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Around Here: Our New Favourite Book

Apr 13

*This post contains sponsored links- as always, I’d never write about a product I didn’t 100% love (full disclosure)*
Life Lately- Our new favourite book

2015 Has been flying by, friends. I can’t believe that I’ve let time get so away from me- I haven’t given you all a life update/behind the scenes here since my Year in Pictures post for 2014 (whaaaat!?). So today I’m sharing some of the happenings around here, but mostly sharing these sweet photos of my babes with their new favourite book. I posted a photo of the book open to my sister for National Siblings Day on Instagram and had lots of texts asking all about it, so- Let’s talk about this sweet book really quickly, then get on with our update, shall we? Mostly because I can’t wait- isn’t it adorable?

Last year I spotted this post from my friends at Pretty Providence to make a DIY children’s picture book. I loved the idea and bought a mini photo album right away. Then it sat there (like too many things) and I never printed photos for it. THEN I spotted this! Pinhole Press has tons of adorable photo gifts (which you know are my favourite type of gift) and this Mini Storybook of Names and Faces was calling my name. I love that I just had to drop in the photos, and type in the names- that’s it. The hardest part was deciding who to put in the book because we have ginormous families (no joke). I also love that it’s a board book- my kids don’t do paper yet and with how much they’ve been carrying this guy around it’s holding up incredibly well.

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

We’ve been having more babysitters than normal lately (you’ll hear why…) but every baby sitter has to sit through them flipping the pages and naming every person in the book. Over and over. I can’t complain, I’m so glad they know and love their cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. They even give kisses to the pictures sometimes and it makes my Mama heart melt. Other than the puppy puppets in our home- it’s now the most fought over item, and that’s a win right? I can’t even handle this next photo, it makes me laugh so hard! This is a regular scene in our home right now.

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Anyways, a little about what we’ve been up to. Emmitt and Aubrey have been fighting colds and fevers and even though I registered them into daycare for one day a week so I could get some work done during the week, it’s been a month since they’ve been able to attend! I have to say, I’m really missing my alone time! They’ve both always been quite stubborn (but in different ways) and lately that’s been kicked up a notch. Miss A has been exercising her defiant streak and Mr E seems to think he can cry until he gets what he wants. We’re working on it- I’m thankful for the nicer weather so we can get outside and let them run free.

With their new behaviour has come some wonderful things too though- we’re loving how their personalities are becoming so apparent, they may be twins but they’re certainly nothing alike! If you follow along on Instagram, I’ve been posting lots of photos of their newest love- holding hands! They want to do it everywhere, I can’t get enough! They’re also getting so clever, Aubrey has more words than I can count and even though Emmitt doesn’t say as many words, he jabbers like crazy and understands almost everything we say. 

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

We’ve slowly been picking away at home renovations- we finished our bathroom (phase one anyways!) and have been working on the basement. We’re turning our half of the basement into a laundry room, play room, and TV area. I tiled our entry way, Shane re-strung the stairs, and we’ve finished the framing, electrical, and insulation on the basement. Now for drywall! Some days it feels like it will never get done, but we’ve been trying to get a babysitter every weekend (if only for a few hours) so we can get some solid work time in. We’re also slowly making our upstairs more livable. We are working on putting photos up in our hallway (I have papers the size of our frames taped to the walls right now) and trying to get an organization system in place (the amount of clothes I’m getting rid of is insane!). We also were gifted a new mattress (score!!) and treated ourselves to some Nate Berkus sheets before Target Canada officially left us (the saddest thing ever!!) You can see a sneak of our bedroom in these photos.

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

We did take a bit of time ‘off’ and headed to Vancouver for a family birthday and visited our good friends (Ashton from Bespoke Decor). I even managed to check out the PoppyTalk store before it closed! We also took the week of Easter to relax with out of town family, I hit the Wildlife Park and enjoyed an impromptu baby shower for one of my sister-in-laws. Speaking of Easter- E & A are SO good at finding those eggs! We couldn’t believe that we didn’t need to explain it to them. They saw their cousins grabbing eggs and they were off. Emmitt found them so quickly, I was a proud Mama. Aubrey had a bit of a love affair with chocolate… like she attacked it and tried to steal everyone else’s. It was cute in a monster-like sort of way. We realized after the dress was covered in chocolate that we had forgotten to get a family photo. C’est la vie!

That same week I decided to purchase a ticket to my first ever blogging conference, SNAP! And I couldn’t be more thrilled, but it’s sent me into a flurry of preparation. It’s next week, y’all! Business cards, booking flights and hotel, preparing posts, contacting some of my favourite bloggers that I’d love to meet in person… it’s a lot to cram into a couple weeks! Not to mention some of the other business-y things I’ve been up to. If you have any tips on conference going, I’m all ears… and if you’ll be there? Drop me a line!

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

I have to thank you guys like crazy, just over a week ago I launched my first e-product, ‘Never Run Out of Ideas Again’, a mini e-course, and you have made me over the moon happy with your love and support! I am also working on creating a bunch of hand lettered designs for *exciting, exciting* my new Etsy store which I hope to open next week! I can’t just do one thing at a time, it turns out! If you have any requests for hand lettered prints… you know where to find me ;).

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

Life Lately- Our new favourite book

That’s probably enough about me for now, although I don’t think there could ever be enough photos of these two. I’d love to hear what you all have been up to! Have you been enjoying a slower paced 2015, or have you been running off your feet and looking forward to some downtime? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email! Also… if you get one of these mini books for your little ones, tag me on social media to show me! I’d love to see :)

Category: LifestyleTag: Around Here, Babies, Gifts, Kids, Photography, Sponsored
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Heidi

    Apr 13 at 7:24 pm

    The book and your kids are absolutely adorable! I’ll have to check out pinhole press. I love making books for my kids, but I’ve never seen that style.

