where'd she go?

I'll be back for an update soon. Everything's okay...just a little busy. Our lives feel a bit like a snowglobe right now and when the glittery snow starts to settle, I'll give you more details and pictures and all that.

Thank you for all the emails and inquiries and worries.

p.s. The date was wonderful. We saw Benjamin Button, at last. It was a darling movie.

p.p.s. The bed in Little Miss Pink's room is an antique from The Cottage, scored for just $30 at their Paris Flea Market. I'd been eyeing it there for a year or so, gazing at the missing finials and dreaming up something to go there. I'd originally thought it would be fun to make a collection of seasonal finials. And I thought that it would be fun to use real pinecones, jolly bouncy balls, sugarville houses, and a dozen other unexpected surprises. The birds were holiday decorations from Target that I painted the same color as the bed and added dowels too. They are terribly wobbly and I'm wondering if I should just glue them in place permanently.

i love this man

Rich just had the most brilliant idea...dinner and a movie tonight. On just some ordinary Tuesday night? Isn't he something? And even though I'm just about as tired as one girl can be, I can think of nothing better than a tub of movie popcorn and an ice cold coca-cola. Oh, and a nice movie.

I have lots of projects that are almost ready to show you...you'll have to wait until tomorrow though. I have a date tonight. :)

a peek at her room

I got so much done today! Just look how sweet it is all looking...
Inspired by a picture in the Pottery Barn Kids Book I made this fun ribbon chandelier. I put it in front of the window (and under the vent) so that it will dance in the air. I imagine that she'll love twirling underneath it. It was so easy to make. I took a wire wreath form and tied all sorts of ribbons on (most from my scrap ribbon bin) I'll show you tomorrow how I hung it from the ceiling.

For the border, I cut half circles out of scrapbook paper and ran them through my Xyron sticker maker. The scallops were cut and up there in under two hours. I sorted them by color and then repeated them in order (blue, green, pink) all the way around the room.
I think I'll put party hats on all the bird finials around the bed. Won't that be fun? Of course, Miss Pink will probably pluck them off. Maybe I'll just place them on instead of gluing.

I found this quilt at HomeGoods today. I really love the stripes.

What do you think? Isn't it looking sweet?

monday already?

We had such a great weekend. I kept thinking it was so much easier than I expected. I prepared excellent healthy meals all weekend and everyone gobbled them up. I cleaned up the kitchen after every meal and did laundry and all those sorts of things I imagined I wouldn't manage well. And we played ring-around-the-rosy so much I think I'm still dizzy from it.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, I set up their Valentine gifts in the living room. Originally I'd thought about putting the gifts at the breakfast table but reconsidered since that would probably mean less eating and more playing.

The boys got similar ball toys...both were big hits and since the balls were interchangeable, they shared so nicely.




Miss Pink got Pinkalicious, which really seems to have been written just for her! She also got 4 little princess figures. Best of all, she got a little mouse made especially for our little princess by my friend Charlotte.



Today I'm going to work on getting her room ready. I'm going to add scallops to her wall top and maybe even move the bed in there.

I know you'd love to know more about these little ones. I have to be careful not to disclose too much information but there is a chance that they will be with us forever. Right now we're just taking it a day at a time, getting to know them and letting them get to know us. It's going to take a lot of time for them to learn to trust us and feel safe. Unfortunately, they've been in so many homes in their short lives. They deserve better and I hope we're able to give it to them.

scenes from the morning

I'm getting ready to go pick up the 3 munchkins and I'm literally pacing the floor. I thought perhaps a better use of time would be to show you some scenes from my life this morning.

Look who arrived a little early for Valentine's Day...isn't he just as sweet as can be?

And I'm really into stuff in the kitchen with faces...like these two kitchen pixies. I feel a collection coming on.
I bought these from Anthropologie this fall...aren't they sweet?
My friend Debbie has been trying to get together with me for ages...since before Christmas! She finally gave up and shipped my Christmas gift. Oh my word, if it isn't the most lovely thing!
And look at this miniature painting she sent too. I have it in my kitchen window. It is precisely the kind of friendship we share. I love my friend!
And I decided to help cupid out a little by getting myself this little bunch of tulips.


...indeed!

old rose #3

Hello, sweet friends. The paint for Pinky's room is Laura Ashley's Old Rose 3. I picked it out rather hastily and went a bit darker than I'd planned, but oh my goodness, walking in that room makes me want to eat candy. Pink Candy.

