Nesting: Before

It is just so difficult to find time to blog these days! I'll try to get better now that we're almost settled. I say 'almost' settled because it really still feels like we're surrounded by boxes and excess crap. Anyways, we've officially been in the house for about three weeks and we're still really enjoying it. We hired movers which was a lifesaver, so all the big things are unpacked and the space is quite livable. 

What we immediately discovered is that we had too much stuff and not enough space for it. No problem right?! It's not like we are pack rats, we just had 2,000+ square feet worth of stuff and now only 1,500 square feet or so. HUGE adjustment. We've taken a few steps that are helping us figure it out:

• If it's not useful or beautiful, it's gone. We're being ruthless.
• CONTAINER STORE! Oh how I love thee. Every storage space, cabinet, drawer, closet is organized within an inch of it's life. Fabulous - and I wanted to do that anyway :-)
• Kitchen Reno. Minor one. Our current kitchen only covers one wall with a peninsula island, leaving another wall just blank (the back wall is sliding glass doors to the patio). The plan is to add a narrow pantry with about three more feet of cabinets and counter space. I'm toying with the idea of an appliance garage. 
• New Grill. Kyle was thrilled to pick out a small Weber for our tiny back space. Suited me just fine since it means he's pick up the cooking several days a week.
• Functional new furniture. All of our new furniture will fit the space or have some extra place for storage. We just bought a day bed from Ikea that pulls out to a double bed AND has storage underneath. Score!

Link

Now we're just in the nesting phase. Decorating, deciding on furniture and just loving our little home. We're loving our neighborhood and have just been thrilled with our decision to stay in the city. I thought I'd share the 'before' pictures of our house from when it was staged. To be fair, I might be stealing some of her design ideas! 

The main floor from the front door

Living Room

Kitchen from dining room (I loved her dining room set-up)

Love this white kitchen!

Basement: This will become Kyle's office and a media room. There is also a laundry room and powder room.

Guest bathroom. I love the marble and chandelier, perfect for Jacuzzi baths!

Guest room: This room will double as my office with the day bed I mentioned earlier. I'm doing mint and butter yellow in this room - nice and calming.

Upstairs hallway with skylight

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

As we finish various rooms I'll post the after pictures as well. Next step: paint and new furniture!

xo

Alison

Lately

Nothing terribly exciting to share this week. Work is very busy right now and we're still trying to find a house, so most of my time and energy is spent on those two things. Little time for crafting or fun! So I thought I'd just share a peek into what I have done with my spare time this week.

I can't fall asleep without picking up a book (or an iPad as the case may be). It drives my husband crazy! I don't know how he does it, but mere moments after he crawls into bed he is asleep. Not me, especially if I get really into my book... This week I'm reading Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller. 

I'm really enjoying this book. I have read almost everything Picoult has written as I love her writing style and character development. One of my favorite book genres is historical fiction, particularly WWII. This book is the best of both worlds for me - historical fiction written by Jodi Picoult! In heaven. I would highly recommend The Storyteller, but have the tissues close by.

After a long or particularly stressful day at work, I also like to have a glass (or two) of wine while I'm cooking and with dinner. Unfortunately, my favorite is white wine which tends to be very high in sugar. That's why when I saw 'The Skinny Vine' I had to give it a try.

Verdict: meh.

Mostly they have sweet wines (Moscato, White Zin) which I HATE. I decided to give the Chardonnay a go since it would hopefully be less sweet. It was, but it certainly isn't a fine wine by any extent of the imagination. As my father would say, it's pedestrian. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't serve it to guests. I will probably get the Chardonnay again, and if they made a Sauvignon Blanc I would pick it up in a heartbeat. Don't tell my father...

This past weekend I somehow convinced my husband to join me on an excursion to The Container Store. If you haven't been, go. It's organization heaven. There are bins, to organize your bins. 

I wanted to get a few containers to organize Christmas decorations. 3 hours and many many dollars later we left with some Christmas organization and a million other things. I've decided to tackle some odd spaces in the house that are constantly cluttered. It's so difficult to find what you need so we end up buying duplicates of things. Prime example, under the sink in the kitchen. I found this great little plastic bag holder and an over the cabinet shelf and from there I couldn't just leave the space a mess! So... viola!

I found a few other things to organize other spaces in the house and after this successful project, I'm looking forward to it! 

And...

I chopped my hair off! (Ignore my chipping nail polish please) I can't say I'm completely happy with it. Shorter hair is harder to maintain. But it feels really healthy. I think I can grow it out now and keep it healthy. Hopefully.

