little bitty girl

We moved in at Halloween to the new house. And for the few who have been keeping track, it's been obvious that I have not been updating you about the new place. The truth is that most work on the place has woefully stopped since we moved in. Both Stefan and I have some impending deadlines in the early part of next year and so the putting together of the home is on hold until then.

The really nice thing about everything is that we're really starting to enjoy our neighbourhood and neighbours. It helps that the new neighbourhood also consists of friends who already are or have recently moved into the area.

Funny things you don't realize about having a house after living in an apartment after all these years are the most basic things like - having a rake and a shovel for snow. We had our first snowfall a month ago and Stefan asked whether we had a shovel. "Hmmm.... of course we do! We only lived on the 5th floor of a loft for almost 7 years." He can be so silly that boy!

We have so much to do to make it ours and of course, I always want instant gratification. It's hard to have caviar taste on a craigslist budget.... so we've decided to take it one room at a time. This weekend, we're finally going to look at some major things like lighting and a new sofa. I hope to share more soon....

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Posted in House Bound

I cannot believe that it already is our last week at the loft. For all my complaining that it's taking so long for this time to come, now that we are here it seems like the time has flown by. I must admit that I am starting to feel a little bittersweet about the whole thing. I remember so vividly when we first moved in here.

It was at the time before the area was really developed and there were still a lot of old NY style lofts around. Friends who were not familiar to the area found it weird that we were going to be staying at a somewhat "dodgy" area, but I had a great feeling about the potential and vibe of the neighbourhood. It has since been transformed to one of the most sought after neighbourhoods for the young and hip. This is also one of the reasons why we wanted to move out; as the party scene is no longer really our vibe any more.

I remember so vividly seeing the raw space and Stefan and I envisioning the space that could be. We proceeded to update the loft quite a bit with our own expense. Even though it was a rental, we were willing to commit to the space as we felt we would be here for awhile. We built walls, storage, added fixtures to bathroom, ceiling fans, we even had to provide our own fridge and stove! It really was that bare.

I hope the new tenants realize how much we have added to the comfort of their space but at the same time, they're going to be a little shocked as we need to take some of the lighting and fixtures with us to the new place.

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Posted in House Bound

One of my most favourite presents ever (other than the big giant closet) is the bookshelf that Stefan very lovingly put up and arranged for me. (He really does know the ways to my heart!!!) We originally had a smaller bookshelf in place which I had colour coded, rather haphazardly. When we got this one, Stefan proceeded to colour code the main books by colours of the wheel. He is so TYPE A about certain things.

There are so many things I love about this whole thing.

I am such a bibliophile and love to collect books. On the very far left are vintage children's books (old Enid Blyton books) that I have collected over the years through auctions and also new children's books that I have discovered since buying Ryo her presents. It's a reflection of my early love of books and also to my very first job, which was working for a children's bookstore. I am actually not sure whether I am willing to share my collection of books with any of my possible future progeny. We all know I am so bad at sharing...

I actually re-read a lot of my books, so it's hard for me to give any of these books up (although I have edited the collection a little bit for the move). People are often shocked that the books are read at all. I tend to be anal about handling my books and not bending the spine etc.

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I also love the random tiny collectible things I have been given/collected over the years such as my vintage letterpress letters of my name, the chick from Bitter With Baggage books given to me by Marie...

The thing I absolutely love the most is the ever revolving pictures of the people I love the most in the world - my family, friends & Mindy.

We will be reconfiguring this again in our new space but I am not sure whether it will have as much impact without the high ceilings.

So au revoir beloved book case in old space! You have given me many years of utter joy!

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Posted in House Bound, Lurves, Stefan

Happy Birthday to me!

I am 31 today. I don't really feel any different from last year or even from when I was 12. I've remained in many ways, at least the essence of whom I have always been. Of course, there have been changes, these things are meant to happen with time. Like a slower metabolism and a better wardrobe in general but deep down inside, I am still the scabby kneed, little, pony tailed girl chasing after my brothers and regaling everyone and anyone about my opinions in life.

I tried to think of an interesting list like "31 things you might not know about me" but since I am such a blabbermouth on this blog, thirty one points are hard to find. Instead here are 10 random things about me and forgive me if they are things you've heard before. So here goes:

1. I have a weird birthmark/mole in between my baby toe and the toe next to it on my right foot. When my mum got home from the hospital (I came home before she did) she thought the nurses forgot to wash my foot and was pissed off that they left her baby girl dirty. Occasionally when I am not paying attention, a determined pedicurist will try to scrape the mole off.

2. Supposedly when my mum gave birth to me, she saw the "white light" - she is one of the few women who can really say,"I nearly died giving birth to you." More often than not, she likes to bring this point up and I say I don't care but secretly I think it's kind of cool I gave her that experience. And am very glad she didn't actually walk into the light because my mama is my guiding light in life.

3. My dad and I have a somewhat awkward relationship (although it's getting MUCH better with time). He's pretty old school and has trouble expressing his feelings. This year, for my birthday card, he wrote a small little blurb, and it was SO sweet. It made me cry. Sometimes I think he doesn't realize that he's one of my favourites too.

4. I love that we bought our house. I am excited about starting a new life there. I can't wait to see what we can do with it. But deep down inside, I would have preferred just renting forever in the city and having a fabulous cottage in the country instead. Being practical won on this one. However whenever we go furniture shopping, I am still really mentally furnishing our very-fabulous-not-yet-owned-but-hopefully-will-in-the-future cottage.

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Posted in Me-ness

I would like to preface this by saying I love Stefan very, very, very much. He is almost always my favourite person in the whole wide world. When he was away to Australia in August, I missed him terribly.

Now that we are down to our final month at the loft, I would like to say, I very much wish that he was back Down Under. The man is making me crazy.

I've spoken about this to numerous girlfriends who also have co-habitating boys and the verdict is all the same: They simply are not the same species.

There is no sense of urgency, no feeling the need to purge, no nothing. This happened the last time as well when I helped move Stefan. I basically packed 90% of Stefan's things. If it had been left up to him, he would simply pack on moving day.

It's not so much that we have a lot of furniture, we simply have a lot of miscellaneous "stuff" accumulated from over the years. We also have the issue that a big chunk of our furniture won't fit which means we will have to sell quite a number of those things in the next week.

This has been the boy's reaction to things so far:

We have to pack soon (Why? We still have a whole month, I don't want to live in boxes.)
Let's give away these skis from the 90's, you don't even ski anymore (Hey! They're vintage!)
I am going to start packing the dishes and serving plates that we are not using (Why don't you just pack our underwear too?)
Geez! Do you even wear these shoes? (They were expensive! They could come back in style...)

Hmmm....yes indeed. Those shoes do look very well worn and loved these past 5 years! The man is purposely trying to push me over the edge.

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Posted in House Bound, Stefan