new blankies

The shrunken too short capri pants blanket is driving me a bit nuts.  Seeing as I spent last night with the blanket only covering my right half.  I want a new blankie.  And you know what that means....redecorating!  Redecorating a room I just finished in February.

I don't think I've ever posted the entire bedroom.  Actually, its quite pretty. The Mister says "I really like the bedroom the way it looks now.  Lets just leave it that way?"  If I were adequately covered at night I might consider it.

We are a bit quirky about our blanket requirements.  The Mister does not like heavy blankets, or anything that would keep us too warm. (I would like to be warm.  This occasionally presents a problem.)

 I do not like duvets.  Unfortunately, duvets have the prettiest designs, and I've tried on three different occasions to use them, but they suck and I hate them.  They are sloppy looking and the blanket slides all around inside them, even if you use the little clip or tie thingies in the corners.  So...no duvets.  No comforters, because they are too heavy.  This leaves us with quilts and high heating bill.

Quilts have their own problems....most quilts are a little too country in design.  Thus, I shop and shop and shop for blankets. I also frequently fall in love with new bedding.  Its such an easy thing to switch and get a whole new look for a room.

I have loved this Tea Garden chinoiserie quilt since Pottery Barn had it a few years ago.  Its discontinued but it continues to pop up on Ebay.

I looooove this pattern from Garnet Hill, but alas, its a stupid duvet:

This one is from Bed Bath and Beyond:

I love that bird throw pillow.  Its got turquoise, orange, and greens going on but its not overpowering.....I should probably just buy the pillow.

None of these blankets go with the current color scheme of green and aqua in the bedroom, btw.

And as long as we are talking about things I want in my bedroom, I love this headboard.

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Fake it till you make it.

Ever have one of those days, when the Western spur of the turnpike is closed and you have to take the Eastern spur, but they are doing construction and 2 out of 3 lanes on the Eastern spur are closed and every single person in the tri-state area who wants to go south is sitting in front of you and you're going to be late for your hair appointment and at when you finally get to your hair appointment you say on a whim, cut me some bangs! and then a split second later you think oh crap it took years to grow those out why did I  do that and then you go to Chipotle and the person behind the counter seems incapable of making three different types of burritos for one order and its all messed up and now a line of restless impatient teens is forming behind you and you are hot and sweaty and embarrassed and your new bangs are in your face and you finally get to the parking deck only to find that you have lost the ticket stub somewhere and now you have to pay the full day price?

No, you've never had that kind of day?  Well, good for you.  Excuse me while I eat a 1000 calorie burrito.

Since the past week has been full of things that make me want to stab my own eardrum with a pencil, I'll try a fake-it-till-you-make-it exercise.  Here is my top ten top five top three reasons why Craptasticville doesn't suck.

1. Craptasticville has many, many, many beautiful parks for kids.  There are 5 within walking distance.
2. The commute to NYC is pretty easy.
3. My in-laws are here.  I love my inlaws.  I am on a campaign to get my inlaws to move with us in the spring.  Which would make this list a bit shorter.

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Pumpkin carving

The kids and I and Grandma carved our pumpkins on Thursday.  All of my children refused to actually touch the interior of the pumpkins. 

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dumb stencil question

 I have finally finished painting the foyer for the 407th time.  Its now Benjamin Moore Decorator White.  Soon it will have a stencil on it. Maybe.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to use the stencil correctly, and the instructions do not address my question. Its a giant stencil, about 2 feet by 3 feet.  Suppose I paint the stencil on the wall, and want to continue up the wall to repeat the design....do I have to wait for it to dry before moving the stencil up?  I need to match up the design, but there is about a one inch border of plastic all the way around the design.  Matching up the design would mean that the one inch plastic border would be resting on wet paint.  

If I have to wait for this damn thing to dry in order to repeat the pattern, this is going to take me ten years to do the whole foyer.  

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Chipotle v. Qdoba

I have become, oh, a weeeee bit obsessed with Chipotle lately.  As in, I had it for lunch four times last week. But my sisters say Qdoba is better, so I had it for lunch on the fifth day.  Yes, I am a joy to be around after eating burritos five days in a row.

