more photos

I got some more washi tape and spray mounted some more photos like I did here.  Right now they are in the corner of the living room, but they will move once we get the room done and the furniture in the right places.  It drives me a little nuts that the tape is so expensive (like almost $12 for a two pack), but then I remember that I can "frame" almost twenty photos per roll, the photos themselves were under a dime a piece and the foam core was scraps.  It's a lot cheaper than a wall of frames - even the cheap IKEA ones I had before.  I've always liked the look of just a simple photograph affixed to the wall - this is just a small step up from that.  So now I have another dozen+ done and ready to hang.

animation is addicting

I should be sleeping off this nasty bug that's taken over my sinuses and chest.  Instead I'm hunting through photo archives for suitable animations.  Like the above "blackberry thief".  Or the below "pesto smile".

And then, oh dear golly I remembered the owl photos...

the proof is in the pudding

Another goal that I had last weekend was to get the girls to try on the clothes in their closets to see what might work for this spring / summer, and pass down the clothes that they've outgrown.  We've got a pretty good system going on clothes right now.  Here's how it works in a nutshell:  E's the oldest - she benefits from having grandmothers that like to buy her clothes because she's the firstborn.  She wears them and then shoots out of them at record speeds where they are then rounded up for my niece who lives four states away.  She eagerly sorts through them, pressing them to her nose to smell her older cousin's yummy scent on them still (true story), and then she wears them while her mother (my sister) adds to the pile with her own favorite clothing purchases.  They skip my nephew (for the most part!) and then the boxes come back across state lines for the little one.  Which means she gets not only the surviving duds from her older sister, but the added style from her cousin, and all the new clothes that her grandmothers like to buy her because, well - of course - she's the baby.  Hand-me-down's rock - it's like thrifting, only you recognize the smells.  (And - in the case of my niece - that's the very best part.)

Both girls have apparently shot up in height lately because nothing fits anymore.  Which means that it's time for a new rubbermaid tub of collected size 3's for the little one to arrive, and a bit of sale shopping for the big one.  E tried on one pair of shorts after another on Sunday afternoon - none covered enough to earn a spot in the "keep" pile.  

"I'm growing too!" the little one chimes in while stretching arms high to the ceiling in too-tight cotton shirts that graze her belly button.  

"I'm growing Big - Big to my birthday party!  Big to my swimming suit and JUMPING in the water and Big to not being catched in the water!  Big to just jumping and jumping and NO CATCHING!"  

Her hands pump the sky with each "Big!", her body crouches and hops with the talk of the pool jumping.  She smiles in delight at the thought of being able to jump freely into the water, independent of any adult that might need to be there to catch her.  She feels energy in those shorts, those lightweight tops, those bare feet.  She can see her legs now that they are out of long pants; her arms can stretch further without the restraining knit of a sweater.  Don't you know that feeling of starting to shed off the weight of winter?  How much faster you walk in the sun and a pair of sandals?  

The girls romp around the third floor for the rest of the afternoon, wearing the last pair of too-tight clothes from a summer too-long past.  They wear them to bed where they dream of longer sun-filled evenings and summer walks on the beach.  When you check on them later, not even the blankets seem to fit.  "You're growing Big!" you whisper, and pull out another blanket from the closet for their toes.

hot summer colors in February

Another project we worked on this weekend was birthday invitations for F's third birthday.  If you remember back before Valentine's Day I scored these glass bottles of rainbow colored flowers from Michaels off the clearance rack.  E's been dying to get started on these even though we have a lot of time to spare.  Saturday afternoon was sunny, but cold, and seemed like a good opportunity to sit for awhile and dream about summer.

We initially thought we might blanket the whole card with a carpet of flowers, and then E got the idea to maybe cut the number 3 out and let the other part of the card show through. 

I thought it was a great idea, but then we sort of stepped back, squinted our eyes and agreed.  It was okay, but we really liked a little more card showing through so we tried a looser approach the next go around. 

We can always add more flowers if we want, but for now we like the scattering of flowers over the stripes of flowers in the fuller one.  While we sorted and glued we talked about ideas for the piece we're going to layer over this flower garden.  I love her ideas, and I love knowing that she feels comfortable sharing them with me.  She has really good ones, and really crazy ones, and she knows I appreciate them all, even if we don't use them all.  I want her to get to a place where all ideas are welcome, valued.  When you let yourself consider any possibility, you can be assured that the path you eventually take will be a good one.  

