Friday, July 30, 2010

i need some green sunglasses too



GREEN

Green sky.
Green kitten.
Green pie.
Green mitten.
Green here.
Green there.
Green, green everywhere!
But...Ha! Ha!
The color green quickly passes
When I take off
My green sunglasses.

Poem from Kim's Place and Other Poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins with drawings by Lawrence Di Fiori.

Can I just say how much I love this poem?! So perfect for my day. And my life. Thanks to Scribbler for posting it!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Post-It Love

I use post-it notes a lot. Love them dearly. Despite my attempt to be more "green" and recycle. Earlier today this video came to mind. I hadn't seen it in a while and upon searching for it, I was happily reacquainted with its loveliness. And now I share it here:


Post-It Love from Kreatif360 on Vimeo.

It's just so sweet! Really well done. Just made my day a little brighter.

*I cannot help but note how much I love her tights and especially her sweater in the last scene. Those side collar buttons are just adorable! And the stripes!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

design couples

(via IDSGN)  

"In all professional fields you can find many couples pursuing the same path, but within the design community, this trend is particularly prevalent… Maybe it's the understanding and consolation you receive knowing someone is there if you wake up in a sweat-induced panic over kerning and tracking. Or maybe, it's being enamored by a potential partner's typographic talents. Whatever the reason, it seems that a designer marriage equates to many successful, talent fueled design tandems."

IDSGN is interviewing some extremely talented designer couples over the next few weeks. I'm so excited to read them all!

(Thanks to Mark for deliciousing it to me.)

Monday, July 26, 2010

did I mention…

My bike is here!


It came in pieces in 2 boxes. With no instructions. I received an e-mail that it was coming and that there wouldn't be any instructions because they "recommend" taking it to a bike dealer and having them assemble it for my own safety. Love their version of "recommend." Hard not to take a recommendation when they make sure there isn't any way to not take it by leaving out the instructions. So, we dropped it off at a local Felt bike dealer and it should be ready Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Saw a couple of these bikes sitting in the shop (display only) and it made me really excited and also slightly freaked out as the bike is huge! Seriously huge. I'm going to be hard-pressed not to be crushed under it if I ever fall over while riding it.

Now I'm on the search for a totally awesome and of course very safe helmet. Here's the top runner:


from Bern. I think it definitely has the style I'm going for without the in-over-my-head-mountain-biking look. I am no mountain biker. And with my new fixed gear cruiser underneath, I'll be surprised if I make it back up our street hill on the first ride down.

I should however give the disclaimer though that this isn't actually my first helmet choice. This is:


from Yakkay. But considering it isn't available online and I'd only be able to pick it up somewhere in Sweden or Germany or who knows, I must consider it unavailable. Not to mention I have no idea how much it is supposed to cost thanks to the "find a retailer" issue. But isn't it just the coolest helmet ever?! If only I could swing over to Sweden and pick one up…

more photobooth love

via Marvelous Kiddo

sometimes I want to get married all over again

just to have wedding invitations like this:





















Absolutely stunning. Design by the amazing Erin Jang.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

still working

My apologies for so much silence this week. It has been a long and busy work week filled with a lot of rain as well. This weekend we are starting the tile process. It's coming along!

someday this could be Mark and me

Discovered this video interview yesterday with children's book author/illustrator Lane Smith and his wife Molly Leach. I just love them. It struck me as so fun that he is the illustrator and she is the designer of most of the books. Such a great couple.



And I love his stuff.
You can also find him blogging here about random and odd children's books.

Monday, July 19, 2010

lost in the lovely pages

"So Mary Poppins put on her white gloves and tucked her umbrella under her arm—not because it was raining but because it had such a beautiful handle that she couldn't possibly leave it at home. How could you leave your umbrella behind if it had a parrot's head for a handle?"

This question and many more are delighting me at every page turn of the wonderful book by P.L. Travers. I can't believe it has taken me this long to read the classic Mary Poppins story. Especially when it has such an incredibly, enchanting cover.


(chapter 2, page 16)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

making progress

Well, the weekend came and went and here is where we are so far. Finally got the oven hood vent installed last night and the new oven pushed into place! Yay for being able to cook again! Mark fixed the drawers next to the oven so they slide in and out much smoother now. I've been working on cabinet lining options which I'll post about later.



The biggest slow down right now is that we still need to paint the front side of the cabinet doors. It has been raining for the past 2 days and although I don't know how true it is, I've always heard that you shouldn't paint when it is raining as it causes the drying time to slow down even more. So we are waiting for the weather to clear to start the door painting process once again. We've also been doing the refrigerator and dishwasher search. We weren't entirely planning on purchasing all the appliances at once, but they all need replacing so badly, we have the money in savings, and if we can find a great deal on them while we are in the upheaval phase, we'll bite the bullet.

After painting the doors we need to put on the new hardware, hang the doors, and then tile up the backsplash! It's already starting to look so different. It's so exciting!

Monday, July 12, 2010

the delightfulness at my door

Today I arrived home to a wonderful package. You see, a couple weeks ago I entered a blog giveaway on one of my favorite blogs Vintage Kids Books My Kid Loves and I won! This wasn't the typical weekly giveaway that Scribbler hosts though. It was a grab bag of her picks. I was so excited to pull into the driveway and spy the package leaning against our door. Behold the goodness:


A wonderful pile of delicious treats! Among it are gems like Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak and Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. And there are more obscure titles that I'm not familiar with such as Strangers' Bread by Nancy Willard (illustrated by David McPhail) and The Giant's Shoe by Jessica Nelson North (illustrated by Esther Friend). Each piece looks wonderful and I cannot wait to wander through them. I must admit though the one that had me squeal and run to show Mark was My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett.


