My Big Birthday Surprise

A BABY GIRL!!! The quick version of the story: Sunday morning, we had just finished a big pancake breakfast to celebrate my birthday, I stood up and my water broke! I couldn't believe it. By that evening, we had a precious 8 pound, 3 ounce baby girl in our arms. We are home now, grateful for this new life and still trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we now have a daughter!

Take a Look...Holiday 2009!

The 2009 Holiday Collection is now available! You can see the entire collection on our website [www.bwisepapers.com], or in our online catalog [also below].

b.wise holiday collection - issuu home

What's new for the 2009 collection?

-- NEW ACCORDION CARDS!! -- Two styles [the quotable and the snapshot] that are both three panels that fold over one another to give you room to share more pictures and messages.

-- Introducing backside printing -- We are now offering complimentary black and white printing on the back of all of our cards. Have a new address or family news you want to share? This is the place to do it. Enter information in the personalization field on our website, and we will format it and send you a proof.

*AND an added bonus for early shoppers -- if you place your holiday card order before November 9th, you will receive an additional 25 cards on us. Need 100 cards? Order and pay for only 75 -- we will give you the extra 25! [**Please note: Additional 25 will not appear in cart, but will automatically be added to each order placed before Nov. 9th. Not to worry -- final quantity will be confirmed when proof is sent. Offer applies only to custom holiday cards and cannot be redeemed for cash value. Questions? Please don't hesitate to contact us!]

Walk Like an Egyptian

Check out these pictures my dad just sent me from a trip my parents took to Egypt in the early 90's [he sent them because the boys did not believe them that they had been to Egypt!]. How surreal are those backgrounds? The one below looks like they could have been photoshopped in there...

[I love my mom's glasses in this picture...I remember wanting some just like them when she bought them even though I didn't need glasses. And my dad's Ray-bans -- can you say Top Gun?!]

My mom said there were numerous occasions when men tried to trade my dad a camel for her -- can you imagine??! He was also offered an oriental rug.

Anyway, kind of a random post, but I thought these were fun!

Blessed Supplies

As if I needed another reason to like office supplies, check out these Supply kits designed by Mike McVicar as a student project. Great packaging with an entertaining twist. Here is his description of the project:

The Patron Saints of design desktop supply kit is a blessed set of essential supplies for graphic designers. This packaging project features four patron saints of different aspects of designs, cutting and measuring, typography, adhesives, and drafting. Each of the four containers features information about the saint along with the appropriate tools like scissors, type specimen book, tape, etc.


I was emptying my Kindergartner's back pack this weekend and all of his papers were literally crammed and crumbled into the bottom. It made me laugh because I have these distinct memories of when I was in Elementary school watching the boys in my class do the same thing and thinking "why are they doing that? Everything is going to get ruined that way." I tried to flatten everything out, but it's still pretty crinkled...


[Supply kit first spotted on thedieline.com]

Succulent

How much do I love Succulents? Very much. The boys have made friends with "The Succulent Lady" at the Farmer's Market, and come home with some beautiful and interesting plants. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to make them look something like these from Modern Economy:


How great would those look on our dining room table??! Plus, if I can muster up the patience for dirt all over the place, the boys would love putting these together...I'll let you know what happens!

37 Years Ago...

...my mom and dad were married! It was 1972, and the hairstyles and clothing were priceless. I love this picture of them walking down the aisle with me dad's hair flying out to the side. His grandmother had bribed him to cut it before the wedding [it was evidently past his shoulders], and he came walking in with "the Dutch boy cut" as we affectionately refer to it now. And you can get a tiny glimpse of the Pepto pink bridesmaid dresses in the back...they also had ruffles edged in lace. Their wedding album always makes me smile...and makes me wonder what my kids will think of ours in 30+ years! Happy Anniversary!!

Art for the Kids' Rooms

I've been doing a little art hunting on Etsy lately for the nursery and the boys' room, and one shop where I could buy many, many things is Yellow Monday. They have some really wonderful pieces...

