Blog Redesign

So I realized that my blog wasn't capturing the full "family life" part of what I had intended so I decided to do a bit of a redesign.  I'm still learning all the technical stuff but it is so much fun to do the designing part that I am having a lot of fun figuring it out!


I've changed the background as you can tell, to incorporate a more family fun pattern and although purple is my favourite colour, I love this teal as well and feel that it is more expressive of the feeling of the blog.


And last but certainly not least, I have added the best part in the header.  Pictures of my two amazing little monkeys and a family friendly photo that I took and love.  Although there is no picture of our house,  I feel that this header is perfect for my blog concept as I move into blogging more about family life as well as the small space.


I hope you enjoy it as well!


Cheers,
Lisa

Colours, Colours and more Colours

I have been getting a bit antsy waiting for my kitchen cabinets to come in so I decided I would spruce up my main bathroom a bit in the meantime.  We had done it many years back and put this vinyl flooring in which at the time I loved, but now am tiring of it so I don't want it to stand out so much.

After we had the kids we thought maybe a fresh coat of paint would make it more appealing but I have never really been happy with the colour so we never finished it off and we kept saying, "well since we are going to renovate it, we may as well leave it as it is for now."  This is what it looks like right now.

Well, now that we are doing the kitchen I know it will be at least a year before we reno and I can't stand it any longer! It must be finished off!

I've decided that the biggest problem with the colour is that it really doesn't go with the floor at all, it just makes the floor stand out that much more.  Hubby and I decided we would go with something sleek, simple and that will blend well with the flooring.  I've also decided to repaint the vanity and maybe spruce it up with some trim.  I am going to try some moulding around the medicine cabinet mirror to make it a bit prettier and get a new shower curtain and accessories.  Hopefully these quick fixes will make it a space that we can be happy with for a while longer.

Here is where I need your opinion and assistance.  This is a photo I took of the online colour program at Behr.com . 

The quality is poor but I had no other way of saving the picture.  No, this isn't my bathroom....I wish!  Anyway, the wall colour is the top chip, the middle chip is the colour for the vanity but since there is no vanity in this bathroom I added the colour to the floor to see how the colours would work together. The lightest colour I used on the ceiling and trim.  I am a bit torn on this part as well, because I know that the more contrast in a room the smaller it looks and my bathroom is already pretty small, so I'm not sure if I should keep everything in the wall colour.  I look forward to hearing your comments.

I'll keep you posted on the process along the way.

Cheers,

Lisa

Planning, Wishing, Dreaming...

 Well, you are probably all wondering, what this little icon is all about. All you have to do is click on it and you will see images and comments that I have made.  It is my very own "Ideabook".  This tool comes from houzz.com but wait don't click on it yet or I may never get you back to continue reading my post.  houzz.com is my very favourite online resource for all things home design related.  They have thousands and thousands of photos of rooms plus they have ideas and advice.  The ideabooks are like your own online album of all your favourite images and notes about those images.  The concept is similar to pinterest.com, though more specific.  I just find the site so user friendly and fun to use and I can get caught up in it for hours.


This is an example of an image that I copied to my ideabook since it is similar in layout to my kitchen.  This image, among others like it were literally what helped me decide on the look for my own upcoming kitchen reno....eeee! I can't wait, only a few more weeks! Once my kitchen is complete, I will post a picture from a similar angle and we can see how close they are.

In case you are wondering...no I am not being paid for the promotion of this site, I just love it so much that I had to share it.  I have decided to add a link to houzz.com from my site so that my readers will have a quick reference to it.  So please enjoy and use with caution, I have been known to spend some very late nights perusing this site.


Do you have any favourite design sites that you want to share?  I would love to check them out.


Cheers, 
Lisa

Blogging Life

I apologize because I know I haven't posted in a while.  I got to the point where I was spending every spare moment I had planning, writing and working on this blog.  In other words, I was ignoring my family and all other interests I have in my life.  I work full-time as well as volunteer one evening a week and I just felt like this blog (which I adore doing by the way) was taking too much of my time.  It started to feel like a second job which I wasn't getting paid for.


All of that being said, I have decided that I will continue to blog, it just won't be every day.  I hope that you all will continue to read my blog and if you become a follower you will get emails, so you won't have to rely on news feed updates from Facebook or Twitter every time I publish a new post.


I love to write and share my thoughts and ideas and dilemmas and for me this is a great way to do that in a fun and creative way.


Stay tuned for my next post coming soon.....my new favourite decorating website!