One little word: The halfway point

Back in January I wrote about ditching the traditional list of resolutions for one little word.  A word to focus on rather than a list of goals, one word that would encompass many things and have many meanings.  My word was “today.”  So, how’s it going? 

I’m still mindful of this choice after a full 6 months have passed.  I have the word in a frame on my desk where I see it daily.   It has helped me in so many ways and while I can’t say it has cured my procrastination issue it has helped it greatly.

When I don’t want to brush the dog, sweep the floor, sort through my magazine pile to recycle.  I remember “today!” just do it, and I do.  When I want a cookie it sometimes helps me to choose an apple.  It has helped with overall health.  It has helped me to start and complete projects.  When Nathan wants me to blow bubbles but I’m in the middle of a chore, I stop.  I think that one is the biggest.  I’ve become really aware of how often I tell him “not now, Mommy’s busy.”    Unless I’m cooking, I stop.   I chose to stay home to raise him and be here for him.  Not just to have a spotless house; if my child wants to play with me or needs a refill, I remember “today.”   I remember that I will never have the day back,  he will be a new child tomorrow. 

I love this project.  Much more so than the list to take your vitamins or sleep more.  I think this is something I will do for years to come.  I can’t say I’ve ever stuck with a resolution long enough to talk about it the last week in June.  That right there is success!

Did you pick a word or make a list; how’s it going?

Haus und Garten

Oh, GermanVillage, how I love you!   Today was the perfect day away from the ‘bubs and a teething kid.  The home and garden tour of the historic neighborhood in downtown.   As a total decor addict I look forward to this day for months in advance.  Getting a peak into homes to see the architecture and design is hours upon hours of perfection.  I love to see it all and to be reminded that my decor skills are really quite remedial and the one I always forget,  money can’t buy good taste. 

There was one house that was a standout.  From the road it was as beautiful as all of the others.  Brick facade, perfectly landscaped court yard.  Pretty unassuming, really.  One step inside and my mouth was agape.  Speechless.  Oh, my!  Look at that, and that,  and oh, wow.  Each room was remarkable.  But, in a way I’ve never experienced.  It was unique in that it was a magazine quality mix of old and new.  The coffee table was a luggage cart from the railway,  perfectly patina over time.   That was just the beginning, every room was full of amazing things you’ve never seen for sale in your life.   The home was built in 1860 and in the past 20 years a couple and their 3 kids have lived there.  An extensive reno and add on doubled it’s square footage in a way that honored the original architecture and brought it both back and up to date.   I wanted to snap pictures but knew it was against the rules so I didn’t even bring my camera.  I would have risked jail time to get pictures of this house, I regret not trying.  (Carrie did and was quickly slapped on the hand!  hahah- totally worth it.)  I could go on and on about how amazing this place was with its vintage pieces from all over the globe but I can’t possibly capture it with words.   The homeowner was there to answer questions and I had an instant crush!   The first few rooms had me wondering if the kids of the house know how awesome their Mom is, what amazing taste she has.  Come to find out, it’s Dad who is in charge of this.  Well, he and his decorator*.  Still, what a way to grow up.  In the heart of the village and in this home with such taste.  Swoon!

–

I was discussing with Carrie while we were tromping from haus to haus that this mix of vintage and new is really new to me.  I’m really getting into it since moving here.   After growing up in the pacific northwest and spending 6 years in the south, it’s a surprise.  I’ve never experienced this before.  I don’t have any friends (Carrie excluded) that are into this look.  That go shopping at thrift stores or antique shops.  No home I’ve ever been into has had this look.  Is it a mid-west thing?  I know that it’s popularity is vast on line but in real life, not as much. 

Do you know anyone that brought home a rusty old stool and uses it in their kitchen?  Have you ever seen a card catalogue as a TV stand?  A chicken coup as a toy box?  What do you think about all of this?  I’d love to know!

 

*Monique Keegan- EnjoyCo.net

Too Much!

