Friday Favorites: Music to my eyes...

I recently picked up these little darlings at Pottery Barn. I plan to mix them with some cranberries in a hurricane vase. Layered or randomly mixed? Hmm. Unfortunately, they are a gift and not for me. Boo. Although another little box may find its way to my house. It got me wondering what else was out there with a sheet music theme (besides the PB candles that have been around a couple years). I'm loving all of these great creations from Etsy. Wouldn't they make a fun gift for the music lovers in your family? They almost make me want to tickle the ivories. But, I'll have to settle for tickling my babies instead since there is no piano in my house!

1. Gift Tag 2. 3D Letter 3. Ornament

4. Wreath 5. Christmas Banner 6. Clothes Pins

7. Cufflinks 8. Gift Tags 9. Flower

Tie one on!

I really want G to have an apron (or two!) for her play kitchen. I'd love to make it myself and even have a pattern ready to go. I feel that by blogging about this little project, I'm more accountable and apt to get 'er done! I love the 3 aprons below (especially the one from PB) and am going to use them for inspiration. Wish me luck! And please forgive me if come December 25th one of these finds its way under our tree... my time is more monopolized these days with a certain little bundle of JOY!

Gagie Pagie Pudding Pie
Gagie Pagie Pudding Pie

PBKids

Drowning in a sea of blue...

...painters tape. It's everywhere! We are painting our entire house with the exception of G and E's bath and bedrooms. The house is white, white, white and with the addition of our red furniture it looks very unfinished and stark. The goal is to completely finish the downstairs before Thanksgiving and the visit from all the in-laws. Lofty goal with 2 small kiddos. We shall see if we succeed.

A little inspiration

Now that we have our fab new red couch, chair, and ottoman I am getting excited to accessorize and pull the room together. Here is my inspiration pic:

image from BH&G magazine

I think I'll use an apple green in place of the blue accents but the layering of fabrics is what really appeals to me. It also seems light and bright (not in my badly scanned copy of the pic but in glossy mag form) despite the fact that the room is anchored by such a dark piece of furniture (similar to our new sofaroonie).

Feeling a little Halloween-ish

We didn't decorate the house or carve a pumpkin but boy did we celebrate! It even felt fall-ish here. My little snack-o-lantern is wearing the same outfit G wore at 10 months...and she's only 10 weeks. Hee hee. We've been calling her the chunklet.

Getting ready to trick-or-treat

Mommy and Daddy got to go out, too! Name those costumes...(put on your thinking caps people!)

A new verb???

Apparently, the verb for having hiccups (according to G) is "hickin up." Ha!

So fa, so good.

Because we have a bonus room in the new pad (woo hoo! a place to stash toys!), we'll be getting new furniture for the great room downstairs. For the longest time, I thought I wanted something like this...


This is the Carlisle sofa from Pottery Barn and I like the English arm and the two cushion set up. After the big, unstructured sofa that we've had for the past 7 years this seemed like a great option because it provided the slightly more formal look I was going for but kept it easy and breezy with a slip-cover (although I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with a covered coucheroo). However, the $1600+ price tag didn't make me too excited and I haven't ever gotten to actually sit on it. No PB seems to carry it in their small store and I only buy if I can test drive, er, sit(boo).

Then I saw this curvaceous creature...

The Jefferson by Bassett came out of nowhere. A worthy contender with beautiful little legs and a gorgeous (hopefully, dirt forgiving) linen-esque fabric (J called it nice looking burlap, but what does he know?). The price was also appealing at a mere $999 at the BX with NO TAX!!! However, I felt like the camelback style was a little too formal for our family. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Then, we went to the LaZ Boy store. Not necessarily known for its sofas but my mom got her couch and loveseat there so I knew it was a good place to check out. Plus, you can match any style with any of their custom fabrics which might be a little more expensive but would give us a better range of options. Right when we walked in, I saw her. The Laurel. Two cushion design, button tufting detail, and, best of all, she's RED. But J nixed red sofas back in '03 when we bought our first furniture so I just mentioned that I liked the design. He agreed and after wondering around the store for 20 minutes or so we agreed that it was our favorite. Yes! We agreed on something!!! I ask the sales clerk what other stock colors it came in and Josh interrupted with "What? Don't you like the red? I think it looks good."

