Yet again internet provides way too many options. The plan was to simply create a 3D floor to ceiling corner fireplace for the living room. I had a very clean modern look in mind with the wood veneer being the focal point and a simple insert for the fire pit. There should be couple logs inside to finish up the scene. Well…

I knew there were numerous kits with the “flickering fire”, but all plug into existing wiring system in the house and that’s a no no for me. I might be ambitious, but I know my limits. Anything that resembles seven grade physics lesson is way too painful to relive ;)))

All said I came across model train site offering flickering fire kit that can run on 9V battery and has a itty bitty on/off switch. This whole thing comes under $12 including shipping. So my daughter will have a “real” fireplace, hallelujah 😉 

First illness of the year is upon us, Sara spent the evening and night vomiting and feverish. It’s amusing to watch how quickly she realizes that she can take a clear advantage of the situation. I remember myself as a kid loving being sick. It was the only time my mom would buy me a pop soda, I loved the orange one the best.

So I’m hoping Sara will not develop fondness of being ill. She is very active and I know that the threat of not going to school or going swimming will “set her strait”.

The sofa is sitting on my desk and nothing is going on. I have a clear vision, but I know I need at least 3 hours. I will try to make the time tonight. For now it’s all the sheets with puke and our regular laundry. Oh, the joy of family life 🙂

This weekend was fabulous. Fun birthday party with a school friend and making pizza and fooling around with Benedict. Sara is truly becoming “partner in crime” and she emulates Ben as much as she can. This morning she asked when can she get her own computer just like mommy’s. She can have my laptop for trashing when the new iPad comes out (common Apple, move it :))

I had to go to Michael’s to get the birthday present and went alone, so you can imagine I bought way more than just the present. I discovered a precut rectangles of three sizes and some lovely precut shapes. I’m still limited in my creativity, since the saw will truly be my birthday present. Beads, earrings and necklace pieces were on super duper sale, so Sara will have a lot of organic art objects in her house. How I wish decorating my house would be so easy and inexpensive.

I will post some pictures later, but I’m proud to report great progress

*main floor has walls and a window

*first floor has flooring in the bedroom and in the batroom

*all but one wall on the first floor done

*roof terrace, green roof and sandbox done

It’s really starting to take shape and I even started to make some furniture. Coffee table was super easy, but the corner sofa might be scraped for another, less complicated design. I discovered some wood veneers in my crafting pile, so floor to ceiling wood corner fireplace is in the works and there is a design of fantastic modern king size bed in my head waiting for sketching.  

I’m entering a very exciting phase of the project, the furnishings. It took a while to find decent looking front door, but ELF miniatures in UK will be the choice provider :). They also sell designer furniture… here we go again, it’ is such a difficult choice, but Sara’s house only has so much space. I just realized it’s the same size as our real house, kinda. So there is only room for 2 pieces of “fancy shmancy” furniture. 

On the weekend we ventured into Toy Traders again, this time the whole family. Jason took off as soon as we walked in. Sara loved all the figurines of the weird Japanese cartoons and she found a figurine of Hermes from Futurama.

We spent at least 45 minutes looking and touching everything, just like kids in the toy store :). And we ended up with couple puzzles and some extras. 

We are all settling into the routine and Sara is getting a bit calmer as well. She used to be such an easy going baby, she dealt with all the curve balls we threw her way. Now she plays shy when meeting people and gets very short tempered. She really missed all her daycare friends. Last year her big friend was Lucas, but now it’s Tristan. This week she played with him everyday, when she saw him on Monday she even did her happy jumps. They played with the Duplo prehistoric set and I’ve heard from Sara stories about the dinosaur eating a whale.“He is like a little dinosaur and he is friendly with everybody and he says Stooooop!!!! a lot”

This week’s “freedom hours” were spent on haircut (and highlights to hide the grey hair) and cleaning/laundry. I was also feeling under the weather,plus two nights of school created a blend of very busy schedule and one very tired body. The weather outside changed and frost covered our garden. I will try to post the funny video of Sara eating our winter kale. She misses the garden and when I saw the bare nothingness of our plot I realized how much this little piece of soil became a part of our lives.

I remember the intimidation of sowing the first seeds and the immense joy of watching the green sprouts make their way towards the sun. I have a better idea of what to grow this season. No flowers in our precious plot, just carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, beets, zucchini, peas, strawberries and raspberries. It’s starting to be a bit of a science, since I need to practise a good crop rotation to prevent disease. This year, unlike last year, I won’t bother with much of indoor starting, I will simply buy my transplants from Dave in late March and we will be ready to go. His cabbage and zucchini was a great success and so would be the cucumbers if the weather had been drier. Last year’s crop was much leaner, according to senior gardeners so I can’t even imagine how a great year look like, because from our tiny plot we get almost everything we need. I was bringing lettuce  and spinach home almost every day, same for the tomatoes and we were eating so much fresh stuff. Carrots and peas never made it home, since Sara would eat them before we even left the garden 🙂

Ok the weekly post is done, now a good night sleep is needed, because one more day of work is still ahead.

darn, darn. So first I went to the coolest toy/collectible toy store (ok I take that back F&O Schwartz will always be the most amazing one), the Toy Traders in Langley on a tip of really good deal on Plan Toys doll house furniture. I ended up with a garden and a pet set below retail, but nothing spectacular. They had an amazing selection of Playmobil and oh my, I fell in love. My childhood memories of playing with a cheap communist knock off came flooding back. I’m so tempted to buy some Playmobil sets, but I need to sleep on it, because now I’m dealing with a problem of scale. I think it would be wise to adhere to the standard doll house scale of 1:12. At the same time I would love to give Sara an option of creating and using what she has available and even make furniture and stuff for the house herself later on.

I will stick with Plan toys and Ryan Room wooden furniture (plus Brica Dada as a real splurge),I just love the feeling of wood and the durability. The wooden furniture is chunkier than the plastic stuff from Playmibil, so it would be easier for Sara to play with. I must think of how Sara will interact with the house and if I can reduce some frustration I should do it (even if it’s not as awesome as design pad for mommy :))

Ok, this weekend I will deal with the walls and the second floor flooring, I’ll try.