Storyboard for our bathroom reno

As a great idea from my friend LL(Lauralee) I'm going to attempt to create a story board showing ideas I like for our new bathroom. Our current bathroom is kind of gross. The floor is some old lino, the sink has gazillion cracks in it, the faucet is disgusting, the walls need a lot of attention, and everything overall seems to be a little outdated. To save some money we may keep the toilet we have as it seems to work fine and looks alright. The tub/shower combo we are also keeping in order to save some money. We will however get some new clear class doors on the shower and we're hoping to tile around the tub to give it an updated look.
I'm in the works of getting quotes from a few different companies for a new vanity and over-john type thing for storage above the toilet. Then we'll need to search for granite and an undermount sink that will fit in our 18" deep vanity. Notice that our bathroom is pretty skinny, our door just barely misses our current 22" deep vanity when we close or open it.
Anywho.. here are a few photos for ideas :)

* Hope to have a big mirror with dark wood edges
* The tile shown is what I'm hoping to use on the floors (12 x12 tiles) and smaller ones surrounding the shower.

*The top right vanity photo is closer to what the color of ours will be, we're not too sure on what exact color of granite top we'll have but it will be lighter in color like the ones shown.
* Above is the faucet I love :)
* The lights shown are ideas of what I like.. we haven't decided yet though.


Here is a photo of our current bathroom. The new vanity will be in the same location as it is now, but it will be a few inches less deep. There will also be a 6 inch deep cabinet above the toilet... now picture a nice mirror above the vanity and some nice lights hehe.
Anywho, that's all for now! Wish us luck! Also, if you have any suggestions don't hesitate to let me know :)

Let's make some music!

Well, with the thought of daycare land in my head while on vacation last week I picked up some great musical instruments for kids.. and adults too for that matter. The total price for all of these lovely instruments came to 10 Cuban pesos.. so about $13 Canadian. They seem easy enough to play, especially the rattles. Landon is intrigued by the sounds the make and I can't wait for him to start enjoying them more.

Those things I planted a few months ago are actually growing!

There are signs all over our front yard showing that Spring is just around the corner. Back in September and October I planted a bunch of bulbs of tulips, daffodills, crocuses, snow drops and I think one other type of flower. Most of these are starting to pop up, with only the snow drops ( I think this is what they're called) having blossoms. We also have a little ornamental tree that is blossoming pinky red. I'm excited to see what else comes up over the next few months as we have yet to see what happens in the yard during the months of late Jan, Feb and early March.

Cubafied !

Well, we have gone, relaxed, and returned. Twas a good trip overall, minus a few drawbacks such as food poisoning and hungry mosquitoes.

It was interesting to learn about the country through different Cubans that we met. Some of the things they do down there just seem so interesting.. for example, all education and health care is free for all, anyone can hitch hike and if you have a certain coloured license plate you must pick people up, Cubans are very proud people yet they do accept gifts that they cannot afford or possibly find on their own. There are many interesting things that we learned while down there but I won't bore you with anything more.

Since it was my first time staying in an all inclusive I wasn't too sure what to expect. Overall I was a little dissapointed, mostly because of the food I guess. On our third day there I got food poisoning.. and believe me, I wasn't the only one that experienced this. As we went with a huge group of people from Vancouver Island (others that won their trips or listen to the Ocean radio station), it seemed that about 15 out of 40 people got sick on the trip. Seeing as this resort is a 5 star.. that's pretty pathetic. After getting sick from food I was also super weary about trying new foods, so that was a bummer, but I wasn't about to go through being sick again just to be adventurous.

The trip was relaxing though as we had Jeff's parents along with us, which was great! It was so nice to be able to share Landon around. This allowed us to go for walks on the beach as just the two of us, or eat dinner in peace :) If you ever think about bringing your youngsters on vacation with you, consider bringing some grandparents as well.

Some of the highlights of the trip - swimming in the warm turquoise waters, swimming with the dolphins and being shot up in to the air about 10 feet, traveling to Havana, meeting locals and giving away goods, and watching Landon experience the ocean and pool.

Even though we had a good time, I couldn't believe how nice it felt to come home to our home. Perhaps because I have never been away from our new house for this long before, or perhaps because I had painted our main room just lately. It felt so darn nice to walk in to our clean home that we have begun to make our own.

