nick & jessica

adios

2013-10-17T06:18:00.002-07:00

So, I decided to move on to a new blog name and address. You can now find me @ heylittlemomma.blogspot.com. I made the switch after thinking about it for a while and deciding that the content of this blog has gone through some changes ever since Hayden was born. The new blog will contain all the old posts archived from here. If you're a follower of this blog, I encourage you to follow Hey, Little Momma so that you can keep up with regular postings. I appreciate your support and stopping by to read this little blog hope you follow me over to our new site! :)

soundtrack to my life

2013-10-14T20:56:00.003-07:00

I'm definitely not a musical person; I can't play an instrument or carry a tune to save my life. However, I love listening to music and almost always have it playing when we're home, when I'm working, cooking, whenever. Sometimes I really identify with songs because I feel like the lyrics really speak to me at the moment. Other times, I latch onto songs because they remind me of a specific moment in my life, even if the actual words of the song have nothing to do with anything relating to my life. Whenever I do find a song like that, I end up listening to it on repeat for like 2 weeks straight (drives Nick crazy...). My most recent song has nothing to do with anything except this:

The other day, Hayden and I were in the kitchen. He was playing with measuring spoons and bowls and hiding his magnet letters in drawers for me to find later. I was cooking dinner. We had our Pandora on and our pumpkin candles lit and there was light streaming through the window and this song came on.

It was just one of those moments where I felt so blessed and undeserving of this beautiful life. It's one of those little moments that I want to remember forever, even though it was so ordinary. Anyway... that's my current favorite song for the week- until another strikes a chord next week ;)

5 on Friday

2013-10-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Five little updates from this week:

1. The painters already finished most of the downstairs yesterday and it's such a big difference! Sorry for the bad iPhone picture, I'll share much better ones when all the painting is done!

2. This kid cracks me up. Everyday, he's doing something so silly. His new thing is to climb into containers, boxes, pans, trays, anything that will hold his size. Yesterday while I was getting ready, he climbed into a laundry basket in our room and played in there for 15 minutes.

3. We did go the pumpkin patch last Friday and had such a great time. I will write more about that later, but Hayden picked out his pumpkin in the first 2 minutes we were there.

4. New table!! Another update for you- we are finally getting a new table for our dining room and it's being delivered today. Sooo excited!! Also... we basically got it for free ;) It's this table from West Elm:

5. I'm late on my usual October 1st Halloween decorating (I blame the construction site for the last 3 weeks...) but we're throwing a party this weekend so I'm planning of doing some decorating with H today! I'm pretty sure this is the last year I can do anything spooky around the house for a little while (since I don't want to scare Hayden!) so I've got to live it up!

Halloween 2011

Happy Friday, guys! Hope it's a great weekend!

(Shared @ Hello Happiness)

big house updates around here

2013-10-09T14:51:00.001-07:00

Things have been quite busy for the last couple weeks around here. We had the majority of the siding replaced on our house + all new windows. Our house has felt like a construction zone for the last 2.5 weeks, 6 days a week from 7:00 am to 4:30 pm. But, the job was finally finished today at noon and we were able to go into the backyard and play for the first time!

A little back story: All the houses in our neighborhood (built by the same builder in 1985) had bad siding. Instead of replacing the siding when the mistake was discovered... the builder put new siding over the top of the old bad stuff. Which didn't work well. Slowly over the last few years, people have been biting the bullet and replacing their siding the right way. When we bought our house in 2012, the siding issue was a known problem that would need to be fixed sooner, rather than later. It's one of those costly home improvement projects that is necessary but not fun. While all the siding was ripped off our house, we decided to upgrade our windows from builder grade metal ones to nicer vinyl ones that were more energy efficient.

Once the windows were in, we were given the okay to hire a painter to finally paint the inside of our house! I called the painter yesterday to see what the timeline would be and what do you know, they can come tomorrow to start the painting?! So, the construction zone continues... But this update I'm very excited about. As soon as I heard that we would be starting painting ASAP, Hayden and I took a trip to Home Depot to pick up some samples.

