We've had a special 9th birthday a few weeks ago here (our baby!). Some of us girls and Grandad went out to celebrate.  In the evening, we had hot dogs at home (as requested) and a banana icecream cake with pineapple lumps! 

We have never really had a professional family photo taken, and recently an awesome artist from our church called Chelsea started doing a few family portraits in water colour.  We requested one for us and are so happy with it!!!  Absolutely love this beautiful piece.  Check out her blog here and let her know if you'd love one!

The pet frogs that our girl was given for Christmas 'disappeared' (let's just say that we didn't realise that frogs enjoyed eating each other!) and were replaced with 2 axolotls called Edgar and Frodo (Eddie and Freddy).

The scary thing is that I thought I had curbed my lovely husband's pet addiction down to a cat and a dog... and now we have 4 axolotyls and 3 Siamese fighting fish coming in the mail anyday. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?  My only consolation is that we live in a residential area with a small section now... otherwise I'd come home to a cow, goat and pet giraffe.

We are currently renovating another room... with a slight hold up with our piles... but we will get there one day...

Well, I didn't think we'd ever say it, but we've finished our laundry!  We never thought such a tiny room could cause so many grey hairs!  Somehow this room (that is a quarter of the size of the bedroom we just completed previously) caused so many issues!  The door frames were wonky, the trims were a nightmare... all the things that no one would ever notice but things Symon needed to take the time to fix before we could get started.

With 6 of us in our household, you can imagine there is a fair bit of washing, ironing and folding that takes place on a daily basis.  After completing a large laundry renovation less than a year ago (let's just take a moment of silence to mourn the loss of such a lovely large room), I couldn't imagine moving from a large laundry space to this tiny corridor of a laundry and feeling very excited.

Boy, was I wrong!  This little laundry has become one of my favourite places to hang out.  With a large beautiful wooden work space and plenty of storage, I'm super happy!

A view from the other side...

The look we were going for was the light scandi look with a few wooden, marble & rose/copper accents for fun.

We decided to keep the original tub to save costs, and cleaned up the tap ware, added some adhesive tiles and a tiny shelf for soap...

A few of my favourite things... 

The wooden workspace Symon built over my dryer and washing basket (so practical and a great way to even up uneven appliances/items)...

The recycled cupboard (we've hauled these around with us for the last 11 years) that Symon added wooden doors to, to freshen them up...

My rose/copper baskets for storing my ironing in.  No longer will piles of ironing stare at me from washing baskets... 

My little trinkets that I collect from different places - most favourite would be my green fuzzy hippo planter and my retro laundry sign.  Also, note the little marble jar...perfect for storing dryer lint until I get around to throwing it out (shhhh... that's just a secret between you and me!)...

To see more/all of our renovations, click here.

The holidays are over and school is back in session!  Here are some of the things I've been loving lately...

Loving babyshowers...

Snuggles with Barney...

Loving fresh new uniforms and finally getting back into routine after a long holiday break...

For more Loving/Lately posts, click here.