In order to conduct my taste test, I ordered just about the same thing at both places. At Chipotle, I had a pork and pinto bean burrito with tomato salsa, corn salsa, guacamole and lettuce.

At Qdoba, I had the pick two option, which got me a cup of tortilla soup, and a "naked" burrito with all the same ingredients I got at Chipotle, just in a bowl instead of a tortilla.  The soup smelled absolutely delicious on the way home.

Prior to discovering Chipotle, I rarely ate Mexican food, because I can't eat cheese or sour cream, and that cuts out a large number of Mexican dishes found at fast food restaurants. (For many years I was in denial about my inability to eat dairy, but I have since decided that I will just not eat foods that have spectacularly adverse effects on my gastrointestinal system.)  Skipping the cheese and sour cream usually makes a burrito kind of dry, so I just don't bother. I'm also not a huge fan of spicy.  (I know, why am I bothering with Mexican food at all?)

Verdict?  I liked Chipotle better.  The tortilla soup, although torturing me with its yummy smelling goodness al the way home, was wayyyyy spicy. The naked burrito was...ok. Not bad.  I would eat there again.  But Chipotle was better....the seasoning was tastier, the beans and pork were moist and flavorful, and the guacamole had the perfect mix of lime and onion and no jalapenos.  Yum!

I will admit that Qdoba does have a much bigger menu.  Chipotle has burritos...and burritos. They do one thing very well.  Qdoba has burritos and quesadillas and soups and salads and nachos and more cheesy things.  But since I don't eat the cheesy things, half the menu was off-limits.

And the deciding factor....Chipotle is five minutes from my house, Qdoba is half an hour.

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a Wednesday list

1.) we have a new dishwasher today, yay!  Thank goodness. I was getting dishpan hands.

2) I washed our king size quilt and put it through the dryer....and it shrank.  Like, alot.  Our king size bed is now wearing the blanket equivalent of flood pants.  Practically capri pants.

Does this bother anyone else?  I used to buy king size blankets so that everyone would have enough blanket, and buying a king blanket for a queen bed worked quite nicely.  Now we have a king bed, but I find that king blankets do not generously cover a king bed.  In fact, one might say they stingily cover just about six inches down the side.  Unacceptable!  I want a blanket that covers within six inches of the floor!  Especially since king size top sheets are enormous.  At the very least I want a king blanket that covers the damn top sheet.  These blankets do not seem to exist.

Just so you're on notice, Mister, its only a matter of time till I buy another comforter.

3) Everything breaks at once, it seems.  The dishwasher gave out last week, then the minivan.

Last week, the automatic doors on the minivan stopped working. Mysteriously, this happened after Peter was playing in the front seat, "driving" the car.  I did not connect the two at the time.  I took it to the dealer, and they called me to say they had turned the switch back on.  Doh.

Then the battery gave out.  Because someone was playing in the front seat and turned the overhead interior lights on.

And today....the battery died completely.  But, AAA has a service where they will come out and change the battery for you, if you are a member, for only the cost of the battery.  Hell yes, sign me up if I don't have to have my car towed to the service shop.  So easy. Not that I advocate letting your three year old play in the front seat and mess everything up, thus necessitating a trip to the dealer AND calling AAA for a new battery. But if you do, just so you know, that AAA thing is pretty handy.

4. ) I am working on another gallery-wall-ish type thing, this time for a space in the hallway I have never quite known what to do with.  I am afraid that I am having too many gallery wall type thingys in my house. Because lets face it, there are a large number of pictures in groups in my house. (My mother in law is going to love us when we move out, leaving 80000 holes in the wall.)  I need an enormous, giant, huge blank wall where I can throw the whole mix together.  I'm also wanting to rearrange the stuff on the shelf over the tv, but haven't decided what should go up there yet.

Oh yes, I'm in a "we need more new stuff!!!!" mood!