I knew that I wanted the color to be greyish- beige, that didn't lean to close to brown. I wanted the color to be neutral enough that it lightens up our house and makes everything look fresh. So I picked up 8 samples of very similar colors and did a bunch of test spots on various walls. We decided to paint the entire house the same color because we have an open floor plan. It would be hard to stop one color and start another without any definite rooms in the main living area.

Spoiler alert: I chose the top middle color. Nick chose the bottom right. He didn't really care to fight to hard for his case so I won... They basically look like the same color except mine leans a little more to gray and his to beige.

Anyway, I'm super excited to finally have a light, bright house and I promise, I'll take lots of pictures of the end results!

apple picking

2013-10-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we took Mr. H apple picking, as is the appropriate thing to do on a Fall Weekend. I over-dressed us in fall clothes (given the 80+ degree weather) but we had a great time, nonetheless. We took a scenic drive about an hour and half up the coast and went to an Organic apple farm that specialized not only in apples, but pears, pumpkins, sunflowers currently. We picked 10 pounds of apple (I have high aspirations for applesauce, apple pie, caramel apples and the like). Nick or I would actually pick the apple off the tree and hand it to Hayden to put into the bin. He's super into sorting items and moving things from one space to another, so this was the perfect job for him. Such a fun Fall activity and we're looking forward to the next one on our agenda- the pumpkin patch!

our fall mantle

2013-09-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly decorating for fall this year. I usually love going all out, but with a handsy toddler, I have to be a little more thoughtful about where I throw my Fall. Our mantle is definitely out of reach for Hayden, so it's a logical place for me to start our fall decorations. This year, I went for a gold + white theme. I ended up never taking down the mirrors that I hung last Christmas, because I really liked the arrangement. So, I wanted a Fall display that was simple with the backdrop of all the mirrors.

Most everything is shopped from around my house. I did get a few new things, the fall leaves from Crate and Barrel.

...and the gold planter from Anthro.

I'm hoping to add some real little white pumpkins when they start showing up here in the Bay Area. For now, I like the collection of random ceramic objects in the middle.

I'm currently looking for more (high up) places to add touches of the season around my house. Fall is my most favorite, after all.

{Linking to Thrifty Decor Chick.}

Keeping it Clean

2013-09-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely one of those people that feels better about her entire life when her house is clean. Silly, but it makes me feel good when things are neat. However, since having Hayden over a year ago, Nick and I struggled to get into an easy and consistent cleaning pattern. In our pre-baby days we would usually do a marathon cleaning session on the weekend for a few hours and then not worry about it during the week. Things would get messy and we'd clean again the next weekend. Now, I usually don't have 3 hours at a time to devote to cleaning and with an active toddler and both of us home all day, our house was getting messy in about 2 hours. I've heard of a lot of people that said they just cleaned on a daily basis, but it wasn't until I saw a schedule that it made it seem like a manageable way to keep the house clean.

I found this cleaning schedule from Jenny @ Little Green Notebook. Nick and I followed it for about a month and then I came up with my own version to fit our cleaning needs a little better.

The thing about having a schedule is that my cleaning is broken down into little 15-20 minute chunks, which is so much better for me now. In the mornings I make the bed as soon as Nick gets up and after we're both ready for the day, I wipe down the bathroom sink. It's easy to unload the dishwasher when Hayden is eating his breakfast. I do a lot of picking up throughout the day; when Hayden finishes one activity and moves on to the next, I pick up all the toys instead of leaving them on the ground. This way, there's not a huge mess by the end of the day. Having one daily chore is great because I can do it while he's napping, when I need a break from work, or right after he goes down for the night.

