how I spent my summer vacation

With only one week left to go, I have to say, it's been a good summer. Aside from spending some quality time with family & friends, achieving an A+ in Introduction to Educational Research, and moving the boyfriend home, there were a lot of changes in my house. And they are all good changes!! Not all of them have photographic evidence, but here are a few:

This is what my bedroom looked like before (pictures were taken 3 years ago):





Unfortunately, what you can't see is the pink carpet. But here's another one that shows the hideous pink bows that had been stencilled around the top of the walls.



And now, the "after" pictures:








Then there's the office.... I have no before pictures of it, but let's just say that some training in acrobatics might have come in handy when navigating from one part of the room to the other... and my Dad has now actually noticed the big beautiful office desk I've had in there for the past two years. :-) Here's the end result (walls were previously white, carpet was a speckled orange/brown combo...where you could see it, that is!)





Finally, there's the kitchen. The only thing new there is the flooring, so I won't bother with the before pictures. It had white linoleum before (with all sorts of permanent marks and nicks in it.) Here's what it looks like now:



I also spent some time weeding my garden after the house was more or less done... It's been a good year for long-lasting blossoms, it seems:




And, if you don't mind my saying so, I think it's quite possible that at this time of year I have the prettiest tree on my street:



And while we're on the subject of summer vacation and home renos, I might as well also post the living room before and after pics from summer 2007 (pre- the existence of this blog). The living room remains one of my favorite rooms now...

Before:
Note the grey deep pile carpet, the shabby sectional couch, the fibre-wall behind the piano, and the pink vertical blinds...







After: (with blue walls, laminate flooring, chocolate brown curtains and teal blue accents here and there... You can't see it except for a little corner in one of these pics, but the couch has also been replaced by a big comfy leather sectional.) The "extras" are me, my dad, and my grandpa. :-)








Oh yes, and THANKS to my dad for spending a day installing a pump in my basement... Hopefully it won't be needed from hereon in, but it was yet another home improvement for the summer of 2009!

birthday fun

My birthday is coming up this week. I'll be 31. Last year, I threw a big birthday party for myself and invited friends and family from all over to join me. It was fun, and I felt very loved just by the number of people that drove distances in awful weather. But I also was reminded that I am an introvert at heart, and prefer to be in smaller groups where I can feel like I really connected with people.

This year was the exact opposite of last year. Friday night I went out with a great friend, for dinner, shopping, and a movie. We had great fun - especially since most of our connecting recently has been in a work context.

Then Saturday I headed out to my parents' place, where I think I had officially my smallest birthday party yet. I blew out the candles with just my mom and my dad present. Since we were celebrating early, my mom hadn't had time to get my gift yet, so there weren't any gifts to open. And still, I couldn't have felt more special.

I don't remember many occasions in my childhood (ie, before I left home) that I got quality time with both my parents and no one else. My mom went to the trouble of baking a cake even though she couldn't eat it. My dad and I got to talk guitar (the lessons are going well enough that I was excited to show him what I've learned) and we all watched a few hilarious youtube videos... And we have photographic evidence of me crying from laughing so hard. Something about blowing out the candles - I don't remember what - got us all laughing so hard I couldn't stop.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a great evening... It felt good to come home.