Making it work...

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Holy Moly!  Since last Monday a lot sure has happened.  The theme of our week was, in the words of Tim Gunn, "Make it work!"

1.  It all started with Valentine's Day.  Before becoming parents, we would have gone out to a fancy dinner.  Since getting pregnant and then having our son, we made it a tradition to stay in and make our favorite hors d'oeuvres.  This year for some reason, we couldn't really seem to get it together.  It seemed like Connor was kind of coming down with a cold later in the day on Monday, so I didn't want to take him out.  Using what ingredients we had at home, we scraped together what ended up being a perfect V-day dinner.  We made it work and put together steak bruschetta, using a harvest loaf of wheat bread with roasted flax and pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, and steak.  We never really follow recipes, so we just threw it together and it was fantastic!

So easy and delicious!

2.  That night Connor had a pretty rough night's sleep.  At about midnight, I brought him into bed with us and he coughed off and on all night long.  :(  By morning, he just seemed pretty miserable.  I called his doctor to see if we could get in for an appointment because by this point, he was starting to breathe really hard and I was getting worried.  They were all booked up and suggested waiting until the next day.  Umm...not happening.  I called his allergy and asthma doctor and they fit him in right away, gave several breathing treatments, gave an RSV test (results back in 3-5 days?!!), wrote a few prescriptions, and sent us on our way with strict instructions to head to the ER if things were not improving throughout the day.  In the next few hours, things went from bad to worse.  We headed to the ER at the closest children's hospital and after waiting a little over an hour, they tested his vitals and made him a priority.  Seeing panic on a nurse's face is not something I will ever forget.  They immediately started him on oxygen, then breathing treatments, then x-rays, then bloodwork, and an IV for fluids and meds.  This went on for a few hours.  Once a space was available, they got us a room and we continued with testing, breathing treatments, suctioning [by far the worst thing to watch  :( ].  It was determined that he had RSV.  It was quite an emotional roller coaster for all of us...obviously it was the worst for Connor, but seeing my poor baby hooked up to all sorts of things with a look of panic in his eyes is something I would never wish on my worst enemy.  :(  After being in this room for one night, we were moved to a "real room."  This was a much cheerier space.  I think we all felt a little better after being moved to this room:

after finally getting a little rest  :(

My husband and I tried taking turns sleeping in 30-minute increments, but honestly who can sleep when this sort of thing is happening.  We probably got about 4 hours of sleep in 4 days, but we made it work with  mommy/daddy adrenaline and lots of coffee.  After three days in the hospital, Connor was looking and sounding much better and we were happily discharged.  :)

3.  Unfortunately my husband and I both got sick too.  We were all a little slow-moving all weekend.  Luckily the weather was kind of crappy, so a weekend of snuggling, movies, and comfort food was just what we had.  Those days at home gave me lots of time to stare at the yucky color (a weird gold done by the previous owners) on our walls in the family room/kitchen and how I hate it with the color of our kitchen cabinets (honey oak...bleh).  Have I mentioned before that we have lived here for nearly four years??  I have no clue what has taken us so long to make this change!  I think we just got used to it.  Ugh...anyway, it is definitely time for something different.  I mentioned a while back that I wanted to paint the cabinets, but quite honestly I have no interest in doing that.  If we planned to live in this house for a long time, then they would be long gone, but for now, I think we are just going to paint the walls and see what we think.  Anything will be an improvement, so that is what we are leaning toward.  Over the past few weeks, I have come across ads, blog posts, beautiful homes with similar color schemes to what I want now for our space.  The following have something (a shoe, window shades, a door, a floor, etc.), not necessarily a cabinet,  in each photo with the same honey color of our cabinets:  

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

All of the above images also contain some shade of gray, along with something with a similar color to our cabinets.  They have inspired me.  I want to find a gorgeous shade of gray for the wall that complements the wood color.  I know it can be done and it will and it will be great!  We are going to make it work.  :)
Annnd...I just felt the need to purchase these two pillow covers (the ones on either end) to go in the adjoining family room:

John-Paul Philippe Pillow Covers

Now we just need to get moving on the paint!

