Yes it’s still summer, but yes the anticipation of fall is one of my favorite times of the year other than fall itself and if you’re also a devoted pumpkin fan, you agree that the season of pumpkin everything never feels long enough, yea?? This month’s Michaels Makers Challenge is decorating craft pumpkins, and I always like to go with a modern, no-carve option that’s easy to do, kind of like everything else minus maybe the no-carve part. Read More
A few quick tips on a very annoying problem that’s very hard to ignore, where sometimes just a rug pad isn’t enough. I thought I could live with having to readjust this runner rug that wouldn’t stay in place every other day but that got old after approximately two days. No one needs an extra chore, especially when it starts to change our behavior like trying to tread lightly on and around the rug so that it won’t do this: Read More
I set out to do something about this most neglected room in our home two maybe three years ago and am finally feeling FANTASTIC about the way it’s coming along after making a bunch of regrets and having to start over twice and quitting/forgetting about it for months at a time. This room has gone through multiple identity crises, but with our last bedroom update on ruthlessly decluttering and reorganizing, the goal was to create a minimal yet functional space that screams relax and do nothing but also organize your stuff nicely in here without stress aah. Read More
This week flew by in a way that wasn’t like wow so much fun that was fast but more like wtf I didn’t get half the things done that I needed to and it’s already Friday?? Maybe that’s another indication of having fun… With it being that time for prematurely transitioning into Fall, my mind is wandering into holiday territory and I’m getting very excited to start going into more seasonal ideas, though still holding back because let’s enjoy summer while it’s still here, good idea. Read More
In light of back-to-school, and for anyone who understands the joy of a pretty notebook (all of us, I assume), we’re going back to the nostalgic art of making paper book covers. I still remember learning how to do this from my teacher in junior high with kraft paper and it’s why I know how to do this, so the tutorial in this post is really an updated version of that. I’ve also partnered with my friends at Canon to give you this free printable grid paper to use in either black or white (downloads are at the end of the post!) Read More
This was my first trip out of the country in over a decade, and what I hope is the door that opens up more international travel, because you bet that “travel” has been on my resolutions list every year of my life. The biggest advice I hear on traveling more is that making it a priority is the biggest step, which sounds simple and makes sense but when we think about everything else in life that is demanding our priority, travel takes a back seat real quick even with how much we love it and want to do it always.
Had it not been for O needing to go to Montreal for work, we probably wouldn’t have made this trip happen, but that realization made us reason that we should take advantage of it, extend his stay after work with me joining later, and make this our 2016 summer vacay bash.
I loved Montreal and am so grateful we had this chance to go. It’s a beautiful city, the weather was perfect (not the case at all in winter I hear), and the food was bomb. This trip was largely eating at as many places we could, mixed in with a bit of wishing badly that I had left room in my luggage to bring more stuff home. I don’t think the chair I wanted would have had any chance of coming back with me though.
Everyone we came across spoke both French and English, which was fascinating how fluidly bilingual this city is, and everyone was super willing to guide us on what to do while we were there. Even being very prepared on where we wanted to go from all the research we did + suggestions from O’s local coworkers + suggestions some of you left on the blog + much help from my friend Jan who was a local, a bunch of you guys sent me DMs on Snapchat and Instagram during the trip with more tips that totally helped us do some really good stuff, so thank you!!! Hopefully this will help any of you already planning to go, thinking about going, or encourage you to put this destination on your list.
SEE
Old Montreal is the main tourist attraction, which becomes more apparent with the souvenir shops closer to Place Jacques Cartier, but it is still so so pretty to walk through with lots of cute restaurants and buildings to admire. Read More
