Vodka and Soda

my favorite rooms

 

....not my bedroom, not my media room, but my basement bathroom and home gym.  is that weird? 

we got our basement finished a couple of years ago and i have to give my hubby major props for pushing me to get a full bathroom installed.  i thought it was a waste of money and i was all "seriously, who's going to shower down in the fucking cold-ass basement?!"  and the answer my friends, is me!  i was just being a cheap bitch and griping about the cost but i'm so glad we did it.

i love everything about this bathroom: the color, the slate tiles, the fact that it's right beside my workout area and the fact that it feels like my own space.  sometimes, i pretend that it's my little spa area; a place that i can relax and pamper myself after a killer workout. and i'll be honest, while i love my husband to pieces, when you're pretty much the only one doing your bidness in a bathroom, it just feels.... cleaner.... and i need a clean bathroom to have a satisfactory deployment, if you know what i mean.

i basically set up shop down here and because it's allllll the way in the basement, away from the linen closet and my personal belongings, i was struggling with storage, or lack there of.

  the sink area was a mess with clean towels piled up on the side or draped over my workout bench (ignore the gloves; i was cleaning) and i had very little counter space which drove me crazy.  despite the state of my walk-in closet, i do hate disorganziation and clutter, especially in a space that i love and i needed to remedy that, stat!  so, i went out to canadian tire and bought some shelving on the cheap and best of all, it required no tools to assemble which is my kind of DIY!

 

 

the finished product!  it's a basic, $19 wire shelf that gives me the space i need to store my makeup kit and other crap and i bought some cheap baskets from Winners to store my blowdryer, extra towels and workout gear.   don't you love the muted damask pattern?  my most brilliant decorating idea was storing my colorful and delicious smelling soaps in a large, glass jar and by brilliant idea, i mean i totally ripped that off from pinterest.

 

 

this is where i kick my own ass. 

i luuuurve my home gym.  it has everything i need:  free weights,  ez bar and plates, a large mirror to oogle myself as i lift like a badass, a fridge that stores beer ice-cold water, a pull-up bar, a weight and roman bench, a vile treadmill that i hate and really serves as my towel holder, various resistance bands, a stability ball, dvd player and tv where Sagi Body Beast Guy yells at me that FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!!, a ghetto agility ladder i made from masking/painters tape and my trusty ol' yoga mat.   and the best part--  there are no douchebags hogging the weights, creeps all up in your bidness, catty bitches all decked out in full-on makeup and club gear giving you the evil eye or annoying assholes chatting away on their phones and taking up precious space...you know, all that shit that happens at a regular gym. 

 

which is your favorite room in your house?

 

the life of a housewife - update

 

 

it's been about 2 weeks since becoming a housewife (of toronto) and i gotta say, i'm totally loving my time off and spent no time getting used to doing nothing.

my first week off was my 'vacation'.  yes, yes; i know i have 3 months off but i'll be keeping busy during these 3 months and i wanted to have a 'do nothing but pamper myself and fun stuff' week before i started all of my house tasks.   my vacay week was filled with blogging, relaxing, napping and putting around the house; not to mention shopping, facials, massages and pedicures.  oh the life of a housewife... it's pretty fucking awesome.

i recently blogged about my switch to an all-natural makeup line and last week, i had my facial and skin consultation at Pure + Simple; a spa that is dedicated to providing holistic skin treatments using natural and organic products.   since my skin hasn't been on its best behaviour lately and after some chats with bloggy pal, elaine, i decided to book an appointment to talk to them about my skin and possible alternatives for skin products.

 

 

when i walked into the spa, i saw rows upon rows of skin products and i felt like a giddy kid in a candy store; i'm glad i got there early so i could take some pictures and browse the products at my leisure. oh and just so you know, by the time i remembered to take a picture of the room before i messed up the bed, i was already in my underwear fumbling around with my phone camera in a very dim-lit room so i couldn't get all fancy and photographic because i was afraid the lady would walk in and see me nekkid.  

i received the super hydrating facial since my skin is dry and not only did i love the products that were used, it was an awesome and relaxing facial. although my skin looked great, it still felt a little tight but i think it was because the proper moisturizer wasn't used.  i also didn't really click with my esthetician (which is very important for me in order to trust her with her product recommendations etc), but i enjoyed the facial and the atmosphere so much that i went ahead and purchased a package of 3 facials and will just book with another esthetician.  hmmm... i wonder if that's bad form?

