illness.  We had to admit her and the vet was honest about her chances...he said he really couldn't say.  There seems to be an outbreak in Barrie lately and some dogs make it and others don't.  Naturally I cried the entire time and felt like a total jack-hole by the time we left.  We both tried to be really positive about it but we were both pretty scared.  Garret joked that he was going to get a vasectomy because if he was this sad about our puppy he didnt think he could handle having kids.  We had to clean the house like crazy and throw out all her blankets and soft toys...so instead of Saturday being a joyous home renovatey day it ended up being me crying over a tub of bleach as I cleaned the kitchen floors kind of day.

Obviously the little Turd-meister really snuggled her way into our family and our hearts quickly.  Yesterday the clinic called and said that she was doing awesome, her temperature was down and she was eating and drinking and keeping it all down.  I picked her up last night and it was SO AWESOME to bring her home.  We had a serious Walsh family snuggle session with her on the couch once G got home as well. She was being extra turdy though so I am not sure if she just forgot her manners in the 2 days she was away, or she was just angry that we seemed to leave her behind to get poked and prodded!  But honestly we didn't care at all because we were just so glad she was home.

[caption id="attachment_1125" align="aligncenter" width="388"] sharpening her teeth[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1126" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Christmas is cancelled because of MY vet bill?![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1127" align="aligncenter" width="388"] After getting some energy out she crawled into my lap for a snuggle. I took her off to get up and she just walked in a small circle and got in my lap again. After a near death experience a gal's just gota snuggle[/caption]

 

 

 

Closet-ish things

I am realizing in my haste to post every day I am failing to take good pictures or truly edit some of my posts---note to self: better planning would make for a more successful NaBloPoMo...there is always next year.  I always have my iPhone on me, and during our renovations our Nikon has run out of batteries and I put the charger somewhere safe, where I wouldn't forget where it is.  So obviously I have no freaking clue where it is. And so you are treated to blurry camera phone pictures of the newest exciting developments in Walsh life....Yesterday my husband (yup still cant stop saying that without smiling) finished building me a closet. Granted it's the guest room closet, but it is AMAZING regardless.  Current plan is to store perhaps some out of season clothes as well as bedding and other random goodies in here for now.  Garret has an annoying/endearing (?) habit of hanging up ALL 500 (conservative guess) of his T-shirts so perhaps this can be his dedicated T-shirt hanging closet?  We shall see, as for now it is a catchall everything closet as we havent finished the hall closet or our bedroom closet.

[caption id="attachment_1113" align="aligncenter" width="388"] In real life it is more exciting and not remotely yellow[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1114" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Please note the additional shelves for more storage....oooh baby...SO exciting[/caption]

 

 

Now we're cooking!

For the past year and a bit we haven't had an oven. Shortly after we moved in it died and we have been using the BBQ and microwave/toaster oven since. We didn't register for one but Harrison obviously heard me complain about it many times and so as our wedding gift..he got us a new oven. We had it delivered and installed last week and finally got to test it out this weekend.



The trusty installer guys trying to make it flush with the wall in my extremely unleveled kitchen.



Garret's thumb of approval as he made us breakfast today.
The oven is roughly 20 years newer than the previous one and it just looks so much nicer in the kitchen. I can also finally use all of the baking stuff I got as wedding gifts! Can't wait for some upcoming Christmas baking :)

Guest book

We did some crazy cleaning and organizing today. G hung up the guestbook picture from the wedding so now when we wake up each day we can be greeted with this



Now that we have looked closer at everyone's signatures we have noticed that a few couples have doubled up. G claims its cause the wives didn't trust their husbands to sign...sounds like a fair assessment to me. Got me wondering how many times we have doubled up on the same thing

Couch chilling

While G is away his girls get craaaazy...
ie. couch snuggles while watching Netflicks. I had hear the crazy wind outside and feel blessed to be toasty and cuddled up inside!



