to blog or not to blog

That is the question. Since coming home from Barbados I really haven't done much that I find "blog-worthy." I love Kingsville, it's a great town. But in all honesty, there isn't all that much to do. We have a great foodie community and as much as I would love to share restaurant reviews, it isn't exactly common to see people with big SLR cameras snapping away in Kingsville (compared to a big city I suppose). I would love to share travel photography, however I'm not exactly in a finacial situation that allows me to travel. I love lifestyle blogs and wardrobe posts, but Rob wouldn't be so willing to take pictures of my outfits every where we go. So that leaves me with DIY and home projects. Is that enough? I guess we'll see. With that out of the way, I guess I should start sharing some DIY projects right?

Do you remember the black and white pillow from this post? I was at ikea a while ago and had a black and white pillow in my cart ($16.99 with the pillow, pretty good price). Before checking out I headed to the as is section and found a black and white pillow case for $2.00! I knew I had inserts at home so I ditched the pre-fab pillow and grabbed the pillow case instead. One straight line of stiching later and I had a pillow cover. I was also left with about 8 inches of fabric from the pillow case. Being the fabric hoarder I am, I decided to keep it. A few weeks later and I was staring at this mustard yellow stool I had taken from my grandma's house. It had the cutest hairpin legs that had seen better days, but captured my heart. So I grabbed my favourite gold spray paint and had at it. I originally planned for the stool to act as the chair for the desk in our kitchen, but I couldn't decide on a fabric for that room (we haven't really done anything in the way of decorating in there). As I was digging through my fabric remnants I came across the piece from the pillowcase. A few staples later and I was in love. See for yourself.

It's become the "aquarium stool." Rob and I often sit there and just stare into the aquarium (which is coming along nicely, I must say). And there you have my quick stool update!

a day at the orchard

Sunday morning I met some of my family at an apple orchard. While apple picking was definitely on the to-do list, the main reason for our trip was to take maternity photos for Carolyn (and take a few family photos for Jenn). Jen and Pat arrived first so we snuck in some photos before the girls got restless.

Isn't she the cutest thing??

Carolyn and Shawn arrived after our quick family session. I'm not a professional by any means and this was my first "couple" shoot. I don't know how the pros do it. Posing people is so weird! 

This was way too much fun and I hope Carolyn and Shawn love these as much as I do. It won't be long before there are newborn photos on the blog!

official living room tour

I shared a few iPhone pictures last week when my computer was dead but now I can share photos from my camera. I have to say that I think the living room has come together pretty nicely considering we moved in two and half weeks ago! I can't even tell you how good it feels to hear Rob tell his friends and any visitors we've had how "nicely it has come together" and that "Jyll did a really good job." It makes me happy that he loves it too because I really tried to think of him when picking everything!

Here we go!

I'm still not sure what the plan is for the wall behind the couch. Ideally we would like to put some sort of entry table there to catch our keys when we walk in the door. I'm thinking of building one with copper pipe and butcher block. We will see!

And here is the view from the front door. I actually love the aquarium in that corner so we can see it right when you walk in. I can't wait to have more coral and fish in it.

 And there you have it. I love how all of our thrifted/revamped/new items have come together. The little gallery wall makes me smile every time I walk in the door. I love the eclectic mixture of frames, washi tape and wooden thumb tacks. And Boba Fett of course. Did you notice the Star Wars poster? I think I win girlfriend of the year award.

Hopefully I can share more areas of our house soon!

reunion

We finally got our new laptop charger in the mail so now I have to sift through all the pictures I've taken over the last few weeks. I have lots of house stuff to share but before I do that I wanted to share a couple photos from camping! My friend, Emma, had been travelling (South America, Fiji, and mostly New Zealand) for 16 months and she finally came home a couple weeks ago! We had plans to go camping the weekend she got home but we surprised her on Wednesday when she got home from the airport! After a long night of catching up we spent the next day lounging watching Friends (like literally all day, I think we finished two seasons!)

Friday morning we left the city behind and drove out to the country to set up camp. The main reason for choosing Elora was Riverfest, a folk/blues-ish music festival. After pitching our tents and cracking a few beers, the boys arrived and then we headed to the festival grounds. It was quite the little university reunion! 

We arrived just in time to hear the Arkells (from Hamilton, Ontario). And then set up our blanket on the lawn to listen to the rest of the bands. Once back at the site we roasted marshmallows and spider-dogs on the fire.

Unfortunately I left the next morning while everyone stayed for another day of the festival. But I definitely want to go back to Elora to explore and spend more time at the gorge. Even though it was short it was amazing to see everyone again. Hopefully we can have another reunion soon!

welcome home

It's been just over a week since Rob and I moved into our new house!! Except I was away camping for most of last week so we've actually only lived together for like five days! But so far so good. The house has been coming along nicely and being semi-unemployed has given me more time to get everything in order!

In the midst of moving both of our MacBook chargers called it quits hence my lack of posting. So we have ordered a new one but in the mean time I'm on my ipad and thought I would share some iPhone pictures!

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!

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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!!