Hi! I’m Jessica, and I live in Toronto, Canada with my husband and 2 kids whom I homeschool.  We have been living outside of the US for going on 9 years now with one unexpectedly long stateside thrown in there.  We’ve just hit our 1 year anniversary in this amazing city that we never imagined would be in our future. We’ve spent most of our expat experiences in the Middle East which I believe you’ll notice have influenced my home décor.  I typically only use things that have meaning to us or are from our travels in decorating our home which means our home doesn’t have a distinct style but is just us and our story. We live in a bungalow on the west side of Toronto.  We prayed and prayed for a yard and a homeschool space in our next home, and the Lord really blessed us in this.  Almost all homes here have basements which are often rented out as a separate apartment. Our house is such a house. We rent the main floor while there’s a couple with a newborn down below. They do have a private entrance which keeps our spaces separate.    Connect with me:     Instagram

This is our living room. Some brighter colors than is typical in locals’ homes.  This room has most of our trinkets from all our travels. The wall behind me in this picture is all windows which I love!

This little cluster of items is reminders of places we’ve been and love. The camel is probably my favorite of anything I have from the 6 years we spent in Egypt.  The alabaster bowl and candle holder are also Egyptian. The frame holds a postcard from Oregon where my husband and I met. 

Our dining room table, Amish custom built, was our splurge purchase for this move. Something we’ll be holding onto no matter what moves may lay in our future.

This is by far the largest kitchen I’ve had outside the US which is such a blessing as we love to cook, bake, and host meals.  Our kitchens in the Middle East were usually small, enclosed rooms with little light and air flow.  

In the front entryway, there’s a cute, little bench for putting on shoes. Shoe trays for catching snow and water are a must in this cold climate! In the hallway, I have a small bookshelf for kids’ books.  The picture above is a quote from one of our family’s favorite book series, The Wingfeather Saga. The quilt rack holds handmade quilts that are special to us. These also “kind of” hide the interior basement door that we don’t use. 

A word that describes our home is snug.  All the rooms are little smaller than I’d like but it has not been too hard to adjust to given that we have such a great opportunity to be outdoors.

This is my daughter’s room.  No ceiling fan due to the loft bed, so it’s a standing fan on top of her dresser for her.

My son’s room is pretty simple.  It doubles as our guest room when needed, and he gets pushed to sister’s futon.

For more than 10 years we had the same bedspread, so this spring I decided to change it up. I wanted to our room to be lighter and softer than what we had in the past so I decided to use this white quilt that my grandmother made for our wedding.  I’m still working out the right pillow sham combination!

Just another view of our “snug” bedroom. My husband works from home so that’s his desk.  We both use the chair for a quiet reading space.

This is our schoolroom and a life-saver for living in our “snug” house.  It’s such a blessing to be able to separate school space from living space.  It also gave us a place to contain my son’s ridiculous amount of LEGOs. This room is actually detached from the main house and located off of the garage. 

Again what a blessing to have an outdoor space to enjoy right outside your home!  We rarely found clean and useable green space in the Middle East. We love spending time out here around the fire at night. 

One simple click and this is on Pinterest!  Thanks.