Serious Play

December 22-24

So, now that the last few days have been quieter, I have been busy finishing my December Daily album.

December 22 I was making stocking stuffers for my mom and sister! I also had the girls do their Christmas Wish List...

...digitally!

Dec 23 I featured my stunning Amarylis...

Dec 24 I featured snippets of our Christmas Eve in the baseball card sleeves...

 ...and the backside too - and yes, that is Sean playing with our nephew's remote control monster truck (and teasing the dog with it)!

 

We are on our way out of town for New Years, so December 25th will have to wait until our return!

Happy New Year to you all!

A Backstrom Christmas 09

So, as I work to complete the rest of my December Daily pages, I quickly put together this snapshot of our past couple of days...

Hope your holiday was joyful!

Cabinets and Basement

So, it's been a while since I blogged about the progress of our renovations. I am getting excited to move back into my kitchen. It has been a long 2 months with only our temporary kitchen solution. I am grateful for that, but I am tired of eating soup with cheese and crackers!

A few weeks back the cabinets started going in...

And now they are completely in...

It is all dark wood, which we absolutely love. It feels so rich and warm in our kitchen. The granite guys have been here to template our countertop and are working on it as we speak. Originally, we chose a granite called Golden Marinace. We have since changed our minds, mostly due to resale possibilities down the road. The Marinace is quite busy and not typical for a kitchen. We loved it, but thought better of it. Instead, we made a new choice, that is a little more tame. It is called Volga Blue.

It is mostly black with some silvery sparkles and depending on the light, there are some bits that sparkle blue! I can't wait to see what it will look like in our kitchen.

Now I have to make some decisions about wall color, backsplash, handles for the cabinets and lighting. Time to go shopping...

Our basement is progressing too! Initially, we were just going to redo the ceiling, brought on by the new bay window in our living room, and lay down new carpet. But as the work started, we realized there were some other improvements that we should do now if we were going to do them. So, we ripped out our unusable sauna, took out the pole in the center of the basement, and prepped a new room into which we are moving the furnace and water heater!

Sean prepped the floor to have in-floor heating and then my brother-in-law came to pour the concrete.

 Now, we have a nice smooth floor that will provide heat for our little tootsies! It will also lessen our overall heating bill because when the floor is warm, it will radiate through the whole house which means that the furnace will not have to run as often.

 Now, it needs drywall and carpet. I am starting to visualize what this space is going to look like! My eyes are on a constant scan of everything from fashion to color palettes, to magazines, to store windows. Everything could be a potential idea that makes it into my house! Love it!!

Merry Christmas

So, I will be away from my computer for a few days as I gather with family, therefore, I will not be posting for a few days. So I leave you with this...

 

Blessings to all!

December 19 - 21

So, I am loving the break from work and preparing for Christmas. Our renos are coming along. Our families are making plans to gather. We are out skating and seeing holiday movies. And I am trying to capture it all!

December 19...

The little blue square has a hinge which allows it to open and there is a message behind it!

December 20...

December 21...

My girls went over to my sister's house for the day to allow me some free time to get some things done around here. I was able to wrap gifts without prying eyes!

I will continue to keep up with my pages throughout the holidays, however, I most likely will not be posting for a few days.

Merry Christmas to you all!   

December 17 & 18

So, here are two more pages of my December Daily album.

Firstly, on December 17th, I was feeling so inspired by Ali Edwards and her idea for this album, that I decided to do a page dedicated to her and her blog! Ali's blog is one that I visit every day for inspiration and insight into how to create simple meaningful albums. Today, I paid tribute to her in my DD album. Thank you, Ali. I love this project and will continue to do it year after year, as long as I am able. Just think, in 10 years, when my girls have left home and have families of their own, how fun it will be to sit down with these Christmas albums and reminisce (and laugh at the style of our clothes and the look of our cars!)

The 18th was a special day. It was our 16th anniversary! For the past few years, we have traveled out to
Canmore, to a quaint little inn called The Georgetown Inn. Just the two of us. For a couple of days. Last year it was so cold, we both had to buy new boots just to walk down Main Street and do some shopping! Unfortunately this year, Sean's shift at the Fire Hall spans the entire weekend, so we cannot get away. However, we went out for a fabulous supper and made memories anyway!

Because there was so much going on today, I had to add another page to document it all! I added a page protector that has 4x6 pockets and cut it down to just two. I tucked in the story of the day along with a pic of the gift that I received...on the back are photos of the four of us at the restaurant.