That's it for now! Hopefully I can share a home update soon. Fingers crossed!

xo

Alison

Family Vacation 2013

Every year my family and I make the trip down to North Carolina for a week to soak up the sun, sand and each others company. We started doing this trip when I was very young and actually made the trek from Canada for several years - 20 hours or so in the car with two young children. My parents are brave! The drive is a bit more manageable now and each family tends to leave in the middle of the night to avoid traffic and awake spouses requesting bathroom breaks.

Click here for our 2014 trip.

Over the years we've had many different people join us: extended family, family friends, my brother and my friends and various love interests. As adults now (in age, not maturity level) our spouses have started joining us and these trips have really turned into a bunch of friends on vacation. We spend all day on the beach, shopping or on the golf course, cocktail hour on the porch in the evening, followed by all evening around the dinner table talking and laughing. It's fantastic!

Two years ago, my niece (now six years old) started joining us. It's so wonderful to be able to have her be a part of the tradition. We quickly realized we had to change the formula of the trip (beach, cocktail hour, many hours long dinner) to accommodate the short attention span of a child. So this past year, we created theme nights for 4 of the evenings. 

EVERYTHING had to be on theme: costumes, food, games. Each family was responsible for a different portion of each night (main course, game, dessert, etc.). We thought this would be a good way to get the whole family involved in something that Zoe would enjoy. Now, I tend to be a bit type A (my family may disagree with the 'bit' in that sentence). A few weeks before the trip I sent out a spreadsheet indicating what was needed for each theme, some guidelines for each component and who was responsible for purchasing and bringing the items down to NC. (I do realize I'm bonkers btw.)

Here is a quick view of the vacation theme planning spreadsheet:

Theme Night Planning and Organization

I knew that the way this would work best is if everyone participated, but I was still expecting varying levels of enthusiasm. Let me tell you - everyone got super into it! Each night everyone had brought everything they were supposed to, were excited about the dishes they had planned and had fantastic costumes. On top of that - we had a blast! 

Fiesta: 

Description prior to event: Hola! Let's bring the Spanish flare to North Carolina with this belated Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Attire: Sombreros, fiesta colors and fake mustaches

Food and Drink: Tacos, Chips and salsa, ceviche, Jarritos soda, margaritas and Tecate

Games: Pinata and pin the tail on the donkey

Feeling festive!

Pin the tail on the donkey

Fiesta 'photo booth'

Under the Sea: 

Description prior to event: Ahoy mateys! We will be travelling under the sea for this night of adventure! Pirates, sailors and the like will delight in this maritime themed night. 

Attire: Pirates and hula girls

Food and Drink: Crab cakes and other seafood galore, beach cake

Games: Water gun fight and boat races 

We had temporary tattoo fake mustaches and tattoos for Under the Sea night (here on Kyle on the left)

The icing turned your tongue blue 

Side note: We don't have many pictures of Under the Sea night because we spent most of the evening drenched! Between water guns, water balloons and Zoe discovering the hose, we couldn't stay dry!

July 4th: 

Description prior to event: God Bless America! Let's celebrate this fine nation Southern style, with a twist on the classic fourth of July picnic. 

Attire: Anything red, white and blue!

Food and Drink: Burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and American beer

Games: Glow-stick parade, potato sack races, glow-stick dodge ball on the beach

Glow-stick dodge ball on the beach!

Side note: this game was invented when we found an inflatable ball with glow sticks inside. We made our way down to the beach, picked teams, and had a VERY challenging game of dodge ball. All you could see of the opposing team was their glow-stick on their hats, glasses or around there necks. GREAT game!

Glow-stick and sparkler parade to the dock

Things got pretty serious

Fantastic hosts/parents/grandparents

Hollywood: 

Description prior to event: We will wrap up our themed adventures with a glamorous evening among the stars in the movies! The dress is fancy and the experience will be unforgettable. 

Attire: Hollywood glam

Food and Drink: Various hors d'oeuvre, popcorn, champagne, and sparkling cider for Zoe

Games: Red carpet, awards show

Ladies and Gentlemen, the stars of the red carpet

The award show

As always, this was the best week of the year. We will absolutely be doing this again next year! We're in the process of thinking up four new themes that will be fun for the whole group. Zoe had a fantastic time, so we'll definitely count the theme nights as a success!

Singing on the dock

Can't wait for family vacay 2014!

xo 

Alison