spring simplicity

The weather this week is supposed to be very nice and I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of our time outside. With that being said I wanted to make sure I had a menu that could support our busy life so a lot of these meals are done with the crock pot or the bbq. I love that we can use our bbq now! I guess we could use it in the winter too but we are babies and we don't. I know a lot of Canadians that do though!

As I am writing this I can smell my crock pot pulled pork cooking away and let me tell you it smells good!!! I'm looking forward to it tonight! We just use a pork loin roast and then I throw in some bbq sauce and I let it slow cook all day long. I didn't even defrost the roast this morning. I just threw it in frozen. It's one of the easiest meals ever.

The marinated lime chicken is just that, chicken marinated with lime juice, garlic, s&p, and olive oil. Then we throw it on the bbq. Once it's done I pull apart the meat and put it on our naan. The naan is meant to be folded over like a sandwich. 

The Cajun chicken is a recipe I pinned a few months ago and I have been meaning to try it. I think it will be a good fast meal for Thursday night. If you would like to try it the link for it is here.

That's our week in a nutshell. Pretty simple but sometimes it's the simplest dishes that are the best.

Spring is here, cake to smash and a balloon ride

Spring is my favourite time of the year. The smell of fresh rain, the birds chirping, the flowers blooming and babies being born. My friend Julie is celebrating her son's 1st birthday this month.  And so, in honour of his birth, we captured this special moment in their lives with a cake smash photo shoot and then another outdoor session.  I just love capturing cake smash's. They are always so much fun. Mr. L was actually the first baby I have captured that did not want anything to do with his cake. He didn't like the taste or the feeling of the icing on his fingers. Poor little guy!!! I felt like I was torturing him with cake. Before the actual "smashing" of the cake I took some great pictures of just him. Usually he is a very smiley guy, but on this day he was sporting a rather serious disposition. He must have sensed we were about to do the cake torture. Haha, non the less I got some great shots.

 

 Mom and Mr. L! Such a pretty mamma but you can tell that little Mr. L totally takes after Dad!

 I made him this fun little party hat but it didn't last very long on his head!

Gotta love those bright blue eyes!!!

Then it was time for cake!

 By the way, I made the garland out of tissue paper. Here is a great tutorial in case you ever need to make tissue paper ball garland.

Poor little guy! He was not very happy about getting so dirty! I thought this was a cute outtake!

After the "cake torture" it was time to get cleaned up. I couldn't resist capturing some cute moments in the bathtub too!

After all that drama, I let Mr. L take a break. I met up with him and his family later in the evening during what photogs call the "golden hour". That is when the sun is starting to set and it creates a beautiful glow to pictures. I have been trying to master this type of photography. I really like the look it creates. I still have a long ways to go in mastering this technique. But like they say, practice makes perfect.

Mr. L's birthday theme is Dr. Seuss's Oh the places you will go. So we decided to put him in a basket with balloons tied to it. It was really cute.

Big sis got in on the action too!

This final picture is exactly the look of the "golden hour". See how the sun creates a golden halo around her head.

I loved taking these pictures. It was so much fun going through the creative process of the cake smash and then the outdoor pictures. Thanks so much again Julie for allowing me to capture your special moment in time.

Linking up here:
I should be Mopping the floor

Diy projects in the works

I have not done a thing to show you today! Nothing! Life has been so crazy these last few weeks I haven't even had time to clean my house.  I don't even want to walk on my floors without shoes they are so dirty. I'm hoping to actually get those done today! Every weekend seems to be filled up with family events or photo shoots. I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. I love being busy I just need to figure out how to balance, work, play, family and chores. I may be busy but I have so many projects I want to do that I thought I would show the world my plans in hopes to motivate me to get my butt in gear. 

First off our garage is full of furniture I have been collecting over the years. I have been collecting these items in hopes to refurbish them and add them to my home. I inherited a beautiful armoire from my Aunt. Well actually right now it's not so beautiful, but it has beautiful lines and lots of potential. I plan on painting it a nice antique white and adding some crystal nobs to it. It will look great in my guestroom and will be a great storage area for all my photo props I've been accumulating. Eventually that guest room is probably going to turn into our bedroom so then I will have to use that armoire for an actual closet.

Last week I found a beautiful set of twin beds for the boys room. They look just like this bed.

By the way, this is a Jenny Lind bed you can buy at Land of Nod.

While they are not painted yet, they are in excellent condition. I got two bed frames for $50! I told my friend I was looking for this style and she found someone who was selling them on kijiji. It was fate. The lady who sold them to me was the nicest lady in the world. She has 4 kids almost ready to leave the nest. I think she was feeling nostalgic and very generous when she sold them to me. She originally wanted $50 a frame. I worked her down to $70 for the two frames and then by the time we had the beds in my car and I was ready to pay, I gave her the $70 and she gave me back $20. She said she remembers what it was like to be a young family and how hard it is. She is right it is hard. I was very grateful for her generosity.  It was an amazing deal. Paxton's bed frame that he has right now I literally took off the side of the road. My parents neighbour was getting rid of it. It was a really nice bed but not as nice as these new frames I snagged. We painted his bed midnight blue and it looks awesome. I'm kinda sad we are replacing it already. I'm hoping I kind find it a good home because my husband put a lot of love into painting that bed. But it will look so much better when the boys have matching beds. So my plan this summer is to paint the bed frames the same midnight blue.  Levi is already showing signs that he wants to sleep in a big boy bed so I think by the end of summer he will be ready. So now we just have to get the beds ready.

Project number 3 I would like to make some artwork for my home. I bought a really large canvas a few months ago and I'm dying to do something awesome with it.  I'm thinking of taking on this project.

If you want to join me and create this beauty here is the tutorial.
This is the song I sing to my little Levi every night before bed. It's very special to us.

I would also like to make something like this.

A wax paper chandelier for my front entry way. How cool is that?

I thought this would be a lot of fun to make as well. I need some swanky artwork for my bedroom.

 By the way, I found this girls blog just a few weeks ago and I'm in love with all of her projects. Her home is beautiful! You should  check her blog out at Live Love DIY. Here is the tutorial for this awesome little piece of artwork.

I probably won't get to all of these projects this summer but it's good to set goals. I hope to get lots done so that I have tonnes to share with you.