it's project time

i decided it was time to work on some projects and do some shopping and freshen up the house so i took 3 days off work to do just that. i can't even remember the last time i took vacation and slept in my own bed! i always try to go away, but i've got to admit, this was refreshing!

my first day off involved a trip to IKEA - you can't freshen up the house without stopping there! my mom and i were initially looking for a cabinet to put in the kitchen as a pantry or cupboard for extra storage, but i got distracted and wound up buying a new duvet cover, blanket, and some light bulbs. so nothing for the kitchen from IKEA, but my room will be renewed very soon (slight modifications to the blanket are needed before it's complete - ps. always check the "as is" section).


side story: about a week and half before my days off my friend michelle and i went to IKEA and i bought a huge picture, a lamp, a picture frame and a kitchen scrub brush. she bought a chair, and once we got to my car we realized that neither the picture or chair would fit in, so we had to make a call to my parents to come to our rescue... seriously, they don't look so big in the store, always go to IKEA with a big vehicle!! at least it was an incredibly beautiful day so while we waited we sat in the parking lot playing our favourite game on our phones - drawsome! :)

this is my new favourite picture, it fills the big wall so well

because we didn't find anything at IKEA we headed over to canadian tire and there i found a cabinet that was perfect. it's nice and bright and creates additional counter space and of course more cupboard space. the coolest feature is that it's on wheels so i can move it around in the kitchen and could do a cooking show if i wanted!


the big task for the day was cleaning my basement. i decided it was time to go through my rubbermaid containers and throw out stuff that i no longer needed. success! i got rid of 3 containers (mostly high school and college work that i never look at). i had 2 blue bins worth of recycling, 1 garbage bag of garbage and 3 garbage bags of donations for good will. oh, the treasures you can find when you look through old stuff...

oldies but goodies

did anyone else pay a ridiculous amount of money for their ipod?? sheesh!

minus the cat, all this went to good will

i even found art work from kids i used to babysit

i also rearranged the location of my stuff in the basement as it has become a (cheap) storage unit for friends. my friend and her fiance are merging their households together and had a couple larger pieces that needed to be stored and i wouldn't allow her to pay a stupid amount of money for a storage unit so i told her to bring it to my house. i figure, i have the space so why not put it to "use" by allowing friends to keep some things down there.

on day 2 i finally got my hair cut and met my friend nichole for lunch. once i got home i tackled fixing the tiles on the basement steps - using contact cement! back in the fall i wanted to cover up the ugly tiles on the basement landing and bought peel & stick tiles, only problem was they didn't stick really well to the old tile so the ones on the back of the step kept falling. it was time to fix the annoying problem and my dad had the perfect solution! while the glue did it's thing i did mine and built the cabinet for the kitchen. i'm not going to lie, i was pretty impressed with my craftsmanship (and was thrilled when there was only one type of screwdriver needed and i only had to fix one error! :)

the last day of my vacation involved an early morning appointment, a little nap, and going to a special event for a friend.  I headed off to youth shortly after and then a late movie - the hunger games.


while i didn't quite complete my list of "to do" for my 3 days off... i did make progress and really enjoyed the days off. you should try "staycations" they are lovely! the weather couldn't have been more amazing - windows open and the warm air flowing inside - and it was just awesome to have downtime. definitely need to do this more often!