Heather

It all started with some heather.


This spindly purple plant that just sat on a makeshift end-cap in the garden section of Lowes. We had gone there for some hanging plants for the front porch- but the heather came home with us too. I know nothing about gardening, or flowers and I have successfully killed every green thing that I have brought into my house, but for some reason I wanted that heather to come home with me. We had some planters in the garage that were left by the previous owners, still occupied by dead and brittle plants and I envisioned sitting on the front porch with Lilly and replanting that Heather, recycling what might have been trash, pushing my hands into the dirt and feeling it ooze between my fingers. Maybe taking a break from intellectualizing, get back to some basics. But a question kept lingering in my mind- is this me? Am I person who gardens? I guess the answer is yep.


Anyone who knows me knows that when I set my mind to something I do it; some people call this trait stubborn- I like to call it persistence- I mean I am the person who taught herself to knit from a book. And I never do anything half-way, so I also bought a little package of gardening tools-


which matching pink Dora ones of course so that I could appease my small helper. Add an appropriate sized watering can for us each and we were on our way. First of course, Lilly had to skip around the yard-


hopefully wearing herself out for a nap. And then we had to play with the plotting soil for a while before we actually used it to plant anything. It was messy, but fun.


We didn’t forget the hanging plants- I think they looked great on the front porch (yes I said looked, here’s a hint- don’t get attached to them).



And that heather-which I thought I would put on the porch on either side of the steps to the house actually went down into the yard where it would get a bit more sun.


And then it was time to give them a little drink of water-, which included Lilly watering some dandelions, over and over again.


She really enjoyed the watering of the dandelions, which gave us a small flood near the porch. But hey we had puddles without the rain, so I call it a win!


The heather, which I though would be thorny, is actually very soft and tough it seems, especially with the way my assistant handled the potting.

I am convinced now, of course that I need to tackle the flower beds in the front yard which haven’t been touched in, I would guess, years. But the front yard is pretty shady- so we will have to pick something that can grow without a lot of direct sunlight. I have also decided to dry a raised bed garden in the backyard, maybe grow some veggies and the next project which is going to be the back deck with some container gardening. I don’t know I guess I am still trying to figure out what I want to do to fill up my time this summer- you know besides the two year old.

Snow Day in 70 Degrees

For the last week we have had the most beautiful weather, in the 60's and 70's, gorgeous spring weather. This is strange because two weeks ago we were playing in snow. So in celebration of the final arrival of spring, I wanted to share the memories of our last day of snow. And for all my midwestern friends, sorry to bring this up and also don't worry- it will get colder before it gets warmer around here. And late May early June is always cold and wet, so probably don't come visit then.

Lilly of course loved the snow, and she looked fabulous in her awesome pink snowsuit that I found for $25 at Marshalls!

Of course she could barely walk in all of the layer of clothes we had her wrapped in. Of course it did not stop her from rolling around in the white stuff.



But I did manage to get some other pictures of something other than Lilly in between telling her to stop eating the snow already!


But all bets were off when the sled came out. Jeff is particularly proud of the sled which he found at the 217th place we looked for one after we got the first of lots of snow back in December. I think he was just excited to have a yard that we could sled in.




And she made her dad drag her up the very small hill more times than I could count- and then demanded that she be pushed down the hill on her sled while she yelled "weee!!" and the held up the rope as soon as she got to the bottom saying "again!!"


Eventually, pink cheeks and soaking wet socks took us inside for some hot chocolate for adults and chocolate milk for Lilly.


It was a great day, and I got to wear my new pink wellies.

Temptation

We are busy painting and arranging and arranging again at the new house we have found that some of our things that were so perfect at the old house are not working so well at the new house. Specifically our dining room table. Now as I have fallen in love with this ranch, you know the house style I said that I did not want, I have also fallen in love with just going with the style and not trying to make everything look like I am decorating an old Victorian. This is our dining space,


right off of the kitchen and leading to the family room (although you have the backwards view here). Our large heavy and dark dining room table is taking up the whole space and frankly looks a bit out of place. I have been trying to make it work and honestly we could set up a more formal dining space in the large front room, but honestly I like the dining space so close to the kicthen, it makes feeding Lilly so much easier. And my design philosophy is pretty, but a pretty were you can spill.

I am not a big fan of really pretty houses that look perfect but don't look like children live there and I wonder where they play. I want a place where Lilly can run free and nothing is really off limits and if it is then it is high up. My house needs to absorb spilled sippy cups and goldfish cracker crumbs, so a formal dining room would just not be practical. But we totally happened upon a solution, and what a modern mid-century solution it is.


As we were walking through Target there it sat in all of it's shiny glory. It is perfect, a perfect size, perfect design and perfect price. We left without it so we could discuss what we already knew, should it come home with us? My resistance was only that we just bought our old dining room tables about a year and a half ago, wouldn't it be a waste. Then Jeff convinced me with the perfect argument. If we get the new table then the old one can become my craft table in the basement. Sold!

So it looks like we will be given into temptation, and it feels so good!

The 2nd Bithday arrives with a wimper and a bang....

