Scenes from Home - Part II

There is nothing more refreshing than going home after a long day. Home. It's where rest & creativity happen for me. It's where most of my cherished memories reside. There are so many things to love about home.

So let me take you on another tour of our home...

Ever good tour must begin IMMEDIATELY after you step out of you car after work. With maybe just enough time to throw off your uncomfortable dress shoes {but without enough time to tear off those terrible nylons} & slip on the ol trusty Birks. Fashion faux pas at home are acceptable.

Exhibit A: Home. The front of our house...its quite boring & no, we don't have curtains yet. We're planning on planting a whole bunch of flowers along the windows. It'll look great next summer - this year, well, lets just say there are still a lot of boxes that haven't been unpacked yet. {Oh, & we'll probably have curtains by next summer too...if we can ever find some we like}

One of my favorite things to see at home is laundry on the line. Now I do have a bit of a distaste for laundry. {Only once in a while though, I mean really, how can you hate it when the machine does all the work?} But when its all hanging absorbing the warmth from the sun, its just so refreshing, simple & serene to me. {Laundry loves}

So the front of our place may be uneventful but the backyard is overrun with gardening. We have an overabundance of tomatoes growing. {& I don't even like tomatoes that much!}

We have fresh basil. {now, basil I love}

Plus cucumbers. One plant of which is sprawling itself all over our side entrance.
I love it when they are all tiny like this. I must confess though, the first time we grew cucumbers and I saw one just a little larger than this one I said to Mat "It looks like a Gherkin pickle!" to which Mat responded "That's what that use to make Gherkin pickles". I was 21 & had no idea pickles were really just cucumbers. Yeah, I know. Lame.

There are also lilies, strawberries, blackberries, wild flowers, tall grass, a mint plant & this thing which I rescued from the back hall of our church. It's basically just three sticks with a bunch of leaves on the end of each stick. It's weak & pathetic looking, but I will nurse it back to its full planty potential!

So now that we've toured around the yard, lets take a walk down the lane...

Our lovely landlord's "moving toolbox". There are 6 houses on our lane way - the first of which he is converting into an office/massage therapy clinic.

Here he is...with all his mess of wiring. Dave is such a great guy. If you are in the Quinte area, book yourself a massage with him today, you won't regret it.

In between putting in drywall & insulation, Dave draws.

This one reminds me of a beagle dog. The droopy eyes, the saggy jowls.

Obviously Dave is anxious for things to be finished. {laugh}

Let leave Dave to finish his work, & I'll take you back to our home. Just a short stroll down the lane way.

Inside there are a few things we almost always have: #1. Fresh flowers or plants of some kind.

#2. Candy. {Its just essential, right next to bread & milk}

#3. Random pieces of old junk we've come to love.

#4. Cactus'...always lots of cactus'.

But there is nothing better than coming home to this face. This smiling lovely face.

Well, except maybe this smiling lovely face making me dinner. :)

Thanks for visiting.

We're actually leaving home this weekend for Toronto - we have another wedding to do photos for. I hesitated with Ryan and Rachel's wedding pics. I thought I would put them up with Matt & Alyssa's. I hope the suspense isn't killing anyone.

Have a great weekend - whether you're at home or elsewhere.

around the house

Good day all!
Today I thought I'd share with you some pictures from around the house.

THE Point.

THE Point, again.

7 acres of beauty.

The Bay of Quinte

Mat with our wonderful landlord, David. They were burning the brush & some drywall. It was a massive fire in the end.

Okay, so I didn't spot this dear on our property, but it wasn't that far away from our property. I wanted to capture a pic of her little baby fawn, but he was camera shy and dashed into the brush.

Seaweed grosses me out. I HATE the feel of it. *shivers* SO icky. But the lily pads are pretty cool. The yellow flowers are so pretty. Two seconds after this photo the rock I was standing on collapsed & fell into the water. I BARELY made it off in time.

*sigh* I love my bike.

Despite the beauty all around the property, this is still the best view of all.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Our little piece of {someone else's} paradise.