We talked about summer and parties and colors and poetry.  We worked in silence, which is never really silent with her.  She clicks her tongue, she taps her foot, she hums and whistles.  Her moments of quiet are accompanied with lip movements to lyrics in her head.  She can't focus enough in the mornings to get out the door with everything she needs, but give this girl a bottle of glue and a table full of paper and she nails it.  Her focus hums with activity like a machine.  I love the energy, the concentration, the conversation.

After awhile she asks for a soundtrack to the afternoon's activity.  I let her choose the soundtrack, she lets me choose the volume.  Fair trade, I think.

We work in this new kind of silence until we put the summer colors away 'til the next time.

two out of four of us are bummed they aren't staying pink

The chairs are getting a good workout.  And the girls are pretty excited they both fit in one of them.  Which is good because I don't like giving up the other one.  Which leaves M with the couch to himself - just the way he likes it!

I brought home some fabric samples from a friend at work - it's amazing just how many non-pink colors there are!  Pink or no pink - the living room is starting to look like a living room.  And if the bedroom didn't seem so appealing tonight (I'm fighting some sort of bug - ugh), then I'd be hanging out in there.  Here's to a week of odds and ends - off the list!

52 projects: week eight

So, it's ten p.m. and I'm feeling a bit bummed.  As I mentioned in the last post, my project this week was to get the detailed drawings done for the bookshelves - and by done, I meant out the door to the contractor.  Off the computer.  Onto paper.  Out the door.  No more tweaking, or detailing.  Ready for fabrication, assembly, paint, the works.  This has been one of those projects in the making for a very long time, but we've been more conservative in the last few years with the projects we've tackled and we've put some of those on hold in lieu of more important projects (like second kids).  Year of the tiger?  Year of the dragon?  Year of the rabbit?  Last year was the Year of the Bookshelves.  But then it wasn't.  Even after having the living room free of furniture and cordoned off from the rest of the house with plastic for the first half of the year.  Stuff happens.  Just because you can put a project on a list and then take a red magic marker to it, doesn't mean it's always in the cards.

Midafternoon M and I talked about printing out the drawings and looking at them together.  There were a few more things we wanted to think through - about how everything goes together around the fireplace, the materials we were using for that, etc.  And as Sundays often do - they fill up with the frenzy of things that didn't get done over the weekend but that need to get done before the work week starts.  That's the part of the weekend that I try not to let happen.  I don't like to feel like I didn't get enough "done".  Didn't I just live it - didn't we have a few days to set our own schedule?  To sleep in (as late as a two-year-old will let you)?  To shower or not shower, get dressed or not get dressed?  Eat pizza and cupcakes and watch movies and walk in the park?  I looked back at the list I have sitting on my desk - the one that I made at the beginning of the year.  The one that I was determined to tackle (at least a bit of) this year.  The one that hangs over my head and represents the things that I'd like to do or want to do or that make life easier or more fun - and that all too often get pushed to the back burner, falling victim to laundry and vacuuming and bills.  What was on that list?  Find chairs for the living room.  Order rug samples.  Work on F's party.  Get photos out of the computer and up on the walls.  Spend more time with just E while the little one naps.  Find some entry way solutions.  Go through the girls' closets and pass down the clothes they've outgrown.  Make good food.  Eat good food...  

I did those things.  I did all of those things.  In bits and pieces, but with a lot of joy and at a relaxed pace.  I need to cut myself a little slack and remember not to be so tied to a list.  The whole point is to make time to do the things that I really want to make time for.  And to find that at the end of the year I had a really good time doing it.  So this week dabbles in a bunch of those list items:  

Some I was so excited about I couldn't wait to share (like the chairs) and others I'll cover this week.  What a colorful, enjoyable week and weekend, full of lovely odds and ends. 

shelf control

I typed the title "shelf control" before realizing that it might come across as a play on words for "self control".  Self control is something I like to think that I practice, although last night I might have pushed it a bit with that pizza.  

It also eludes to my 52 projects project this week which still isn't done (at 7:32pm Sunday night) but my husband has allowed me to blame this on him because it was done, but he had "comments" and now we plan on a few revisions after E goes to bed tonight.  So expect a late post - or early morning, depending upon how it goes.

