Come What MAY

May is always a busy month in my life.  At least it has been since meeting Tom.  With my mom-in-law's birthday on cinco de mayo, followed by two sister-in-law birthdays, Mother’s day, my brother’s  birthday, and then a brother-in-law birthday, we typically have a busy May.  Add in a long weekend trip and marathon in Austria, selling our house, finding a new place to live, and moving.  May 2013 feels like just about the busiest month I’ve ever experienced.  Did I mention that I’m coaching the junior girls’ soccer team at school?  We finished second overall and have our first playoff game next week.  Wish us luck!

I can’t use the words “busy” or “tired” with any of my young mom friends, since their response would surely be:  “Just wait until you have kids; then you’ll know what busy is!”  Thank you in advance for your kind and supportive words.  My blog readers are always good to me!  I’m sorry I haven’t been as good as I should be to you this month… especially moms.  We missed Joan’s birthday because we were in Austria, and missed my mom on Mother’s Day because we were house shopping.  I did still squeeze in a belated piece of birthday jewelry for Joan.

I had a hard time deciding what to make for Joan for her birthday.  Every day Joan wears a gold chain with a cross, and gold hoop earrings.  I didn’t feel like making a necklace or earrings really made sense, so I decided on the piece of jewelry she doesn’t have set: a bracelet.  It only made sense to make the bracelet in gold to match the other pieces.  To keep it neutral, I added both black and brown beads.  That’s my trick for being able to wear jewelry with any outfit.  We gave the bracelet to Joan along with a Salzburg (city in Austria we visited) beer stein and some Austrian dark chocolate.  I hope you liked your birthday gift Joan!

Life hasn't quieted down yet, although the stress has.  We signed a lease for our 2-bedroom apartment in Westboro on Thursday.  We will be moving next weekend (May 25-26), but the house doesn't close until June 3rd, so we can take it slowly.  Moving from a 3 bed, 2.5 bath home to a 2-bed, 1 bath apartment will be yet another adventure in my amazing married life.  

Our new living room

A lot of people think we're crazy, but we're super excited about living in Westboro, a green area in Ottawa from which we can walk to parks, bike paths, outdoor produce markets, cafés, restaurants, and MEC.  Not to mention the 40 minutes closer we will be to our friends and family.  The smaller space will be an adjustment for sure, but it's one we've been talking about since visiting Africa and Southeast Asia and seeing how happy people can be with so much less stuff.  Maybe we'll love it... Maybe we won't.  The commitment is only for one year, and we're excited to see what will come of it.

In Case You Were Curious

I won't even make excuses (at least not long ones) for getting this photo up so late.  Yes I'm still planning to run another marathon next weekend in Austria.  No we haven't sold the house yet.  Enough said.

Two weeks late, here is the picture of my mom's birthday necklace:

There's already another birthday coming: mom-in-law!  Any requests Joan??

My Mother of Necessity

Did anyone notice that I haven't blogged in a while?  I'd like to think that you've been missing it... and it's my blog and I'll think what I want to.  I really can't believe that it's been nearly a month since my last blog post.  This living in a staged house stuff really keeps you busy, and keeps bags of small and potentially messy beads out of sight. Can you imagine I missed sweeping up a tiny bead on that "sparkling hardwood" as our agent calls it?!?!  Ok, so it wouldn't be a big deal for me either, but I'm not the buyer.

I couldn't  let this week pass without a blog post though.  Tomorrow is the one of my biggest fans' birthdays, and I believe I said that I would make jewelry for all my readers' birthdays. Happy birthday mom! 

Since I won't be giving my mom her birthday jewelry until tomorrow, I can't share a completed photo with you yet (and yes, it is done!), but I can share a couple of teasers.  First off, it's a necklace.  My mom loves to wear necklaces that a couple of years ago my niece Victoria, who was probably about 3 years old at the time, commented one day when her Gramma wasn't wearing a necklace. 

I'll also share the beads with you.  My mom has a bit of a thing for flat beads.  I've gone bead shopping with her more times than I should have been spending money on beads, and I can always predict that when I hear "Kate, aren't these beautiful?" that the beads I am about to see will be flat, likely rectangular in shape, and if she's lucky, irridescent.  She doesn't seem to be as drawn to the typical spherical shape.  She also seems to love iridescence (changing colour based on light and observer position).  With no shopping required (can you believe I haven't bought any new beads since starting this blog?!), I found two different types of flat beads, one that is even iridescent!


I should be giving the necklace to my mom within 8 hours of writing this blog, but in case she reads it first (I did mention that she's my biggest fan), I won't share any more.  Everyone likes a bit of surprise I think, and in case freezing rain the day before her birthday in April wasn't surprising enough, I'll let her wonder at least a little about this necklace.  I hope the necklace is more welcome than the winter weather.

The World is a Stage

Yes.  That is a photo of a nursery in my home.

No.  I am not expecting.

Staging has taken over my March Break.  The paperwork is signed, and Tom and I will have our house up on the market next week.  The home staging is well underway.  In case you are not totally familiar with what home staging is, here is Wikipedia's explanation:  


Home staging is the act of preparing a private residence for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money. Staging techniques focus on improving a property's appeal by transforming it into a welcoming, attractive product that anyone might want.

While we loved our house just as it was, we decided to brighten and declutter to attract more buyers.  That meant painting (thanks Joan and Sheri), moving lots of stuff to friends' basements, and cleaning more than I've ever cleaned before.  As it turns out, I'm kind of dirty (no comments please!),  How often does everyone else clean their baseboards and their walls??


I can honestly say that I think the house is looking great.  I sort of wish that this was how I always kept my house.  It's ultra clean and stylish.  I'd like to think that we'll keep the next one this tidy, but I have my doubts.  Maybe I'll pick up a few good habits.

I think that wearing jewelry is like "person staging".  You use pieces of jewelry to make yourself look more professional, or fun, or sexy.  At least that's what I hope my jewelry does.  I have a fancy event coming up in a couple of weeks that I definitely need to stage myself for.  Tom is being inducted into a smart person club (seriously!) because of how well he did in his MBA, and I have to go to have the pleasure of joining him for this formal event.  It's time to break out my inner trophy wife! 

I plan to wear a black cocktail dress to the event, since that's something you can never go wrong with.  I figure I need some fancy-looking jewelry to go with my cheap dress though, to look fancy.  Of course I'm not actually going to spend money on something fancy.  If anyone asks, I'll just say that my jewelry was handmade by a local artisan.  Trophy wife and local artisan?  And blogger extraordinaire?  I'm staged as can be!  Did I forget to mention modest?

I've been noticing a lot of hanging chain on earrings lately.  All the shiny and dangling chain feels fun and a little glamorous to me.  In trying to decide what kind of silver chain to use to make this type of earrings, I discovered that I have seven different types of silver chain in my beading materials.  I wouldn't have thought that there would be seven variations on silver chain.  I'll bet Michael's has 70!  There are countless variations in colour, link size, and link shape.

I decided to use all seven of my silver chains for the earrings.  Why not?  I added small coloured beads randomly along the chains to add a little playfulness (aka Katie) to the earrings.  I love being able to make jewelry just how I want it.  If only choosing accents for the house were as cheap and easy!