See ya later Canada!

Well, Dman and I leave for the Bahamas tomorrow so I thought I would say a quick goodbye!

I will be gone for two weeks.

I I do not return, please send help. There are pirates and hurricanes in the Bahamas.

But hopefully all I come in contact with is sun, sand, and the ocean!

Later!

Leah xoxo

Pretty blooms for a rainy day.

The other night Dman and I took the mutts for a walk to the dogpark. Next to the Temple the dog park is my favorite place on earth. The walk through the ravine is lovely and I just love watching the boys play and skip with excitement.

Anywho, the paths were lined with an abundant amount of fragrant cherry trees in bloom so I decided to pick a few, and brought them home to rest in my antique milkjug find:

We were walking back to the car and some old dude says to me:

"I see you've been picking the lilac" - in a very annoyed sort of way. I replied "Yup, isn't it beautiful" in an ignorant sort of way. Mind your own business old guy.

Flowers always brighten my day, especially this gloomy one! And it just so happens that on this long weekend my mom and I are going flower shopping! Can't wait to fill my empty gardens.

Have a great long weekend!

Leah xoxo

DIY sunburst mirror

For the longest time I have wanted a sunburst mirror, however this has simply remained a want because these puppies run a pretty penny - like $200 - $300 pretty.

Until the other day when I thought to myself: Leah, you can make this.

So I went to Homesense and picked up a round mirror for the centre for $14 dollars. Then I proceeded to Michaels to pick up some wood dowels for the 'burst' for about $10 and a can of gold spray paint for $7.

Grand total: $31 for this:

Do you love it as much as I do?? I am soooooo excited about it!

It only took me about an hour and a half to cut the dowels to size, measure out my spacing, glue gun them on, and give the whole thing a coat of shiny gold paint.

High impact for low cost and time - sounds like a good deal to me!

(and on a side note - the house is almost done so reveal pictures are coming soon!)

Have a great day!

Leah xoxo

Oh the things that make me smile.

This morning I drove to work, the sun shining, 21 degrees on the horizon.

"Hey Soul Sister" came on the radio.

And a dude in a cube was eating porridge.

I smiled.

This is why I blog.

If you look at my sidebar you will see that I follow quite a few blogs. Mostly for design and photography inspiration.

On one of the blogs I follow I came across this video yesterday
(many of you have already seen it).

This is why I blog. I NEEDED this SO BAD. Oh man did I ever.

Dylan and I have been going through our own trial for quite sometime now. It has been hard. My heart breaks just about everyday. Litterally. Breaks.

I hope that one day I will be able to tell you all about it. Because that will be the day that it will be over. I can't wait for that day.

I have been mad with my Heavenly Father for quite sometime. Mad that I have to go through this trial. Mad that I have to hurt.

Stupid me.

He loves me, and I will grow from this. As I write these words, I am bawling, but you know what, it feels good to say them. I know everything will work out the way it is supposed to. According to HIS PLAN.

Thankyou Stephanie and thankyou bloggers who remind me how blessed I am.

Because I am.

Destination: Bahamas!

See yucky Edmonton May weather:

See the Bahamas:

See Leah in the Bahamas:

You can't yet, but as of May 30th that's where you will find me!!!!!! We just booked our flights last night!

You see, paps bought a boat down in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, which he needs to sail to Florida in order to have it trucked to Vancouver where he will keep the boat. He has hired a crew to help him take it to the Bahamas at which point myself, Dman, Mom, and sister will be joining him for 2 whole weeks!

Me, Leah, in the bahamas for 2 weeks! O man, I am excited! And guess what the best part is..... it is going to be DIRT cheap. We are going to be staying on the boat, which means no cost there, and my mom and paps will most likely assume many of the food costs, so really all Dman and I have to pay for is our flights, meals out, and spending money. But wait, it gets even better..... we have a travel VISA which we have been using since we got married and never really checked our points balance. Well, we decided to use whatever points we had racked up for this trip. Our total cost (2 tickets for a flight from Edmonton to Nassau, 2 tickets for a flight from Miami to Edmonton, and all of our taxes) $250 bones! That's it!!!!!! Which means this little lady has a decent sized shopping-in-Miami budget!!

C-A-N-N-O-T W-A-I-T!

I found this on the side of the road...

(minus the streak of primer - there goes that jump-to-the-gun-ness of mine)

and turned it into this:

I was driving home from work the other day and spotted this beauty on the side of the road in our neighbourhood.

It was love at first sight.

Those clean lines, vintage written all over it, and sliding doors made me swoon.

So I booted home, called Dman on the cell and told him to get into the car when he saw me pull up. I assured him that I had not gone crazy but there was no time for an explanation.

I sped back to the spot that I eyed it and, hazard lights a-blinking, we forced this baby into our back seat.

(On a side note: I sure hope that someone was in fact throwing this out and not in the process of moving it somewhere, but no one came out of their house screaming or threatening death, so, finders keepers!)

It was quite the sight to be seen - you see, the cradenza did not fit all the way into our car so we had one door wide open and a quarter of the cradenza just hanging out. But, I am pleased to say that we got her home safely.

I proceeded to sand her down and then I chose to paint for two reasons:

1. I love white, and

2. the wood was in rough shape, so the task of re-staining would have been monumental.

I used none other than my trusty Zinsser 1-2-3 primer, and then gaver her a coat of white latex paint. Dman cut the legs down because this beauty was just a tad too tall for my taste, and presto, a new cradenza turned TV stand (our old one was a cheapy from IKEA and served me in my pre-marital/roomate days so I was all to happy to get rid of it).

She's just so beautiful with those lines and these built-in pulls:

Did I mention that when I got her home, I discovered (from a furniture maker's stamp on the back) that this beauty is a bonified vintage mid-century modern piece all the way from Denmark!!!! SCORE!!!

Man I love free stuff. Especially when it is awesome!