New Apartment and Projects.

I thought a post before the baby comes might be a good idea. Just to update everyone on where we are and what's up in our lives. We left the DC area at the end of August to move back home to Ottawa. Some wonderful friends found us an apartment in Gatineau Quebec. Ottawa is located right on the border of Quebec and it is commonly referred to as the Ottawa/Gatineau area. Quebec is substantially cheaper for rent then the area in Ottawa we are willing to live in (we must stay in our ward boundaries). So our apartment is a good sized three bedroom with a full unfinished basement which means that we can throw all of our "stuff" in the basement and we bought a washer and dryer (yeah for no more laundry mats!). When we moved in we had to re-paint everything so we spent the first couple of weeks painting and moving furniture around, not quite done with that but done enough that it now feels like home. We are in a great location, right next to a major road that has tons of buses for Adam to get to school quickly and super close to the river and paths that I love about the Ottawa area. We are even super close to the good English/French immersion school so in a couple of years Anya will be able to go to Jr Kindergarten there.

We have all been super busy since coming home. Adam and I both were called to fairly big callings. Adam is crazy busy with his Phd. He is having to read tons more than his Masters and still trying to do his own research for publication, work on scholarship applications, working as a TA. I have been trying to get some of the bazillion projects done around the house. Curtins have been made for Anya's room but not yet for ours, I finished a hand pieced quilt for the new baby which I will show as soon as it gets back from the quilters (oh, that's my mom. She is awsome.) And various Christmas presents are on the go. I thought that i would share one project that I have been working on for the last couple of days.

Before


The tenants who lived here before us left this Dutailier glider for us. It was is terrible shape. It was covered in a super thick layer of cat hair and the fabric was stained badly. The wood finish was very warn and it is totally not my style. I have always wanted a Dutailier glider but they are way out of our price range so.... Now I have one that I like. The above photo was taken after hours of scrubbing and washing so don't think that I was just being picky. I spray painted the whole thing a satin finish black which makes it totally match our Broyhill furniture and then I took an old red microfiber duvet cover that I had and recovered the seat and back cushion. I have never made covers for anything like this before so it was a creative process to get it done but I am pretty happy with the results, we just won't let my mom inspect it. So the whole transformation cost me two can's of spray paint and I am super happy with the results. Anya loves it also, I often find her in the office rocking with some book. Now we just need a baby to come out so that I can rock it.