First birthday

Girlfriend entered the world one year ago today.

She is such a smart girl.
She walked at 10 months. She's working on running.
She says tek-yoo (thank you) if you hand her something.
She will hit you with whatever is in her hands when she wants your attention.
She says Mama, a-da (Papa), guh-ma (grandma), apple.
She loves her Grandma with an unbridled passion.
She tilts her head wayyyyy back and then flings herself forward, yelling AAAAHHHCHOOOO!
She can build a block tower and knock it down.
She grunts and breathes very very very heavily to amuse herself.  I have no idea why. Its like being followed around by Darth Vader.
She loves to be read to.
She's got 5.5 teeth.
She loves matriyoshka dolls.
She's already gotten her first (eight!) stitches, when she fell and busted her top lip.
She wants to do (and WILL do) anything the boys do. 
She likes to lounge on pillows.
She gives big kisses...mwah!

She's not the greatest sleeper.

baptised by Father Mike:

at Christmas:

 going out in the snow:

having a tantrum:

she likes to dance in her tutu:

Looking for trains to bash over her brother's head:

Pumpkin with her namesake great-grandma:

She's the sweetest thing. I love you, little miss.
~ Mama

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Ottomans I must own

Target has some lovely ottomans.  I wish they carried these in the stores, but the square ones look like they would be fairly easy to make with a cheap square coffee table and a staple gun. 

I

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Favorite nook

Currently my favorite nook in the house is a little bump-out gable on the side of the living room:

My grandmother has a similar chair that I loved growing up.  About 8 years ago, I went antiquing in Red Bank with my aunt Patti.  We rounded a corner, we both saw this chair, we both said "OOOOOH!!!" and ran for it....and she got there first. 

A year later I got married, and my aunt gifted us this chair.  Woohoo!  The seat was in need of repair, and one of my uncles was handy and agreed to fix it for us.  SIX YEARS later, the chair showed up on my doorstep.  (That chair became a running joke every time I saw my uncle.) 

I've since recovered the chair a few times.  Here is a picture taken with my phone, so it looks a bit washed out.  I originally covered it in a turquoise quatrefoil pattern, which looked lovely (I used the same fabric originally in the back of the bookshelves as well), but the turquoise was very very bright, and I was having difficulty making our red leather club chair look like it belonged in the living room. So I switched it out to the current fabric (Robert Allan Kiki Pinata), which has much more red in it and pulls the room together a bit more. 

The pillow and lamp are from Home Goods, the branch side table is from Target.  The curtains are from Ikea.  The curtains have a sheer cutout of a geometric pattern. 

The walls on either side of the bump-out have a stucco texture, and my daughter loves to hide back in the corner, licking the walls.  So i guess its her favorite nook too.

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Minutiae

I've been falling down on the blogging front....its been pretty busy around here.

This weekend we went to my cousin's wedding. It was lovely! My cousin married a Croatian girl, and let me tell you, you haven't been to a wedding until you've been to a Croatian wedding! Those people like to polka.

We also had Marsha's first birthday party (separate post forthcoming). I am exhausted from all the partying.

There's nothing like the thought of 30 people coming to your house to make you clean up your kitchen (and redo your bathroom). Of course, I did not take any before pictures, but honestly, you should thank me that I'm not subjecting you to the mess that was my kitchen before.

First, I made another cornice board for the kitchen window over the sink, just like the one in the bathroom, made from foam core board wrapped in fabric. I made it a wee bit too big, so instead of hanging it, its actually just wedged in between the cabinets.


Next, I removed the toaster oven and microwave from the countertop and installed them inside a free-standing cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. The picture below is where they used to be, and they took up the entire counter on that side.



While I am not exactly Annie Leibowitz, the picture above looks very slanted. The counter IS slanted. But not that slanted. Although you can see right next to the sink how the counter is buckled and wavy. That's not my photography.

The area above the fridge was a hot mess. Someone renting here prior to us took off the cabinet doors, and we can only find one of them, so we haven't reattached them. I hate hate hate open shelving, or anything open in the kitchen. Or generally anywhere else, for that matter. I have clutter, I just hate looking at it. Put it behind closed doors, please. So the area above the fridge was always an eyesore of plastic grocery bags, lunchboxes, giant containers of olive oil, etc. And moldy bread. Omg, the penicillin I threw away when I cleaned up there. The bread is no longer allowed to live up there.

Now, nicely corralled and sorted with pretty baskets from Target:

The toaster oven and microwave now live in a free-standing cabinet. Sadly, the two shelves now occupied by the microwave and toaster oven used to hold food items, which are now all crammed up into the upper left shelf. I will have to remedy this. Not sure how at the moment.


We also bought the kids new shoes. You may remember my previous rant about Geox and how much I hate their stupid holey shoes. However, after concerted nagging and whining by the 4 yr old, I buckled under the pressure (much like my counters) and bought the Geox. In my defense, they were 60% off. And the other shoes I was being nagged to buy lit up like a Christmas tree. I compromised with the white shiny vinyl.



