Making it Ours!

We're almost finished the painting/wallpapering we planned to do when we moved into our new house.

The former Nursery has turned into a nice little Office.

That's a white board painted on the wall behind Steve. The office still needs a few little things before it's finished.

- the shelves in the built-in bookshelf need to be cut to fit properly

- some appropriate office furniture (chair, printer stand, etc)

- a few pictures on the wall

The second bedroom (AKA the Library/Guest Room/Amy's Office) has been changed from the bright red and blue Thomas the Tank Engine motif to a more grown-up/relaxing white room.

this is a close up of the wallpaper:

We bought a new couch to go in the Living room (for now).

It is actually a futon, so it will eventually end up in the second bedroom. But for now, it is in the Living room. It has 3 positions: couch, bed, and double lounger. We love it!

We have decorated the house for Christmas, even though all of my Christmas things are still in Alberta.

Despite having very limited decorations, I think it looks CUTE!

Here is our tree...

And here is our Fireplace (with our new mirror):

and here is a close up of the little topiary ornaments that I think are the cutest things I've ever seen!

I really love our house!

Our House!

We got the keys to our new house on Thursday! And by "we" I mean "Amy". Steve is out in Alberta starting an advertising company (Day Media). He left on October 7th and will be back around the 15th of December. So, I get a house to myself for a month and a half. I'd rather him be here though!

Last night was my first night in the house. It was very nice. I really do love this house. Here are some from my first day in the house. Keep in mind that I bought a few things for the house that day, so the counters are a bit messy, and we haven't painted anything yet. So, these are the 'before' pictures.

The Joys of Moving Across the Country

While we are VERY excited to be moving into our new house in a week, and are happy to be back in Nova Scotia with the MacKinnon side of our family, we are not super excited about living in an empty house for about 6 months.

All of our stuff (our bed, night stands, TV, chairs, pictures, ornaments, kitchen things, extra clothes, sheets and towels, etc.) is in Alberta until we can figure out how to get it home.

We could have paid $5,000 to rent a u-haul, but we thought that was a ridiculous price (that doesn't even include gas!)

Steve is in Alberta now, so he will be bringing some things home with him in his suitcase, along with mailing home a couple of boxes. Everything else will have to wait until Spring, when we will probably drive back out there in Ashley and Chad's SUV.

All of my Christmas decorations are also in Alberta, so I will be making new stuff this year. Mom and I went to the beach the other day to collect shells in order to make some ornaments.

This is what I will be attempting with the shells:

I also plan to make the following Martha Stewart ornaments:

I'll post pictures when they're finished. I do love making crafts!!

Our First House Adventure continued...

After looking at about 40 houses, some of which we liked A LOT...

We're 99% sure we found the one! (we'll leave a 1% chance that things don't work out)

We made an offer, they countered, we accepted and now we're going through the process of working out financing, getting the house inspected, etc.

We love this house! It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a dry, usable basement (which is surprisingly rare), a fenced in back yard, all appliances (and some furniture) included, and it's in a good neighbourhood. It doesn't need any work, but could use a few little things to make it perfect for us :)

I am SO looking forward to painting and decorating and making it ours!

Our First House Adventure!

On July 30th we moved into an apartment here in Lethbridge. The apartment was nice! The building was not! The police showed up and told us that they were there at least once a day if not more to respond to domestic problems and that we shouldn't stay there any longer than we had to. Also, we were told before we signed the lease that it was a non-smoking building (we always ask because I have allergies). It turned out that people could smoke anywhere they wanted in the building!

So, we got out of that lease on August 3rd (the soonest we could).

We had one month to find a new place so we decided to go to the bank to find out if we could possibly get a mortgage and buy a house.

They said yes!

We started looking at houses in Stirling, Alberta (since we LOVE it here!) but quickly realized that there was nothing in our price range.

By 'nothing' I mean this is the best we can afford in Stirling:

We didn't like the idea of our first house being a trailer that needed work. So we looked at our other options.

- buy a condo in Lethbridge?

- buy land in Stirling and put a pre-built home on it?

- buy a small house in Ontario?

- buy a house in Nova Scotia?

We carefully researched all of our options and finally decided that the best one was buying a house in Nova Scotia where we could easily afford something like this...

or this...

(by the way, both of those Nova Scotian houses are cheaper than the trailer in Alberta)

We are currently packing all of our stuff and we will be leaving for Nova Scotia sometime this week.

We are VERY excited to look at houses and pick out the one that will be our first home!! :)

We will miss our Alberta people, but we look forward to lots of visitors!

My Famous Recipes!

I entered a cooking contest last month and created two new, interesting and healthy recipes.

Creamy Bacon Pasta Salad



Leftovers Lasagna


The Creamy Bacon Pasta Salad came in 3rd and is in the Catelli online cookbook and the Leftovers Lasagna came 9th but was the only recipe featured in their emailed newsletter!
How exciting! :)

The Weather

There has been some crazy weather the last few weeks.
It was great for photographic opportunities!

Before the storm:


After the storm:




This is one of my most favourite times of the year because the Lilacs are out! I LOVE Lilacs!

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Spring Snow

Generally, I am not a fan of Winter. I don't like the inconvenience of snow. Although I do love some things about Winter. I love Christmas, winter photography, and fireplaces.

I am generally a fan of Spring because I know that Summer is only a few months away.

One thing I do not enjoy AT ALL is a huge blizzard in the middle of Spring!

All the snow was gone, it was nice and sunny and warm, you could see the buds on the trees, we had an Easter Egg Hunt outside... and then all of a sudden, we had a blizzard that knocked out the power for almost a full day and the internet for 3 days! The snow came on Tuesday night and we STILL have a yard full of it.

It did allow for some cute pictures though... so I guess it wasn't 100% horrible.

Snow on April 14th

Lely in her sweater

Steve has started an advertising business called Day Media Inc. He recently etched the logo onto a glass! It turned out really great!