Spring Has Sprung … In Our Bathroom!

 
Remember my resolution to focus on each room in the house this year and see where things need freshening up?

When we moved in some seven or eight years ago now, the bathroom that Dave and I share had the most hideous black, grey and gold wallpaper border a couple inches from the ceiling. We were only too glad to rip it down and give the whole bathroom a fresh coat of white.

We’ve lived with the white, grey (floor tiles and granite counter top) and utilitarian glass sliding shower door all these years. It looks fresh and sparkly when clean and very uninspiring when not.

A month or so ago, I had an hour to kill at Cost Plus and $50 birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. Dangerous, I know. I spotted this lovely shower curtain on sale, a matching blood red bath mat, this Indian-inspired frame and, lo, a new bathroom color scheme was born!

Add to that a few details: a sweet little ceramic elephant to hold incense, a photo of Dave and I on our 20th anniversary in the bold red frame, a pretty green-glass candle, some tongue-in-cheek British bathroom humor and—ta-daa!— a pretty, spring-has-sprung bathroom!

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Resolutions Old and New

 


 
So it’s March. Lets talk about new year’s resolutions! At the beginning of  2010, instead of resolving to lose 15 pounds, be a nicer person and work for world peace, I settled on a single word: APPRECIATE and also five simple, practical to-do’s for the year.

1/  Organize the kitchen and laundry closets better, throwing out unused gadgets and optimizing space.

Well I’m one for two on this one. The laundry closet did get a total makeover but the kitchen cupboards I haven’t touched. In a whole year, you’d think I’d find time to clean out my kitchen cupboards. This will be #1 on my 2011 list for sure.

2/  Craft strategically, making useful, beautiful things as gifts.

I crafted like a crazy woman last year and had a fun time doing it. You only have to look at my crafting set on Flickr to see the insanity. This year, I will slow down a bit on that, and focus my sewing, knitting and crafting on projects that need doing around our home and for my immediate family. Be warned, no handmade gifts this year — you’re all getting gift certificates and store bought birthday cards!

3/  Take a two-day silent meditation getaway. Alone. Somewhere where I don’t have to talk and I have time to read, sleep and do yoga.

Yes, I did. And it was wonderful!

4/  Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize! Wear jewelery and scarves more, and dress with a bit more attitude.

Last year I enjoyed dressing up a bit more. I added scarves and rings and bracelets, and had fun mixing and matching. To be continued this year for sure. Today, I’m wearing brown slacks and shoes, paired with a turquoise wrap top, animal print scarf (I am cougar, hear me roar!) and a funky gemstone pendant.

5/  Have lunch once a month alone with Dave. Preferably at the beach.

I think we did have lunch together more often than we have in past years. And it’s good to take time out of our work days and chat together over lunch sans kid. The one time we met at the beach, though, I drove around for 10 minutes trying to find parking, then walked a half mile to where Dave was parked at the beach, and then we froze our buns off in the wind that was whipping up the beach.

I also focused this past year on APPRECIATING all that I have. My health and happiness, Dave and Tau, our home, which, though small, is happy and filled with support and laughter and great comfort. It was a wonderful year!

For 2011, my focus is on seeing things with fresh eyes and responding accordingly. On being cognisant and agile.

Is Tau trying to tell me something and I’m just not listening? Stop, look and see what’s really going on, and then act accordingly.

Clutter in the kitchen driving me nuts? See that we need to take stock, chuck out stuff we’re not using, and reorganize the cupboards. You get the idea. It’s all about clarity.

On the home front, that means I plan on focusing room by room, figuring what’s working and what’s not. Tidying out, redecorating where necessary, cleaning up and out. Here’s to a calmer, clearer 2011.
 

Flowers from the School Playground

 

“There are six of them, Mom. And I got in trouble on the last two.”

 

Happiest Birthday to Me!

 

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. A sweet card and gift from my boys, an insane number of good wishes from friends on Facebook, phone calls and cards from friends and family.

