...when I have mine this year, and it asks for me to rate my "ingenuity" on a scale of 1 to 5, I'm put 12! ...and submitting this photo as photographic evidence:
(Rental rug. Rental TV console. Not rental ingenuity, baby!)
My Mom's Got a Blog!
Find me on Etsy
Latest Etsy Faves
- Chalkboard State Map by shopdirtsa
- The Modern Necklace No6 by tamar
- The States of the Nation Print by falldowntree
- Rosebuds in Pink maryjane by GraciousMay
- State Love Prints by seakettle
- Peanut Southern Word Wooden Country Sign by SlippinSouthern
- Infinity Brown Leather and Gold Rhinestone by MesaBlue
- boardwalk necklace by urbanlegend
Charlie's Collection
- sharing by rkdsign88
- discover by rkdsign88
- modern baby clock elephant by decoylab
- elephants parade mobile by lollipopmoon
- natural wood toy dinosaur by nwtoycrafters
- a day at the beach postcard by tuttistudio
- small sailor postcard by tuttistudio
- muddy morning by belleandboo
- red and blue alphabet print by simplesongdesigns
- lowercase 'c' cross stitch pattern by andwabisabi
I Spend A Lot of Time Here
...best handwriting
...in honor of National Handwriting Day (thanks to Ken's sister, Katie, for informing me of this important national holiday), I'm happy to introduce you to my latest venture...my etsy store:
(Because now that I'm a SAHM, I need something to do all day besides watch Soap Operas and eat bonbons. What IS a bonbon, anyway?)
In June 1997, my high school's senior superlatives came out in the yearbook. Someone got "most likely to succeed" and someone else got "best looking." My superlative? "Best handwriting." Fifteen years later, I've finally decided to put it to good use, hand-lettering envelopes.
I have no idea if I'll ever sell anything, so that's why it's a good thing our new mortgage isn't dependent on this little venture. I'd love for you to spread the word, if you are a spreading the word type of person.
And, for the record, Charlie and Clara Landers are my most favorite, fictional people to send mail to.
...signs of life
...a bottle and Clara's medicine:
...a half-made (better than half-baked, right?) Mr. Potato and a new car:
...a discarded Sophie. How did Charlie survive infanthood without Sophie? Poor, deprived child:
...cars, cars:
...little boy's discarded sock:
...and more cars (and a Spanish-English translator. What two year-old doesn't need that?):
...and a collage of our life: paint chips, trains, and a binky. I'll let you guess what belongs to what family member:
...Pottery Barn catalogues, house folder, spreadsheets, and I think a calculator:
...and a conversation with clara:
...you know I love me a celebrity sighting
...Baltimore's own, Joe Flacco:
It's funny when I see a celebrity, I try to think of anything we have in common that I can strike up a conversation with them about. Joe went to the University of Delaware. I'm from Delaware! Sort of. Joe's wife is pregnant. I was pregnant this time last year! Today is Joe's birthday. My birthday's in four months! But then I just sit there and stare.
...and a very artistic shot of my caesar salad, which I took when I realized the flash was going off on the camera:
Yum.
...stretch your kit class giveaway
Are you ready to jump start the way you look at supplies? Tired of letting your kits pile up month after month without touching them? Ready to pull out the tools you have on hand and put them to use? Amy Tan is here to help show you how to see the Studio Calico Main kits in new ways and get those supplies onto your pages. She’s ready to share tips and tricks on making your kit supplies stretch to create beautiful page after page.
Known for her playful and innovative pages, Amy is the perfect teacher to help you stretch your kits. She’ll walk you through ideas for breaking open those brown paper bags and seeing your kits in a fun new way. Amy and Studio Calico kits... what a great combination!
Amy is joined by creative powerhouses Kelly Goree, Celine Navarro, and Jen Jockisch who will all share inspiration for using ONLY the Studio Calico Main kit. You’ll see their process for getting started on a layout, selecting which supplies to pull from the kits, and tips for using their favorite tools and techniques.
