a peek inside the fishbowl

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a fundraising event for a new initiative called 40Back for The Royal. You can read more about that here.

The event took place in the Glebe-area home of Kellie Major and her husband Warren Newberry. Kellie is a fellow Carleton j-school survivor who, might I add, hasn’t changed a bit and looks as fabulous as she did so many years ago.

Anyway, yes, their home was the star of the show of the 40Back event. Simply put, it’s gorgeous, but I imagine it took a lot of heartache to get there. The old Major-Newberry home burned down on Halloween 2008. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it meant they had to rebuild from scratch.

Can you imagine losing everything? I imagine it would really force you to rethink the value of your stuff, wouldn’t it … whether it’s sentimental or dollar value. I can’t imagine.

I asked Kellie to send me some pics of the new place and she kindly obliged (these ones are hers), but I have to say that this is the exactly the type of home that deserves to be profiled in a magazine and professionally photographed.

The way Kellie and Warren designed their living space is truly inspiring.

There were a few standout features for me; an upstairs (second-floor!) family room nestled between bedrooms (Kellie and Warren have two kids) and the laundry room, and a glass garage-style window-door (it’s a window AND a door – how else can I describe it?) at the far end of the dining area which opens to a cute little patio.

And oh, the kitchen. It is the stuff that dreams are made of; partially seen here:

You get the picture I’m sure. It’s all very open. Which is why it’s probably a good thing that the kid stuff is contained to the bedrooms (which were cute too) and an area in the basement.

The entrance to the home is beyond those floaty stairs (LOVE). The place is longer than it is wide and has a wonderful way of unfolding as you move through it. Check out the gorgeous flooring:

As an added bonus, there are lots of places to sit or stretch out and dream (which I think is pretty important).

Pretty sweet, isn’t it?

Anyway, I discovered that Kellie has a blog she’s been keeping to document the rebuilding of her home. Check it out for more photos, and stories behind the photos. Great stuff.

Thanks Kellie and Warren for opening up your home!

I am dying to tell you about a new gig and a recent tour of an explosives testing facility, and a special media preview of the newly renovated (and very spiffy) Museum of Nature, and about a lovely Glebe-area home I got to poke around last week, and about the 2010 United Way Community Builder of the Year Awards Gala tomorrow night (I’ll be there too!) … but all of this will have to wait until I have More Time To Write.

Someone please tell me why everything tends to happen at once?

This past week our task was to:

Have fresh veggies and fruit in the fridge for ready-to-eat snacks.

I can’t believe how many veggies we consumed – especially me. I really didn’t see myself as the beneficiary of this particular tip. But wow … raw asparagus! Celery! Carrot sticks! Green beans. Oh my. We ran out of veggies. Note to self: I need to be better at replenishing the stockpile.

A helpful side benefit: the washed-raw-veggies-in-the fridge trick was ideal for preventing certain small humans from annoying us with that high-pitched ear-splittin’ head-hurtin’ call of: “MOOooooMMMMM I’m Huuuuuunnnngreeeeeee!”

Well dear, why not have some veggies?

Are you laughing? It works! Why not have an accessible veggie pile instead of a self-serve box of granola bars?

Anyway, this week’s tip is another one I made up, JUST BECAUSE:

Do 30 minutes of gardening every day.

Did you know that gardening is good for you? If you are busy in the garden you can probably stop renewing that gym membership you never use, because yard work involves muscles you never know you had. Gardening is almost entirely about lunging, twisting, stretching, lifting, yanking and squatting. Throw in some pushups and a walk around the block and it’s a workout and a half. YOU WILL FEEL THE BURN.

Speaking of which, you may be interested to know that a 150 lb person will burn about 270 calories doing general gardening. This is the equivalent of one Grande Starbucks (made with whole milk), or one Snickers bar, or 1.3 cans of Coke, or 0.4 Big Macs. (via this site).

The benefits for kids are numerous, and they go beyond just physical/calorie-burning. Kids can learn about plants (first teach them how to distinguish a weed from a plant!), bird-watch, and enjoy nature. They can help by raking, picking up stray sticks and rocks. Younger kids love to dig and look for bugs. I even saw our little kinder-aged neighbour mowing his lawn with a reel mower yesterday!

What say you? How about doing this challenge with us this week? And if you don’t have a garden of your own, how about helping a neighbour? Or coming over and helping me with ours? :)

Just kidding.

I am already looking forward to how great our garden is going to look next week. Woot!

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