And I mean that literally. Today’s birthday was a bit anti-climatic after spending her birthday eve in urgent care with what is called “nursemaid’s elbow,” which is basically a dislocation of the elbow joint. This she accomplished when she tried to yank her arm away to go find something much more interesting than paint samples at Lowes. Fortunately there was an urgent care like right across the street and with very few tears the doctor popped it back into place. Which of course meant that today, Lilly’s second birthday was a little less dramatic. She had a fabulous Ariel dress to wear but decided that it needed some color in the form of a crayon. No troubles though for her intrepid mother who just threw another dress on her and out the door we went to school where daddy had a meeting. Ever the thoughtful girl Lilly insisted that we stop to bring all her friends at school some cupcakes, which of course we did and Lilly only ate three herself. Well she ate one whole cuppycake and then the frosting off of two others. After a very quick nap she was up and at ‘em but required another clothing change as she insisted “tutu momma.” The tutu did not exactly go with her pretty dress and the fact that she was trying to rip it from her body meant that we got an entire new outfit constructed around the tutu. Next on the agenda was a good amount of time spent down in the basement with her birthday gift, a giant train table. I mean really it is huge, and really we were going to the get the smaller one, but then the bigger one was on sale for the same price, so yeah you know, she got the big one. Choo-Choo play was followed by a dinner of spaghetti, Lilly’s favorite and of course some cake and ice cream, which we all enjoyed, and Lilly even blew out her own candles!



Now last year I made a slide show of her last year and I wrote her a letter, something I would like to do again this year but I have to admit that the time got away from me, so that will have to come this weekend. But for now some pictures of a happy two year old with a fully functioning elbow and chocolate cake!

The begining.....

So this is my new house, a rambling ranch that now needs to be decorated. I may have started my new project. Right now I am thinking mid century modern by way of shabby chic (do they call it that anymore?). I am not sure where to start- but the still packed boxes need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. This should be quite the journey.

Baby it's cold outside....again

I so did not move to West Virginia to brave a snowstorm, if I wanted that I would have stayed in Illinois. But here we are again waiting for a storm that is supposed to keep us all indoors for awhile. And we have nothing in the house. Also my baby girl will be two in two weeks, how is that even possible? How did she get so big so fast? I don’t know and I am not sure that I like it. I mean she is supposed to stay my baby, not start telling me “I do.” And yet here she is all wanting to do stuff herself and all that. Again I am not happy. Also she is talking like crazy this past month, with that adorable little lisp that toddlers have saying “pease mommy” when she wants something and I am a sucker for it every damn time! But for now she is sleeping and I am thinking about Spring and some warm weather, so I will leave you with one of the pictures from Florida that encapsulates how cute that kid has been this week. Enjoy.

Not so scary...

At least our halloween wasen't, I think that's because we do not get trick or treaters. But that will soon change, well next year, because we are moving at the end of the month, yes after the Disney trip, the weekend after Thanksgiving. Why? Because we are crazy people obviously!So in the next 11 days, if you are keeping track, we need to get ready for our Florida trip to Disney and pack up the house so that everything is good to go when we get back. Yeah this should be fun.

But Halloween 2009 was fun, since Lilly is to small to go house to house we took her to the mall, who awesome people that they are, every year open the doors to trick or treaters and all of the stores stand outside and give away candy, which is awesome. This year they had a picture booth set up, so we took full advantage to get some great pictures of alice before she went down the rabbit hole. The costume was easy of course, we bought the Alice dress on our last trip to see Mickey, along with a Snow White and Cinderella dress, so I laid out all three and let the bug pick, Alice it was.

It's magic

In celebration of the fact that we just booked out Walt Disney World vacation, and that fact that I neglected to share this pictures back in March when we got home from the last vacation, I am going to spend the countdown to Disney posting the pictures from last March. Enjoy!

Day one, we actually got into Orlando after a very long drive late the night before, but just crashed. The next morning we checked into the Polynesian, got a pimp daddy location (hey it pays to go there a lot) and headed out for some shopping at Downtown Disney. Lilly found the fountains and didn't want to leave. Jeff took these pictures. Oh and Lilly looks so small because, well she is, also she was 13 months.

A Ticket to Ride

So a few weeks ago while we were in Illinois my dad convinced us that we should all head over to the County Fair, have some funnel cake, ride the Ferris Wheel and (as it turns out) marvel at some of the home grown fashion. Now as a younger kid I used to love the fair because I loved the rides, now as a grown up and a parent I love watching the kids love the rides. But I will not lie, I also love the funnel cakes.

Dad and Ethan in line for the big slide.


Ethan at the end of his ride.


Lilly coming down the big slide with Uncle Paul, she had a huge smile on her face and demanded more.


Waving bye bye as the Merry go round takes off




Lilly gets a ride from Grandpa


As my brothers family (minus baby Alexis) take a ride on the Ferris Wheel.


Dad and Paul take their lives in their hands as they ride something called a Tomahawk




While the rest of us enjoy the sites




And Lilly passed out


One more spin with my step mother and Ethan had had enough


In the end a fun time was had by all, we all went home with very full bellies and dreams of twinkling lights.