Almost Ready For Guests

This is our messy guest room...I have less than twenty four hours to get it ready for our first guests who arrive tomorrow around 9:00...It's actually in pretty good shape - I really just need to find home for the stuff on the bed and hopefully break down and recycle some of those boxes that are just visible on the right side of the picture.

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Locking Up, One Last Time

Goodbye Blue House and ghosts.

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Snow Day

Cold. Wet. Snowy. But we still had to come to work - although it took a lot longer for most people to get here! This view made it sort of worth it!

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Some Assembly Required

Finally, the last piece of furniture is put together and in its new home. The white cabinet really has a new home, since it came out of storage in my aunt and uncle's crawl space to live in our bedroom. I had to make some modifications, like removing the legs because it was an entire MILLIMETRE too tall, but it looks happy there now.

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Farewell

Alex and I had our last play date with the Blue House today. One final wipe down and vacuum and that's it, we're done with the place that was home. It's pretty sad...not the bittersweet sad of saying goodbye to a friendly home but being excited about a new place to live, the sadness of leaving something behind that you're not quite ready to let go of. We loved the Blue House and all its quirks. Goodbye Blue House. We'll miss you.

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Sad Kitchen

Our spectacular kitchen with its windows and fairy lights and hanging stars and cheerful pink curtains is no longer. The windows are all that remain and it's looking pretty lonely. It felt pretty lonely in there tonight too.

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Miscellaneous Stuff

In the aftermath of moving I find that random things end up spending time together. Soon, soon it will all be sorted out and made to look pretty organized!

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Frosty Ground

Brrr...it was a bit chilly this morning...but the frost was so cool and crystalline.

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Tea Time

This could be the tea zone...or maybe not. Things being put away and then moved two or three times has not been unheard of during this move/unpack. But when it's done and settled, you're invited to the Pink Palace for tea!

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Art That Needs A Home

Okay, I worded that wrong...it has a home, our home, it just needs a place to live in our new place. Isn't it pretty! We received it as a wedding gift.

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North Shore Mountains

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Starting To Feel Like Home

One room is starting to feel like home. Soon, I hope, the rest of the apartment will too.

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Living In Chaos?

All our belongings, well almost all our belongings, in one room. It's a bit scary, but I guess once we start moving things like the beds into the bedrooms it won't be so bad...but will it all fit?!?!

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House Of Learning

The "new" library from when I was a student...as I waited near it for a meeting this afternoon, I realized that the current students, undergrads anyway, wouldn't think of it as the new library - it's well established now.

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Swimming Outside

The outdoor pool at the university has been opened and people have been using it in the last few weeks. Not tonight...it's too cold...but I think it's just too cold to swim outside in January, period!

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Angel

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Eagle

This guy sat in the tree outside our office for a long time before flying away...but when it flew away we thought it might be a hawk...dunno...opinions???

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Ireland At Night

(Thanks Sarah!!)
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Feeling More Like Our Kitchen

Alex and I spent the afternoon and evening cleaning and unpacking boxes. As we left, Alex looked at the magnets on the fridge and said the Pink Palace is starting to feel more like home...all because of the magnets.

Now our fridge needs some personality...anyone care to contribute??

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Photo Show Lighting

A photo show Heddy worked on, and exhibited in, opened tonight, so off we went to see the photos. Amazing!

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South African Woman

One of the women I work with just came back from a month in South Africa and brought us all these super cool statues.

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Treasure?

As we pull our house apart so that we can put it back together elsewhere, I have made it my mission to reduce the amount of STUFF we have by a lot. It's working...I've gotten rid of a bunch of stuff and there's still more to go. Anyway, at the bottom of a box of stuff, a box that was about 98% thrown out or given to the local thrift shop, I found these. I can't remember if these rocks were collected because they're pretty, because they're all smooth, or because of where they came from, but they're going to the garden. They're hanging out on the porch as an offering to the ghosts (well, not really, they're there because it's pouring and I don't want to get rained on again today).

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Happy Birthday - Thank You Very Much!

Okay, so it wasn't *my* birthday. On the back of this very cute drawing that I found while packing is the following message that appears to be dictated by a four year old Alisha to her Mom.

Dear Shannon,

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday. It's my birthday in 5 more sleeps.

Shannon, I sent you a piece of my hair cut - thank you very much!

Thank you for the letter.

Happy Birthday, it's my birthday next week.

My Mommy has a seed in her tummy - thank you very much!

Bye Bye.
Love ALISHA

I guess it was Alisha's birthday in a few days. And she was going to be a big sister. Thank you very much!

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Chaos Before Perfection

Or in this case, organization. Sometimes things have to look a lot worse before they start to look better and I think that's where we are at with our packing. Our dining room is a bit full right now...of a little bit of everything!

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Empty Nail...Empty House

Everything is slowly disappearing from its usual spot to find a new (temporary) home in a box. At least it's cozy in the boxes with all the tissue and bubble wrap!

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Granville Street On Sunday Afternoon

The sun before the snow.

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Slowly Becoming Our Place

Today we started moving the first few things into the Pink Palace. By first few things, really I mean cleaning supplies and half of our game collection cause I don't think we will miss then in the next few weeks. We spent a long time scrubbing the place down...after our landlord told us he had sent the cleaners in to clean the place. Umm...sure...right...

But, now the bathroom is starting to feel like ours - see, pretty hand towels, pretty new bathroom accessories from Melissa, and the requisite bar of Ivory soap.

That will have to do until the day the furniture moves over.

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Massive Gift Bag

We got this bag with a wedding present in it. I wasn't sure what to do with it. It's huge! I had to actually climb in it to flatten it out. Anyway, turns out it's a good place to pack board games. Oh and the chair, it's there for perspective.

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The Christmas Haul

The tree came down this evening and this is what I discovered underneath it...way too much stuff...but thank you to everyone! Good bye Christmas...see you again in eleven months or so.

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Blurry, Frothy Hot Chocolate

Alex bought me the best toy ever for Christmas...an Aerolatte. It makes hot chocolate and coffee drinking so much more exciting. Just watch out for mugs filled too full!

It's hard to take a one handed left hand picture while Aerolatte-ing hot chocolate!

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Broadway Gingerbread Village

Gingerbread replica of my favourite stretch of Broadway.

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