{Jessica Snaps}: Pics from Daily Life, August 2012

enough s'more fixings to feed an army.  seriously, what was i thinking?

triple the cuteness :)

it's peter rabbit!  i'm sure i wouldn't be so keen on this fellow if i had a garden!

this face. loves.

um. so good. addicted thanks to jesse :)

for some reason, i was on a huge nicholas sparks kick this month.. i read three of his books.. nice light reads.. and zac efron's arms are almost as nice as tyler's. almost. :)

i love when our k-cup order comes in at work for our keurig

me and baby f

the sign that was made for us for planning the reunion!  so sweet

and everyone signed the back! and my little cousin drew a picture of me too.. my cousin who planned the reunion with me got one too and they drew a picture of him on his! adorable!

back yard.. full of weeds and dirt.. waiting  patiently for the skilled hand of the contractor (and his tools)

bronze loves the wind in her face :)

skurf city

day on the lake :)

family brunch after meeting 

bright yellow.. first (and only) outfit post of the summer.. boo me

haha

another fave outfit from the summer :)

the in-laws come to visit!  uncle parker and max sharing yogurt

uncle tyler and mister max

oooh wow!  big boy on poppy's bike!

canmore sunshine and all our bikes!  road trip ready!

open road bliss

cruising

parker cruising along behind!

my head is so heavy, mom.  i'll just rest it here

nothing more comfty than a stripped bed.. until mom catches me (I didn't boot her off though.. how could I?!)

afternoon at sylvan lake

me and my lil bro-in-law :)

xo ~ Jessica

{Jessica Is Inspired}: For Her Newfoundland Trip!

Hey everyone!  Happy Sunday evening! (not).

I always get the worse case of the Sunday night blues.  Sigh.  

Me and Monday morning don't get along so well.  Well, we're on terse speaking terms.  But it's not pretty. 

;)

Anywho.  

I am getting SO excited for our Newfoundland trip this November!  It's still 66 days away (roughly.. I'm not keeping track or anything) but I am already mentally pulling out my suitcase and packing it.  I don't even care how lame that sounds. :)  

When we went away for our first cruise in January, I (deep breath. just preparing for the mockery.) planned all my outfits.  And it was the best.  Honestly.  I sort of applied the 30x30 rules to packing my suitcase and it worked fantastic.  

Outline:  I basically dove into my summer wardrobe, picking out my absolute favourites (about 30 items).  Once I had them picked, I started creating outfits.  You should have seen our guest bedroom. I had outfits laid out and clothes everywhere..  It was basically a cyclone/tsunami/tornado/dust storm/any-other-natural-disaster-you-can-think-of of clothes and shoes and belts and scarves and purses.  And I was in my element.

Once I had them all sorted and figured out, I wrote them all down, slipped that piece of paper into a page protector and tucked it away in my suitcase. (more mockery, I just know it.. I can feel it, you guys, I can feel it..)  And for the whole trip, I didn't once have to think about clothes or what I was going to wear or anything along those lines.  Fannntastic, if you ask me.

I am wanting to apply that same principle to our Newfoundland trip.  It'll be a little harder since I won't know exactly what we'll be doing everyday or what the weather will be like.. but I want to stick to certain colours and patterns, so that no matter what I pull out of my suitcase, it can mixed and matched and worn together.  

So, obviously, this calls for a new Pinterest board. :)

The direction I'm going?  

Black will be my grounding colour.  It's just too versatile and utterly timeless/classic not to be.

I want to add three prints to the mix: polka dots, leopard and a dark autumn floral.

My "pops of colour" (POC, if you will.. haha): lots of jewel tones.. mustard, dark teal and magenta.

For shoes, I am thinking a classic pair of black pumps, flats of some kind (maybe in black or cognac?), boots of some kind (I have been digging combat boots lately!), some type of outdoors-y shoe in case any fall hiking or such activities occur, my running shoes.. and maybe one more pair?  A bootie or wedge of some kind?  Anyway.. this is all very preliminary.. haha.. It could change by tomorrow, who knows!? :)

I also think grey would be a fantastic colour to throw in here and there.. maybe a grey scarf or belt or headband or flower clip.. :)   

So there you have it..  This is what I have done to pass the time on this Sunday evening and give myself a good dose of "medicine" for those blues.. I must say, it's actually worked!  I'm kind of anxious to get moving on this week now as it means we are getting closer to our trip!  :)  

Well, the clock is reading "bedtime", so I should run along.. :)  Hope you all had a great weekend and I'm positive I'll be popping in later this week with an update!

xo  ~ Jessica

PS - As for my Daily Pics (Aug 2012 version)... they're coming.. as soon as my phone charger arrives in the mail.. sigh.  I left my original one behind in our hotel room on a recent road trip, so I pretty much said adiós to that thing and now I am at the mercy of Canada Post, waiting (im)patiently for my new one to arrive....  Sooner rather than later, I am hoping! :)  

{Jessica Decorates}: The Guest Bedrooms

I am probably being very liberal with the word "decorates".  :)

But nonetheless, these two spacious basement bedrooms have been converted to a form of guest room-coziness and I consider it a start! 

Nothing like last minute (but most welcome) company to get your butt in gear when it comes to organzing/cleaing/setting up, hey? We are lucky enough to have worker company already and I think it was just what we needed to get our gears in motion!  Oh and the fact that our garage building permit was approved 5 stinking months later might have something to this fresh energy we've been feeling these days!  

YAY!!  

It's seriously so so exciting.  I can't wait to get this project going already.  But I'll save that for another post. :)

So, ya!  Guest rooms!

Let's dig in..

Our basement is the weirdest basement in the history of basements.  Well, maybe not in general weirdness.. there's no secret passageways or hidden staircases or a secret hatch leading to the underworld of Red Deer (lol!), but weirdness as in "Most Odd Layout Ever"..  anyway, hopefully all of that will be changing in the future, but for now, we work with that we have got..

This first room was basically a nothing room. It held a random Rubbermaid tub, my clothes drying rack and a small box.  

Tyler's office upstairs also held a small single bed, so we took it apart and moved it to this room, after a good vacuum.  And Bronze was an excellent help through the whole process. :)

getting it vacuumed

piece #1 brought down :)

puppy on a rug

bed back together

all cozied up!

table and chair

new duvet cover (a beautiful soft blue).. 

you can't see it, but we just recently bought the fluffiest feather mattress pad for this little bed!  It gives it some nice bulk!

 The second guest room was already kind of made up.  It just needed some finishing touches.

bed and a night stand.. that's it..

with added details..

i love lamp

rug, extra chair, table

an extra blanket for added coziness

So that about sums up the guest rooms.. it feels good even to have that little bit done.. and now we can legitimately say that we have room for company!  Step by step, folks.. step by step.. :)

Until next time!

xo ~ Jessica