Stopping to Smell The Roses

I was out for a walk around lunch time this week and these scenes caught my eye and made me smile. Thankfully I had my trusty iPhone so I could more permanently capture them.

I did tweek the colors a smidge with photoshop - those overcast skys really toned everything down on my little iPhone. I may have to go back with the big guns and capture them in a more high res, printable size.

Short & Sweet - My New Entertainment Center

On or Around 2004 I bought an entertainment center. A really, really heavy entertainment center - for $450 from a furniture store called Meeley's. I love this entertainment center - but it:

a) now goes with nothing we own
b) was built for a non-flat screen tv (read: the tv doesn't actually fit) and
c) was too big for our room.

So we haven't used it while we've been in this house. I think maybe for a month or two in the beginning, but not now. And you should know I hate our current (but free) TV stand. It's plastic and black so it picks up all the dog and cat hair. Plus it was open at the bottom, not great for baby-proofing. While it is modern looking, I sill don't like it - its a little cold. So I asked the husband to modify the one we've kept down the basement. If it didn't work - then oh well. But if it did - well I may just have a darling (and still free!) entertainment center.

So after years of those hints, nudges, and requests (think "All I want in life is a nicer entertainment center... *SIGH*"), he pulled out the Sawzall and cut my dreams down to size (bu-dum-dum). And its BEAUTIFUL!

Here's the before - on the left there used to be a glass door - but I wasn't quick enough with my camera.

And the current state... He cut just above the cabinet doors and just below the top 'finishing' piece - and then fused the two together with a little husband magic. Seriously - you wish you had one of those magic husbands, don't you? Sorry, you can't have mine.

If we get tired of it as an entertainment center, it can double as a window bench... and just look at all that storage!! I can't even begin to tell you how stoked I am.

It still doesn't match our other things - the living room is black and cream and grey and currently red (but maybe soon that will turn to orange...). And it does have scratches on it from not taking care of it. So we'll have to paint. This is what we're thinking: a cream top (to hide the dust & dog hair), and the black bottom (which definitely makes it heavy, but it 'goes' with all our other pieces!)

And just for fun, here's the piece in some more funky colors to give us options. Orange - I think the potential orange I would pull in would be a little more 'burnt' than this - but you get the idea. I think we may redo the coffee table in the accent color though... decisions, decisions.

And red - to match the current accent decor. I think it looks too country in red.

PS- yes, I know, our basement is gross.

Happy Easter Every-Bunny!

Just wanted to say "Happy Easter" to everyone! Its one of my favorite times of year- mostly for the adorable Sunday dresses... and the Cadbury eggs... and the Hershey's eggs. Yum. They don't make you look good in those dresses though.

Here's some photos of someone who's always going to look adorable in those Easter Sunday dresses.

Who is this, and why does he have a tutu around his neck?

At least the tutu is good to hold on to!

Mommy & mcNugget

Nibbling on some of the sweetest Easter candy - those cheeks!

mcNugget & my mom



I hope everyone has a very blessed Easter!

Short Shelves

When we first toured our house, we LOVED this shallow shelving unit built into the wall of the kitchen - which used to be a window facing the outside of the house. But I soon came to realize that it was a dust collector that couldn't fit anything deeper than a drinking glass on it (which is what the previous owners had displayed - see the icky white kitchen and peach tiles?).

We tried a lot of things to 'dress it up' and make use of this odd space - from a built in cookbook rack to a soda can & spice rack display, it has been there, done that. We've painted it, added in 'guard bars', and trimmed it out in molding. (Oddly, I don't even remember it looking like the first photo below!) 

After all that, I asked the husband to just make it go away. Several days of hemming and hawing later, I still hadn't won the battle. My sister and friend were both for keeping the space as well. So I tried again. Its an improvement, no? I don't know that I love it- it still may be best as a wall to hang modern art on - but it will do for now.

