Boo .....

White painted pumpkins for Halloween.

We grew white ones in our patch this year.

But I didn't decorate them. Just put them

on the front steps with the orange ones.

Maybe next year but I do love these

painted ones. New ideas to try out.

Stair Wall.

 Almost done. I have a little diy clock

to go inside the frame to finish it off.

One more picture and one more plate

for the other walls and then I'll show

those off as well. Hope you like how

I'm hanging pictures around the house.

And that's a wrap ....

.... until next year, we are all done.

An honor, a blessing, feeling loved.

End of the Day.

Tired at the end of the day. But so full

of inspiration and ideas, after being

with our grieving families for the day.

A reason for our own losses ~ to help!

Almost 300 people came out to honor

206 precious and sweet tiny babies.

Nothing can change the path these

families are on, but we can help them

grieve, remember their babies in their

own way and create a safe place to share.

Our Babies.

Four healthy grown children. Two

unexpected stillbirths. Six early

miscarriages. Longed for. Loved.

Missed. Never Forgotten. With love,

we remember Birkley, Cabriola,

Cambria, Beau, Cree and Bentley.

Sunny Leaves.

We feel so lucky that our Walk ended

up on a very warm and sunny day.

Remembering our babies was so much

easier in the sun, instead of the snow.

Love Candles.

In the sun, in the breeze, our

candles are lit, full of love.

The Path.

Our families who have lost a baby

during pregnancy or anytime after

birth have a long, hard road ahead

of them. We hope to make it lighter.

A path to walk together, a journey

to share, a love that aches, empty arms.

The Week Before.

It was a bit scary planning our Annual

Walk to Remember for baby loss this

year as it kept raining, then snow, then

rain, then snow. This was the week before.

Fake Fire.

On a crisp Fall night, a warm fire to

keep us cozy on movie night in the

theatre room. Yes, it's not a real fire.

But the heat and the look are comfy!

Key Lime Pie.

My favorite dessert in the World is

Key Lime Pie. And now I can make it!

I always thought this would be a

very difficult task but it wasn't.

Easy peasy with ingredients that

are not hard to find or have on hand.

Marrying the graham cracker base

and the key lime filling that is yummy.

Baking away in our little AGA.

My kitchen smelled so lovely.

Out of the oven and ready to cool.

This was our one dessert for our

Thanksgiving Dinner a few weeks

ago, here in Canada of course.

I put a sweet little lime curly que

and some whipping cream, that

despite the cool pie, our kitchen

was warm and within minutes,

the little flowers I was doing on

the pie melted. It was still good!

Additions to our Booth.

 We've done some revamping to our

Antique Mall Booth since Summer.

And now our sales have jumped! We

truly never wanted a cluttered booth ....

.... but we've learned that keeping it

quite full has greatly increased sales.

We added in three things to help showcase

what we're selling. The first was the shelf

up above the vanity. We already had the

brand new, still wrapped in plastic Ikea

brackets (given to us for free) and we

stopped in at Ikea one day and bought the

lovely wood shelf. Perfect fit. This gave

us some upper "real estate" as our fellow

sellers have pointed out. We then added

another free item we had come to possess.

Also from Ikea. The tall, thin shelf holds

tea cups perfectly! And the third item we

picked up from a garage sale for $20. It

was listed for $40 but before I could say

"boo" the seller asked if we would like to

pay $20 as it was a cold, rainy day and

she wanted to close up shop. Sold! Now

we have plenty of room for displaying

items and we hope giving space for our

"clients" to browse around. It's working.

Hoping in this season of weather changes and

a move towards more indoor activities that we

continue to sell as well as we are. It's fun to

treasure hunt to find items either in our stash

from home or when we're out and about. And

to make money at the same time .... bonus!!

Do you have an Antique Mall Booth?

Do you like to shop at an Antique Mall?

Sweet Bunnies.

Susan Wheeler is one of my favorite

illustrators. Love her work so much.

Wallpaper Woes.

Years ago, our first home had some wallpaper in the nursery and the main floor 1/2 bath. We loved both and kept them in place. And then wallpapered our kitchen from corner to corner, with a sweet little border at the top. It was a tiny kitchen but so warm and welcoming with our "homey" wallpaper. 

Our next few homes were just painted walls but then we decided to add wallpaper to our 4th house. We started in the kitchen, then added a border in the living room and the dining room. We wallpapered our master bedroom with a border at the top. And for our two kids bedrooms, we wallpapered half way up and added a wood chair rail. Loved those spaces. Our 5th house, we did just borders and it was fun to change them out as our kids grew. When we decided to lease out our house to a sweet little family, we took down the borders and repainted all 3 levels so they could move into a fresh and neutral home. They were very appreciative of the new paint.

A long ramble to get to my story I've called "Wallpaper Woes." 

Though we are going for a true English Cottage look in our new home, we have chosen not to put wallpaper anywhere, except for our main floor half bathroom. This room, like all the rooms on our main level, has 9 foot ceilings, so the room feels very tall but is small. To combat this, we decided we would put wallpaper on the upper half, and then we were going to install a chair rail and some wainscotting. It took forever but I finally found a pattern I love and off we went to the store to order it. I measured, remeasured and measured again. And then took those measurements into the store. I asked to order more once they did their calculations but they insisted that I would have more than enough with extra left over. I trusted but am quickly learning in this building/decorating process that my gut feeling will always win. So I let them order it. And guess what. Part way through the install process, I could see we would be short. Off to the store once again. They were happy to order me more but now the sale was over and so not only would I be charged more but now the shipping charges would be double. Hell no! Not on my watch ....