EEEEEERRRRRRK! (That's the sound of me slamming on my mental breaks.) We both like the red?!? Because I couldn't believe it, I almost talked myself out of the bold choice but in the end, we've decided to go with it. I get the WORST buyers remorse so I did sleep on it. The awesome part about me waiting a day to purchase was that we got $100 off if we brought in a bag of groceries for a food drive (which we still need to drop off, oops). Score one for not rushing into a big purchase and saving some moolah! So without further ado, here is our new sofa.

Can you believe I went from a breezy white slipcovered look to a stiff and formal "burlap" camelback to a retro-esque RED! I can't really either. We'll see about that buyers remorse when it all gets delivered on Wednesday. Just kidding. Maybe. No, I love it. I think.

The key (and garage door opener) to my heart

We picked up the keys to the house today! Super fun! Its a little different here in Nevada than it was in Louisiana. Instead of getting the keys at closing (aka the hand-cramping event of signing all those papers), you get the keys once the title is filed. A little lame-o if you ask me. I like the whole scene that we all watch on HGTV of signing the last paper then having the person across the table dangle your keys and pass them to you. But, such is life in Las Vegas. Here's J with our packet - keys, garage door opener, codes for the gates in our neighborhood (I live in a gated neighborhood...how posh am I?), and info for signing up for utilities (bleh). Can't wait until Tuesday when we get our stuff and we can finally move in!!!

Rolling out the red carpet...literally.

We did the final walk thru and signed ALL the papers for our house! It was a little bittersweet for me because I vowed that we wouldn't buy another house until J retired/separated but here we are again. Homeowners. But, I'm excited about getting out of this tiny temporary lodging and decorating the interior of the house. We officially have another front door and set of keys. Here are a few shots of my girls at the walk thru. The home builder actually put out a red carpet and this welcome home sign. A little cheesy, but who doesn't like a little gruyere now and then?

Almost 3 and already working us...

G and I had a talk awhile back about not using the word "hate." I told her it was a very STRONG word and that we shouldn't use it when we didn't really mean it (especially about food which is what started the conversation). Well, first off, she calls us out on it everytime we say it. Which is A LOT. Goes a little something like this:

Me: I really hate it when that happens. (insert random everyday scenario here).

G: You said hate. Mom, we don't use those hate words.

In the past few days, she's taken it to a whole new level of almost-three-year-old-iness. She's started saying things like...

G: Tomatoes...I "hey" those... I didn't say hate!

My girl is already figuring out how to work around those pesky things I like to call RULES. Sneeky, berry berry sneaky.

2 months!

E is officially 2 months old! She's doing great and is loved dearly by all of us, especially her big sis.

I'm glad you can't really see, but she's wearing a "Friday" shirt on Monday (gasp!)

Sorry to have been away for so long (geez-louise! almost a month!) but it has been a packed 4 weeks. Leaving New Orleans, a trip to Missouri and the Pecan Fest, and a 5 day drive through 6 states. We're living in temporary housing on base in Las Vegas until we close on our house. Hopefully, we'll get back into the swing of things soon and I'll be a blogger extraodinaire! I can't wait to share all my decorating adventures and misadventures as we make the new house our home.

A new front door

We officially have a new front door. Technically, its on the side but you get what I'm saying, right? We signed a contract for a house! I'm super excited about the house itself. It has four bedrooms and the fourth is HUGEMONGOUS!!! The plan is to use it as a bonus room (pull-out couch for guests, toy room, TV room). It'll take a while to furnish it the way I want but it'll be fun to slowly put it together. I'm a dork and didn't take any pictures but its not finished so they would just look like a hot mess of construction. We're supposed to close October 29 which is great because it means only 2 weeks of hotel stays with the kiddos.

While I'm excited about the actual house (did I mention it has AMAZING views of the mountains AND a partial view of The Strip), I'm nervous about a gazillion things. A few of them being...

1) I don't love the idea of buying another house. We liked our home here in New Orleans but it was nerve-racking to get it ready to sell and hoping that someone would buy it.

2) I'm not too excited about the hubby's commute. I like being on base here and having his drive be so short. When he works a 14 hour day its nice that he's only gone 14 hours and 10 minutes.