4.  Lastly, oh my goodness...I began craving some sort of ice cream sundae or a blizzard or something.  We  did not want to leave the house, so we made it work with what we had at home and let me tell you...YUMMY! 

caramel delight icecream with leftover allergen-free muddy buddies

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~Our week definitely started and ended great...the stuff in the middle was awful, but we are over it now.  Honestly, I think when you can just make the most of what you have, you can take anything the world throws at you.  Make it work! ~

Have a wonderful week!...I sure have a lot of catching up to do!!

[Thank you all so much for the sweet words last week.  You all have no idea how much it meant to me to read such lovely comments.]

Clearing your dresser...

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My Mom denies this, but I could swear that she once got in an argument with my sister and cleared off the top of my sister's dresser with her arm and everything came crashing down to the floor.  I remember thinking it was hilarious, but my sister did not.  I don't know if my sister remembers this ever happening, so hopefully she will chime in because if she doesn't remember it, then I am surely losing my mind...perhaps it was a dream.

Here are a few dressers that sure would make a sad crash if everything came tumbling down to the floor:

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Mom and Kat, I want your thoughts!!  Did I dream this or did it really happen?  I think I remember a Garfield bank on that dresser too...it shattered.

There's no place like...

"ruby slippers" image
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...home!  As I mentioned yesterday, we had a fabulous trip home for Christmas.  The first half of our adventure was spent with my husband's family.  It was just his parents and his younger brother and such a quiet, relaxing portion of our trip.  The second click of my ruby slippers took us to my family.  My family is neither small nor quiet.  It is perfect chaos and I love every minute of it.

Living so far from our families has been hard at times.  I am usually fine for a few months and then get incredibly homesick.  I haven't lived at home since before I went away to college (almost 15 years ago...yikes!), so it's not like I recently moved, but I think I will always miss being at least within driving distance of my family.  Seeing my son have so much fun with both of our families really hit me and had me wishing we lived a bit closer and saw them more often.  Until then, Skype will have to do.

As much as I cherish our time back "home", our real home is right here for now and despite my feelings of homesickness, I really feel like we have made the most of our current location.  As hard as it was to leave our families last week, coming home gave me a sense of relief.  I LOVE our home and truly cannot imagine being any other place when all is said and done.  We have filled our home with things we love and find interesting, but more importantly, it is filled with our love.

Enough of the mushy stuff and on with some goals to make our home even better and more functional for us:

1.  Create a play room.  For years we have had a dining table that we never use for dining purposes.  Honestly, it just takes up space.  Since our home is on the small side, we need to make the most of our space and decided to make the nook of our entry room, that was once our "dining room",  into a play room.  The other half of the space will remain a living room, but I'd love to spruce it up and make the room feel cohesive, while still multi-functional.  Here are some spaces inspiring the look I hope to achieve:

I adore the look of this Maria Muro space found at French By Design.

This room by  Sara Sjögren  found via desire to inspire just seems fun and energetic...exactly the feel I want for our living/play room.

I used this Palmer Weiss image back in this post.  I like how the play area coexists with the living space.

This play room inspiration from Pottery Barn has me wanting a space that fosters creativity. 

2.  Create a sitting/reading/yoga/reflection room.  Along the same lines as our unused dining space, our guest room really only gets occupied a couple of times each year.  Other than those rare occasions when we have overnight guests, the room is virtually untouched.  Again, when we feel as if we are running out of room in our home, why not make that room more functional for us.  We have already removed the headboard from the room's queen-sized bed and have turned and centered the bed along the back wall, so it resembles a day bed.  I plan to pile it with pillows (which won't be hard since I have a pillow closet), fill the room with books, magazines, a yoga mat, and some relaxing images.  The spaces below somewhat show the look I want in there:

I am loving this space found via houzz.

I used this old image from Domino a long time ago in this post.

