moving day

As the title may suggest, it's moving day tomorrow! What!? That happened so fast! I feel like I just got home from Barbados last week, but that was almost four weeks ago! Since then I've literally been up to my eyeballs in diy projects! They are coming along nicely (not without a few hiccups, but I'll talk about that another time), but I honestly don't think a lot of our furniture will be ready. I haven't put the first coat of varnish on our kitchen table, chairs, or TV stand ... I guess we will be having picnic dinners the first few nights.

Tonight we are loading up the moving truck so we are ready to move tomorrow. I have insisted on painting the living room and bedroom before we move in, so if all goes to plan I will be painting at 8:00 am and moving stuff in, in the afternoon. Wish us luck!

Since I don't have any pretty pictures to share from my projects yet, I thought I would share a few of my pinterest inspirations!

source

source

source

source

I'm literally obsessed with bar carts right now. I need one, I want one, I must have one. And I found that exact one with the sort of star burst brass design and teak legs on craigslist in Michigan. I'm going to try and negotiate the price but I think it's fate!

As you can probably tell I'm going for a lot of deep navy blues, blacks, greys and creams. I'm painting the walls a light grey and hoping that our green/grey couches will look good with it!

Now back to packing up my life! See you on the flip side, Cherry Avenue here we come!

this is some grown up shit

After living on my own (well excluding roommates of course) for the last five years, I knew it would be strange to move back in with my parents. So when the opportunity arose to move into a decently priced but super cute rental (my dad just happens to be the landlord), I jumped at the chance. I mentioned it to my boyfriend, also tired of living at home (for all of his 25 years), and he was on board right away!

YOU GUYS, this is some real grown up shit. I have to live with a boy!!! Okay so I've lived with two boys before (it didn't go well, sorry Dylan and Henry) but this is so different. It's scary and exciting and overwhelming and exhilerating. Who knew you could have so many emotions over living with a person. I think the biggest emotion is excitement though! We've been talking about this for a while and after living long-distance for five years, it will be so nice not having to say goodbye.

But now the real scary stuff starts. Figuring out what we each have, deciding what we need, and what can wait until after we move in. Rob is actually being much better than expected when it comes to the furniture and decorations. Usually he is very opinionated and hates most of what I love, so he's been surprising me a lot lately. For example, I sent him a picture of some couches I loved and asked him what he thought (expecting a "those are ugly as f***" reply). Instead the text in return was "I like them, let's pick them up tonight." Amazing!

Since I'm still looking for a job, we are trying to keep the spending to a minimum. I've spent countless hours scouring kijiji and refinishing hand-me-down furniture, but moving into a new place is always expensive. I thought I would share some of my progress via my iphone before some bigger reveals!

**Note: This are not pretty blog pictures, these are "real life, no time for staging" pictures!

I love the shape of this couch and chair. We got them for an awesome price and the upholstery is in great shape. While I'm not in love with the colour or style of the upholstery we will probably live with them like this for a while, but I can definitely see myself re-upholestering them one day!

I've been playing around with colour schemes and I'm thinking blues and greys and maybe even some black. But pops of colour like that citron patterned pillow keep catching my eye (and Rob's too surprisingly!). I'm also loving the way my grandma's 1950's chairs are turning out! Above is a picture of them after being sanded and with one and two coats of dark walnut stain.

I'm totally in love with these velvet blue curtains from West elm but since I'm trying not to break the bank, I'll likely go with these ikea ones.

Still on my to-do list: Find fabric for the dining room chairs, re-finish the dining room table, re-finish the buffet (to be used as a TV stand), re-upholester two (free and awesome) chairs, paint bed-side tables, build a sofa table, find curtains, buy a rug, buy table lamps for living room and bedroom .... I might be forgetting somethings. As you can see, the list is endless. I'm going to be a busy girl for the next two weeks!!

whirl wind

I think "whirl wind" is a pretty good title for my life right now. I moved back home from London on Saturday and I'm still pretty much living out of boxes. Half of my stuff went into storage and the rest was brought back to my parents house. Unfortunately, my stuff was dispersed between three vehicles for the move and my attempt at organizing and labelling each box's intended destination failed. This means that I've spent the last few days searching for things I need to pack only to realize the box I need accidentaly ended up in storage. Ugh!

But the packing process is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I'm a "What-if-I-need-this-What-if-I-don't-like-this-How-can-I-choose-just-one-Have-to-have-it-all" kind of packer. You know? In the beginning I always try to plan outfits, but then a little voice inside my head asks, "But what if you don't want to wear that shirt with those shorts?" Which then leads me to packing 3 other shirts that go with those shorts, because who knows how I'll be feeling that day. That's a common problem right?? But I think I'm doing pretty well right now. I am aware that I am over-packing slightly but I'm gone for 10 weeks! I keep finding blogger tutorials like "How to pack a carry-on for 1 week" or "What to pack for a month long backpacking trip through Europe" BUT no one has made a tutorial on "What to pack for a two and a half month long internship on an island that is seriously hot and humid." And I'm not about to because I'm basically putting my whole "summer wardrobe" and a bunch of work clothes into a suitcase and hoping for the best.

At last weigh-in, both of my checked luggage are at the max (50lbs). Oops. Let's hope my scale at home is accurate or weighs heavy. My carry-on and "purse" (a massive tote bag I'm hoping to pass off as a purse) are also both jammed packed. AND I'm leaving behind a few pairs of shoes for my mom to bring when she visits this month.

I'm currently scrambling around the house while crossing things off my to-do list/packing list. I leave tonight to head to Toronto and my flight takes off early tomorrow morning. Hopefully my next post will be while I'm sitting on my porch soaking up the sun!

packing up

I'm finding it a lot harder to leave my apartment than I thought it would be. It was a bit of a last minute decision to move out. It was really the practical thing to do. Paying rent in Barbados, paying rent in London and not having any income just didn't seem smart no matter how I tried to convince myself.

So here I am now, packing up boxes and waiting for people to snatch up all my collected treasures. I think that's why I am so sad. I spent last summer at flea markets and garage sales trying to find items I could revamp and make my own. Most of the furniture in my apartment was cheap but I put blood, sweat, and tears into every piece (Literally! Who knew upholstering a couch could be so dangerous!) But in the end, I know it's the right decision to move back in with my parents and try to get rid of as much as possible. This just means I get to start collecting again for my next place!