At night, Nick has been the one who does the final bedtime routine most nights, now that I'm no longer nursing. This gives me 20 minutes to clean while he's giving H a bottle and then I'm usually done and ready to hang out by the time Hayden's down. If I have a crazy day and don't get to the chore of the day before H's bedtime, Nick is also good about jumping in and helping.

Finally, laundry is usually our downfall. We are good about washing clothes but not so much folding and putting them away. I've found that if I do a load every day instead of saving it all for a "Laundry Day", then everything gets done and put away instead of piling up.

My last cleaning tip is to store supplies where you use them. For example, we have 3 bathrooms, so I have a set of bathroom cleaning supplies for upstairs and downstairs. I also stash a tube of cleaning wipes (good for wiping down counters) under each sink, including the kitchen sink. This way I'm not trying to remember where I left the supplies and things are always on hand for a quick clean. We streamlined our cleaning products so rather than having 10 different containers of different products, we use 3 different products the majority of the time (Ms. Meyers Clean Day Spray, Seventh Generation Cleaning Wipes, and Murphy's Oil to clean the floors and wood furniture).

I feel like having this schedule and devoting a little time each day to cleaning makes it so much more manageable and has really resulted in keeping out house mostly clean and neat.

Plus, by doing all the cleaning tasks during the week, our weekends are free for other things!

13 month favorites

2013-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hayden is becoming more and more of a toddler every day and, his tastes preferences are starting to emerge. I wanted to share some his (and our) favorite things at this current age.

Safety First Magnetic Locks: Oh my gosh, these have been a must ever since Hayden started crawling, pulling up, and getting into everything. His favorite activity is opening cabinets and drawers and these locks have helped us keep anything potentially hazardous locked away. They are a little pricier than other door locks, but we love that they can open easily with the magnet and stay securely locked. We didn't take away all his fun- we left one cabinet and a few drawers with things that he can play with, like tupperware. It's definitely a favorite activity for him to pull everything out of the drawer and carry it around the house.
Baby Swing: Hayden is very lucky and received this swing and a hand-built swing set from his Pops for his birthday. He swings everyday and loves it! The other morning, he crawled right across the wet grass to the swing looked up at it and waited for me to put him in. Loves it!
Green Toys Trucks: Hayden got a couple of the Green Toys vehicles for his birthday and he loves them. He plays with them in his sandbox and on the lawn. They are sturdy and cute and made from 100% recycled materials.
Angel Dear Blankie: We got Hayden an Angel Dear Owl Blankie around 6- 7 months and he slept with it every night and all naps. In the last few months he's gotten pretty attached to it and snuggles up with it every night when we put him in his crib. It's so soft, even after multiple washings and the perfect size for a little guy. I couldn't find his owl on the website, but I think this raccoon one is pretty adorable too!
Lollacup: Hayden received a Lollacup as a gift and we put it away for awhile because he wasn't using straws yet. Now, he prefers drinking his milk and water out of straw cups instead of sippy cups. The Lollacups are really cute, safe, and don't leak. We have 3 now and they are our go to cups for everyday use.
Radioflyer Walker: We also got this as a gift (sensing a theme?!) and Hayden loves throwing things in it and walking around the house with it. The other day we met Daddy outside with the walker and I think it made Daddy's night to see Hayden walking toward him!
Noise Machine: We've been using this one from the start but it is still a lifesaver. It drowns out any other noise, so that Hayden can sleep through his parents ripping out the flooring downstairs or any other background noise. When we put it on now, he knows it's time for nap or bed. We took it with us on several vacations recently and we really think the continuity of the same noise from place to place contributed to his sleeping soundly.
Gap pants: Love love love these gap pants for baby boys. They are much more stylish than loose sweats but allow Hayden to move around easily, unlike when he's wearing jeans. He has 4 different pairs of these pants and crawls everywhere in them and we have yet to see any holes in the knees. They are super cute and Gap seems to come out with new colors every season. Also so much more affordable than other baby leggings that I've come across!