Big to do list for the next two days but for now all I wana do is spoon with my fur baby! Garret and I were talking today and are both so happy about our new addition. I don't think we knew how much we would love her or how she would make us feel even more like a family!

2 months down

2 months down and we are:

• Stalking the mail to see if our wedding pics have come in


• Listening to Babel by Mumford and Sons on repeat


• Watching Sons of Anarchy


• Eating Lots of Soup and Stew


• Making our lists and checking them twice


• Reveling in how amazing our upstairs is looking


• Planning our next renovation moves


• Reading Casual Vacancy (not G obviously)


• Hitting the gym (not me obviously)


• Daydreaming of a vacation


• Thinking of fun winter plans


• Drinking lots of tea in the evenings lately


• Snuggling our sweet little Brooklyn

 

A Different Kind of Thanks This Week

All the bloggers south of the border are gearing up for Thanksgiving this week.  It feels funny to see blog images of pumpkins and harvest themes when I feel like everyone in Canada is in full blown Christmas readying mode! (I may or may not be convincing G to hang our Christmas lights this weekend...the Walsh's will not be Christmas grinches as well as Halloween grinches!)

While my American friends are getting Thankful this week and weekend, G and I will be too...our Thank you Cards finally arrived and thanks to many generous friends and family members we have a lot to write.  I had high hopes of sending our Christmas cards this year, but by the time we send out 100 thank you cards, I may not be wanting to keep writing and wishing people Merry Christmas...actually by the time I finish all of these it might be Christmas.  I am really happy with the way that they turned out and it just keeps making me even more excited to see the rest of our pictures.

[caption id="attachment_1092" align="aligncenter" width="388"] And The Walsh's lived happily ever after. Amen.[/caption]

The One Where This Becomes A Puppy Blog

So it has become apparent that the biggest news in our life this week has to do with the dog. It's funny how quickly we have become attached and its all we talk/blog about.  It took a day but we already have a nickname for her when she is being naughty.  Turd Ferguson (from an old SNL skit with Norm MacDonald and Will Ferrell) Turd was out and about a bit this morning as she turned down the chance to go to the bathroom outside to come inside and poop on the floor...definitely something to keep working on!

I downloaded a new fun ap the other week for my iPhone called "Half Tone" which lets me add fun comic book style titles to photos. I'm thinking that we will need to make up a little comic book series about what our little Turd gets up to during the day while we are at work...yesterday would have included an image of her chewing on the cord for my Cuisinart.  Naughty Monkey.

[caption id="attachment_1089" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Season 1: volume 1[/caption]

Sleep training (for us or her?)

Day one went great...last night...slightly less great.  We had a great snuggle, tried to tire her out a little bit, gave her a small bit of food and got her all situated for the night.  We could hear her whining and crying once we got up to bed...it was awful, we both wanted to go down and snuggle her (or bring her into bed with us) but we held off and she fell asleep after about 30 mins of crying.  She woke back up around 3:30 and was crying and barking so I went downstairs and let her out.  It was completely heartwarming to see how happy she was to see me, but after a quick pee outside she started whining and crying again when I went to go back upstairs....As frustrating as that sound is at an ungodly hour of the morning...who can be mad at this?

[caption id="attachment_1085" align="aligncenter" width="388"] oh hey...this is my belly...feel free to rub it even though you are technically still asleep....was that my pee you just stepped in?![/caption]

I totally caved because I was dying to go back to sleep, so I wrapped her up in her special blanket and we had a snooze on the couch til my alarm went off.  Although we wont be having her sleep in our bed with us, I can see why some people do, what a lovely warm little snuggle puppy she is!  We have our first training class tonight and hopefully they can offer some more tricks on how to help us (or her) sleep through the night.  Suggestions so far are: ticking clock and a hot water bottle.  It is funny because I miss her SO much today just being at work.  I am counting down until 430 so I can scoot out of her and go see my little babes.  I am so happy that Garret works closer to home so he can get home sooner to see her.  I sense that we are going to be mega dorks re this lil lady. Did I mention we already have clothes for her?