I have a new gig coming up that I’m really excited about (more on that later.)  I’ve been trying to “see” more on-line as a result and am just finding that there is too much Internet!  Too many blogs, too many amazing stores, too many flickr groups.  It’s all so wonderful and just too much.  I use google reader for my personal blog roll (which is much larger than what is in my sidebar) I’m on FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr and so are a lot of my friends and family.  I try so hard to give everyone the time their posts and updates deserve but I have a hard time keeping up sometimes.  Though I love it all, I do take it for granted at times.

Despite the time factor I am looking for more.    More of it all, more women to read about, more on-line inspiration, more shopping, more crafting, more sewing!   Please, direct me to some of your favorites.   Leave a link or 12 in the comments so I can explore a little more.   Thanks!!

Right Now

• Nathan is screaming himself to sleep. 
• He’s over tired again,  too much pool.
• I’m exhausted.
• We’ve been getting up at 5:30 all week.
• Not my choice.
• I’ve been working out around 7am.
• Pushing him around the neighborhood before its hot out.
• We are going to the library Mon. Wed.  Fri.
• This week we’ve been to the pool everyday.
• I’ve been cooking dinner while he naps.
• Why the hell haven’t I thought of this before?
• Cooking dinner has become a hated chore.
• He pushes me away from the counters and DEMANDS my full attention.
• Now we can swim until 6 and I can enjoy cooking in peace.
• Am slow, apparently.
• I hurt all over.
• Partly from running outside, partly from the pool.
• It’s sort of surprising how much work it is to “swim” with a tot.
• I am in love with spray on sunscreen.
• I am so incredibly exhausted.
• Spending the last several hours of each day at the pool is perfect!
• We miss that witching hour of OMGWHEREISYOURFATHERIMGOINGTOLOOSEIT!
• Instead we are bobbing in the lazy river snuggling in an inter-tube.
• It rocks!
• Nate’s been extremely clingy this past week. 
• I’ve held him for at least half of the day for the past 3.
• It doesn’t suck.
• I’ve never been so into being his Mom.
• When we are at the pool my life matches up with the vision in my head.
• I’m exactly the kind of Mom I wanted to be for him.
• I hope that every summer is this great.
• I’ve never been so happy.

Just in time

I learned to sew on Saturday!  It was a great class, just two of us and the teacher for great one on one time.  I learned all about my machine and had so much fun. 

Now I have two new projects to add to my list.  Baby blankets!  Two of my sisters are expecting!  TWO- at the same time!  They are due just weeks apart.   They both announced the news yesterday, imagine my Dad.  I had to call and say “Happy Fathers Day, I’m NOT pregnant!!”  I mean, there are four of us so I guess it was bound to happen but I am so excited!   I hope they want some wonky stitching from their Aunt Christina cause its coming!

How

Damn, this kid raising can really suck.  Nathan is a kid that never stops moving.    Even when strapped in his car seat his feet are dancing and his shoulders are shimming.  He is a busy kid.  He wants to explore and touch and learn how things operate and get a closer, no, closer look. 

At home this is fine.  He knows the rules and they are enforced.  If you ram into the dog with your rocket you loose the rocket for the entire day.  We park it in the garage and say goodbye and discuss why you’ve lost the rocket.   He promptly collapses to the floor and wails, rolling around inconsolable.  And, good.  He gets it.  The rest of the day when he asks for his rocket I remind him that he can’t have it until tomorrow, more crying.  Awesome.  He gets it! 

But then we go out.  Not a big deal at Target if he wants down.  He “helps” me push the cart and loves to walk the store, he is great with putting things back.  And, no one cares if a 20 month old is free in Target at 9am on Tuesday.  So, big deal.  He’s happy, I’m happy.  Not such a good thing though when you’re entertaining new staff on a Friday night in a Downtown restaurant.