And a visit to the eye doctor, where I learned that, while not necessary because my vision is near perfect, a pair of reading glasses would probably help ease eyestrain at the computer. Optometrist: “When they were handing out eyesight, you were clearly at the front of the line!”

Since I had the day off, I spent lunchtime doing some leisurely shopping, picking out pieces for a super-secret stealth home decor project. Ssh! Don’t tell Dave!

And then spent the afternoon at one of my favorite local spas for a soak and massage, with warmed blankets, flickering candles and gentle sounds. In the evening, we feasted on bone-warming soup, fresh bread and pasta because — brrrrr! — it’s been cold!

The wine for the evening? I picked out this classy bottle in the beverage aisle at Target (say no more) because how can you NOT buy a bottle of wine called Purple Cowboy on your birthday?
 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

This year we kept it simple for Tau’s valentines: shoot, print, add a lollipop. Found the idea via Skip to My Lou at 24*7*365. Love them!

 

Twenty Years

 

 

A Little Piece of Perfect!

 
Today was Martin Luther King Day. Dave had to work but Tau and I took Nanny and Granddad down to Windansea beach. Clear skies, 78 degrees, sandy beach. It was perfect!

 


 


 


 

While We’re on the Subject of Baby Hats

 

Another knitting project completed as a Christmas gift for our friend Joslin’s baby girl Sevilla.

This one is from the book More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Haverson. In fact, the Pointy Elf Hat is featured on the cover of the book.

When Sevilla was born, I made a couple bibs and a very sweet newborn kimono top from Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching.

The bias binding bows just kill me!

I’m thinking that’s enough baby projects for a while. Considering moving on to something for myself with that luscious wool that Kelli sent me.

Cocooning Over the Holidays

 

After a very busy 2010, and Thanksgiving spent away at Solvang, CA, we decided to spend Christmas at home this year.

I had the week between Christmas and New Year off, and Dave only worked a few days, which gave us all lots of time for sleeping in, leisurely meals and playing with all those gifts from Santa.

A few highlights from December:

• For Tau’s 100th Day of Kindergarten celebration, Dave and Tau built an amazing, fun display of 100 Christmas lights! The first of many school projects I’m sure.
• Tau and I went on a school field trip to see The Old Globe’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Thanks to Tau’s teacher, we managed to scoop front-row-center tickets, and we could literally reach out and touch the conductor and see down into the orchestra pit. It was an outstanding production and Tau’s first venture into the world of theatre!
• We baked and iced Christmas cookies for the first time.
• At VMIX, we had a fun Holiday Sweater Contest. My sweater was appropriately horrible but my friend Andrea’s Gingerbread House Vest took top honor because, apart from its awesomeness, it lit up and flashed. Here is a fun video of the festivities at work on our corporate blog.
• On Christmas Eve, we visited some crazy holiday lights not far from us and tracked Santa’s progress, thanks to Norad.
• And, yes, he came and left MANY gifts for us all, but especially for Tau, who was most happy to receive his beloved Octo Battle.
• Santa did not forget Dog and brought him a hat, and we gave Dog a pair of pajamas and his own pillow, which Tau and I sewed out of an old pair of Tau’s PJs.

We spent New Year at home also with a quiet but yummy meal, and have been slowly easing ourselves into the new Year.

For more pictures, take a look at our Christmas and New Year 2010 set on Flickr!

Reason 384: Why I Love the Internet: Christmas Treats From Kelli

 

We have all been sick with colds and flu. And while Tau is over it and full of the joys of … well … winter, again, Dave and I are still laboring under it.

I worked from home today because it really isn’t fair to my cubemates to be coughing and sneezing all over them. Rain is forecast for the whole weekend, so the sky was grey and I was just sitting down with a mug of Theraflu, when the doorbell rang.

And behold! The sweets of the Internet delivered into my arms. An unexpected box of treats for us from Kelli in Arizona!