Brooklyn

So we have been dog owners for over 24 hours now and we love it. No idea what we are doing, but loving it. She absolutely adores G which is super sweet. She loves snuggles, her chew toy and food! We are going to a puppy training class tomorrow after work so we can learn how to start training her properly. So far we are working on no biting, and using the outside for the bathroom. It seems that she isn't a big fan of the cold (big shock for her in the coming months). We have her outside and she doesn't she doesn't seem interested in peeing, but then as soon as she comes back inside she goes on the kitchen floor. It will definitely be a lot of work, but she is already so worth it. Right now the three of us are snuggled up on the couch watching movie and its so nice. Being a good snuggler makes her the perfect addition to our family!

And the heart grows bigger

Introducing Brooklyn Springsteen Walsh. Aka schmoo bear aka princess snuffles aka cuddle puppy aka fur baby.
She snores louder than Garret does and she has already become a fixture in our hearts. We are in love.

The Walsh family has started to grow

Last night we made the decision to add to our family...And tomorrow morning we are picking up our sweet new puppy.  NO IDEA what is in store for us since we have never had a puppy before, but we are both really excited.  She is a 9 week old Boston Terrier name TBD (to be determined)  We have a list a mile and a half long and I think we mostly love boy names, so we shall see...it needs to be something we love because we will be calling her that for many years to come.  And without further preamble let me present our lil muffin:

[caption id="attachment_1074" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Hey....Pretty sure you wana take me home with ya....[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1075" align="aligncenter" width="388"] She came with a Christmas sweater.....[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1076" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Heats melted the more we snuggled. She LOVES Garret[/caption]

So dear online world be prepared to be spammed with pictures of our puppy cause I know I am that kind of person.  We pick her up tomorrow morning and I already can't wait to have her home with us.

5.

Sometime in the summer G and I were in the car singing along to the radio--one of our fave pastimes.  "5 long years" by Colin James came on and I sang along to it somewhat absentmindedly thinking...hmmmm it's our 5 year anniversary this fall...I will post this on Facebook/the blog as my Happy Anniversary tribute. Then I never thought about it again until today.  So I pulled up the Youtube of the song to listen to it and then realized....this is NOT what I thought this song was about at ALL.  I now realize that the story is that they broke up 5 years ago....and he hasn't seen her loving eyes since then and it's sad cause he still loves her just the same.  Not quite the smushie lovey vibe I was going for with the whole post.  But 1) it's funny and 2) it's a great song, so I am posting it anyway. I also should probably change the words, but "It's been 5 awesome years and I love you even more"  doesn't quite have the same ring to it but then again I don't claim to be a song writer.

Have a listen and a laugh

And now to fill the cheesy love blog quota for the year:

Dearest sweet husband babe/Old Man, (with too many other nicknames to fill out here),
While these have definitely been the best 5 years of my life, the past few months have stood out as two of the best. Becoming your wife has made me so happy as we officially start our family as the Walsh's. Thank you for being you, and for loving me the way you do. I know with no doubt that we were made for each other and I am thankful every day that we found each other. You drive me absolutely bonkers at times, (and I am sure I do the same) but I would never change it for the world. I look forward to each new milestone we reach...and yes, after this year we can just start celebrating our wedding anniversary and not also our dating one...One less card to buy ;)
I love you to the moon and back,

Your lil Wife /Old Lady (insert other nicknames here)

[caption id="attachment_1046" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction--Antoine de Saint-Exupery[/caption]

I love that quote...but I do feel that sometimes gazing at each other is just what love needs.

Crafting for Christmas

The hat project is going pretty well. I should be done tomorrow and it will have taken me a week. (Minus the weekend as I didn't work it) My crafts for Christmas project is going pretty well so far. My goal is to do two hats and a scarf before Christmas(I like how I've increased my goal!) ...not that they will necessarily be gifts but it's good to have a time goal in mind. Plus lunch breaks get boring some days so now I have a fun project! I've decided to put the quilting on hold until I am at my mums for Christmas...more room for my sewing machine!

