Bedroom Makeover Part II

We've been busy over the holidays!! It's still a work in progress, so I can't show any final results yet, but we've made some impressive improvements.

We started with checking the state of the floors by lifting the carpet. We weren't sure if maybe the carpet was covering up something, or if there was even a full floor of hardwood underneath. Since it's an old home that has been divided up into apartments, you never know what you might find. So we lifted all the corners (as much as possible, but so that we could put it back if we had to) and found gorgeous hardwood everywhere!

Once we had established that, we put the carpet back down so we wouldn't have to cover the floors while painting. Since there we so many holes in the walls, we started with repairs. We also took down the window treatments and filled those holes and painted the ceiling while the filler was drying.

Because we wanted to clean off the hardware and hinges on the doors, we decided to just take them out. Oh yeah, and did I mention we had some holes in the walls?!

After the filler was sanded down and the ceiling, the woodwork (windows, doors, etc.) and the heater were painted and dry, it was finally time for the walls. All the preparations and repairs are a lot of work, but don't really show much progress, but painting the walls is so rewarding! By the time we got to that stage, things went so quickly.

And finally, the big moment of taking out the carpet (and a million staples!) - beautiful floors!!! I couldn't be happier. We finished the baseboards and cleaned everything up, but that's about it for now. The husband is back to work and I need to figure out how we're going to furnish and decorate this room (and how we're going to arrange for the little one to join us in there).

Best Free 2014 Calendars

The last two weeks have been fun, but reality will hit again on Monday. To start the year organized the pretty way, I've rounded up 6 of the most gorgeous free printable 2014 calendars.

Find it here: My Scandinavian Home

Find it here: My Life, My Love - Kelsie Millet

Find it here: Paper Snaps Blog

Find it here: Lia Griffith

Find it here: Oh The Lovely Things

Find it here: Smäm 

(The calendar is in a different language, but not hard to figure out with a little bit of imagination. My absolute favourite and way too gorgeous not to post.)

Enjoy!!

Happy 2014!

Yesss 2014 is here, I couldn't be more excited and ready for it!! For us, 2013 was demanding, requiring a lot of input while giving back little. Struggles with health, immigration and work made things challenging at times, but we have left the worst of that behind us. Now it's time for new beginnings and new plans.

This year brings some wonderful things to look forward to and has love and family as its main characters. In March we are expecting our first baby! We feel beyond blessed and don't think words could describe our happiness and excitement. It's always been my dream to become a mother and to be able to start a family with the most amazing person I've ever met, has already made for an incredible experience.

Especially during the first half of the year, both the husband and I will be very busy. So one of my goals will be to make sure we really enjoy our moments together and spend quality time whenever we can. I also hope I will see more of my family and friends who live far away. With my parents coming for a visit in March, we're definitely making a great start, but we also aim to travel to Europe at least once this year.

Some personal things I want to focus on this year are to spend more time with my camera and challenge myself in taking better pictures - now that I got a new camera lens for Christmas… no more excuses! I want to teach myself how to knit and hopefully create some simple and cute baby things. Also, I want to try sewing!! Maybe get some tips from my pro-seamstress sisters in law and start with some basic projects. I love anything to do with home and decorating and want to continue improving things around the house with DIY projects. And last but not least, I'm really enjoying blogging so far (not even a month in, but still…) so I'm hoping to keep that up and continue to share about all the things I love.

Happy new year to all of you!!!