I'M BACK! after a 2 year hiatus, I'm back. And I am so sorry it's been so long.

so much has obviously happened since our last post; another baby, a 10 year wedding celebration, and a move. big, grown up things. crazy!

while we've moved into a new, 19805 contemporary house in the woods, I still have two share with you so many little projects we did in our previous, gorgeous victorian.

baby Bowie



wedding



moving


*this is the VERY last picture of all five of us at our old home. so bittersweet.

nursery inspiration

big + exciting news: we're expecting baby #2 in the springtime!

so, along with the my usual OCD and organizing plus the typical organizing you do when you move and are trying to settle into a new house, are now both being trumped by a severe case of nesting. hand in hand with nesting is planning for the new nursery. i have a zillion ideas leftover from nia's room or new things i've seen out + about. 

we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl, so we're thinking grey paint, white crib and i plan on refinishing one of the awesome dressers we just scored in either a mint or lavender color and the room having lots of warm wood tomes. 

here are some of my favorite looks from pinterest...

DIY: rainbow blocks

i'm pretty serious about nia being surrounded by plenty of old fashion, wooden + classic toys. i think it just makes for more creative minds. i really wanted to buy one of these boikido sets, but they were just too expensive to justify. 

so i was super excited to try to create our own wild set from the cheaper, yet bland educo ones

  

  (educo) 

 (boikido)

                                                                                 

here are a few of the blocks before. they were pretty boring in person.

i got out a few of my favorite martha paints (you can buy them here in tons of different colors). i had to narrow down my choices in color, so i picked the brightest ones that would coordinate well together on the already existing basic rainbow colors. 

the peppermint glitter paint was perfect for adding shimmery sea spray to my painted wave blocks and just adding a thin, single coat to a few solid blocks was perfect way to jazz them up a touch.

and after many coats, drying time (which was extra long with all this humidity lately) and overtaking the dining table, here was my finished project...

overall i'm pretty happy with the results. i did decide to leave a few of the natural wood color ones plain. if i had all the time in the world i would have experimented more with design ideas and given all the blocks the proper 4+ coats they needed, but i had to keep a curious toddler from the table full of paint, blocks and glitter. c'est la vie. 

native shoes

with summer in full swing and nia busting out of her beloved jellies i thought it was high time we bought her a pair of child essential water proof shoes. how fun are these from native shoes?! and we've been seeing them pop up everywhere lately.

nia in jellies

also really loving the mens verona for stuart. they are like an indestructible version of TOMS. too bad i already picked him up something for father's day. 

favorite commercial for moms

have you caught this commercial yet? so heartwarming.

stuart and i were just talking + day dreaming about nia; what kind of person she will become when she grows up. what will she be interested in, what sports she'll play or if she'll want to be a ballerina or a writer or the president?

suburbia - week nine. NINE!

although overall it has been easy + smooth, 10 weeks is certainly a long time to live with at home. enough said. 

my youngest brother is graduating college this month. we went up to see him + attend an award ceremony last thursday. after the ceremony there was a light reception. sweet! while in line for yummies everyone in front of me and behind me were raving about the sushi. "how fancy", "ooh wow, sushi!" "yum, this looks great" " i've never had sushi". i spied the white rice + dark seaweed from afar. my mouth started watering, preparing itself for a simple spicy tuna + avocado...

...yet, as i got closer i only saw green or orange in the middles. well folks, this is no sushi. it's cucumber. that's it. just cucumber. cucumber rolls and carrot. and not even juilenned carrots, just a fat chuck of giant carrot. not even any pickled ginger. i wanted to cry laugh out loud and tell these people they were not eating sushi. just vegetables. i also skipped the badly paired roasted pepper + gruyere quesadilla and opted for the coffee bar. I MISS NYC!!!!

we are just coming down off our wedding trio high. three gorgeous weddings in 3 fabulous places and everything was just perfect. we also just had our first ever extended trip away without nia. although we had moments of slight guilt and even more moments of missing her, we had a great time and did some much needed relaxing. 

to add chaos to our already jam-packed chaotic circumstance, my brother who just graduated also just moved back home. last night. that's six people in a four bedroom house. 

nia was temporarily taking over his room, but now that he is home, nia is back in with us. her dresser and diaper set up are in the dining room. crib in our room (did i mention our room here is 8' x 8' and barely fits our full bed + dresser??) and toys, clothes, shoes, and laundry are dispersed throughout the house. 

nia usually wakes up each morning doing a little talking and transitions to crying pretty fast, telling us to come get her. however, this morning she cried for a milli-second and then realized we were a mere 18 inches away and said "hi!"

after reading this i'm sure you'll realize how not-exciting things are here beyond the recent weddings. i mean, half of this email is about faux sushi. so please let me know of all/any fun adventures, trips, food experiences, and celeb spottings ASAP and stop me from my craigslist addiction of looking for the perfect dining chairs. 

love

L

crane love

for my baby shower this past autumn each guest made a origami paper crane which was supposed to be made into a cheery + one-of-a-kind mobile. but i'm thinking (especially now that miss nia is past the mobile stage) that something like this vertical garland would be a beautiful, sweet + whimsical way to display the cranes.

*from an exhibit in the asian art museum in CA

feeling soggy

so i just had a baby just under 5 months ago. she's fabulous, wonderful and i am madly in love more than i ever dreamed.

however, there is the not-so-lovely side effects post baby. the "soggy" look. everyone you vent to about the annoying, still hangin' around baby weight will tell you that it took 9 months to put the weight on so you can't expect to lose it so fast. i think these people are just being nice. 

3 signs that have brought me to the conclusion that i need to get going on losing this baby weight...

1) not one, not two, but 3 contestants on the 'biggest loser' weigh less than i do. needless to say i have veered away from eating ice cream while watching this season. 

2) i still feel compelled to create + wear a shirt that reads ' i have a newborn at home' when i go running. at almost 5 months, she is no longer a newborn. and being overweight and sporting flashy new running sneakers make me look like a beginner runner, of course which i'm not.

(said new running shoes)

3) i'm still wearing maternity jeans on an almost daily basis. 

although i do not expect to look like this

i would like to get myself back into shape enough so i can make a rare appearance here before labor day.