love for layered rugs

2013-09-06T10:58:00.002-07:00

When we laid our cork floors in July, we both decided that it was necessary to have some rugs to warm up the space and create a little more definition in our ope floor plan. I really love the look of layered rugs and wanted to do the same for our living room. Here's two examples that I pinned of this exact look.

sfgirlbythebay.com

decor8.blogspot.com

For our own take on this, we purchased a big jute rug from Pottery Barn. We got it for $299, which is a great deal for such a big rug. Then I searched around for an over-dyed kilim type rug for a good price. RugsUSA came through for me. I loved a lot of their colors but most of them were out of stock. Since I was impatient, I ended up picking one of the few that was actually in stock at the time, a rug with purply pinkish tones. It was a fortunate choice, since it really complements our new chairs.

13 months

2013-09-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Mr. H is 13 months old and more and more of a toddler every day. He is amazing us with all his new skills and words and seems like he's always trying to figure something new out. He has amassed a few new words this month including, "buh bye", "baby" "hey ya" (hi), "Emma" (my sister, Emily). He also says "zzzzz" when we show him a Zebra picture and "buh" when we show him a Bee.

At 13 months, this kid is on the move, climbing everywhere, and trying to move everything around. His favorite place is in our backyard. Whenever the door is open, he beelines for the great outdoors and loves to explore the yard. He also enjoys rearranging deck furniture and throwing Lucy her ball. He loves to go to the park and slide, swing, and climb. We went on vacation two weeks ago and he loved the beach. He built sandcastles with Daddy, climbed in his tent, played on the beach chairs, and enjoyed the never-ending supply of snacks.

Hayden's appetite has grown so much this month. He eats pretty much everything and we've started ordering him his own small meal when we go out to eat because he likes it so much more than eating off of our plates. We went out to breakfast for my birthday last week and he ate 1 and half pancakes, a scrambled egg, and a cup of fruit! He can also feed himself with a fork and a spoon, but still definitely prefers using his hands to eat.

My sweet little boy has developed a little bit of a shy streak in the last month. Lots of time when we leave the house and see someone besides Daddy, he puts his head on my shoulder and holds on tight. He's such a sweet cuddly guy and I love watching him grow into a little kid!

my best friend moved away...

2013-09-02T08:47:00.002-07:00

But she gave me these chairs...

It's a consolation prize, I suppose... Between you and me, I'd rather have my BFF then her chairs. She moved to NYC and these chairs would cost more to ship than to buy new, so I got them. We rearranged a few things in the living room so that they could have a spot. I think they work so much better in our space then the old leather chairs did. They leather chairs were a pre-married purchase and they served their purpose well but just weren't fitting into our new smaller living space.

These two chairs take up much less room, yet provide more seating than the one leather chair that we used to have in here. I'm really liking the purply-grey color of the chairs too. Our living room was heading in a very neutral direction and now with the addition of these two (plus my blue chair) we have a nice color palate going on in here. I like that these chairs make the living room feel a little more feminine without being overly girly. In a house where I'm outnumbered, it's nice to have little doses of femininity, wouldn't you say?

if you give a mouse a cookie...

2013-08-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, one thing leads to another...

While we were working on our floors downstairs, we realized that we would need to take the toilet in our downstairs bathroom out to lay the floors underneath it. While the toilet was out, we decided that we would just replace it, because it's been in bad shape since we moved. We had a plumber look at it but it still never really flushed properly. So, while the toilet was out, I decided it would be the perfect time to paint in that cramped area behind it. (Side note: I'd been planning on painting the bathroom at some point in the future.) I knew the color paint I wanted to use (Sherwin Williams Urban Bronze) and since it was a small room, it was a quick job.

With the new paint, I hung new art, hardware, and got a couple of new towels and accessories.

We finished up this mini makeover in a hurry, since it was just a couple of days before Hayden's birthday party.

