But first, I am giving away something in honor of my birthday & to say thank you for visiting this space and sharing in the piece of my life that finds its way into the pages of this blog.

I scoured Etsy for three lovely things and if you’re the winner, you get to pick ONE of these! I thought it would be nice to give you a choice!

No. 1

A set of postcards from The Paris Print Shop. These are great for sending or for hanging on your wall. I own the yellow set and as you know if you’ve been reading along, they are currently up on my dining room wall. There are 11 different sets with different color themes and you get to pick which color.

No. 2

I love images of old ships and all the romanticism and adventures they imply. I could see this necklace worn many ways, from paired with a simple white T-shirt to a floor-length bohemian dress.

No. 3

For daily decoration or for when you have a party of your own – how sweet is this paper heart garland? And it’s 20 feet long!

To enter, just leave a comment and let me know which one of these you’d pick! Make sure I have a way to contact you either by leaving your e-mail address when commenting or in the body of the comment.

Giveaway is open worldwide and will be open until Friday June 1 11:59 EST. Winner will be announced on Saturday.

Good luck!

It was long…

15″ came off and are being donated for cancer. It’s nice to know that my hair will live on on a wig somewhere and help someone else!

Happy with my new cut!

And with my lovely and talented hair dresser and friend Hannah at Scizzions in St. Catharines.

Hope you’re having a great week!

Lately, I’ve…

been putting more thought into our Saturday morning breakfasts, the one morning in the week that we have extra time together in the morning. I’ve been making breakfast banana splits changing it up a little every week with different toppings.

been excited to have Instagram available for Android and love playing with the filters.

been watching Damages on Netflix.

finally got my driving license and have been enjoying my new found freedom. So far, I’ve driven by myself was to the library, church, the dentist, Home Depot and the grocery store – all good things.

made an appointment to get a hair cut. I’m taking at least 10″ off, so excited!

been enjoying these tulips that I got at the grocery store for $5. I love their color and they reminded me of something you’d see in a Dutch still life painting.

been relishing the summer weather that has arrived.

booked a ticket to go see my sister and her family in Alexandria, VA (just outside of Washington DC), so excited to spend time with them soon!

What have you been up to lately?

I was really touched today by a post called Decorating Truths from a 15-year-old Tanzanian Boy on The Nesting Place. The Nester (the pseudonym she goes by) and her family sponsor several kids through Compassion and she recently got to visit her 15-year-old sponsor child in Tanzania.

He is part of the Maasai tribe and lives surrounded by loving people in a mud hut. On the hut, he has written these words:

The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need.
Psalm 23:1

As the Nester pointed out, he lives in a mud hut and him and his family didn’t have enough food before they were sponsored by Compassion. Yet, he boldly declares that he has enough and it’s written all over his home, literally.

I looked around at my 1400 square ft. home that I love but that I sometimes feel isn’t quite what I want it to be. And I realized once again how easily I let myself get dissatisfied with what I have and how much I worry at times about what I don’t have.

I was so touched by this teenage boy today and want to remember that I have everything I need and to be grateful. And I really need a lot less than I sometimes think I do. Just look at that kid in the photo, his gorgeous smile and handwriting on the wall sure taught me a lesson today that I want to remember in the upcoming time.

Ps. I’m also over at Lisa’s blog Elembee, Etc. today talking about what I’m crushing on at the moment, my current dream destination, what’s on my bucket list, what I’m reading right now and more. Find it here.

Christine painted the walls of her bathroom gray and added cranberry accessories that complement the cranberry tiles they already had. As a fan of all things red, I love all the touches of cranberry she added!

Park House Love

This green bench adds such a vibrant touch to the room!

Lemon Drop Dreams

I love the combination of watermelon pink and peacock blue in this dining room!

June & Bear

But I did miss writing & I missed you – the one reading these words. I write to share and it wouldn’t really be sharing without having someone to share it with. So thank you, for being there to share this with.

So, today I’m sharing a simple recipe. I’ve been craving simplicity lately. And I’ve been craving wholesome food. This recipe fulfills both cravings and was sent to me by my dad, love you dad!

It’s very flexible and these are really just guidelines. The sweet potatoes are an addition I added to the recipe. I love them, and they contain quite a bit more fiber and nutrients than white potatoes.

So, here it is:

Sautee a chopped up onion and a few minced cloves of garlic. Once they are softened, add ground beef and stir until the beef has turned brown. Cube potatoes and sweet potatoes and add them to the pot, together with halved brussels sprouts. Add some stock and a bay leaf and a little knob of butter. Stir to combine everything, bring it to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.

Yum. It smelled so good.

I made this with my sister-in-law on a lazy Sunday afternoon. (My hair is sooo long, I need to get it cut so badly!)

Shes’s so cute!

The men are absent from these pics, but the meal was enjoyed by all.

What have you been up to? Hope you had a great weekend!

Here’s a quick little round-up of what I did to bring some yellow into our dining room.

For decor week, I painted salad utensils.

For paint week, I painted a chair.

For fabric week, I painted a yellow border on a canvas drop cloth and made a table cloth out of it.

