Andrea Scher's Pregnancy Memory

My favorite pregnancy related memory actually happened long before Ben was even conceived. My now husband Matt and I had been dating for about six months when I laid my head down on the pillow to sleep next to him one night.

As I closed my eyes, I saw a flash of an image: It was like a photograph, one that I had taken, of Matt wearing a hiking backpack with a wee boy in the back. They were both squinting at me in the sun (looking impatient that I was taking another photo)... and I knew instantly that Matt was my husband and the little boy was our child.



It took two more years for Matt and I to marry, and despite our best efforts, three long years to conceive Ben. But through all of that time of infertility, through endless acupuncture appointments and doctor's visits, and through all the sadness and despair that came it, it was this picture, this memory, that I held onto.



It was the one thing that gave me faith that our boy was coming. I had seen him, and he was real.

From Andrea Scher of Superhero Journal.

Liz Fuller's Pregnancy Memories

When I was pregnant with my Sylvia, I watched the corn fields near our home grow just as she was growing in my belly. As they grew a little taller, my belly got a little bigger.

I was having a girl.



A true tom boy at heart myself with two boys at home, I felt scared to have a girl. I was worried I wouldn't know how to fix her hair. And bread, I didn't even know how to make home made bread! The endless list of traditional feminine skills I never had interest in learning began to suffocate me. I worried I would not be ideal for her. That surely this gender was misplaced into the wrong family, didn't the stork know I can't even twist together a respectable French braid!? I was concerned this little girl of mine would find me a big fat disappointment in the department of any and all things female.

The corn was getting taller and that meant she was coming soon. And I still had not learned how to bake bread! I remember being at the mall one day and selecting a first purchase just for her. A little red pair of shoes. It sounds silly for a little treasure like that to change my heart, but it did. I began to realize I had a lot to offer her, after all. That no matter who she would become or interests she would have, I would do what all mothers do best. Support her in her life. From astrology to fashion, arithmetic to nail polish I will guide her in her interests just as I do with my boys and their Bakugans.



Most importantly I will continue to work at being a good person, always refining my character as I lead these children by constant example.



My favorite moments during my third pregnancy were each and every time I thought of her. What she might be like and what her interests might be one day. What a privilege it is to be her mommy. And who knows, maybe one day she'll be teach me how to bake bread.

From Liz Fuller of Backward's Attraction.

Jennifer James' thoughts on Pregnancy

The very first time I met Gabrielle was at a Disney Mom Bloggers event last year. I was immediately struck by how stylish and beautiful she was. I mean, this woman can rock some clothes! It's amazing. I was also struck by how nice and generous she was. I absolutely loved meeting her and her presence stuck with me ever since. Gorgeous. Stylish. Mother of five. And unbelievably friendly. I love her!

Fast forward to August of this year and we attended the same event in San Francisco. This time we got to bring our kids and Gabrielle brought along Ralph, the sweetest kid on the planet. I had the chance to see Gabrielle as a mom this time and she is just as I had imagined: very cool, loving, affectionate, caring. Quite simply, Gabrielle is an amazing woman and mother.

A few weeks later when I heard Gabrielle was pregnant I was beyond thrilled! Pregnancy is such a lovely state to be in. I loved every moment of both my pregnancies and look back on those months with dreamy eyes. Save the early morning sickness, I felt the best I ever had when I was carrying my daughters who continue to sprout before my eyes.



I can only imagine how delighted the Blairs are to be expecting their sixth baby. Just being around Gabrielle and Ralph for a few days I know for sure how love dwells in their home and how generous they are raising their children to be. During the event Ralph allowed my oldest daughter to use his iPod Touch. He didn't put demands on her or even stand over her shoulder to make sure she didn't break it. My daughter was amazed. So many children she comes around are selfish with their possessions. That showed me, again, how amazing Gabrielle is as a parent. It showed.

I wish Gabrielle the happiest, healthiest, most amazing pregnancy on the planet. She deserves it because of who she is and the lives she touches. Plus, I can't wait to see how she rocks her maternity clothes!

From Jennifer James of The Mom Salon.

Laurie Smithwick's Pregnancy Thoughts

Bob and I had been trying to get pregnant for almost a year and it had finally worked. Somehow I convinced him to come with me to the OB’s office because, you know, he absolutely had to be there every step of the way. It turns out my OB/Gyn performs an early ultrasound at your first visit, just to confirm a “baseline” healthy pregnancy. So there we are, staring at the underwater outer-space forms on the tiny screen, with the OB decoding all the circles and clouds for us. She finds the baby’s tiny fluttery heartbeat and Bob and I laugh, thrilled, relieved and amazed. Then she’s quiet for a minute or two and finally says, “Okay, now I’m going to show you guys something that’s going to really freak you out.”

Bob and I look at each other. Really? Is she allowed to say things like that?

“See that circle? That’s your baby. And it looks great. And that cloudy area there is blah blah blahdy blah blah.”

“Oh get on with it please,” I want to say. “What are you trying to tell us?”

And then she points to something on the screen and says, “Do you see that circle there?”

I see it.

“That’s your other baby.”

At which point Bob and I explode into maniacal laughter that lasts for two weeks. No, seriously, every time we looked at each other we started to laugh. For weeks. Two babies.

Nine hilarious inflated months later, we become the proud, delighted, overwhelmed, underslept, blissful, and terrified parents of identical twin girls.

And seven years after that, looking back on that day in the doctor's office, I believe I can see a lesson: Learn to embrace the lack of control that having kids brings into your life.

Gabby, I know you don't need to learn this lesson -- you are the guru of acceptance. But it can never hurt to be reminded of just how very little control we have over even the most major events in our lives. And when that loss of control gives way to things like this:


...which can then give way to things like this:


...it's hard to miss it too terribly much.


Super humongo congratulations to you, Gab, and Ben Blair, and your whole fantastic gang. But the biggest congratulations of all go to Baby Six, who has no idea what a dream of a family he/she has landed him/herself in. Bravo to you all.

From Laurie of Leap Design and Kirtsy.

Practical Pregnancy Advice from Jenny the Bloggess

Advice for women who are too pregnant to function anymore:

Inevitably your husband will come home to find you unable to move under the weight of this gigantic fetus you are carrying and will want to know why the house is a mess and dinner isn't made and then you'll want to stab him because this is all his fault but you don't have the energy to find a clean knife.

And you'll want to explain how completely exhausting being pregnant is but men never understand so whenever Victor would say "How can you be tired? You hardly did anything today!" I'd respond, "I made someone's ear canals today. Inside my stomach. Without even using my hands. What did you do today? Paperwork? God, how exhausting. I MADE SOMEONE'S NERVOUS SYSTEM."

Then my husband would walk away, suitably impressed. Or scared. Either way he left me alone. And this is how you have a successful marriage.

from Jenny the Bloggess.

Hands On Small Business

We interrupt these lovely pregnancy-related posts to make a special announcement: Kirtsy and Microsoft Office Live have teamed up to host 100 Hands On Small Business sessions.

Seriously. One hundred sessions! And guess how much each session costs to attend? Zero dollars and thirty-free cents. That's right. All 100 sessions are FREE to attendees.

The 100 individual events will happen between October 5 and November 20, in 20 cities across the United States and Canada. You can find the list of cities here. Each session will be hosted and led by Kirtsy editors, Kirtsy founders and Kirtsy friends — who just want to get together to show all you entrepreneurs and small business owners out there some new (and maybe not so new) cool things that will help make running and promoting your company easier, smarter and definitely more interesting.

So if we’re coming to a city near you, please plan to join in on the fun! And bring your laptop if you have one. But don't bring any money. Because these sessions are free (did I mention they are free?).

You can find out all the info you need to know at the Hands On Small Business site. You can find out all about the awesome instructors. The excellent variety of dates.

So get ready, and get set to go save your spot on your favorite scheduled date.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Joslyn Taylor's Pregnancy Memory

There were all manner of magical happenings when I was pregnant with my girlies: the first kick, that sort of glowly, endorphin-drenched daze that perpetuated my second trimester, and of course the birth —oh my, nothing tops that moment when you finally meet your child after what feels like eons of waiting and hoping and wondering… But my most poignant memories were the moments spent with my oldest daughter Audrey while I was pregnant with her little sister, Millie.

I was acutely aware during the entire pregnancy that this was the end of an era with Audrey, she’d no longer be an “only”; we’d no longer be a unit of three. Everything was about to become bigger, rowdier, more complex (and I truly believed) infinitely more fun. But I wanted to be sure Audrey and I had plenty of time to savor each other before our family became four. We went on a few family trips, planned lots of special outings and adventures and, every. single. night. before bed, she and I would sit on the floor and do a little pregnancy yoga together. Mostly it was just holding hands and stretching, but it was sweet and quiet and we connected to each other and to the new life about to join us.

From Joslyn Taylor of Simple Lovely.

Stephanie Brubaker's Pregnancy Memory

During my first pregnancy (and unfortunately subsequent pregnancies as well) I experienced morning sickness the entire 9 months. As a result, I relied heavily on my husband to take care of meal preparation. At one point in the pregnancy my husband was required to leave town for an entire week to complete some work training at company headquarters.

This felt like an eternity at the time and he and I became very concerned about what I would eat while he was away. So, he did what any outstanding husband would do...he went grocery shopping and then spent 6 hours in our tiny San Francisco kitchen making meals for the entire week. He placed a few in the freezer for me to reheat and a few in the fridge to eat first.

I remember going to bed early that evening and occasionally waking up to the oven timer beeping, or sizzling food in the cast iron pan. I smiled to myself and then went back to bed feeling very loved. I count this as one of my favorite memories during our {almost} 10-year marriage.

From Stephanie of Stephmodo.

Karen Walrond's Childbirth Memory

Alex, photographed September 16, 2009.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am about Gabby's wonderful news. I've only known Gabby for a couple of years now, but in my completely unprofessional opinion, this woman is made to be a mom, isn't she? When I look at her, I always think of the mother in "Little Women" — her children are surely blessed to have her to look up to, and this little one on his (her?) way is no exception.

When Gabby asked me to share a story with you here today, I immediately thought of the day my daughter Alex was born. Alex's birth story is one of my favourite memories thus far in being her mom. It's a bit of an unusual story, since she came to us via an open adoption: in other words, we have a relationship with her birthmother. While her birthmother was pregnant, I was able to go with her to prenatal doctor's visits, and, bless her, she invited my husband and I to be present at Alex's birth. It was a really cool experience — I'd never seen a child born before — but it was actually what happened immediately after Alex was born that made the event absolutely unforgettable. And even though I suspect that most expectant mothers at the point of childbirth, are a little ...well, preoccupied, let's say, what with the whole in-the-middle-of-giving-birth-thing, I tell Alex's birth story to every expectant mother, in the hope that just maybe she might be able to catch a glimpse of what I saw, during the birth of her own child.

So anyway, to the story: the baby was born, and she was upside down in the doctor's arms, and he was cleaning all the birth gunk from her face and neck. At this point, I was sort of numb, and my first thought was that it was not possible that this little, tiny doll-like being was going to come home with us in a couple of days.

My second thought was that this baby was the most beautiful shade of cerulean blue I had ever seen in my life.

Alex's birthmother asked, "Doctor, why isn't she crying?"

The doctor replied, "I don't want her to cry just yet. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her throat. Just one second."

The doctors and nurses kept doing their thing. I wasn't nervous, because they seemed pretty calm. A few more seconds passed, and then, just as I was wondering if I should be nervous, the doctor said:

"Okay, she's going to cry ... now."

And Alex inhaled. She just took this great, big, huge, breath ...

... and she turned pink. First her arms, then her hands, and then her legs and her little face and chest. And as crazy as this may sound, I am absolutely convinced that we'd just witnessed Alex's soul, which had been waiting in the delivery room with us, flying into her body, and giving her life. Even more, I absolutely, unshakably believed, at that very moment, that this little girl was meant to be ours, and that had we not been waiting there for her — had her birthmom decided not to place her, or has there been another adoptive family in the room — a different soul would've entered her body, and she would've been a totally different person.

And then she started to bellow.

Anyway, Alex has proved me right every day since. She's just .. well, she's just like us, I suppose. She gets our senses of humour. We're such a tight-knit family. We're a team. We fit.

So, I guess the point of all of this is that when you become a parent, whether by giving birth yourself or via adoption, you have to believe that God, or Allah, or Fate, or the Universe or Whatever You May Believe In has a plan. Trust that the child you bring home is meant to be yours and yours alone. It has always been this way. It will always be this way.

Congrats, Blairs. May your family ... your team ... continue to grow as tight-knit as ever.

From Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks.

Lindsey Johnson's Thoughts on Pregnancy

Lindsey, with her third child, Babetta, born last summer.

Pregnancy is one of those things in life that no amount of reading or advice from family and friends can ever prepare you for adequately. The same goes for that first moment you hold your new baby fresh and warm from the womb.

Like many women, I have my share of funny stories about pregnancy woes. I have heartwarming moments that will forever be with me in my memory.

I spent hours talking to my belly with each of my three pregnancies. There were sappy professions of love and undying devotion to being their mommy. There were mundane descriptions of traffic along the Bronx River Parkway on my way up to monthly appointments. There was music played and hands pressing firmly into my fleshy belly in hopes of feeling the gentle (or sometimes hard) kick or poke from a developing limb.

Each pregnancy taught me a different lesson about life. My very first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 10 weeks. That experience taught me not to take the fragile miracle of life for granted. It taught me to stop blaming myself. It taught me yearn for something more.

Over the past 5 years and three full-term pregnancies, I learned new things about myself. I'm stronger and braver that I ever thought possible. I learned patience and endurance.

I learned funny things. For instance, I will never be able to look at a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli again. Or drink another glass of strawberry flavored Tang. And that if I am going to enjoy a splash Frank's Red Hot sauce, I better follow it with a chaser of Pepcid AC and Mylanta. I also became a pro at peeing in a cup and massaging my sore sciatic nerves each night.

More than anything else though, I've learned that love knows no boundaries. Love is not divided between husband and subsequent babies — it multiplies, it matures and deepens, it blossoms and flourishes. I learned to appreciate and love womanhood and the divine roll we play as mothers and nurturers.

And it is all worth it....even on days like this.


Lilly, Fritz, and Babetta posing for our Christmas card picture...that we never sent.

From Lindsey Johnson of Café Johnsonia.

Amy Turn Sharp's Pregnancy Advice

Amy, Finn, and Joe on babymoon in Miami.

Congrats Dearest Gabby and Family
Pregnancy is such a wonderful time in a woman's life!
You are growing a human! YOU ROCK!
Life is amazing and mind blowing!
I LOVE that you are bringing another cool and kind person into the world!

Some things I remember about being prego:
*I never stayed hydrated! Drink Gabs Drink!
You have such a full life and I am sure you attend to everyone else first — but just try and remember to drink tons of water. It makes for a happy mama body and mind. Keep a pretty carafe with a small water glass by your bed and work space.

* Yoga pants are your BFF!
(Old Navy size up last a long time.) Rock out as much non maternity as you can. Buy pieces you can wear after the baby too. I like a caftan! I love a tunic. Liz Lange tight black long sleeve tees! Dresses really are so simple when pregnant. You always look chic though gal. I can't wait to watch you guide us through your mama wardrobe!

* Shoes. I like a wedge when I'm knocked up!
I give up the heel. I bring out the the trusty guns. My feet are also size 11 now. Eeeks! Like Paris Hilton! They were 10's two boys ago.

*The wish for Freedom.
We are free to do what we want! The issue with motherhood I have found is sometimes other mothers can be a bit critical of each other. I wish we all would just support each other more. We make the best choices for our families and babies and issues from breastfeeding to labor to attachment parenting to sleep techniques and we should never be questioned. We need to rally around each other as women! Go LADY POWER!

*Rest is paramount.
With a large family, you should carve out time on your calendar now to have some help that is designated for you NOT working and JUST Sleeping! Schedule sleep! Take care of you! But have fun too! Everyone should take a wee weekend away before the baby comes no matter how many kiddos you have. Ask for help when you need it. Really. Ask for help when you need it.

*Document it all.
How many of us loved this blog this year? OH MY! I was guilty of not allowing anyone to photograph me while pregnant with my boys. I wish I had not been so silly in retrospect. Take photos of your beautiful body! You should use your awesome house DIY projects as props! Belly shots on a rocker or by your new family table?

*Don't be stressed if you can't journal or write down things because your so busy!
Everyone does things differently! My second son does not even have a proper baby book! We instead make mix tapes of music that mattered to the boys, write letters to the future when we can, use flickr and blog the family now. I make up new traditions each year! Just go with the flow. Find what works for you!

Life is so amazing. Oh yeah — BABY NAMES!!! How fun is this? I must go before I get the FEVER myself!

From Amy Turn Sharp of Doobleh-vay.

A Little News

photo of Ben Blair and me making out (sheesh! get a room already.) by Candice Stringham.

Friends. I'm expecting a baby.

Yes, this was planned (I can't believe you even asked that! Just kidding. I would totally ask it too.) — in as far as you can plan such a thing. And we think we're super lucky. When we shared this news with Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, and Betty, they were shouting and dancing and hooray-ing around the room. We feel the same way. What's happier than the thought of a new little person joining our family?

I'm sick. Pregnancy sick. Which is strikingly similar to a deep and abiding flu. But we're very excited all the same. And we're trying to celebrate this likely-it's-our-last-pregnancy as much as possible (we're thinking this is the end of the line for us as far as baby-making goes).

As part of the celebration, I've reached out to dear friends and bloggers to help. I've requested pregnancy memories and pregnancy advice from the 4 corners of the blogosphere and I'll be posting the responses here all week.

One last thought: even though this was planned, it has somehow still come as a bit of a shock. How will we manage another baby? Who are we to think it's okay to bring 6 persons into this crazy world? There's something that seems unfair about the whole thing — considering couples that can't conceive at all. These sorts of thoughts have been on my mind a lot — and most likely I'll address them in a future post.

But today, I'll just be happy. And feel blessed that I get to be a mother.

Anorak

Look how happy these Anorak magazine covers are. So fantastic. I've never seen a copy in person, but I just requested an issue — here's hoping the contents are as exciting as the covers. Do any of you subscribe?

Darlybird Giveaway

Hello Friends! Get ready to do some shopping. I've got a $150 gift certificate to Darlybird for one lucky winner. You already know Darlybird is the go-to spot when you're looking for an eclectic and charming collection of gifts, homegoods and happy little objects. Where else can you find things like a velvet ruffle purse, a necklace made of wool, and this gorgeous leather bracelet? Plus, Darlybird totally gets that spending has slowed for just about everybody — and they created the bargain-priced Recessionista Collection in response.

Leave a comment to enter. I'll pick a winner on Monday, September 28th. UPDATE: Rachel of Darlybird has generously offered a 20% discount on purchases to Design Mom Readers. Fabulous! Just use the code DESIGNMOM at checkout.


Plus also. Here's a little related blogging history. Darlybird was my very first Giveaway sponsor back in the day. Which is awesome. Here's the (longish) story:

In November of 2006, I hosted my first Giveaway. I had been blogging for 4 months. I was watching my stats and knew I had about 200 readers a day. But I had very few comments. So I conceived of a contest where I would get a company to sponsor a prize and I would have people enter by commenting. I realize this happens all the time on thousands and thousands of blogs today, but at the time, no personal blogs that I knew of had done such a thing. Maybe they'd given away an object from their house as a semi-joke, but that's it. There were no sponsored giveaways except on corporate blogs and sites. And even those were fairly rare. The point being: my little giveaway was the first that I'd seen.

I contacted Darlybird, who I had already posted about earlier, and let the owner, Rachel, know about my plan to encourage comments and promote her shop at the same time. She got on board asap with some great prizes. And I posted the giveaway with much apprehension. Would anyone enter? Would there be cheating? Was this a bad idea?

But it worked! About half my visitors left a comment. It's fun to read them in retrospect. A few were suspicious: Is this a blogroll trick? they asked. Others were delighted with this new concept — GirlconQueso called me the next Oprah. It was amazing. Even more amazing: within the month, personal blogs all over the place adopted the same model — copying and pasting instructions from my blog, or adapting their own. And the giveaway scene was born.

I've been told my Darlybird giveaway was the first sponsored, comment-to-enter giveaway on a personal blog. I have no idea if that's true or not. But it would be interesting to know. At this point, it's hard to even remember blogging before giveaways. : )

Yay for Darlybird and giveaways!

-------------------

Update: Congratulations to Nellie! You are the lucky winner. Have a fabulous time shopping at Darlybird.

Mormor Kitchen Series

In another life, I will have a kitchen that's all white with a little bit of blue. And I will fill it with things like this from the Danish Mormor Series.

Tossed & Found

This is my latest project inspiration book. It's called Tossed & Found, by Linda and John Meyers.

Like the best project books, this one is crammed full of clever ideas and pretty pictures and clear instructions. As I do with pretty much all project books, I responded to about 75% of the ideas with a sort of meh reaction — maybe they don't hold personal appeal for me, maybe they require more effort than I'm willing to expend. But the projects in the book I love, I really LOVE. And I also can't get enough of the sketch pages.




This dresser doesn't show well in my photo, but in the book, it's easy to see how awesome it is. I want.

Put together by a husband-wife team (which is always inspirational) — the wife is a former graphic designer/art director, the husband used to head out displays for Anthropologie.


Maybe my favorite thing in the book. They converted an old school boombox to work with their iPod. For sure I'm going to copy this.




This chandelier makes me super happy. If you will build this for me, I will pay you.

Periwinkle Bloom

The photo styling in this line of children's clothes by Periwinkle Bloom is perfect. Makes me want to buy one of each.

Baby Shower

Katie sent links and photos to the beautiful baby shower she threw for her friend, Rachelle — and I just had to share. So lovely. You can find Katie's post about the invitations here. And her post about the party here.

Soy Underwear

Apparently, they are made of soy by-products. And come as a 3-pack in a compost-able burlap bag. Thoughts?

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

No doubt you've seen this already, but I keep watching it over and over. So good. Makes me miss New York.

Jay-Z - New Music - More Music Videos

Mama K's Play Clay

Ooooh. Look how pretty Mama K's Play Clay colors are. And the scents sound absolutely delicious — chamomile, lemongrass, geranium — mmmm.

Thanks for the link, Genevieve.

Jane, The Pink Robot

Go here. Press the play triangle. Then press any letter key. You will be rewarded. (Possibly, your children will like this even more than you do.)

Thanks for the link, Eliza!

An Awesome Book. For You. And For Someone Else.

Remember my post about Dallas Clayton's An Awesome Book?

I really like his story. The book is great. He publishes it himself. And he sells out as fast as he can print them. He organized his own book tour (see a video clip here). And the raddest part: he just introduced a buy one, give one campaign.

For every book he sells, he's going to give a book away. Personally. From his hands to a child's hands. So great! You can learn more about it here.

Les Petites Chefs Birthday Party Report

Seriously. It was a fantastic party! Really amazing. And it would have been equally great for girls or boys. If you live anywhere in the metro Denver area, bookmark Sticky Fingers — if not for a birthday party, then for their kids cooking classes — they are a class-act all the way around. Here's the report:



About an hour before the guests arrived, Sticky Fingers showed up to prepare the space. They brought balloons. And the most colorful assortment of kid-friendly kitchen ware. I couldn't stop taking pictures. (You can click the photos to see them bigger.)

Once the guests arrived, it was time to decorate chef hats. With stamps, stickers, markers, ribbons and every other sparkle-rific material.




When the chef hats were sufficiently glamorous, it was time to get down to cooking (after thorough hand-washing of course). The recipe was posted on an easel and the kids made the gnocchi from scratch. At each step, the Sticky Fingers girls gave kid-friendly, patient, cheerful instruction ("When you're using a knife, make a bridge with your hand and then cut under the bridge..."). The guests measured ingredients. Cracked eggs. Grated cheese. Mixed. Kneaded. Rolled and formed. (For those of you who are worriers, please note that there were at least 3 additional hand-washing sessions throughout the cooking process.)




While the gnocchi boiled, they worked in teams using morters and pestles to crush lavender, then mix it with honey, oil and vinegar for the pasta topping.



The gnocchi finished cooking just as the dressing was complete. Then it was time to feast. It was a pretty exotic meal as far as kid food goes — Parmesan and Ricotta Gnocchi over Peaches with Prosciutto and Parmesan plus Honey Lavender Dressing. But the guests loved it!




As everyone finished their meal, we brought out the pretty cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday.




For party favors, Sticky Fingers brought laminated recipe cards featuring Olive's special recipe. And we included ruffle-y aprons as well (Bonus: I went to Jo-Ann's to pick up fabric to make aprons, but found these cute red and white ones for $2.50 each. Yay! Because, really, I was out of time and not looking forward to a late night sewing aprons...)

While we opened presents, the Sticky Fingers girls cleaned up every last crumb and loaded up their car. (Best part of hiring out your party!) Olive was super pleased with the whole thing. So were the guests. So was I.

Loads more photos here.

My Famous Sister-In-Law

My sister-in-law, Margaret Blair Young, was featured with her co-author Darius Gray, in a PBS segment. It's all about their documentary, Nobody Knows — The Untold Story of Black Mormons. Fascinating stuff. If you're extra-curious about the topic, Margaret and Darius also wrote a historical trilogy on the topic.

And Margaret is fabulous in the interview. So is Darius.

(Fair warning: it's a full 1/2 hour program.)

More Cricut Exploration

Since I've had the Cricut out making birthday stuff, I decided to mess around with some alternative materials. My first attempt was using Paper Lunch Bags to make luminaries for lining the sidewalk. And my second was using a Hot Tamales package (have you seen the vintage packaging they're offering?) and making an oversize tag. The Hot Tamales really got me thinking about our household paper waste and what I might be able to remake and reuse with the Cricut.

Friends. I am totally falling in love with this machine.

What about you? What are the coolest projects you've seen created with alternative-materials (non-scrapbooking papers/fabrics) and the Cricut? Please share.



My suggestion to the Cricut crew: when you put a tool like this in front of a designer, our first and best instinct is to want to customize the diecuts or create our own. We can't help it. It's how our brain works. Here's my idea. Make a Template Store on the Cricut site similar to the App Store for the iPhone.

Let designers (or anyone that knows their way around Adobe Illustrator) have access to your template guidelines/software/etc. Then, they'll send in their completed templates to Cricut — which can have some sort of quality committee to make sure certain standards are being met (and to avoid porn-y or inappropriate templates) — this is what the iPhone App Committee does. Then Cricut can sell the templates in their online template store for download. Cricut would get a cut. The template creator would get a cut. Different templates could go for different prices depending on complexity and popularity. Everyone would be happy.

The only trick is getting the downloaded template to interface with the Cricut machine. I'm thinking the easiest fix would be to enable the Cricut machines with a usb port, then users can put their downloaded templates on a flash drive and install the flash drive through the usb port. I have no doubt older machines could be retrofitted with some sort of usb adaptor.

Anyway. More technical then you probably want to read on Design Mom. But I think it would be amazing to have access to hundreds and hundreds of templates created by designers with all sorts of different aesthetics. And to create templates myself. Plus, I think it would expand the market beyond the scrapbook crowd like crazy. I guess that's why I didn't really know about the Cricut in the first place — I've spent so little time exploring scrapbooking materials.

Hey. If you want to get in on the Cricut action, there are a couple of big Cricut-related contests going on. Visit Today's Mama to see their Great Escape Contest — you could win a Cricut or 4 New Cartridges. And Cricut itself, is running a Great Gypsy Escape Contest — win one of 200 Gypsies or one of 20+ travel packages. Nice!

Sseko Sandals

Fall is almost here, but when I saw these summery Sseko Sandals I had to share them asap. Handmade by women in Uganda, the straps are interchangeable and can be worn lots of different ways. Aren't they gorgeous?

Order a pair now and make plans for a mid-winter tropical escape. : )

La Maisonnette

Like many of you, I have been following Stephmodo as she renovated an ancient stone house in France. I felt like cheering for her when I read the house was complete. Yay!

Any of you that have participated in even minor house renovations know how stressful it always is — but Stephanie reported throughout the whole process with such grace and beauty and patience. I couldn't be more impressed. With Stephanie. And with the peeks of the house she's shared so far.

La Maisonnette is now available to rent. You can see the listing on VRBO (and the prices seem very reasonable for a house that comfortably sleeps 6 and has every possible amenity).



I keep looking at my calendar to figure out the perfect time Ben Blair and I might rent it out. Maybe with some of my siblings. Or maybe as a spot for a Kirtsy retreat. The only thing: I wish I could rent out Stephanie (and her multi-talented husband) as well — wouldn't it be lovely to have them there as personal tour guides?

Mika Nash Prints

I think these prints by Mika Nash, titled Crayons, Mountains and Trees, would be fun to design a room around.

Olive's Les Petites Chefs Party

I'm really looking forward to Olive's birthday party this weekend. It's going to be a busy day — Olive will have her party in the morning, and then be baptized in the afternoon. It's a double whammy. Although I love putting on fun parties for my kids, I am so lucky I found Sticky Fingers to handle things this weekend — the double event has me feeling too crazy to give the party as much attention as I'd like.

These are the options Sticky Fingers offered for the party activities:

Choose your meal.
• Four Seasons Pizza: roll out honey-wheat dough and personalize with seasonal toppings
• Gnocchi-n-Cheese: squeeze it, roll it, top it! Ricotta gnocchi dressed with a creamy, cheesy pesto sauce and an assortment of seasonal toppings is decadently delicious!
• Upside-Down Pasta and Tomato Sauce: fresh tomatoes, basil and cheese, topped with warm pasta to create better-than-ever spaghetti.
• Noodles & Soup: practice your (butter) knife skills on tofu for your miso soup, peel carrots for a soba noodle salad, then sit down with some chopsticks to the messiest meal of the bunch!

Choose your craft.
• Pasta Art: decorate and string fun pasta shapes onto ribbon to create bracelets, necklaces, bookmarks, & more!
• “I’m the Chef” Placemats: personalize a special placemat that’s yours to use each time you help with dinner! Placemats feature fun mealtime games and will be laminated once decorated.
• One-of-a-Kind Chef Hats: add your own unique flourish to a special white chef’s hat that lets everyone know who’s in charge in the kitchen!
• Cupcake Decorating: a classic birthday treat becomes even more delightful when decorated just as you wish with colored frosting and fun toppings!

Choose a cupcake flavor.
Pick from the many delightful daily and rotating flavors available from Happy Cakes Bakeshop, our cupcake partner!

Olive picked the gnocchi, the chef hats and vanilla-flavored cupcakes. Perfect. Basically, that means my only responsibilities are invitations, decorations (if we choose to do anything in addition to the balloons Sticky Fingers are bringing — I'm hoping to use the Cricut tonight to make up some garlands), and party favors. And let's be honest, those 3 tasks are my favorite parts of planning a party. I think it's going to be great!

You can find out more about Sticky Fingers parties and classes here.

Pop-up Placemats

How cute would these pop-up placements (with stickers!) be for a party or the kid table at Thanksgiving Dinner? See Hello Hanna for more (non-robot) options.

Eco-Me Cleaning Supplies

Eco-me, a company offering mix-your-own-cleaning-supply-kits for home, body, baby and pets, has come out with a new pre-mixed line featuring simple ingredients. No, I mean REALLY simple ingredients — think vinegar, baking soda and olive oil.

Has anybody tried these? The packaging is pretty. I'd love to know your thoughts on how well they clean.

Electronic Arts

I was just thinking of the San Francisco trip with Ralph. Although we spent lots of time with family, we were officially there to visit the Electronic Arts campus and studio. Electronic Arts (or EA) is one of the biggest game makers in the world. What a perfect destination for a trip with Ralph.

I can't say I spend much of my personal time gaming, but I tell you, I'm such a sucker for behind-the-scenes events. I love getting to meet artists and creators, to see the creative work spaces and get a glimpse of the energy behind a company.



I am not exaggerating even slightly when I say we spent 90% of our EA time playing video games. It was pretty much awesome like that. The schedule: visit the studio where the new Spore Hero game was developed (Spore Hero will launch in the next month, so this was a sneak peak). Meet the creators. See the cool office space. Visit the crew of guys who are paid to play the game and test it out (don't you love that? it's a real job!). Then sit in a room with a dozen Wii consoles and try out Spore Hero for ourselves. For as long as wanted to.




Next on the list: let's all sit on some hip, low gaming couches and try Spore Hero Arena on Nintendo DS. Sweet! That was day one. Day two was similar but at a different location. On the schedule: Visit the EA Campus. Get a tour of their enormous facilities (which include a full-size gym with bleachers). Then meet the creators of a handful of game titles from the EA Play line. Games like Harry Potter 6, Littlest Pet Shop, Nerf and My Sims Agents. And of course, we could play the games as much as we cared to.



That was the highlight for Ralph for sure — sitting with the creator of My Sims Agents (it will be out September 29th) and just playing the game. Exploring the options. Getting tips from the actual master. Ralph was super happy about it. He still talks about it and has My Sims Agents at the top of his wishlist.




It was a relatively small group of bloggers, but we all had kids with us (some had several kids in attendance — spouses too), so the group felt quite generous. And all the kids got along swimmingly. There are lots of photos of the event (mostly photos of all the adorable children) on my flickr page.

