~ Do you like orange as much as I do? ~

Hello Everyone! Since I've moved 3 times in one year and got so much in touch with different colors (and believe me, I really did!), I kind of develop a sense (and a respect!) for bright colors. It wasn't by choice,though, because the house came like this, and we all fell in love with this house. Maybe I am a bit lazy to pick up ma brush and start painting everything white, but orange started to grow on me. Since, white, as you see, is the one I use the most around the house, I decided to leave the walls, that are already painted in orange the way it is...at least for a while! And here is the pics from my beautiful orange scene around the house!
Hope orange starts to grow on you as much as did on me!It kind of reminds me Halloween, punpkins, Fall... 

fresh flowers from our garden!

just found a perfect hug for here, but can't get it yet!

That's it for today...

Wishing you all a lovely and peaceful week!

Li

~ Good Bye Canada, Hello....AOTEAROA!!!!

Hello Everyone!

What a pleasure to be back blogging! After a huge break from being here, I finally got some time to do it and here I am, sitting on the floor, with my computer on my lap, but just having tones of fun!
Now, after one year without blogging (but thinking a lot about you all, believe me!)I finally decided to come back, and for good!
I still don't know what I'll be doing here in New Zealand ( I mean, if I'll be painting furniture, selling crafts, who knows?) but one thing for sure: I'll be experiencing this amazing country, filled with lovely people, surrounded by nature and what a wonderful place for my family and I to be! :-)

We arrived a month ago, but for almost 3 weeks we didn't have internet at home (which was OK!). Then, we just had a few matresses on the floor, and a car to go around and explore a bit of Bay of Plenty, where we decided to live.
It was winter, and in fact, we had a few cold days here for us, even coming from Alberta, Canada.

Packing a whole house in Canada wasn't so bad, but the sad part was when we had to leave our puppies there and come here.
They stayed a month in Canada because they couldn't come regarding some tests they needed to do before departure but luckly I met an amazing girl from Melbourne, Australia, a few weeks before we left who offered to take care of them. I'm so blessed to have met Alana and what a lovely friend I've made!
Life is not complete without our doggies (if you love your pet, you know what I mean).  Now, they are already here in New Zealand, in Quarentine for 10 days, and we are counting the days to pick them up, which will be next Monday, September 19th. Yey!!!!!

So, here I am, in New Zealand!!!! Can you believe it?
We live in a life style block, that's how they call it here. Cool, hey?
Every country has a different way of saying that, but if you look up now and see the picture of my blog front page, the clothes hanging on the line, you know what I'm talking about. So, I'm living a country living style, for sure!!!
Soon I will buy some chickens, maybe some sheep (they are sooooo cute!) and become a real farm girl, ladies, very similar to the way I grew up and our 3 kids are having a blast here, enjoying so much every day, every moment.
Now, they wear uniforms, walk bearfoot, and sing Maori songs eveyday at school. What an experience!!!

So, dear friends, sorry for my absence... but I had so much to deal with over all this time and for me, when I come here is to give something good for you, and at all this year, I was really focused on things to happen with our move, so my mind was more into that than anything else.

Well, I'm back and here are some pics from my new world.

Thanks for all the comments while I was away from here, and even if you didn't make any comment, but just thought about me, I appreciated too!
The lovely energy that we share blogging is what make us to come back!

 Your friend, Li :-)

Picture taken from our varanda!

Lavander bush

Lovely neighbours :-)

Annikki saying "Hello" to them

Couldn't forget the beach...

only 15 minutes away from us :-)

Life is beautiful, it has to be!

Have a good one!

Love,

Li :-)

~ Back into business! ~

Hello Dear friends,

Before anything, I want to say a big THANK YOU for all of you who's been leaving me comments even though knowing I'm absent. I really appreciate all of them and now that I'm back, I'll do my best to catch up with all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well, where should I start?
The Summer was wonderful. No rush for anything, just enjoying the kids, going to the Lakes around, being more outdoors then ever!
Then came Back to School, where all of my kids were challenging a new school for them. Now, they are all settle and life goes on smoothly here.
But, yes, I did lots of projects during the summer as well!!! I had also to do something for myself, and as I love summer I also had the chance to paint in the garage with the door open, so I could feel the warm wind coming inside and see the gorgeous blue sky. Just perfect, hum?
Two weeks ago I also was part of a Art Show in the city where many artists from all kind were showing their work. It was a very interesting experience for me, since I still don't call myself "Artist" at all. But anyway, most of the friends I invited came over (some couldn't attend) and it was so nice to see them there, supporting my work and also it was lovely to meet new people.
I had to rush to prepare a portfolio for the exhibition but it turned out really well.
Now I'll show you all the pieces I did and pictures from the event. Have fun looking at them!

Hope everybody is doing fine and having lots of fun in your lives!
I'll come soon again with a new post!

Here are some pieces I did during Summer. I hope you guys like it!

 At the Art Gallery

 That's a nice friend of mine and Me!

Thanks all for stopping by and until next time!

Have a lovely week,

Li :-)

~ Do what you love; love what you do ~

Hello pretty ladies,

Today here in Alberta we had lots, but I mean, lots of rain! For a moment I thought I was back in the tropics! Note that I'm not complaining here. Actually, I love rain. It cleans the roads, the air, everything looks so green. And I love green!