I just spent hours and hundreds at the grocery store. I bought the book "Saving Dinner" which is written by the FlyLady's recipe columnist. The book is divided into weeks' worth of recipes and includes a shopping list for each week. I decided to give it a try. I need to get back on track with cooking nice dinners for us. Starting tomorrow. :)

Rich is getting a haircut tonight and there's a wonderful place nearby that makes flatbread pizzas. I tried it once during the holidays and I've been dying to get back there.

Tomorrow, I pick up the three little ones for our weekend of fun. Even though today was a panic day, I'm excited about seeing them again. And I'm excited for Miss Pink to see her room. I'm keeping it empty to let her see that we are preparing this room just for her.

I'm going to add scallops along the top of the walls and move in the bed and other furniture before next week's visit. I'll be sure to take photos, especially to show you the color of the room a bit better. It is so yummy.

a cute pink house

In the unfinished wood section of Michael's, have you ever noticed the house shaped bookcase? I decided to try my hand at fixing it up for toy storage in Pinky's room. I used the 50% off coupon to get it for just $15.

I worked all morning and this is how it looks.

I added scallop and other trim and the ball feet. The walls are papered with scrapbook paper (designed by Brenda Walton).

I'm thinking that we can store small toys and book in here and she can pull them out if she wants to play with it as a house.

You can see in the background the color pink I chose for her room. Pam worked all yesterday painting it for me! What a very nice friend. Thank you, Pam!

dearest sugar

Dearest Girl, 1926

This weekend, at the antique store in my hometown, I found a binder of love letters. I am dying to share them with you this week before Valentine's Day.

Click to enlarge. They are a little difficult to decipher but definitely worth the effort.

If you liked reading this let me know...I have so many more!

me again...

productive? maybe not. I was monkeying around in the living room and thought I'd show you what I'm up to and how things are shaping up.

First, I want to let you know that the very first picture I took to show you the new look was a little misleading. It was taken from the foyer, looking into the room. It made it appear that it was one long room...it is just a room that's open to the foyer but defined by some columns.

Anyway, this is more like how it really looks.

Isn't this the cutest little house? It reminds me of Snoopy's house and how I used to draw that same picture of Snoopy reclining on top of it over and over. I think that was 1980. I like that memory.
See this chandelier lamp?
For years now I've been obsessing about making one. I'm not 100% happy with how this turned out...I'm thinking I might paint the chandelier and the bridge lamp part the same color to make it more cohesive. I first saw the idea in a Nell Hill decorating book and knew instantly that I wanted one. I searched high and low and never found one that either I liked or could afford. My friend Irene donated the bridge lamp part and I bought the little chandelier from Walmart for about $30. The prisms are all plastic...maybe someday I can dress it up with real ones. For now though it'll have to do.

I bought these chairs YEARS ago when nobody knew a thing about ebay. Hundreds of these chairs were being sold in pairs from some dealer who bought the lot from the Ritz Carlton. I think they were $60 for the pair, including shipping.

I'm thinking of tipping my hat to the wood stain and painting them a happy, surprising color. Perhaps periwinkle. I'm still thinking of that periwinkle/red combo that the rooms at the Metro were sporting. So fun.

And these bare windows? Hello, neighbor.

We are planning to cover them with plantation shutters. Rich was all onboard until he saw the price. I have some work to do there. The poor dear's eyes turned into dollar signs just like on the cartoons.

Also inspired by the decor at the Metro Hotel, I decided I absolutely needed to dress the windows in floor to ceiling drapes. When I couldn't find my dream, red curtains, in the length and shade I needed, within my price range, I decided that I liked the idea of keeping it all light and bright and opted for Ikea's grommeted drapes in ivory. The quality is surprisingly good for the price...and you can hem the length to precisely what you need using the hem tape they conveniently include. We installed their curtain wire to hold them up. The whole contraption fell on us 4 times but I do think it's up there for good now. We must never, ever let Rich catch us playing hide and seek behind them though. But really, is there a better hiding spot in the world?

Can you tell how giddy I am today? Due in part to an overdose of caffeine this morning supplemented by motivation to get stuff done, but mostly because I'm feeling so very excited about my beautiful life and the sweeties that are about to fill every square inch of it. Can you feel the excitement? Sometimes it's happy excitement....sometimes it's panic. Yesterday panic. Today sheer excitement.

Let me get my hiney in gear and tick some of these things off my list, for crying out loud. I'll check in again after the weekend to show you pics from the hoedown.

a little more productive today...maybe

I can feel it already...I'm much more productive today.

