New house exterior !

Our house has undergone some changes on the outside.  We are very happy with the new look.

House Part 2

 Our new house has this awesome window in the dining room that I LOVE.  

I knew right away I wanted curtains up.  I adore the curtains I have in my living room, but thought it would be overkill to have the pattern here too.  So here is my "naked" window...

(bad cell pic, mess in the area)

 Here it is with my curtains !  

What a difference it makes !!

They have a really pretty faint embroidery pattern on them that you can't see here. 

So the next question is, do you like the curtains undressed (above)

or dressed (below)

ps- dressed is the fancy tie.

This space IS a work in progress.

You might remember my fancy multi coloured chairs... well, they might get a second makeover

And the new to me china hutch I bought and love is in the garage.

It no longer fits.

So i'm looking for something nice to go over on that left hand side.

And that photo still needs to get hung up on the right side.

Anyone notice that I have tiny "rods" only on the sides of the window for the curtains?

Well, the curtains are for show only.  They give the space texture and warmth, and aren't intended to be closed.

We had bought  "real" curtain rods, but instead, I used loonie store kitchen accessory rods.  I like that they were cheap and easy for me to put up.

What do you think of the transformation?

And, dressed or undressed?

Hello friends !  We've been busy as of late.  

Today will be a happy post.  A sad one will follow in a few days.

After loving our tenant's dog Oakley when we were in Kamloops- I desperatly wanted a dog.

I sort of got over it a bit, but Dylan caught dog fever, and while in Kamloops, we told him we'd consider getting one when we moved.

And we've now moved.

We had sort of decided not to get one, but a trip to Petcetra , where they had rescue dogs changed that.

We fell in love with her little puppy face, and adopted her.

Introducing Rosie.

8 weeks.

Full of puppy spunk.

This is her and her litter mates - they were all found abandoned near a river in the cold.

Our House, part 1

Hello friends !  

We have now been in Sherwood Park for a month.

I had everything unpacked and organized within a week- minus the garage.

I've had lots of friends ask to see our new place....

So, until you all come for a visit, here are some pics of what I'm doing with the house.

To start, it was a pretty blank slate.  These images are of the main floor.  

In upcoming posts I'll show you other areas of the house and what we've done.

First, the outside of the house !

I'm pondering painting the door a bright funky colour. 

Suggestions??

The living room is more of a sitting, talking reading peaceful space.  

NO TV.

My style has had to change a bit with this type of home.  In Kamloops, I had a lot of vintage finds, but they just don't seem to fully fit in this very modern home.  You'll still find them, but they are a bit harder to locate in this house than they were in Kamloops.

We added some curtains which helped soften the windows.

I've really missed the view out of my window from Kamloops, so I got a giant print of one of my favorite Kamloops images.  I took this image about a year before we moved.

I do miss the mountains and actually should have spent a lot more time

photographing and enjoying them.  

But we've brought pieces of Kamloops with us, and 

this photo reminds me of what I loved about Kamloops.

I do however no longer have the ability to sit and look out my living room window

and spy on my cul de sac buddies while enjoying the scenery, so the

photo will have to suffice.

I LOVED my dining room light fixture, so before we put our house

on the market, I took it down and replaced it with a cheap restore one.

I'm happy it came with us.  :)

The light in this house is amazing.  

But the back door had a huge kitchen window that sort of creeped me out at night

with nothing on it.

I found on pintrest a tutorial for a roman shade.  

It looked so easy.

Not so.  Mine actually doesn't work, for some unknown reason

But it covers the window, looks nice, matches my curtains in the living room

and serves it's purpose.

So what if it doesn't actually go up or down.

So what if I glue gunned it so it's up a bit.

You know how DIY projects can go.

 So to replace some of the vintage character I had in my Kamloops home, I've turned to some funky

unexpected items.

Yellow Kitchen Cow

and yet to be painted goat.

Why?

Why not?

 And last but not least, or boy who got comfortable in the home quickly.

He's in preschool again, making friends

and we are doing lots of exploring.

(Dyl's version of thumbs up)

So, this was a bit of a peek of our house.

Casa Cook is officially open for visitors.

SO COME !!!!!