Funky Lunch

Are you kidding me — how great are these sandwiches? Raise your hand if you love Charlie and Lola. Cute for birthdays or special days or for turning regular days into special days. Click through to see loads more ideas.

Thanks for the link, Laurie.

Ouef Fall Collection

I felt the first chill in the air this weekend and I immediately thought of this charming image from Oeuf (you can see their Fall Collection here). Are you ready for cozy fall clothes?

Les Petites Chefs Birthday Party Invitations

It's going to be such a fun week! Saturday, we're having a birthday party for Olive. The theme is "Les Petites Chefs" (how chic! how French! how very Julie and Julia of us!) We're bringing in the ladies from Sticky Fingers Cooking to teach the party guests some kitchen how-to. But more on the party details later. Today, I want to share the invitations.




Last week, I was sent a Cricut die cut machine to test out, so I decided Olive's party invitations were the perfect reason to pull it out and see what it could do.

After playing around with the Cricut for a while to get comfortable (I had never even seen one of these machines before, so I really had no idea what to expect) Maude and Olive and I designed some invitations that would use a million diecuts and really show off our mad Cricut skillz.





Basically, we cut out oversize hangtags (I'll note here, that cutting out all sorts of shaped tags in all sorts of sizes and colors will probably be my most used Cricut feature), and used the new From My Kitchen cartridge to cut out assorted cooking-related shapes we could display on the tags.

Then we attached the kitchen-themed tags to wooden spoons. So adorable! We actually tried 3 different ways of attaching our little tags, and couldn't ultimately decide on a favorite. So we gave out invitations using all 3 versions (and used up a bunch of my ribbon scraps in the process — love it.)

What do you think? Next up to work on: party plans and party favors.




-----------------------------------

Hey. If you want to get in on the Cricut action, there are a couple of big Cricut-related contests going on. Visit Today's Mama to see their Great Escape Contest — you could win a Cricut or 4 New Cartridges. And Cricut itself, is running a Great Gypsy Escape Contest — win one of 200 Gypsies or one of 20+ travel packages. Nice!

Raspberry Season

The raspberry crop here in Colorado is pretty awesome this year. Our cousins, the Sabeys and our friends, the Lattins, both have plentiful raspberry patches we've taken advantage of. What are you harvesting right now?

Recycled Treasure Box

How was your weekend? Did you try out the sexy, smoky eye for a hot date Saturday night?

I loved my weekend. Friday night was a Relief Society Retreat at a ginormous mountain house in Dillon. (For the uninitiated, Relief Society is the name of the womens organization at my church.) During the retreat, we played a game where everyone writes a true, interesting story about themselves (one example was, "I won $6000 in Las Vegas from a slot machine."). Then, 3 people sit at the front of the room. One of the statements is read (the statement is true for one of the 3 people at the front, but the other two have never heard it before). Then the audience gets to ask questions of the 3 people to try to determine who this event really happened to. One person answers the questions truthfully, and the other two have to make up their stories on the spot.

Personal discovery: turns out I'm a really good liar.

Another fun thing from the weekend. This rad box (pictured at top) made from old rulers came in the mail. It's maybe the coolest office accessory ever. It was an unexpected gift from our friends, the Rathers (pictured here when they stopped by last month for an afternoon visit — they were driving home from a Rocky Mountain vacation to their home in Kansas).



We love the Rathers! They were some of our closest friends in New York before we both moved. We love their 6 beautiful boys. And we loved getting to spend a couple of hours with them — we only wished it was longer. Thank you, for the fun gift, Rathers!

How To: Smoky Eyes — by Guest Mom Allison Czarnecki

I adore smokey eyes more than words. There's something so gorgeously alluring about them, and they look really complicated and intricate so you can trick people into thinking you spend a lot of time on your makeup. Because stuff like that matters.

I've long coveted the eye makeup of someone whose name rhymes with Jim Bardashian. I can't bring myself to say her real name, but her make-up is ridiculous. And by ridiculous I mean awesome. So, I *might* have spent some time on her website and some more time looking at magazine shots of her face. *Sigh*, I know.

We're back to square one. Remember the blank canvas? Pretend the pictures are right here because that's where you want to start.






That wasn't even hard at all, right? And I need to point out that a smokey eye doesn't have to be done with black, it can be done with any color. Smokey is just a style. Purple is really hot this fall and I'm dying to do a smokey eye in plum.



Never ever, ever leave the house with smokey eyes and red lipstick. It's too much. Nude lips are what you're after. And by that I mean almost opaque beige. Or you can go with Saavex, which I do on a regular basis.

Wasn't that fun? I honestly can't help myself when it comes to cosmetics. Thanks so much for having me on Design Mom this week, I had a ball. And my crazy talented dear friend wanted me to point out that I never mentioned where my husband was from when I told you he's an immigrant, like it must have been a bad place. For the record, he's Polish.

You can find more of Allison at Petit Elephant.

How To: Everyday Eye Makeup — By Guest Mom Allison Czarnecki

I'm not implying for one second that any of you don't know how to apply makeup. I just happen to live and breathe all things beauty, and if someone had shown me how to do this several years ago it would have saved me hours in front of the mirror. But that's half the fun right? I'm going to show you how to do two looks: everyday and a smoky eye. The top pic shows you everything I use to create the magic.

I'm a MAC makeup devotee. I still have MAC eyeshadow pots from college; they're really high quality and they last forever. If you don't know what colors look good on you, book a make-up session at your local makeup counter {it's free} or enlist the help of a stylish friend to give you some ideas.



Honestly, makeup is a little bit addictive. I can't remember a time my toenails weren't painted {really truly} and it's a bad day if I'm not wearing at least lip gloss. I had samples of Avon lipstick in my underwear in Kindergarten and I'm always trying to make-over at least one of my girlfriends. It's a sickness.

Here is what I do for everyday makeup:








Wasn't that easy? Takes me 5 minutes max and I look so much more polished when I'm done. Next up: smokey eyes.

How To Wear A Scarf — by Guest Mom Allison Czarnecki

Scarves are still all the rage in the fashion world right now and I'm breathing a collective sigh of relief for all of us, because scarves are hawt. They're our friends, and we want to keep them around for as long as possible. Or until the Europeans are done with them, whichever comes first.

The sky is the limit with scarves. Think of them as just one more accessory in your arsenal of hotness. Wear a scarf in place of a necklace; it can compliment a really cute plain tee and make you look just that much more put together. If you don't know how to wear one no worries, I'm about to show you. I'll even hold your hand every step of the way.



1. Drape your scarf lengthwise down your arm.
2. Fold it in half.
3. Pull the halved scarf behind your neck. Hold open one side with your fingers. With your other hand hold onto the tassels.
4. While holding open the halved end of the scarf, push the tassels through the hole.
5. Pull tight.



You ready to try another one?



