Staycation Adventures!

We didn't have too much planned on our week off. My one "must-do" was the bathroom. Andre's one "must-do" was going to Turkey Point for the day. That didn't get done simply because the weather this summer has been...ummmm.....shitty and cold! So the water of Lake Erie really hasn't had a chance to warm up, so there is no way in hell I am swimming, and after bending around that god-forsaken toilet painting, my back just couldn't handle sitting on the beach all day.

Andre was really bummed out, but we still went Mini Putting (Andre kicked my butt), had some friends over for dinner (very yummy, and lots of fun!), went for a walk at the Bayfront Park with Pam and Abbey (more on that), did some cleaning around the house (not really fun, but necessary), and I went to a pool party with some friends, and Andre went out with a buddy of his to go roller blading. Most importantly we slept in, and RELAXED. The most important thing of any vacation really. We both didn't want the week to end.

We knew that one of the days we wanted to go to Bayfront Park to have a walk along the waterfront, so we called Pam up to see if her and Abbey wanted to come along, she didn't hesitate! I try to get together with Pam at least once a month if not more, so it was a regular visit for me, but Andre hasn't seen Abbey since December (!!!) so he was shocked at how big she was getting. She's definitely turning into a little girl now, the baby is slowly disappearing.

We walked along the paths, and then took a break at the Pavilion so Abbey could have her dinner before we went to Hutches for ice-cream, one of her new favourite treats. She will take a few assisted steps if there is a cookie at the end of it, but today she was stubborn and wouldn't take any steps for the camera. I snapped some of her hanging on to her stroller though.

Then came the best part, ice cream! Since Pam let Abbey have a little bit of ice cream a few weeks ago, Abbey has loved it. She will not give up her cone once she has it in her little hands.

How could I possibly finish the entry without beautiful Miss Abbey and her Auntie Jenna?

Bathroom Face-lift

I had the morning off today, so I decided to make myself useful and finally post the pictures of our bathroom face-lift. Eventually our bathroom will have to be redone, but until we win the lottery, some paint was just going to have to do the trick!

The bathroom was horrible to start off with. Pink bathtub, beige and blue vinyl tub surround, grey trim, grey cabinets, grey/beige paint peeling off the walls, and the best, mouldy tacky ass boarder around the top of the wall to finish off the look. I can't decide whether the guy that lived here before us was just lazy, or just didn't see the shape that this room was in.

The room is incredibly tiny, so here are the before pictures to give you an idea of how everything looked when we started our little project on Monday:

This was what remained of the border since we've been slaving away at it. We had tried scoring it, soaking it, scraping it, and this is how we had left it. Let this be the warning of what happen when you put wallpaper in a master bath. Mould grows on the paper. So gross.

We got as much of the paper off as we could, then got to work on sanding the walls down, so the remaining paper was a smooth as possible.

Here is a picture of the walls after we got off as much wallpaper as we could and then sanded, and the ceiling after 1 coat of paint. The ceiling needed 3 coats to cover the grey/beige colour.

Here is what the cabinets looked like after 2 coats of paint. They are currently waiting their third coat of trim paint. (also a little peak at our gorgeous pink tub!)

And last but not least the much awaited after shot of the bathroom. We had some leftover kitchen/bathroom paint from when my mother painted her bathroom, so we used that. Not only did it match our shower curtain almost perfectly, but it was free. So the only thing we had to buy was a gallon of white kitchen/bathroom for the ceiling. We had some leftover regular ceiling paint, but considering how small the room is, I wanted the proper paint in here to reduce the likelihood of mould/mildew growth.

It's so much more calm, crisp, clean and bright looking now!

Lean, mean, reading machine!

That is what I am.

I love reading. Like totally love it. Since I was a pre-teen. I was one of those geeks that would bring books to school to read during her spare time. (I so cannot believe that I am admitting this on the Internet.) I had all of the books that Judy Blume ever wrote in a boxed set when I was 13. I had all the Baby Sitters Club books. I waited patiently for the Special Edition ones that they put out because they were longer than the regular books=more to read.