Typically, my scrapbooking is of events in our lives. I remember struggling a bit with last year's DD album because we did not do something fantastic every day. However, this year, I have tried to tell the story beyond what is happening, what I am thinking, what is meaningful, what are the traditions that we keep and why. There are still pages that I don't 'love' in this album, but I think that I am getting better at telling the stories and not just about the events.

December 15 & 16

So, I am ready to post two more days of my December Daily album! I am so enjoying this process of documenting the days leading up to Christmas.

December 15 is all about Christmas cups from Starbucks! We drink a lot of Starbucks drinks and so we had a growing collection of red cups. Ashley came up with this brilliant idea to string them together for a garland. I love it! I think this will become another of our Christmas traditions year after year.

We also thought it fitting to do a Christmas pic with the Starbucks cups. I was able to convert the pic to sepia and then erase over the cups to turn them back into their rich red color. This is the photo that we are using to send with our Christmas cards.

 

December 16 is Christmas letters to my girls. 

I saw this idea on Ali Edwards' blog of writing letters to the kids. So, I attached some envelopes and typed up the letters and tucked them inside.

 

So, there are two more days completed. Sure feels good.

December 14

So, Christmas is fast approaching and the gifts are not yet wrapped. Actually, there is no place to put the gifts this year since I only have a mini tree on my landing. I am afraid that if I did try to arrange them under the tree, they would get crushed by workers or covered in dust from our reno! However, I made gift tags with a new stamp set from Stampin' Up and prettied up a package for my co-worker. The girls wrapped the little gifts for their teachers (chocolates!). I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit despite not being able to decorate!

I must admit that I love all the prep that goes into Christmas. I always enjoy working with paper, but at Christmas, I am working with paper as gifts for the people I love. This year, I am making 2010 calendars for my friends. I bought a calendar kit from Andrea Victoria at Designer Digitals. 

I designed the front cover myself. While surfing other websites I had seen this idea of using a picture/plate stand for holding a calendar and decided to try it. I like it! So I made up a bunch of these to give away! 

Did I mention that I love Christmas?

Hello Driver!

So, my baby has her Learner's License! Ashley went on her birthday to write her test and did not pass the first time. However, she was so determined to get it, that she wanted to try again right away. So the day after her birthday my husband took her back to the Registries Office. Sure enough, the second time around was a success! Way to go, Babe!

 I created this template with inspiration from Cathy Zielske's blog.

Note: I believe I have solved my printer issues, so now I can move on with my December Daily book. I hope to have completed pages to post soon!

Renovation Progress

So, I am having issues with my printer and am unable to post Dec 14 of my December Daily. My apologies! I hope to rectify it for tomorrow, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I have some good news...I have tile on my kitchen floor! It was a week-long process, but it is now complete. After much drama, we have a story to tell about this tile! 

Early on in our reno, my husband and I went searching for tile. We knew we wanted 12 x 24 tiles. We knew we wanted a dark grey color. We thought that would not be impossible, but we were wrong! Actually, we found the tile we both liked one day while shopping for granite. The lady simply informed us that their computer system was down, so we could not order it that day. However, it was new on the market, so there was no worry - we just had to come back the next week to put in the order. Well, a week later we did return only to be informed that somehow the entire stock was sold out to someone other than us and it would not be available until January 2010! Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day shopping for an alternate tile. Of course, after having found our perfect tile already, it was hard to find any other tile that could match it. We did not have success that day.

A few days later, my girls and I were shopping in IKEA and as we were walking through the kitchen section, I looked down at the tile on one of the display kitchen areas. It had 12 x 24 dark grey tiles - even more beautiful that our previous choice! Could it be?? How do we find out where it came from? Luckily, posted on the wall, was the name of the tile and the store that it came from! Yippee! My husband called and, yes, it was available right away, so he ordered it. At that point we let out a sigh of relief...the bad news (why does there always have to be bad news along with good?) was, that the cost was double the price of the original tiles that we wanted. Oh well. We are loving it on our floors right now!

How are the other parts of the house coming along you ask? Well, here is what my basement looks like...

We used to have a little room in that corner that housed a non-functioning cedar-lined sauna which I was using for linen storage and now it is gone! It sure opens up the space. We are moving our furnace and water heater down to this level (we are in a 4 level split) and so that is what that little framed-in room is for at the bottom of the stairs. By doing this, we were also able to take out the telepost that was in the center of our basement. Another Yippee!! Next, my husband is installing in-floor heating, so that in the winter our toesies will be nice and toasty! I sure am glad Sean is a handy guy. He has done a lot of the labor in this reno by himself.

Our living room is covered in butcher paper to protect the hardwood floors from the new ceiling that is being mudded and sanded and the fridge and stove are huddling in the corner covered in sheets for protection...

 Oh, how I long for my house back!