Donations for Cuba

So i've been reading up on bringing things with us to Cuba when we go to give to the locals. I think i'm going to look through our things to see if we have any baseball caps and perhaps a spanish/english dictionary that we can give away. I'm hoping that we can visit an elementary school there and ask if they mind some donations.

Here is one of the lists I've found online of what to bring for Cubans:

Art Supplies, Musical instruments, guitar strings, pitch pipes, tuning forks, sheet music, theatre make-up, ballet slippers, anything baseball or football related, bike tire repair kits, aspirin, vitamins, school supplies, toys, spanish/english phrasebooks or dictionaries, and summer clothing.

If you know you're going to see me or could see me within the next few days and want me to bring something along to give away, please contact me :)

Ready for 2010

Well, 2009 has come to an end. It was filled with moving to Vic, having a baby, going on trips, and making new friends! I can't wait to find out what 2010 has to offer me and my family :)
We're starting out on a pretty happy note as we are off to Cuba next week as I won a trip on The Ocean radio station. We actually just got home from a little send off party down at Laurel Point in Vic where we got to meet everyone that is going. Quite interesting to see that over half of the people going actually paid for tickets.. for some of the group this is their fourth time going on a trip with the radio station.. interesting.

Earlier today I was checking out my friend's blog about their home renovations and it got me thinking that I should perhaps aim to start blogging more often. I think i'll try to aim at posting things on here that I would maybe not post on Facebook. Wish me luck!

Landon sure has been zooming through the milestones lately. In the past two weeks he has learned to sit up, clap his hands, say mum and mumma, and his first tooth has poked through! I wonder what will happen next :)

The Single Life

Finally I have reached the end of single mommyland. Jeff has been away for almost four weeks now and I must say, it hasn't been so easy being a single mom. Of course I'm used to being alone with Landon during the day, but around 4:30 or so I am really looking forward to sharing him with his daddy. Thankfully Landon is a great sleeper most of the time and gives me nice chunks of time during the day to clean, cook or relax.. however, he's not usually sleeping when I need him to the most. It's been a challenge but I have really enjoyed spending so much time with my little munchkin.

While Jeff has been out of town I kept fairly busy for the most part. The first week was brutal as I had nothing planned and a few of my baby groups/meetups had been canceled! Arg! After that, time flew by! Landon and I hopping on the good old E & N (Esquimalt & Nanaimo) railway built by Mr.Dunsmuir himself (Geography lesson coming back to me from Uni) all the way from Victoria up to Ladysmith. Jeff's Mom picked us up and the next day we zipped up to Terrace/Kitimat to visit with Jeff's brother, his wife and their two adorable munchkins Caleb & their new addition, Logan. The plane rides went well for the most part, it was just the layovers in Vancouver that were a bit brutal in terms of Landon napping. I nursed Landon on the take offs and now I think back on it as I have just read another frustrating story about a mom being asked to cover up while nursing on the plane. I don't remember covering up much at all now that I think about it. Babies need to be nursed, it's a natural thing, get over it people! Thankfully I didn't have any rude comments or stares and all went just peachy :)

This past week Landon and I hopped on another plane, this time an eight seater, over to Abbotsford where my Mom picked us up. My Dad also came home that day as he has been working for about 7 months now up in Toba Inlet on the coast of BC. He works as a Lineman and this has been quite the trip for him. He has been living on a barge and literally working in the sticks, being flown in by hellicopters and wading through three feet of snow. He sure was glad to be home and very excited to head off on an adventure to Australia soon. Anywho.. we spent a lovely three days out in Rosedale, meeting up with old friends and their kids and doing some shopping at the local jumbo craft sale. The plane ride back to Vic however.. was, well, very interesting. We flew right through a lightening & hail storm! Super bumpy plane ride with lightening all around us and hail pounding the tiny plane. As we landed you could see something weird on the runway. It was covered in hail! Neat, yet not so fun when you're alone and carrying a baby on your front.

Lastly, this past weekend my two friends Kelsey and Chrissy came for a visit. It was so very nice to see them and to show them where I've been living for the past 8 months or so. We did some much needed shopping and took in the Santa Claus parade downtown. I was sad to see them go :(

Well, thanks for reading.. i know I'm not the best writer and definitely not the best blog writer, but I like to write things down so I can think about what I've been doing for when I do my scrapbooking & to share my thoughts with family and friends :)