Last night we stopped into The Container Store to pick up a sizing catalog of elfa components.  We've used the system before in the room that was first a studio, and then a nursery.  It's a nice system, and even nicer when you buy the components during one of their 30% off sales.  We're thinking about using the system again in the back room to set up a wall of shelving and desk spaces.  I cannot tell you how excited I am at that prospect.  I'm very ready to get the computer and the desk out of our bedroom where they've been camped since the baby took over the studio.  I'm not complaining.  

Well, maybe just a teeny, tiny bit.

While we were in the store we saw these two new products.  I say "new", but maybe they've been around for awhile and we just didn't know about them until now.  The product on the left snaps into the upright standards and keeps books and other items from getting knocked off the desk.  The product on the right is a pair of bookends that slide over the front of the shelves. 

Which is pretty nifty - but even niftier when my husband points out that we should slide them over the back of the shelves and make them even less noticeable.  See - mostly I really value his comments.

The bottom ones solve two issues - the first was the books were always toppling over onto the desk.  The second was the issue of the bin getting shoved over the side of the desk.  Sometimes there's just some mad coloring go on down there and you never know where things might end up.

Two simple components for this system that work really well.  I feel a lot better having some breakable (and meaningful) objects on that upper shelf, like hand painted picture frames and coin banks, now that I don't have to worry about nearby books toppling over like dominoes.  Now I just have to worry about them toppling because of curious hands...

2012 Homies

It's kind of exciting to see third story(ies) nominated for a few of the Homies awards over at Apartment Therapy.  If you want to vote for this blog you can find the voting here.  It's under two categories - Best Home Design Blog and Best Family Blog - which is appropriate considering I'm not quite sure what category I'd put this thing in anyway.  So vote if you like - or not, because I'm actually a bit shy about it.  There are lots of great blogs on the list, so even if you don't want to vote you can at least see what you should be reading!  To vote you have to set up a password but it's pretty straightforward, and you can vote for third story(ies) in both categories.  Voting lasts til Friday, March 2nd, and then they'll narrow the field for the real voting.  

I'll have another 52 projects up later today.

the good pie

After reading about it in Feast, and having a reader recommend it - we tried The Good Pie out last night.  Here's what we thought about it:

Delish - the space is great too, although you've got to get there early on a Saturday night or you're eating late with kids.  I'm still going to say Pizzeria Tivoli is my favorite for the "real thing", but this was a close second.  Definitely a more charred, crispy crust - which isn't a bad thing - and you still can taste the smokiness in the morning.  (Again, not a bad thing.)  The buffalo mozzarella was really good as well - worth the extra money I think.  Thanks for the tip!

the other find

Here's the stool we also got yesterday.  I was feeling badly that it got kind of overshadowed.  It's a sweet little thing.

At first I was photographing it upstairs on the bed which is where I photograph a lot of things because the light is nice and it's a pretty white background.  But after taking a few photos I thought it seemed a little strange to put a stool on a bed.

It was nice to look at some of the other things I've slowly been collecting for the living room - like rug samples from Flor. We've been pretty happy with the Flor tiles in F's room and although I'm open to purchasing just a rug, I find that the tiles really give me flexibility to choose a rug size that works in the space.  The rug we have now is just way too small (as well as too old, and too cream and too worn out...).  I ordered a dozen samples and I've been laying them out in the different lights, as well as just thinking about furniture to come.  I really love these two wool ones - they are so incredibly soft, like a big, comfy sweater, and I can imagine stretching out on them and it feeling really good.  They are the plushest of the group.  Several samples were too brown and too blue, but a lot of the grays really pick up the golds and the reds of the floor and still look good with the wall color (the gray sample on the right:  Sherwin Williams "On The Rocks"), as well as a slightly darker shade of gray and a nice grayed out aqua (both of which I'm considering using on the inside back wall of the bookshelves to break up all the white.

They also look good with the gold accents and warm woods of the furniture.

There are also some other samples that have similar colors with a bit more pattern.  I'll probably order a couple of full tiles once I think we've settled on one to test them out.

The oranges and the golds are for a surprise in the adjacent room!  More on that later.

