a geek's approach to holidays.

Hello there!

I never thought in a million years that I would bring learning into the holidays (I can just hear my middle school self groaning for mercy), but I managed to find a way to suck the fun out of the season! ;)

Every year my class learns about 3-dimensional figures before the holiday season (have I lost you to boredom already?) and a couple of years back I thought of a neat way to not only make Christmas fun, but also educational.

Ladies & gents, I present to you... the Geome-tree!

Students decorated and personalized their figures, then excitedly decorated the tree with their 3-D shapes (and one of the really excited ones placed their secret santa gift under the tree!). The silver ornaments are a la Ikea. :)

I think it's a teacher thing, but I just love it when kids get excited about something as weird as a mathematical Christmas tree!

two more sleeps!

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas to you & yours!

the ABCs of welcoming a baby.

I know this isn't very Christmassy of me to blog about, but I thought I would share about something I made awhile back for a friend who had a baby (maybe this could be a last minute gift idea.. but that's just me justifying the post) ;)

It all started with an IKEA frame & these amazing diddies I stumbled upon in Michaels.

They had these cute vintage alphabet cards where one side had the letter with a picture, and the other side had the letter capitalized & in lower-case form. 

On clearance for $2.99 for two sets of the cards, I couldn't pass it up.

I decided to use some cream wrapping paper as my backing. I then taped the cards to cute scrapbook paper & cut them so the polka dots could be seen.

then I arranged them and 'eyed' the spacing. When satisfied, I taped them in place.

 This is the finished product. Unfortunately I didn't clean up my mess before the shot, 

but you get the idea. :)

a little gift fit for a little princess & her nursury. :)

It's not only cute, but educational as well! 

Okay, now back to my Michael Buble christmas album, peppermint hot chocolate & everything else that screams Christmas! After all, it is here in 4 days!!

a market & a scary pepparkaka

greetings!

Today was a fun-filled holiday-tastic Sunday. We started the day attending church where good ol' Christmas tunes were sung by a choir, then had a wonderful meal with my parents, hubby & in-laws where we ordered festive meals, then my hubby & I went to the Toronto Christmas Market where we found an amazing spot where the lady pulling out of the spot waved her still-valid parking pass and gave it to us saying, 'Merry Christmas!'

It was a great start to an already wonderful day.

5 things that make me happy...

here are 5 things that are worth mentioning (in no particular order):

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1. smoked salmon & avocado:

Why? they just make everything taste better. everything. I'll take them in a sushi roll, solo or together in one glorious concoction.
Seriously, if I could live on these two things without exploding, I would be one happy camper.

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2. Christmas:

whoever sang that song was right; it IS the most wonderful time of the year. Aside from the crazies in mall parking lots, all of the Christmas lights make everything more romantic and beautiful, & Starbucks always has the best drinks to look forward to when Christmas comes around! Also, my family has the best gatherings during the holidays, where the only thing that matters is the food that we're eating & being surrounded by those we love. Jesus' birthday is the best!

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3. travel:

there's nothing like the feeling of boarding a plane; the anticipation of going somewhere foreign & experiencing what life is like there. I have been fortunate to have travelled to various places, but there are still some places on my bucket list. It's exciting to try the food & see the sites of new cities or towns, even if it is just a car ride away.

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4. A good book & Starbucks:

okay, this could count as two things, but together they just make a happy couple.
Can anything else top curling up with an amazing book with your fleecy throw, listening to Chopin & sipping on your fav Starbucks drink? (or 'mocha-chocha-locha-latte' as my husband likes to call it)
is that too specific to be something all people enjoy? try it sometime! :)

5. My best friend (& our fur baby):

again, I'm cheating with two things... but seriously, marrying your best friend is the coolest. It's pretty neat to know you have someone who knows you so well (frighteningly well), yet still remains faithful in encouraging, loving and even spurring me to be better.
And our fur baby. She has the personality of a sassy 3-year old child who believes that everyone can only benefit from her constantly kissing their face & from sleeping on their lap.

love.them.

fresh.

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like the new look? I can't take any credit for it. 

Retracing our steps: home edition (kitchen)

meet lady ga-ghastly.

(previous owners, if you are reading this, that was my opinion, but thank you for inspiring us toward change...). ;)

yes, the kitchen. the room where the family experience love and grow closer in unity...

the kitchen, the heart of the home.

in our home, the heart needed a transplant. badly.

As you can tell from the picture not only were the walls a vibrant mustard (I'm trying to use positive adjectives here!), but the cupboards MUST have been from the 70s when glossy melamine was kickin' it. I wish I had a picture of the insides of the cupboards because it looked like a 5 year old went to town with brown paint and splotched it all over. (previous owners, matter of opinion!) :) Don't get me wrong, I love children's artwork and glossy white (as evidenced here), but not feelin' it here!