1. Hang scarf loosely around your neck. Make sure it's about evenly divided.
2. Loop the piece of scarf in your left hand all the way around your neck until it comes back around the front.
3. Now we're all back at the front again right?
4. Even up the sides and pull tight around your neck.



If we want to get crazy and take it one step further we can wrap the ends around and tuck in, like so.



See? Totally painless, and now you can accessorize with the best of them. What do you think? Do you have some great scarf tying tips the rest of us need to know?

Find more from Allison at Petit Elephant.

At Cookie

Hey Friends. I posted a great house tour of Liz and Jared's apartment in San Francisco on Cookie's Nesting blog today. Lots of great ideas! Take a peek.

And don't miss my last Nesting post about affordable custom Toy Portraits by Jennifer Maher.

Book of the Week — Mocking Birdies

Have you seen Annette Simon's Mocking Birdies?





Very clever. About two teasing copy cat birds who learn to blend their voices to create something new. Simple, graphic illustrations make the story all the better. Find it at Amazon.

An Outfit for Fall — by Guest Mom Allison Czarnecki

I live in Utah, so I live for sweater season. You would too if sweater season started in September and lasted until May! Anyway, it's finally time to pull my old favorite sweaters from the back of the closet so I can mix the wardrobe up a bit.

I have a new favorite cardigan already, and I thought it would be fun to share an outfit I've come up with using the sweater. Longer, cardigan sweaters are all the hotness this season. Pair them with skinny jeans or leggings for a perfect all-around-town look.

What do you think, are you a fan? I have a feeling I'm going to live in long sweaters, leggings, and boots this Winter. And that's a good thing.

Find more from Allison at Petit Elephant.

I've Got Soul, But I'm Not A Soldier

Guess what happened 5 minutes ago.

Ben Blair found out that The Killers are playing at Red Rocks. Tonight.

So he bought us tickets.

Can't wait.

photo here

Autism Posters

It's 2009. Autism touches everyone's lives in small and big ways. I like these autism awareness posters by the Rugh Family Workshop.

"The Rugh Family Workshop was started by Jaime & Jeffrey Rugh for their children. Collaborating as artists with family, old friends and new friends, the workshop started making posters to promote awareness, support and compassion for individuals, families, and communities living with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The posters vary widely in range, focus and design as does the spectrum itself."

How To Wear Jewelry — by Guest Mom Allison Czarnecki

I'm a big fan of jewelry. Cheap jewelry, expensive jewelry, I love it all. My favorite pieces of jewelry are my wedding ring and a pair of earrings I bought on the street in New York City for $1. I don't really discriminate when it comes to pretty baubles.



Friends ask me all the time: how do you know what to wear together? I don't know actually, there really isn't a science to it. I don't really care what's hot or what's not, I just know what I love and will wear regularly. If you find something you love, you'll find a way to wear it.



The trick is not to wear it all at the same time. Sometimes I see photos of celebrities wearing 10 pieces of jewelry and they're all competing with each other; you don't really get to appreciate each piece. To me that's missing the whole point of jewelry, which is frankly a travesty.



Here's my general rule of thumb for accessorizing an outfit: wear one statement piece, the rest will complement. So if I'm wearing a big ring, I won't wear a big bracelet. If I have on huge earrings I either skip a necklace or tone it way, way down. Make sense?

My go to places for finding great accessories: Forever 21, Charlotte Russe and Stella & Dot.

When I visit big cities like New York or L.A. I buy jewelry off the street for less than $5 each piece. It doesn't have to cost a lot to wear cool jewelry but when you find something you love, snatch it up. You never know when you might find just the right necklace on a street corner in San Francisco.

Find more from Guest Mom Allison at her blog Petit Elephant.

Rocking Chair Project Progress

Thing I learned this weekend. Rocking chairs have lots of nooks, crannies and curves. They are not easy to paint. : )

Here's a sneak peek of my progress on the Rocking Chair Project. My goal is 7 chairs — one for each member of the family. So far I have 5. They were all found locally on Craigs list at prices from $10 to $40 each. (I found #6 on Craigs List this morning and will pick it up this evening. Yay!)



I had lots of green-tinted primer left over from the piano, so I used it on the rocking chairs. I'm such a brat about wasting things like perfectly good primer. It bugs me to no end. When I realized the colors I was using on the chairs were bright enough to cover the green primer, I was delighted to use it up instead of buy more.

At the paint store, I inquired about polyurethane and how I should handle painting these indoor chairs for outdoor use. They recommended using a high-quality exterior paint and skipping the poly. They also warned that the intense colors I was picking were sure to fade in the sunny Colorado sun. But I went for it anyway. I can always repaint if they get too faded. I bought quarts of exterior paint in red, orange, yellow, green and blue. (#6 and #7 will be turquoise and magenta. I think.)

Warning: the intense colors take several coats of paint. In fact, none of the chairs pictured here are finished. If you could look closely, you'd see they all need an additional coat (or two). In fact, the green one has only been primed. This project will take at least another weekend. Probably two. Plus, I'd really like to add bright cushions and pillows...



But what I'm loving about this project is: you kind of can't go wrong.
- Almost any style of rocker would work in this eclectic mix so it's easy to add more — for guests, or if your family grows. Wouldn't a couple of child-size ones be cute in the mix?
- If a chair gets worn out (they are bound to, being left outdoors), it's easy to replace. And you'll have plenty of paint leftover to transform the new addition.
- When painting, if you don't do the best job ever, it's okay. They're outdoor chairs and will be used pretty roughly. Mistakes won't matter. These don't have to be refined. I'd say only 1 of the 5 I have so far would be worthy of stripping the paint and refinishing — meaning, these aren't heirloom chairs, you don't have to treat them like they are.
-To save money, you could paint or stain them all the same color. I was tempted to go royal blue for my whole collection. Instead of buying 7 separate quarts of paint, I would only have needed one gallon. And I think they would have looked equally cool in all one color.



A note on budget. I planned on $50 per chair ($350), plus painting supplies. But I've been able to score on chairs, so it looks like the whole project (7 chairs plus paint) will come in at about $320. Not bad. You like?

Welcome, Allison!

Hey Friends. I've got a happy announcement today. We've got a rad Guest Mom in the house! There's been a bit of a Guest Mom break as summer travel and kids-out-of-school took over everyone's lives. But September is here and that means schedules are back in place and that means Guest Moms are back on the schedule.

We're starting up the Fall Season with Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elephant. I met Allison a couple of summers ago at an outdoor showing of The Muppet Movie. She brought me yummy homemade jam and (not coincidentally) captured my heart. I'll let Allison tell you a bit about herself in her own words.

5 things about me:

1. I'm the mother of two beautiful children: a 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son, which is the most defining and important part of who I am.



2. I'm married to an immigrant. He claims to have a firm grasp on the English language {he's been in the U.S. since he was 9} but I disagree. He wasn't a citizen when we got married and contrary to popular belief, marrying a citizen of the U.S. doesn't really speed up the immigration process. I don't really care where he came from, he's the love of my life.