Young House Super Love

The thing about reading someone's blog is that you start to feel like you know them.  It is different than the familiarity you might feel with an actor or someone else, because you get to know bloggers on a different level.  You read about their lives, their families etc, and over time you develop what is obviously a one-sided relationship.  Meeting John and Sherry last night was really awesome, yet also kind of strange that someone you feel close with doesn't know you exist!  It was really neat to get to West Elm and see the ton of people lined up through the store who all obviously feel the same way about these two people.  It was funny overhearing all the conversations while we were in line about how long people had been reading Young House Love and how they all were excited too.  My friends Meagan and Harrison and I went and met up with some super nice people in line...thankfully because we were there for three hours!  I thought that the rain would keep more people away...but alas others were just as excited to come out.  We did some people watching, window shopping at West Elm and good conversation made the line go faster.

[gallery]

Celebrity Crush

I have a confession....I have a mega crush on some bloggers.  John and Sherry from here.  I have read their blog for quite a few years now and even though I have never met them they have become quite familiar to me.  I have read their blog through their various home renovations, their big move, the birth of their daughter and now as they have written a book.  They are doing a book signing tonight in Toronto at West Elm and I am just crazy excited about it.  I don't have the creepy stalker crush thoughts of how I am going to love them and squeeze them and make them into lampshades or anything. More so the kind of giddy school girl celebrity crush, that involves stammering and blushing and perhaps inadvertently blurting out my feelings of love and devotion.  Meagan   and I are going to go together and geek out. So beware, for my daily post tomorrow will likely be filled with rambly thoughts and 500 pics.  Sigh...so excited!

Making supper

We had 2 other couples over to Garret's Aunt and Uncles cottage over the weekend to have a feast and get together. As usual we had a blast and had waaaay too much food but it was so nice to hang out with our gang...it will be a few weeks yet before we can host much of a gathering at our place.

two hundy

One of the perks of Wordpress is that they tell you your posting count and encourage you to break that next milestone...this is my 200th post (how did that happen?)  I have had a lot of fun posting about our life, and I really enjoy looking back over posts from last year and seeing how far our house has come!  I think that it will be really neat to try to keep up with the blog and I can look back and laugh at the early days and our discomfort...for instance...right now...NO closets...We have been trying to keep up with cleaning, but it is a bit of an exercise in futility at the moment. Nowhere to put most of our clothes so now we are using the mega couch as another form of storage.  The plan is to tackle a few things this weekend (as well as our extremely neglected lawn) to hopefully put us in better shape for getting organized.  This hasn't even been that big of a renovation and our entire house is upside down because of it. I cant imagine how crazy it gets doing major renovations....but I get the feeling I am going to find out in the near future.

Not much of an epic 200th post is it.....regardless still a milestone woohoo

Crafting on lunch

One of my coworkers is an amazing knitter. She excels at making hats and we have chatted about it for over a year now. I kept saying I wanted to learn, but as the weather got nicer my attention span for wool products definitely waned. With Christmas coming we decided to start this past week with my goal of 2 hats before Christmas...this may be a really lofty goal as I am also really interested in working on a quilt I recently bought a pattern for as well as various paper crafting projects. However I'm finding knitting to be significantly more portable than quilting (duh) so it's been really nice to get to take a craft break in the middle of the day. I posted the below photo on Instagram and a friend asked if I was knitting a scrunchie! I'm hoping within the next 2 weeks to have it looking decidedly more hatish and will be sure to post the progress!

