You know you’ve officially hit peak adulthood when you find yourself passionate enough about kick-ass cleaning supplies, that you feel compelled to write a blog post solely on the topic.

But I guess if you’re here reading this, it can’t be that odd to get a little jazzed up about easy and chemical-free ways to get a little shine in your house.

This week, we’re chatting about easing the transition with bringing baby home, trying to get time in with your fur-baby when human-baby is taking over all the time & dealing with your (sometimes) change-of-heart when it comes to raising babies with fur-babies.

Now that we’ve covered off a couple preliminary topics (introductions, birth stories, surviving infancy), we are starting to add some #realtalk to the momcast. This week we are discussing expectations vs. reality as we each transitioned into our new roles in parenthood, whether that’s from one child to two or from no children at all.

Ever since I posted a time lapse of me making baby food, I have been getting a couple questions about my process.

Choosing to make my own baby food has been one of the easier decisions in motherhood. It’s cost-efficient, doesn’t include preservatives, and makes me feel like I am doing something important for my daughter.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by all 5 of us again as we make yet another list. This time, we’re discussing the things we couldn’t live without during the first three months as new moms. If you’re a new mom, expecting or have a ton of baby shower invites on your fridge, this is one you don’t want to miss.

In our second episode of Mugs & Jugs, we share the stories that made us mothers. Yes, it’s a birth story podcast. So Dad, thanks for the support, but you can sit this one out.

I’ll be honest, I have been meal planning for a while now because it’s what works best for our family (and our budget). But what I haven’t done before 2017 is actually stick to the weekly plan all the time. Most days, we would have something planned, but come time to make dinner, Will and I would look at each other and pray that the other one would offer to make dinner. If no one took it on, some days we would just end up with mac & cheese.

Last year, I went a little crazy at the dollar store and bought some cheap wreaths that I just didn’t love enough to put up again this year. They looked cheap and I wanted something a little more special for Harlow’s first Christmas (i.e. something that would look great in photos).

Being new parents, we understand that babies get a lot of great stuff from friends and family, and don’t necessarily need a ton for Christmas. So when we decided to do a Secret Santa gift exchange for the babies in our baby group (comprised of five other couples that we met through prenatal yoga), we knew we wanted to make something more ‘out of the box’ for whomever we drew.

Like any new mom, I am in awe each and every day watching this beautiful little girl grow and change. It’s so exciting to see her learning new things, responding to us with smiles, and becoming more aware of the world around her.

I appreciate birth stories aren’t for everyone, and I didn’t originally plan on sharing mine with you here, but as I started writing one for my scrapbook, I thought it would be fun to post and share for those interested. It’s a long story, but a good one since it ends with the birth of our beautiful little girl.

Getting ready for mat leave was (and still is) a weird concept for me. For someone who has worked non-stop since turning 14, sometimes even three or four jobs at a time, the idea of taking a year off seems like a bizarre concept. What the heck am I going to do with all this time?

Since starting the nursery renovation process at 18 weeks, Will and I have been busy getting things ready for baby Fournier’s arrival. We have been refinishing furniture, sewing all the things, painting mustard accents, gold foiling printables for our frames, along with many other countless DIY projects.

Call it nesting or just call it a phase, but I have been on a sewing rampage lately. If you follow me on Pinterest, you might have noticed my increase in sewing-related pins for both home decor and to plan for the baby.

Since the moment we found out we were pregnant, I knew I wanted to do a gender reveal party to discover the sex of our little Baby Fournier surrounded by family and friends. What could be better than hosting a party, cutting into a cake and discovering what our little bundle of joy is going to be when we meet it in September?!

Three cheers for the new year! 2015 was a year of big changes, lots of courage and huge lifestyle adjustments. As you probably know, one of the biggest things for us this year was making the big move to the Fournier Farmhouse. (Read more about why I traded in my 10 minute bike ride for a 2.5 hour commute here.)

If you’re like me, you might hoard creative ideas on your Pinterest board, but not actually get around to making anything or expressing your creativity on a regular basis.

If so, here are some intentional ways to be more creative this year:

This weekend, we decided to take our cameras along to document our hike. I started a competition with Will to see who could take the best photo. He clearly won, but I am still happy with some of my shots. When you’re married to a photographer, sometimes you need to start a little friendly competition to get him to take photos when he’s home!

Since moving up to the country, we’ve been busy getting settled into our new home and routine.