It probably could use some more black and white - or chrome. Those flower photos are just placeholders for something more interesting.  And the red is still there because we simply haven't had the time to do those last minute touch ups. It's currently a mix between function (the spices and kitchen stuff) and collectibles. All are still dust collectors, but at least I don't hate it right now.

P.S. How much better does the new kitchen color look than the kitchen we bought? Gah! Fools!

Celebrating mcMuffin

The second baby never gets the same amount of celebration as the first (which makes me totally glad I was the #1 child in my family's birth order). But to my exceeding surprise, people have already started to help me celebrate our "mcMuffin" (mcNugget was first, we needed to differentiate). I had a wonderful dinner with some work colleagues last week, and although we're not due until September, they wanted to celebrate with me in person. They surprised me with a toast, and gave mcMuffin his/her first set of gifts - which was so very special to me. I smiled the whole way home!

And this had been the most amazing desserts I've ever had. It was called a Kit Kat from a restaurant called Elements in Princeton, NJ. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of it sooner - it was seriously the best thing I've ever eaten. Isn't it sweet how the restaurant gave me a congratulations? The servers, the maître d, everyone congratulated me. They really were top-notch there. Five stars to you Elements!!

Another Item I'm Counting As Green

Happy Environment Week!

The only thing that sucks to me about painting is the cleanup. I hate that we have to scrub the brushes and scrape and waste water to clean up the paint tray - or just throw the inserts away later. I hate how the paint tray ends up looking like something I don't want to use - rusted and scratched. But now I don't have to hate those things anymore. Look what we found.

The paint tray is coated in Teflon - and the paint drys on it enough to just peel off. Yeah. Its completely awesome. Sorry the paint happens to be the same color as the tray... I'm sure you get the general effect.

Newsflash: the Outdoors are In

It's spring here at east sixth, and I'm loving it.  Everything seems to be blooming left and right. So I borrowed these outdoor cuttings from our neighbors just over the fence in our yard. I had enough of the little cuttings left over to make two enjoyable vases. No way was I going to buy myself flowers when there's beauties like this to be had for free.

Not sure what it is exactly, but they had wicked thorns! I totally love the pink in my new dark grey kitchen too. :)

Month 8

Dear McNugget,

Month 8 has been all about freedoms - both for us and for you. For you, freedom is *almost* crawling. You can now officially move yourself, but only backwards when laying down and with a energy-burning combo of reaching-kicking-leaning-and scooting when seated. It certainly isn't for lack of trying though! Your daddy has been the biggest hero with tummy time - he just really knows how to work with you. Over the last week, you began to flip from your back to belly and now do it all the time: when getting a diaper changed, when playing, when going to sleep. You'll be crawling before we know it - time to babyproof I guess!

One of your favorite things to do is watching other kids, and we've found you talking to yourself and even trying to kiss on your adorable self in the mirror. You're quite popular at daycare, with all the teachers taking special trips on their break to come visit you. When we go out and you see another kid - you just light up. And you love sitting and chatting with the other babies. Its just so super.

You've finally seemed to get over your fear of grandpop and uncle Sean. You even blow your grandpop kisses when you see him. He just hates that! You still don't say anything beyond the regular baby-babble, but you know what the word "up" means, and respond to your name regularly.

You're still a fantabulous sleeper - basically 7pm to 6:30am every night. And car rides are perfect naptimes as well, so we get lots of travelling in on the weekends. Our nightly routine is a quick bedtime story (if we're all not too tired), saying our prayers, and a kiss from mom and dad. Turn on the music nightlight, swaddle you up, and you're out like shout in 5 minutes. We're seriously lucky and love watching you on the monitor every night.

This month you tried out the swings for the first time (though they were a bit big for you) - and of course you loved them. You think the dogs barking and running around like crazy are purely for your entertainment. I can't wait until we see you chase after them for the first time. Your favorite color is yellow (you'll always choose the yellow toy rings, or try to play with our yellow prints on our shirts or Daddy's Livestrong wristband). You also like anything shiny and metal - like my necklaces, your 'bling' rattle to chew on. And I guess that's because you have your top two teeth trying to break their way in. You'll have those in the next few days I think.