We still have a couple more items before calling the room finished:

Repaint the vanity

Frame in the mirror

Replace the light fixture (and light switch)

Replace the medicine cabinet

Anyway, even though it's not totally finished, I love how the dark paint and new accessories really transformed the room. Here's the before and after shot (so far):

professing my love for gold washi tape

2013-08-21T07:20:00.002-07:00

I'm a little late to get on the washi tape train, but can I just tell you how much I love it?! I picked some up for a craft for Hayden's birthday party (one you never saw- darn camera) and I had some left over so I decided to washi tape a few household items. I love that washi tape is a. easy to apply and b. easy to take off (if I ever get tired of it). Anyway, my tape of choice was this gold washi tape from Paper Source. I love the gold-accent trend right now, so this was an easy choice.

The first item to be washi-ed: this cute little lamp from good old Target. I love the pink and white combo but when you add gold? Perfection.

Numero dos: This heavy wooden tray on our coffee table. I love the size but the wood-on-wood look is a little boring. So I added a gold washi border to the top of the tray and now it stands out nicely.

The third and final (for now) victim is this green lacquered box. It's from the Container Store (who PS has the best selection of lacquered boxes, IMHO.)

If this blog post doesn't convince you that you need some gold washi tape in your life... I'm not really sure what will.

Floors are D.O.N.E.

2013-08-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Actually, they have been for about 3 weeks now (nothing like a first birthday party to kick your DIY projects into high gear.

We are so happy with the way the floors turned out. With just one type of flooring throughout the entire downstairs, the whole space feels much bigger. The floors are a nice rich brown give the whole space an updated feel.

Though cork is definitely a unique choice, we are happy we went that route. It doesn't feel hard when you're on your feet all day chasing a baby and it always maintains a moderate temperature.

We decided to go the non-DIY route when it came to baseboards and we couldn't be happier with that choice. We selected 4 inch baseboards with quarter-round. The baseboards really finish off the floors and I love the juxtaposition of light and dark right next to each other.

We're so happy to cross this major project off our list and are looking for smaller things to work on while we build up our energy for the next big project (kitchen backsplash, anyone?)

the big one

2013-08-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

As of Saturday August 3rd, our baby is officially a 1 year old- oh my! I can't believe how fast this year has gone and how much our little guy has grown and changed. He is such a sweet, lovable, independent, curious, silly little boy! Some highlights from the last month: Though he's not quite walking independently, Hayden loves pushing around his cart, and cruising around furniture. He is such a quick crawler and can make it across the house in about 15 seconds. Thus, dog food and anything else at his level has been put up high. Hayden officially weaned himself from breastfeeding. He decreased his feedings a lot in the last month and since we are doing the Baby Led Weaning Approach, we let him dictate when he was ready to stop. I was a little worried that this transition would mean the end of that special bond, but am so happy to report that this guy has gotten even cuddlier in the last month. He will often take a quick break from playing to crawl into my lap and snuggle with his head on my shoulder. Also, he's occasionally waking up a night for a hug and kiss and then he's straight back to bed. I love, love, love these moments, even when they happen at 2:30 am!

For Hayden's birthday, we had a ~~small~~ pancake party in his honor. He loves pancakes and we thought this would be the perfect way to celebrate or little man. We served pancakes, bacon, mimosas, and coffee and had a great party with friends and family. The type-A pinterest--obsessed mama side of me might have gone a little overboard with decorations and presentation, but luckily I had my sister (thank you Emily!!) here to help out with everything!

Sadly, our memory card wasn't in our camera as we took pictures :( so we don't have very many of the actual party or decor- only a few phone pictures that I took afterward and those e-mailed to us by friends. Even without the pictures, it was a perfect day!

Hayden was so happy throughout the whole party and afterward as well. His big present from Mama and Dada was a sandbox- which he loved. We have already spent a fair amount of time in the sandbox driving his trucks around.