To start off – since I am sure you’re wondering – the commute has been going well! It also helps that the winter has been super mild, making the drive to the GO bus and train station easy and enjoyable. We’ve settled into a nice schedule and things couldn’t be better!

Last year, I posted a gift guide for the crafter on your Christmas list. This year, I am switching things up and posting a round-up of all the awesome gift guides from around the web for last-minute gifts for all the loved ones on your list.

Here are the best of the best when it comes to gift ideas for the holidays:

Sometimes starting a Project Life album is the easiest part; it’s the maintaining and keeping up with it that can be the most challenging. In this post, I will share the tricks I use to make maintaining and keeping up with my Project Life album easy.

This past month and a half just flew by, along with a lot of my books! Still no library card, although I will try my best to get there this weekend if possible!

Since posting my experience at Crop and Create and my intentions to use Project Life to document our first year of marriage, I have received a number of questions from friends and readers on what Project Life is and how to start. I’ve created this mini series to help those interested in Project Life learn more and perhaps start a book of their own.

With each passing year, I am finding myself reaching new milestones that I would have never guessed I would be experiencing at this point in my life. When I was in Europe in 2012 after graduating from University, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that in 3 short years, I would be married and living in Toronto with my husband and a great dane, living my dream life with my dream job.

I have recently embraced the succulent life and am pleased to report I am actually keeping these little plants alive. As someone who can kill even mint (which is apparently very hard to do for everyone except myself), I am very proud of my little plant babies.

I had forgotten how awesome library cards are.

Being back at the Florida condo, it’s just part of the routine to visit the local library on a regular basis during our stays. It shocked me to realize that back home, I don’t even have a Toronto library card, and I’ve been living there for 3 years!

Preserving memories is something everyone does, whether it’s by posting and sharing on social media, storytelling, or in a more obvious way – by creating memory books. No way is more right or effective than the other, and finding the way that’s right for you and your story is just a means of trying new things and discovering what works best for you and your story.

Every day when I leave from work, Will reminds me to have a #productive day. As embarrassing as it is to admit that we actually say the word “hashtag,” it really is a wonderful way to send me off to work, as it reminds me to be on the ball and make the most of my time in the office.

Aside from all the planning jitters, engagement really is unlike any other time in your life. It’s right before you are forever tied to your soul mate, sometimes before children have made an appearance and at the time in your life when you can’t help but flash your ring at any chance you get – or at least that’s the way I experienced it.

Since getting my Cameo Silhouette machine last year, I’ve become obsessed with all the projects you can do in minutes with ease! Lately, I have fallen in love with chalkboard vinyl and have been using it everywhere.

Yes you read that correctly! My super talented husband and I put our heads together to come up with the best DIY bridal shower present for my sister that we could think of and this was it!

While on our honeymoon in Ireland, Will and I tasted the most delicious scones. The cafe was in a quaint town by the countryside, where we stopped to soak in the stunning sights of the Irish countryside on a hiking path along the outskirts of the town.

After recently losing my grandmother last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role a grandmother plays in the lives of her grandchildren, the unconditional love grandmothers (and grandfathers) have for their grandchildren, and the special bond that is created between grandmother and granddaughter as she grows from childhood through to adulthood.

Dear Oliver-Sebastian,

We just celebrated our first National Puppy Day together and I could not love you more or be more grateful for your presence in our lives. I had the urge to write you a letter and even though you’ll never be able to read it, I am positive you know exactly what it will say.

Fitness is hard, especially during the dreary winter months. For me, I feel as though this winter has hit me especially hard; I haven’t been to the gym in weeks, I am missing my bike, and I can’t seem to get my butt off the couch!

As any proud Irish citizen would, I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a fun green craft. This year, I decided to dust off my paints and try something new. With my trusty Silhouette Cameo, I made a Subway art table runner template and got to work painting my way through the muslin runner.

Once again, it’s that time of the year when I break out my knitting needles and get to work knitting up a storm of dishcloths. For a cause so near and dear to my heart (check out my original post on it from last year here), it’s a way to not only raise money in memory of my Grandpa, but give back to others living with MS.

Every so often, I find myself getting into a cycle of late nights, early mornings, and a messy lifestyle. It can become especially hard if you’re living alone or with a partner who doesn’t mind the clutter. My husband, for example, often keeps a massive pile of clothes in the bedroom that we have even started referring to as “The Mountain.”

Since I just finished watching the last episode of Gilmore Girls this week, I’ve found myself with more time to peruse the pages of the World Wide Web, 

As most of my friends and family know, every year to raise money for the MS Walk, I knit and sell dish cloths. I have been knitting them ever since I can remember, and it’s one of the only projects I am confident knitting by myself.