While we've been having a blast outside between lakes, festivals and lots of rain as well. I also been working while the kids are playing just in front of me!!! Yes, and here is a piece of furniture I did this week. It was fun and I just put this one few minutes ago for sale, so as I miss coming here too, why not show you guys this lovely cottage style dresser?

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time and I'll be back with more projects soon.

The grey top. I just add a different color for a bit of contrast here

And Anthropologie pulls, from $14 each to $2.95 on sale! What a bargain, hey?

That's the dresser before:

Lots of scratches on the top and everywhere!

But nothing like a sander to help in the process, right?

That's it girls, a brand new dresser.

I can't wait to finish the kitchen to show you guys!

Have a awesome weekend!

Love, Li :-)

~ OFF from Blogging (for a while) ~

Hello Dear Readers,
It's been a while I haven't post anything here. Since the kids finished school it's been a wonderful time for us to recharge the batteries, sleep in and enjoy the beautiful weather we finally are having here in Alberta. Today we spent the day in a beautiful Lake 1 1/2hr from us and it was wonderful. But the thing is: I don't have time to come to the computer anymore. Because we are spending too much time outside (and too much for us here is never too much, believe me!) I barely have time to open my computer. By the time I think to come and write it's too late or the kids are asking for me to join them for a evening family movie! I simply can't resist that...
So, I'll be OFF from blogging for a few weeks or so. I'll be working in the kitchen Makeover, painting furniture and don't worry, I'll keep you posted when I'm done.
But for now, I think that's it.
I wish you all a wonderful time, no matter where you are, which season you are having, but simply a wonderful time with yourself, family and friends!

With love,

Li :-)

Here are some pictures for you. My daughter were too shy to pose this time...

Moraine Lake,Banff, Alta...It can be chilly there.

"Namastê"

"Chilling out in the Street Car"

"And the boys chilling out with their Popsicles!"

Yummy!!!

Enjoying a nice summer day!

Enjoying simple things in a simple way...

Until next time!

Happy Summer for the North hemisphere and a cozy and lovely winter in the South!

Much love,

Li :-)

~ A Green Kitchen ~

Hello Dear friends, I've been talking about my kitchen for a while but other things came on my way that were more important, so I had to stop this project and turn all the way to "my kids" and forget the kitchen a bit.
The school year is almost at the end and my three kids are very excited for the summer that finally arrived here in Alberta. Now the sun goes down around 11pm and the day starts early too! @ 4am. The only thing I have to say is: Let's us "Canadians" enjoy the summer. In other Provinces they have flowers, vegetables, fruits way before us here, but that's the way it is. My pot flowers are done, herbs, and the tomatoes....I'll probably see them in the middle of August.
So....the KITCHEN!!!! As I've been debating about the color, this and that, I decided to go with white and PRONTO!
I would love to hear your opinion, since the walls I "might" live it the way it is (it's called Sage color), but if you think it will be better in other color, I really appreciate your comment! When I did bathroom make over, I have to say following some advice from you guys, made my job so nice and at the end I loved that I change the wall color! Even though "painting walls" are not my speciality, I enjoyed the results at the end.
So, today I'm busy preparing also our 1st GARAGE SALE for Saturday. As the weather is promising, we are going to give it a try. I've never did one, so wish me luck! What I hear the most is garage sales are too much work, at the pend people get stressed out, and on and on...but as I am a person who believe "you don't try you will never know", I'll try a garage sale. We have lots of very good items and as it will be a beautiful weekend!
As I show my kitchen pictures how it is right now, I'll also write a few ideas I had.
All the material we got so far are "Eco Friendly" made out of recycled and not-toxic. WE changed the floor to a laminated imitating stone (really interesting one) and is a recycled material as well. A year ago we bought new appliances and searching in our budget and also for something nice, we ended up buying stainless-steel which are easier to recycle in the future as well.
Okay, here it goes my little kitchen:

I'm thinking to paint all the cabinets in white and change all the knobs and pulls to stainless steel ones. For the drawers, I'll go with cup pulls. What do you think?

This is our PANTRY  and the door that lead us to the garage.

As the budget is short, I won't change the sink (which I would love to) and the counter top. They will remain the same. Do you think just by changing the color of the cabinets will look better?

In this space I used to have a table with bar stools.  We did this cork corner to protect the wall from the previous iron chairs we used to have. Should I paint it in white as well? I kind of like it the way it is...

And this big frame will be a chalk board I'm planing to do. We need a board in the kitchen for reminders...

And the plates on the wall will be gone. I have a wood shelf and I put 5 little hangers for our 5 breakfast personalized cups that will be in the left wall where one of the plates are.

This is a laminated floor: they come in big plates that attached one into the other and they are made out of recycled material and are non-toxic. I also painted the kitchen a years ago with non-toxic paint as well.

Here is where the I'll replace the plate to the white wood shelf.

I'm planning a kitchen island instead of the table. We need more space to cut the veggies, cheese, etc. and we barely use the table in the kitchen.

OK friends, I think that's it. AS I've been more out than in, at least today I could save some time for this post and I'm already taking the cabinets off (the hardest work!) and soon I'll be painting them (outside!) Yuppie!!!!

Feel free to drop me a line with any suggestion. I love to read them and all the nice ideas that come from you all!

Have a awesome week, coming already to a weekend!

Love,

Li :-)