One Item, Three Ways

Usually when I buy something for the house, I have an idea of how/where I'll use it, but I also think about other things I can do with it. I like to get my money's worth. And sometimes you just wanna mix things up without going out and buying something new.

I bought a little rectangular plant pot at an estate sale over a year ago because it's the prettiest shade of green ever. I've used it for just about everything so far but a plant. I've re-created a few uses here to give you an idea.

It's held teas in our kitchen (that's my mom's ah-mazing date-nut bread):



I've used it to hold loose photos to rifle through for easy viewing:

And the way I'm using it now, and think I'll continue to use it, at least for awhile, is to hold mail supplies on our coffee table, because that's where I sort mail and pay bills. It houses our address labels, stamps, and pens. (My dad made those pens! How cool are my parents?):

So there you have it. Three uses for one little item. I'd say it was worth the $2 I paid for it.

What's an item you use for multiple purposes in your house?

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25 Things to do with Avery

I can't wait to:

• bake cookies
• go for walks after dinner
• go to museums
• have Easter egg hunts
• have pancakes on Saturday mornings
• collect shells at the beach
• have tea parties - real and pretend
• teach her to love animals
• teach her to share
• play dress-up
• have movie nights at home with popcorn
• dance to the ipod - I'm gonna teach her my sweet moves, lucky girl
• get ice cream cones on a hot day
• carve pumpkins
• teach her to be kind to everyone
• go to storytime at the library
• finger paint
• go to the mountains to play in the snow
• go to Disney World
• take a mommy-and-me class
• lay on the lawn and watch for shooting stars
• ride bikes
• pull her in a wagon in the 4th of July parade
• play board games
• take a billion pictures of her

I tell her all the time all the things her daddy and I are going to do with her, and mostly I get a blank stare, but every so often I get a smile. I think she gets all the fun we're gonna have. Or it's gas.

Decisions, decisions

For the past year and a half that we've lived in this house, I've been thinking about what should go above the living room fireplace. Art of some sort or a mirror, art or a mirror...back and forth. After much debate (with myself because, thank the goodness, Mark leaves these matters to me or we'd have car parts everywhere and posters on the walls), I've decided it must be a gold framed mirror. Preferably a shape more unique than circular or rectangular.

Here's the mantle today:


And these are some of my inspiration photos:

I've been looking at yard and estate sales and thrift stores, but no luck yet. I should start checking Craigslist and Ebay. And we're going to the Rose Bowl Flea Market next month, so I have high hopes for that (although things can be wildly overpriced there). I'll find one if it kills me!

The weekend was...

Nothing like I planned. We were going to get a few things done around the house and spend Sunday morning at the farmer's market as usual, maybe grocery shop and do some cooking. Instead, I was in the hospital getting my appendix out.



I woke at 2:30am on Saturday to feed Avery and I had a bit of a stomach ache, but that seemed about right since I had eaten an entire bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs on Friday. But by the time I finished feeding the baby, I was feeling worse. So I went to the bathroom.

Then I went to the bathroom again.

Then I threw up four times.

I knew something was wrong when puking didn't relieve the pain. And by 6am, I couldn't sit, stand, lay, curl up into a ball, nothing. No matter what I tried, death was clearly imminent. So my parents came to watch the little lady and Mark took me to the hospital. They took me right away because I looked THAT BAD, and shot me up with the good stuff so I could at least answer questions and ya know, stay conscious during the tests to see what was wrong.

I knew what it was without all the tests though. The time had finally come. I've been dreading having to have my appendix out since I was eleven and my friend at the time had hers out. Ever since then, anytime I had even the slightest twinge on my right side I thought THIS IS IT! And this time it was.

I'd never had surgery before, and the thought of it horrifies me. Not the surgery itself, because you're knocked out, but the recovery. How much pain will there be? Will I get blood clots that travel to my lungs and kill me? Will I be horribly scarred for life?

So two days post-surgery I'm way more weirded out than I was that day. I think I'm supposed to be changing my band-aids, but I can't bring myself to do it. I'm not ready to see stitches. And I'm annoyed because I was just feeling back to normal after giving birth.

When will the day come that I don't have to plan ahead to go to the bathroom because it takes me five whole minutes to get out of bed?

Under $15 Love

I've picked up a few little decorative odds and ends for the house recently that I love and they're all so cheap, so I thought I'd share.

This little acrylic cup from Target was $1.49. WHAT!? Could it be any cuter or cheaper? I knew it was just the thing to hold pens on my little desk in our master bedroom.

This bookend is from Home Goods and was $9.99. It's onyx and that sucker is heavy. I keep imagining dropping it on my foot for some reason. Sometimes I get a thought in my head and I can't stop playing it. Should I be medicated? Maybe. Either way, I'm not touching that thing again.
This porcelain feather plate is from Kohl's and was $9.99. I have it holding jewelry in my closet.