So I didn't go all kamikaze last night & go sky diving or launch myself out of a rocket or run away to some place unknown.
No, last night I went home & made a bbq dinner with Mat & relaxed {for the first time what has seemed like months}
We also went for a short little walk down through the 7 acres of land we have at our disposal with the house we rent. It's so private & quiet. I wrapped myself in a big sweater {in the middle of July, whats up with that?!} & we strolled down there before the rain came in.
Here are some of the {unedited} pics of the property. My apologies for the m being so dark, but it was just about to rain.

This is just behind our house

This is a about somewhere past the middle of the property.

THE Point.

The local Canadian Geese. For those of my Tyndale friends, these geese are NOTHING like the Tyndale geese. These ones were running from us while we were still 300 ft away. In Toronto they'd be swarming us & attacking. The geese here are chickens.

Guy fishing. I got a picture of his catch a few minutes earlier, but it was pretty blurry. I love fishing. I hope we can get our fishing license so that we can just fish right off the point.
There are canoes and kayaks we can use, but I'm not exactly fond of being out in the middle of a body of water in a small boat. In fact I hate it, I'll panic & freak out like crazy mad - especially if I don't think I can swim the distance to shore. {Can you believe I used to dream of being a Marine Biologist?}

& here's the view from the rock I like to plant my little butt on. Nothing wild & reckless about this shot, except maybe that there is goose poo on my feet & I'm not going anything about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

home sweet house

Whether you've been anxiously awaiting them, or if I just think you've been anxiously awaiting them, today I have to share with you {finally} some pictures of our new home!

So please follow me as I take you on the grand tour!

{aren't my grandma slippers awesome!?}

Our nice spacious living before we unpacked

{note the long piece of wood there leaving up against the boxes, it'll make another appearance later in the tour}

Another angle of the living room before we unloaded. My mom diligently cleaning for us while I stood around the took pictures. Thanks mom.

Our beautiful living room after. The painting behind the couch was done by the lovely Leslie.
The bush right in the middle is our awesome $5 raspberry bush - complete with berries! It's presently residing inside until we can make a little safe house for it outside where our neighborhood rabbits can't maul it like they did to our tomatoes - those cute little jerks.

{It took Mat a good solid hour of huffing & puffing to re-attach the arm to our couch...why it was detached...well there isn't enough time on this tour to tell, maybe another time}

Another angle of the living room. Behind open door #1 is Mat's office {a stop later on our tour} Behind closed door #2 is the bedroom, & the sleeping beast husband {he's so cute in the morning}.
Right next to it, open door #3 is the bathroom, which you'll just have to come over to see because I didn't want to fuss around trying to get a picture in there.
{I know you were just DYING to see what our toilet seat looks like...oh & just so your EXTRA jealous, its a BRAND NEW toilet seat too!}

Our hall, kinda part of the living room, right next to closed door #2 & dangerously close to sleeping groggy husband.
{Did I happen to mention he's so cute in the morning?}

Oh & added bonus, our living room comes complete with its own little scrapping corner for moi. Last night I just sat at it with a cup of vanilla bean rooibos tea...very soothing.

{thanks to Kelly for the awesome chair!}

& of course what would any living room be without fresh flowers from the sleeping husband?!

Now, in case you thought I left my mother to do all the cleaning herself. This picture is here to show you that your wrong, & also to show you what our kitchen looked like before.

Kitchen before - looking on to the living room.

Kitchen after. Awesome eh?

Remember that piece of wood from earlier in the tour? Of course you do. Can you spot it in this picture?

Kitchen happiness.

More kitchen happiness
{note the vanilla bean rooibos tea}

Our kitchen/living room clock that is warning me I should really put down the camera & instead get ready for work.

{*scoffs* what do clocks know?}

Bedroom before. Sorry there are no after pictures. Just picture a bed in the middle, complete with sleeping husband & a green painting in hung on the wall.

Even though your seen a lot of 'after' photos on this tour, it doesn't mean the house is completely unpacked and settled. There is still much to be done. A large majority of it is here in the office/library. Thankfully, this door closes & I don't have to look at it.

& thats pretty much it, other than our back room {which is nothing more than a chaotic mess of boxes & garbage}

later I'll share with you pictures of the lovely 7 acres of land that come with our house & the waterfront at our disposal.

Have a Happy Thursday!