3) I'm worried about being lonely. I really wanted to live on base. Our short 5 months in base housing here reminded me how nice it was to have a lot in common with your neighbors. We all have similar incomes, are away from family, and are of similar ages (meaning there are kiddos G and E's ages around for future playdates). And, most people have similar interests. Its hard to explain to people what life is like as a military spouse and it makes me warm and fuzzy to have that instant connection (the same is true for J). Living in a "regular" neighborhood means that your neighbors could be 90 years old or speak another language. Basically, its nice to be near people like us. I'm worried I won't make any friends. Boo hoo to me, I know.

Here's a pic of what it will look like(ish) and the floorplan...

One Month!!!

Miss E is one month old today! She weighs in at a whopping 10 lbs, 8 oz. and is 22 inches long. We're loving our chunky monkey and her 2 (sometimes 3) chins!!! Here is here cutie tootie pic and as you can see I decided to follow the Bless Our Nest example and use the chalkboard. Whadya think?

I made it myself (more about that later)! I added a little drawing in the corner that is fitting for the current month (books and an apple for back-to-school) and hope to remember to keep that up. G still sleeps in the crib as a daybed that's why the mattress is so low, there's no bumper pad, etc. Once we get settled in to our new house (which we're going to find tomorrow!) E will move into the crib and G-ster will get a big girl bed! Hooray! Here are a couple other pics from our little photo shoot.

G wanted her pic taken, too and I was delighted (she's usually anti-camera which she gets from her dad and aunt). I wish I could've erased the chalkboard and written the number of years and months for G but I was afraid she'd get out of the posing mood by the time I got it done (She's 2 years, 8 1/2 months, btw). Off to house hunt this weekend. Might update while we're away but otherwise I'll see you next week!

House Hunting

We're off to Vegas this weekend to do a little house hunting. Honestly, I'm dreading it. On top of being a very quick and rushed trip, I know absolutely NOTHING about the city (never been there) and all of our friends that are there give us different info about where to live. It seems like there really is NO good place. The neighborhoods are either too expensive, near crappy & scary neighborhoods, or too far from J's work. I have gotten so spoiled by being on base that I want him to have a short drive to and from the base. I LOVE that when he gets done with a 14 hour day, he's only been away from the house for 14 hours and 10 minutes! And, we were hoping to get base housing (which is brand spankin' new!) so I'm a little disappointed that that probably isn't going to work out. One other issue for me is that I don't like the style of the houses there. Blah. They all look the same -- varying shades of brown. And what's up with all those niches inside? Weird. Will I ever get to live in a home that's actually my style...we'll see I guess.

Typical house in Vegas (...at least in our price range)
Um...I can't even see the front door!

This is more my speed. And, it just happens to be the HGTV Dream Home 2009.

OK, now that I'm done being Debbie Downer here is the scoop. We ARE taking the girlies so it'll be E's first plane ride. J's parents are meeting us there to help out. They'll probably keep G while we hunt and E will go with us since I'm the mobile milk wagon. They're super excited to hang out with their grandbabies and meet E. I'm super excited to have the help while we look for our next front door!

Wall stencils

Every time we move I say "I'm going to paint." But I have yet to EVER paint a room in any home I've ever lived in. Shame on me! So, I'm looking at our move to Vegas as a big chance to use some color on my walls whether we buy, rent, or live on base. Now that I've put it out in the blogosphere you all can hold me accountable, right?!? I've just gotten some inspiration from a post about stencils at 6th Street Design School. There's a great giveaway today on this site featuring Cutting Edge Stencils!

I love the look of a tone on tone paint job and in the past have thought that I'd alternate stripes using a flat and high-gloss paint. Now, I'm thinking a stencil is the way to go. I love Brocade No. 1.

I'm not sure if I'll do it spread out around one of the girls' rooms, in a more repeated pattern (so it looks like wallpaper) as an accent wall, or in a small room (like a half bath). Either way, I want it to be subtle. I'm so excited to get decorating!!! Which is a good thing because at this point I'm dreading the move (mostly because where we're going to live hasn't been decided. Yikes!).

Revolving Roundup: Monthly Baby Pics

So I'm starting a new "feature" here on the old bloggeroo called "Revolving Roundup." There will be a whole slew of topics and I hope to do it once a month. It will be a group of images that I like all on the same theme (tacos, fall shoes, orange accessories, favorite kitchen gadgets, etc...you get the idea). Sometimes I might use it for you, my stellar readers, to help me figure out which item/thing to choose. That is the case with this first "roundup."

I took a pic of The G each month through her 1st birthday in the same pose with a stuffed animal (check out the first 6 months HERE). My fantastic friend Jamie sent us a cute blankie bear thingy that had her name embroidered on it and it worked out smashingly. But, I don't have anything cute like that for Miss E. So, after scouring the internet, these are the ideas I found that I'm thinking about using. Her 1 month b-day is this Friday people so I don't have a ton of time!

1. From John and Sherry at Young House Love. They use different fabric each week (I'm only going for a monthly shot...these peeps are over achievers!) and photoshop in the number on her onesie to coordinate. I don't know about the shot from above once E gets older. I don't think she'll lay down and cooperate as easily. What I do love about this is that you can later use the fabric for a quilt, birthday banner, table runner, whatever.

2.From Bless Our Nest. I love that this is more consistent with what I did with G but I havent been able to track down a little chalkboard and a whiteboard just doesn't have the same flair.

3. I can't not share the creative genius of Adele at Mila's Daydreams. This is AMAZING but way above and beyond what I want to do. You should check out this blog. This momma takes a few pics a WEEK like this. She makes up a backdrop while her daughter sleeps where she imagines what precious is dreaming about. Do some people make you feel so inadequate? I'm OK with my inadequacies...I'm just proud of myself for vacuuming once a week (usually. ok. once every 2 weeks.) and making sure everyone gets dinner before 8 p.m. Hee hee.

4. darielacrua posted these shots on flickr. I like the child in the same onesie and chair because it shows her change in size.

5. This shot by photoemagery is super cute. I like the alphabet/number blocks (crap! I need to get some of those) and I could include a favorite book each month (except that there is no fave book of Miss E right now...unless you count the 8 gazillion times I've looked at What to Expect the First Year).

So, what do you think??? Let me know your faves!

what The G is up to

G had her first dentist appointment this past week. She was awesome!!! I LOVE going to the dentist. Getting my teeth cleaned and having someone else floss for me is almost as good as getting a pedicure, in my opinion. That's not to say I've never gotten bad news (darn cavitities), but for some reason that 15 minutes in the chair is like a little retreat for me. So I wanted her to love it as much as I do...and she does! She's mentioned it every day this week :-)

Also, J and G are lookin' too cute in this pic not to post it!

Firsts.

Friday night and Saturday were big for Baby E and our newly established family of 4.

• She moved out of our room and slept (sort of) in her own for the first time Friday night.


• Saturday was my first time flying solo with my girls (and it was for 24 hours!).


• E's umbilical cord fell off (yay!). This is my least favorite thing about newborns...its so icky!

Also, I know that babies don't REALLY smile until around a month old, but E is the smilin'-est girl I have ever seen. She's constantly grinning. I know, I know. It's just a reflex or something, but man, it's sure cute.

She's here!

Baby E made her grand entrance Tuesday, August 17 at 8:40 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz (1 1/2 lbs MORE than big sis!) and was 20 inches long (same as big sis!). We love her so much and hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly after my mom and sister leave (they are such a big help!). Here are some pics...

so sweet

A family of four!!!

My little salt and pepper girls!

We're still waiting on Baby to arrive. She officially owes 30 cents in late fees for the 2 days past due. Eating into her college fund already!!! We took a family (of 3) pic on my due date. The next family photo op will HOPEFULLY include 4 of us.

Also, here is a pic from today of our "bumper" crop of tomatoes. Seriously, this is the only one from my plant. One tomato. I am not a good gardener! I had meant to buy a cherry tomato plant but obviously I grabbed the wrong one and hoped that since it was the only one on the vine it would get big. Wrong. It has been so hard for G to resist plucking this beauty from the vine early but she held out until it was red. I think we'll eat it for supper tonight!

40 weeks

OK. 40 weeks. Time for baby to arrive already!!!

Finished.

I finally finished sewing my diaper bag. Who knows how much I'll actually use it but it was a fun project and I tried to incorporate pockets and stuff that I thought would be useful. Using J's flight suit is by no means an original idea but I'm just really proud of myself that I pulled it off.

I even made a little matching diaper bag for G so she could pack stuff for her dolls or baby sister if she wants.

