Our New Pad

Finally! Pictures of our new home, as promised to many of you from out of town, and those from town that haven't made it over yet!!! This next verse describes perfectly my sentiments about running a household with children, and I have it hanging up in the hallway by the front entrance. Let me share my mantra with you:

EXCUSE THIS HOUSE

Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there. Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere.

For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the doors; I should apologize I guess for toys strewn on the floors. But I sat down with the children and we played and laughed and read. And if the doorbell doesn't shine, their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other, I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a mother.

Here is the living room.

Here's a look at the opposite end of the living room, that opens up to the dining room to the right. Those are Harrison's Valentine cards from his classmates all over the front of the filing cabinet!

Here is the dining room and that same corner of the living room. You can see our big patio door onto our south facing balcony, which will be wonderful this summer! The kitchen is to the left, in front of Harrison's little easel in the lower left corner of the picture.

And here is the opposite end of the dining room, with a look down the hallway. Now the kitchen is on the right, with the entrance from the stairs coming up from the side door just past the kitchen on the right. Confused yet?! The patio doors are behind me.

This is obviously the kitchen! This is where my mantra comes in handy! Do you see the more than obvious signs of my child all over the walls, cupboard doors, fridge and stove?! I believe the most priceless art is the art created by my own child, therefore I never throw any of it out, and use it to cover up the ugly chocolate brown doors, and to brighten up my entire house! If you walked into my home, you would see his art everywhere, and my absolute favorites get framed, like the one in the bright green frame above the table! I enjoy looking at them and it makes my little man proud to see his hard work displayed freely with so much love and pride!

Again, pretty self explanatory! In the bathroom we have a fun fish theme going on!

My favorite room in the whole house has got to be Harrison's room ~ for obvious reasons! Kids always get the funnest rooms, don't they?! His room is so colorful and to me just screams out "come in, have fun and play!" I hope he feels the same way about it as I do! I have alphabet stick-ups on his wall that I used to spell words for him: I LOVE YOU (above his bed) as well as SLEEP over the head of the bed (if only he could read!) and READ over his bookcase! I wanted to give him the kind of room that I'd have wanted, as well as one that makes him feel really loved and special, to think "my mom did all of this just for being ME!"

His room is also decorated with many of his craft projects from Preschool and the first picture he ever coloured at age 15 months, that I framed in a baby blue frame and hung over his bookcase, as seen in this last picture. He is most proud of that one and asks me about it all the time! I love making him feel special and like what he does, even as small as a scribble at 15 months is important enough to be classified as art!

And of course, my room! Not nearly as inviting as Harrison's room, but I guess it doesn't need to be! The only reason it made it onto the blog at all is to show off the Bed In A Bag set I picked! I was thrilled to find something feminine but not too girly, sophisticated but not stuck-up, and pretty without being overdone. It's a nice balance of colour, pattern and style. The bed skirt is striped, along with the underside of the large floral duvet, the sheets and pillow cases are smaller floral print. I thought the pink throw at the foot of the bed, and the micro-suede tan pillows finish it off nicely! Nothing fancy, just like me!!!

There are no pictures of the playroom/computer room, as it is a disaster right now! I have a few more pictures of various wall hangings which give it that personal touch, but I will post them in the next day or two! I hope you have enjoyed the official tour of our cozy litte home and that you feel welcome enough to drop in for coffee anytime, or for a few days if you need a bed! See you then....