START DATE: FEBRUARY 1, 2012
REGISTRATION ENDS: JANUARY 31, 2012
Click here to learn more and register!
--
Leave a comment by Thursday, January 19 to win a spot in the class!
...my latest job interview
...Are you qualified for the position?
Probably not.
...Are you confident in your skills?
Um, about 40 percent of the time.
...What are your biggest strengths?
Not falling asleep between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. while sitting up, loading a drying machine in 10 seconds flat, and belly kisses.
...What tools do you use to reach a successful outcome?
A video monitor and chai tea lattes. Intravenously. (Side note: my doctor had the calcium talk with me the other day and, in all seriousness, I asked her, "How much calcium is in a latte?")
...What's the last book you read (I always get that one in interviews, do you?)
Chica Chica Boom Boom.
...What was the most difficult task you've completed in the last month?
Putting together a train track. I still need to look at the instructions every time. Even if I've had a chai tea latte. Or three.
--
At the start of the new year, I retired from work. (Ken loves it when I say I retired, as if it came with a pension and social security).
I have been working in marketing, public relations, and communications since I was 19. And that was a long time ago. For the last year, I had been working almost entirely from home, which in essence sounds great, but in reality with a toddler and an infant was, well, not great.
We decided that when we made the move to the new house that I would stay home. I always imagined I would eventually stay home with my babies, but that was back before I had babies and knew how much work they were.
Seriously.
I think every girl between the ages of 18 and 105 who has a job and doesn't have kids probably lives in the same fantasy world I did - where staying home with kids would actually be easier than going to an office each day. Well, newsflash 28 year-old Laura: the day you ran out of the Board Room crying after the CFO was "mean" to you in front of your colleagues? Yeah, that day was a cakewalk compared to some of your days now.
You don't need to tell me I'm doing the right thing. I know I am. I know someday I will look back at these days and be so glad I was here for it all. Even the poop. By God, there is a lot of poop.
But I miss working. Sure, my colleagues may have whined but at least they didn't drool on me while doing it. And they never hit me, as bad as things got (but I also couldn't put them in time out. Oh the power I wield as a mother!)
I miss my pint-size purses and hitting the snooze button. Oh glorious, glorious snooze button I miss you more than I miss my waist. I miss bagels in the board room and presents from vendors at Christmas. Some days I even miss black pants and scratchy knee highs (sexy, I know).
I miss hearing that I'm doing a good job. I miss having a task and completing it. I miss peeing alone.
I will think, at the end of a particularly long day where no one napped, I still have light fixtures to pick out, and I have no idea what's for dinner, that these kids would be so much better off in daycare.
And I will think somewhere in a parallel universe, 28 year-old Laura is walking to her car, her heels clicking on the sidewalk, her bag smartly slung over her spit-up free shoulder, and the only thing she's thinking about is what she'll watch on TV that night.
But then, in the current universe, a lot of nights I imagine my Pop Pop Charlie watching me put my Charlie to bed. I see what he would see. My little boy, his namesake, splashing in the water until his fingers look like raisins. His namesake bundled up in a towel and playing with his train while I ask him about his day and get him dressed in his pajamas. His namesake listening so dutifully to me telling him to pick out a book as I sigh my way down into the rocker. His namesake walking backward to me, to land just right in my lap. His namesake pointing for just one more book. His namesake laying on his pillow, and smiling ear to ear as I whisper, "Night night Charlie. I love you. Best little boy in the whole wide world."
And I think my Pop Pop wouldn't care about a great spreadsheet I created that day, or a video I produced or a website I launched. He'd care about that little boy in that crib and how much he loves his momma. And he'd see, he'd see, he'd see how much that momma loves that little boy and his little sister in the next room over.
And that...That is what matters.
...clara louise's room
...now that the floors have been chosen, faucets finalized (at least for today) and kitchen cabinets ordered, all that's left to do is find that damn money tree.
...and decorate.
