creating change

What a week!

I hope you'll forgive my blog absence this past week when I simply say that, not only am I pregnant, but we are selling our house, moving to a new province, and starting new lives (and continuing old ones) in the hopefully wonderful city of London, Ontario. When the opportunity came up for my OTL to take up a dream job at a well-respected university there was only one answer. Yes! We are sad to leave Brandon and all the friends we have made here but we are both looking forward to experiencing another part of Canada and continuing the adventure that has been our lives for the last few years.

Last week was dedicated to Preparing the House. Sounds ominous, doesn't it. Well it was. It consisted of almost completely renovating our main bathroom (our first painting job was a roaring success I'm proud to say), taming our emerging spring garden (we've only been here for 9 months so I'm hoping all I pulled out was weeds), and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. It came as a bit of a shock to the system that the house we normally live in - generally tidy and clean, always able to be pulled into shape for guests when needed - was, in fact, when seen through the critical eye of the homeowner wishing to sell quickly and for an astronomical profit (cough), quickly morphed into A Nightmare of Epically Messy and Filthy Proportions. Of course, it wasn't that bad but those piles that gather cheerfully around to make a house looked lived in somehow suddenly looked like slovenly beasts had been roaming from room to room randomly throwing things onto any flat surface.

None of this was helped by the fact that we needed to do it all Now! and By 2pm Friday! or else we'd miss the window of opportunity that is the busy spring real estate season. And so we toiled and toiled, and I worried and worried about stressing the Little One Inside, but we've all come through fine it seems (with the aid of a weekend of mid-afternoon naps, slow walks and a gentle pace). We now live in a house we barely recognise and have been afraid to touch in case we Mess It Up. A few people came through on the weekend and an offer was made on Saturday night (which we rejected because they wanted Everything for Nothing), so we're hoping that bodes well, nevertheless, for an easy sale in time for our move in late June/early July.

Phew. I feel like a nap just thinking about the week that was.

Amidst all the chaos, though, there were still pockets of creativity that kept a woman sustained. I noticed that, in pulling out all the stops to make the place look Fabulous, little creative installations were emerging all over the place. Today's pictures are a little sample of some of the aesthetically pleasing, and artistically arranged, gatherings that began to emerge all over the house to transform it from Our Place into a Show Case!

Thanks for your patience folks. Things may be a little intermittent around here for a while but I'll always come back. Promise.

PS: The last photo is just a gratuitous dog shot. However, I think you'd agree he is very artistically arranged.