a little before and after

so about two months ago i completed this coffee table turned ottoman and just realised i still hadnt posted it! truth is i have HUNDREDS of pictures and post ideas that i havent done yet and now that school is in full swing (holy crap grad school is time consuming!) im feeling a little crushed that i wont have time to post but we'll see how it goes.

so the quick breakdown is that i needed an ottoman for my new place and it needed to be either free or dirt cheap, ummm hi im a student :)

sooooo i got this amazing charcoal colored fabric from my employer, she bought it years ago and had been keeping it for a project that just wasnt going to happen so she let me have it! it reminds me of men's pants. the table, aka the base for the ottoman was a goodwill find, it needed a good clean and a screw or two. the paint was lent by my cousin, and so was the batting. i purchased the table (obviously cheap) and the foam, which was cut to size for only $30! considering how big it is and the fact i asked for 3in foam i'd say 30 bucks is beyond reasonable. so very quickly what i did was sand the whole table, just to get the grime off and give myself a surface that paint could stick to. i knew i wanted a distressed finished, and i knew i wanted the base white but i also knew i didnt want the distressed part to be brown, so i used black spray paint to give the table a very light coat and then once that was dried i gave it a couple coats of white, again using spray paint, it makes the finish a bit more even. the foam/fabric part was simple, just make it like a sandwich and be sure to use batting, it keeps the fabric from moving.
ive noticed ive been a bit of a rambler in previous posts so im going to shut up now and just let the pictures speak for themselves! im going to do a post later on about a round ottoman i did for my sister and two chair re-cover jobs that look AMAZING!

Cheers blogland!

just going to take a minute and let it slide

UGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
ive had a rough freakin' day

started out with bathing my cat. NOT fun. followed by a car ride with a freshly bathed cat, who HATES BATHS AND CAR RIDES. Spice, my fur child, freaked me out the entire drive, she started to heavily pant. cats ARENT supposed to pant. and she literally looked like she couldnt breathe, i knew the car ride was going to be at least an hour and a bit (i was finally moving her to my new place) and so i pulled over several times to calm her down and make sure she was still ACTUALLY breathing. we got to our destination, i got her out of the car and inside as fast as humanly possible and within 20 minutes she had stopped panting and was checking out her new surroundings, mean while i was frantically googling what it means when your cat pants and things like "respiratory failure" kept popping up. i called the vet and she explained that panting sometimes happens when cats are stressed out. so i finally calmed down as i realised it was clearly the bath and car ride. it was just odd because she has been in the car numerous times and has had quite a few baths in her long lifetime and has never once panted.

so that was shitastic event number 1, moving right along.

when i got home i noticed a puddle on the ground, at first i thought ms spice had an accident but upon further investigation i realised it was water and appeared to be coming from under the fridge, i cleaned it up and went about my buisness unpacking. after about 15 minutes when i returned to the kitchen i noticed the puddle had returned. i thought at first it was just condensation but that wouldnt create two huge puddles and then i realised the fridge wasnt making ANY noise. i opened it up and immediately wished i hadnt. everything was ruined and enter shitastic event #2: my fridge was dead. i called the superintendent and he is working on getting someone out to look at it. i was VERY clear with him that i either need a new fridge or this one needs to be fixed by tomorrow night NO EXCEPTIONS. ive learnt that being a single female living on my own i need to be direct and firm. and i cant be without a fridge, part my new not eating any garbage deal is that literally all of my food is perishable and is in the fridge, i literally have nothing in a box or can so without a fridge i am without food.

so after the cat and fridge ordeal i decided that things had to perk up, i met up with two friends for coffee and we chatted and laughed till we were all teary eyed messes.

when i got home i decided i should put on a load of laundry. now i have not done laundry in my buliding yet, ever since ive been here ive just taken a load with me when i go to my sister's or aunt's house but i wont be going to either for awhile, enter shitastic event #3.

laundry went down as follows:

