August 26, 2012

I call it Dharmaritaville!

Man have we been spending our summer in the great outdoors that is our backyard. We’ve been making improvements in and around the new swimdeck and enjoying the space so much I think my friends and family are ready to call out a search party. I refer to my backyard as Dharmaritaville. I am the “Woman to Blame”
….name that reference.
When we put in the new swimdeck, we had a strip of grass leading from the interlocking brick to grass to steps. Boys + friends + kids parties all summer meant a lot of grass in the pool. So, on my trip up north to the cottage, Greg and I *rescued* (ahem, liberated) some flat black Muskoka granite from the lake and brought it home to put down a path.
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Butcher knife, a hot day of Greg sweating it out and I now have this lovely little dealio. Ahhhh….much less grass and dirt in the pool. I was in charge of beverages.
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After a few weeks of growth, it’s lovely.
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But that’s not NEAR as exciting as my first ever estate auction that Greg and I attended here on Saturday morning. I felt like a fish out of water, getting my own paddle, but I persevered. The sale was at an old converted school house turned into an antiques barn. Oh……you would have loved it. I poked over the offerings and even spied a few things I thought were for me. The one and only thing I truly wanted I spied immediately upon walking up to the sale. A 1920s white wicker sofa. Be still my heart. I have seen others like it in much worse condition for hundreds of dollars. On my limited budget, I was sure she would be winking at me from the back of someone else’s truck bed as she sped into the distance.
Never fear, dear reader! I pursued and won my first ever auction item! $80 was my final bid and she winked at ME as we strapped her into our pickup!!!
Meet Savannah:
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She needs a little stretcher repair but she is gorgeous! Screaming out for a beautiful set of cushions but I was so excited to nap on her, I rallied and found some odds and sods and quickly passed out Saturday afternoon for a 2 hour nap.
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She is even Liam-Approved!
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I did make him get off her immediately after this picture was taken though. MINE!

August 17, 2012

Winner, Winner, Swedish Meatball Dinner!

Imagine my surprise when I opened my email today and saw this little alert:

Congratulations! You are a winner in IKEA Canada's 'Pin & Win' Pinterest contest. You have won a $100 IKEA gift card to spend on any of your favourite IKEA items!




I have been excitedly waiting on the new catalogue for 2013 and have even downloaded it from the IKEA Canada site (HERE) The Pin & Win contest was a fluke for me, I just followed IKEA on Pinterest for all the new eye-candy :) Of course, I started pinning straight away.

So now I have $100 to spend thanks be to IKEA. I am thinking the boys need some cool loungey chairs for the new games room/ computer den combo we created this summer out of our formal livingroom. I'm thinking these:
IKEA PS VÅGÖ = $29.99 each. Loving that you can just hose them down. I have boys, yo. For those of you who think I will stick to the $100 budget, I would like you to call my house and assure my husband that this will be the case. :) It will make him feel better when I ask for the keys to the pickup.

DO NOT tell him I am also on the hunt for nightstands. That will be our little secret...mmmmkay? Thinking of these, sprayed silver.

Soon my lovely round morsels, soooooooon.