We had a really wonderful day with our little man and we feel like the luckiest parents in the world!

5 on Friday

2013-08-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Here are 5 random things that have been happening this week around here:

One: We are having baseboards installed! I can't tell you how exciting it is to be able to just hire someone to do this, instead of doing it ourselves. As much as we love a good DIY, we wanted to spend a little extra money to save ourselves some time (and sanity!). Also, it's amazing how much faster a skilled professional can work. The guys started yesterday morning and everything should be painted and complete this afternoon. #yayfornon80sbaseboards

Two: Oh my gosh! We've been without a working washing machine for 3 weeks! After 4 service appointments, we finally are back in business and I've never been so thrilled to do laundry. We are grateful to be able to use our cloth diapers again and not to have to spend $20 + each time we head to the laundromat!

Three: Yesterday Hayden and I were playing in his sandbox (a birthday gift from his Daddy and me) and we were filling up his dump truck with sand and then dumping it out and I said, "Say bye bye sand!" And he did! He says some words but this is the first time he repeated a word right after I said it. So we did this about 10 more times and every time he told the sand "bye bye." Oh, my heart!

Four: Now that we have new flooring, we need a couple of area rugs to warm up the space. I've purchased most of the rugs already but I can't quite decide on one for our entryway. I think that I'll probably wait until we paint and finish some other projects so that I can better decide the color . Anyway, I LOVE this site and have found about 50 rugs that I would be happy to have in my home. Decisions, decisions.

Five: Vacation! This weekend we're heading up to Truckee/Tahoe and will be on vacation with various parts of our families for the next two weeks. Looking forward to relaxing, going to the beach with H, and hanging out with our families! (PS: What a difference a year makes!)

floors, part 1

2013-08-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

So remember how I told you a couple weeks ago that we were planning on ripping out our old flooring and installing all new cork flooring downstairs? Well, we did it! It took us two weekends to totally complete the project (possibly that had to do with a little someone who's name begins with an H...). However, they are done and done and we have a contractor coming to install all the baseboards next week (Nick is also done and done with home improvement projects for a while...)

Anyway, we spent the first Friday night pulling up old carpet, carpet tack, and parquet tiles. The parquet came up like no big thing (as in no need for a hammer or chisel, just use your fingers to pull them up). The carpet + tack took a lot more work. So, the "demo-ing" portion of this project took about 5 hours.

The next morning, after some excessive vacuuming, we laid the underlayment (an eco friendly recycled rubber material) to even out the floors and absorb some of the sound. My dad came over for the morning hours to give us a jump start and coach us through the floor laying process.

Please note that Lucy was this ~~helpful~~ in the way the entire weekend...

The cork was relatively easy to install- no glues or nails since it's a floating floor that locks into place. When there weren't any cuts or angles in the room, we could get it down pretty quickly. Nick did the lion's share of the work on this floor. I helped as much as I could, but even with my mom babysitting several days, I still had to juggle taking care of Hayden and multiple trips to the hardware store for this or that. Besides, Nick tends to be a one-man show when it comes to projects.

The first weekend, we got through the dining room, living room and entryway. By Sunday night, the only part we had left was the bathroom and the kitchen- very small by comparison ,but also very tricky for the amount of cuts + the appliances, etc.

So, that's part one! I'll be back soon to share the end result (hopefully- it's Hayden's birthday on Saturday so we are in the midst of some serious party preparations - hence the floors)!

WAHM

2013-07-26T17:10:00.001-07:00

WAHM is the apparent acronym for Work at Home Mom, aka my new title. I've been working from home for a little over a month and juggling 2 jobs, a busy baby, home improvement projects and the like has left little time for blogging. Just ask my assistant, who is set on keeping my technology in tip top condition...

He also does floors, if you're interested.

happy birthday mister!

2013-07-24T07:10:00.004-07:00

Today's Nick's birthday. He's 28. For a month and 4 days, I get to be younger than him. Last night, we said farewell to 27 with an outdoor concert and our first baby-free night (what-what? and also, thanks Granny!). This guy and I have 10 years under our belt and a whole lot of great memories. He's a pretty special guy and I'm pretty lucky that he's mine. Nicholas: Thanks for filling up my gas tank, getting me fridge water-with ice!, making me like chocolate (a very recent development), giving me silly nicknames, never questioning my Anthropologie purchases, being such a great daddy to Hayden, and loving me the way you do. You're the best- happy, happy birthday! xoxo

floored

2013-07-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

So... this has been hanging around in our house since Saturday morning:

That's what 700 sq. feet of cork flooring looks like, all boxed up. We finally made the jump to update our floors after living with our increasingly gross parquet/rental-grade carpet for well over a year. The parquet is original to the house and its age is showing. It might not be so bad if there weren't huge sections of water damage, where the tiles lift up and apart. We ~~affectionately~~ call them our jenga tiles. It's less funny when Hayden realized he could pick them up and started playing with them...

Nice, huh?

In addition to the less-than-stellar wood floors, the house was re-carpeted right before we moved in by the bank that owned it. They chose probably the cheapest carpet out there. It's a tan-ish white that is no stain master. If you even think about walking on it with a touch of dirt on your shoes, a dark spot appears and doesn't go away. (Despite a professional carpet cleaning and multiple spot treatments.) Henry doesn't help matters, as he has scratched the transition from carpet to the parquet:

So, it was clear to us that we needed to figure out some new flooring for our downstairs. (We haven't figured out if what we want to do upstairs yet, and that carpet is in much better shape so we're holding off on that decision for now.) We looked at hardwood, bamboo, tile, and cork. Our favorite was cork, which we loved for it's eco-friendliness and uniqueness. Also, we like that it has a little more give to it than hardwood, is easy to install (so they say), and it takes on the temperature of the room, so it won't be cold to walk on in the winter. We chose this cork from Lumber Liquidators and we bought it a couple weeks ago when it was on sale for $3.19/ sq. ft. We have to let it acclimate to our house for at least 48 hours. So our plan is to start and finish the install next weekend... We'll keep you updated on our progress!

5 years

2013-07-11T07:06:00.001-07:00

Today is our fifth wedding anniversary and I can't believe how far we've come in the last five years - from our first struggling days in our new apartment to becoming parents and homeowners - we're like real adults now! (Yikes!) This year has probably been the most challenging for our marriage, but also the best year by far. Having a baby changes everything (everything) and going through labor and delivery, weeks (months?) of sleepless nights, and the stress of "are we doing this right? is this normal?" makes you survivors and makes your relationship more real than anything else. There's no one I'd rather go through real life with than this guy! Nicholas, thanks for being my best friend, biggest supporter, a great dada, and for working so hard for our family! I love you a million billion!

11 months

2013-07-08T20:50:00.001-07:00

This little kid is 11 months! I can't believe how fast this year has gone, although at the same time I can remember being sooo pregnant at this time last year! Hayden's emerging personality is the cutest. He is a little mischievous and thinks the word "no" is pretty darn funny. He loves loves loves Lucy and climbs all over her all the time. (She tolerates him for the most part...) He is a busy boy and is always on the move, crawling all over the house (including up our entire flight of stairs the other day), pulling up, and cruising around. His favorite toys are of course non toys- cell phones, remotes, spoons, bowls, hairbrushes, cups, and boxes. He likes to sit and listen to stories without trying to rip books out of our hands now. His appetite has grown a lot this past month. The other day he ate 10 (!) strawberries in one sitting (in addition to the rest of his dinner). His words this month are "Mom" (not Mama), "Dada", "yeah", and we're pretty sure he can say "Hayden." In these hot months he's been spending a lot of time in the pool and loves the water. He's a great napper (which is good news for my new jobs!) and a decent night sleeper, though we have our off nights here and there. He's cheerful most of the time and loves to laugh. We can't believe our sweet little boy is going to be one in just a few weeks!