Clara's room only has one window so I want to keep it as light as possible (although she does have one in her closet...we will be adding a deadbolt to that as she enters the teenage years).
My pinterest board for ideas:
Ken's mom is saving me and sewing some bunting and pillows for the window seat. Because if I did it, it would look like a home economics project gone very, very wrong.
...when I lay my head down at night and finally close my eyes
...i see spreadsheets
...and lighting fixtures
...and faucets
I have come to the conclusion that there are far too ugly many lighting fixtures, ugly faucets, and ugly ceiling fans in the world and that, for the love of God, someone needs to trim down the selection.
My computer tonight:
...and our house, on Saturday. I am in love with the siding and might decide that we need to side the inside of the house too. We ended up going with Silver Plate from Certainteed after not finding a HardiePlank color that we loved. We really wanted a sharp, crisp gray and that's exactly what we got. We opted for a larger trim and I'm in love with that too. I got teary-eyed when we drove up the driveway. I'm a dork and I'm still hormonal so leave me alone.
The Little House is getting closer and closer to becoming our house.
...excess
...I get asked a lot what I do with the stuff I have left over from my Studio Calico kits since my pages are so simple (sometimes snarkily, sometimes not. Is that a word?)
Well, in our rental house, my scrapbook space is approximately three feet by one and a half feet, so there isn't a lot of room to save. I have a bag (the awesome brown ones that all my SC stuff comes in) marked "giveaway" (I also have one marked "for Brooke in Australia" that will some day get mailed to her. But I marked it just in case I get hit by a bus, someone knows to mail it to her. It might get there faster that way). Then I have a bag of stuff to keep, which will get organized once my new space is all set up. Sometime in 2016.
But I do use that stuff. A lot of times for gift tags, cards, etc. These are some tags I made for gifts given to Ken's employees reusing the wood veneer alphabet from the County Fair kit. His staff is 90 percent male, so I know they appreciate the work that went into these. Misting, even!
(Twill ribbon is from here).
...New Year's Eve 2011
...I woke up on New Year's Day groggy, dehydrated, and had a rockin' headache. Sounds like we had a pretty wild night, right?
Right.
You see, at 1:36 a.m. on December 31, I received a text from Molly Marine, "At the hospital. :)" It was time for baby Molly Marine!
We waited all day for news. We worried as the day got later and later. Meckenzie and I texted all day, wondering when the baby, who we decided should be named after us (naturally), would finally arrive.
At 5:00 p.m. I broke down and texted Molly's sister, and she continued to text me over the next few hours with updates, which I then texted to Meckenzie.
Then things started to get a little loopy.
My real question is: what did people DO before texting and Facebook when they went into labor? Did they just go to the hospital and people found out a few days later they'd given birth? Via carrier pigeon? A handwritten letter, perhaps?
At 12:24 a.m. on January 1, fireworks were going off outside and I was sitting in bed waiting for the next text. At 1:48 a.m. it came, "Baby born! Healthy!! No name yet!!!" I sighed, rolled over, and fell fast asleep (for the next few minutes until Clara was up to eat). Even Ken got in on the action, asking me as I turned the light off, "That baby born yet?"
I always knew Molly was a trooper. You don't survive deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq without having a little bit of tough in your DNA. But 24+ hours of labor? That takes her to a whole other level of trooper in my mind.
Can't wait to meet the little Molly Marine, who does have a name now - Elizabeth. Perfect little Lizzie, born to two Marine Captains on 1/1 at 1:11 a.m.
...because
...because a clean scan day is a good day indeed.
...a little post-christmas shopping
...i love anthropologie, but generally speaking I can afford a pair of earrings and maybe a knob and that's about it. I had heard about Terrain, the sort-of-sister-home-store-of-anthro, which is pretty close to where I grew up, but never visited.
That all changed on December 29, when I decided that not only will it now be a stop every time I go home, but I might just move in.
