This wonderfully fancy dish set belonged to my grandfather. My mother had them in her care for awhile, but as she already has two other sets of dishes, she decided to pass these on to me. They are much more ornate than I would have chosen (not to mention a lot more expensive) but now that I have them I really like them! They are from Royal Crown Derby and are based on Japanese imperial design. I love the rich cobalt blue and warm red colours. 

There is still lots of pieces left to come from my parents place. I think there is a whole tea set and some more larger serving dishes. Then I'll have to throw a very fancy dinner party! And I will actually have nice dishes to use on special occasions now, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can't wait!

We got new curtains for our room. They are charcoal grey and are in four panels. They are quite similar to the ones we had in our condo. So, back to having lots of fun making different designs with the panels. Instead of sheers in behind, this time we have funky blinds that can be positioned from either the top or bottom. These curtains seem to be of a thicker material too than the condo ones, so our room is very dark now which is great since there is a street light that shines in at night. And they also slide a lot better along the rail than the condo ones too. All great improvements!

We ended up raising the curtain rod up higher on the wall, which gives it a more dramatic look, especially at night when they are closed. Now the windows are completely done in the bedroom. We have painted the doors, changed the door knob, added blinds and new curtains. One major part of the bedroom renovation finished! Lots more to go, but it's nice to see something in here accomplished. 

I don't think I have told you about our former dishwasher we used for almost two years. It was a beauty! It was black, in an all white kitchen, with big scratch marks down the front. The door hinge was broken so if you let it go it fell to the floor, and both racks were broken as well and fell off their tracks frequently. It left our dishes with rust marks if placed in a certain corner of the bottom rack, it was super loud, and to top it all off it leaked! We were always mopping up water off the floor. Two years we dealt with all of this. It's amazing what you can get used to over time. Even now I find myself using the new dishwasher with the old habits that were previously necessary. 

This is a Bosch dishwasher, with not many extra features. Just a simple machine, which suits us just fine, because who really needs 10 different run cycles. We only ever really use one, although sometimes the half load cycle is useful too. However, since it didn't have a lot of those extra features it was one of their cheaper models, but it didn't skimp on the things that were actually important to us. It is super quiet, shorter run cycle, and eco friendly on the water use. As for look, I knew I wanted stainless steal and I wanted the control buttons to be hidden (especially from little hands in the future) which gives it nice clean lines. 

Installation, of course, took longer than expected. However, it is in now and we are enjoying the convenience of it a lot!

We got some new accessories to go with our newly painted bathroom. I got a fun Moroccan print hand towel, and a new soap dispenser and toothbrush holders by Umbra from this collection. We still need a toilet paper holder for the wall and maybe some more art. I haven't found anything I like so far, but we are going to Ottawa next weekend to a couple of stores I really like, so maybe I'll find something there. Then hopefully we will replace the pink countertop at some point. 

We also picked up a tension pole shelf for inside the shower. I was getting really tired of bending down, and keeping everything on the floor. I especially could have used this while I was pregnant! Oh well, it will be useful now. 

I also got around to organizing under the sink. We picked up a bunch of storage boxes and containers from Ikea last weekend. On the sink side, we added a large hook on the wall for my hair dryer to sit, and some cute baskets from Chapters that hold everyday things. 

On the other side of the cabinet I added lots of boxes, small drawers, and bamboo containers for all the little things that need to be kept in the bathroom. It's definitely a lot more organized! 

I got these decals in the mail today from Indigo Baby. I just love their stuff, it's all so cute! I'm not sure yet on which wall these will go in the nursery. We will have to see what looks best. I love the bright colours and the fun graphics. Can't wait to put them up. Nursery update soon! It is definitely starting to look like a baby's room, and is very cosy!

Over the weekend we were in Ottawa, my home town, for my baby shower! My parents very generously hosted the party in honour of our much anticipated baby. It was lots of fun, and it was great to see so many family and friends. Not to mention the food was absolutely delicious. 

We got so many amazing gifts! And everything was different, except for one book, which we got three copies. I loved all the beautiful wrapping, and cute things that were inside. Jeff came to the party near the end and got to open our last gift, which was our biggest. A playard! Lots of thank you cards will be on their way. 

We have a new creature for the nursery; meet Mr. Hippo! While we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake we came across a store that just made stuffed animal ottomans. They are meant for wherever you want to put them, but we thought one would be perfect for the nursery. It's practical as an ottoman/stool for an adult, and once our little one is big enough, she will have lots of fun playing on him. I hope our baby likes safari animals, because there seems to be a bit of a theme happening in here!

While we were picking up our dining chairs, we spotted the perfect coffee table for our new modern living room. It has three squares that swivel so you can put it into any shape. Pretty fun! 

We have finally got chairs for our dining table! We actually ordered them about a month ago, but they took awhile to come in. I'm really happy with them. They are a good height for the table and are super comfy. Keeping the white clean should be interesting, but I like how they contrast with the dark table. Dinner party anyone?

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!