The ugly (do-it-or-else) reno

We had a case of the uglies here last week.

Well really it's a problem that's been going on for a little while but we finally decided to do something about it. Our drain in the cold storage had backed up before - we called the city, got it plunged (thanks, property taxes at work!) and it was good for a couple of years. Until this year...this year it happened 3 times in about 2 months, and a city worker who was plunging it on episode 2 said - You should really get some quotes to get this fixed.

Ok, Ok. So we did just that. Last week we had Toronto Drain & Plumbing here digging up holes, working through that crazy snow storm we had, and fixing our drain.

It started as just a back flow valve installation, and then expanded to replacing a portion of our pipe due to tree roots (we have a silver maple out front...which while beautiful is notorious for root issues), and replacing the waterline from the main line. It was one of those things where we figured, while they were here and everything was dug up we might as well get it all out of the way.

I really wish I was spending that money on a rug, coffee table and other goodies for my living room. Or on fun clothes for Owen (that he grows out of in 2 weeks), or anything else really. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. At least we won't have to clean up sewer back ups (thanks Mr.) for a while!

 

This is a DEEP hole. They were not kidding around, this is NOT a DIYable project :)

  

On to prettier things... 

*I get no kick back (unfortunately) for naming the company that did the work, but this is work that you tend to only do once, and if they did a good job, why wouldn't I recommend them? We were happy with their work and they worked hard to get it all done in a reasonable time frame.

A couple of weeks in St Lucia...

I'm back...well I have been for a week, but you know what the first week back at work from vacation is like :) Make it a short week and it's both good and bad...

Anyhoo we got back from our vacation to St Lucia on June 29th, and then enjoyed a few BBQ's on the Canada Day long weekend - great way to come home!

Our first week in St Lucia was cloudy and rainy...it bummed us out quite a bit and we seriously considered coming home a week early...but an extra week in St Lucia is better than a week doing stay-cation at home chores anyday, so we stuck to our original plan. Good thing we did as the sun came out and it gave us a chance to re-do everything we did under cloud/rain the first week!
 

Our backyard for the first week - we shared a 3 BR villa with friends and their 1.5 year old daughter, it was great! Usually went to the "big" pool but nice to look at this view over breakfast.

A small bay in the Atlantic on our resort the first week

View from a hike (nature walk) near our first villa

The famous pitons...in the clouds the first week...and the same view in the sun below (SOOO much better the 2nd week!)

It poured rain the first time we went...we tried to make the most of it by doing some snorkeling, but generally we were dying for some sun! The second time we went we climbed the "Gros Piton" - well they only let me go halfway (I guess they don't want people having babies at the top of the hike) but the Mr went up the full way.

We also went to Pigeon Island which is a beautiful national park with a couple of small but gorgeous beaches, and a couple of mini-hikes.

 We went back to this beach on our last day - it's small but so quiet, and on the caribbean side so the water is super refreshing!

 The right side is the Caribbean, and the left is the Atlantic

 

 A view of the "hike" / nature walk on pigeon island

If you're thinking of St Lucia as a destination I would say go if you're a beach person, but a week is likely enough. We thought there would be more to do, and more accessible things to do on our own as opposed to excursions, but we still found some great places to explore. We didn't do the all inclusive as that's not really our thing, but instead we stayed in a couple of villas which are more our style. We did their weekly "jump up" which is a big street party on Friday night - lots of GREAT street food and fun to go for a few hours.

Now we're back to the grind, but it's great to be back for the heart of the summer!

May 2-4

I love long weekends.

Especially when they are filled with sunshine and time outside. This weekend definitely fit that mold - it was beautiful in Toronto! Everyone was out in their gardens and at the garden stores stocking up for the year.

We did the same, although we are fortunate that our house "came with" a lot of perennial landscaping! We have added things here and there over the past few years, and we always plant herbs and some veggies. This year we have garlic (planted last fall), tomatoes and lettuce. We have room for a bit more, so I'm thinking kale or swiss chard, and maybe some potatoes (only because we have some in our cold storage that are sprouty and could do worse than being planted and seeing what happens!).

What did you get up to?

Quebec City {the views + the skiing}

Yesterday I posted all about the food in Quebec City (so good!). Today I'll show more photos of some of the beautiful scenery we saw while we were there. To start, we checked into our hotel (The Hilton Quebec City) located beside Parliament and just outside of the walled "Vieux Quebec".

View of Parliament from our hotel room

We went skiing at Le Massif the second day we were there - conditions were amazing and we made it to the mountain for "first tracks". The moutain is really unique in that most skiiers will start at the summit - you arrive, put your equipment on and off you go - no waiting for lifts until you ski to the bottom! That said, there was really good flow on the moutain and it never seemed too busy.

One of the other best parts of Le Massif is that it's like you're skiing into the fleuve (Fleuve St Laurent).

We spent the rest of our time in the city wandering and exploring...our usual travel approach :) And yes, there was TONS of snow (and it was COLD! We picked a great day for skiing, around -10C, but the next day was -25C with the wind!). If you haven't been to Quebec City I highly recommend it, it was great to do a winter vacation in a place where winter is what it's all about.

