Subway Blind

I love how graphic and punchy old subway and tram blinds are. The white lettering on black really pops. But I didn't fancy spending $300 on one. And I didn't want a random list of places I'd never been before.

Sarah at A Beach Cottage has a beautiful tram blind in her living room.

My friend Becky is a graphic artist at Stick People Press - she replicated the style with my list of places. I had it printed on canvas at Proper Design in Vancouver, and stretched and framed by another art shop.

I love how it turned out, and that there is a story and memories behind each name.

TOFW - Friday Night Recap

I could seriously be like the Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead around the US in the 70s and 80s - except that instead of going to see Jerry Garcia, I would be going to TOFW to see Hilary Weeks and S. Michael Wilcox.

Shopping and fun with the girls aside, the main reason I go is to immerse myself in the Spirit that I know will be there. I come back from TOFW feeling like I could take on anything. I am uplifted, inspired and most of all, I am reminded that I am not alone on this journey. My Heavenly Father and my Saviour want so much for me to succeed, and there are 2500 other women in the room with similar struggles and experiences – knowing that strengthens me.

The theme for this year was “Seek the Good.” John Bytheway opened on Friday night with a really great talk on being careful about what we surround ourselves with. He called it the ‘Parable of the Marinade’ – and he said that we are all marinating in something. Regardless of our original intention, you will eventually become with you surround yourself with.

Brad Wilcox spoke next on knowing the names of Christ. My favourites were: ‘I am’ - He can declare I am, I am real, I exist, I am the way, the truth, the life; ‘The King of Kings’ says a lot about Christ but it also says a great deal about us too; He is the ‘Finisher of Our Faith’ – He is not finished with us yet! When you don’t feel like a Queen, remember that he is not done with you yet. I really loved his talk.

I had seen the Mormon Message about Chris Williams’ story and was so touched. He spoke on dealing with adversity and avoiding the path of self pity. The Saviour can teach us how He would respond and we can find hope in any situation. Confront misery with mercy and kindness, and just let it go. He finished with an a cappella rendition of my absolute favourite hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

If you haven’t seen Chris Williams' story, watch it here:

Spokane WA

I went away on a road trip to Time Out for Women in Spokane, WA with my friend Karie and our daughters, Emily and Camille. The girls went to Time Out For Girls while we were at our conference. 

It was such a fun trip, with shopping and fun times with our girls ... and a LOT of driving. We made it there just in time for opening prayer!

We stayed at a cute boutique hotel called the Montvale. It had a restaurant called The Scout off the lobby that we ate all our meals at. Convenient, inexpensive and tasty.

This was Em's meal - a grilled cheese sandwich served in a vintage Flintstones lunchbox. So cute!

Being away from home, I took things a little too far. There were cookies in our hotel just outside our room every night! And I ate some. Okay, I ate four. In one day. And a chocolate truffle bar. And it was all good.

More pics and a recap of TOFW to follow.

Good Friday

I had such a great day today. The kids spent most of the day jumping on the trampoline when they weren't helping us clean up. Quinn was home after a long run of work, I went to yoga in the morning, did some cleaning around the house and finally put up some artwork downstairs. What a difference! I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to get around to deciding what to hang and where.

It was a beautiful sunny day – a perfect day to reflect on the sacrifice of our Savior and the promise of resurrection and eternal life. Easter is my favorite holiday and this year we hosted a family dinner for eleven on Good Friday. I cooked a big turkey and all the fixings and it was delicious. But the best part was spending time with people we love and don’t get to see often enough.

Happy Easter!

 Martha Stewart

Kitchen Reveal

At long last, here is my kitchen reveal:

The doors next to the fridge lead to my office (on the left) and my walk-in pantry (on the right). I love having my office right off the kitchen - I'm in the heart of it all and I get so much more done having my own space.  If it gets messy, I just close the door.