One of the 25 things I want to do before I turn 25 was to write random notes of kindness and send them to my friends and family. Well, what better time is there to spread the love than Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s day is coming up, and I have to admit that I am more excited than other years to celebrate. For myself and Will, celebrating doesn’t mean buying chocolate or roses (although the first year we were dating, he did surprise me with a huge bouquet of them at work)!

Although I didn’t participate in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word workshop, I decided this year to choose one word to focus on for 2015. Choosing this one little word was no small feat. Out of the 1,025,109.8 words in the English language, finding just one that resonated with me was challenging and forced me think about the reasons behind choosing just one word.

Today is a very happy day! It’s the day my 2015 Monthly and Daily six month planner arrived in the mail!

I always thought I was a bad procrastinator in university, when I would be up all night the day before an assignment was due, hopped on energy drinks just to keep my eyes from shutting.

For those who don’t know, my husband Will is a super talented photographer. Although he makes his living shooting commercial and product photography, he has recently re-introduced himself to the family, wedding and newborn photography scene.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

And that is certainly the case in my marriage. I cannot believe that we have already been married 2 months. On one hand, it feels like just yesterday that I walked down that aisle, but on the other,

For our honeymoon, Will and I decided to go on a fun driving adventure to a place both of us have wanted to go but haven’t had a chance to yet: Ireland. We rented a car, drove around the whole coast, stayed in B&Bs and had the time of our lives.

With the colder fall weather making an appearance here in Toronto, Will and I thought it might be time to start looking into jackets for Oliver-Sebastian (our Great Dane puppy)

Thanksgiving is always a time to slow down and reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for (other than the long weekend!). This year, I have TONS to be thankful for, and thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the top 10 things – although it’s going to be very hard to narrow it down.

Inspired by my list of 25 things, I have decided to choose one word of motivation a month. The word I have chosen for October is ...

Last week, I celebrated my 24th birthday. It was my champagne birthday (turned 24 on the 24th) and although it’s not a big milestone like a 30th would be, it was still a reminder that the years seem to be passing by quicker with every year. Since there’s only less than one year left until I am a quarter of the century, I thought it would be a good time to make a bucket list of the top 25 things I want to do before I turn 25.

August 23, 2014 was definitely the best day of my life thus far. It is the day I married the man of my dreams and officially became Mrs. Sarah Fournier. After months of planning, crafting, and dreaming, the day finally came. Here are some of my favourite photos from the day. I wish I could post them all!

I first started thinking about writing this two nights before the wedding as I was nose deep in sewing a stuffed goose, putting together the seating chart, creating the vow books, and the many other projects I was scrambling to finish. I decided against it, mostly because I had no time, but mainly because I needed to wait and see if it was all worth it.

With only a couple more weeks to go until the wedding, it’s hard not to be excited about going away on our honeymoon! Will and I planned our trip about 8 months ago, and the hardest part about the whole thing was just deciding where to go. 

It’s been almost three weeks since our lives have been turned upside down with the arrival of our new puppy Oliver-Sebastian. Will and I have fallen so in love with this little guy, making it hard to do anything else when we’re at home, which doesn’t make for a very productive household as we approach our Big Day!

Canadian summers are nothing without delicious Canadian s’mores. Who doesn’t wait all winter for that one moment when the marshmallows, graham crackers and melted chocolate come together in perfect harmony?

If you live in the city like me, you might soon find out that making a campfire on your apartment balcony to roast your marshmallows is somewhat frowned upon by the by-law officers.

Last weekend, Will and I traveled to Chicago and then to Wisconsin to pick up our new puppy, Oliver-Sebastian. We left Toronto at 2 a.m. on Friday morning and after a (surprisingly) fun drive, made it into the city for 9:30 a.m. It was perfect timing because we could enjoy the whole day in Chicago, starting with breakfast at Sunny Side Up & Coffee Shop.

There’s a wonderfully quaint doughnut shop up the street from us called Glory Hole Doughnuts that Will and I have absolutely fallen in love with. They have the tastiest doughnuts in Toronto, and provide nice weekend treat for when we are in the mood for indulging.

Will and I are in love with the new Stockyards shopping plaza in Toronto. Although some stores are still under construction, it’s a great one-stop-shop located conveniently within the city limits.