As far as baby-fashion goes, you're never short on cute things to wear. We dress you in a headband every day, since your hair is still too fine to put something in. And your hair is dirty-blond - and your eyes still blue with flecks of green/hazel. Yeah, I never thought I'd get a blond-hair, blue eyed baby, but we can thank your dad and aunts/uncles for that I guess. You're still a tiny thin peanut- although very healthy looking. You've started to "grow into your cheeks" and amazingly, you just keep getting cuter and cuter all the time. I'm so glad I had a little girl.

It's ridiculous how lucky you've made me feel every single day. You make me light up every single morning - no matter how crummy I slept or how early it is. When I see you, my heart just grows a little bit bigger. I wish every night that I could share that feeling with the world. Thank you for being in my life and for being such a fantastic little baby. Happy 9 months punchkin!

xoxo,

Your Mama

Just a little trim...

On Saturday I got a haircut - and donated 10" of my hair to Locks of Love! Its been growing for about 2 years now - with the help of my pregnancy to speed it up. I hadn't had it cut in so long - months - and it had just gotten a little unhealthy. It was also hard to take care of with a nearly 9 month old pulling on it and spitting up in it.

Oh and I'm pregnant again - 16 weeks along - maybe you can see the baby bump in the first photo? So I'm feeling blah about my looks anyway and needed a change. :)

So here's the before and after of my new do... I LOVE it. I was a little nervous about it before hand - its a big change; the husband doesn't like short hair; would my face look fatter; will I be able to keep up with it? But I think its perfect for summer - and this pregnancy can help it speed up growing it back if I want it to. And its a nice thing to do.

My new "mom" hairstyle is actually about 12" shorter than my old one, and my hair was layered, so they wont be able to make a wig out of all my hair, but they can sell or whatever they do with shorter layers.

Jen's Maternity Photo Shoot

Here's the latest of my photo adventures. Taken with my new Nikon D3100 (which I LOVE) in mid-March I went to a local park with my friend Jen to do her maternity photoshoot. I'm really pleased how they turned out despite the gloomy and chilly weather. The clouds parted during the last 15 minutes for us though; she's beautiful pregnant and I know will wear motherhood just as well!

Click here to view this photo book larger

More Cuteness Abounds

And another cutie - who OBVIOUSLY gets whatever he wants. Little cuddle monkey. Could you say no to his face?

Another Day Another Room To Paint

Just because we've lived here for 5 years doesn't mean that we've run out of things to fix to our liking. Like the kitchen. Last weekend made it either Paint #3 or #4. First North Carolina Blue - to at least "work" with the 4 feet of peach tile that surrounded the room. Then Red & Yellow. I think there may have been an attempt somewhere either before the blue or between that and the red/yellow but I can't remember. Each time has been an obvious improvement to us.

Here's the red/yellow color scheme. It was a bit chaotic for us with all the colors - and even a little bit country. It was definitely warm and homey - we've just learned that we're not the warm & homey couple.

Okay, so are you ready for the big change? No really, its big. And not for everyone. We may even have to repaint for whenever we move. But we LOVE it.

So to us, the cobalt grey really blends everything else in the room together. The black-grey counters, the white cabinets, and even the yellow sink. The white looks so clean and modern now - instead of chaotic and yellowed. I've swapped out our cute Italian cook plates above the cabinets for four $4 silver/white/gold ones I got at homegoods, and added a few other yellow, white, and chrome accents that I've had around the house. We still have to change out the light fixture, touch up a few spots of the trim and refinish the coffee station - but I love it. The best part? At night the grey takes on a blue tone and the blue and gold, white and black remind me of my wedding!

Warning: Serious Cuteness

Everyone says mcNugget gets cuter each week, and I believe it. Have you ever seen anyone so happy to chew on highchair straps? She's like this ALL THE TIME. God is reminding us to be happy - even when he only gives you high chair straps and a photo-crazy mom for entertainment.