-i threw the dirty clothes in a reuseable grocery bag, grabbed the detergent, my keys, my phone and ran downstairs
-loaded the machine with the clothes and poured in the soap
-i then realised i had forgotten quarters, so i ran back up stairs and grabbed my pouch with just quarters (ive been setting them aside for laundry)
- run back downstairs and spend 10 minutes trying to jam the quarters in the machine only to realise it only uses loonies. shit.
-run back upstairs to discover i dont have a single loonie, so i grab my wallet and keys and phone and run out to the car and drive to convenience store
-get to the store and politely ask the woman behind the counter for 2 loonies as i hand her a toonie, she proceeds to yell at me and argue in god knows what language, after what felt like an eternity she drops two loonies on the counter, i scooped them up, thanked her and ran back out to my car and zoomed home
-i get back to my apartment, run downstairs and pop in the loonies and the machine swishes to a start


yes i know what you're thinking, doesnt sound too bad....but im not finished


-i proceed to grab the grocery bag, throw in the detergent, my keys, my phone and wallet, run back up the stairs only to realise the lid wasnt on the bottle and now everything is covered in detergent. fighting back tears at this point.
-i frantically fish out my blackberry and immediately wipe it off, all the while cursing and fighting back tears of frustration
- i clean everything up and quickly test out my phone, it's okay minus the ringing and notification sound is a bit off, kind of muffled, but the ear piece is fine and so is the battery, thank God!
-i sit down to reflect on the craziness and i am about to start laughing about it all when i open my mail to discover ive received my very first electricity bill that has a surprise $200 security deposit charge. fml.

-at this very moment, i hear my hot aussie neighbour and the girl, whom i had thought was his sister, from the other side of the wall. i have made a mental note to inform him tomorrow that his bedroom wall is VERY thin and maybe they should move their bed to the other side of the room

-then i just sat there half laughing hysterically half crying because really what else could happen.

so i think i need to take a minute to breathe, maybe have a glass of wine and then go to bed and pray that this day was just a nightmare and i'll wake up tomorrow to a better day. for now im just going to look at the below pictures that i took of a bunch of roses i picked up a couple weeks ago for just $6!!! a good flower deal always makes me happy.

for the record

when it hits 29 degrees and then you factor in the humidex, well it's damn hot.

so picture this: im in a deep slumber, and little do i know but a storm is brewing and wipes out the power, no problem right? i mean im sleeping. ohhhh no wait the FREAKIN' AIR CONDITIONING NEEDS ELECTRICITY TO WORK!!!! and here enters grumpy, hot, hives developing, sleep deprived Laura, fml friends, fml. you see the issue is im allergic to heat, as in i dont develop a heat rash when im overheated, i quite literally break out into hives. it's so much fun. this heat wave is making settling into my new 3rd floor loft only an a/c unit in the window apartment such a lovely experience. hurry up october!!! i want fall, i want red, yellow and orange leaves, i want leaves crunching under my toes, i want cooler temperatures damnit!!!! ok rant done now :)

im still sorting out life at my new place. all of the boxes and bins are unpacked and everything is mostly where it should be, but there are a few minor details like: installing a curtain rod, putting up shelves, figuring out where my 21937238957 picture frames are going to go and oh.my.god that giant audrey hepburn canvas ugggghhhh....just the minor details.

on a happy note i bought a blender last night. yes to most this may not seem like a big deal BUT i am pretty much on fire to start eating well and become more active, i want to go back to myself 15-20 lbs ago, i know it's a possibility, i just need to work at it. and step one is eating healthy stuff and not the normal garbage i would pollute my body with. so the blender, it's for smoothies! i made a kick ass raspberry and banana smoothie this morning and if i knew where my camera was among the mess i call "things to put away" i would have taken pictures, but alas i did not, maybe next time. and ive taken the milk plunge, as in i have left my lover of 23 years, 2% milk and moved on to soy milk. now let me start by saying, it was NOT an easy break-up and soy milk is an acquired over time kind of relationship, but i feel like i can do it, i just keep telling myself it's one step closer to smaller thighs. oh yes the bonus about the blender, after searching high and low, literally went to every store that could possibly sell small kitchen appliances i scored an awesome sale at Home Outfitters. It's a 10 speed Oster blender, that has a magical smoothies button, regualr $69.99, marked down to $39.99 with an additional 30% off, so that's rigth folks my new blender was a grand total of $28!!! don't factor in HST, it just makes me hostile, damn new tax.

so anywho, today is a day for clean up, final arranging and then im making my "world famous" chili, it's honestly really simple. but my dad and his wife are coming over for dinner and as per his request he wants my "world famous" chili....