    Reply
    • Colleen Pastoor

      Apr 14 at 12:41 am

      Aren’t they cute! I’ve been eying Pinhole Press for a while- I love their photo memory as well. What kind of books do you create for your kiddos?

      Reply
      • Heidi

        Apr 14 at 10:36 pm

        I like to make digital scrapbooks and print them into bound books, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had time!

        Reply
        • Colleen Pastoor

          Apr 15 at 8:00 am

          I saw a post on ABM about that and I’ve been telling myself that I want to do one per year… it hasn’t happened yet!

          Reply
  2. Heather Meads

    Apr 13 at 7:42 pm

    Aw, those two are waaayyy too cute!

    Reply
    • Colleen Pastoor

      Apr 14 at 12:41 am

      Thanks so much Heather! I think they’re pretty darn cute myself ;)

      Reply
  3. Rachel

    Apr 14 at 11:08 pm

    I’ve only recently started following your blog (love your crafts, by the way) so I’ve only just realised that you have twins that are about the same age as mine! I have one boy and one girl too, they’re going to turn 18 months tomorrow. It’s a fun age, isn’t it?! I love that board photo book. I’ve been planning to do a low budget equivalent for my twins – I bought a little photo album a while ago, I just need to get photos printed to slot in. We live a long way from most of our friends and family so I’m hoping it will be useful to remind the twins who everyone is!

    Reply
    • Colleen Pastoor

      Apr 15 at 8:02 am

      Aw, Thanks so much Rachel!Hooray for fellow twin moms! It is such a fun age, it’s just been the last few weeks that this new phase of attitude has kicked up a notch… hopefully you get a bit longer before that ;)

      Our family that lives out of town has done that for their kiddos- they always know our names and it’s so special!

      Reply

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I’m Colleen: wife; mom to 4 wild ones; and DIY blogger behind Lemon Thistle. You can expect to see rad DIY, modern home decor, renovations, hand lettering and the occasional party on Lemon Thistle. Read More…

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colleen pastoor/lemon thistle
These pillows make the perfect forts and that mean These pillows make the perfect forts and that means they never stay on the couches. But when it’s clean for that 10 minutes it’s so nice 😂
Ps. Scrolling back for a photo of my living room and found about 347 of the second slide. Maybe that’s why I’m out of cloud storage 😅
Spot the DIYs in these photos! I rounded up 10+ aw Spot the DIYs in these photos!
I rounded up 10+ awesome DIY home decor projects in partnership with @officialCricut #ad over on the blog yesterday, there's some really fun ones from my friends too!
#CricutMade #Cricut
Which do you like best? Even though it didn’t wi Which do you like best?
Even though it didn’t win the vote, I still decided to make this free printable a set instead of just the one!
You can find them plus so many other gorgeous spring printables from some friends of mine over on the blog today!
I’ve been doing some polls in my stories (thank I’ve been doing some polls in my stories (thank you for your responses!) and one that totally surprised me? 
Almost half of you don’t know I blog! That’s my job, guys 😂 IG is just a fun little part of that! So tell me... is this new information to you or are you team ‘knew that!’? 

Also... Should I do a blogging Q&A? 🤷🏼‍♀️
Happy Valentine’s Day, friends 🥰 Happy Valentine’s Day, friends 🥰
Anyone else feeling the balance between work and f Anyone else feeling the balance between work and family and rest and keeping your house liveable has all just toppled this year? I keep seeing articles about pandemic fatigue and long term stress and burnout and while it’s totally relatable, I really just want tips on how to actually deal with that. I thought I’d share some things that are helping me if you’re in the same boat... and I’d love if you shared your tips in the comments! We could all use them 🥰
-I’ve been going for a walk every day by myself. Even when it’s freaking cold like today, I just bundle. It’s the only time I get truly to myself with no kiddo asking for something and that I don’t have to try squeeze in an email or something else.
-I’ve been putting the instant pot to work and leaning on cheater meals (local soup mixes are amazing), Costco dinners... whatever
- I’m prioritizing friendships with phone calls, zoom games nights and group chats about the bachelor (with matching snacks!)
- I’ve given myself a schedule that has downtime to play with the kids and to read... even when there’s things I feel like I ‘should be’ doing
- I’ve realized exactly how much time I’ve been spending on my phone and that it’s become my response to stress. Have you ever looked up your screen time analytics? 🥴 look at how many times you pick it up in your day. I’m setting app limits for myself and trying to break this habit, but I’d really love tips!
Can you believe that address sign is a DIY?! I'm s Can you believe that address sign is a DIY?! I'm sharing the whole tutorial in partnership with @OfficialCricut today over on my blog! I'd originally made it as a place holder for a metal one but after having it up for 4 months... we totally love it long term! What do you think? Would you try it? #cricut #cricutmade #ad
What are your Sunday plans? Mine are to sit right What are your Sunday plans? Mine are to sit right here for the first half of the day drinking coffee, then the second half of the day it’s to clean this house so it looks like my Instagram feed again 😂
Who has DIY projects on their mind this year?! 

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@ryobi_canada and I want to help you start knocking those projects off your list by giving away a new nailer and battery set! #ad 
This tool is what we used for this accent wall and all the trim in our home. It’s the one I used to trim out my built in shelving and add the decorative moulding to my geometric barn door. What I’m saying is this thing is a workhorse and I want you to have one too 😉
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