Pensive nephew

I can't get over how cute this little guy is! This is how he likes to sleep...makes me think he is pondering the universe while waiting for his next meal. I got to have some serious snuggle time with him on Tuesday night which was awesome. It is just so lovely to have another baby in our lives to love on and practice with. And G loves it because he thinks it will give him more of a reprieve ;)

(more) Halloween pics

Last night Garret uploaded the few pictures he had taken on Halloween

[caption id="attachment_1015" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Cutest lion that ever was[/caption]



I am working on a new scrapbook project that is inspiring me to take more photos.  I find that Garret and I always have our iphone and take pictures with Instagram or Hipstamatic, but it just isn't the same especially for photos at night..I was really glad that G happened to have his work camera in his pocket so we could get some photo memories of the night which are clearer to see. I am hoping that this project has me taking better photographs more often

NaBloPoMo

It's that time of year again...National Blog Posting Month...and so I will attempt again to spam you all with 30 posts this month! 

Our bedroom has been sanded painted, primed and re-floored...and so last night we moved back in.  It's been a few solid weeks of sleeping on the couch so we were quite delighted to crawl back into our bed. Slowly but surely our bedroom is getting finished. Now on to the purge so we can only put back items we NEED and USE into our cupboards. G is trying to convince me that if he gets rid of a bunch of clothes he should be able to get some more (the old one in one out rule) I never thought it possible I would marry someone who has more clothes than I do!

We like the people in our neighbourhood!

**(That was supposed to be read in a Mr. Rogers type singalong sort of voice)

In September our next door neighbours popped by to try to find a time we could all agree on to get together for a BBQ.  Due to their kids soccer schedules, our vagabond existence, etc this past Sunday was the date that was agreed upon.  So yesterday we headed next door along with several other neighbours on our street, and had a lovely afternoon get together. They had wanted a chance to get to celebrate our nuptuials with us...and we can never say no to the chance to celebrate!  It was a lovely afternoon and they are beyond sweet and there was cake and a Lowes gift card for a present.  We are pretty fortunate to have a group of really awesome people living on our street.  They commented that it takes a certain type of person/couple to want to buy a century home that needs a lot of work..apparently some sort of crazy gene that we all seem to possess. Which I guess explains why we all get along so well!

Fraysha!

Found out yesterday that one of my besties got engaged! I've been so excited for the past 24 hours because it is just such lovely news. I think that this is one of my favorite things about being this age--there are so many wonderful things to celebrate!
Natalie---I love you and am so very happy for you and Mike! I hope you are still walking on air today (actually I know you are) Can't wait for all the celebrations to come!

Lentil and Sweet Potato Chili

My mum sent me this recipe last week and I made it on Tuesday.  Garret and I are big meat fans, but I didn't feel like meat was missing from this veggie chili (although I'm not sure if he would say the same...) You could add a ton of other veggies to bulk it up as well!

2 tbsp oil
1 large  onion chopped
8 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tbsp each of chili powder, cumin seeds (i used powder) oregano
1 can lentils (540 ml) drained and rinsed
1 can tomatoes (796 ml)
1 sweet potato peeled and diced
1 chipotle pepper, packed in adobe sauce, minced (i didn't do this)
1 red pepper

sour cream and chopped cilantro and green onion to garnish.  I used grated cheese and  plain Greek yogurt

Heat oil, saute onion, pepper and garlic for about 5 min. stir in chili, cumin and oregano, cook just until spices heat through and become fragrant, a minute or two.  Stir in lentils and tomatoes, Add potato, chipotle pepper (if using)
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring until potatoes are tender...about 15 minutes. (I had to leave it longer than 15 minutes to get the potatoes to my liking)

"No"vember

G and I decided to make November our No month.  We both suck at saying no to things, going out, grabbing coffee/dinners etc.  So the plan is for at least no impromptu spending for the month.  This means being WAY more organized regarding making coffee in the morning, and packing breakfasts and lunches. No Tim Horton's runs...can we cope for a whole month?!  We have been talking about being more budget friendly for ages now but we seem to keep putting it off and getting distracted with other things (not so awesome personality trait we both share)  I think if we work at some good meal planning for the month we can do it.  I am away this weekend so it will be interesting to see if Garret can manage to feed himself for two days without me ;)

Boo!

