Five random little tidbits from our lives right now! We currently have green grass, and lots of mud, but I’m dreaming of these snowy views that we had a couple of weeks ago!
We’re in the middle of our second lockdown and it’s…weird. We’re about halfway through our 28 day lockdown now (theoretically) and I started out the first part of it by completely forgetting that we were in a lockdown on pretty much a daily basis. Somehow, things just seemed so normal despite the fact that we just had finished a completely abnormal and quiet Christmas. I found myself thinking that I would just run out to a store to grab something, or even maybe plan a little trip for our family, only to remember “Oh yeah, we’re in the middle of a pandemic.” And then we started with remote learning this week which has completely flipped our schedule upside down. The good news is that it’s been great for the kids. They’re enjoying it and they’re really getting a lot out of it. The teachers are coming up with amazing things to do to make it a fun experience while squeezing in a little bit of learning in there as well. The other side of things is that my new job is being a personal assistant to a second grader and making sure that he get to all of his zoom meetings and that he has snacks, water, and just the right pencil whenever he needs them. Trying to adjust to this new schedule and find pockets of time to be productive, but it’s a whole new world!
This Amazon jewelry organizer brought me so much joy. I realized that I have all these pieces of my grandma’s jewelry, as well as a few of my own that have been sitting in boxes in the back of the closet and I suddenly had this urge to make it right. I ordered this jewelry organizer tray from Amazon and it’s just perfect. One tiny corner of my world is a whole lot more orderly now. It was the perfect New Year’s instant gratification project.
Speaking of taking care of things that were long overdue, I finally ordered a new mirror for the mudroom after breaking my previous one a few months ago. When I did my little mudroom update a few months ago, I added in a new console table, a rug, and a few other blue and white touches to make it. I ended up using an antique oval mirror that I’d had in the basement for a long time and it looked just perfect. Unfortunately, it was crazy heavy and one day it fell and the old wooden frame around the mirror just shattered. Not the mirror itself, just the frame. It’s not something that’s really fixable though, so a new mirror was in order. I’ve been putting off the decision and I borrowed a mirror from the front hallway for the time being, but that one is just too small and already has a home. Anyway, I finally pulled up my socks and made the decision to order a mirror that I would absolutely love instead of one that was just OK. It’s a great mudroom and Chris built it out of nothing with his own two hands, so it’s worthy of a good mirror. Plus, Kennedy is just not interested in putting up with us having a mirrorless mudroom for another two years. Plus plus, I really get a lot of joy out of having a well-appointed “grown up” entryway. This is the mirror that I ordered! I think it’s a true classic and I’m super excited for it.
A new project is underway! No promises about when this will be completed, but we went ahead and started a new renovation project. The idea was that we would have some extra time on our hands during this lockdown, so this would be a great way to be productive while at home. Of course, as I already mentioned, life feels busy and kind of strange right now and it doesn’t really seem like we have a lot of extra time on our hands, but a new project is exciting none-the-less! We have two different stairwells that we want to tackle, but we decided to do that back stairs first because of all the storage potential back there that we’ve been missing out on. The stairwell leads out to the backyard and down to the basement and the stairs are quite wide and shallow so there’s a lot of room for built-ins all around. We’re also excited to switch out the back door to the same one that we used in the mudroom and let some more light in too, which will help brighten up our dark kitchen. More on our plans for that space soon!
Travel. I’ve always been a homebody. I’m the person who likes routine and order and often times traveling, even if it’s only a little weekend trip, leaves me feeling discombobulated and like it takes me two weeks to really get back into the swing of things once I get back home. We spent quite a few years traveling every single weekend for Kennedy’s soccer and I always found myself wishing for an at-home weekend so we could finally get on top of things around here. Well, I think I’ve finally had enough at home time now to appreciate that getting out and having a change of scenery can be a pretty important thing too. I find myself visiting hotel Instagram pages and the tourism websites of different nearby towns in the hopes that maybe one day soon we’ll be able to have a teeny tiny little getaway. At the very least, I’m getting some ideas so that when the time comes when it’s safe to travel, we’ll be ready.
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.