And here's my personal scale model, up from a long nap, with puffy, swollen eyes.  (Boo pink eye.)  She is looking pretty good and color coordinated with the whole post although it certainly wasn't planned.  Even her burpie of choice today looks smashing with that new stool!

friday finds: dumbstruck

In a weird, ironic twist of circumstance and opportunity I found myself (not twelve hours after posting some of my chair dreams) watching a pair of original Poul Jensen walnut lounge chairs being delivered into a local shop.  Someone else in the store made a beeline for them (an interior designer I was later told) but not before I had managed to park the stroller and take a seat in one of them.  The other one was still being set up.  Yesterday's post showed one chair that is sold by Thrive Modern Furnishings that is "inspired" by this mid-century danish chair  (the Truman Chair).  This was the real thing, there were two of them in great condition, and while I'm not going to tell you the price I paid, I will tell you that another original Z chair was listed on 1stdibs this morning for a whopping, eye-popping $4200.  (I paid nothing even remotely close to that - not even remotely close to the retail price of the knockoff!)  That one has already sold as well.  I had to think fast because the other guy was waiting to scoop them out from under me.  I will also tell you that I have personally done a few little jigs of joy.  I cannot believe the luck.  Five minutes difference one way or the other would have meant no chairs.  I still cannot believe this deal.  

So here's one of my two chairs below- it's still at the store til we bring over the truck - but it's got a nice fat sold sign on it.  And they are pink at the moment, but we'll get the cushions recovered eventually.  There are lots of articles about appropriate fabrics for the chair like this one.  I'm actually kind of glad to get to choose - and I'll probably wait until we settle on a rug and a sofa before I do.

I like the fabric in the images above my pink beauty - a neutral with a nice tweed or wool nubby feel to it.  I think the walnut is going to look really good with all the white painted bookshelves in there, and the chairs will also look good with the walnut library table and coffee table from my grandparents.  I've been in chair limbo so long that I maybe I needed to stop trying to make a decision and just let things happen.  You never know what might fall into your lap if you get out of the computer for awhile and actually look around the city.

What else did we find today?  Well - we found pink eye - the little one did at least.  My husband says it serves me right for taking her thrifting!  She found an upholstered stool in gold leather with walnut legs that the owners of the store let us take with us - it will be great next to the cabinet we're going to turn into an entry hall closet.  Perfect for putting on and taking off shoes.  F and I found some frozen yogurt while we waited for her eye drop prescription to be filled, and moments over ice cream are always some of my favorites.  

This is my last Friday off before returning to work full time next week.  M keeps correcting me that it's not really my last Friday off - that's what vacation days are for.  So I'm not going to lie... it was really nice to "find" something special this Friday - something that I think we'll enjoy as a family for years and years to come.  Even on those long Fridays at work when we are all just ready to come home, kick off the weekend, and be homebodies for awhile - well, we'll have some comfortable - and beautiful - chairs to pull up around a game board or a stack of good books. 

More pictures later.  Hope you had a great Friday and found something old (or new).  Share if you'd like.

quite the collection

I have chairs on the brain (as well as a lot of other things).  As the living room inches it's way towards completion at some point we're going to have to face facts and furnish the place.  The winds are really blowing outside tonight and the house is asleep.  I have a good book I'm halfway through and I'm really looking forward to the occasional late night quiet in that finished, furnished room.  We can't swing the fireplace yet (unless the roof + masonry bill miraculously halves itself - that's another project on the docket for this year), but we are going to rough in for it in the future.  Any of these lovelies would look pretty nice cozied up next to it.  I'm happy to admit that I suffer from an occasional bout of chair lust.  Not to mention indecisiveness...

top to bottom, left to right.  1.  Barcelona Chair  2.  Cherner Armchair  3.  Truman Chair  4.  Juliana Armchair  5.  Mimi Chair  6.  1938 Leather Butterfly Chair  7.  Tyler Chair  8.  Shell Chair  9.  Taylor Chair 

twenty minutes and other misc. stuff

Don't let my silence on the subject fool you into thinking I'm not taking that twenty minutes to myself each day.  I am.  I've just been a little embarrassed to mention just how I'm spending those twenty minutes.  We've had about the mildest winter that I can remember, and we were still experiencing those mild temps and sunny afternoons when I made that pledge to myself.  And then it got cold, snowed a bit, and stayed gray and gloomy, meaning the longer days didn't look any longer and outdoor walking in the early evenings was out.  So I instituted Plan B.  It actually coincided with my annual physical where I told my doctor that everything was going great but my only complaint is the frequent neck / upper back strain that I have.  It's like I "tweak" my neck or shoulder blade area a lot.  I think it's because I carry a thirty+ pound kid on my left hip a lot, plus the strapping and unstrapping of the carseat in a small sedan, the hoisting of overfilled large canvas bags of groceries from the street to the house, etc, etc...  more than exercise I was looking for more balance in my body (and my life).  I need a good stretch.  And yoga (while I love it), puts me to sleep at night, and night is when I gear up to do a lot of stuff.  The other thing that limits me is that once I get home from work I don't want to leave - my family, my projects, my warm house.  Night time gym time just isn't me.

