Wednesday Posts are Causing Me to Shop an Extreme Amount

We had a post planned for this week, but then went shopping again so I have fresh photos! We were going out to Superstore to pick up some light bulbs for our light fixture switch yesterday, and we decided to take some photos of the great items they have in the home section at Superstore. For you non-Canadians, you're missing out. I go crazy for Joe Fresh, and all of their home stuff is fantastic. We took quite a few pictures, hopefully there will be something here that you can envision welcoming into your home!

I don't like carrots all that much, but I do love these carrot tea towels. Such an easy way to update your kitchen! 

I really like this crisp white ceramic vase. 

These are chalkboard circles. They only cost like 2 dollars and something, so I was thinking of buying them and cutting them into labels for our pantry containers (which I'll post about soon).

They have some nice cheap blankets for our day bed.

Most serious, unhappy unrelated to corn corn holders.

Bright totes! In the kids section, but could definitely be used anywhere. 

Fox Clock!!

So get yourself over to Superstore! Buy some cute stuff from the kids section!

Lighting Up Our Life

Yesterday we did a completely unnecessary but never the less exciting improvement to our home. Sometimes it's nice to do a quick switch up while a bigger and at-a-stand-still project is going on (cough bathroom cough).

A while back, our friends Chris and Nicole bought a two pack of some standard light fixtures, they installed one and then had planned to donate the other one since they didn't have a place for it. We are apparently a charitable cause, because we received this free light fixture donation. Free. Most beautiful word in home improvement.

Installing light fixtures is so far one of the main used-to-frustrate-us-but-now-is-a-breeze projects. Sometimes when we're working on something and we both feel crazy and we're looking on Google for how to do it and we think we're so stupid, I remind us that the next time we do the project we'll already know and so every project is a learning opportunity. That has been the case with light fixtures, Philip's dad used to always get a phone call when we needed one hung, and now Philip does it quickly and efficiently. So proud!

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of photos of this switch, because Philip did it while I was making dinner and so I wasn't around to take photographic evidence. We did get a few photos for you though so you'll get the idea.

He was so speedy that I didn't even get a before picture.
But here are his not-attached-to-his-body arms, reaching up to take out the light bulb. 

Here's the original shade. If it suits your fancy, come pick it up at our garage sale this summer! 

At some point we'll do a real tutorial of how to do this light fixture switcharoo, but this one just isn't it. Handyman Philip was much too quick, I was just cooking up some chicken in the kitchen and kept running over to take pictures whenever it wasn't urgently needing attention.

Here is how it looks now!

Up close and personal. It's just a plain light fixture, similar to what we have
in our office except a little smaller. 

Just so you get where this light is located, to the right there is the front closet, straight ahead is the 3rd unused bedroom. 

This is the view from our bedroom, down the hall to the bathroom. 

We weren't totally sure where we wanted to put the light fixture when we first were gifted it, but it made sense for the hall because of the size and I like that it's semi-flush because otherwise there would definitely be some hitting of heads on the groggy walk to our bathroom...once it's done. Now we just need to get rid of the extra smoke alarm, paint, trim, popcorn ceiling, agh.

Anyone else mastering the light fixture upgrade? Got a free home improvement gift? 

E-Book Bundle

I finally bit the bullet and bought my first E-Book bundle, and thought it deserved an extra Monday post. Each week, at bundleoftheweek.com, they offer 5 e-books for the price of $7.40 (I bought this week's bundle and it came to $7.80 Canadian). I've seen them before and been tempted, but this week's bundle seemed too hard to pass up.

I only just started reading the first e-book, 31 Days to Clean, and I'm hooked! If you're interested in reading some interesting materials on Spring Cleaning (sounds like a yawn, but I get motivated by this kind of thing), click the link in our sidebar and take the plunge. I can't say much about each book, but this first one is about cleaning your home, but more so, adjusting your perspective on cleanliness and what it means to put work into keeping your home a haven. It talks about giving life back to the people who live in your home with you and gives daily "Mary" challenges and "Martha" challenges - based on the Bible story of the sisters, one who spent all her time cleaning, the other who was a good host to Jesus when he came to visit. This book tries to balance the two, learning to keep a beautiful home, while recognizing the importance of letting your home be a space for peace and hospitality through daily challenges practicing both. If you decide to purchase the bundle and start reading let me know what you think! I'd love to hear about your take on the 31 Days of Clean book, as well as the ones I haven't started!