I don't know why I love this frame so much, but I LOVE it! Like dropped everything, had to have it. It was $12.99 from Cost Plus, and it's on our living room mantle holding a picture of us on our first anniversary.

Finally, this little cup was another must have. It was $3.99 from Home Goods, made in France, and I love the pretty little butterfly detail on it (kind of hard to see in the pic). You also get a glimpse of our recently re-done master bath here. There's a full post on that coming soon.

If you've found something awesome and cheap lately, please share! I love finding new little things for the home.

The weekend was...

A stroll through the town

Signs of Spring


Strawberry-cheese danish

Farmer's market

A new hat, perhaps a little big

Birthday celebration for a boy and a girl - my husband and sister

The nursery

When we moved into this house we reserved the smallest of the three existing bedrooms (we've since added a fourth...more on that soon) as a nursery. We painted it a light gray knowing it would work for either a boy or girl, then we promptly filled it with random junk that didn't make it into other rooms, closed the door, and forgot about it until we found out I was pregnant.

Then well into the second trimester when we knew the gender of the baby and I no longer felt like I was on my deathbed, we got busy. I didn't plan on using a lot of pink if the baby was a girl, but suddenly I couldn't be stopped. I was possessed.

How cool is that wooden crate with her name on it? A friend made it and filled it with all kinds of goodies as a baby shower gift. Awesome.

We also received three beautiful handmade quilts. We've been given so many amazing gifts for baby Avery from family, friends, friends of family and friends (people we've never met), and several of our neighbors. We're so grateful.

We found the dresser below at an estate sale for $25 (super score!) and I painted it a raspberry pink. It has tons of storage for some of her clothes and extra linens for the room.

And I have to shout from the rooftops about how wonderful the Moby wrap is. I was intimidated by it for some reason so it took me four weeks until today to try it. What the hell was I waiting for!? With a baby that doesn't like to be put down, this may just save my sanity. I'm mobile! I never thought I'd be so happy about being able to do dishes.

And before you judge my appearance in this photo, let me inform you that 14-year-old Pearl Jam concert T-shirts and Hello Kitty pj bottoms are what all the hot moms are wearing. And I personalized the look with unwashed bed-head hair and hairy legs.

Nursery sources, if you're interested:

Crib - Baby Europa - Babies-R-Us
Bedding and Curtains - Pottery Barn Kids
Rug - Lowe's
Gray Dresser - Ikea
Pink Dresser and table under window - estate sales
Mirror - yard sale
Glider - USA Baby
Little Rocking Chair - my Mom's when she was little!
Owl Pillow - Etsy
Pink Pillow with White Flower - Etsy
Monogrammed Pillow on rocking chair - Etsy
Alphabet Print - Etsy
Bird Print - Etsy
Turquoise "Live Laugh..." Print - Etsy

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Well that was quite a hiatus...

I was busy making this...

Serious props to all the bloggers that manage to continue blogging regularly (or at all) during their pregnancies. From the moment the little line showed up on that pregnancy test (and the other 3 I took in the following 24 hours because I just couldn't believe it), I couldn't think about anything else. Then almost immediately I was hit with the first trimester curse of debilitating nausea, so if it wasn't napping or dry heaving, I wasn't doing it. And let's face it, I'm a lazy-ass. And I milked that pregnancy for all it was worth.

Anyway, our daughter Avery Olivia was born on January 9th and I knew I had to start blogging again, if for no other reason than her. I want these memories preserved for her. And though I stopped posting, home improvements and projects around here kept plugging along.

So I have lots of things to post, but how regularly it can happen is yet to be determined. I have a demanding little lady. When she isn't sleeping, she's screaming, and unless someone is holding her, she isn't sleeping. Mama's got her hands full...literally.

But it feels good to be back.

Renaissance Fair

Mark and I went with our friends Vic and Kerri and their two sweet babies to the Renaissance Fair last weekend. I was going to post about it earlier in the week but we got a new computer (yay!), and it took us a few days to transfer info from the old to the new.

Anyhoo, they have this fair near us every year, but Mark and I had never been before. It was so fun! And apparently people take it very seriously. There were LOTS of non-employees in costume. We didn't go that far.

This chick was in a tree making high-pitched clicking noises. It scared Mark. Awesome.

Joseph had a good old time...

Can you stand it?!

Mark found a game he couldn't resist. Check that look of pure determination. That thing is gonna hit the bell for sure!

"Did I do it?" (The answer is no.)

Second try...and still no. It's safe to say I don't love him for his arm muscles.

I had a chocolate raspberry port that was kinda grody because it was warm, but the guy who poured it threw an Oreo in, so the last sip was pretty amazing...

Boobies!

Have a great weekend everyone!