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.

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!

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)

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.

you had me at RFP

One of Mark's coworkers sent this comic to us and said it reminded her of our story.

Wow. Amazingly so close it could be our story. Move the RFP (Request For Proposal for my non-design readers) to about the middle and change the adoption of the cat to a hopeful (soon!) adoption of a dog and you'd have us on paper. Love it!

(comic by Burt at Draw, Burt, Draw!)

the color of Monday

Poppytalk is having a Summer Colours Week! I love these! I missed it yesterday so didn't put my pink picture on the flickr site but I am on the lookout for yellow today… Follow along. The pictures are incredible!

(zinnias via my kitchen!)

the joy of type

We love typography. Our love of letters extends to decorating our home. We have a collection of letters on our mantle (I'll have to get a good picture of that once we are happy with the arrangement.) Recently we added a few items to the home decor that further express our letter love.

The new coasters…

They are made of felt and are so intricately cut it nearly takes my breath away.

And most recently, our new door mat. It states something different depending on if you are coming or going. Love it!

Come visit us and experience the letter fest in person!

a documentary especially for me

Just ran across this trailer for what looks to be a spectacular documentary.



Oh man. Can't wait to see it!
(visit the site)

holding my breath

We've applied to adopt a dog. The last 5 days have been a bit of a roller coaster on my emotions. But my hopes are up.



And I love this ad. More than words.

another reason to love September

Tickets just purchased to see these two in concert:

She & Him. September 1.

So excited!

Maybe I can ask her where she got that amazing hat, jacket, and belt combo. I doubt I can rock it as well as she does. Now if only Emily Deschanel would be there too for some reason…

(images via this awesome photo gallery of She & Him)

up in the air in a wobbly little box

maybe add this to the birthday festivities wish list:

(photo from Ocean City, New Jersey)

smile at the birdie

Monday marked 3 months until my birthday. The dreaming has begun. Among my many thoughts is the desire to visit a photobooth. I'm becoming increasingly more obsessed with photobooths and having never experienced the joy of one in person, I feel that my 26th is a great time to do so. (and mark it off the list too!) I'm fairly positive this obsession increased because of one of my new favorite movie, Amelie and thanks to people like hulaseventy and her photobooth Fridays. So, perhaps a photobooth experience will be a festivity for my birthday and maybe I'll even ask for this book with this great cover:

And I feel my life is much enhanced by discovering photobooth images like this:

 (via Heading East)

and especially this:

(via that American Photobooth book)

That one just kills me.

I can't help but wish that I had discovered these gems earlier in marriage. A photobooth image every anniversary would be such a great idea. Not too late to start right?

the taste of summer

#14 marked off the list.

Blueberry pie made from scratch. I'm especially proud of the lattice crust.

Oh, it was delicious. Especially with French vanilla ice cream.

This is a great crust recipe. And I was fairly happy with this blueberry pie recipe although I did adhere to some commentors' suggestions about increasing the cornstarch.

me encapsulated in product

Gasp! Ikea keeps coming out with items that scream my name. Really. I can hear it.

(find these here and here)

interesting concept, stupid name

Mobile Art Lab in Japan created a picture book using an iPhone.



(via Minor Details)

we all get the slip sometimes

I love this music video. I love She & Him. I think I'm addicted.



I think Zooey Deschanel may have edged out Meg Ryan. It's getting close.

not enough wall space

Thanks to Vintage Kids' Books I now know about the amazing illustrator Winnie Finch. Her stuff is absolutely incredible. I love the cuteness of her characters, but almost even more so her amazing lettering! Seriously, drool with me:






(all images via imagekind)

That last one just makes me giddy. Now, to scrounge up money to buy some prints…

ironically not made of apples

For some reason, I think this is really cool. There is something just so wonderful about fruit. The colors, the textures and patterns. Pure yumminess!



Created by Richard Thomas to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Apple.
(original here)

the art of hand painted murals

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

12 minutes. Very worth it. Wonderfully inspiring and quite incredible. I love the older man. I can only imagine the memories he must have.

(via Rifle)

I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree.

In early March, our church had a work day at a school down the street called the Fort Sanders Education Development Center. It is a great little school for special ed students mostly before they enter school for kindergarten. While helping paint a hallway wall, I happened to overhear the PTA President saying they were looking for someone to do a mural on the wall. I jumped up and talked to her about it. When I found out they wanted a mural based on the children's book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom I could barely contain myself. So I volunteered—despite the visual images in my head of my dear husband giving me the "are you crazy?" look and the stressed voice of reason in my head that started listing all the things I'm already committed to do. Nonetheless, I did the mural. Behold my last 3 weekends worth of work.









Thanks to my wonderful helpers and especially my so wonderful husband who ended up coming and helping for much longer than he planned. Awesome experience! Something to mark off the list that wasn't on the list. Yes for over-achieving!

only 2 letters off

Discovered this song today and really still can't believe it is real. I've already requested that Mark learn it and sing it to me on occasion. Yes, it is that awesome.

Caryn Shaffer - Wesley Willis

UPDATE: due to the sad news that lala.com has been shut down (boo iTunes), here is a clip of the song on Amazon.

"we were here"

Mark and I saw The Clogs in concert yesterday. We weren't too familiar with them before we heard about the concert. What captured our interest was that Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) were performing with them. We've seen My Brightest Diamond perform here a little over a year ago and love love love her (Mark actually did a video for her in college), but Sufjan has not been anywhere near Knoxville so we thought it was worth it to see him (even if he only played a little). We both began to listen to The Clogs new album and found it interesting. The concert however was wonderful. Their music is so much lovelier live. It's one of those concerts that there are many instruments, the music fills the auditorium and at times you are afraid it will end too quickly or not at all.

I'm actually not much of a concert person. At least not these strange "indie" concerts. I find the audience of these particular concerts to be extremely rude and distracting. There were so many people getting up and moving around, looking at their bright cell phone screens, whispering, taking pictures…. I hate how easily distractable I am. I much prefer the symphonies and jazz concerts where it feels like no one dares move for fear of missing something spectacular or breaking the mood. Symphonies always have an older audience and it is lovely. I always feel I must be very proper and have brilliant etiquette. I'm much more able to get enveloped in the music.

Overall, the concert yesterday was nice, but frustrating. The high point for me however was the last song they played. Sufjan and Shara both performed with The Clogs and it was a hauntingly beautiful song. I wanted to weep at its loveliness. It is very rare for me to feel that way about a song and I have been obsessively listening to the song all day as I process the emotions it brings. The recording on the cd isn't quite the same as the ambiance of the theater and the sound swirling around the room, but it begins to speak to the feelings. Be moved too.

We Were Here (feat. Sufjan Ste...

UPDATE: due to the sad news that lala.com has been shut down (boo iTunes), here is a clip of the song on Amazon.
or to hear the song in its entirety watch this video (which is the actual concert I was at just a few seats over from whomever uploaded this! but I suggest you close your eyes to not be distracted).
or just go buy the song. You won't be disappointed. I promise.

St. Patrick's Day

seriously… I want a dog.

via [BB-Blog]

the mountains are seeping in

We took to the road this weekend for a dear friend's wedding. We both desperately wanted to fly there, but just could not justify over $600 a piece for a shorter trip. So Thursday night, we packed the cooler full of edibles and hit the road. Dallas is a 13.5 hour drive from our dear little house in Knoxville. We stopped somewhere unimportant along the way and finished the drive on Friday. The wedding itself was good, but I don't feel there is anything exciting to relate. The memorable piece from this weekend is about the mountains. I haven't been to Texas in a while and I have to say that we were both quite shocked at how flat Dallas was. And even most of the Arkansas we traveled through too. When we were still at least a half hour away from Dallas, we could see almost every detail of the Dallas skyline. It was so odd. Saturday morning, while Mark did the groomsman thing with the groom—I took a trip over to Frisco and hit the Ikea. (Yes, we really are that pathetic that we must stop at Ikea if we are within an hour's distance.) It was lovely to drive there and back and yet I was very unsettled at how flat it all was. I haven't felt this feeling before, at least not this particular form of homesickness, but I really missed the Tennessee mountains. It was such a lovely sight as we got closer and closer on the drive back Sunday. We kept going up and down more and the view got shorter and shorter. I really did feel like an idiot a couple times as I grinned widely to see all the peaks and valleys ahead of us. If you haven't done the drive on 40 between Nashville and Knoxville, it really is quite lovely. So many trees and so much off in the distance. Truly a sight to behold. I've been slowly feeling that this little town was staking its claim on my heart for this period of time—but I knew it to be so true as I came home to the mountains. Knoxville really is a lovely little place.