Then when I became an adult I read Oprah's book club, and then I started getting depressed, because that girl only picks depressing books! (Anyone else notice that?!) Now I mostly read Chick Lit (otherwise known as fluff). It's entertaining, it's quick, easy, not too complicated. Unlike real life. A couple of my favourite authors are Jennifer Weiner, Sophie Kinsella, Lauren Weisberger. I do read "real" books too. I could go on and on, but I won't bore all of you all while I still have some people that haven't switched to another blog on their reader.

Over the last year though I found myself in a slump. I couldn't find anything that held my interest. I would read for the sake of reading any book that my friends would loan me, but I would find myself just reading, but not really enjoying it. I was searching for the book that would get me out of my slump. Enter my friend Tracy. Tracy is in love with all things supernatural. She loves stories about Vampires, Ware wolves, Witches, you name it. The more steamy, racy and sexy they are the better. I got me thinking about a couple books that I read years ago while I was bedridden on muscle relaxers as a result of a back injury. (yeah, I know, the irony of a massage therapist with a back injury!) "Bitten" and "Stolen" were the first fantasy-esque sort of books I ever read. The best part was they were by a Canadian author, Kelley Armstrong. The books dealt with a woman who was bitten by a ware wolf, thus becoming the first female ware wolf. Good books.

Fast forward to present day. My friend Tracy had read this series of books "The Southern Vampire" series (I would make this clicky, but it's late). Lo and behold years later this series of books would be made into my one of my favourite shows, True Blood. I went online, read some reviews, and bought the first book, Dead until Dark (by Charlaine Harris), which was the basis for the first season. I was hooked! The day I finished that book I went online to order the rest, and ended up ordering the boxed set of the first 7 books on sale.

I have to admit that I was wary of ordering a series of Vampire books. I have to be one of the only women on the face of the planet that has not picked up a Twilight book. I haven't even seen the movie. Yeah, I know, you can wipe that look of shock off your face. Every person that I have talked to, even the ones that are obsessed with all things Twilight talk about how bad the books are. They talk about how slow the books are (hello, how could you read a series when the couple in love don't do the nasty for like three books?????), how repetitious the writing is, etc, etc. So I was a little skeptical about this Southern Vampire Series.

It so did not disappoint. The books aren't difficult or complex by any stretch of the imagination, but they are witty, have a plot (!), have great character development, and what I love about the story, is that they are focused on the main characters, and don't delve into sub-plots like some mystery/suspense novels can. I whizzed through the first seven books of the series over the last two weeks, and I have books 8 and 9 on order through Indigo as we speak.

As with any book that is used as a basis for a movie or television show, the story changes, and they have changed the story quite a bit, but I was totally expecting that. I think it helps that I started watching the show before reading the books. So I wasn't critiquing the plot changes while watching the first season.

So for anyone that is looking for something a little bit different to read this summer, I totally recommend this series to you!

Back to work!

Unfortunately my staycation has come to an end :o(

Tomorrow is back to work for Andre and I.

We did have a great week off though. So great in fact that I have made a decision: I want to be a kept woman and stay home so it can be a perpetual staycation! I know....wishful thinking. But dreams are free. I loved being off. I got to spend time with friends mid week (that never happens!), I could sleep in, I could take afternoon naps, and I could read. I don't think I was in bed before 11:30 all week because I just had to devour my new series of books.

You may remember my obsession with the series True Blood? Well a friend of mine at work has read all of the books in the series that the show is (loosely) based on, and I am now 3/4 of the way through book 7. I think I read four of the books this week alone. So that is how I spent my spare moments this week when I wasn't spending time with my honey.

More on our bathroom make-over and all of the fun things we did this week later, it's now after 11pm and I have to work tomorrow. I must get my beauty sleep!!

Staycation 2009 has begun!

Well my vacation technically began on Friday, but I've been a little busy since then.

