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!

My little herb garden

I long for fresh summer cooking with organically grown ingredients and fresh herbs. But I live in Edmonton where the growing season starts late, so this year I came up with a cute solution:

My windowsill herbs!

I chose to plant parsley, basil, and chives (my favorite summer-cooking herbs)

In order to be budget savy I used 3 little IKEA vases that I had kickin around from our wedding and filled them up with some potting soil.



Then I made these cute little tags and secured them onto popsicle sticks:





Then I planted my seeds and tagged them, and voila, a little herb garden.

I planted a couple weeks ago and I already have some sprouts! My chives are growing like weeds. But they sure aren't going to taste like weeds. Mmmmmmm I can taste them already........grilled baby potatoes with herbs, grilled lemon basil chicken, herb bicuits, strawberry arugala and basil salad.......yum!

Happy cooking!

Leah xoxo

I need your help.

Okay bloggers, today I need your help to make a decision.

While doing all of our renos in the back of my mind is always resale because I know that we are not going to be here forever (actually probably only a few years depending on where Dman gets into school).

So, while I have TOTALLY stayed true to my style when picking out things such as doors, tile, cabinets, countertops, etc, etc, I have also tried to stay somewhat neutral for resale.

I want to spice it up a bit in the living/dining room with something on the walls (I am so over plain painted walls) - wallpapaer is out for me because I feel that it is too specific to someone's taste and not a good option for me if we are going to be selling in a couple years. So I have decided that I am going to do a panelling of some sort - where I need your help is deciding between two styles. I know which one I want to do but I need to know what potential buyers would like.

Pretend like you are in the market to buy a house - which one do you like or does one turn you off? Or do you even like either?

Option #1:

Wainscotting

OR

Option #2

6 foot panelling

Images courtesy of 'Just Beachy'

What do you think? Comments PLEASE!

Leah xoxo

Doors, doors, doors.

Ugh, renovations. Oh how I am sick of them.

But all is worth it when Dman and I get to step back and admire our work.

Today's treat for y'all: our new mission style doors!

Here is what was in the house when we bought it:

Yes, I failed to take a real before picture (as with most things we have renovated - darn excitement - I jumped the gun with everything), and yes, the door is now functioning as a fence hole-filler-inner to keep the mutts in. Our fence is HORRIBLE but one project at a time right? I know it's very white trash but don't judge me.

Anyway, as you can see, they were u-g-l-y, UGLY. A bad paint job of oak, and those bronze doorknobs that totally remind me of my childhood which, I might add, were all loose and falling off. Quite a few of the doors didn't even close because the frames were warped.

So, we decided to replace them with these beauties:

Please ignore the poor picture - I was at an awkward picture taking angle.

I chose to do mission style doors. Why? I am in love with the design movement. It originated in the late 19th century when people looked to break away from Victorian design but wanted something with more substance than the mass produced furniture of the industrial revolution. So furniture makers began making pieces that had straight lines, uncluttered profiles, and used very heavy/chunky peices of wood. It's a very modern (clean lines) but rustic (chunky, often highlights wood grain) look. Love it.

I was debating going with shaker style doors, which is very much of the same style. It originated with, no suprise here, the shakers and is characterized by many of the same characteristics as the mission style, the only real differences being that the shaker style is more delicate and not so heavy, and in the way that it is constructed. Modern shaker style uses a more complicated joinery that mission which is a lot more work for the manufactuer, and hence, a lot more money. So I went mission!

I chose brushed bronze doorknobs to match the mission period:

And thick, chunky, plain molding, again, to match the mission period of the doors:

One more project down, a zillion more to go!

Have a good one.

Leah xoxo