I had a lot of fun adding a color I might not have normally used to our dining room! It was fun to see the effect on the room and how just adding one color in several ways makes a difference.

As promised, this week’s post includes a link party as well! BUT I can’t get the link to show up on my blog (it has something to do with the coding), so if you have added color to your home lately and would like to show it off, make sure to hop over to one of the other participating blogs so you can link up there! If you link it up on one blog, it will show across all the others as well.

Next Tuesday, each blogger will pick a few favorites from those who linked up and feature them on their blog. I look forward to checking out what everyone’s been up to!

Ange – The Blooming Hydrangea
Anna – A Newfound Treasure
Carmel – Our 5th House
Cassie – Primitive and Proper
Jessamie – Bird and Branch Redesign
Julia – Pawley’s Island Posh
Kristy – Hyphen Interiors
Lisa – Shine Your Light
Lisa – Trapped in North Jersey
Maury – Life on Mars
Shelley – Crazy Wonderful
Suzy – Saved by Suzy
Tiffany – Living Savvy
Tiffany – Worthwhile Domicile
Vashti & Jamie – Like Me Some

{Lovely Things}

1. Love this exotic but subtle Turkish tile inspired rug by West Elm.
2. I collect a fair amount recipes but somehow this one stayed with me more than others, it just looks so yummy and comforting! Strawberry jam coconut rice pudding from Joy the Baker
3. To me, this lamp exemplifies much of what I love about IKEA: It’s beautifully designed with good proportions and nice detail, will work with a variety of styles and looks more expensive than it is. Jonsbo Gryby table lamp from IKEA.
4. Lisa Leonard designs beautiful AND meaningful jewelry and this necklace that I’ve been eyeing for a long time is now on sale. I just love the tenderness and love expressed in that phrase. My Heart necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs.
5. Loving the magnolia motif on this fabric by Marimekko

{Lovely Links}

1. The room tour on Oh Happy Day of their Paris apartment had me and Ben dream (for a moment) of relocating to Paris! Paris apartment living room on Oh Happy Day
2. Fun one minute video that takes a look at color forecasting and how this company does it.
3. Loved this TED talk on How To Buy Happiness. Some research shows that money (above a certain amount) doesn’t make us happier, but there is a correlation between happiness and money – it just depends on how we spend it.
4. Insightful and enlightening video by Jess Constable from Makeunder My Life about The difference between career, purpose and vocation.
5. Elise talks about going from idea to reality.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend & wishing you a very lovely week!

I thought about using several types of paint, and decided on Martha Stewart’s multi-surface craft paint.

I bought a drop cloth that was rectangular and I knew beforehand that the sides weren’t going to reach the floor but rather than buying the larger size drop cloth, I liked the idea of doing something asymmetrical.

After playing around with it and thinking of different ways to cut it up and stitching it back together to create a new shape, I liked simply gathering the sides and tying them together.

Then I took a large brush and went to town with yellow paint along the edge.

I had to trim a piece off and hemmed the edge. The nice thing about drop cloth is that it’s hemmed on both sides, so the other side was good to go.

I tied the sides with pieces of twine.

It was a really fun little project and I like what it adds to the dining room!

Next week, Tuesday May 1st, will be the last week of this challenge and it will include a link party where you can show off any way you’ve added color to your home!

Be sure to check out the other Color My World challenge bloggers too!

Ange – The Blooming Hydrangea
Anna – A Newfound Treasure
Carmel – Our 5th House
Cassie – Primitive and Proper
Jessamie – Bird and Branch Redesign
Julia – Pawley’s Island Posh
Kristy – Hyphen Interiors
Lisa – Shine Your Light
Lisa – Trapped in North Jersey
Maury – Life on Mars
Shaunna – Perfectly Imperfect
Shelley – Crazy Wonderful
Suzy – Saved by Suzy
Tiffany – Living Savvy
Tiffany – Worthwhile Domicile
Vashti & Jamie – Like Me Some

Have a very lovely & colorful day!

Find previous Color My World posts here: Week 1, week 2 and week 3.

Linking up with Take It On Tuesday blog hop.

You may know that Ben (on the left) is the co-owner (with Chris, on the right) of an independent video game store called The Basement. What started as a seed of an idea a little over a year ago is now a full-fledged, 7-month-old store.

The thing about starting your own business is that there are lots of challenges involved, like uncertainty about outcome, financial risk and long hours of work, just to name a few. But one of the big payoffs is that you get to create the culture of your business – you decide every little part of it.

One unexpected part about The Basement is that they’ve acquired a small group of regulars consisting of high-school students who love to hang out at the store and who Ben and Chris have become quite close to.

They goof around with them, play video games (of course), sometimes help with math, talk about life, and…they drink tea.

So Ben and Chris decided to take a few of them to The Irish Tearoom, which was the first time I met most of them.

We had Bailey’s cheesecake and Banoffee pie.

They skipped stones in the lake.

I can’t skip a stone to save my life, so I collected flat stones for them and admired the beautiful surroundings and houses.

There were duels with branches.

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon.

And I’m so glad to see Ben thrive as he’s doing his thing with his business and so proud of what he’s created and is a part of. It’s not always easy, it really isn’t. But it feels so deeply satisfying.