prior to my appointment, i researched the hell out of their products  and while i was disappointed that i didn't get the answers i wanted about my product inquires, i decided to go by my research and hauled the following products:

 

martina gebhardt black mud cream | P+S organic peppermint lip oil | P+S organic lime lip balm | P+S collagen elastin Plus | P+S rejuvenating rosehip mask | P+S calming cucumber mask | jurlique eye cream | P+S sunflower cream (sample) | P+S sensitive skin oil (sample)

 

you don't want to know how much i spent (it's ridic) but i'm excited to use everything.  after what i spent, i expect to have skin as soft and smooth as Kayla's in no time.  product reviews will soon follow.   

*****

there's a lot going on in my house right now; we hired some painters and finally, our screaming white walls are no more.  they're painting the entire bottom and top floor with amazing colors that hubs picked out and we got a steal on the quote.  it also helped that my good friend is the owner's good friend and i'm convinced (although he never told us) that he's doing this job with a very low profit margin.  

right now, i'm holed up in my media room listening to them trudge all up in my house with their boots on (!!!!).  i was raised in a house where shoes remain in the front foyer and while i understand their need to keep their shoes on (safety with ladders etc), the chinese in me cringes every time i see them trampling upstairs or leaving boot marks on my hardwood floors and it takes everything i have not to follow them around with a vaccum or mop.

next week, the shutter guy will be coming but here are some before and after shots of what our house looks like (besides being a freaking mess):

 

once everything is done, i'll be posting another update.  it's going to look so awesome i can hardly wait.

 

christmas ready, weekend recap

 

it was a busy weekend and i'm pooped which means i'm too lazy to type.  here's my weekend in pictures.  and tomorrow:  the one of a kind show with leesh!  yes!

 

 

went to a friend's birthday party on sunday.  here's kayla weilding a mini hammer to make a napkin holder.

 

  daddy's girl

random update, getting crafty and a trunk show

 

when it rains, it pours and by that i mean work is kicking my ass.  but it's a good ass-kicking because i'm working on a really fun project that brings together my 3 loves:  tv, gadgets and the internet.  my geek boner is huge right now. 

because of said project, i haven't had time to update; i'm on the computer constantly and on conference calls most of the day that i don't even want to look at the computer when i get home.  so instead of blogging, i relax by watching Sons of Anarchy.  If you haven't heard of that show, you needs to get watching, pronto.  You can thank me later.

it hasn't all been lounging around after work; i got my craft on and finally made something - a hanging board for kayla's art work.  i used to hang her stuff on one of those ugly, cheap canadian tire cork boards that i hated looking at so i decided to do something about it and make something nice and by nice, i mean i stole the idea off pinterest.   i channeled my inner martha and used fancy fabric instead of boring paint. check it:

 

it was really easy - all you need is a piece (or two) of plywood, a staple gun, some fabric, push pins and clip thingys that somehow found its way in my bag, some frame  hanging thingys and a husband who will do most of the work since you don't know how to weild a staple gun without stapling your fingers to the fucking thing.  voila!  you have your art hanging board!

i got the fabric from Fabric Land in the drapery section.  i didn't need much so i went over the "end pieces" section and i only paid $1.89 for one meter of fabric.  sweet.  i made two so i hung one in kayla's room above her bed and the other will go downstairs in the basement by her play area. 

 

then on sunday i'm co-hosting a fabulous stella and dot trunk show at my house.

if you haven't seen any of stella and dot's stuff, you need to crawl out from under that rock and get with the program because they have some seriously amazing stuff.  my wallet is going to get molested.  we'll be nibbling appy, sipping refreshing drinks and mingling while we browse and frost ourselves with their glittery and sparkly jewellery.   i can't wait!  i'll be posting an update next week about the event.

home is where the heart is

 

you'd think that after renos are done, you'd be all excited to get things back in order, right?  WRONG.  as a matter of fact, it's a real pain in the ass to be forced to go through shit that you wanted nothing to do with and banished out of sight.  that's where i am now.