This space found via houzz is also appealing to me.

3.  Paint bathroom cabinets as practice for kitchen cabinets and frame the mirror.  At some point I would love to paint the cabinets in our kitchen, since ripping them out and installing new ones is just out of the question.  I would love to do it myself and think practicing on the bathroom cabinets would be a great warm-up and a great test as to whether it will even work.  This bathroom is set up exactly like ours and is inspiring me to go dark with the cabinets:

Jennifer Worts bathroom found via decor pad.

...or perhaps white cabinets like these in this Ashley Goforth bathroom found via decor pad.

There are several more things on the list, but I think this is enough to handle at the moment. ...more to come as these projects get completed!

In a "design" rut at home...

I have design in quotes above, because I know I am far from a designer.  I do, however, have very strong likes and dislikes when it comes to how I want to put our home together.  Our style is far from "safe", we love color, and like unique pieces.  Lately though, I just cannot seem to get it together.  I have a long list of projects I want to get working on and I have been feeling uninspired.  Whenever I get in that funk, I flip through all of my old Domino magazines and instantly get re-energized and re-introduced to some of my favorite designers who I had completely forgotten about.

Rediscovering the work of Palmer Weiss has pulled me out of my slump and has made me want to get working on some of the items on that long list of mine.  Here are a few of my favorite spaces of hers:

All of the images in this post can be found here!

Palmer Weiss Interior Design, Inc.
1808 Wedemeyer Street, Suite 180
San Francisco, CA 94129 

Honestly, there is no major work that needs to be done in our home, but just a few things that we have wanted to change since we moved in three years ago.  We have just sort of learned to live with some of the things we once hated and have now almost forgotten why we initially wanted to change them.  Oh well...time to spruce things up a bit.  Thanks to Palmer Weiss for giving me just the boost I needed!  :)

A fresh way to start the week...

      a scene from Aviary (image source)

Happy Monday!!  Since football season is in full swing, it was a manly weekend in my house.  I love football, but watching game after game, while yelling at the tv and saying, "Oh man, we should have had that one!" as if actually part of the team, makes me crave a dose of girliness.  Luckily, my InStyle magazine arrived weeks ago and since I had no time before to even open it, by about the third football game of the day, I shut off the sound around me and immersed myself in my magazine.  I usually start reading my magazines from the back for some reason and got about a quarter of the way through to the section highlighting the best salons and spas around the U.S. and came across a slightly different version this photo:

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Wow...Aviary!  The tree on that wall is so wonderful!  Then I started analyzing the photo and just love the place already.  This organic space was just what I needed to look at to snap out of the boy world for a moment.  Instantly I found myself craving more photos...which I found here:

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It's funny because these images don't really scream "girlie,"  but I want to go there and be pampered and be one with nature, as I mentioned last week, when I need a moment of clarity.  I hopped on their site and was pleased to see that it is just as refreshing as their salon photos.  It is beautifully done. When I stumbled upon this page I think I squealed.  ...since I created my own definition for a "cupcake monkey" when I started this blog, I can appreciate their creativity on this and love it:

aviary – (‘a•ve•’er•e), n., pl. -ar•ies
1. A large house or enclosure for birds.
2. A warm, welcoming nest from which beauty and wellness take flight.
3. An oasis that is more about eco than ego, where the personal is professional and clients are considered friends.

Aviary {organic beauty collective} 

659 Auburn Ave, Studio 125 

Atlanta, GA, 30312 

 http://www.aviarybeauty.com

I have had my fair share of salon mishaps, so now all I need to do is hop on a plane to Atlanta and hope they live up to my expectations!  ;)  Have a great week!

Feeling Closed In...

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My son has major food allergies and last week we had a food challenge for soy, since his latest round of tests showed he may have outgrown it.  The test takes four hours and we were confined to a room the size of a small area rug the entire time.  We packed enough toys and snacks to keep us occupied for the full time, but being in such a small space for so long can make anyone go a little nuts.  I felt so claustrophobic, but after about 45 minutes, we were completely at home.