About the great used/new car debate...I think Rich is winning. With a nasty review of the VW van in hand and the huge savings factor and a little dash of reality, I'm coming around to his way of thinking. If we get a used van, it'll probably be a Honda Odyssey...with leather seats. And since the cards are in my hand, I can probably swing the vote for heated seats and a navigation system. And I'm also going to insist that the car be detailed so that I can at the very least pretend that it really is a brand new car. Who knows...I may mist new car smell spray in there whenever I sit behind the wheel.

We head out today for my parents' 50th wedding celebration. I have a few errands to run today...things to pick up for decorating the party and that sort of thing.

My mom goes in for knee replacement surgery on Tuesday so I'm going to see if I can find anything like a bed jacket for her. I'm thinking that she may want to cover up a bit for receiving visitors.

Also on the to do list for today is to prep Pinky's room for painting. My back is really aching so I may have to save the really reachy areas for Rich to do on Sunday when we get back from my parents' house.

p.s. The elephant tea kettle? Yes. That's what I'd like for lovey dovey day. Won't it look sweet perched on the stovetop, at the ready for boiling water for tea? I think so too. Rich, click here my love.

how I'm wasting my time instead of working

We went to the car show yesterday and I fell in love with the VW Routan. Love at first site. It looked like a lounge inside. I imagined for myself a very nice life with a car like that.

The reality of it is that we will probably have to buy a used car. Normally I would say there's nothing wrong with buying a used car. It makes sense. But a used minivan is another story. I see what abuse these things go through and it makes me really, really want a new one. Rich's side of the story: WE are about to put a van through all of that anyway. Does it make sense to buy a new van that we might end up trashing ourselves? My answer: yes.

I have a lot of lobbying to do. I think I might end up driving around an old van filled with somebody else's cheerios and french fries and juice cup spills and poo poo accidents.

I still have a million things to do but I haven't been very good about doing them. Mostly what I've been doing is

cataloging all the things that need to be done

spending hours searching online for things I would like to buy (for instance, combing ebay for a set of brio tracks to make a train table out of a coffee table or searching endlessly for a stroller built for 3) but never really committing to buy a thing

Worrying about how I'll ever manage to really take care of three children at once

Thinking about all of the things I really should do now before they come like use the spa gift certificate Rich gave me for my birthday almost a year ago which probably expires soon

Fretting over the living room wall some more

The list goes on and on. There's nothing really productive on it. Although I did manage to finish one thing today...a sparkly sweet that's something of a surprise.

My friend Lorraine said that I shouldn't feel bad about whiling away a day doing not much of anything. I should glory in the quiet stillness of it all, savoring this very moment...the calm before the storm.

revision

Everyday when I looked at the arrangement of stuff above the sofa in the living room, something nagged at me. It just didn't seem right. Maybe it was Rich's sticker comment...but it just seemed like too much of a jumble with no room for your eye to move. And it got worse everytime I looked at it. It just looked more like a mistake.

So today, I stripped off the wall sticker (it's repositionable so I'll find another place for it) and I'm starting over...for now it's just a merry little neighborhood and the cuckoo clock.

I have about a month to get the house ready. Today we are going to the car show to look for a new bigger car. And I have to paint Pinky's room (pink of course!), get the kitchen fixed up with some sweets shoppe inspired decor, and fix up the family room to make it ever-so kid friendly. Pam's coming over next week to help with painting the room. Yay!

magic sleepy hands

This weekend was the first that the children spent with us. They are in another foster home now but they are transitioning to live with us, probably in March.

Everyone, including Rich (but not me), napped today. We went up to their room and they each got in their beds. I read a little of Curious George and put on some soothing music. Then I used my magic sleepy hands to cast a spell on each of them. I didn't realize that I had such magic sleepy hands but as I cradled each of their little heads in my hand and whispered hush, they slipped off effortlessly, and almost instantly, into sweet slumber. I impressed myself. And then I went downstairs to test my magic sleepy hands on Rich and they worked a 4th time. Magic!

On Saturday, while the boys napped, my girl and I had a pink treat...pink hot chocolate, with clouds of marshmallows and drizzles of rainbow sprinkles. It was as delightful as it looks here. Did I tell you that she loves pink as much as I do? Oh yes. I love this little girl. And I love those sweet boys. They just left a little while ago and I miss them already.

p.s. We all went to church today and they were perfect angels.