Meeting the Petersiks

John and Sherry Petersik over at Young House Love came to Toronto, the only book tour location in Canada! No way was I going to be just over 2 hours away from them and not meet them! I've been following their blog for 2 years now and was super psyched to see them in person. Luckily Michael was off work a willing participant in making my goal obsession come to fruition. 

We made a day of it, stopping at Vaughan Mills to shop at a mall, then dropped in to see his sister Deina and her two girls in Mississauga. Then off to meet the Petersiks!

It was exactly what I envisioned....500+ women, 25-35 years old, some that also drug their husbands (and some babies), all there to wait in a 2+ hour line to meet Sherry who they think their best friends with. Luckily I set myself up for reality instead of the dream to sit down with them and ask penetrating questions over a cup of tea while Sherry oogles over my daughter and we bond over likeness in personality and love for DIY.

It was worth the wait, though it wasn't until 9pm that we finally got up to the table. It gave me lots of time to shop West Elm, which is where the book signing was held. Win win! I saved up in anticipation for the trip to go crazy shopping, which is exactly what I did. I just love that store!

This picture doesn't do justice to the packed-ness of the West Elm. The line was wrapped around the back of the store. 

My troopers. Michael's face looks about how he felt! haha. He really was a great sport and Paisley was unbelievable. Most of the time this girl loses her mind when she's tired, but there was so much stimulation and people that she kept it together fairly well.

Paisley trying out one of the trays for size. 

Yep, it fits!

I'm almost there! Sherry had to jet to the little girls room, leaving John alone for a tad.

Yay! I finally got to meet my pseudo best friends, haha! Sherry signed the owl I snagged while I was there. It was almost a cliche I told them at that point b/c I'm pretty sure a lot of people are doing that at the book signing as Sherry loves white ceramic animals.

On top of meeting them, as an added bonus, I met Jen over at Rambling Renovators! I recognized her as she was signing John and Sherry's guest book. She took off before I had a chance to snap a pic with her. Bummer. 

It was so neat to be in the world of fellow DIY lovers. Even with the 2+ hour drive home I think I stayed up until midnight delving into their book. SO many great ideas. With all that they do in their own home I don't know how they came up with 243 MORE projects to write about!

A Little Trip

On Michael's last stretch of days off we took a trip to Indiana to see my family. It's an 8 hour one way trek. We had a great time with my parents going to Chicago on Saturday, which was beyond exhausting. We went to the Field Museum, then shopped the town, and finally, eating at Maggiano's Little Italy where we gorged ourselves beyond belief on the most amazing Italian food.

Here are a few highlights from the trip:

Pixel being a weirdo boy in the backseat

Dolly letting the wind blow threw her nappy, ungroomed hair

After our train ride into Chicago we were hungry and 

went to a great delicatessen called Eleven City Diner

Next, Field Museum where Michael posed with Sue

Me posing with my favorite animal

Spring was definitely in full swing here with the beautiful tulips every where

This is in Crate & Barrel. We are thinking of copying the taller version for the corner of our bedroom.

Me being me

Holy dessert Batman! This was one of 3 desserts that we ordered....after a ginormous, gut stuffing meal.

We went to the cutest kid's store called Kooky downtown and Michael saw this. Needless to say he wants me to replicate it in Nugget's room.

My boys taking a much needed break after a long weekend.

We were blessed to also have a family dinner with extended family on Sunday, which was so great. Then on Monday more shopping ensued (things are so much cheaper in the States, so we stocked up). Tuesday we headed out and met up with our amazing friends Meg and Brad for lunch - Thank you for taking time to see us!! Then over the border to Michael's parent's house where we had dinner. Another 3 1/2 hours later we were home. I slept in 'til 1pm the next day! Whoa, exhausted!

Thanks mom and dad for a great weekend!

Snow Time

We took the dogs for a walk since it was bright, sunny, and not super freezing cold, just regular cold. Having been in Texas for the past couple of years I'm surprised at how quickly they are taking to the snow.  We got bundled up and headed out for the trails. 

We have a ginormous provincial park just at the end of our street, which the dogs love since they can explore off-leash. Pixel gets crazy excited to go for a walk (once he's gotten past the fear of his coat - velcro is very scary) and terrorizes Dolly nearly the entire time. If it says anything YouTube's suggestion for tagging this video was "high rev engine". Haha!

Dolly is getting the hang of having fun in the snow too by what I call snowplowing:

That, however, results in the photo below. Poor girl. If Pixel attacks she doesn't have a chance. That's the sacrifice you make for fashion I guess! Ha!

Below is a glimpse of how much snow we have here. Keep in mind Michael is 6'4", so, yeah, there's a lot of snow.

Dolly and I in our fur lined hooded winter coats!