looking for the silver lining

In a week month season year when luck doesn't seem to be shining on us too often, sometimes it's hard to see the little triumphs amidst all the general pain-in-the-neck stuff.  Triumph - Sunday afternoon nap time.  One happy toddler "Dank-ew Dada, fixit my bid-durl room!" she yelled without prompting, and ran to give one exhausted Dad a giant bear hug - the good kind that lasts several sweet neck-wringing seconds.  Nothing is up on the walls, and the books are still slowly being shelved again, but the good night chair is back, and every once in awhile she'll actually let me rock her in it for a moment and read an extra book or two.  We've moved on to other mini-crises in the house, but at least at the end of the day we can all collapse exhausted into our own beds.

on the field

It's that time of the year again.  E had two games this past weekend - during the first one on Saturday morning we baked in the sun.  The second one was a bit cooler.  As a friend pointed out to me on the phone the other night, soon enough we'll be griping about sitting out in the cold at these games.  So no complaints here.  And I think I know an uncle and some cousins that would approve of her new team colors...

movie night(s)

 

M brought home a projector from work and we set up a poor man's theater in the living room.  First night, Pink Panther 2, second night, Harry Potter, of course, and with a friend.  It was a big hit.

summer sketches

E did these at fashion camp this summer.  I really like the way she's rendered the various girls, working on proportion and details.

handmade snack pack

 

This summer E and her friend K got to spend the afternoon with one of their teachers doing some sewing projects.  One of the things they made was this adorable snack pack with velcro.  I love the outside fabric, but the best part is the laminated fabric on the inside that can be wiped or washed clean.  I'd like a set of these - I should really put this kid to work now!

admiring

Today I'm pining for something on multiple levels.  On the level that I wish I had thought of this first.  And on the level that I wish this had been around when E was first turning one.  And the level that if I had a bottomless pocketbook I'd put one of these under the tree for all my nieces and nephews this Christmas.

The Paloma Poster is a custom chart that documents the first year of your child's life.  You supply the information and child's name at the top of the chart, and this gorgeous print makes its way to your home and your wall.  I'd take this over a traditional baby book any day. 

Some details I love:  The custom chart showing milestones of movement,

 number of blog posts written about the star child,

favorite things and tear triggers (as if you could ever forget those!),

and the gorgeous colors and name made out of tiny birds.  These beauties start at $150 dollars, with many $$ more to add things like custom silhouettes and the like.  But if you are looking for a really unique gift for a first birthday, or want to hang a row of these, one for each of your children, I think it's a beautiful idea.  If you are doing it post date, you might have to search back in your memory a bit.  Or read back over those 708 blog posts you wrote.

friday morning in the garden

friday finds

Eek!  I've been wanting this cookbook ever since I read about it here and here, and then the clincher - here.  Plus, my good friend P planned a whole trip itinerary around a visit to this ice cream shop in Columbus so I knew I had to up my ice cream game this year.  I'm going to find myself diving into this book in a few moments while the little one naps, and I can't wait.

I would also have to say that a lot of my Friday finds are usually top secret - it seems like when I take the time to visit the places that I love the most that I also seem to find the gifts that I love to give the most.  I'll break my secrecy rule a tiny bit here and share some gifts for a few girls that I don't believe are regular readers of this blog.  The Japanese festival at the garden is coming up soon, and how very cute are these little satchels?  

Very cute.

I love the drawstring at the top, but it wasn't until I got home and took them out to photograph that I discovered the longer handle and THE TINY LITTLE FISH CHANGE PURSE inside.  If I didn't have a sleeping baby upstairs I would have squealed out loud.  These are very, very cute.  If you live around here I'd swing by the garden and pick up a couple before they are gone.  I personally lightened up their load by four today.

My last find of the day was really found last weekend.  For the past several weeks E's been complaining about her shoes feeling tight, but she had summer shoes for the summer, and it seemed strange to replace them mid-season.  When I finally got around to taking her school shopping she measured two-and-a-half sizes larger than she did in the spring.  Bad parent.

No wonder those size one shoes were hurting.  Make way for the big feet.  Which makes me laugh when I see the slogan for the shoes she ended up ordering - a little love for little feet.  She's entering adult size territory, so the challenge of finding age appropriate shoes might get a bit tougher.  Her dad wears a whopping size fifteen-and-a-half - special order always - so I'm guessing we have shoe challenges ahead of us.  

But for now we have cute silver shoes with a flower - perfectly perfect for an eight-year-old.  And if we're lucky, she'll get a few weeks' wear out of them before she's growing again!

