Drive-By-Blog-Post

Husband out of town since Saturday. No babysitter. On my own with baby for first time. Holy Mole. So tired. Husband not coming home until Sunday. Ugh. I'm eating cereal for dinner. Baby started smiling. A lot. Swoon.

Indoor Plant Dilemma Solved

So, I bet you're wondering if I ever got rid of those little bugs on my orchids, right? I know it's probably been keeping you up at night, huh? I DID manage to kill those buggers, but it wasn't a quick fix. After taking a Q-tip with alcohol to the entire plant, which took forever, the bugs were gone for a few days but reappered. So, I bit the bullet and bought some pesticide for indoor plants and sprayed the darn thing to death (outdoors!). That did the trick. No more buggies.

Another indoor plant issue that occured the other day was a major hydrangea wilt. I splurged and purchased the hydrangeas pictured above and low and behold a few hours after I arranged them they wilted. So, after a quick google search and suggestions from some fellow blogger friends, I learned the following tips:

1. After a fresh cut, dip the cut ends into boiling water for 30 seconds and then place into room temp water.

2. After a fresh cut, hold the cut end to a flame (I used a burner on my cooktop) for a few seconds and then place into room temp water. (this one seemed to really work for me)

3. Drop a few ice cubes into water to shock the blooms.

4. After treating the cut ends, mist the blooms with water or lay a wet paper towel on top until blooms come back to life.

I tried all of the treatments above and am happy to say that they worked! My hydrangea bounced right back. It took a few hours, but they look great now!

My Living Room On A Good Day

The Details:

Wall color: BM Pale Oak

Carpet: Crate and Barrel

Sofa: Craig's List ($300!) reupholstered in fabric from Robert Allen

Throw Pillows: Ballard

Coffee Table: The Well Appointed House

End Tables: (Hand-me-downs) Hekman

Glass Lamps: Circa Lighting

Slipper Chairs: Hickory Chair

Table: Hand-me-down/antique

Hepplewhite Chairs: Hand-me-down/antique

Artwork: Storehouse (I think they went out of business?)

Sunburst: Hand-me-down/vintage circa '70's

Drapes: Pottery Barn (silk in "Celery")

Window Treatment Hardware: JC Penny

32

32 really snuck up on me. Yikes, it's my birthday today!

I woke up to my husband telling me that he's playing hooky from work today (which NEVER happens). I would've been happy just hanging out with him and Gray today doing whatever, BUT he's planned an entire day of spa treatments and meals (and babysitters)! What a doll!

Nursery Inspiration: Me and Wee

One of the cutest "real life" nurseries I've come across has to be the nursery from Me and Wee blogger Megan.

Isn't it just lovely? Good work Megan! I'm sure you and your little one love this room - it's beautiful.




For more details about this awesome room, check out Megan's nursery post here.

Master Bedroom For Summer

I decided that I needed a little pick me up in the bedroom (:::giggle:::) so I threw a white duvet cover over our existing headboard just to lighten the room a bit. I'm pretty happy with the little change.

Blog Crush - Grey Likes Weddings

Who doesn't love a wedding, right? Grey Likes Weddings is by far one of my favorite wedding blogs out there! It offers great inspiration for wedding decor, but can totally be inspiration for your next dinner party, baby shower, etc. I particularly love how she creates beautiful color scheme collages. Check it out!

Pack Your Bag - Hospital Bag List

When I was pregnant I struggled with what to pack in my hospital bag. I tend to be a light packer and many of the lists I found online seemed very high maintenance to me. For all my pregnant girlfriends out there, here is my hospital bag checklist:


1. Your shower stuff (shampoo, conditioner, soap etc.)

2. Your oral healthcare items (toothpaste, etc.)

3. Your body care (deodorant, body lotion, etc.)

4. Flip flops or slippers

5. Comfortable nightgown(s) that you can breastfeed in (opening in front or with straps you can slip down) also that you don't mind getting stained. I found the hospital gowns terribly uncomfortable.

6. Robe you are comfortable wearing in the hospital hallways (you will want to walk around a bit to help you heal)

7. Socks (a couple pairs)

8. Going home outfit (stretchy yoga pants, maternity top, blousy sundress, etc. - you will be sore "down there" and will still have a big tummy, so don't wear anything that is too tight)

9. Shoes to wear home (remember, your feet may be really swollen)

10. Going home outfit for baby and a blanket

11. Reading material and other "time killers"

12. Snacks for your days in recovery (don't bother bringing food for when you're in labor - you can't eat)

13. Make-up, hair binders, etc. (I didn't bother with the make-up...it was the last thing I was concerned about)

14. Breastfeeding items like pads, and ointment...lots of ointment (I liked the Medela line of products best).

15. Feminine pads to wear home (I liked Always Infinity Nighttime). Prepare for a heavy flow for the days (possibly weeks) to follow.