My doctor mentioned that while yoga and pilates and the like were good things to do, she really felt like doing some type of Zumba exercise would be really good for the stretching / mobility / upper body-shoulder-neck strength and flexibility.  Plus it's essentially one long dance video, and since I'm doing it on the Wii, E's doing it with me each night.  We're having a blast.  And even though I've just been doing it for a couple of weeks, I do feel a lot less tension in my upper body.  Trust me - you don't want to watch me do it, but we're tearing it up every night in the living room around eight.

I'd love to know how you fill your "twenty minutes" a day.  Especially if it also involves wearing a game controller on a hip band.  I'm rockin' the look, I tell you.

Miscellaneous stuff:  I changed the setting on the blog so that you (and I) can reply to individual comments.  Hooray!  I try my best to always get back to people in the comments section if there are questions.  This might make it a little clearer and you can also talk amongst yourself.  Chat it up.

ouch

F fell Monday at school and hit the edge of the table.  Fortunately her top tooth stayed in her mouth.  Unfortunately it punctured the skin right below her bottom lip.

It hasn't slowed her down a bit, although it changes colors everyday which means she does linger at the mirror a bit more in the morning.  Time to wake her up now and see what it looks like this morning.

One interesting thing we noticed.  She's talking a lot more about her teeth now since the accident, and I think she's a little bummed out that the tooth didn't come out.  She's kind of obsessed with the idea of putting a tooth under her pillow.  She's always said "toof" for tooth, but yesterday when I got home M had her tell me the story about when you lose a tooth and she said "tooth" with a very clear th sound at the end.  I remember those first pronunciations slowly disappearing with E as she grew and how sad they made me.  I love the fact that at eight and a half she still says "ambliance" instead of ambulance.  A tiny wisp of the chatty toddler she used to be.  F says the letter "s" at the end of words but not the beginning.  I know I'll be a little wistful when "cool" and "nack" and "cary" become school and snack and scary.  I won't, however, be sad to see that mouth shiner go.  Ouch.

found photographs

Sometimes the best photographs are the "found" ones on the camera.  I have no idea when these were taken, but I have a pretty good guess who took them.

admiring

Maybe because we finally gave in and let E dive into The Order of the Phoenix.  Or maybe because The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 arrived in the mail on Saturday and we watched it late into the night (not E - she has to read them first).  But we've had Harry Potter on the brain a bit.  Which reminded me of an email I got from a friend awhile back that I hadn't spent much time looking at yet.  This particular friend loves polar bears and somewhere once upon a time I saw the most beautiful print of polar bears... An Aurora of Polar Bears to be exact.

These alphabet / animal based prints come from Woop Studios, and they are the graphic designers for Harry Potter.  (There's the connection you were waiting for.)   They are even more gorgeous in person - this friend ordered one.  I'm not kidding.  You could base a whole room around these things, the colors are so gorgeous and besides, they are really just fun to say.  I think my favorite might be A Murmuration of Starlings.

And you know I want that "F" for F - A Charm of Finches.  That's definitely on the list. 

They have a book out now - A Zeal of Zebras , and these lovely wintery themed cards for those that get a bit tired of the holiday themed cards.  Actually, come to think of it, once you get past the holiday cards most boxed cards sets tend to have spring or summer themes (flowers / landscapes / sunlight).  I'd much rather receive "A Drift of Snow" in the mail than shovel it off my car.

And if you want a whole set of letters but can't spring for 26 prints (who can?), this set is coming out soon.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for a well illustrated alphabet.

Thanks for the heads up RK.  See, like text messages, I will get to them eventually!

after the little one wakes up

Like I said before, once she wakes up it's full steam ahead.  I like that they've found a happy medium on heights while sharing the easel.  And now that she's found her sister's viewfinder, she works on her projects a bit and then steps back and "photographs" the process.  Wonder where she'd get an idea like that...