5.) I'm so glad I put two chairs at my desk.  I love when the kiddos sit next to me and do their thing while I'm doing mine.

6.)  The Mister got me up early today and we did a Power 90 workout tape.  Which kicked my ass.  Power 90 is the P90X for weaklings, by the way.  I can barely get my knees to my elbows more than twice.  I can't do the downward facing dog to save my life.  But I worked out and surely that means I can make a batch of cookies (and eat all of them) guilt free today, correct?

7.) I didn't get a picture of it, but Peter grabbed the Princess by the ears, and tried to bite the top of her head.  She responded by dropping to the floor, and gnawing on his ankles.

8.) I burned the cookies!  Waaah.  I like my cookies underdone.  Not crispy.  Blarg.  I guess this is the universe's way of telling me to eat less cookies.

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Going to the park! Or not.

Now that we had a few weeks of cooler weather and I have packed away all our summer clothes, summer has come roaring back.  Temps have been hovering around 70 the last few days, and its supposed to go up to 79 degrees today.

I figured we should enjoy this weather while we can, since Jersey generally gets about two weeks of nice weather in the fall and spring and the rest of the year is either way too hot or way too cold.  Peter and Princess were excited to go to the park. Greg, the agoraphobic, was not.

An aside here---Greg is currently feeling argumentative. The hours after he gets home from school are spent having conversations that go like this:
me: What would you like to do?
Greg: I'd like to do -X-.
me: Ok, lets do that!
Greg: NO! I've changed my mind! I don't want to do anything you want to do!

I'm at a loss how to get around this. I thought I had a few years before he turned 13.  I've read lots of parenting books, I get the whole I'm testing you/who has the power in this relationship blah blah blah, but how do you coax a kid who specifically says he is going to be contrary for the simple reason of being contrary?

You frog-march him to the park, of course.  We are going to the park, dammit, and you are damn well going to enjoy yourself, dammit.

"NOOOOOO, I HATE THE PARKKKKKKKKK.....I want to play in the basement with my toyyyyyyyyyys."

He drags his feet the whole way, mopey and mumbling about playing in the basement.  He waits till we get to the park, let Peter and Princess out of the stroller and onto the jungle gym.  Then he pulls out the big guns.

"We have to go home. I have to poop."

Well played, Greg.  Well played.

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In other news, I started reading a great blog:  Mark Reads Harry Potter.  Its this 27 year old guy who started reading the Harry Potter books and commenting on them.  He's up to the last book, nearly the very end, so obv I'm coming in way late.  But his commentary is pretty funny.

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Desk chairs, fixed

so...remember the desk chairs I ruined? 

I never did toss them to the curb.  I love the shield back, and just couldn't bring myself to throw them away.  So they sat in the garage for a while. Last week we cleaned out the garage, trying to tidy up, and the Mister walked them out to the curb. No!!! No! Bring them back!! I will fix them!

I sat down with a scrub sponge with some dish soap and water, and gave the chairs a good scrubbing.  The dried Citrustrip came right off.  I let them dry in the sun for a day, then sanded them again to smooth out the paint surface. 

I spray painted them with a few coats of Krylon Leather Brown. I think this will be my last spray paint project for a while, seeing as I paint outdoors and temps have been hovering in the fifties lately.

I was shopping at Target and liked this shower curtain.

 It was a thick material, went with the curtains, had a nice graphic print...so I used it to recover the seat cushions.

And here they are:

I like the shield backs much better than the mission chairs I was using at the desk.

I also splurged and bought new hardware for the cabinet under the desk:

The mission chairs are currently living on the other side of the living room...but I have a feeling that I will move them back into the turret.  I think the one looks great under the mirror, but its too close to the craft closet.  The other one by the tv...well...eh.

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pronunciation

Many years ago, I took my younger sister to a college tour day at University of Delaware, in Newark, DE.  If you've never been to Newark, its pronounced new-ARK (not NEW-ark, like the city in NJ).  The dean gave a talk welcoming everyone, and trotted out this joke, as I'm sure he does every year at college tour day:

"A family came here to visit the college, and afterwards went to get something to eat.  The dad asked a woman at the restaurant to please tell them exactly where they were, very slowly and carefully, as they were confused about the pronunciation.  The woman very slowly and very carefully said "BUR...GER....KING."