I hope this Friday finds you well - if you feel so compelled, share a find of your own.

And for our East coast friends (and travelers!) - I hope next week finds you drying out!  Be careful!

messier before cleaner

 

First sanding, then priming and painting.  Sunday she might have her room back.  I'll never be so happy to vacuum and dust.

admiring

I thought I'd start a new category on this blog and call it "pining".  I may come up with a more clever name eventually, but what I really want to do is highlight something interesting or beautiful that I've come across but either don't need or can't afford.  It may be something that I think is so unique or is by an artist that deserves to be celebrated, or maybe it would just make the perfect gift that I simply don't have the perfect recipient for.

A poor man's wish list.

Recession obsessions.

Only in my dreams.

I think I'll stick with "pining" for now.

So if something that I feature here strikes your fancy or you have just the perfect place to put it (and pocketbook to purchase it) drop me a note so that I can enjoy it vicariously through you. 

Today's feature:  These kitchen towels from Anthropologie.  Man, if you could have seen my mother and me trying to desperately think of someone getting married that just had to have these little towels.  It's a set of three towels and they say "They fell in love", "They got married", and "They lived happily ever after".  I could have justified purchasing them for myself as a little eleventh anniversary gift next month if there had been another couple of towels embroidered with the phrases "They produced two spawn" or "They embarked on a renovation of epic proportions", or "They really should get a babysitter every once in awhile".  But the towels remain blissfully unaware of the consequences of those three simple acts stiched in aqua thread.  Eventually they'll get a stubborn tomato stain, or worse yet, chocolate, and one day they'll just be happy to declare that they survived.

But for the still innocent crowd... tea towels to pine for.

hiding

 

Right now one of her favorite activities is hiding.  She particularly loves to slide herself into this narrow space between the bathroom cabinet and the wall.  Now she opens the cabinet door to provide additional coverage.  For the time being she delights in the hiding and the revealing.  I'm guessing that somewhere in the near future she'll delight more in the hiding and listening to our panicked calls for her to reappear.  Cause that's just the kind of monkey she is.

luckily they won't be graded on "natural smiling"

This is the best I could get.  We're officially started.  One in third grade, one in the young preschool class.  When each was asked what they liked best about their first days, the oldest replied her teacher's new haircut, and the youngest yelled "COT!". 

wishing I could just flip the page

While I have no desire to live in a house that always looks like it's from the spread of a magazine, I do like a house that is in order.  I love when the toys and the projects come out, and I really love when they go back into their own little spot, out of the way, when day is done.

So you can imagine my consternation.  This is like some "before and after" comparison, only the "after" is the "before" and the "before" is my reality right now.  When you are crazy enough to take on a renovation that spans more than a decade and is as large as this one, the one thing you never want to do is backtrack.  And backtracking we are.

I will spare you the gory details.  Just trust me when I say to 1. Never postpone necessary roofing repairs, no matter the cost, and 2.  Never paint magnetic paint on an exterior wall unless you'd like to create the perfect vapor barrier that will lead to the demise of the paint surface and the drywall behind it.

So now the little one's homeless again, and after spending several angelic nights sleeping peacefully on the mattress in her sister's room, she decided that tonight she would not sleep and instead pulled her sister's books down off the shelf one by one.  Oh, and she climbed up to flip the switch for the reading light.

Below is angelic sleep mode from last night - I don't dare take a photo in there tonight.

So tomorrow is the first day of school, and our books are displaced into bags, E's room is covered in F's toys and the unpacked bags from our trip and the new birthday presents, and now a pile of books at the foot of a mattress, so if we manage to find the backpack and maybe a clean pair of shorts we should be set.

Come to think of it, maybe magazine living wouldn't be so bad...

monday reds

Today was a day of reds.  New red shoes that couldn't wait until cooler Fall weather to be worn.  I gave in because it was a special day - her first day in a new room at school.  That means it is most certainly a red letter shoe day.  And red berries in the new berry basket my mom bought me this past weekend.  To give me for Christmas.  You see how long she held out on that one.  

Joy of joys, even on a Monday, it doesn't get much better than berries in this basket.

If you were wondering what that monkey was peeking out in the first photo - why it's the world's cutest band-aid, a gift from Grandma.  Perfectly matches the red shoes and the red boo-boo someone got this morning skipping racing out to the car in those new red shoes.  What a sad little monkey.

.....

Speaking of monkeys...

...there she is.  Proving that you can be sweet in red from head to toe, and still be a monkey.

 

I like red days.