At Christmas time, it’s a tradition in Will’s family to wrap all the stocking gifts with brown kraft paper, and so when the time came to wrap a gift for a family wedding shower, I immediately decided to re-work the excessive amounts of kraft paper in our house to make something special for my cousin’s bride-to-be.

Since I haven’t had my wedding yet (and because Will actually reads everything I write), this post obviously won’t be very image heavy. Regardless, I thought it was a post worth writing before the wedding, so that the dress shopping experience was still fresh in my mind.

Happy Canada Day tomorrow! Having people over and are looking for a way to easily spruce up the house? Look no further! Today I am sharing some fun Canada Day wall art printables and an instagram version of my Canada Day subway art for you to share too!

Canada Day is fast approaching, and if you’re looking for some cute (and free!) Canada Day printable files, you have come to the right place.

This Canada Day, I have decided to celebrate like an American on Independence Day! I am a proud Canadian, and I know how lucky we are to live in this multicultural nation of ours.

If you’ve ever had a long conversation with me, chances are the topic of my craft room has come up! I am absolutely in love with how this room has turned out, and although it becomes a dumping ground for wedding crafts and storage at times, it is the one place where organization is key.

As we inch closer to the wedding, our planning focus has shifted from the bigger items (venue, date, dress) to the smaller details. Now that we are making decisions on decor, one of my main deciding factors on what to DYI for the wedding is whether I will be able to use the items both at our reception and afterwards.

I’ve always known that when I got engaged, I would DIY our invitations. When it finally happened, I immediately started designing and testing out different styles, and within the first couple months, we had our design finalized. We placed the order for the invitation pocket folds and envelopes, and forgot about them for a couple months until we had more details confirmed.

Since getting my Silhouette Cameo, I have been more than a little intimidated by all the possibilities. I was very excited to try a couple different mediums, and so during my Buffalo trip, I purchased a vinyl starter kit (on sale from Jo-Anns).

Will and I try to eat as clean as possible, which means a lot of home cooking! This recipe is one of our favourites that I adapted from a recipe I tried once and completely forgot where I found it.

Immediately after getting engaged, Will and I ran out and bought a bridal binder to help us navigate the wedding planning process. As I was flipping through it, I noticed a section dedicated to writing thank you cards, including a number of sample notes written from “the couple” to their “guests.”

Since moving to Toronto almost two years ago, I haven’t been able to buy scrapbook supplies in the city. There weren’t any local Michaels stores and I found that boutique art stores had huge markups with a small selection. I stopeed looking for new stores until I found...

Busy weeks are good weeks as long as they are productive, which is exactly what this week was. It was also a very fun week. Will and I celebrated the beginning of June, the 9th year anniversary of our gym Krudar Muay Thai, and spent some (much needed) quality time together.

First of all, I would like to thank Tim Hortons for putting me through college and employing me from the ages of 14-19. For all you math-challenged people out there, that is 5 whole years I spent in those beautiful brown poly pants with a visor and hairnet on my head

Potato stamping is a time-tested and crafter-approved way of creating fun and budget-friendly projects. After much trial and error, I have developed some tips and tricks for using potato stamps, and I am so thrilled to be sharing these with you here on Sweet Green Studios.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada and am a very proud Canadian, but there is no country that loves their crafts as much as America does – and if you love crafting and scrapbooking, I love you!

My girls’ weekend in Buffalo could not have come at a better time. I’ve never been so grateful for such an amazing weekend than I was after my super busy week on Friday. I got to spend some quality time driving down to the states with my Mom and had countless laughs with my mom, aunt, sister and cousins throughout the entire weekend. I didn’t realize how much I missed spending time with just the 6 ladies until we were all together again. 

I’ve been eating eggs forever, but never learned how to cook a hard boiled egg until I was about 20 years old. I am very particular about runny yokes (in that I really don’t like them), which is why I now have this process down to a science. I won’t bore you with the details of how I got here, but instead I will simply share with you the best way to boil an egg.

It’s been almost 3 years since I started taking gymnastics, and only less than a year since I started taking classes regularly. I have a deep love for the sport and an insane amount of jealousy towards young gymnasts and their amazing abilities.

What a productive week! As you may have noticed, we had a lot of changes around here. I am so thrilled to have made the change from Polkadot Pirates to Sweet Green Studios and can’t wait to see where this goes.

Muffins are my comfort food. It is rare that I have ever met a muffin I didn’t like, and these muffins are no exception.

This recipe was introduced to me by my step-mom, and are so delicious when you need a quick and dirty recipe.