Hardy-har-har!  Actually, its become somewhat of a family joke, if you are acting stupid, to say "Bur...ger...King."  

This morning, I went to Sherwin Williams to pick up some paint for the foyer. (I am so sick of painting that foyer.)   Most name brand paint stores will color-match other brands of paint, if you ask them.  The manager at this store is very nice and has frequently color matched other paints for me.

I walked in and asked the young man behind the counter to give me a gallon of Benjamin Moore satin Decorator White and a gallon of semi-gloss Clinton Brown.  He looked at me like I was the world's biggest idiot.

"You know you're at SHER...WIN...WILL...IAMS, right?"

I find that as I get older, stupidity enrages me far more quickly than it used to.

I gave him a cocked eyebrow and said "Yes?"  And stared at him.

"We don't have Benjamin Moore paint."

"Yes, you do. Go ask your manager."

Half an hour (!) later I finally had my "decorative" white and "clicking" brown.

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Peter's birthday party

Peter's third birthday party was a lovely time!

Uncle M gave Peter a guitar...Peter was fascinated by the "destruckshuns" booklet.  Which was good, because Greg has claimed the guitar for himself.

There was dancing:

There was a Wonder Red cake:

and presents:

and friends and family.

Of course, because we were having a party, our dishwasher broke the day day before. Again. We will be getting a new one on Wednesday.

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Peter is 3

My little man turned three yesterday.

He is the sweetest kid.
He is a snuggler.  Loves to cuddle.
He gives awesome kisses.
He shares everything.  "here you go, its your turn!"  (Plight of the middle child.)
He wants to do everything Greg does.
He is so sweet to the the Princess (who is not so sweet to him).
His speech has grown by leaps and bounds the last few months.
He is going to be a night owl.  He would stay awake all night and sleep in all day if you let him.
He is an imp. If my kids are doing something dangerous or dumb, dollars to donuts says he started it.
He will climb anything. There is no surface in the kitchen he cannot reach.
He loves Dinosaur Train, Super Why and Toy Story.  We have more dinosaurs and Buzz Lightyears than you can shake a stick at.
If I put him in time out, he yells "I have to go to the potty RIGHT NOW!!".  Nice try, kid.

He is the sweetest boy.  I love him so.

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Why doesn't he park that Maserati in the garage?

On our daily walk we pass by a house a few blocks from here that usually has a Porsche, a Maserati, and a Mercedes suv in the driveway.  Last month this guy seemed to have traded in the Porsche and the Mercedes for another Maserati.

We have always wondered why he does not keep his Maserati (or Porsche, or Mercedes, or other Maserati) in his two car garage.  Its a pretty fancy car, wouldn't you keep it in the garage?

The garage door was open today.  The garage is full of Ferraris.

(I was driving by, saw that the garage was open, drove around the block and crept back...trying to take a pic with my phone from across the street all inconspicuous-like, while Mr. Maserati-Ferrari guy was working on his cars in the garage. Hence the less-than-stellar picture quality.)

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The dining room, part 487

I finally won an ebay auction on my PB Audrey curtains.  Woohoo.  I have hung the curtains in the dining room, and they look fantastic. I used curtain rings this time, and I like how it makes them drape.  I really want pinch-pleat curtains next time, but this gives a similar look.

Weirdly, there looks like there is a peachy undertone on the walls and the curtains, but in real life there isn't. 

I took the fabric panels out of the back of the bookshelves.  I can't find any fabric I like for under $25 yard, and I don't want to spend that, so I guess they are staying plain blue for now. I think the objects on the shelf are actually easier to see without the fabric, so I'm living with that for the moment. 

The chairs were recovered in a soft brown.

I'm really happy with the way the whole thing turned out. 

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As long as we are on the topic of dining rooms, I love this table, chairs and sideboard from the blog Twoellie:

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