de facto redhead

This picture looks wildly out of place in light of the fact that spring is just around the corner, but there is a reason I chose it and, wait for it, it’s…LEGENDARY. OK, maybe not Barney Stinson legendary (who could ever live up that?!), but it IS news of a certain calibre. Darcy and I have moved – again – and this time we have trekked our way north, to North Bay. When I announced this at the store over a month ago, the reactions were of disappointment and some general joking that my life would pretty much be a mirror image of what’s happening in the comic above. Snow! Polar bears! Ice floes! DEATH. I, however, have decided not to die, and in a concerted effort to avoid husky Arctic men with kidnapping on the brain, am planning on embracing my new life in “the Gateway to the North.”

Now, why did we move? Well, you will notice that I started taking tripod-assisted pictures of myself this past summer, and this was because I lost my personal photographer when Darcy started a new job in our hometown of Espanola. Cue a tiring weekend commute for the next nine months and the end of our photography sessions together. It was quickly becoming pretty clear to us that moving away from Burlington was the best choice for what we wanted out of our lives, and since Darcy’s job allows for a certain flexibility between a few northern Ontario cities, we chose North Bay as the most exciting option. Neither of us have lived here before, and we are ready to settle in to our new home! (It has not escaped me that my last post was about our apartment in Burlington – a few people have asked me about my timing, and, well, my house happened to be clean before we started packing, and I hadn’t posted about the Burlington home yet, so why not then? Anyway, now you can look forward to new pictures that will be posted, oh, approximately a year from now.)

What about you, dear readers? Is anyone else on the move? Thinking about it? I can give you the name of a great company in Toronto that puts together moving-box bundles for a very decent price, and I can also regale you with campfire tales of moving about once a year for the past 11 years. The laughs! The horrors! The tears! But, oh, the memories…!

Have you ever wondered what the rest of my house looks like, beyond the one hallway I stand in to take my outfit pictures? I know I am always completely absorbed in finding out how other people have decorated their homes, and when my favourite bloggers post pics of themselves in different parts of their houses, I study each picture more closely than I should admit. It’s nosy, voyeuristic, and…fascinating! Here is a glimpse inside the place Darcy and I call home:

Welcome!

A lot of time is spent on this couch. Lots o’ TV watchin’ to do!

A wider view. It used to be mustard yellow in here – I opted for something slightly more neutral.

Can you spot Darcy’s bag of squirrel feed?

The array on these shelves just keeps growing.

One of our very few pet peeves: our only bathroom is downstairs and our bedroom is upstairs. (This bathroom was forest green when we moved in. No, no, no.)

Doesn’t everyone have at least one random box kicking around their home? I know I always do.

I love it in here! (I also painted this space – it was forest green as well!)

Part of my vintage cookbook collection.

Retro wooden canisters and Pyrex!

More Pyrex on display. This does not get old to me.

Time to go upstairs!

And we’re there.

I present, as Darcy calls it, the “staging area.” (The walls up here used to be covered in green and pink floral wallpaper….)

A closer look.

The office nook.

This picture was an $18 Home Sense score. Go clearance!

THE END!

I said (a long time ago) that I was going to post pictures of my apartment, so can you please forgive me the fact that my promise is being made good on over six months later? I have things straightened up because I cleaned last weekend, and my parents are coming to visit on Sunday/Monday, so without further ado, please the enter house tour here:

The living room! All decor and furniture is from IKEA except the throw pillows (Home Outfitters) and the TV (Best Buy).

The bookshelves, the precious bookshelves.

A portion of my bookshelf allotment. The wooden calendar was my maternal great-grandmother’s, and I faithfully change it every day. Flipping the date is one of the first things I do each morning.

Another view of the living room, and the kitchen.

The kitchen. (The chairs are from IKEA, but that’s it!)

My ladies. (And behind that door is the washer and dryer. Yahoo!!)

Another vantage point, and my other lady. I’m working on my Pyrex bowl collection – as you can see, I don’t quite have enough yet to fill the tops of the cupboards. I keep all my baking supplies in the wooden bread box, and I reach up there by standing on the fold-up step-stool you can see to the left of the fridge in the picture of “my ladies.”

I have always liked a full-magneted fridge, and I don’t think this affinity is going to change any time soon.

On the way into the Man Den…(The reflective rectangles at the top of the room are two of three licence plates we have up there – Ontario, PEI, and Alberta.)

Darcy and I spend a lot of time in here. In fact, I’m writing up this post from the couch corner you can see in this picture!

The pictures on this wall are a mish-mash of things both Darcy and I like, and most of them mean something personal to us.

The view on the way out of the Man Den.

The recently painted bathroom. I still have work to do in here, but it’s coming together slowly…

The bedroom – also known as the most incomplete room in the apartment. I don’t have anything on the walls yet, and the only other items to show are my wardrobe (which you can see here), two bedside tables, and a clothes hamper, so the colour scheme is just going to have to do! (Bed frame and bedding from IKEA.)