Well, the time has come. We will make our journey onward and upward to HOME SWEET HOME ~ Canada.

Someone better hide the maple syrup, s’mores, crispy crunch chocolate bars, homemade pie, crispy bacon, and ketchup potato chips.

Now, as I think about weaning myself off of the french croissants, cafe creme, french red wine and baguettes….I start to think of food again.

Why don’t I dream of green apples and grapefruit ? Why can’t I dream in a fat free version?

So, as a home sweet home refresher, I thought I would post some pics to get myself all jazzed about feeling like a Canuck again…..

 

We have made some changes to our place since we left last year. I haven’t seen the changes yet, and I am sure I am in for a few surprises along the way.

 

TREEHOUSE!

Our friend Philly Markowitz, former CBC gal, had her barn hit by a tornado! We were able to salvage the barn and reclaim the wood for new ( actually OLD ) wood flooring throughout the house. We also created a new tree fort…..with a bedroom, kitchen, and front porch. I am BEYOND EXCITED TO SEE THAT !

PJ parties this summer fooooooo shur !!! Bring beer and popcorn. It is going to be where I will be ALL SUMMER LONG.

Hiding.

So don’t look too hard to find me.

 

Our usual hang out is in the out~house. Ok, I am actually not kidding. Many a great conversation has been had between these walls….and an occasional cell phone has also flown the coop and landed in not so fortunate places. That cell phone survived ! Weird, but true.

 

 

 

When Michael travelled a lot, he would hit the road for a week and facilitate somewhere across the world and do his thaaaang. Well, I facilitated too. I facilitated some big butt changes to the house, when he wasn’t looking. He would come home from a road trip and say ” are those kitchen chairs new ?!” I would say, “nahhhh”. After all, they were a least a week old in their new home.

 

 

So, I am starting to think it is payback time. We have been going gang busters on the house, even from afar. I think our contractors/friends have something up their sleeve.

There is always one surprise that they hold back from us….and I can’t wait ! If not, I hope they are reading this post and getting at it ! You better have something up your sleeve ! :-).

I am probably the only person on earth who actually enjoys reno’s. It is like child birth, there is always a prize at the end.

 

 

There are some crazy things I love about our place. We have friends who go and have parties at it, whether we are there or not. You know who you are. I am not naming names, but you are busted.

 

Oh wait, I guess you already had an inkling that we knew…..calling us during the party ~ is a dead give away.

 

 

Yup, that is the beer fridge. Bring magnets. Will trade cold bevies for magnets ~ with personality.

Gotta love a goof ball, off the cuff, nut bar magnet.

 

 

I am so in love with the pool. I can actually just WALK around it, or look at it, and I melt.

Chillaxin mode.

The walls were created from an old stone foundation. When we moved there, it was an old burned down barn ~ AKA snake /garbage pit eye sore.

So, we excavated it. Our team of workers included an old friend MURRAY, who really is OLD…and we had a hoot.

I would jump into the excavated area, in front of his tractor and halt the dig. There were so many funky old artifacts left behind from the old barn….I HAD to save them. We later mortared those pieces right back into the walls for some added character.

 

 

 

This bench was hand made in Bali. I bought it on Bali buying road trip. It is made from a reclaimed fishing boat. The ornamental grass usually grows about 9 feet tall ! Everyone asks me the secret to growing it ……ok, here it goes…. green thumb hot tip…..ignore plant ~ never ever ever water it ~ don’t trim it ~ never fertilize it ~ drink cold beer and observe it in all its glory.

 

It likes to be admired. I think , this year, I should name it. Any ideas ?

 

 

 

 

My friend Evie made this chair for me…..Note to self : do not leave Evie unattended with clippers ~ in a forest.

Jokes, jokes.

She is just like me, it is great to leave her to her own devices. She loves to cook up something creative.

 

 

 

She helped me paint all the doors last year, well…and the year before…and the year before…and the year before.

You get the picture 🙂

Paint is my friend.

I think it is one of the most brilliant decorating ideas on the planet. Doesn’t take much to make the change. Paint can change the mood of the room and it is a fairly quick/ inexpensive change for the drastic change that it may make.

 

 

It can also be disastrous.

 

Don’t be a turd and paint something a hideous colour. If you do….call me over, and I will give you a hand to choose a new colour. You must pay me with dinner tho. I trade design for food.

I will follow anyone that cooks for me.

 

 

Dan and Amy Duquette are two other great friends who do some pretty spectacular creative work. They weld, and make some one of a kind iron work pieces. I gave him creative license to create something for my hops vine plant. That vine has a mind of its own. Grows like someone is feeding it steroids.

Seriously, I have a BLACK thumb.

I kill any plant if it REQUIRES water. Not good old hops man tho. He is an unruly nut bar.

He decided to grow and climb like a naughty child…everywhere, except where I wanted him to grow. So….I outsmarted him.

I asked Dan to create a trellis to hold the vine. This is no easy task. As you can tell…the wall is like a sky scraper.

There isn’t a garden centre in Canada that would sell a trellis with that kind of height. I wanted one that would look like art.

We do have *insert yuck * WINTER WEATHER AND SNOW in Canada.

I knew it would be exposed for a good part of the year, so I wasn’t looking for a 20 foot eye sore. Dan and Amy to the rescue !

 

Wow, did they nail it.

 

J’adore the new leaf style trellis. J’adore !

 

Our pool house has been an ongoing process. Grows every year, and sparks something new. We built a second floor in it for storage. We never really did use it for storage !

It became a guest house, and beloved home sweet home for some friends for a night or two. My cousin Melissa would live in here, if she could. She loves it. Any time Melissa, any time !

I have another friend Rose, from the city of Toronto. She has spent a night or two in it as well. I laugh every time she comes. She LOCKS HER CAR. Every time, I ask her…” Rose, are you expecting a cow to come by and steal your car ?!”

Old habits die hard. I like nutty friends, so I am still keeping her :-).

She, amongst everyone else …says….why on earth do you live so far away ? What do you do out there in the sticks ?!! Aren’t you bored ? With which I reply….”no, I’m not bored.

 

By the way, I thought you were only staying for one night, why are you still here ??…one week later ? ” xo