i get into this organizing/craft project mode where all i want to do is organize and be all crafty but then part way through, i run out of steam and get lazy.  then i don't want anything to do witih said organizing/craft project and i just put it away so i don't have to look at it and forget about it.

unfortunately, my hubs is not letting me do that.  i gotta give him credit for being very insistent on getting the house in order but i'm pretty damn sure that when i agreed to the reno, he would have to do all the organizing afterwards. so far, i'm not having any luck convincing him we made that pact.   

anyway, here are some pics of the the almost-finished product:

the mancave is pretty much done.

btw, all of those finishing touches like that statue, those baskets of stuff etc... they are not my creative touches.  hubs isn't just handy with tools, he also has a nack for interior decorating.  really what he does is make me look like a bad wife.

 

toys! everywhere!  no matter how much we try and move stuff out of the way, it just keeps creeping up on us and i can't seem to get it under control.

 

my goal of turning my laundry room into a bright  snazzy one like the sort of thing i saw on pinterest didn't pan out so well.  once we get hubs' workshop in order, i'll have more room and move all the other crap out of the way.  and i hate those industrial-looking gray shelves.... but it does the job of keeping stuff out of the way so i guess i can't really argue with that.

 

while i like the bathroom, i will never shower here.  it's too freaking cold!  and the tile guy stained that tile right in front of the toilet with i don't know what and now i can't get rid of it!  i sat there scrubbing that shit with whatever i could find and nothing worked.  where can i find some DD7?

 

we moved the couch and chairs out of the sitting/dining area and converted it into our new office space so we finally have our guest room back. 

i like the fact that i'll have a fireplace right beside me so on those cold winter days when i'm working from home, i can drink my tea by the fire. 

damn, i need to paint my walls.  and hang some pictures.

 yes, this is definitely still a work on progress but it's never felt more like home.

basement renos - the finished product

 

after 3.5 weeks and mostly a smooth process, my basement is finally done.  there were a few hiccups which resulted in some angry email exchanges around the scheduling mixup with the cleaning crew which is why i'm cleaning the basement myself.  i was going to do another once-over when they were done but i wanted them to get the bulk of the debris out.  instead, i did a bit of yelling and then demanded a credit for my time doing the cleaning crew's job.  but other than that, the overall experience was good.  do you want to know something strange?  i was so angry  last week about having to clean it myself but after i cleaned, i felt so calm.  i forgot how theraputic cleaning can be.  wow, that sounds so pathetic.

anyway, hubs was away on the weekend so i couldn't move any of the furniture down but i'm excited to start organizing and getting things in order.

 

LAUNDRY ROOM

is it weird that i'm excited about my laundry room?  i actually enjoy doing laundry now.  i was without a washer and dryer for the entire time and let me tell you, i've never missed doing laundry until i didn't have it.  there's lots of wall space to put up shelves and organize all the crap that was sitting on the floor.  the bad part is that we can't really hang our laundry anymore (see first picture) but now have to use the dryer which is wasteful in terms of electricity and energy.

 

MAIN AREA 1

a tv will be mounted above the white tv stand and some exercise equipment placed here.  my yoga mat will be there too so i have no excuse not to exercise.  in the far corner is a mini-bar area with a bar sink.  read: beer and wine fridge.

 

MAIN AREA 2

this is kayla's main play area; i'm probably going to change part of the wall and either use some chalkboard paint or install some white board sheets.   i'm excited to move all of her stuff down here because my living room is currently overrun with all of her toys!

 

 

MANCAVE

hubs is super excited about his mancave.  it's the first thing he set up when the basement was done.