Birthday Party Guest by Yellow Monday, $25 for 21cm x 30cm print

Horse and Rider 2 by Yellow Monday, $25 for 21cm x 30cm print

Little Owl Dance by Yellow Monday, $30 for 7 x 9" print

Candy Crate

Our sweet friends in North Carolina sent us this fun basket-o-treats, filled with vintage classics like Tiddly Winks and a Kaliedeoscope. It seriously made our day. Such a great idea for a fun housewarming gift. [The website listed on the packing slip is candycrate.com]




And the Jelly Bellys were a particular favorite...


Thank you, McMichaels -- we miss you guys!

Play Table

Remember the play table I mentioned yesterday? Here it is! My dad built this for the boys, and it was an instant success. The drawer pulls out to reveal an enormous stash of Legos and Playmobil, all nicely contained in an easy to access, impossible to dump out receptacle. Such a beautiful thing.


And he built in a rod to hold a roll of paper for coloring:


They seriously worked on this mural for over an hour...

Labor Filled Weekend

Not baby labor [one month to go before that!], but work labor. My parents and sister came down to help us finish up some projects around the house -- hanging window treatments [to me, one of the most unpleasant things], putting in molding, more painting, etc, etc. And Weez came bearing gifts, beautiful gifts, like these pillows:

I love them. I've been detouring through the Living Room all weekend just to look at them. [The fabric is Lee Jofa]

And these curtains:

It's amazing to me what some window treatments will do for a place. I've got some more pictures to hang, and then I'm going to try and get some before + after pictures up. The place finally feels like it's coming together.

My dad also made this amazing play table for the boys, but I've got a separate post coming on that...

What else did we do? We watched football and we ate...a lot...Ben tried out the smoker for the first time this weekend, and it was a huge success...


Hope your weekend was a good one!

Bring Some Chocolate, too!

The next time you are headed to a dinner party, consider bringing some of this delicious looking chocolate along. Brix chocolate is specifically formulated to compliment lighter reds and dessert wines. Plus, the packaging is outstanding -- the wood grain box alone makes me drool. And as if you needed another reason, as it says on their website, both the cacao bean and red wine are rich sources of flavanoids, a heart disease fighting antioxidant. You can pick up a variety pack of Milk, Medium + Dark here...

[first spotted on lovelypackage.com]

Petit Chic

I'm sure many of you know about Petit Bateau -- beautiful, well-made, and super soft [ideal for babies] clothes for your little one with a not so little price tag. In other words, the kinds of colors and patterns and cuts [a lot of their boys pants are slimmer fit, which is perfect for 5-yr-olds with no hineys!] that make me so happy, but that are totally unreasonable to send my kids to school in just to get ruined -- unless, of course, a fairy godmother dropped a bucket of gold coins in my lap. The fall collection is now available...be tempted, and then maybe just splurge on a few tiny little things...it always seems to happen around here!

The Table

It's finished! Ben's table that he has been working on for quite a while [about 10 years from the time he chopped up the wood] is officially complete. We had our inaugural dinner party on it this weekend, and it was perfect. The table is made out of walnut that he got from a tree that had fallen in his friend's backyard. His friend called him and said "my landlord is about to cut this walnut tree up for firewood" -- can you imagine??!


Still trying to figure out seating since the Morrow chairs are no longer available...I keep thinking [hoping!] that they are going to reissue them...

Babboe

I was browsing the New York Times this past Sunday, and when I saw this picture I instantly ripped it out:


She's got three kids in there!

I did a little google search to try and find out more about these Babboe cargo bikes, and unfortunately, most of the info is in Dutch. It's always the Dutch that come up with these cool bikes! I did find out some more info on the bikes at Spark Design.


And a YouTube video of one in use loaded with kids:



Does anyone out there know more about these/how to get one in the states??

[Click here for the official Babboe website]

To School

It's official -- I now have a child in big school. You know, not preschool, but the big old elementary school? He couldn't be more excited about it...


And was waving us out of his classroom...

I, on the other hand, wanted to stay and follow him around all day just to see what he was doing and if he was making friends with the other kids in his class and if he was eating his lunch. Since I can't, I'll distract myself with happy thoughts about school in general, like this box of chalk...


That's a happy thing for sure.

P.S. you can see our new door color in the top picture...freshly painted this weekend, and I love it!