He wants down.  Of course he wants down.  Because I give him too much freedom.  I let him explore and wander and why wouldn’t he want that here, now?  He sings “all done” over and over and gets angry when I offer his cup or more grapes.  His face is turning red “ALLDONE!ALLDONE”  and I know he’s about to blow a gasket.  We are with strangers in a full restaurant.  To avoid total meltdown I set him in my lap.  Noodle boy slithers right down to the floor.  Of course!  Of, f’ing course he does!   For two hours he is either walking back and forth the length of our table or hes in the booth playing with trains.  He respects boundaries.  You can walk from here, to here, I show him.  He obeys.  I only got up two times to bring him back in a two hour span.   So, is this a big deal?  I don’t know.  He stays with us but he’s down, walking back and forth tripping up waiters.   But what do I do?  How do I get him to sit still when his just wants to move and explore and be himself which I absolutely encourage and foster, the rest of the time.

How do you teach a kid his age that you have to sit when you are out?  He sits fine at home, it’s less exciting.  But take him where there are new lights and ceiling fans and a floor mat he can march on and OMG I MUST MARCH RIGHT NOW!!

How?  Let him scream and ruin the whole night ? It’s not like we are at home and he’s pissed off the dog with his rocket.  This is other peoples night out, they’re paying good money for a meal that I don’t really want to ruin.  Is it his age, will he get it in time? Is it me, I’ve given him too much space?  I took him outside and a few times and talked to him about eating at the table like a big boy.  I put him back into the highchair but it never lasted more than a few minutes before he wanted back down. We aren’t going to stop eating out because of this.  I’d still rather play the walk back and forth game than cook seven days a week.  But I’d like him to sit at the table with us every time, not every 3rd trip out.  Help.

 

edit: We went out tonight and he was perfect!  He never asked to get down and sat in the high chair the entire meal.   Happy but UGH- could you have done this best behavior bit last night?  You know, when people were watching?

Impulsive

I have a rule I am really good about following.  It’s been maybe 10 years since I decided not to buy anything for my house if I didn’t know what to do with it or where to put it.   See, I love to shop at Marshal’s and Home Goods and thrift stores which are just chalk full of stuff you don’t need but that little red tag is so enticing!  Especially the ones that read “compare with”  oh, I do love to compare!  However, I remain strong and committed. 

Well ,in the past few weeks I’ve been breaking my rule.  I have so many ideas for the house, namely Nate’s next room design and another nursery  in a year or two and I have been picking stuff up.   Small things here and there that don’t add up to much but I grab them and think “maybe”.  Which maybe I will but if I don’t that’s just a waste of money!     Yesterday I grabbed these.  I have no idea where to put them.  

Aren’t they cool?  But seriously, that’s it!  No more random stuff is coming home with me!   I either know its purpose in the store or in the store it will stay.

Do you do this;  bring home things you fall in love with and then wonder what you were thinking?

Up Next

I don’t know what it is. There’s some sort of surprise wax and wain with my periods of boredom and over inspired madness.   I don’t know which state I will find myself in from week to week.  Right now I’m in the madness.   Oh, it’s really my favorite place to be!  Would you like a peak inside?  Here is a list of things I’m cooking up.

Den:

• choosing a paint color
• working up a plan to revamp the bookcase (painting – papering back)
• looking for curtains
• looking for (non-tacky) UNC clock (what the Man wants)
• thinking of non traditional floor covering – desk chair friendly
• need desk chair
• reconsidering floor plan
• looking for a comfy chair that doesn’t scream “I’m from big box store!”
• want fun & functional desk decor. 

Kid Bathroom

• ordered Studio Violet poster
• need frame
• painting vanity black
• installing mirror frame- paint black
• new light fixture (chosen)
• painting walls green (possibly horizontal stripes)
• sewing shower curtain (after this weekends sewing class)
• embellish store bought towels
• want a word over the towel bar- in painted wood letters; word undecided  (splash or dirty- something whimsical and bathroom related) (Ideas?)
• new accessories (toothbrush holder, soap disp, etc.)

Up Stairs Hall

• new lights (chosen-same as ceiling mount hall light on the main floor)

Living Room:

• New chair (birthday present?) (are you reading this Mike?  I really want that chair!)

Down Stairs Hall:

• start a photo wall, small for now, a few family shots and build over time.