• Homemade pumpkin-seed granola that Dave and I will savor
• A mystery package addressed to Tau that I’ve popped under the tree
• A CD of Kelli’s fave Christmas music, which we will enjoy over dinner tonight!
• And finally — for me! — a skein of the loveliest Malabrigo pure Merino yarn, and a perfect knitting pattern for a cowl.

The luxury! It is the most beautiful wool I’ve ever seen and touched, and I am so looking forward to slipping it onto a pair of needles!

I was so touched that Kelli had thought of us and gone to the trouble of preparing and shipping us treats! She is spending the early part of 2011 on a breathtaking farm in Malawi, and no one deserves the rest and sanctuary more!

She knows I am a bit jealous that she will step into the new year in Africa but the Malabrigo makes it all good Kell! I made her promise to give Africa a kiss on each cheek as she steps off the plane!

Lego Party: Party in the Park

 

And finally, a wrap-up post on the Lego party. For those searching the Internet for ideas for a Lego party, here are a few ideas:

• Our Lego invitations
• The Lego stick your head through photo cutout thingy
• Make a Lego piñata out of a box
• Lego head marshmallow pops
• Lego cupcake toppers
• Party decor and goodie bags
• Build and race your own Lego vehicle

 

Lego Party: The Ultimate Block Building Party

What got the whole Lego party rolling was that I asked Tau a few months ago what kind of birthday party he’d like to have.

He answered that he’d like to have some friends over to the house to play with his Lego, except that we’d have to buy some new Lego because he didn’t want them playing with his sets and mixing them all up.

Our place is way too small to host a birthday party at home and there was no way we were investing in a special party stash of Lego, but kudos to Tau for trying! And we were already sort of considering a sports-themed party. Then I saw an ad in a local parenting mag for The Ultimate Block Building Party.

In a nutshell, Loree of The Ultimate Block Building Party arrives at your venue of choice with tubs and tubs and tubs of Lego. Tubs of them! She also brings a 12-foot sloped racing track and a Lego ghettoblaster to pump out fun music. She can also supply a Lego piñata (but as you know, I had that covered) and a special Lego-block throne for the birthday kid, which we nixed since we all know how much Tau loves new tactile experiences! Not.

It goes without saying that the kids LOVED building their vehicles and racing them down the track. We had some pretty ingenious designs and I’m kicking myself for not getting pictures of them! What was I thinking?

Tau’s racing car featured a treasure chest (with crystals in it — very important!) and a monster cannon-shooter-thingy on the back. It wasn’t particularly well balanced and didn’t win any of the races, but it was high on the coolness scale in his mind and so nothing else mattered.

I would highly recommend The Ultimate Block Building Party — Loree is great to work with and really has a good selection of building materials. I ended up giving her the Lego photo cutout thingy because I know she will use it again for other parties.

Here are a few photos from our Lego table and track. First up? Some serious building:

And an equally serious race in progress:

And as you can see, the adults enjoyed playing with Lego almost more than the kids!

Lego Party: Lego Marshmallow Pops

 

 
One of my main inspirations for Tau’s Lego party was the party Amy Locurto threw for her son.
 
I “borrowed” her cupcake topper design (thanks to Andrea, who created a set for me in red and blue), I liked her idea of having the party outdoors and adding a Lego pinata, and I absolutely LOVED her Lego cake pops.
 
Although I didn’t fancy the idea of mucking with a bowl of smooshed up cake and frosting to form the Lego heads. So I went the marshmallow route, using large ones for the head and mini-marshmallows cut in half for the bump on the top.
 
All went well until dipping time. I’d bought yellow candy melts from Michaels, which I assumed would do the job, and imagined heat the melts up in my double boiler and simply dipping the marshmallow heads quickly into the liquid and then letting them cool.
 
Turns out, candy melts don’t melt into a liquid — the mix was more like a thick paste. I managed to thin the mixture out with a few drops of vegetable oil, just enough to smudge each head around in the thick paste and then smooth it out carefully with my trusty frosting spatula.
 
