Yellow

Sunshine-coloured kitchen and new grey tiles:

Even though the colour is darker and more intense than the previous one (ugly light salmon/peach colour) , it feels like the room is lighter on these dark November evenings.

I don't get excited about renovations. The floor was done in October. It took three days and the original baby blue/pastel pink octagonal-shaped tiles in the kitchen, main floor bathroom and entrance were changed to these simple, slick grey ones. A great decision! (thanks Simon).
As for the yellow walls, my idea (surprise, surprise!). Our kitchen/dining room is cheerful and warm. The colour was literally "Sunshine" by Benjamin Moore.

Our New Addition to the Family

There's a story. There's always a story.
This was my aunt's and uncle's piano. My grandmother offered a piano to both of her children decades ago. I think it was when they bought their houses... or when they got married?...
Anyways...
This piano, apparently, was a used piano from the NAC orchestra (probably a rehearsal piano). It dates back to the 1910's and was made in Ottawa.
My aunt is doing major house renovations and has decided not to keep the piano in her new living area decor. I'm now the new owner! It works well even without tuning. But not to worry, I have a tuner coming over in two weeks to do the job. I love the feel of the keys. I've been playing on a digital piano these last 8 years or so and I really notice a difference. I can really dig into my Romantic-era pieces.

By placing it in Margot's main floor area, I'm hoping I will play more. It's not tucked away in a corner and therefore is very accessible (a few scales here and there while waiting for the water to boil). And yes, I am planning in getting back into piano playing and taking lessons to keep me on track.

Freshness and Zoo

FRESHNESS:

Sometimes re-arranging furniture is the remedy for a stale room. This afternoon, we moved our living room around. Fresh!

Also, the weather is getting fresh these days.

THE ZOO:

We visited the Toronto Zoo last Sunday. We took tons of pictures. Here are just a selected few:

A butterfly in the Indo-Malaysian Pavillon.

Margot really wanted to see the elephants. But once we got to them, she wasn't too impressed...

Exotic fish.

Giraffes were also on Margot's Wish List...

The White Lions were beautiful. Margot actually liked them.

Flowers in the Garden

Here are a few blossoms from our garden. Some of them greet us every year, while others add a burst of colour for a few months.

Late May is a fun time to be in the garden!

Happy March

It's my March break and I'm suppose to be marking essays right now. I have about 60 compositions to correct. I started at 10 am this morning and I have done three so far (it's 10:30 am)
Needless to say, I'd rather do something else: enjoying this sunny morning, knitting , reading Out of Africa, organizing my yoga dvds.
I did my yoga practice this morning, which was lovely! Yoga Today rocks! If I don't do my yoga practice early in the morning, I lose all interest. Before a shower, a cuppa tea and checking my emails, I need to do yoga. If I don't, the day just unwinds and before I know it it's the afternoon and other things take priority.

A new month. I can't believe we're in March already! It just kindda crept up.

Random things (because I love randomness):

Margot loves looking at videos of herself on the computer. This is how we survive the "witching hour":

"It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world," - Oscar Wilde

When you need to refresh a room, sometimes just moving the furniture around does the job. This is what we did to our bedroom and now it's so inviting: there's a little reading nook, the bare wall isn't so overbearing and there's a little trinket bookcase that use to be our console table.

But now our entrance looks like this. It's a bit empty, but that's alright as Margot excels in reorganizing the baskets full of tuques, mitts, sweaters.