Fall decor with my wine crate

It is officially fall now...we have cool nights (and cool days for that matter), my basil bit the dust after a night that was too cool for it, and we have had the heat on for a couple of weeks now. Instead of worrying what comes next (shhhh...winter...eek!), I wanted to zhush up our front porch for the season and I thought using my wine crate would be perfect. In yesterday's post I gave some before shots, and today I'll debut the afters - I think it was the perfect little vessel for my front porch zhushing!

Here's hoping the squirrels (a) do not like gourds or (b) are starting to get verrrryyy sleepy and won't disrupt my crate of plenty.

Back to school, back to blog

Hi friends!

I know I have been...hmmm...here and there, let's say, over the last month or so. It's just that with the summer weather being as spectacular as it was (is??) I really have relished outdoor unplugged time. It seems like that was a bit of a trend amongst my bloggy friends and really - summer only lasts so long so I decided to soak it all in.

This past weekend was no exception. The Mr. and I stayed in the city which is lovely because you do not need to fight traffic. My weekend started with an early escape from work where I did some shopping and picked up these beauties:

The plan was never to keep both...cause I don't think I NEED 2 ostrich bags this year...but the winner of this duo is the teal bag to the left...I wasn't sure about the size (it's pretty big), but I like the size with the structured shape and I LOVE the teal, and how it will look with my trench in the fall. Hooray for back to school shopping!

Another hooray - that couch you see in the background is no longer in my living room...it has been replaced with a similar, but larger and more loungey version...will post soon, promise.

 

Aside from this little shopping expedition, the Mr. and I spent about as much time outside as we could over the weekend. We logged serious km's on our bikes: Saturday we biked out to the Scarborough Bluffs (GORGEOUS), Sunday we biked to the west end of the city for a picnic in High Park, and Monday we biked not too far to our friends' rooftop pool. Great way to spend the weekend in Toronto. Here are some of my photos from the bluffs - who said Toronto doesn't have beauty??

 









 

 

Happy September, y'all!



I'm back!

I survived my first day back at work following two weeks of vacation bliss...and now to post a little something something to get you guys drooling before I have time to post a proper vacation round up (probably not until next week..sorry!). I hope you enjoyed my awesome guest posters while I was gone.

The Mr. and I spent the last two weeks in lovely Kauai, Hawaii. Here's a very quick glance at some of the stuff we got up to:

We hiked here and SWAM under the falls! Major highlight

And that's just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the beauty of Kauai...more from me later...'till then tah tah!



Fresh from the garden

One of the (few) things we were happy to inherit "as-is" when we bought our house was the back garden. It was landscaped really nicely and came complete with raspberry bushes! It's only June but we have already had a good amount of raspberries (I would say at least a pint and a half...if you don't include the ones we snack on while "harvesting" :) ). I hope that they keep on coming because they are SO GOOD.

Raspberries grow sort of like Benjamin Button - they start off all dry and light coloured, and then plump up and become nice and tender and beautifully red and plump!



I got to use a nail gun!!

Last week I was invited to a DIY event at Home Depot where we got to make our own garden boxes! I thought the event was a neat idea, and then when I got there I saw what we were doing and that we would be able to use a saw, drill, AND NAIL GUN and I was sold!

(PS - aside from the finished product and gabbing with bloggers the nail gun was BY FAR my favourite part of the night!).

We started with a little get to know you, and met our Home Depot reps:

Our fearless leaders, Linsey and Kris

And the fun tools we got to play with:





My new favourite power tool - a nail gun. Have you used one?? They are glorious, so easy and SO FUN to use.

Ok...I get it, enough of the tools. Right, so now onto the fun thing we made - a flower box! The Home Depot reps helped us with instruction, and we measured, cut, drilled, countersunk, and nail gunned these puppies together.

I decided to stain my flower box (well, the Mr. stained it on the weekend - a role reversal from our usual process - this time I got to use the power tools, and he painted!).



And with the goods - the flowers!





A big thank you to Home Depot and Environics Communications for throwing this little DIY shindig!



Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow...

Back to work today...instead of talking about that, let's take another little look-see at some of the stuff we did on the weekend. In addition to the backyard and herb planting I shared yesterday, we added some floral touches to our front yard.

 I love the colour of these bogonias with our gray porch!

We have a challenge with our front flower beds...the soil is very very sandy, and gets full sun. So, a lot of the stuff we have planted in the past has just uped and died because the plants can't handle the conditions. We added some peat moss and compost to the soil (peat moss acts as a sponge to keep moisture in, and compost provides nutrients) and chose plants that the nice people at Bill's Garden Centre directed us to.

Here were the gaps we were looking at before:

And now filled in a little bit:

Those little sprouts will eventually bloom with orange flowers...and they're perennials! Which means if they live, they'll come back year after year. I hope they will fill out in a couple of years. The giant bush in the middle of this photo is lavender. If you have full sun, dry soil, get some lavender! It smells amazing and it really took off again this year (it's a perennial too).

In the front bed we put two little plants that should bloom with yellow flowers. 

I'm happy with how it's filling out...it's true what they say about gardening - you have to do it bit by bit. Plant some stuff, see what lives, what dies, what takes over, and what maintains its shape / size before adding too many other things.  It doesn't look like much yet, but I'm hoping in another month or so we will have some great blooms to show for it!