 

BATHROOM

we decided to install a full bathroom complete with a shower.  it's a fucking mess which i'm not looking forward to cleaning... espeically when i can't find my mop and bucket!

overall, we're all excited to finally have more space.  although it's pretty empty right now, kayla enjoys running around, yelling and hearing her echo.  it's going to be tough trying to keep this space organized especially with kayla's toys that just seem to grow roots and stick around no matter how often we clean up. 

our first order of business (aside from cleaning up):  get the tv area up and running so we can watch her fav movie, Rio.

oh, and Vampire Diaries watching with friends will ensue once we get organized.  damon salvatore on a 95" screen?  yes please!

and the beat goes on...

it's september 6 and i can't believe the summer is over. the past week has been filled with anxiety for both me and kayla because she started preschool today.  we've been trying to get her ready for her new school and since then, she's been waking up every night looking or calling out for us; something she hasn't done since she was three and a half months!  thank God it's only once at night for a short period but shit, when you're used to your child sleeping through 10-11hrs at night for so long, it's tough to have to deal with night wakings again.  i hope this works itself out now that school's started because for real yo, i'm tired.  this is also why i can't have another baby because if my sleep gets any shitter, i think i might go bananas from sleep deprivation. 

 

this morning started out a bit rough with some tears and "no mommy, i don't want to go! i want to stay with you!! don't leave me!!" but soon faded into smiles and cheerfulness when we pulled into the parking lot.  things got even better when she saw the toys.  her buddy, roland, who was taking a dump got so excited to see her, he didn't even finish his bidness and ran out of the bathroom pants down. 

and in the end, she didn't even notice i was there.  i had to beg ask for a kiss goodbye.  clearly toys are more important than mommy.  WAH!

****

i'm going to give our basement another 2 weeks or so.  check it out:

  these are just 2 shots of the basement but here's what's left:  floors, paint, bathroom, connect plumbing. 

i can't freaking wait because  seriously, my house is a fucking mess with all the dust and crap that's flying all around.  oh, and i walked into the drywall dude while he was changing into his coveralls; i'm talking about seeing him in nothing but his boxers so now i can barely look him hin the eye. 

 

 ****

 

my staycation begins today for another week.  i figured i'd take this week off in case the school needs me to get kayla and i'm glad i did because i wasn't ready to go back to work yet.  these long weekends aren't long enough.

tomorrow:  an 80 minute massage with sergei who can massage you into a pile of jelly.  so excited.

home is where the heart is

 

our basement is coming along very nicely.  it's been nearly 2 weeks and we already have separated rooms, electrical and plumbing mostly in place and almost all of the dry wall is up.  aside from my house being covered in dust, disorganized with everything moved upstairs in the living room and 4-6 men trampling through my house on a regular basis, i'm quite happy with the workmanship and etiquette of this company.

 

what i'm not liking is the price.  i know, i signed up for this but shit, why is it so godddamn expensive?  the average basement (with a couple of rooms), will run you at least $25k.  and you'd think you feel all gangster walking around with a wad of cash like this but it's actually quite terrifying.  the first time we had to take money out for the first instalment, i made hubs do it; i figured a robber would be less likely to want to steal from a 6"1, bald-headed dude who has tats all over his arms.   the second time was today and i was all nervous and paranoid and clutched my purse against me as i ran to my car.  it was  also 11am in broad daylight. 

anyway, here's what we have so far:

 

there are 3 main areas: 

1. the mancave aka hub's tv area
2. kayla's play area which will have shelving and lots of cubbies to store her toys as well as an arts and crafts area
3. my area which will have a tv, my yoga mat (i will be taking up yoga again once i have the space).  ok, this really isn't my area but if hubs gets a dedicated space, i will too dammit!

we also built a full bathroom just behind the mini-bar.  oh, there's a mini-bar with a bar-sink!  if anyone can recommend some wines to fill said mini-bar, that would be much appreciated.

our laundry room will also be upgraded (hub's side project but he doesn't know this yet) to include shelving, a nicer sink..... basically this:

  image:  i stole this off pinterest

 

but yeah, i'd love my laundry room to look something like this.  it would sure make the mounds of laundry i do on the regular a hell of a lot more fun.

even kayla's room got a little face-lift:

when she was a baby, her room was a darker green with a jungle theme (as you can see from the decals that are stuck on her dresser) .  we're in the process of redecorating her room but after we repainted it, we were a little sad because now it really looks like a little girl's room.... one more thing to remind us of how fast our baby is growing.  wah!

now i just have to order some wall decals (butterflies and flowers), move her dresser  into her closet, build in some cubbies and bring her little pink couch into her room so she has a place to sit and read her books. 

oh, and i blocked out the yuckiness in the hallway.  our stuff is all over the house because of the basement renos and i can't stand it!