2015: The year of yoga

Photo via Aaron Neifer

Here we are, a few days into 2015.

This year marks 15 years since I graduated university (I think my heart just stopped when I wrote that), it's also the year that Marty McFly traveled to in 1989.

I'm marking 2015 as my year of yoga.

You see I used to do yoga a lot. It was one of my things. I felt amazing after a class and it helped me keep my decrepit back in check. It helped me with breathing (which really helped during labour) and helped to keep me calm. That last one there is what's missing the most right now from my life... that calm factor.

After I had Mila I didn't go to yoga as much. There really is no excuse other than I had two mini kidlets at home and I didn't feel like trekking them up to the gym daycare. I brought them a few times, but I would much rather go to the gym on my own when I'm not constantly thinking of what's going on in the other room. Anyway I stopped going for a while. I still worked out by going to my bootcamp which I love, but yoga is different. It's a beautiful complement to those gruelling bootcamp workouts.

So here marks my resolution or intention or whatever you want to call it for 2015. I vow to go to yoga again. I will make it my thing again and from there I know everything else will fall into place.

What are you doing this year?

2013!

Well that pretty much flew by didn't it? One second I'm scrambling to get some gifts wrapped and today I'm polishing off a box of Pot of Gold.

We.were.busy.

I think Mark and I decided to get all of our hosting out in one week because we did a lot of it. Christmas Eve we hosted a neighbour visit, we had 14 people for Christmas dinner the next day, then came an unexpected break over the next two days due to the snow storm, but reconvened on the 30th for a dinner with my dad and his wife. Then we decided, hey why don't we have a few people over for New Years Eve? Don't get me wrong... it was all fun. But somehow it went by in a flash!

So here we are today. The hubster has gone back to work. We had a play date this morning and now the  kidlets are sleeping and I decided to write something in this darn blog.

Why not see what I got accomplished from 2012 and see what's on tap for the big '13?

Let's see:

Last year I wanted to add some finishing touches to the main floor powder room: Guess what? This is DONE! Well almost done, but if you can believe it, we got 99% of it done a few days before Christmas. It wasn't even something we were going to do right now, but the guy who built our fence said he could do it in a day, so why not? Pics to come soon!

Also on the list were some finishing touches to our bedroom: Not done. We've done a couple things here and there but nothing that really makes a big difference yet.

A relaunch of my etsy shop was another addition to the list last year. I kind of started to do this with some pillows I made, but I just wasn't feeling it. Some of the pillows are now on my couch and I rather like them there. We'll see if I come back to this. I kind of like sewing on an ad hoc basis and not having pressure to fill a shop. Maybe one day. I do, however, want to sew some things this year for myself so we'll see what fun projects I can come up with.

The last thing on the list was to get some photos framed around the house. I did manage to do this in the basement:

Was that really this year? Man seems like a long time ago! I also have some frames around the rest of the house that I'll share later.

One other thing that wasn't on the list was my office/sunroom! It's almost done. The bench is done and new shelves are up! I'm just waiting to get some pillows and get all the Christmas crap outta there...because of course it was a catch-all for everything over the holidays.

Ok so what's up for 2013?

Just a couple things:

1. A place for everything: Since cleaning out (for the most part) my office, I've decided that this year will be the year of organization. We're well on track for getting things organized, but I really want to put an effort into it this year.

2. Going Veg: I've decided that I'd like to try to be a vegetarian - Mark is on board with this too which is great. We watched a movie over the holidays called Vegucated that literally had me in tears (mostly hormones I'm sure!!) and it's really making me rethink my meat-eating choices. It won't be hard at home - we don't really cook a lot of meat dishes although it does make it more challenging to come up with dinner ideas sometimes! We'll see. We might just keep it as a 'Week Day Veg' type thing where we're vegetarian at home and eat whatever is offered to us when eating with friends and family.

3. On a related note, I want to become a better cook: I love cooking and looking up ideas for cooking, but I'm not a great cook. My cooking lacks flavour many times and it's something I want to change.

4. Get Leo potty-trained: It's a biggie, but I'm really hoping to get this done in the first half of the year.

So those are the big goals to obtain, but I think I can do it!

What are you going to do this year?

project 2012

I've been a little MIA the past month and a bit -- I just haven't been too inspired to blog about much! Christmas was fun and it's not over (going to my Dad's and then Mom's for two more dinners!). I'm not going to lie to you - I'm full. I've never been one of these people to gain weight over the holidays, but this year I feel like I've been packing on the pounds. Too many sweets around these parts!

Since 2012 is around the corner, I thought I would share with you my project list for the New Year. I don't typically make resolutions, but I do like to get things down on 'paper' to get the ideas ingrained in my brain. So here it goes:

1. Finish our main floor bathroom.

(source)

Source: southernhospitalityblog.com via Ashley on Pinterest

I wrote earlier this year that it's a bit boring and I'd like to add some molding and stenciling to the walls. I think it will really cozy up the room.

2. Add the finishing touches to our bedroom (hmmm I just realized this was part of 2011's list of projects! DOH!)

We've got the curtains up and I've added a bit of colour, but haven't done much else! Still do do: reupholster Mark's grandmother's chair (the nice flowery chair in the corner there), finish the little photo vignette wall, get a new mirror (I don't have a pic of it but I haven't liked it ever since we put it up over our dresser! It's oval and doesn't look right), figure out what to do with the wall behind our bed, consider a new duvet cover and pillows - ok this seems like more than finishing touches! But really it's not that much. I don't think. :|

3. Get framing.

Source: architect-theif.tumblr.com via Gaile on Pinterest

I love the look of walls full of framed photos and I've been slowly collecting frames from Goodwill and prints of photos to use around the house. I would like to get a few more photos along the stairway and downstairs in the basement.

4. Relaunch my etsy shop.

This is something I've been thinking about, but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I have some ideas for projects using Spoonflower fabric since I can find fun and different fabrics to work with. A few things have changed around Etsy and I'm excited to try some of the ideas they offer to promote shops.

One thing that isn't really a project, but more of a mental resolution is to get off my butt. I used to get a lot of shit done around here and I find I'm spending way too much time surfing the 'net. Once I find something fun on Pinterest or blogland that I want to try, I want to do it instead of just pin it.

That's it so far!

Have a great New Year's Eve everyone and see you back here in the big '12!

-Steph

the resolution post

(image source)

So I'm not really one for making new year's resolutions because I'm a big believer that if you want to make a change, you should do it when the time feels right (most times it's September for me because it used to be a new year of going back to school). That being said, I do like to think of certain things that I would like to do and change in the coming year. So here is my list:

Be more thoughtful: I have SO many thoughtful people around me and I want to be more like them. These people are ALWAYS thinking of other people and go that extra step to make others around them feel special.

Get out with Leo as much as possible: I've already signed up for my yoga class and my bootcamp class which I will do with Leo and as he gets older, I'll look into music classes and more groups where he can interact with other babies his age.

Go for more walks: this will be a tough one in the colder months because I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to cold weather but I would like to get outside as much as possible. Being stuck in the house for so long isn't good! (I say this after my first walk outside in two days)

Get back into sewing: Not sure what I'll sew but I do want to get back into it.

Organize the house: It's already quite organized but it could be better. With all the clothes and toys coming through the house it's more important than ever to keep this place in tip top shape so it doesn't get out of control. I like the 1 thing in/1 thing out mentality -- let's see if I can stick with it.

Create a budget: Mark and I have never been good at keeping a budget but both of us really want to know where our money is being spent. I've spent the last 3 months writing down every single penny we've spent so now it's a matter of creating a budget and sticking to it.

I think it's it for now - quite the list but these are all pretty attainable I think! What are your resolutions this year??

scratch

So I made bread on the weekend... it was spelt bread with some sunflower and chia seeds and dang it was good! I didn't smell it when it was in the oven so I was kinda nervous and when it finally came out of the oven, Mark knocked it on the top -- it was pretty hard. But the baked bread smell filtered out when I cut my first slice. Yu-um.




I think we ate the bread in record time. We enjoyed the first few slices with some buttercup squash and carrot soup; also from scratch. I also had a slice this week with avacado -- so good. Ok I have to stop talking about it now because there is none left and I don't have any flour in the cupboard.