mommo

Happy Birthday indeed!

Yum! Banana Whip Cream Cake! My favorite. O.K.- one of my favorites but one of my favorite favorites. I am 38 today. My Dad asked if I felt older. Nope. I am not one of those women (I almost said "girls" because thats how I feel but 38 and girl didn't sound right...) who gets hung up on a number.  I took the day off from the utter craziness that work has become and settled into spending the day with my favorite people.  We woke up -me and the kids (Dad had to work) ate a yummy breakfast and hit the movies. Regal Cinemas has a Free Family Film Festival and every tuesday and wednesday of the summer you can see free movies. (go to www.regalcinemas.com for the details). We saw one called "Everyone's Hero" Very sweet- some of the voices were a bit wooden but it was sort of touching none the less. Then we hit lunch with my Mom, Sis and nephew who has a birthday on friday. After that I decided that because it was my birthday the kids got treats so off to Target we went. My son ended up with a NY Yankees baseball hat and my daughter got a new bathing suit. We got it home and tried it on and it is going back because I feel very strongly that 5 year olds need not wear Brazillian cut bikinis. Yowza. It is a particularly cute behind on that girl, but not for everyone to see. It didn't look so skimpy on the hanger...  The whole baseball thing with my son is great. He loves to play it, he loves to collect baseball cards- he loves it all. And he is starting to do that thing where he can remember who plays for who- all those details from the back of the baseball cards but yet has trouble remembering where he puts his library books or that his shoes go in the shoe cupboard when he takes them off. Male brains.  After a TON of rain this weekend and pretty cold dreary days, it hit 85 degrees which was a perfectly beautiful day to have your birthday on.  Naturally we had to hang out at the pool. I told myself when we got there that I would no longer be wading carefuly in- painfully adapting to the coldness of the water one tiny bit at a time. Nope- I am 38 now and I would be jumping in. So I did and it really was better. We have had some crazy years of a general heaviness and I really am feeling ready to shake some of that off and find that girl who used to live in this body. The less tentative girl . the happy go lucky girl. We capped it all off with a concert in the park.  I love these sort of neighborhood affairs where , 2 minutes after you sit down some kid you know runs up and says, "I am not having fun because I had a bloody nose". Which of course is only partly true. He did have a bloody nose but he was having fun. We saw so many kids and friends from school and the neighborhood. Just nice to feel so connected to a place. It was folk music and the guitarist also played some sort of drum, the clarinet and a flute. I have never heard a flute played like that. He seriously rocked that flute and had the whole crowd in awe. And that was before any of us realized he was blind. Amazing.

So a great birthday. Easy & fun and spent with the people who really matter.

Ahhhh & Phew

Ahhhhh I had a little time to myself to day and Phew! it was in the nick of time. I was in need of some serious regenerating.  I dropped the kids off at the most amazing art camp and came home. I needed to clean the house. NEEDED. Not just because it was messy and annoying but I needed to have that time to ground myself. The first thing I did was to go walk around the yard and cut flowers to bring inside. I used to always have cut flowers in the house but things have gotten so busy that its just one more thing I have been neglecting. The little vase above is from Crate and Barrel and I am so in love with it. It is about the size of an orange and it is smooth and pretty and has a tiny hole in the top. The little flowers are some of my favorites from outside. I love all the tiny.

Here is a corner of the dining room. I love that little owl plaque- I got it as a gift but it came from radishes and roses. The vase I bought from a studio sale here in town. It looks like big yummy marshmallow. It was handmade by a local artist. This vase i recently bought at a going out of business sale for a whole $5.  I love it and it is going to be the perfect Dahlia vase. I planted a lot of Dahlia's this year so I have high hopes for lots of bouquets. Here is a big yummy bouquet of roses. I have some really nice bushes outside. I love this vase too. Oh- and that sweet little bit of the green china pot is from an estate sale. Another $5 find. It is sort of a weird size so I don't know what it was used for but it is really pretty.

It feels really good to have a clean house and lots of flowers. And now it's going to feel good to go jump in the pool so I am outta here!

My kind of Father's Day

We moved into this house three years ago and did a ton of work renovating and improving things here and there and the only here and there that didn't get touched was our bedroom.  Its a great room- nice windows, two closets. But it was depressing because it really was pretty much turn of the century dorm room in design.  The woodwork was old and dry and not pretty so I spent Memorial Day weekend painting all the upstairs woodwork which was not a fun job. I am happy with the outcome but that is not a job I want to do again.  Then a couple of weekend, after much consideration, we chose this color for the walls. I don't know if it comes across in the photo, but it is lovely. Sort of sophisticated turquoise. I love Benjamin Moore paint. Sadly thats where it stood until last friday. I had a whole morning to myself so I cranked out the final touches so that my Hubby could home to a suprise new budoir for Father's Day.  I love the clean white duvet and I am so in love with the pillow. I made it from some favorite fabrics I had and I think it just makes the room- to have that little hit of dark and pretty but not too pretty. Someone gave us that dresser so I painted it for him, added some gorgeous Anthropologie knobs and now it is for him to put all of his "stuff" in. Books and papers, that sort of stuff.  Then I printed out two 8x10's of the kids and hung them up. We have been so bad about having photos around the house and these two are especially lovely so I he and I both love them. New curtain rods and curtains and thats it. Oh- except the orchids which are his favorite. So ,what I am saying is, how great for him to hve all this finished for Father's Day, but I am loving it too. Ahhhhh, an adult room!

I also got a nice suprise this week. I worked out a trade with Jennifer from Textile Fetish and I got this amazing bag!

It is so well sewn and the fabrics are all so great! She does the cutest stuff so you really should go check her out! Her girl's sets are unbelievable.

You know it has been a long time...

when you have to email for your password.  It has been awhile.  Shortly after my last post the computer died a slow and agonizing death. That accounts for a few weeks while we figured that out. By then I was out of the habit and pretty busy so I just stopped blogging.  Well, all systems are up and running again so we will see how things go. 

First things first- you really should check out this story.  This wonderful woman Larissa is looking for people to sponsor her as she runs to collect money for women of the Congo.  Its a great effort. Her run is June 23 and she is looking for one donation a day to help her raise money that will all go towards sponsoring two Congolese women. I donated today and am rooting her on.

Summer is coming!! It is very nearly here! School is out on friday and I don't know who is more excited, me or the kids! The photo above is my sweet nephew getting to know the sea lions at the zoo. I love this photo- his bed head and his little hand on the glass. I love that kid. There will be many more days at the zoo soon! And here is a little something we found in the garden- a three legged frog.  We have a lot of these frogs in our yard and it always amazes me that noises that loud can come from a creature that small.  The whole three legged thing is odd.  Poor fella. There has been much yardwork and some projects going on so I will be back to tackle those soon.