“Dipping” 40 Lego heads took a long time, I tell ya! And If I made these again, I’d be tempted to try white chocolate colored yellow to see if I could quick-dip them.
 
Second challenge was adding the faces. Amy suggests using food writing pens, and I was delighted to find a black one at Michaels. But it didn’t seem to take well on the cooled candy-melt surface. So I resorted to piping on the faces with black frosting, which was quick and the faces ended up looking great.
 
We gave these out as party favors and the kids LOVED them! Definitely a fun addition to any Lego party!

 

Lego Party: Making a Lego Piñata Out of a Box

 

 
Here are basic steps for building your own Lego piñata out of a cardboard box. In my case, I didn’t have a box the right size but I did have a large sheet of medium-weight corrugated card. So I made a box and taped it up lightly.

The key when making a pinata out of a box is to make the sides and top strong enough that the body doesn’t collapse, but the underside just fragile enough that it breaks after a couple rounds of hits.

1. Cut two holes on what will be the top of the pinata. Your rope will go through here. Reinforce them with an extra layer of cardboard or heavy plastic so that the piñata top doesn’t give way before the bottom!
2. Cut a trap door on the bottom and tape it loosely shut again.
3. Paper the whole piñata with colored tissue paper and a light coat of Modge Podge so that it looks more or less the way you want your finished pinata to look. Be sure to paper the trapdoor shut with only one or two layers of paper.
4. Make the lego “bumps” out of construction paper or cut-off paper/plastic cups and tape them onto the bottom (trap-door) side of the piñata. Cut or tear 1 inch strips of tissue paper and Modge Podge them over the bumps so that the bumps have the same tissue paper finish as the rest of the piñata.
5. Cut tissue paper fringing and apply that layer by layer around the sides of the pinata.
6. Apply any other decorations you want to add to your piñata.
7. Fill with loose candy, rope the pinata up in a tree and have a whole lot of fun!

At our Lego party, we had about 12 kids hitting the piñata, and it finally broke open about half way through the second round. The kids exploded with cheers and rushed in to gather candy. Well worth the effort to make it!
 

 

Lego Party: Your Face Here!

 
What do you call those photo-booth thingies that are not really booths? The ones where you stick your head through a hole so that someone can take a picture?

I went looking on the Internet and couldn’t figure it out. The best I found was a couple blog posts that called it a photo cutout. And that the French invented a similarly descriptive term calling it a passe-tête. On Flickr, there is a group called Your Face Here, which I thought was cute.

So, with the build-and-race-your-own-Lego-car theme for Tau’s party, I wanted to do a photo cutout thingy. And let me describe a little scenario that will certainly hint at my crafty obsessiveness.

Tau and I are pulling out of the driveway one morning when I see that the neighbors across the road have set out an ENORMOUS flat box for recycling. I’m talking 4×5 ft. box.

Halfway up the road, I spin the car around, park in the driveway and dash across the road. Aforesaid 4×5 ft. flat box is made out of double-thick boxboard and weighs at least two tons but I manage to drag it (wearing heels) across the road, through the garage and onto our patio, spilling broken bits of styrene out of the open ends, and all the while considering that there are likely laws in place in San Diego that prohibit one from raiding the neighbor’s garbage.

Anyhoo! A few slashes of the box cutter and a couple of layers of white primer and I had myself the perfect canvas for our Lego party Your Face Here!

 

The sketching went quickly, the painting not so much. I won’t tell you how many hours I spent on this project but I am very pleased with the result and I think grownups and kids alike will have a lot of fun with it at the party!

Oops! I see the blue Lego man is missing a black line across the top of his shoes. Will fix. And I’ll add more photos after the event.

Note: If you look carefully at the bottom of the photo, you’ll see that the cutout has a heavy cardboard crosspiece on each end to make it stand upright. I painted the crosspieces sky blue and grass green to blend with the rest of the picture. It’s pretty darn sturdy.