We have made a new and improved rendering of our living room library. And we are going to get started on this right way. I'm so excited! Jeff and my father are going to do most of the manual labour as I'm not supposed to be lifting too much these days (ie baby in the belly). This long weekend all the construction magic is going to happen. There will be lots of progress pictures for us to share with you on Monday.

Here is the fireplace left all alone, once we removed all of our furniture, plants, and stuff. Goodbye old mantel. 

The mantel is gone! Got to love that wonderful purple colour behind there, we think the whole house was painted that at one point. The fireplace is all ready for a new cover!

Daniel Lewis Garcia has created a nifty bear shaped table that is made of maple plywood. I love the shape!

From the artist:
After graduating with a BFA in 2001 from Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Daniel moved to Austin and began working as an Industrial Designer.  His work focuses on digital fabrication incorporating traditional wood and metal working techniques.

I begin projects by subtracting as much as possible. The more I can remove, the more I can advance the project. If I can reconceptualize from the basic principle of the project, then I am off to a good start. Material properties play a significant role in the process. Whether it is the form, tools, application, fabrication process, or material, nothing is taken for granted.

Well, we have a big surprise! We are going to have a baby! It's been tough keeping it s secret, and it's partly the reason our house projects haven't been going quite as fast as originally planned. However, I'm designing and creating a completely new life, so you can understand why the house has been put on hold. There is so much room switching and reorganizing to do before baby comes, not to mention a wonderful nursery to design. So lots more fun projects on the way!

We are super excited! I'm starting into my second trimester, and I am already four month into the pregnancy. The first 3 months were really tough, as I was feeling quite ill most of the time and super tired. Things are starting to look up this trimester, and I am starting to get my energy back again. The new baby is due at the end of January! Wish us best of luck on this new adventure!

Take a look at these fun mushroom lamps by Garay Studio. I just the love the whimsical shape and design. The founder and creator of Garay Studio is Claudia Garay, and she is based in Madrid. These would be so much fun to have in our house!

About the designer:
Garay Studio is a Madrid based practice that combines a wide range of disciplines under the theme of light; lighting design projects, product design and light installations. The studio has an open approach to collaboration, uniting diverse skills to continuously evolve new technologies and materials.

Garay Studio creates projects that balance between arts and design. They draw their inspiration from the observation of everything that happens and surround us, as a starting point, both in a formal and a philosophical way, while the creative process is fuelled by investigations and innovative techniques.

The studio exploration includes questioning our relationship with nature and technology. In all their work their aim is to abstract complexity down to its essence.

This weekend we added to our media centre down in our entertainment room. For some reason this project took all weekend, in fact I still have yet to put stuff in the cabinets, which in my option is the best part! I'm really happy with how it turned out. It looks quite modern, and now we are no longer staring at a blank wall above the TV.

These are the Besta Ikea system. We really liked the look of them, and how versatile they are. The bottom section that the TV sits on is also Besta that we originally bought for in our condo. Now, we have simply added to it, for more storage and interest. This system is super simple to set up, as it comes with all the parts you need. However, measuring where on the wall everything is going to go took awhile. We started with the side cabinets, as seen in the photo above. 

Sold separately are the racks needed to anchor it on the wall, but each kit is only $10. However, we made the mistake of thinking the original cabinet boxes would contain these, so ended up having to go back to Ikea to buy the racks. They screw into the wall quite easily, and then the cabinet simply clicks down on top of the rack into place. Now we have lots more storage space for all our DVDs and games!

We had the most delicious BBQ the other night. It was much enjoyed by all. Here are a couple of veggie ideas that you can do on the BBQ!

Cooking corn on the cob is super simple! And cooking them in this way keeps them nice and juicy.

1. Take your corn on the cob and remove the inner strings from the corn, while still leaving a layer of leaves (see photo above). This way the corn ins't laying directly on the grill.
2. Place the corn with the leaves on, right on top of the main heat. 
3. Cook for about 15 minutes turning constantly. 
4. Enjoy with butter and salt or any of your other favourite corn toppings.

Check out these awesome cloud lamps, that can be formed into any shape by you! The De Proplamp was designed by Margje Teeuwen and Erwin Zwiers and is made from biodegradable non-woven material that can be moulded into any shape. Take a look at their website! 

We have been making same headway on the railing painting project. It is a tedious painting job, but we are liking the results so far.

We started by painting all the upper area spindles the light grey colour, then started in on the dark grey for the large posts and the railing. We are almost done the top area, next we will have to continue down the stairs. The new colours make the railing stand out, which makes it more dramatic. Can't wait to see it all finished!

The Landesgartenschau Exhibition hall was created by the Institute for Computational Design, in Germany. The most amazing thing about this structure is that it was designed and constructed by using robots. 

Project description on Comtemporist:
The Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall is an architectural prototype building and a showcase for the current developments in computational design and robotic fabrication for lightweight timber construction. Funded by the European Union and the state of Baden-Württemberg, the building is the first to have its primary structure entirely made of robotically prefabricated beech plywood plates. The newly developed timber construction offers not only innovative architectural possibilities; it is also highly resource efficient, with the load bearing plate structure being just 50mm thin. This is made possible through integrative computational design, simulation, fabrication and surveying methods.

We are enjoying our day off work today and relaxing! Hope all you other Canadians are also enjoying your long weekend. Cheers!