This topic has been on my mind for quite some time now, especially with my upcoming nuptials. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that in just over 3 months, I will be changing who I’ve always been. Growing up with the name Sarah, I was never the only one at school, work or dance. I have always been Sarah Folk or Sarah F.

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate those special women in our lives that clothed us, fed us and loved us through thick and thin, for years and years, to make us into the people we are today. Mothers have the hardest job, and growing up with a single mom, I can appreciate all the crazy things moms have to deal with.

Now that I have my Silhouette Cameo, I have been looking for some great fonts and files for some new designs and projects I am working on. After going through a bunch of free font files, I thought I would share with you my top ten summer fonts from Font Squirrel.

To celebrate what might be the best made-up day in the world, I have made an exciting addition to my craft room. Can you guess what it is?

It’s National Scrapbook day on Saturday, and coincidentally I have been getting a lot of questions from my friends and family about starting their first scrapbooks.

And it wasn’t exactly what I had imagined.

On Friday afternoon, after a week of flexing at work to make up for the extra hours away from the office, Will and I packed ourselves into our (new) car and headed over to the Creativ Festival at the International Convention Centre in Mississauga.

On our drive up to Ottawa this past weekend, we rocked out to Lorde, Fun, and Mumford and Sons, among many other artists. It was an amazing playlist for our 5.5 hour road trip, but one song in particular got me thinking. That song was Below my Feet by Mumford and Sons. In case you haven’t heard it before, here are the key lyrics:

This past weekend, I attended my first bridal shower. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve attended many as a guest but never as a guest of honour. I am a HUGE fan of planning and hosting showers, but when it comes to attending one that someone is throwing for you, it can get a little uncomfortable (at least for me anyways).

We recently had to move my Grandma to a nursing facility, and my Mom and Aunt have been trying really hard to make her feel at home. This is hard to do for many obvious reasons (i.e. you’re moving a whole home into one room, you need to go through everything and sort things out, etc.), but hardest of all is not being able to bring many things into the new room with her. 

Every day I struggle with motivation. I am the kind of person who gets something in my head and needs to completely finish it before I can resume any normal activity. This is probably why I experience my creativity in bursts every couple weeks.

So now that we have sent out our Save The Dates, I can post about how Will and I made them our own. We ordered cards from Wedding Paper Divas, a section of ShutterFly. I had used them earlier this year to make a book for my grandma and was really pleased with the print quality.

Some brides have a hard time getting their fiance motivated to help out or become interested in wedding planning. Fortunately, I am not one of those brides.

It has been a while since I have had a nice day of scrapbooking, but with Will’s friend Alex in town and the house to myself, yesterday was the perfect day for crafting.

So it has officially been just over 3 weeks since Will proposed, and it feels like I have exchanged my scrapbooking time for wedding preparation time. This past weekend I finally found some time to sit down and work on a page for my travel scrapbook.

This past week, I went to Chapters looking for some ideas to start my own Bridal Binder. With my Starbucks in hand and a pile of inspirational bridal books, Will and I went to work researching all the things I should have in my binder.

As a continuation of my previous post Making pages for other people: Part One, I am posting some additional ideas for when you are making pages for events that you weren’t there for. One go-to idea is to create all the design elements of the page and leave space for personal journaling. 

This week, I would like to share with you a great blog that combines the efforts of a number of talented crafters and scrapbookers. This blog is WriteClickScrapbook.com and is quickly becoming one of my go-to stops for inspiration and layout suggestions.

Often times I find myself doing pages for other people; whether its my mom, my cousin or the dude sitting on the street corner, it seems like I am always finishing scrapbooks for everyone buy myself.

I am always perusing pinterest and other scrapbook blogs for page inspiration. This week, I came across a great post called Welcome, August on WriteClickScrapbook.com. Since I have been working on our Florida scrapbook lately, I was excited to see so many summer page layouts.

If you’ve never heard of Ali Edwards, you are definitely the one missing out. Ali is a scrapbooking and crafting guru who also happens to have a great blog that I highly suggest you check out at aliedwards.com. I specifically love her Project Life pages that she has been posting. 

In this post, I will outline some ideas for re-doing pages. Now, normally, I would never suggest going back and re-doing a page, since scrapbooks not only tell the story of the pages, but also represents who you were at the time they were created. That being said, I do believe that there are some cases where re-do’s are acceptable (mostly because I am a perfectionist and I want to LOVE every page).

Do you ever want to make a scrapbook page for an important family memory or hobby, but don’t have any pictures or keepsakes to go with it? Happens to me all the time.