Our custom kitchen is *this close* to being installed. We’re only a few days away from delivery, at which point installation will take a few days. The counters come after that. I cannot wait to see it all in place, so much time and thought has gone into planning this space.
Mark and I picked the colours this past week. We were sent to Randall’s (GREAT store by the way) to choose a white from the Pratt & Lambert palette. In the end we came home with a headache and this. Turns out that staring at 50 Shades of White is enough to make your eyeballs peel!
After a significant amount of backing and forthing and hmming and hawing we finally chose a white named “Swiss Coffee,” which, if you judged it by name alone you would assume is a creamy cup of chai, but it is actually white. Sort of. It’s a soft white with a tiny smidgeon of hazel-fawn-caramel. (SEE. HEAD. ACHE.) I saw a proper sample of it yesterday and am very happy with it.
Bob the kitchen guy also mocked up a sample of an espresso-ebony-chestnut for our island, which will have cabinetry that is the same profile as the rest of the kitchen (a modified shaker style I chose based on a reader’s comment on a past post). All of the counters – along the counters and on the island – will be a dark granite that has flecks of brown and streaks of snow-coloured crystal.
So here’s my current worry: the white kitchen cabinet style will also be used in the 2-piece bathroom off the mudroom AND the family bathroom upstairs where we’ll have a small double vanity. NOW we need to pick out a colour for the upstairs bathroom counter. Here’s what I’m looking at (Bob loaned us his Formica samples):
The white board in the photo above is the colour of our cabinetry, the white-that’s-not-really-white a.k.a. SWISS COFFEE.
Bob is casting a vote for something dark like the floors (they are grey). There are white subway tiles in the vicinity. The trim is white, the walls will be grey. I have wanted very light counters to balance all this grey, but now I am looking at this blue and I thinking … wow, that could be a really cool hit of colour.
What do you think? The grey-speckled white is cool too…
Remember waaaay back when I was writing about Operation Trim?
Well, I didn’t finish my list of nine things. A very hot summer in a very hot apartment sucked the energy right out of me. Let’s see.. where did we leave off?
- Post #1 was about water – Sigh. I started out really well but it never became a habit. The only time I can manage to remember to drink water is right after I brush my teeth in the morning and at meals. Hmm.
- Post #2 was about walking – This, I can do. And I AM. Woot! I go for at least one good brisk walk every day.
- Post #3 was about healthy treats – I still love treats with heat. And I enjoy my meals more if they’re spicy. I have been buying a lot of these.
- Post #4 was about meal planning – And you know what, I’m still terrible at it.
- Post #5 was when I went breadless, and it wasn’t long after that that I launched my Daily Lunches challenge (which is still going strong!). I would say that I’ve been moderately successful at eliminating bread from my daily diet. I eat very little processed bread (the stuff that you get at the grocery store in the bread aisle). I have had a bagel from the Ottawa Bagel Shop recently, as well as a baguette from Art-is-in and a freshly-baked buttery croissant from Sobeys. So basically, when I do eat bread, it has to be AMAZING bread. If not, I don’t eat any at all.
Anyway, all this to say that I’m doing well at some things but not others, but it must be working because I’m down a few pounds and my pants are fitting better. Yay!
I think I’ve figured out what works best for me. And here it is, four simple words:
Eat less. Move more. I will be writing more about this in my next post in this series, but now that I think about it I realize I need to add one more word: SLEEP.
Sleep eluded me this summer. It was often too hot to sleep in the apartment, and when I’m restless at night I turn into a zombie by day who feels kind of like this:
And when I’m tired I tend to snack. And snacking is (generally) bad. And when I’m tired I don’t want to go for those energy and mood-boosting walks. Being rested makes everything else – the food prep, the speed walking, the EFFORT – so much easier to bear.
So yes. SLEEP. It all begins with sleep, that’s why I am trying to get to bed a little earlier and get some quality ZZZs.
I would love to be the kind of person who doesn’t need a lot of sleep to get by, but this is not the case. What about you? Are you getting enough sleep?
Some of you may know I launched a special little newsletter around this time last year. It’s been on hiatus this summer but it’s going to be starting up again very soon. I called it The Extra Helping because it’s an extra serving of kind of thing you’d get here at the Fishbowl. BUT (and you know there had to be at least one BUT in there) here’s the rub… the Extra Helping is just about Westboro. It’s super geo-focused and extra special awesome, and it is not published here on the blog or anywhere else.
If you live, work, play, eat, or shop in Westboro and like to support local businesses I think you will find it worthwhile.
The Extra Helping is short and sweet and it goes out two or three times a month. In the past I’ve written about great shopping finds of all kinds, sparkly things, special events, edible things, and I also undertook some very CHALLENGING field research to find out who makes the best hot chocolate in Westboro. (Sorry, that information is available to subscribers only.) ;)
In the coming months I’m planning a few giveaways from local shops (but you have to be a subscriber to win!) and a few extra things leading up to the holidays.
Interested? I kindly suggest you sign up right now before you miss the next issue… because it’s going to be delicious.
You can sign up right here! And please pass it on. Thank you!