I've tried to actively encourage Greg to wear the black Sperry topsiders when he goes out to play, so these shiny white shoes last more than a week. So, he goes downstairs to Grandma's apartment, walks into her kitchen, and informs Grandma "I can't wear my new white shoes on your kitchen floor, Grandma. Its too dirty, my shoes will get dirty." Grandma says "excuse me? What do you mean?" And Greg says, "Look all around! This place is filthy!" (Her place is not filthy, I assure you.)

Nice, kiddo. Inherited your mother's interpersonal skills, I see.

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Before + After: bathroom

I've spent most of the last few days giving the kids' bathroom a makeover. We are renting, so the mint green sink, toilet and bathtub had to stay, as did the gray-flecked yellowish tile. The room had been painted a yellowish white, and the counter and vanity were a sort of peachy-yellowy-off-white color, and looking a bit worse for wear. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the whole bathroom prior to beginning this project. Bad blogger.

Here's a kind of washed-out picture of the gray-flecked tile, the minty green toilet, and the awesome knobs. The knobs picture two geese frolicking around an urn wrapped with ribbons and flowers.








Afterwards:




I painted the walls and the counter Sherwin Williams Roman Column. Its very bright and cheerful but has a hint of yellow in it, so it goes nicely with the yellow-gray tiles.The vanity was painted a dark gray (Behr's Dark Granite) that I found in my mother in law's basement. I replaced the knobs with some silver knobs I had leftover from a dresser.

I bought some plain off-white twill curtains and a valance at Target. Originally I was only going to put the ribbon trim going up the inside edges of the curtain. However, what I actually did was this:

So....I ended up putting ribbon on the inside and the outside edges.

I love the look of cornices and pelmet boxes, especially love the ones that Melanie of Plum Cushion has in her bedroom. So, using a tutorial from Little Green Notebook, found here, I used foam board to make the box, covered it with batting and then used the valance to cover it. I stapled the fabric into the foam board. (Just a regular office stapler, since it was foam board.)


To get the ribbon look, I pinned the ribbon in place in the pattern I wanted, ironed it gently so the folds would stay, then used fabric glue to attach it to the valance.

The hardest part was hanging it. I used little circular hangers (that I can't seem to find the 8 remaining pieces to take a picture of), glued and duct-taped to the sides (the edge of the side wasn't thick enough to attach them directly). I bent the circle part and the hung it over the hook nailed to the wall.

For art, I had two ceramic plates picturing Positano, Italy, that we bought as souvenirs on trips to Italy. The colors in the plates go nicely with the turquoise accents. I hung them a bit too high (they are a wee bit above the curtain line) and I want to drop them lower....but that entails spackling and painting, and I don't have either spackle or leftover paint, and so they are staying too high, I guess.

On a recent trip to Home Goods I found this rattan piece, which is lots of rattan woven circles strung together inside a wider circle. There are 3 capiz shells inside that I wasn't thrilled with, but all in all I think the piece is the perfect size for the wall and it adds a nice bit of texture to the room.


Voila! New bathroom.

*Edited to add pictures of the ceramic plates and rattan piece.

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tv wall

Here is the tv side of the living room. I'm not terribly enthralled with my decorating efforts in the living room so far. I probably won't post a pic of the whole room. I want a new sofa and a new rug. And new curtains. And a new coffee table. And while I like the red leather chair, I wish it weren't red. I'm annoyed at how its dictating the design scheme. If only I had another room to put it in.

So here is the before picture.


We bought the sideboard at Uhuru Used Furniture in Philly on Spruce St. Its got great used furniture---I think we paid $40 for this piece. It was pretty beat up when we got it, so I attempted a tortoiseshell kind of effect. I was inspired by Laurie on Trading Spaces and a coffee table she did (that tells you how long ago I got this piece, doesn't it?) I painted it gold and then stippled black and brown all over it. It was ok. Not a masterpiece.


I think the shelf is about at max capacity. The Mister wanted me to leave it blank, because ack, what if we put stuff on it and then the shelf fell on the precious tv??? Every time I add a piece his eyebrows go up and he asks "does that really need to be up there?"


The Buddha and the apothecary jars are all from Home Goods.


The picture of peaches is a picture painted by my grandmother after my wedding, based on our wedding favors of peach jam (you can see in the middle of the picture is a little jar of jam). The picture of sunflowers was taken at my husband's family's farm outside of Naples, Italy. The sumo wrestlers were bought in Japan while visiting a friend.


The red pulls are so pretty. They are the medium size red Empire pull from Schaub & Co.

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Kindergarten graduation

Greg graduated kindergarten on Friday:




The ceremony included much singing and dancing:


RAWR!!!


and a re-enactment of the Dodgeball Purple Cobras entrance onto the court.




and of course...cake.

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