happy weekend folks! try not to hit any old ladies crossing the street and pray for me that the power doesnt go out again, or i may seriously start to cry.

oh right a picture....ive made this silent rule for myself that no blog post will be posted sans picture, so here are a few of my nephew. it was an intense game of memory and even teddy was playing. i especially love the ice cream on his face :)

shake your money maker

standing in line at subway today, little guy, probably age 3, told his grandma (or at least im assuming it was his grandma) that the line was moving slowly, she asked him to be patient. you could see that he thought about what she said and then tugged on the shirt of the lady infront of them and promptly told her to shake her money maker. the grandma, looking mortified apologised to the woman and gave the little guy an evil stare. what did i do...started humming "shake your money maker", as in the terrible r&b, rap, whatever you wanna call it song. and i was laughing hysterically. grandma not impressed, little guy gave me the thumbs up.

on a side note, phase one of my move is done, which included the aunt pack deep clean and kitchen move in. what a day that was! my aunt pack, aka my mom's sisters and sister-in-law rounded up every cleaning product known to man kind and gave this place a scrub down...pretty sure you could lick the toilet bowl. and my cousin helped delegate and organise desk and bar chair construction that was being played out by my uncles. and of course my oh-so-adorable niece Olivia kept us entertained with her cuteness.

so blessed to have had all the help from my family.

and because i havent uploaded the moving pics yet, i leave you with a shot of Otis, because he's cute and everyone needs a little cuteness in their day.

taste the rainbow?

with moving taking over my life i feel like i have really neglected this blog. after all rule #1 of blogging is to blog at least once every two days. i have a lot of things i'd like to share/write about, but it's just difficult to find the time. so instead of writing anything else today im going to share some pictures i took of my sammy bam, these are a few months old but i love the colour in the shots. he was eating that superkid popcorn from kernels...looks pretty, but tastes kind of gross, not that the grossness stopped him from eating the entire kid sized bag!

coming up white and green

i havent always had the greenest thumb, which some people may not believe considering i come from a long line of green thumbers. yep im making up words now :)
as you can see from the first two pictures below my "chicks and hens" (im sure this plant has an official plant name but i could care less) were looking a little brown, a little sad and a little on the oh my God im killing them side!!!!! my aloe vera plant was also struggling, the ends kept turning brown and the plant itself was half the size it used to be. i wasnt quite sure what the problem might be, so i consulted a professional...my dad. he said because the pots i was using didnt have anywhere for excess water to drain i was drowning the plants! he also told me it was an easy fix, buy new pots or add some drainage. DONE AND DONE.

i rounded up some supplies, new pots, on sale of course, new potting soil, river rock from the dollar store, gloves, and a few gardening tools to snip the brown parts and dig up the dirt.

the first thing i needed to do was address the pots that did not have a hole for drainage at the bottom, i used the river rock and a smaller gravel like rock to create the drainage for the bottom of the pot and opted to put the aloe plant in a bigger pot.

i added the new potting soil, put in each plant and mounded more soil around it.

and as you can see below, i clearly made a mess in the process...so typical!

i also increased the number of chicks and hens. its been 2 weeks since ive done this mini indoor garden project and the aloe plant already has new leaves and the chicks and hens have new baby plants! things are looking up, i cant wait to move these new pots to their new home in a week or two. im still preparing for my move, part 1 will commence tomorrow , let's hope that my moving goes as well as my gardening did.

zoo times

how is it possible that in just 2 weeks i have 775 pictures on my memory card?!


a lot of the pictures from the zoo didn't turn out the way i wanted them to, it was randomly cloudy and then bright and let's be honest, 2 year olds and 3 year olds don't always cooperate for pictures, right?


(above) my darling nephew Isaiah....i think he may have been a little wary of the animals being so close, with the ability to touch and feed them!



(above) my crazy nephew Liam has no problem approaching the animals, he was loving it!!!

(above) my sweet niece Olivia enjoyed the view from her stroller, i love how she has her chubby little foot up resting on the bar!

(above) this pictures makes me laugh so hard. my youngest niece, Ella, was not impressed and Olivia is looking at her with a "What the?!" look on her face, priceless.

all in all i think everyone had a good time, it was short afternoon at the zoo, perfect timing, decent weather, and no meltdowns from kids, mommies or aunties :)