Master Bedroom:

• possibly back on for early fall.  TBD.
• entire folder full of ideas-
• if this happens the bathroom will undergo a budget friendly makeover.

At this moment I have a lot of deciding to do!    Paint colors mostly but also deciding if the bookcase in the den can handle a print or if it will be too busy.  It may be a solid pop of  color instead.   I mentioned at the beginning of spring that I had a long list of seasonal projects that I wanted to complete before the pool opened so I was free to hang out with the boy for hours on end with no projects to complete.  I finished that list but I’m not settling into the relax mode. I will find a way to do the summer thing and continue to work on the house.   I just can’t turn this part of my brain off.  I need this type of stuff to stay happy and sane.  So, here I go again!  Weeeee!

@ The Pool

I haven’t posted in a week!  How did that happen?  Oh right, it’s summer.  I don’t plan on that becoming a pattern. 

Nate and I have been on a roll this week.  With the Summer Reading Club kicking off this week and the pool opening for the season we’ve been on an every other day rotation of pool library.  I’m already more “tan” (read: freckled) than I’ve been in years.  We have been having a blast.

I’m without a project right now and it’s making me stir crazy.   After all of these months (20) I still don’t know what to do with my time.   About once a week I come up with something worth getting excited about but then once it’s finished I’m bored.  Carrie and I are going junk shopping on Saturday, with any luck I will find something to makeover or design around.  I have a doily project from Ready Made that I want to try so we’ll see if I can find any of those.  My sewing class is next Saturday.  I have high hopes for that and getting started.   Though, it’s really 101.  Learn how to use your machine and do basic seams.  The class after that one is to make a tote bag!  Not something I need but at least I will come home with more than a line of thread on a flat piece of fabric.   I have also come up with a total design plan for Nate’s bathroom.  I found a posterthat jump startedthe whole thing. I LOVE it, it’s not something that really fits in the house but I must have it.  I figured it was child like enough for a kid bathroom, not so child like that it isn’t cool.   The hold up is that bathroom isn’t”really”  Nate’s right now.  It sort of belongs to a cat….  working on that.    It involves painting the cabinets and the room, adding a frame to the mirror, replacing the light, sewing a new shower curtain and making some accent towels.  In my head it rules, in real life there’s this cat.

a place to land

As you all know we live in an oldish house in the suburbs.  A house in a neighborhood with sidewalks and grass, clean and tidy.  Boring, cookie cutter suburbia.  No mud in the ‘burbs, no mud room needed.  Because of this our house is without any sort of landing place at it’s entrance.  The front door is just in the middle of the house there are no walls, no place to hang a coat or put an umbrella.  Our garage door opens into a small “hall” where the pantry is to the left, the very small laundry room is directly in front of you and the kitchen is to your right.  No landing area.  No place to drop a purse or a key.    This drives me crazy. 

Until today the top of the microwave has been a collection site for the days stuff.   Car keys, cell phones, sun glasses, receipts.  All of the stuff in your hand or that comes out of a pocket.   The other collection site is the top of the dryer.  I toss my purse and our library bag there and because of that all of my junk gets tossed there too.   No system at all, and grounds for a lot of clutter.   I came up with a small solution. 

 

This is what you see as you enter from the garage. 

I painted the frame of the chalk board and covered a plain box with a sheet of scrapbook paper

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Having a proper place to set things “should” help with the pile up factor.  I hope it helps even though it doesn’t solve the entire problem.  My bag will still be tossed on the dryer but at least we will be able to find our keys and we can use the chalkboard to write little notes to each other or to jot down items we run out of during the week.  

Project Total:  $22.52

Shelf: $5.99- Target

Key Hook: $6.99- Target

Scrapbook paper: $.99 – Michael’s

box: $1.99- Michael’s (for receipts)

clear plastic take out box: $.89 (cut top flaps off to use for chalk) Michael’s

chalk: $.99 – Michael’s

Chalk Board: $3.49- Michael’s

white craft paint: $1.19- Michael’s