October FLEW by!  (really interesting sentence to lead with huh?)  But really, I can't believe we are at this point in the year already, it will be Christmas soon...scary stuff!  I think because we were so focused on September 22nd for such a long time, it seems foreign to now be looking ahead to other exciting events. (of which I am thinking we have lots!)

Last night we did not do a big night of reno work.  It was Halloween so we had to go celebrate with the cute little ones in our lives.

[caption id="attachment_993" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This one didn't quite make it out Trick or Treating[/caption]

We made it out with a really scary lion for a few houses and even in the rain it was so much fun

[caption id="attachment_994" align="aligncenter" width="388"] I think the umbrella was her favourite part![/caption]

I couldn't manage to get a picture of the front of her outfit, but believe me she was the cutest lion out there.  I haven't been trick or treating in about 15 + years so it was really fun to remember the excitement of the night!  Molly was the most polite trick or treater too, telling the other little girls that they looked "beeeeeeeeuuuutiful" and always saying thank you. She was NOT liking the "scary boys" in the Scream masks but other than that I think she had a great night.  Her Daddy stole her chips, Uncle Garret was stealing some chocolates and Auntie Julia was delighted to find a small package of Nibs...it's surprising that she made it home with any loot.

Our next stop was to visit Elliott and Ashley and their little monkey:

[caption id="attachment_995" align="aligncenter" width="388"] All tuckered out on his first Halloween[/caption]

We had some snuggles and took some photos and G found a new snuggle buddy... (I think I'm being replaced)

 

[caption id="attachment_996" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Buster had no interest in getting out of there![/caption]

When we got home G did the first coat on our bedroom. We weren't too sure about the colour but once it was done we were really happy with it

[caption id="attachment_997" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Me: "Hey babe are those your good jeans"? G: "umm hey look over there "...trails off and quickly changes the subject. This is an ongoing discussion as he has about 40 work outfits, and yet every time he is doing something I catch him in nice clothes! Oh well at least it looks nice in photos :)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_998" align="aligncenter" width="388"] finished walls and one really dusty set of blinds![/caption]

I really need to learn how to take more colour true photos of things like this so I can show off what colour things really are.

He has worked so hard over the past few weeks and I just can't believe the difference in our home  Last night was our last couch sleepover as tonight after he paints the trim the bed is moving back in! To finish this project we still have to figure out the built ins to go over our bed, and rework the closet, but once the bed is in we can get dressers back and start purging and cleaning and organizing (my favourite fall project)

Pitter patter of little feet

Last week we noticed some tell tale signs that we had some furry guests back in the house.  Likely relatives of Sneakers who we had to encourage  to move out last year.  We put some anti mouse goodies down over the weekend in the hopes that they would get the hint and leave/die.  Yesterday morning we noticed that something had taken all of it and we had a bit of a mixed reaction. Garret and I are both rather large hearted people, so we don't really like the idea of hurting something, but we aren't really of the "mice can be trapped and released into the wild" mentality either.  We had a moment of silence for the little critters and G made a joke that he feels bad, like we are killing Fievel.

[caption id="attachment_988" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Fievel Mousekewitz adorable mouse with great pipes.[/caption]

I found the image here

We established that we don't want any furry roommates that steal our food and poop in our kitchen so we had to be strong and get rid of them anyway.  We put more stuff down and went to bed.

As I have mentioned before we are sleeping on the couch still while work gets done upstairs. (side note: G finished sealing the floors last night so we can get back to bed sleeping like normal people tonight yay)   Once all the lights were out, G fell asleep in 7 seconds and I lay awake listening to some serious scurrying activities.  Gross.  From the sounds of things they were less Fievel-esque and more like an ROUS:

[caption id="attachment_989" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Rodent of Unusual Size anyone?[/caption]

It makes me MUCH happier to picture their demise when I think of them looking like this. Although it made it harder for me to fall asleep thinking about these guys running around.