5 Months

Inspired By [ Balloons ]

I've been working on some new designs, and for some reason I'm finding balloons inspiring. Why? I don't know. Geometry? Maybe I miss my 10th grade geometry teacher Mr. Torbert. Probably not, as math and I haven't always been the best of friends. We were like besties in 9th grade Algebra. Man, I rocked Algebra. And we were still friends in Geometry, but then we had to spend a lot of time together after school in 11th grade -- Calculus. I was ready to part ways early on, you know, no hard feelings? Unfortunately for me and my report card, I had to stick with it. I got out of that relationship by the skin of my teeth!

Once I wrap up the designs I'm working on, I should see if you guys can guess which one[s] was[were] inspired by balloons. Inspiration can be a funny thing [Did you hear Simon last night on American Idol? "You are a funny little thing aren't you?" Cracks me up!] -- you never know where it will go...

[Images clockwise from left to right: Snippet & Ink; Amy Atlas; Brooklyn Bride; Martha; The Red Balloon, Ohdeedah; Brooklyn Bride; Martha; Brooklyn Bride; Style Me Pretty]

Across the Pond

Guess where Ben was just asked to speak at a conference? You'll never guess because I wouldn't have. For a US historian, I would've guessed, you know, Kansas or Pennsylvania. No folks, he has been asked to go to COPENHAGEN! As in DENMARK! And guess who else gets to go? ME!

Denmark has this mystical, magical aura about it. And Scandinavian design -- ooh-la-la -- I love it! My first reaction was to jump up and down on the bed screaming "WE'RE GOING TO DENMARK!!!" And then all the logistics kick in -- um, remember the three kids? The older ones aren't as tricky, but baby girl will most likely have to come with us, which makes me a little nervous -- we've traveled tons with small kids on planes, but only in the US. I've never taken an international flight with a child. Come to think if it, I haven't traveled overseas since 2001 -- I am WAY overdue! So, any advice from you guys [Hilary, you're probably an expert in this area!] would be awesome, more specifically,

--Would a child under 1 year need her own passport?

--Have any of you been on a 9+ hour flight with a tot?

And as if I needed any other encouragement, check out these images of local homes taken by Richard Powers:









I think it might be time to go dust off the old passport!!! Who knows, we may come back looking like these youngsters...

[from copenhagen street style]

Love

A little late on this post right? Valentine's was last Sunday! But I've actually thought a lot about love over the past two days. [*BE FOREWARNED: if you don't have kids and/or have a weak stomach you may just want to look at the image and move on...I'm just saying...*] My oldest came down with the dreaded stomach bug a couple nights ago. I can roll with most things that come along with small kids -- give me a split lip or strep throat any day. But a stomach bug? UGH. So, as I was rubbing my son's back at 2 a.m. while he was getting sick, my mind started spinning: "will the others get it?" "will we all get it?" "after three pregnancies filled with vomit, haven't I had enough of it for a lifetime?!" But then, I had this moment when I realized [I say "I" but I know it wasn't me] -- this is love. Raw, unconditional love. Love that is roll up your sleeves and jump in dirty. Here it is; just be in it.

While that doesn't make that particular moment any more pleasant, it does make me glad. Glad that my son has a mother. Glad that I get to be his mother. And I hope that way more often than not our kids will feel that kind of love in our house -- that through the good, the bad and the ugly they have parents who stick by them.

Anyway, that's what is on my mind today...hope your weekend is LOVE-ly!

[I thought it would be kind of me to accompany the not so pleasant image of a child getting sick with this contrastingly pleasant image from Country Living via Sweet Paul]

P-A-P-E-R-C-U-P-S

I'm digging these abc paper cups by IaM Design. The boys would love them, although I do have visions of myself sifting through the entire pack to find an "h" or an "s"!




And I think it would be funny to have them when my sister comes to visit because she is SO not a morning person and I would love to spell out "H-O-T" with her coffee!

[Spotted on thedieline.com]

A Peony for Your Thoughts

The Peony is my favorite flower. I love them. I would have a yard full of them if I could. Sadness for me, peonies need 4 distinct seasons, so I don't think they would do that well down here. Anyone tried to grow them in the South? Yesterday, Ben went on a peony search for Valentine's and came to find that they were in short supply because of this weird winter. I wonder if Martha's peonies are okay...have you seen her garden? It's amazingly beautiful...

Here they are on display at one of her parties -- check out the monster blooms!

[All images from Martha's blog, where you can read all about her party and her peonies]

I wish I could bring you all an arm full of peonies!

Sweets for my Sweets

How fun is Valentine's? I know for some it's not fun at all, but when you have kids it becomes this whole new holiday that isn't about romance so much, but friends and an excuse to eat sweets! We've been busy over here getting ready for school parties...