We made a small 'family room' in one corner, where the portable dvd player was set up playing Elmo over and over again.  :/  We had a little 'kitchen' AKA his stroller, where he ate his snacks.  The torture chamber  examining table :( acted as his 'bedroom' where he took a short 15 minute nap in between force-feeding soy milk testing.  We also had a little 'learning/family room' area where we did puzzles, played with blocks, and flipped through tons of flashcards.  He loves his flashcards!

It really got me thinking about small spaces and how you really have to get creative when you are low on space.

Here are some of my favorite 'on the small side' multi-tasking spaces:

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I have had this in my file for at least three years and did not save the source. If you have it, please let me know, so I can give credit.

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Seeing such great images where the best was made of their spaces, I took this as a sign (much like my speeding ticket as a sign to slow down in life) that I needed to make the best of our situation with food allergies. I was becoming crazy thinking about traveling or even going out to eat and what food can he or can he not eat. I felt almost claustrophobic, if that makes sense....like I was trapped in this food allergy world. Will his diet be so limited because he can't eat wheat, dairy, eggs, and peanuts? Is he going to starve? No more...Make the best of it. I have decided...finally...to make the best of it. This whole experience really opened my eyes to foods I never even would have thought to feed him at this age. Who knew he would love polenta or quinoa or spinach cakes. Cooking for him has become so fun. It has always been fun, but the challenge of coming up with healthy, allergen-free foods for a 15-month old has been such a learning experience and has made me realize that allergies don't have to be the end of the world...much like a small home or room really isn't that bad when you can learn to make the best of it. :)

No more secrets!

It is huge for me to post before photos of our master closet...HUGE.  It was an embarrassment.  The rest of my house is clean and organized 99% of the time, but for some reason I could not manage to keep any order in the closet!  I have been talking for years (!!) about how I need to just get in there, sort through everything, donate the unnecessary, and call it a day...but nope...I just kept letting it get worse and worse!  It was definitely my dirty little secret...but not anymore!!!  I spent a good part of the weekend going through piles and piles of old sorority/fraternity formal t-shirts, shorts I haven't worn since college, shoes covered in a nice layer of dust...OMG.  I even found one of my favorite shirts that I thought was surely gone forever.  It was a happy reunion.  :)  The amount of #@$;%*^# wire hangers we had is shocking.  My husband's shirts for work are dry-cleaned and those hangers just began to take over.  I let it happen.


Have a nice life, wire hangers:

I would love to say they we got new beautiful wooden hangers for everything, but since I have an aversion to folding clothes and putting them in drawers and I hang everything, all wooden hangers would have been very expensive.  I really mean everything...like my 54 tanks in every color of the rainbow...I am not joking.

I think we will gradually switch over to all wooden, but in the interest of not spending a small fortune, I opted for all black hangers.  I do have one wooden hanger on a hook, not only as a reminder that we will one day have all wooden, but as the hanger for my outfit for the next day.  Now for some photos!!


View from the doorway...before vs after:

My husband's side of the closet...before vs after:

 

My side of the closet...before vs after:

That cubed shelf above is a cd shelf I have had since college.  It is now the home to my scarves and a few tops I no longer wear, but that have sentimental value.  :)  I also have a few of my favorite InStyle and Vogue magazines up there for inspiration and my little stool (actually a side table from Target, on sale for $13) for when I need to sit and put on shoes or flip through the magazines when I am hiding from my family need to reach a scarf.  ;)

My jewelry was taking over my husband's dresser, so I decided it needed a house of its own.  I found two flatware sorters for $5 at Marshall's for my necklaces, and a multi-shelf cabinet organizer step thing (?) also for $5 from Marshall's for my earrings.  The tray I had elsewhere in our home and the little white pinch pot housing my rings was made by my niece.

I just cannot even begin how to express how much nicer it is having a clean, organized, cheery closet!! 

 ...I am trying to think of some sort of project for all of those wire hangers.  Any ideas?  ;)