Place your title here! Lol!

Ok so I'm gonna be brutally honest with you all today. I do not like our house! It's old, the upstairs smells and is falling apart, it is too small, its totally outdated, spiders and large ugly beatles love to hang out in our house, the water is really hard, although it does come with a washing machine, there is no dryer (there isnt even room for one!), did I mention that the upstairs is unuseable except for the bathroom, and the room off of it. The bathroom use to have moth balls, our house is in the middle of the mennonite community so we are the object of curiosity for some ppl as they drive by reeeeeeally slowly. When we moved in we knew this would only be temporary but we didn't know how long temporary would be. 

Having said all that, I want to share some things I am learning while living at this house. There have been days I just wanna scream, and leave this house behind forever, and of course there are days where I can handle it and it's actually not that bad!yesterday was one of those days. I organized some surfaces and even made this coke bottle decor. 

Maybe it helped because it was raining all day, 

and the husband was home! 

RABBIT TRAIL HERE, sorry. Anyhoo, the other day when I was having a rather hard day after some bad news, I decided to come up with a list of things that I was grateful for in this rat hole. Here it is in no perticular order.

1. It's a roof over our head

2. The bathroom is upstairs (which gives me a work out several times a day)

3. The rent is cheep 

4. It has a wash line out side

5. It has a big yard

6. It has a rhubarb plant so I can have rhubarb to my hearts content!

7. No carpet! 

8. It's close to our friends

Ok it may sound a little cheesy but it helps (some days) to think about these things that make life a little easier and morebearable. I guess God has a reason for having us here longer than we want to be. I choose to believe that he is holding us and has a better plan than we have.

A huge thanks to my husband for buying me a new camera! More picture posts to come!

Blessings!

Karen E.

Peacock inspiration

Wow, I can't believe today is Friday!!! Where has my week gone?! I was going through my blogs I follow when I saw the weekly title of Conspicuous Style's blog called "50 favorites for Friday". I mentally freaked out, and thought, what in the world, its Friday?! So at this moment I have resigned my self to the fact that it is indeed Friday.

Do you ever create blog posts in your head or even Facebook updates? I do. For blogs, at least parts, startings or at least come up with the idea. They sound great in my head, but for the most part they never make it to the blog. Tisk, tisk.

There is this amazing picture I took the other week while we were at a wild life park with my BIL and SIL. 

I am absolutely in love with the colors! It being spring, most of the makes we're in full glory whenever any female was around, and I mean full glory (wink, wink)! I was amazed at the brilliance of the colors, and how the viberant blue would show a shimmer of bright green. 

If you've been on pinterest at all, you've probably seen all the peacock themed designs for Rooms and clothing.

But I can't resist showing you some of them.

Source: design-seeds.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: cococakecupcakes.blogspot.com via Emma on Pinterest

Source: overstock.com via Brittany on Pinterest

Source: posheventplanning.com via Grace L. on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Ashley on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Stacy on Pinterest

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Source: media-cache6.pinterest.com via Kalina on

Well anyway, you get the idea. The females were gorgeous too, but I couldn't get a really good picture that would do it justice, and google didn't have a good one either. So if you want to know what they look like maybe you can look it up somewhere.

I better get going on things I need to do yet for the weekend.

Blessings! 

Karen E.

The great move

Wow a lot has changed since I last posted! I disappeared for my blog page for a while because I felt like I didn't have a lot to say and I find it hard to do posts without pictures. One other reason I felt held back from blogging is because as a home renter and not a home owner, I feel limited in decorating a house in my style when it is not my own, and I don't know how long we will be there. We have been trying to buy a house for the past two years and it has never worked out. 

Ok now onto other things. Like I said at the beginning, a lot has changed! Well for one thing, after over two years of trying we are now expecting our second child! 

On top of that we have made a huge leap in fulfilling a dream of ours, and we have moved to Nova scotia from Ontario.

Grrrr! The picture isn't clear, but you get the idea of how far it is.

We love it here!

You have got to see the houses out here! They are colorful, some are new and some are old and well taken care of!

I have a lot more on my mind but I guess I will have to save it for the next time.

Blessings!

Karen E.

the business of life

I have been neglecting this blog I know, and I am sorry. Kinda. Its hard to keep the blog updated when next to no one reads it anyway. I love the blogging world and would love to be a part of it.

These past two weeks have been busy and tiring. the last two weekends we have had in-laws over for night, and started working out at 6 am. Yes it has been a very busy week. 

I have been working on our home though. I think that the first thing about creating a beautiful home, home and not just a beautiful house is having a clean and tidy home. Its what makes a good impression, and its what makes coming to your house a pleasant and relaxing experience. But its not just  for company, but for you and your family. I find that when my house is clean that I feel more inspired, and it makes us all happier. 

It is something my mom has taught us all our lives, and I saw it play out in our home. My husband installs windows and doors for a living, and the stories he can tell about the houses he has been in would make any health inspector have nightmares!

Am I saying that my house is always neat and clean? No way, but its something I am working on, and have been doing a pretty good job so far this week.

in other news I have been finding all kinds of goodies on pinterest that I have trying. 

Source: gimmesomeoven.com via Karen on Pinterest

These amazing Energy Bites

Source: underthehighchair.com via Karen on Pinterest

I have fallen in love with these super easy Pita Bread

Source: remodelaholic.com via Karen on Pinterest

These Cinnamon roll Pancakes are sinfully sweet, and delicious

Source: decorandthedog.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

I found this recipe on a blog I follow and I had to make them almost immediately!

well its late and I shall sign out.
good night void.

Blessings!
Karen E.

From my bookshelf

When I look at my bookshelf I see old and dear friends whom I have spent many a sweet hour with them. I have not spent time with them as much as I use to. So, I will try to read one book in a week and give you an overview of it.

So this week I think I shall read...


"The Eleventh Hour"
It is the first book in "The Secret of the Rose" series.
It is written by Michael Phillips, and is set in Germany just before WW2. It is a book filled with suspense, conspeiracy, the beginning of love, and deep thoughts.
It is definitely worth the read. Overview to come.

Blessings!
Karen E.

Designer Wednesdays!

Yes dear readers of mine, if you are even out there, I have officially moved Designer days to Wednesday in stead of Mondays. the reason being, is that I have time to research and pull everything together. These past few Mondays have been busy and I have felt bad that I have not gotten around to posting.

So with out further delay I would like to start designer Wednesday off by introducing you to Andrea Crawford, of Andrea Crawford interior design.

Andrea started in 1990 in Toronto, and has been working in its established neighborhoods since then. But her work is not limited to Toronto only, but has expanded and continues to expand. From Ontario's lakeside cottages, to the historical Montebello in Quebec.

On thing I love about Andrea Crawford's design style, is that they feel personable, beautiful, and very functional.

She caters to to many different styles, and loves helping clients define their own unique style.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

© Andrea Crawford Interior Design Inc. All rights reserved.

Her and her work have been featured in Canadian House & Home, Country homes & Interiors, British publications, and the National Post, just to name a few.

I absolutely love the use of color (which to me is very important to me), and print she uses with in a space!

I also love the way she blends the old with element of new.

Well enough of my babbling, go on and check out her website here.

Blessings!

Karen E.

All photos were taken from Andrea Crawford design's webpage.

I finally did it!

What, you ask did I finally do? I finally decorated the ledge in one of our entrances. Not a huge feat but its something I have been wanting to get done, and now i finally did it.

Introductions first. this is my ledge.

(cue chirping noise) Yes boring I know.

I wasn't quite sure how what I was gonna do. As I looked at it I asked God what I should do. So I went through my small house to see what I could see.

Here is what I found:

-an old mason jar
- Coffee Beans
-an oil lamp
-a  vase
-a single white flower
- Old books
- a picture frame

Here is what I came up with
I filled the mason jar with the coffee beans (don't worry they were decaf. we only realized they were decaf after we bought them. What a bummer!). Anyway.... I did the obvious and put the white flower in the vase, scratched the oil lamp from the list (it didn't look right), stacked the old books, and printed a welcome sign for the picture frame.

Before:

After!

(Cue angel choir!)

Its not much but it makes the entry way much more inviting!

Well thats it for now.

Blessings!

Karen E.