 Here you can get a better idea of how we faked a counter depth fridge.  The cabinets along the stove wall are set out from the wall 4 inches making the counter 29 inches deep rather than 25.  This gives the illusion of having a counter depth fridge. If we didn't do it, you'd see four inches more of the side of the fridge.  It also gives us a nice little space between the back of the stove and the wall.

We also had to cut down the cabinet above the fridge - Ron Fritz and John Laurie installed the kitchen and did all the finishing work inside as well as the siding on the outside.  They did a fabulous job - we could not have done this job without them.  They are exceedingly patient and easy to get along with. I love them. If you want a local referral, email me and I'll give you their deets.

Because the fridge is such a monster, it wasn't going to fit under the standard 16 inch cabinet we bought from Ikea.  So Ron cut it down to 12 inches high and I had two custom doors made locally to match.  You can't even tell.

Source List: 

Ikea's Tidaholm oak shaker-style door (custom sprayed)

Cabinet spraying by Christone Finishing in Vancouver

Luftig Hood Fan from Ikea

Caesarstone polished counters in 'Concrete'

White subway tiles from Lowe's

Price Pfister Hanover faucet

Appliances

I bought my appliances long before I planned my kitchen layout. I lucked out and everything worked out fine, but because I was working with Ikea kitchen cabinets that only come in standard sizes, I probably should have waited to buy my appliances. As it was, they went into a storage unit for six months before the kitchen was ready.  How naive of me to think that I would need them that early in the game.

Anyway, I needed four appliances: a dishwasher, stove, hood fan and fridge. I wanted them to match, I wanted stainless and other than specifying a counter depth fridge and dual fuel stove, I wasn't too fussed.  I opted for the Frigidaire Professional Series because I was able to buy the previous year's model of stove for a smoking deal.

I picked this Price Pfister faucet (from the Hanover collection) to go with my stainless appliances. I think it blends traditional and contemporary very nicely.

I realized pretty quickly that counter depth fridges are expensive. I opted instead to build out my lower cabinets four inches from the wall to give the illusion that the fridge was counter depth (29 inches instead of the standard 25).  It didn't cost me anything to do that, and it also gave me a deeper counter which I love.

I bought the Luftig Hood Fan from Ikea - and because I bought an appliance at the same time as I ordered my cabinets during their kitchen event, I got 20% back in gift cards - to the tune of almost $1300.

Kitchen Inspiration

I love Ikea. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Ikea saved me from mom burnout on more than one occasion.  When I was a new Mom with four little kids, we had just moved to Vancouver and Ikea became my haven. It was where I went to have forty-five minutes to myself - Ikea has free babysitting!  I would wander around, basking in the quiet, gloriously alone and would just look at the displays - the only things I ever remembering buying were toy storage, tea lights and big packages of napkins. 

Fast forward a number of years, and Ikea's free childcare paid off for them in spades.

Before deciding which direction to go with my own kitchen, I did A LOT of research. Our kitchen was the part of the reno that I looked forward to the most. Being a design show junkie, I had watched with interest as Colin and Justin and Sarah Richardson and others used Ikea kitchen cabinets to create beautiful and functional kitchens.

Sarah's House on HGTV

I found some great resources on other blogs as well.  Vanessa from Decor Happy has some great pics of Ikea kitchens.  I've also seen a recent post on Aubrey & Linday's blog too.

And if you are looking for a great how-to on navigating the Ikea kitchen experience, Carol Reed from Creed has two excellent posts here and here. I couldn't have done my kitchen without Carol's tips - in fact, I followed her guides pretty much exactly. I also found a fantastic Vancouver sprayer/painter and a paint supplier through a comment posted on Carol's second Ikea post.

It was a bit of a process and certainly a lot more work than hiring a kitchen designer.  But using Ikea saved me a ton of money and that allowed me to splurge on some other items that I probably wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise (like beautiful Caesarstone counters) and stainless appliances.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the end result.
Stay tuned for more pictures.