I had to wait a few days for the store manager as he was away but finally he got back to me and placed the order at the same sale price, without any additional shipping charges. And the best part was he also agreed his staff should have ordered extra. So now I was back in business. But a new problem emerged. As I hung the first strip of the new order. it looked darker. At first we thought "it's just the water" and hoped once it dried, it would be the same shade. But no, it dried and for days I kept checking to see if the tone would lighten but it didn't. It was super disappointing and frustrating.

Contacted the store manager who confirmed that they should have tried to match the lot number with the second order but no one thought of that ..... yes, I promise I won't order wallpaper from this large company again. But for now, I had to get this fixed. I contacted the store manager but he had no solution, so I contacted the area manager who was shocked that we had this experience. I have to send pictures tomorrow to show them what the wallpaper looks like and my hope is that they will reimburse me so we can start all over again. I haven't checked yet to see if the pattern we picked is still available but have chosen another one (picture above) just in case it's not. It's super close to the original but a smaller pattern. Fingers crossed that the area manager comes back with what I want and we can start fresh with enough wallpaper to cover the walls as we envisioned. Can't wait for this whole ordeal, our "Wallpaper Woes" to be be all over with. Soon, very soon ....

Funeral Flowers

 A family I'm working with recently

had the funeral for their daughter. 

The florist, with mom's guidance, was

able to create this amazing floral cross.

I love mom's choice of flowers and all

the colors that work so well together.

She's letting it now dry naturally and I

was honored to see it at our last session.

Such a beautiful last gift for her little

daughter, gone too soon, loved forever.

Fall Carrots.

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving

on October 7th this year. In our family,

we prefer to celebrate on the Sunday

and then we can have a lovely relaxing

day on the holiday Monday. This year, it

was especially fun this year to make our

dinner because we were able to use the

veggies we spent the Summer growing.

Our carrots were different sizes so now

we know next year to thin them out. So

excited to have very fresh veggies that

we know have no chemicals or pesticides.

Favorite Corner.

One of my favorite corners in our living

room ~ the vintage lamp and the lamb.

It's been a great spot to start plants too.

The light streams in late in the afternoon.

A calm spot. Soothing and quiet. And

visually lovely to look at. A favorite.

Guest Room Update.

Slowly, as we live and work, we work

on making our little house in the big

woods (a.k.a. our "cottage") a comfy

and cozy abode. We add and move.

And somedays we feel like we're almost

done. Room by room, item by item.

In our guest room, we've had a fun time putting

it altogether. We've never had a dedicated room

before for guests. But with our little guy and our

dd living in the apartment we created for them in

our build, we needed a spot for him to sleep when

mama, who is a pediatric nurse, is working nights. 

It's been great fun searching for just the right

pictures and small items to hang on this wall. I

haven't decided yet if it's done or if a few more

things need to be added but we love it so far.

It's a bit too girly for him of course, though he

does tell us he sleeps really well and its comfy.

At the grand old age of almost 8, he is entitled

to his opinion and we cherish it. But we won't

be changing this room anytime soon. It will at

some point have crown moulding (all piled up

and ready to be installed) and we still need to find

just the right curtains to go over the light lace and

the blinds. We're trying to find either something

already made or fabric to create our own. A tiny

pattern or solid dark. So far, no luck but we won't

give up until this guest room is finally complete.

Do you have a guest bedroom in your home?

Is it used very often or just on occasion?

Missing Summer.

Summer arrived on time this year but truthfully,

it was an odd one that wasn't exactly wonderful.

We had moments where we'd think "yes, it's back"

and then the rain would come for days. Or the smoke.

Capturing photos when I could to show the progress

in our landscaping journey. There is not a lot of photos.

We did cherish the few warm and sunny days we did

manage to get and mourned the loss of each day that

wasn't great. The smoke from the fires in B.C. made

some of those warm and sunny days unbearable with

the thickness of the air. We spent those days in the

house, working on other projects and hoped it would

not last long so we could get back to our gardens.

We managed to create and then grown veggies in

fenced in patch. And grow some flowers but for the

most part, it wasn't a great growing season either. I

 truly hope next Summer is better and much longer.

For our veggie patch, our gardens and our bodies.

Just as we hoped that we would have a nice long and

warm Fall, with colorful trees and crunchy paths, just

as we prepared for Thanksgiving and filled our fridges,

our pantries and tied our veranda, porch, garage and

the little potting shed, just as we started to get excited

about being cozy in our little cottage, we woke to this ....

.... yes, that is fluffy snow AGAIN! We had a few days in

September but thought we were all done with early snow.

Ugh. No pretty Fall pictures from our Little House

in the Big Woods. This will melt quickly but still ....

It's hard to feel Fallish when all we can see is white out

our front door! And back door! And on the potting shed!

Have you had a beautiful Fall so far?

Any snow in your regions just yet?

Octobers ....