Notes from the Blue House

I do this every year. Every. Single. Year. I dream up a long-winded, overwhelming list of New Years Resolutions and vehemently commit to following through. Each year, I swear I'll be more committed than the last and then by mid-February I'm beating myself up for dropping my resolutions like a bad habit. Usually, my resolutions have an awful lot to do with my house. I can't help it, I'm a dreamer and this house is full of potential and in serious need of some loving. I watch Sarah Richardson's shows and swing between complete adoration on one hand and 'uh-I hate this perfect bitch and her $20,000 decor budget PER ROOM." on the other. Still, she inspires me and I will work with what I've got to make my house shine for my family. So here goes nothing, here's my list of resolutions for 2012. Maybe posting them to the blogosphere will somehow make me feel more accountable for them. 1. Re-do master bedroom 2. Give the kitchen a face lift using paint onl

Sometimes you find yourself in a jam. A total pickle. Well, this weekend I found myself screwed blued and tattooed (as my dad would say). I'd been so looking forward to a weekend away with both of my sisters-in-law and a bunch of their girlfriends. We'd been planning for months to cross the border into Buffalo and shop like zombies at 3am to score Black Friday deals. We shopped for about 33 straight hours. We shopped until every inch of our bodies ached and begged us for rest. We shopped until we couldn't stand our own griminess another minute and just had to go back to the hotel to shower. We were shopping machines. After unloading the van, I stood among bags and bags and bags of stuff and thought "Gee...wonder why people complain that we're losing the spirit of Christmas in all our stuff".  I silently vowed to buy some toys and clothes to give to local charities to ease some of the guilt I'd be carrying home with all my shopping bags. After an amazing

Sometimes it seems that I tuck my sweet, good natured preschooler into bed and then wake up to find a mouthy, defensive and sullen teenager has replaced him overnight. This strange phenomena has been happening more often over the past few weeks and I'd be willing to bet that it's got something to do with my parents absence. You see, my mom ,in particular, has always been a very regular presence in Owen's little world. Now that my parents have been stranded in N.Ireland thanks to my Dad's busted ankle, I wonder if Owen's been a bit rattled by the hole they've left behind here. No more "Fridays with Nana". Those days are kind of like "Tuesdays with Morrie" but with less soul-searching and more junk food. Thankfully, these meltdowns aren't a daily occurrence. But when they happen-watch out. I'm talking screaming, fist pounding and foot stomping. I'm talking red-faced, teary-eyed and out of breath, this stuff is not for pansies. I thi

After shopping and shopping and shopping and...you get the idea...I couldn't find a light fixture that I loved for the guest room. I think we can all agree that the ugly 90's ceiling fan has to go. buh-bye ugly! Now what-the-what could I put in it's place? I'd all but given up and and spent the $80 necessary to bring home this souless and overpopular Ikea fixture because while it may be souless it's still super duper cute. Well, as luck would have it, my mom found a lovely new light fixture for her dining room and wouldn't be needing the old chandelier any longer. Score! I'll take it! 'FREE' is definately my favourite 4 letter 'F' word.  I brought the bronze bad boy home, bought a can of spray paint and voila! Here's a before and after for you. BEFORE AFTER I've also made some other additions to the room to finish it off-new sheets in a geometric pattern, art for the wall opposite the bed, a lamp, and the curtain panels

A girlfriend of mine is preggers and I couldn't possibly be more excited for her. She's not a naive teenager; she's an intelligent, capable and, most importantly, hilarious woman. I know her sense of humour will serve her well when she finds herself smeared with baby poop someday soon. While I'm sure she's not going into this next chapter of her life blind, I think that none of us can really anticipate how greatly life will change once this teeny weeny person moves into your house. During pregnancy, there's no shortage of strangers offering you congratulations, advice and tidbits of wisdom. I've actually had a stranger at Home Depot put her face on my belly to talk to Simon in this horrendously cutesy voice. I could feel her breath through my sweater! yuck. There is nothing like a bump to draw the attention and well-meaning advice of strangers. This advice ranges from the typical crap like: "start putting pablum in the bottle right away to get more slee