before 30

I've been thinking about this list for quite a while. I like to make lists. A lot. This list is coming out of the realization of my upcoming 26th birthday in September and how that sounds really old to me. I know it isn't, but it has made me think about having more goals and attempting harder to attain them. So, here is my big list, in no particular order. Some are big things and some are small things. The before I turn 30 list. I will be updating and referring to this list hopefully a lot in the next few years. Here I go…

1. start capturing life with a Polaroid camera
2. begin a garden
3. learn French
4. visit DisneyWorld
5. start a family
6. send a children's book draft or portfolio of illustrations to a publishing house
7. rescue a dog
8. learn some front end coding
9. build a clothesline
10. sew clothes for myself
11. paint a really big canvas
12. start a family wall of pictures
13. make a new website for my portfolio
14. make a pie from scratch
15. renovate the kitchen
16. ride a ferris wheel
17. visit a photobooth

sounds like me

the projects in my head

I frequently have many project ideas floating around my head. I often scribble them down in my sketchbook, on post-its that find themselves affixed in odd locations, or in my moleskine notebook that continually rides in my purse and on various scraps of paper that may be within reach when an idea begins to surface or flesh itself out. Ideas often come at the most inconvenient times—take a couple weeks ago when I was running to a printer to pick up a project and bam! children's book idea hits me (this is the most frequent kind of idea that floats in my head—I've got 7 or 8 kids' book ideas in the works, mostly in my head). I frantically start pawing around in my purse while keeping my eyes on the road, grab a pen, find some random little envelope with a bit of gum stuck in one corner and then realize there is absolutely no way to write down my idea while driving down Kingston Pike in the middle of lunch hour traffic. So I put the free hand back on the wheel again and whisper the idea over and over again until I reach intended destination and can park. Usually at this point the idea starts to sound less exciting and ceases to excite me, but occasionally they will make it to scrap paper and then never see the light of day again. I have dreams of one day, in my retirement, pulling out a tattered scrapbook containing all my ideas and suddenly working them all out and becoming an amazing children's book writer/illustrator in my late 60's and dedicating each one to my grandchildren and my dear husband who never gave up on encouraging me to do children's books.

Well, lately I've had this type project rolling around in my head—at least for 7 months. And yesterday, during the second service sermon (which I was in because I sang in both services) I imagined another type project idea that would relate well to the first. And this morning, there came a third. So now, I'm going to attempt to embark on a type series project. My brain is still mulling out all the details of said project, but for once I decided to put it in the blogosphere and perhaps this would give me a sort of accountability to follow through and see where it leads. Soon this week I will sit down and put a description of the project and the parameters I'm mentally giving myself on here. I've said I will, so I will. Coming soon…

Alice.com

I've been wanting to discuss my love for Alice.com on here for a while. My sister discovered it a few months ago and passed the info on to me. I was a bit skeptical at first, but always take a good recommendation seriously. I use it frequently and must say that although I love the laziness of shopping online from my cozy couch, the true love for me is how easy it is to watch my budget when I shop there. I always struggle at stores to mentally add up my items and make sure I'm within what I have to spend. Alice makes it so much easier as I can add and take things away from my total with a click. I also don't have to spend time in the aisles trying to decipher all the facts about every product on the shelf. I can just make my list on Alice, read the product info and reviews, AND Alice automatically adds any coupon that exists for the product! Wonderful! I actually made an order Tuesday and am expecting to see the lovely box on my doorstep when I get home this evening. Did I mention 2-3 day delivery and free shipping? Yes, free shipping! Always! Really if you haven't tried Alice.com yet, you should check it out. Makes life a lot easier. It really is true—everyone needs an Alice!

Also, here is another reason for love of Alice: Alice.com announces free samples + win a Mac Book!