Room Swap

What can I say, I like change. Change makes me happy. If I could, I would repaint, refurnish & rework almost everything in my house.  Not that I don't love our space - I just simply like change. However, I have a husband who hates change. So, in order to keep my marriage alive, I have to throttle back my desire to change things (just a little bit).

After 6 years of marriage, I have found a few ways to make changes that require little or no involvement from Dean, AKA Mr. Things Are Perfect Just The Way They Are.  Sometimes it's as simple as adding more pillows or switching curtains without him even noticing. Other times, it requires moving furniture around - to which he fights me, but still does it to make me happy. And in the end, although he hates to admit it, he loves the changes too.

Now, on to the room swap! With the arrival of a new year, one that started out a little bumpy, I thought it would be the perfect time to make some changes in our living space.  Our living room was lacking space and comfort.  And since our girls are growing at an incredible pace - our 4 year old is a head taller than all her classmates and our soon to be 3 year old is all tall as her sister's classmates - I wanted a living room that could accommodate our size, our lifestyle, have room to play, cuddle, read, relax. This meant swapping the living room with the dining room.  Well, I am sure you can imagine how the conversation between Dean and I went...

...Since Dean thought I was crazy, I had no choice but to call in backup.  Lucky for me, I have a friend who is an interior designer.  Enter Jen Storey of Jen Storey Designs. She is exactly what you would picture an interior designer to look like. Tall, beautiful, funky and stylish.  Heck, if I couldn't convince my husband, I knew that she could!

After our consultation with Jen, I was even more excited to get going on this project. The paint colour she choose for the "new" dining room was perfect. Sherwin Williams Mossy Gold - a mix between pea soup and a dirty diaper. Trust me, it's awesome.  Now, I just had to find the perfect time to start painting.  As I mentioned earlier, after 6 years of marriage you know how to navigate these kinds of situations. I simply waited for the long weekend Dean had to work. Picked up the paint on Friday morning and finished painting Sunday. Clever? Yes. Sneaky? Absolutely! At least I did all the dirty work.

Well, let me just say, the next two days were spent moving furniture, compromising, convincing Mr. Things Are Perfect Just The Way They Are that it was going to look great, and more compromising.  The end result? Our room swap was a success. It is now a functional, comfortable space. We (yes, Dean loves it too) are all very happy  with how it turned out and we are using the space the way I envisioned.  Cuddling & playing more as a family. Change is good.

Before

After

Before

After

Sad news - during our room swap, we put a crack in the beautiful mirror hanging above the couch!

That's why you no longer see it in later pictures. 

During - the first wall in new dining room painted with Mossy Gold paint

The chaos!

A few more after photos.

I still have a few more things to do to finish things off, but overall we are loving our new spaces.  Now onto my next project - turning the nursery into my walk-in closet! Yay!  Just do me a favour, and don't tell my husband.

A little bit of this & a little bit of that

There's no such thing as a typical week for me. They change constantly! Since my husband does shift work, we are fortunate that he has every other weekend off and some days off during the week.
Some weeks I book in clients and some weeks I don't. Some weeks we go on mini family adventures and some weeks we stay put.  I like it that way. I like change. And I especially like that we don't have to do grocery shopping on the weekends!

So here is a brief look into my life - it's a little bit of this mixed with a little bit of that.

I have been on a bit of a quest to brighten up our dark dining room. So I painted the Whatnot and the writing desk. (Those of you against painting wood - you may want to look away)

 Before

 After

After

I have been out of brochures for a while and finally got around to creating some new ones. I kept them very simple and I think they turned out alright!

Doing some styling for a client and friend Jill over at say yippie

 I LOVE hanging out with my friends. When we heard that our friend Emily was playing AND there was a BBQ, we were there!  Here I am enjoying my burger at Pan Chancho for their Back Yard BBQ & Band Series. (Yes, my jeans match the topping on my burger)
Great food, great friends and great music!

 Shenanigans! Always up for a challenge.

 Having a great time at the Princess Street Promenade. A fun event that turned our main downtown shopping street - Princess Street, into a pedestrian only zone.  Stores and restaurants opened their doors and moved out to the street offering discounts, promotions, food, drink, along with lots of special events including music, bouncy castles, climbing walls and face painting.
 My girls LOVED it and it is forever called Opposite Day since they were allowed to walk on the street.

Dancing and singing. 

Enjoying the cooler weather on our front yard swing.

 Birthday Party fun. Celebrating Braeden's 4th birthday.

How could we NOT sit here!

Going for a family walk at Lemoine Point.

Since when did Andy start drawing faces?!

 Making paper peace lanterns at Skeleton Park for Hiroshima Day.

Now...I wonder what this week will bring?!