Ever since Scribbler reviewed it and I spied images such as this:


I have been searching for it. Hoping to see it for myself and take it all in. Now, thanks to Scribbler, I can mark it off the must find list and enjoy its loveliness.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

still in pieces

Here's the week in pictures and short comments:


 After 1 coat of oil based primer (best for kitchens!) and 2 coats of the Bitter Chocolate brown, we knew we needed a third coat but Mark wasn't convinced about the color. So we did a third coat in a slightly darker Espresso Beans brown and called it done. (We used the Behr paint and primer in one for the new color third coat and it was awesome!) The color is much closer to the dark brown/black look that we were going for. It covered really well the third time too.


The back side of the doors are done. Tomorrow we can start painting the front side. (Best to wait at least 3-5 days to allow them to cure before flipping them over.)

Countertops came Friday! Love them!


Yesterday, Mark measured and cut the hole for the sink and we worked hard to get that sucker squared away in there. And this afternoon Mark finished getting the incredible faucet (from Ikea!) installed. Hooray! The spout of the faucet pulls down and becomes a sprayer when needed. Love!


Not going to feel great until the new tile backsplash goes up but it's starting to look better at least. (Minus the ugly drywall layer where the old countertop used to curve up.) Speaking of tile…

It looks awesome with the cabinets and the new gray countertops!

So that's where we are. Yesterday, we purchased the new oven hood vent and are hoping to install it tonight before we go to bed. Perhaps we'll finally get the oven in place too! Tomorrow, as I said before, we start the process of painting the front of the cabinet doors. Should take 2 days hopefully, depending on how quickly the coats go. Then they have to dry for 5 days before we put the new hardware on (yay!) and new hinges and hang them. And the final step is going to be the tile backsplash which we are excited (and slightly anxious) about installing. It's coming along!

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

my aha moment



A couple weeks ago I received a random e-mail from the aha moment team for Mutual of Omaha (what? I have no idea what that is!). The girl said she had found my website and blog and thought I would be a fun participant of the aha moment videos. They were coming to Knoxville in a few days and would like to film me. After seriously questioning if this was for real and having Mark check it out too, I made an appointment to show up on a Monday evening at Market Square. It was super quick and painless (although the painful part came in the deliberation over what to wear and most importantly what in the world I would say was my aha moment). I filled out a permission form and then stepped into their little silver bullet of a trailer. A super friendly and almost fakely authentic (only way I can think to describe her) girl interviewed me while a guy filmed it from another room. I wasn't quite sure what I was saying and simply hoped for the best. Today, I saw the results. See my interview on the aha moment website. And no autographs please.

riding in style

That's right folks. I am the proud winner of a Fat Tire bicycle!


After entering daily and relentlessly for over a month, I was rewarded with an e-mail today that I was selected as yesterday's winner. Huzzah! Should be coming in the mail soon. Now we just have to get Mark a bike too!

(the contest)

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

we'll be grilling out for a couple days | the kitchen reno stage 1

The holiday weekend came and went. Mark and I now find ourselves lost among the chaos of our kitchen in progress. Starting Friday night, we spent a good chunk of time at Home Depot and followed it up with another early morning trip on Saturday to purchase a clearanced floor model stainless steel oven range that we had spotted the night before (Score!). The rest of Saturday unfolded with massive kitchen prep as we emptied the cabinets, heaved the old stove to the garage, removed all the cabinet doors and hinges, scrubbed everything down, taped around everything, and then used our good friend, Liquid Sandpaper to prepare the surfaces.

(Please note the holes in the wall where the stove should be. Those are thanks to whomever built our kitchen and decided to take shortcuts on doing things well and right. Lovely.)



We then rewarded ourselves with a break at our friends' house eating yummy food and playing with their adorable 6 month old.

Sunday morning we attended our church, chatted with some folk and then high-tailed it back home to scarf down some sandwiches before we primed it up. The afternoon raced by as we somehow juggled 5 loads of laundry and primed all the cabinets and both sides of the doors.


We again rewarded our focused efforts by lazying around the rest of the evening to celebrate the fourth with some other dear friends and their 10 month old kiddo. The evening was lovely and long as we stuffed ourselves, joined the masses in World's Fair Park to listen to the Symphony and then ooh and aah over the firework display (which one of the highlights for me was watching the 10 month old in awe of the lights flashing before him). We ended the festive evening with a not-too-rousing game of Scrabble and munchies.

Monday morning rolled around to us hitting snooze for over an hour and then finally hearing reality remind us that we still had cabinets to get a couple coats of paint on. The day was long but we sanded the primed coat (for added smoothness) and put 2 coats of dark brown on. Late last night we decided we'll need at least one more coat so that's on the agenda tonight. Picture of this stage to come.

Coming up… the countertops are scheduled to arrive Friday. We are forecasting a weekend of painting the front side of the cabinet doors (have to let the backs cure for 3-5 days) and putting the new countertops and sink in. Soon after we'll be attempting our first tile job as we do the backsplash and then we'll be putting the new hinges and handles on all the cabinet doors. July is going to be gone before we know it.