Because we really miss a lot of you.

But we are happy with our new home.

We did make the right decision.

And we are happy to be back in Alberta.

Brilliance and Stupidity- all in one day

Hello world !

We are in our new house in Sherwood Park, it's been less than two weeks, and we are mostly unpacked, and mostly organized !  It's been lots of fun to set up the house, but it has NOT been fun to unpack box after box.

When the movers came, the boxes just kept coming and coming.  We could hardly beleive the amount of "stuff" we have.  There have been a few trips to the thrift shop for some purging, and there will be more.  

We painted right away when we got here because we were without much of anything for the first 5 days !  Dylan's room got one wall painted in Calgary Flames' red.  I did caution him and Mat that living here, we may also become oilers fans, but the red still went up.  Had I known that our beloved Iginla was going to be traded, I would have kiboshed the red.  

Our bedroom got a wall in an amazingly peaceful purple.  My mother in law helped me pick out the colour in our last house for the feature wall of our bedroom and we picked a lovely shade of purple which my father in law kindly did for us.  I had one HUGE complaint about it-- It was on the wall that my bed was, so I barely got to see it.  This go around I painted it on the other wall-- the one I will see all the time.  And I love it !  Dyl was a painting helper, until he got bored and moved on.  

 And then on to the master bedroom

 In our house, pants are optional

We will have some house pictures to come in an upcoming post, but for now, today, I had two incidents of brilliance, and one of stupidity.

Start with brilliance.

These Ikea spice racks are now being used in our ensuite to store, and keep our daily use items handy.

BAM!  Love it !

Second, our guest room downstairs had door with clear pains of glass in it.  Lovely since it lets light and keeps this small space from feeling closed in.  Not so lovely because if you stay at our house, the bedroom faces our family room and play room, and if you are sleeping, or changing clothes, or picking your nose, we will all be treated to a show.  Soooo I found , for $9.99 a lovely sticky paper to put on to allow that light to continue to go through, but give some privacy.  Now if you are picking your nose in that room, I might see a silhouette of it, but not the actual act.  Genius.

And the stupid.  After my last text to Lia in my car, I put my phone in my purse, went into winners and was gong to text again.  Phone was missing.  Long story short, after about an hour, and a trip in winners, I found my phone, under the tire of a DIFFERENT car that was now next to me.

Lovely, brand new phone.  <sigh>

Anyway, much love to our buddies whom we miss tons and tons in Kamloops.

Hoping to come out your way soon and visit.

Miss you all, but especially my besties Sarah and Lia.

XOXOX

Nothing makes a move more official then purchasing a house !

Mat and I took a trip up to Edmonton on our own three weeks ago and found a house that we think will suit our family well.  We decided to live in Sherwood Park instead of Edmonton.  We thought the "small city" feel of it would hopefully mimic all of the things we liked about Kamloops.  It's close to Mat's work, and it's practically attached to Edmonton, so it seemed like a good option.  

We had our house inspection last week, and took the opportunity to be present for that, as well as bring Dylan along to introduce him to Edmonton, Sherwood Park, and to give him a peek at his new house.  He had been to Edmonton when he was six months old, but we wanted to take him to get him excited about the move.  He's been adjusting well, but every so often asks about his friends in Kamloops, and twice has said he wants to go back.

The other day he told Grandma to move to Kamloops so he can go visit her, and visit his friend Sean, so clearly, he is missing Kamloops and his friends, but is still excited about the move.

I managed to secure a spot for a preschool for him for April- June, and then again starting in September.

He gave the thumbs up on the house, and picked his room.

Then it was off to the mall, to show him all the fun that can be had there.

When I say "THE MALL"  of course I mean West Edmonton Mall.

(click the link)

Here are some photos from the marine life area.

 Clapping along ?!?!?!? Whatttt, he never does that !!!  

 The Sea Lion demonstrating how they swim quickly in a way that makes them look like Dolphins to avoid Sharks.  Pretty cool.

 Up and down...

 And demonstrating how they leap off of sea cliffs.....

In the sea life caverns.  Thank your random boy for pointing out the penguin.

 And at the end of the day....

we had one tired little boy, who was clutching his new penguin for dear life.