Want more mustard with that?

The MLS picture of the dining area that faces the kitchen with the previous owners' furniture 
(camera was a wide angle lens so the place looks way bigger than it actually is).

We decided that a few changes needed to happen for this house to be a home.

1. paint like a fiend!!

2. replace the cupboards. fast.

3. get a more subtle backsplash

4. install some kind of stone countertop

5. prettier appliances, please!

After living in a whirlwind of sawdust, ikea runs, paint-stained pants and living in partially finished conditions, the house was slowly transforming into our home...

paint over bright walls, check. 

new IKEA cupboards, check.

(some new) appliances, check.

new granite countertops, check!

let's just take a closer look at the shiny new countertop! 

They call it 'Tan Brown' (I wouldn't want this splotchy brown tan on my bod, but it works on stone!)

Next to tackle was the backsplash. One of our good friends referred us to a liquidation tile place that sells  tile for a super cheap price & has a good selection.

We found our tile (usually $10 per sq. ft, but we got ours for $4.99/sq.ft. yeahhh!), which was a light tan & cream/grey & shimmers a bit in the light. :)

Now that we had our tile, my hubby busted off the shiny white tile that was occupying the space.

This is what we unearthed (and this is what we lived with for a couple of weeks... life gets in the way) :)

when we got sick of seeing our kitchen so scabby, my hubby got to work glueing & laying the tile.

here he is carefully lining it up. 

His rooster hair is proof that life got so in the way that a haircut was postponed as well :)

After glueing & laying, glueing & laying, gl.. (you get the idea) and grouting with a 'warm vanilla' coloured grout, we ended up with:

 glimmers like a mermaid's bottom! 

 with two of our lights out, it definitely does NOT add splash to the back!

The tan backsplash does look better than the too-bright white of the previous tile.

with our island & white leather bar chairs.

All that's left for our kitchen renovation is appliances. We like the white ones, but we're hoping a stainless steel set will magically appear in our stockings this year ;)

So far, we're happy with where we've come from...

and yes, we're to blame for that mess... the previous owners are off the hook for this one! :)

oh, Christmas tree.

holidays just aren't the same without you...

and my little bird...

...and my little fur child who often is found sleeping under the kitchen chairs.

Happy 11 days until Christmas! 

Retracing our steps: home edition (basement).

As the year draws to a close and we marvel at how quickly life seems to be passing by with every approaching holiday, my hubby and I had a chance to sift through some old pictures of what's been keeping us busy since we said, "We do".

one of our biggest projects has been the house we're living in (and my husband's flipped property, but I'll share about that later). With a new chapter of our lives beginning with my husband beginning school full-time we realized that this was the time to try something we've been talking about for awhile: having a rental apartment in our basement.

Here is what the basement looked like when we first saw it (with the previous owners' furniture... is that weird to post?)

 cutesy artifacts, and a nice electric fireplace... has potential... 

but that ghastly green carpet has us floored (pun intended).

 the second room of the basement that served as a laundry and storage area

and the entryway. 

Not much to see with the basement, but we knew we had to do something 

to make this place livable and rentable.

we needed to do some serious damage.

We seriously could NOT have survived this project without my amazing in laws... seriously. I can't think of a single complaint about them even after spending sweaty moment after sweaty moment with them.

they.are.the.best.

After much planning, lot of painting, constructing, garbage dump trips & fuelling the FIL with coca-cola and fudgsicles, we gutted the joint & came up with this:

so long smelly green carpet!

hello, IKEA flooring, painted fireplace, french doors & a light grey for the walls

 put up a wall for a separate room or keep as-is?

we decided privacy is good! French doors open to a good-sized bedroom/study if the tenant should choose. They also have a little breakfast bar made of kitchen cabinets for their table (size is of the essence with this place!)

 hm.. bust down the wall for open-concept? Move the monstrous furnace to a better location? Decisions, decisions!!

why not just turn it into a kitchen & cover the silver beast with a nicely painted door? 

We used an IKEA kitchen, had travertine installed for our countertop, and managed to find the cutest, smallest appliances meant for apartments. It felt like a kitchen in Barbie's dollhouse!

Another look at the kitchen, perhaps? :)

*insert sigh of relief*

move this itsy-bitsy johnny-on-the-spot to another location?

We decided to keep it, but just pretty it up a bit 

(this is a bad picture, but unfortunately the only I have of it) 

We painted the walls a light blue, added a new vanity, used left over tiles from our kitchen backsplash for a mini backsplash under the mirror, installed a new shower & added new tile on the floor.

After multiple offers & renting it out above asking, 

the basement apartment rented in one day of posting it. 

one huge weight off our backs!