Annnnnd for an added bonus, there's this:

instagram fridge

2013-07-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Nick and I really like using instagram to document the ordinary moments in our daily lives. In fact, lately we've been using instagram more than our actual camera to take pictures. Every once in a while, I decide that I need to print some of these pictures out. There's lots of sites that do this now, but I particularly like Social Prints Studio. They are fast and efficient and it connects right to your instagram account so that you don't have to do any uploading. The prints usually ship quickly too. Since we had acquired quite a collection of instagram prints, I decided to "wallpaper" our fridge with them. I bought this roll of magnet tape and stuck a strip of magnet on the back of each print.

Then I just stuck them to the side of the refrigerator in a grid. I tried to space out the Hayden pictures (which obviously made up the majority of our shots) with our other pictures.

In the end, we have a fun, memorable collage to look at, instead of a big grey box.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

king or queen?

2013-06-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

So Nick and I have been casually shopping for a new mattress. We have had a sad history of not-so-quality mattresses in our time together. When we first got married, we were sleeping on Nick's double mattress from college. Then my parents upgraded to a king bed and gave us their (10 year old) queen mattress, which we've had for the last 3 years. We've tried to make it comfortable by adding two feather beds under our organic cotton sheets. But we still wake up with sore backs. We decided that this time around, when we are buying our own bed for the first time, we wanted to go with a natural mattress. We've shopped at a couple local natural mattress stores which further cemented our belief that we want to go with the most eco-friendly option possible. With all the chemicals, fire retardants, and other things that go into a typical mattress, we were pleased to see that the mattresses we tried out were chemical-free.

We've settled on the exact mattress that we want to buy from European Sleep Works , except for one thing. We can't decide if we want to stay with our queen sized bed or upgrade to a (European) king. At the price of the mattress, it's not too much more to go with the king. If we get the king bed, we will have to buy all new bedding, rebuild our headboard, and it could end up looking really big in our average-sized bedroom. On the other hand, every time we've stayed in a hotel with a king bed, we've liked the size. Nick also pointed out that with our plan to eventually have more kids, our queen bed could get crowded pretty quickly... So what do you think??

a potato, some paint, and a fun wall

2013-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

So, in order to make our windowless office an appealing place to work, I decided to give it a little makeover. The walls and sloped ceiling are white, so this was a blank canvas for me. I had been contemplating putting wallpaper or something of the sort on the wall behind the desk. However, wallpaper is pricey and I'd never hung it before so I decided to paint a fun pattern on the wall instead. I found this image (via Vintage Revivals) of a stamped triangle pattern and decided to go for it. I have also read about people making stamps out of potatoes. Since Hayden was napping and I happened to have a couple of sweet potatoes on hand, I decided to give it a whirl. Here's my tips for stamping with a potato.

I like the imperfect blotchy look that the stamp created. If you want a perfectly formed shape with great coverage, I would not recommend using a potato as a stamp. Also, I did end up making a second stamp because my potato started to disintegrate and little pieces were breaking off in the paint. I used a sweet potato for one stamp and a regular potato for the other. I would recommend using a regular potato, as it seemed to hold up a little better to multiple dips in the paint.

I decided to do two different colors of gray for my wall. All my "up" triangles are a dark gray (Peppercorn by Sherwin Williams) and all my "down" triangles are a light grey called Gentle Grey (from Ace Hardware).

I like that the light grey is almost transparent in some spots and really visible in other areas. It definitely makes you take a second look at the pattern. Here's the wall, all finished with the desk back in place. The TV is not my favorite but it's one of the few things that Nick requested for our house. Who I am to deny a request, when he really lets me have free rein decorating the house?!

I'll be sharing more shots of the office and some of the other projects that I did to get it ready for this WAHM!