Odin's Nursery

You know those people who post nothing but baby stuff online? It used to annoy me, but now I am one of those people. I get it now. My whole life is wrapped up in this little guy. I don't do anything else. So what else am I going to post about?

And in that vein, here are some photos of Odin's nursery. It's easily my favourite room in the house, and I'm just about done with it. I just have to make a bed skirt and some curtains for the windows, as the matchstick blinds don't block enough of the light for when he starts sleeping in there (he's currently still in our room in a bassinet, but I'd like to start transitioning him to his crib in the next few weeks). But sewing things involves clearing off my desk, which is a whole other task in itself, one that I just don't have time for at the moment. Right now all my time is taken up by nursing, changing diapers and rocking in the rocking chair, and that's just fine by me...

 Kirk's stepmother, Donna, made the beautiful quilt.
Mum and I made the awesome owl mobile.
I got the rocking chair/glider used on craigslist.

The crib is the Mod II by Status. My father made the toy box when I was a kid.

My sister-in-law, Angela, knitted Sleipnir the 8-legged horse. 

I made the birdcage mobile by taking birdcages from Wonderbucks & Michaels,
spray painting them white, putting birds in them and hanging them with wire.

I got the pillow on clearance at JC Penney.

The owl in a suit print is by Ryan Berkley.
The chickadee painting is by Michele Maule.

 Mum had the Odin wall hanging made with letters she took months to source.

Of course I couldn't resist sneaking in a baby picture!

Odin absolutely LOVES his owl mobile.

The small owl rattle is from Baby Bomb and the large bird is by Stuf.

The penguin print on the left is by Michelle of My Zoetrope.

The centre print is from The Haiti Poster Project.

I made the two prints on the right.

The top of the IKEA dresser folds down to make a change table.

I think I got this bird hook from Wonderbucks, but I could be mistaken.
It holds our wet bag for diapers I got from Puddle & Quack.

The square prints are by Trish Grantham.

I made the felt name banner on the door.
The bookshelf is Leksvik from IKEA. 

A lot of these books are my own collection. I hope I'm okay with sharing!

Ode to My Pet Hair Eraser

Pardon my gushing - I know it's undignified - but can I just tell you how much I love my Bissell Pet Hair Eraser? And no, I am not being compensated for this.

I've been looking for a decent hand held vacuum for a while. We have three cats, a three-bedroom house, two couches and carpeted stairs. As good as my upright vacuum is, it needs a little support! Pet Hair Eraser to the rescue!

I got it on clearance at Zellers a few months ago. It's super small but really powerful, has a really long cord, and two nozzle attachments. The one in the photo has the actual pet hair eraser part (and it really works), and it also has a regular dust buster-type nozzle (also useful). My stairs and couch have never been so clean!

I love you, Pet Hair Eraser!

Here are some photos of my babies being adorable while leaving fur all over the furniture:

Jerry & Chaos on the "cat couch" by the window

Monkey & Chaos snuggling on the cat couch

Jerry & Chaos snuggling on the "sleep couch"

(so named because it's super comfy and I have a hard time staying awake on it)

 Silly Monkey on the cat couch

Anyone have an extra $5000 or so?

Because I would LOVE a Viking gas range, in plum no less! Drool....

Budgeting = Yuck!

The big New Year's resolution that Kirk and I have been talking about is creating a budget. We are both terrible with money and realise it's time to do something about that.

Although we have a half-decent income, we have lots of debt that just doesn't seem to be paying itself off. Obviously we're wasting a bunch of money each month that could be going into debt-reduction and savings. My task today was to gather up all of our financial information and try to come up with a workable budget and a two year plan to pay off the debts and put some money aside. Ugh!!

I started by downloading some budgeting software. I chose Buddi (despite its stupid name) because it's simple, free, Canadian, and it works on OSX. It's super easy to use, so I set about collecting all of our information (easier said than done - I use three different banks) and plugging in the information. Holy crap! We are wasting SO much money! I was horrified!

Things change today. No more online shopping for me. No more lunches out for Kirk. This will take some adjustment, but it's worth it in the end, right?

There's someone on my roof and it's not Santa Claus

It's an unexpected not-rainy day here in Vancouver, and I'm wasting it indoors while some guy named Greg crawls around on my roof. He's investigating the source of our leak, and I hope he fixes it soon - the sound of dripping water makes me have to pee a lot!

We've collected about 3 or 4 litres of water over the past two days, but thankfully we've got a reprieve (however short) from the rain, and in Greg's capable hands the dripping should stop.

My cats are making the most of the sun today. Here's Chaos (right) and Jerry checking out the neighbourhood from our front window: