Weekend Faves

Whew.  Friday.  What a WEEK.  The good news is N is finally on the mend and getting back to normal.  Nothing like a nice little virus to formally initiate him into daycare. 

In the course of tending to a feverish little one, I spied a little bit of this and that via some of my favorite inspirational blogs.  I wish I had been disciplined to looking at rugs and curtains and the things this house actually needs...well, I sorta kinda did.  Otherwise...get ready for a whole lotta randomness!

The Fremont Bike by Ziba -- I need someone I know to buy this bike.  Someone...anyone?? Preferably a person with a dog because that is clearly the only appropriate item to travel in a bike side car.  Or, wine.  I would probably name mine.  Sammy.  Sammy side car.  Because this bike is so rad, Sammy side car also folds up against the side of the bike frame.  This bike has OPTIONS, yo.


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All my dreams came true when I found Spoonflower -- fancy designing your own fabric?  I do.  Yes please.  And now I can.  You can also purchase fabric that others designed.  I'm a big fan of this, but not so much the uterus print (I'll spare you and also...what would you make with uterus print fabric?  A labor gown?  This perplexes me to no end.)

New favorite blog discovery of the week --  maybe procrastinating on this site will finally get my butt over to the Container Store.  Maybe.  But I NEED to make this for my house, I know the exact spot.  IKEA IS CALLING MY NAME.  As an aside...about a month ago I happened to end up at IKEA.  Which is no big deal in itself, except for the fact I was ALONE.  This has never happened before!  I got nervous!  So much to see...and SO MUCH time!  By myself!  I saw things in IKEA that I never knew existed because I could actually slow down and look at stuff that wasn't on my very strategically planned list.  And I bought a rug (actually very similar to the one in the picture below.)  And three plastic green toddler potty seats because they were only $4.  But next time I'll be back to having a plan and it includes these Expedit shelves-turned-utilitarian benches.



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Love this -- not because I want another baby, but from a true design aspect this room could easily be tweaked  for a boy or a girl.  It's the perfect mix of what I like to call "Sophisticated L'Enfant", and if I rolled up to your house and this was the only room you had for me to stay in, I would be stoked.  Maybe less stoked if I had to pretzel myself into the crib to sleep, but all the same I would get over it due to my love of  the decor. PSA:  While I appreciate hot air balloons in miniature, I will never understand why people think it's a good idea to climb into a WICKER basket and be propelled into the sky by a FLAME that is uncomfortable close to your head.  And even more uncomfortably close to the WICKER.  Just say no to hot air ballooning.

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I'm off to eat my well deserved McFlurry (M&M, natch.)  Happy Weekend to everyone!

Down and Out

Sleeping not so peacefully - baby boy can crank out the SNORING

Best laid plans for posting over the past few days were derailed when, on Saturday (the hottest day of the year), not only did we discover our A/C wasn't working but that N wasn't hot just because his room was 88 degrees at 10pm at night - he was also running a 104 degree fever.

I broke our zero  "Urgent Care" visit record and took him in on Sunday afternoon after good ol' Tylenol wasn't quite doing the trick.  N can now proudly say he is fighting his first ear infection.  Fingers crossed things start looking up for him today after some solid days of sleep, antibiotics and clinging to me koala bear style.

Heart.Melts.

Love.

This morning I received a text from my husband that read, "...C held N's hand in the car all the way to school."
Apparently N hung his arm out of the carseat and C reached over, grabbed it and didn't let go for the entire 7 minute ride to school.

How could this not make your heart melt?  I love how these boys love each other.  But let's be real - it was touch and go in the beginning.  C didn't want to have much to do with N for the first few months and made (what I'm told) are typical comments like, "How long is he staying here?"


April 2011 - Tentative Smiles



May 2011

Once N was more interactive, C warmed up and started to see the benefits of having N stick around.   He delights in seeing N do things for the first time, like crawling, standing and nowadays, walking.  C runs to him when he falls to make sure he's ok, pats his back and gives him a kiss when he cries, and gives him a big hug before bed, always.

August 2011 - Hey look, I'm sharing my toys



Febrary 2012

N's first trip to the Boardwalk as a paying customer.  It's safe to say that HE LOVED IT.  I see a season pass in our future to take advantage of more Sunday trips that start with visits to Noni's house, followed by a leisurly walk down the beach front, a handful of rides, lunch, one last spin on the Merry Go Round and then home for a satisfying nap.  And if it's salmon season...well, we stick around for dinner with Nana and Nono.

March 2012



Easter 2012

Perhaps the sweetest thing of all is seeing C show so much unconditional love to someone beyond his mom and dad, a realization that hit me the other day when I was playing with them in the front yard.

These two truly make my heart melt.

Weekend Faves

As far back as elementary school, before the days of HDTV and the Food Network, I spent my weekends with my fingers double crossed in the hopes of catching an episode of This Old House (ol' Bob and Norm, you guys craft dove tail joints like no other), Nancy Sews, Jacques Pepin or Yan Can Cook (stop snickering...if Yan Can so Can You!) 

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 Then I discovered my first issue of Martha Steward Living.  I hoarded those suckers, bought with hard earned babysitting cash, and studied each page harder than any exam I had to cram for.  And then came Candice Olson!  Extreme Home Makeover!  And finally, an all day design feast that is now available via cable.  Which makes me secretly wish I was Canadian because damn, our neighbors in the north can design (yes, I'm talking to you Sarah Richardson.)

In case you're missing the theme here (and no, it isn't that I watched too much PBS growing up, although true, not the point):  I am clearly obsessed with watching people create things. 

Today my preferred medium for inspiration is blogs.  Design blogs, lifestyle blogs - blogs are serious business (and so is Pinterest - Pinterest is to my brain what Facebook is to procrastination.)   So listen, I'll just come out and say it:  I have an embarrassing amount of blogs bookmarked.  Truly. An. Embarrassing. Number.  And often, I come across ideas that I love, love, love and promised myself I'll remember (or, erm, "Pin") what website and on what day I saw the idea I just loved, loved, loved.

And then I don't remember (or Pin It.)

And THEN I'll be sitting in our Den, attempting to visualize a design plan of sorts and instead my brain does this long drawn out "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

And 8 weeks later I still don't have curtains up, ::Hi Neighbors!::

So!  New plan.  I'm going to start blogging about these ideas I come across.  Think it will work?  Eeks, let's hope so because (my memory) is not getting any younger and my husband is tired of being spied on.

OK, let's do this - here are my Weekend Faves:

1.  I actually still need to host a garage sale, but in my head I REALLY want it to looks like this one and call it a boutique sale. 
2.  I made these on Easter because I like making my cousin smile, but even more so shocking my (Catholic) grandma on Holy days.
3.  This is already on the calendar for next year.  With this being a close second.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and got a bit of sunny weather like we did!

Den DEN den DEN Den...oh, the Den

It wasn't until we moved into our new home a few months ago that we realized...we need some stuff.  Like, furniture stuff.  We had incorrectly assumed that because we were downsizing (by 700sqft) that there would need to be some major purging on our part in order for us to have a hope and a prayer of ever parking our cars in the garage.

Welllllll...not so much.

For our move out to California after selling our house in England, we shipped a honking 20' container packed with stuff.  Dining room table.  Beds.  Dressers.  Crib, changing table, armoire. Etc.  And with the exception of a kitchen table, some bookcases, shelving, a few rugs and accessories, we hadn't bought anything since our relocation with the thinking it wasn't our "forever house."

But still, we thought we were definitely going to need one mother of a major garage sale once we moved into the new digs.  As it turns out, the floor plan of the new house, despite being smaller square footage wise, allowed for more usable/living space.  Huh.  Go figure.

Okay, enough with the preamble...let me introduce you to the DEN:



The view as you enter from the main floor...psst...outside, where you see dirt is now grass!



At least the TV got mounted.  We have our priorities strait.  Yep.

I promise, we've cleaned since this picture was taken (most of the "crap" has been donated or tossed.)

So - there is a LOT of work to do in this room...like getting rid of those monster 1990's leather chairs that my husband bought (new) in 2004 and insisted they were worth taking up space in our container (along with the ugly metal IKEA "corners of death" filing cabinet, but hey, I'm all about compromise - ha.)

The end goal is to have the room function as the following:

1.  Family/TV room:  We have a larger living room upstairs, but it doesn't have a TV and frankly, I prefer to have the boys use this room for TV viewing given it's tucked away from the rest of the house.
2.  Guest room:  See that door in the second picture?  That leads to the laundry area and half bathroom.  With two toddlers in the house, this will give our overnight guests (aka Nana) a place away from the kids rooms to make as much noise until whatever time they wish.  We're considering both sofa and Murphy bed options for sleeping.
3.  Play room:  I don't have an updated picture, but as of right now the area behind the chairs currently is home to (a) the play kitchen (b) a small toddler size table (c) a whole lotta toys (d) several small dents in the wooden floor from Nico pounding the metal ladle on it as hard.as.he.can.  Awesome.  So in reality, it's a pathetic example of a play area.
4.  Office:  I'll use the term "office" loosely - essentially this is where I would like the homework/computer area to be located once the kiddos are old enough to have homework.  And use a computer.  (I hear this should be around...Pre-K age these days?  Crap, I've gotta get a move on.)

Let's talk floor plans.  In the most simplistic terms - here is the current "Before" shot:

I'm embarrassed for the website I made this with that they had our leather chairs.

And, my current pipe dream of what I hope is the eventual "After" shot:


Listen, there were only a few rug options to choose from, ok?

 Things I'm sure about:

1.  Built in cabinets on the TV wall
2.  Sectional sofa bed couch.  We went back and forth on this and because we want seating for at LEAST four people...we've gotta go sectional.  The rectangle shape of the room (and location of the TV) impedes us from doing a couch plus occasional chair and/or similar options.
3.  An ottoman style coffee table that can double as extra seating.
4.  Lighting. We're going to need to bring in someone to install/wire can lighting as well as search for good task lamps.
5.  A very large patterned rug (or dark solid color) to hide stains and dirt from little boys tracking it in from the garage and backyard.

Things I'm not so sure about:

1.  Position of desk:  Up against back of couch or the wall behind it, flanked with bookcases?  Or maybe a corner desk with a bookcase where the above picture has one placed (just smaller to accommodate corner desk?)
2.  Configuration and storage for playroom:  How to work this in with desk area and make it "transitional" when kiddos no longer need that play kitchen?  Should I ditch the playroom idea all together and go for more of an office/storage config and store toys in big baskets?
3.  Rug size:  Ugh.  Help.  Definitely doing a rug where the couch is located...but do I buy a huge one that extends wall to wall OR two separate (coordinating) rugs OR one rug and those (fugly) foam flooring thingies they make for kids?
4.  The "Wall of Doors":  Given this is the path to/from the garage, I wanted to put a small bench and hooks on the wall so you can sit, take off shoes and jacket, and dump keys, backpack, etc.  Too crowded?  Push this area towards the back wall where Office/Playroom is?

Right.  So your task, if you choose (or I force you) to accept it, is to provide any and all input on the future configuration of this room.  There is nothing wrong with a little design by consensus, right?