It's a good thing I haven't found the money tree on our wooded lot I've been searching for, or I could have gone really crazy. Instead, I only went a little crazy. It also helped that Ken was there keeping a watchful eye on me (and carrying Charlie on his shoulders).
My mom got me this for Christmas:
...and this for our anniversary:
...and I bought this - hoping to use it for towels in at least one of the bathrooms:
...and who doesn't need a grape lug? Or two? Thinking I'll use them in the-pantry-that-is-bigger-than-our-former-master-bedroom:
And if you hadn't previously heard of Terrain before this blog post, you are welcome. You are welcome.
...christmas in photos - part four - old friends
...college seems like, well, yesterday, so it seems weird to call them old friends. But the reality is that it was fourteen and a half (holy *&$#) years ago that I walked into my freshman dorm room and came face-to-face with Sharon. And it was fourteen and a half years ago that we started playing pickup basketball with that other girl on our hall, Molly. And it was fourteen and a half years ago that we befriended that funny girl Meckenzie down the hallway. And it was just a year or two later when Edra became a part of our group.
Our conversations have evolved, as have our friendships. college-->boys-->booze-->missing home-->how the heck do you do laundry?-->sororities-->spring breaks-->internships-->turning 21-->job hunts-->first real successes-->first real failures-->I have to pay rent?-->turning 25-->wedding registries-->first homes-->bridesmaid dresses-->honeymoons-->paint colors-->husbands-->turning 30-->wanting babies, having babies, losing babies-->breastfeeding-->bottles not filled with beer-->sleepless nights.
We have lived across the country and the world - San Diego, Oklahoma, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Africa, Atlanta, Baltimore. And I have no doubt that I will always, always, always count these girls as some of my very dearest.
...christmas in photos - part three - memories
...the day after christmas, we took charlie out to the Brandywine River Museum, a place I frequented for field trips over the years:
...Charlie is particularly interested in still-life.
...And in trains:
(...and, ahem, in crawling under rope barriers to become one with the exhibits).
...afterward, we stopped to show Ken my old elementary school. I hadn't been back in a long time. Forever, really. Maybe since I left. I could see my friends and I playing four-square. I could see the May-Pole on the field behind the school. A random memory of losing a tooth in a piece of pizza in the cafeteria came back. And then my little boy took off to the playground where I played. And it was freezing and windy but it was wonderful too:
I want to thank whichever kid or teacher forgot to pick up that last ball before leaving for Christmas break and put it in a spot perfect for my Charlie to find.
...christmas in photos - part two - the actual day
...at first he was overwhelmed, but that quickly passed when he realized it.was.all.for.him!
(And why yes, I'm in my pajamas. You know me and my mantra of truth in blogging).
Testing out his new balance bike with pops:
...little clara stayed close by all morning, taking it all in:
...she managed to walk away with a few presents (everything had to be taste tested):
...presents make her happy too:
...hair clips do not:
...i'm pretty sure a staple of every two year-olds christmas is a choo-choo:
...we took our traditional cousin shot (a few minutes too late after one of the cousins had left) and there wasn't a good shot in the bunch. But I feel like the fact that hardly anyone is looking at the camera kind of defines our life right now. It's too crazy to look straight-on!
...clara with her beauty of an auntie, devin:
...we spent the last week up at my parents house (yes, God bless them for putting up with not only me, my toddler, and my infant, but all the crap that comes with them). It's a Christmas miracle that the only thing we managed to forget was a cooler.
...11
...11 years ago today we got married. Tonight we celebrated by wearing as many clashing patterns as humanly possible, dinner out, and selecting lights for the new house. And look! I'm wearing lipstick!
Life is different than it was 11 years ago, that's for sure. But good in all the right ways.
(My mom and I are slightly obsessed with Kate Middleton. She got me this dress after seeing Kate wear it. Ken did not get me the matching diamond and sapphire ring. He's saving that for the 12 year anniversary).
...studio calico county fair
...I had approximately 23 minutes to scrapbook last month, so I made the most of it with these three layouts from Studio Calico's County Fair kit:
