happy friday!

this is a particularly wonderful friday for me because bryce and I took the day off to make an extra loong memorial day weekend! and although the week has been kinda rainy and on the cooler side this morning when I woke up the sky looks like this picture - gorgeous!

we are packing up the campervan and the canoe and the puppies and heading to Bass Lake for the long weekend!

what excitement do you have planned?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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pin it forward: what home means to me

when I signed up for this pin it forward fun I had no idea the emotions it would stir up, but when I started thinking about my post and what home means to me there were so many things. I was inspired by christine's pin it forward from lama blog and the way in which she told the story of her 'home'.

so here is my pin it forward story - it's kinda long so grab a cup of coffee (or vino - depending on your time zone) and enjoy!

home for me is many places all over the world
and started in sydney, australia. home to me is jacaranda trees, and learning to ride my scooter, of walks around the block in our pyjamas on a summer eveningof summers spent at the beach collecting shells and flying kites in the park that my dad handmade for us

it's bright white rolls of paper and coloured pencils at my nanna and poppa's house and picking passionfruit off the vine that grew on the wall of our garage

it's playing hide and seek amounst the agapanthus with about 20 other cousins. it's jumping on the trampoline and swinging on the clothesline (and hoping you wouldn't get caught)

it's being part of a big family
and watching as that family grows
it's rollercoasters and forgotten memories
it's summer in chicago
and winter in toronto
it's where I fell in love
and it's where the sun shines

it's the spaces we make

and the fun we have

it's the ability to create the space that you dream ofand be with the ones you love

it's the little things that become dear

and the time you spend thereit's a place I must have a garden

now it's time for me to pin it forward to the glamourous ladies over at b.luxe blog who will share their inspiration tomorrow. and don't forget to check out the other 299 bloggers who signed up here

thank you Victoria for hosting such a great mashup!

kate

all photo credits can be found here at my pinterest - that's the beauty of it!

so scary, because it's true...

I thought the 80's coming back was scary enough... but the 90's now haunt me more than ever...

although I must admit, I did look good in the 90's...

thoughts?

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am loving rhino heads right now!

are rhino heads the new deer head? ever since I saw Antonio's pink rhino head on Antonio Treatment the other night, I have had a slight obsession with rhino heads, and trying to figure how to work one into my home design (which might come as a slight surprise to Bryce...)

but look at this guy, isn't he awesome!? and I think his horn could come in handy for hanging hats or coats on :)I have been looking around online to see what's out there and surprisingly picking up a rhino head is not as easy as it sounds... well there is this guy from anthropologie but he's not quite fierce enough for me, but the paper mache idea is a good one... do you see where I'm heading with this??? :)

this guy is cool

photo here

but this guy is my absolute favourite!

photo here

next rainy day weekend project to make a fierce life like rhino head out of paper mache - what do you think?

wise words

from here

I didn't do very much..

..but I did manage to eat. A lot. I'm back online and feeling peppy after my touch of appendicitis last week and am ready to take up some of the blogging duties from Kate. Unfortunately, nothing much happened last week since I basically laid in bed for six days doing nothing but popping pills and getting up to eat. I did remember to take some pictures though and am sharing them now. I was a little disappointed that my liquid diet only lasted six hours and my appetite returned with a vengeance. Why is it I never get the illness that makes you skinny Here are egg whites scrambled with mushrooms and vegetables

with a side of ketchup smothered potatoes

Egg and zucchini fritata with tomatoes and feta
Blueberry trifle = creamy and delicious.
I need to make a note to eat more trifle this summer.

It started out healthy. I was cooking plain cabbage and thought,

"Bacon and sausage would make this even better."

Taco salad is one of my favorite things to eat. This one had lettuce and cabbage, avocado, salsa, beans, turkey, taco seasoning from the little envelope thing and light sour cream.

Even adding pumpkin puree, cinnamon and brown sugar could not make me like oatmeal.

This is Cody's plate from last night's dinner (I had mine w/out bread).

I made Italian chicken sausage with Gashouse eggs. I think this style of

eggs has lots of different names, but no matter what you call them they are delicious. I made mine on the new griddle from Cost Plus and they turned out great.

pin it forward

I'm excited to be a part of some fun going on in the blogosphere that kicked off today on sfgirlbybay. pin it forward is the second in a series of blogger mash-ups, (the first one being blog it forward) that Victoria has organised, but this time there is a cool tool to help you 'pin it'. pinterest is a handy dandy tool that lets you bookmark images on the web and organise them into different inspiration boards - it's a visual wonderland :) and goodness knows if you're anything like me you have 2 million photos on your hard drive and are not sure where you found them all...

anyway there are 300 different bloggers joining in the fun all posting according to the schedule about 'what home means to us'. I came across so many great new blogs on the last mash-up, so make sure you check them out and we'll be posting ours on May 27 :D yikes! I'd better get pinning!

beautiful bride

is this not the most breathtaking photo of a bride? I love it! make sure you check out the rest of emily and dan's wedding photos here on once wed

I love their style - this shot is so carolyn and john don't you think?

I know a few of you (my friends and family who read this blog) are wondering what's going on with our wedding planning, but really there is nothing to update you on... we thought we had a plan in europe this summer, but the stars are not aligning the right way for that right now, so we've really just stopped planning for now.

the latest thought was that we'd put it off for another year or so, but who knows... as soon as we have a plan that can work I'll let you know :) until then, let's continue to gush over other people's weddings - ok?

:)

the best of friends

cooper and mckenzie had a little buddy sleep over this weekend, Max is a 7 month old tea cup poodle and looks just like a teddy bear :)

hello monday

I had a wonderfully therapeutic weekend doing lots of little things like catching up on grey's and real wives of nyc (so trashy I love it), creating a pashmina wall, puppysitting, washing many loads of overdue washing, hanging paintings, sorting photos, taking photos, making pancakes, watching the last lost (thank goodness for that!) organising closets, and a bunch of other things I can't remember right now (waiting for the coffee to kick in over here...)

what exciting things did you get up to?

let's decorate already!

you know I came to the realisation today that I have the perfect opportunity with our house right now to experiment...

I feel like I have been waiting to make it pretty until it is fully renovated - we are living in this house and just 'dealing with' the pink bathroom, random wallpaper (which is starting to grow on us) and having that attitude of one day we'll do this, that and that... but hey, why wait???

I decorate this corner or that space again and again in my head, I obsess over photos of beautiful spaces and imagine how I can make it work in our spaces, but really what am I waiting for??? I don't have to wait till the walls are perfect before I paint them or hang things on them, I can do it now and then if I make mistakes it's not such a big deal! I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner...

so first I am starting with my hallway which currently looks like this

this cheery stripy wallpaper has to go, as mckenzie decided for us when we first got her, but for now I am just going to ignore it and start on this space here

here's some inspiration I've been saving in my files
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stay tuned for photos :)