Change is in the Air

Last week I sat down to write an article about how I'd officially been home from work for a year (I'm not actually sure on the actual date, but I quit in March so sometime around now). A lot of people ask what I do during the day, or why I quit, or what our plans for the future are, so I thought I'd get some of that out to you in a blog post. 

The day after I began that article, I received a few missed calls from my former employer while out for breakfast with friends. After an official year off work, it looks like I'll be going back part-time. Today we find out more information like exactly what the schedule looks like and the wage, but I'm happy to help out a friend and it will add a bit more structure to my week which is a good thing. I've been getting a little bit stir-crazy staying home, especially since house cleaning is not one of my greatest skills, so I think this will be a welcome change. I hope. I'm a little bit nervous about it still because obviously I did quit so things weren't awesome before, but I'm going to be working at the smaller retail store so a bit removed and in a very different role than I occupied last March, and it's a good opportunity for me because I already know most of the job and so there isn't a lot of training and I should be able to just jump right in and get some work done. It will be really nice to have some non-house related productivity in my week. 

I don't think it should impact the blog because it will only be a couple of days a week, but we'll keep you posted. Blogging was one of the things we decided to start as something to give me a bit of a more regimented day and something fun to do each day that isn't washing dishes for hours, so definitely wanting to still keep it up. Just wanted to keep you posted on some of the behind the scenes of our house and what's going on in our daily lives also. So back to kitchens for me then, hopefully this doesn't make not being able to renovate our kitchen for a while even more painful!

Anyone else going back to something they didn't think they would? Making big changes that came out of left field? Thought we were having 10 babies when they read that title? 

Sparks and Recreation

We will officially be coming to your web browser 6 days a week! Every Saturday, we'll be sharing links (that sparked our interest - creating that punny title) to some of our favourite web news whether it be blog posts we liked, articles, etc. that we think are worth your time. We tried to keep it pretty balanced, choosing articles that we read in areas relating to home/lifestyle blogs, a marriage article, and an article to inspire and motivate our fellow bloggers. Use this opportunity to also share your favourite links from this past week in the comments! We'd love to read your blogs and get connected in this way. Hope you enjoy visiting some of the articles we recommend, leave a comment on their site too so they know you came to visit!

Bower Power Blog: Photoshop Tutorials
Every week, Katie Bower has been sharing Photoshop Tutorials on her blog. I'm the ultimate failure when it comes to Photoshop and have only just started to use it, on iPhone photos no less so definitely not good quality. She explains some really helpful things though and I've already started implementing a few of her tips! Not this one though, I have enough help in that department. 

Young House Love: Sir (Or Madam) Mix A Lot & Board & Batten 
Technically this was from last week, but we didn't have this series then and I can't resist! We've been thinking about reusing our kitchen trim in the hallway for a look similar to this, but this seems so easy that I might just convert! These kind of blog posts are my favourite, where I am able to gain some confidence to tackle a project that before might have seemed too hard for us beginners. 

Tidal: New Member Monday
In case you missed it, this is the interview that we had on Monday with Bob Vila Nation! Super exciting and fun to be featured on another website. We might be having a few more of these excursions in days ahead, including a guest post to look out for this month. 

Relevant Magazine: Does Marriage Have to be Hard?
Philip's a monthly subscriber to Relevant Magazine, so I check out their website once in a while. I find an article about marriage very refreshing once in a while as a way of reminding us that we have to put work into it even when it's not broken. 

Martha Stewart: 12 Lessons in Outdoor Living
This wasn't particularly inspiring, but I like remembering what it's like to be outside. I honestly can hardly remember what our yard is like under all that snow. Come out sun!

Altitude Summit: Maintaining a Small Blog with Pride
The Altitude Summit website provides great resources for bloggers who can't afford to go in real life (maybe someday!), I'm often motivated to keep going by their articles. You can also take relatively cost-effective courses to learn more about maintaining your blog. 

Is Justice Worth It? 
A great video that Philip found, definitely worth the 2 minutes and 9 seconds. 

Is Justice Worth It? feat. Micah Bournes from World Relief on Vimeo.

That's all for now folks! Remember to link up to your favourite posts to give some fellow bloggers some love, we'll be keeping our eyes peeled next week for some great new features to share every Saturday.