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!