Friday morning bright and early I left with two friends to drive up to Sauble Beach to meet up with two more of our friends that had been vacationing there all week with their babies. The 7 of us spend Friday and Saturday together sunning and relaxing. We even managed to miss a huge thunderstorm (I know another one!) before we arrived back home on Saturday night.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Sauble:

Someone was nice enough to take our picture:

The view of the beach from the cottage:

The beautiful sunset:

Andre was a little bummed that I was leaving him for a couple of days and let me know how much he missed me by leaving this to greet me when I got home:

He's such a sweetie when he wants to be!

Now we're starting the second part of my vacation. The first day of Andre's vacation. We had many plans (well mostly me) of how much we were going to get done around the house, but I think the only thing we will manage to get done will be the bathroom since it's been slowly driving me crazy since we moved into the house in January.

It was grey. The ceiling was grey, the walls were grey, the trim door and cabinet was painted a darker grey. It was depressing, and if that colour scheme doesn't make you want to cry, there was a horrible grey and pink border to make the look complete. Sadly (or not so sadly) I don't have any true before pictures of this room. Within the first week of moving in my grandfather had come over to install our new light fixture, and (white) cabinet above the toilet. Then the wallpaper stripping began, and stopped.

It's the border from hell. We have soaked it, we have scored it, we have steamed it and then scraped it. This border does not want to come off. So we decided that we would get off as much as we could then use the electric sander to get the last of it as smooth as possible. We think this will work out (fingers crossed!).

I know you're dying for a picture, but you will all have to wait. I am off to my parents house to use their shower before making dinner.

Father's Day BBQ

It was kind of a last minute celebration around here. Andre was at work (as usual) and I invited my parents, and sister Carrie and her boyfriend Darren over for a BBQ. It was a great chance for all of us to spend some family time together, and I got to host our very first BBQ outside.

Andre joined us later on when he was done work, and Carrie and Darren stayed later and the four of us just gabbed and enjoyed the great weather. It was a lot of work, but worth it.

What a difference a year makes

I was making some organizational changes to my blog and reading through some old posts when I made it to July 2008, and came across this post about some problems we had while we were in the apartment.

It made me think about the frustration that we had been feeling, and how we wished for nothing more than to be homeowners, and not have to deal with the pain of renting anymore. Never in a million years did I think that just one year later I would be blogging from my very own home, never mind that we would've been living there for almost 7 months! It's crazy. Being homeowners hasn't been easy. There have been bumps, but it's been great, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we're here.

Strawberry Banana Overnight French toast

There is a group of us that try and get together about once a month. The last couple times we have ended up getting together on a Saturday or Sunday morning for brunch. This has been great because it has forced me to research and try some new recipes, and really, who doesn't love gabbing with your friends over some mimosa's and delicious food on a weekend morning?
So after some searching on the web, I found a great recipe for overnight french toast with strawberries and banana's. It was so yummy. One of my friends who doesn't even like French Toast loved it. If that doesn't convince you maybe this picture will:


Make Ahead French Toast:

Ingredients:

5 eggs, beaten

3⁄4 cup milk

1 tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder

1 loaf Italian bread, cut into 8 (1-inch-thick)slices

(I couldn't find a loaf of Italian bread when I was shopping, so I just bought a loaf of thicker bread and just used entire slices instead.)

1 package (16 ounces) frozen whole strawberries, thawed

(I used a bag 0f President's Choice frozen strawberries.)

4 ripe bananas, sliced

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar

Mix eggs, milk, Pure Vanilla Extract and baking powder. Pour over bread to soak; turn to coat well. Cover. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

The next morning:
Mix strawberries, bananas and granulated sugar in 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with soaked bread slices. Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar.

Bake in preheated 450°F oven 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

(Recipe taken from McCormick Cooking with Flavor, 2007 McCormick Inc.)

Rainbow after the Storm

Anyone who has been living in Southwestern Ontario lately can tell you all about the spectacular thunderstorms that our area has been having. It's unbelieveable!! Last week I'm pretty sure that we had at least three thunderstorms. That was after the thunderstorm from hell that we had the Thursday before.



Well a few nights ago after one of those storms Andre said mentioned something about the possiblility of a rainbow outside. Sure enough when I stepped out into the backyard this is what I saw:

It almost makes the storm worth it....almost.