[Strawberry cupcakes topped with vanilla frosting and sprinkles/Nerds candy; I tried to sneak and top all the cupcakes with sprinkles, but the boys caught me and protested "I don't like those kind!" so we compromised]

[Pretzels dipped in white chocolate with sprinkles -- we just melted white chocolate morsels and dipped the pretzels in. Very fun for the kids to make, especially the sprinkles part, and they are delish. I used the paper dividers from the foil cupcake liners to separate them into different portions]

[Ring Pop Valentine's -- bought the rings 3 for $1 at Target and then taped the little Valentine message on the top. Super easy and what kid doesn't love a ring pop?!]

That's all for now -- hope your weekend is a fun one!

Kitchen Installation

Our latest house installment took place in the Kitchen...an island! Ahhhhh...more storage, larger work surface, extra seating. Speaking of which, I've been on the search for counter stools now. There are oodles of options out there...

I'm leaning towards stools with backs so the little munchkins don't fall back. I'll let you know what I decide on, and hopefully will have some Before and Afters soon!

[All images except the last one from My Home Ideas; I found this site through Nelya's blog]

Flying Through the Air

This past weekend, we worked on getting the nursery put together -- she's only 4 months old, so I figure it's about time! I've been looking for a mobile for a while now, and I increasingly like the idea of birds. Maybe because it seems so natural for birds to be flying through the air. There are some beautiful ones out there [some pictured above], and I found some amazing inspiration on Ohdeedoh. I even toyed with the idea of making one -- I love the whimsy of the origami birds in particular [bottom left] and since I don't sew [I SO wish that I could] I thought it may be something I could handle. Side note: there are some great tutorials out there for making your own mobile, like here and here, in case you are interested. But then I came across this one on Erica's blog, and I think this may be it...all the whimsy I'm looking for without any labor on my part! When it comes down to it, I just don't have the time to make one, and I'm afraid she would be over it by the time I did get around to it.

Can't wait for it to arrive!

[Images clockwise from left to right: Ohdeedoh Modern Eclectic; Ohdeedoh Modern Haven; Spool Bird Mobile; Ohdeedoh Crane Mobile -- How-To; Birds of a Feather, Helen Ige, spotted on Ohdeedoh]

Checks, Please

Check Plaid, Check Checks...I'll take them any way I can get them!

[Images clockwise from top left: anyone?; martha; sis cafe; anyone?; burberry; atlanta homes and lifestyles; ditto; sis cafe; center - see by chloe dress]

If We Lived In Japan...

...perhaps my kids would go to a school that looked like one of these designed by NAF Architect and Design...

[check out the water fountain in this one!]

We Partied Hard!

This weekend we went all out for our pajama wearing, Star Wars loving little man...

We didn't decide on the "theme" for this party until I was designing the invitations. That's kind of how things work in my head [and how things roll at our house!]-- get started on something and see where it goes. The picture for the invitations was from Halloween, and then I did a little googling to find out Star Wars lore [I grew up in a house with all girls, and I still haven't seen a Star Wars movie in its entirety].

Once the invitations were sent, I had to come up with something to do at the party! Thankfully, there are tons of great ideas out there for Star Wars themed parties. Plus, we are dealing with 4-yr-olds, who mercifully aren't that picky as long as you provide something fun. I've learned from past parties that it's good to have a little activity for when the kids trickle in -- otherwise they get restless and "things" start happening. We filled our kiddie pool with sand and hid marbles in it [sidenote: it's kind of hard to find marbles! whoda thought? I bought the last packs from Toys "r" Us]. The kids loved this activity. It's got all the right themes going for it: digging in the sand, discovering bright and shiny little treasures. I highly recommend it -- they did this for a good 20 minutes at the beginning and then we rehid the marbles later on.

Then we had a light saber hunt...

They found them and started beating each other with them...which is why we went with FOAM sabers! They are actually pool noddles cut in half. They loved these too.

We turned on the bubble machine and they whacked bubbles [how cute is princess Leia?!]...

Next up -- cupcakes topped with light sabers [pretzel sticks dipped in melted white chocolate and rolled in red sprinkles -- mmmmm!]

And Yoda Soda [I think one mother was appalled surprised that I was serving soda. What can I say except that it was green and didn't have caffeine and it goes with the theme! I brought her kid some water.]

And just in case they didn't get enough hitting, we had a pinata...the death star. It's actually a soccer ball upon which I added silver tissue paper. It looked a little like a disco ball, but they didn't seem to mind.

Along with their sabers, they all left with a goodie bag filled with Star Wars Pez [I found some at Toys "R" Us and on ebay], M&Ms [has nothing to do with Star Wars -- boxes of 25 bags were BOGO at Publix] and a Star Wars yoyo.

When I asked him that night what his favorite part of the party was he said "Opening the presents." Oh well!