Well-rounded.

39 weeks -August, 4, 2010

With 4 days left until my due date, I'm starting to think about the fact that at any moment our lives will change FOREVER. For now, we are a family of 3 going about our day the same way we have been. In an instant, when we leave for the hospital, that will change. I had a little panic last night about telling G goodbye. J thinks he'll have to pry her from my arms. I know that life with Baby 2 will be awesome (most of the time) but for now, I mostly feel nervous about upsetting the apple cart that is "us."

This isn't my only concern. My current thoughts center around an internal debate on whether or not to wear heels to a party tonight (is it worth the Shaq sized cankles tomorrow?). This made me think that I was still a "well-rounded" (get it, ha!) girl, not just a desperate pregnant chick because I still had fashion on the brain, not just babies, but I guess the cankles are a direct result of the baby-ness. Darn. A one-track mind these days.

Favorite things...

The idea of "favorite things" is twofold for this post. First, I want to say that I wish I was friends with this woman (Brooke Reynolds of Inchmark)! I enjoy her blog and wish I was invited to this party. She gets together with a big group of friends, they each bring 5 exact replicas of their favorite (inexpensive) thing, then swap. What fun?!? I think its something that I'll try to plan with my girls after we get settled in Vegas (so excited that I already have "girls" waiting for me there).

The other favorites I want to talk about are my favorite things about New Orleans. We still have a little time left here, but I know that after bambino #2 arrives our last few weeks here will pass in a flash. A very sleep-deprived, hormone-crazed flash. So I thought I'd talk about what I love about this city on an evening after I got a full 8 hours of sleep, plus a one hour nap this afternoon (these days are growing short. Tear.).

Crepe Myrtles -- what a beautiful tree and something I wasn't familiar with at all until we moved here

Spanish Moss & Live Oaks -- while the idea of little buggies living in this beautiful silvery green moss creeps me out, I've learned to love the way it looks...especially at Audubon Park

Audubon Park -- The fam spent a lot of time here, taking walks, having a Whole Foods picnic... it's just a beautiful place and I'm going to miss all the green when we move to the land of brown/orange (pic from October 2008 taken at the park)

• March through May -- the weather is amazing and everything is green and blooming
• Festivals -- there is never a dull moment here in NOLA. The big events (Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Voodoo Fest, etc) get a lot of publicity and are fun but the good stuff, in my opinion, are the little fairs and fests. Gretna Fest is awesome and most of the Catholic churches here have little festivals with delicious food, great music, and friendly people. Its just fun. Period.

There are more but I guess 9 hours of sleep today isn't enough for my brain to function at its fullest potential. Maybe I'll keep this as an ongoing story...

What do I do now?

G has made some little friends in our neighborhood in the past couple of weeks. Yet another perk of living on base, so much easier to get to know the neighbors. There are 3 little girls who are all 4 and usually they play outside while I watch from the front porch and read or mediate the little arguments. The other little girls roam more freely, going from house to house, but G is still too young for me to turn her loose. Anyway, today one of the girls came over to see if she could play but her mom wanted her inside because its so hot. So, G is at her first playdate at someone else's house without me! I am going to go get her before lunch. I'm not sure what to do with myself!!! I considered a shower but what fun is that? Any suggestions? :-) Maybe I'll just veg out on the couch! I think Designed to Sell is on...

By the way, the mom is a cartographer. How cool is that!?! I love me some maps!

The girls a few nights ago

Also, I'm trying to come up with a new design and NAME for the blog. I don't want Baby #2 to feel slighted because the title was MMG and Me. So I'm trying some stuff out...bear with me.

Yummy!!!

Made Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta tonight and it was delicious! Thanks to The Pioneer Woman! A little tart/tangy and just what the doctor ordered (OK, minus the butter, heavy cream, 1/2 and 1/2...).

Catching up...

Boo-ah! and PaPa came to visit in July and we had a wonderful time! We celebrated the 4th with some good friends, made sugar cookies, and even celebrated G's 2 1/2 birthday (she shares the real thing with Jesus, who gets top billing, so this has been an annual tradition).

making cookies

adding the sprinkles (G's fave part)

G got a new kitchen and loved her Buzz Lightyear balloon

there was a "traditional" yellow cherry cobbler instead of a cake :-)