 Parental confession: I'd planned to take Owen (and Simon, obviously-we're kind of a package deal) to Marineland last month, but when our plans changed unexpectedly I told Owen a little white lie. I said that the whales at Marineland had a cold and weren't feeling up to visitors that day. Afterall, they spend so much time in the chilly water it makes sense that they may get the sniffles occassionally. He was bummed for a few minutes but quickly forgot all about it and geared up for the fun day we had planned for him. At least I thought he'd forgotten all about it. Every time the little jingle played during a drive or on the T.V, Owen would belt out "Everyone looooooves Marineland!" and then ask me if the whales were feeling any better because he'd really like to visit. Each time he expressed his heartfelt concern for these flipping whales, my guilt was compounded. At the time, I thought that a little fib would be a harmless way for me to avoid dealing w

I vividly remember looking at teen magazines when I was 12, getting on my knees each night and praying for God to do me a large one and wash away my freckles. I wished for straight long blonde hair, a peaches and cream complexion and an older boyfriend (preferably named, 'Zack'). Admit it, you loved "Saved by the Bell" too. Middle school was no walk in the park for a scrawny, freckled, curly-haired gal and my fondness for cowboy boots didn't help matters. Each day, when I was released from my torture chamber public school, I retreated to my driveway and bounced on a pogo ball for awhile. I jumped rope with one of those ankle thingys with a strawberry counter on the end of it. Remember? I told my mom about the 'mean kids' and found comfort with her. Granted, it's been a couple of decades since I persevered through the social landmines of a typical public school but I'm sure it's getting worse! When my school day ended and I shlepped off tha

I was watching an episode of Design Inc. recently and, I'm not gonna lie, I found some pleasure in seeing Sarah Richardson screw up. She'd selected a shade of green for the main floor of a home and then, of course, left the painters to tackle the job. When she and Tommy arrived the next morning, there was this priceless glance at eachother as they looked around the space. The colour sucked. It was muddy, it was dark, it was dingy, it was.....sweet perfection. Of course, with their ridiculous talent, they quickly admitted that the colour flopped and moved on. The space ended up being beautiful, Sarah Richardson beautiful. That goof-up brings me great comfort as I show you the pic of the colour I'd originally painted the guest room. Prepare yourselves. I assume no responsibility for damage to your corneas after viewing this photo. The pic doesn't do this colour justice-it was NEON green. Lady GaGa would love this room! She'd throw on her kermit dress and s

When we moved into this place it was a 3 bedroom that was clearly missing a wall. The awkwardly long bedroom was painted a horrifying candy pink...well, horrifying to us..I'm sure it rocked the socks off the 2 pre-teen girls who once shared it. The carpet throughout this house is tired, stained and begging us to let it die but this room in particular was gross. It turns out that pre-teen girls aren't especially clean. Who knew? We moved our stuff in and immediately put the reno of this weird bedroom at the top of our list. We'd need to erect (tee hee...I said "erect"...man, I'm so immature) a wall including closet spaces to make this house a 4 bedroom once again. When we discovered in August 2010 that I was building a brand new human being, the project took on an added sense of urgency as we'd be needing a baby room. Simon's room was the first to be finished and furnished.  The other room took a backseat to...well, to life. It's almost done, just f

Well, here goes nothing. After a dear friend suggested it, I've taken to the blogosphere to share (and rant, and rave and brag and ponder..etc) about life with my boys. I'm guessing that whoever reads this will be friends or family so perhaps introductions are unneccessary. Still, in the off chance that a stranger happens upon this, I'm Suzie. I share my life, my love and my home with my boys: my husband, Tim, our sons, Owen and Simon and my big hairy beast of a dog, Berkley (aka. Berk-the-jerk). A year ago, we bought our new house and we're slowly but surely transforming it into our dream home. This house has already won a special place in our hearts, Simon was born here. We've got big, crazy plans for this place and I think that a blog might be just the ticket in helping us to chronicle the transformations. We're DIY-ers and totally shameless cheapskates. Luckily, Tim is a superb handyman and he's not afraid to tackle some jobs that would likely cause your