3. I threw a wicked cool party at BlogHer this year. The stress of it nearly killed me, but it was one of the proudest moments of my life. Bringing together corporate sponsors with my favorite bloggers? Well, it makes me emotional just thinking about it.



4. I unintentionally stalk bloggers I adore until we're besties. {You're next Ree}. Stalk is such an ugly word; it implies un-reciprocated love. It's cool if I call you Gabby right?

5. I blog daily at Petit Elefant my family lifestyle blog, but I'm all over the place because I. Love. Blogging. Can't wait to hang out on Design Mom this week & share some of the things I love.

Thanks for having me, Gabby.

Weekend Report

We played all weekend with our friends the Lattins. Saturday night we hit the divey Morrison Inn for chimichangas. Sunday we all spent the afternoon in our newly painted rocking chairs. And Monday we ate watermelon in their shady backyard before hitting the neighborhood pool. We ended the weekend with shakes, onion rings and burgers at Fatburger.






By the way, if you get the chance, I highly recommend the half-a-watermelon idea. It was a wonderful (easy) way to spend a sunny afternoon. Tell me about your weekend. Did it feel like an end of summer celebration? Anyone ready to start thinking Halloween?


I'm thinking this image captures "end of summer" pretty perfectly.

Swatches

Remember Swatches? Sometimes I forget they're still around. I like these kid versions by illustrator Matthew Langille.

Labor Day Weekend

This is it, folks. Last official weekend of Summer 2009. Big plans? Keeping it laid back? Both sound equally appealing to me.

On my weekend to-do list:
-Paint the rocking chairs.
-Work on Olive's birthday invitations.
-Find a desk for Ben Blair.

Speaking of Ben Blair and summer, he sometimes tells a story of living in Greece and trying to survive a long, hot summer. At one point, he took the biggest watermelon he could find, split it in half lengthwise, gave half to his buddy. And they both proceeded to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

I think that sounds like a good Labor Day plan. We'll pick up a bunch of watermelons and each kid can attempt to eat an entire half. Followed by a thorough hosing down on the lawn. : )

Have a fantastic weekend!

Blonde Designs

New designs available from one of my favorite stationery lines, Blonde Designs. (How cute are those twin sheep?) The designers are both former art directors at Martha Stewart. I'm enjoying their new blog as well — lots of sweet ideas. Like making a back-to-school sign for first day pictures.

Best British Designs of 2009

I checked out the candidates for The British Design Awards 2009 this morning and left my votes. There are two categories: British Design of the Year and British Surface Design of the Year. You can vote once in each category. I wonder if my vote counts if I'm not British? Who knows. The editor of the collection has a terrific eye — everything is beautiful. It was hard to pick a favorite.

(By the way, if you take a minute to vote yourself, don't miss the Absolute Zero Degrees ‘Omega’ wallpaper — the designer is an internet friend of mine. He has my vote for sure.)

Wild Thing Mural

The internet just delivered something wonderful to my inbox. A time-lapse video by Grassroots Modern of a Where The Wild Things Are mural being painted on a bedroom wall. (For the record, I didn't intend to focus on Where The Wild Things Are this week, but sometimes themes just happen.) The mural artist is Tony. You can see still images of the mural here.

Time lapse films are pretty freaking awesome, don't you think? I never seem to tire of them.

Thanks for the link, Azucar!

Th Big Boy Room from Creede on Vimeo

Harvest

I'm late to blogging today, but how can I sleep without getting my creative fix? Blogging...oh how I love thee.

I saw this little "ode to a summer garden" on Sugar City Journal and fully related. Our decent-sized garden spot has been a study in neglect this year. The tomatoes are still arriving in all their glory. The cucumbers were glorious. But almost everything else has suffered at our out-of-town-too-much hands.

How goes your harvest? I'm still holding out for some decent mini-pumpkins...

Big Orange Balloon

I'm dying over Tracey Clark's image of the prettiest balloon ever posted on Shutter Sisters. How dreamy would it be to see this in person?

Where The Wild Things Are

I love the texture in the sewn header of the "We Love You So" blog.

The blog is new to me (I spotted it on kirtsy. It was posted by the super stylish Karey M). Apparently the blog was "established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project [the new movie, Where the Wild Things Are] a reality."

I must introduce it to Ralph, who is obsessed with all things film.

A More Convenient Crib?

Michelle just emailed me with photos of the crib her husband designed and built(!). It looks super hip, but the best part is the bonus feature. Apparently her husband polled a bunch of moms to find out what they would change about their cribs, and the overwhelming response was: it's hard to access the mattress when it's time to change the sheet.



His solution: a roll out feature for full access to the mattress. Fantastic, no?

Musee Mecanique

I'm remembering all the fun, touristy things we were able to do in San Francisco (in no particular order):

-Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge.
-Swam at Chrissy Field (not technically the Pacific ocean because we were in the bay, but we're counting it).
-Visited the Lucasfilm campus in the Presidio.
-Had custom fortune cookies made.
-Picked up charming candy at Miette in Hayes Valley.
-Ate deep dish pizza at Patxi's.
-Had Ralph's Birthday Dinner at Terzo.
-Picked up ice cream at Bi-rite Creamery — I had brown butter pecan and salted caramel.
-Saw Ferney Studio on Valencia street.
-Hung out at the Ferney's and the Stanley's cool apartments.
-Rode a cable car.
-Ate fresh crab and shrimp from a Fisherman's Wharf vendor.
-Visited Musee Mecanique — and took photos in a vintage photobooth. (All the photos pictured here are from this museum. It's free to enter. Bring a few dollars in quarters, or use their change machine, and you'll be good to go.)
-Drove to Coit Tower at night.
-Drove down Lombard street.
-Drove across the Golden Gate Bridge at night and the Bay Bridge during the day.
-Visited the Palace of Fine Arts at night.
-Stayed at Hotel Adagio near Union Square.
-Rode the glass elevators in the Westin on Union Square to see amazing views of the city.
-Ate a late breakfast of baked goods from La Boulange.
-Had a short visit with Jesse of CoTweet.
-Ate warm cookies from Speciality's.






Not bad. Especially considering we spent 2 days doing EA stuff. (I'm working on my EA post, hopefully it will go up tomorrow). Best part. Even with that long list, we didn't feel rushed. San Francisco is just the right size and seemingly really easy to get around. Thanks to Jordan and Paul for doing the organizing and driving and navigating. Thanks to Jared and Liz for playing along and letting us wake up Henry late at night. It makes me wish all my kids could have such a trip for their 12th birthday.

More photos from the trip on flickr.

Mirrored Stairs

Just got a dose of inspiration from these beautiful stairs. Via etc.

Spotted on Kirtsy via the amazing MaryEliz.