16. Maternity underwear and nursing bra to wear home.

17. Your own pillows with pillowcases that aren't white (so the hospital cleaning crew doesn't mistake them for theirs).

18. Your own bath towel (I regret not bringing one and the hospital's towels sucked. Be sure it's not one of your "good" towels though, you may stain it)

19. Music to play during labor and delivery (I brought our Ipod docking station and listened to soothing music the whole time - it REALLY helped me relax).

20. Lip balm (your lips may get really dry during labor)

Oh My Aching...Everything

{I just couldn't post the awful photo of myself first - so here's a prettier springtime image}

{lovin' the doughy belly post pregnancy. Oh, and the cellulite and stretch marks are nice too!}

As of last week I started working out again after a year long hiatus. Let's just say that I'm beyond sore and pathetically out of shape. I woke up in the middle of the night with such bad aching muscles that I thought I had a case of the flu until I remembered "oh that's right, I did 30 minutes on the eliptical today". Pathetic. Thirty minutes, that was it and I was in agony. I have 2o pounds to loose in order to get back to my prepregnacy weight (UGH!). Yaaay, this should be fun!

Lite Brite

I'm SO very pleased with the new light fixture (from Lamps Plus) in our master bedroom. Like many rooms in my house, our bedroom is an ever evolving work-in-progress. To see more of it click here.

As well as the new one in the nursery. It's from Circa Lighting and I couldn't be happier with it. We installed both fixtures on dimmers which are a necessity now that we have a little one. Late night diaper changes are much more pleasant (for many reasons) when the lights are very dim. To see more of the nursery you can click here.

Thank You Mom

Thank you for spending the first 6 weeks of your grandson's life with us. Thank you for being my Mother and teaching me how to become one myself. We are so fortunate to have you in our lives.

The Little Things

I found this lovely article via Pinot After Playdates and I just had to share with everyone here who has, or someday will have, little ones (and then big ones). Enjoy.

Raising Children by Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief.I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast.Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like.Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages, dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, and finally what the women on the playground, and the well-meaning relations -- well what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything.One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome.To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.I remember 15 years ago pouring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made.They have all been enshrined in the "Remember-When-Mom-Did " Hall of Fame.The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs.The times the baby fell off the bed.The times I arrived late for preschool pickup.The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp.The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?" (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1.And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top.And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity.That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me awhile to figure out who the experts were.

Mother Of All Tag Sales - Domino

Thank you Elements of Style for pointing me to this article about Domino's (may it R.I.P.) sale this weekend. They are getting rid of all of their decor goodies accumulated from photo shoots! I HAVE to check it out! Now I could REALLY use a babysitter.

My Kips Bay Favs - Donald Shermerhorn

{photo courtesy of Habitually Chic)

I have to say that this small 5th floor bedroom designed by Donald Shermerhorn was my ultimate favorite room in the show house this year. The photos don't do it justice because you can't see the beautiful sheen on the walls (I'm not positive, but it looked as though they were laquered) as well as an upholstered wall behind the chest of drawers. Wall finishes such as plaster, laquer and upholstery were among the many different wall treatments used by the designers this year - I did not see one wall with plain old flat paint in the entire house. The room's fireplace surround was also made of large glass tiles. The room was a play on texture as well as an eclectic mix of furnishings and abstract artwork - definitely my kind of room! The color scheme was pretty monochromatic - soft creams were paired with a moody plum. I loved they way he floated that upholstered bed in the middle of the room. It was perfection. Once again, you'll find more great photos and a fab recap at Habitually Chic.

Better

Here's proof that our little one doesn't cry all day long. Gotta love the dark circles under my eyes - I guess they're a rite of passage - welcome to motherhood, right?

Babysitter?

Any offers?

(disclaimer: No babies were harmed in creating this post. I picked the little sweetie up immediately after this photo was taken. Did the crying stop? No.)

Oh No

I've fallen hopelessly in love with this dress found via one of my blog crushes Elements of Style. One of the hazzards of blogland...finding fabulous clothing and jewelry that I just have to have (but totally don't need - grrrrr).

My Kips Bay Favs - Charlotte Moss

{photo courtesy of Habitually Chic}

I found the two room master suite designed by Charlotte Moss to be one of the most "livable" rooms in the five story, 21,000 square foot townhouse chosen for this year's Kips Bay Show House. Please check out the fab blog Habitually Chic for a full recap and fantastic photos of the show house (I don't want to be a complete blog photo stealer or anything). The suite consisted of a large sitting room with a full seating area with sofa, a chaise lounge as well as a gorgeous canopied daybed. The sleeping area was a jewelbox of a room (pictured above) that was just lovely. I could have some sweet dreams in that bed! It was seriously stunning in person.

Photos were stickly prohibited during the tour, so unfortunately I was only able to snag this pathetic shot of the exterior...

Check out Charlotte Moss's website for more of images of her inspiring rooms.