Masterpiece Wall...2016 Edition

Check out our latest masterpiece wall!  We had this year's portfolio days at school last week, which meant that it was time to make some selections to include in our display. I love discussing and planning with the boys. They are so proud of their work, and we all love showing some of it off for everyone to see. 

This is what it looked like our first year, following the kitchen renovation. (It's hard to believe that was four years ago!)  And here is what we've had on display since last June. I keep all the older pictures in the frames, so it's very fun to put the new pictures in and look at them. 

I love this year's selections. We had to cover up the Sunflowers, but we still have Van Gogh represented with Starry Night.  I love the gorgeous blue flower in the middle, and the eclectic and interesting patterns, and those beautiful orange leaves. Mostly, I love that my boys are learning to appreciate art and that they make beautiful pieces to showcase at home.

Masterpiece Wall...

I know - I should've taken the picture on a sunny day, but I'm impatient!

When we renovated our kitchen, we put in a little eating area, and the wall above the table is reserved for handmade art. As we reach the end of the school year, we've had the opportunity to bring home all the boys' work and art. One of my favorite things to do is go through their portfolios and pick out a few favorites to display on our art wall.  This year's collection is so fabulous.

Here's what it looked like the first year. I love looking back at it. I had forgotten about the Arc de Triomphe - one of my all-time favorites and a beautiful memento from a visit to Paris. One entitled "Yellow". And that pirate ship! Classic. This year's display includes a wonderful sunflower drawing by Nathan, a desert scene by Aaron, and other gorgeous pieces. They love the end product almost as much as I do.  

House Update - Family Room

It's been a while since I've posted a house update.  After finishing the big renovation two years ago (has it been that long?), we've slowly made changes and additions to the interior.  I thought it was time to provide another update on the family room.  Since last posting about it, we added a sectional couch, new pillows, coffee table, and a ficus tree.

I'm so excited about it!  I love this room now.  The couch is big enough for all of us to relax, the coffee table has a soft top that's great to rest my feet on, I love the bright colors we added with the pillows and mirror...  It came together just as we wanted, and it makes me happy to see it every day.  Yay!

built-in bookshelves between the family room and kitchen

Little Things...

I got a new pair of sneakers, and they are purple.  I am a little shocked every time I look down.  

We finally adjusted these shelves to be able to accommodate more records.  We added a box full of albums given to us by Kevin's uncle.  Our collection is really coming along!  

It's lilac season.  The yard smells amazing, and the purple and white blooms are so pretty.

Thinking About...

The weather.  What a gorgeous Fall we have had.  This time of year is always amazing here in New England, but it has been especially brilliant.  Stunning colors, crisp air...  And I'm generally not one to lament the coming of winter, so the chilly mornings are okay by me.

Interior decorating.  I want to give my house that cozy and homey feeling.  The look that is beautiful but still shows that a family lives here.  When I walk into someone else's house that has that feeling, I immediately look around to try to figure out how they got it.  It's the details - books, plants, mementos from travels, art... But the trick is only displaying those things that have real meaning.  And waiting to collect those things takes patience.  Sigh.  

Family pictures.  It is ridiculously hard to get a decent picture of all four of us.  We are even generally pretty good about bringing our good camera with us, but still... Those family shots always seem to be impossible.  Last year, my cousin Erin took pictures for us, and I was so excited to see the results!  Nice pictures!  Where we're dressed, and Kevin's clean-shaven, and the boys aren't covered in mud or food or something.  Unfortunately, Erin lives in Chicago, so we had to find someone else this year, but we did, and with many bribes of lollipops, we all survived the shoot this past weekend.  Now I'm in waiting mode, and I can't wait to see the results!

photo by Cory Schwartz

Pearl Jam.  We saw them in concert last Friday night, and my heart is still smiling.  They really are something special.  After this many years and songs, they don't have an opening band.  It was just Pearl Jam, rocking hard for over three hours.  Eddie Vedder drank three bottles of wine and danced and swung across the stage, and his voice was still amazing.  I figure if these guys, who are all about ten years older than I am, can still rock that hard, then we're all doing alright.  

The Red Sox.  They are one win away from winning the World Series.  All the games are one so late, though, and I've been watching them all, staying up past midnight most nights.  It's fun, but I'm pooped!  Fingers crossed they win tomorrow night so I can get a decent night's sleep.  

Thanksgiving.  It's decided - Thanksgiving will be at our house this year.  So I'm in full menu-planning mode.  I need another green veggie, and I need to decide on desserts and appetizers.  Fun!

But before Thanksgiving...Halloween!  The costumes are ready to go, but we haven't carved our pumpkins yet!  I think that may have to happen today. 

Blogging and the internet.  I went through my blog reader again this week, removing the blogs that don't inspire me any more, or just aren't important to me.  No offense to those blogs, but there's only so much time!  And I've been better at limiting time on the other social media sites - twitter, facebook, instagram.  They're fun, but it's a balancing act to make sure I don't feel the pull to stay connected all day long.  

New Beginnings...

It was a beautiful day!

It is the start of another year.  I am feeling grateful for all the wonderful experiences we had and memories we made this summer, and yet I'm also ready to get back to our school-year routines.  My boys had a blast this summer, but they also seem ready and excited to start school.  Aaron started first grade today, and Nathan has another week and a half before he starts his last year of preschool.  We celebrated Aaron's first day with after-school milkshakes, and I'm grateful he's happy to be back at school with his friends.

My babies!  Growing up.  Each milestone is so much fun; and I am truly not weepy for the babies they no longer are, but rather I am proud and excited about the boys they have become.

Garden Update

Tomatoes and kale

If you've followed me for a while (or if you know me), you know that I am not a skilled gardener.  Previous attempts at gardening were met with mixed results.  Sometimes the rabbits won.  We got a couple good years of blueberries before the bushes stopped producing.  We had one really great year of pumpkins followed by a couple bad ones.   We figured out what worked in pots.  

Slowly but surely, I've gained a little knowledge and experience.  My herb barrel is a summer necessity, filled with basil, cilantro, rosemary, and scallions.  I've given up on the blueberries, and I've given up trying to plant things without adequate protection from the critters.  My next-door neighbor has been gracious enough to allow us to use some of her raised beds.  Last year we had two, and we grew mostly tomatoes, which are my highest priority garden vegetable.  (Store-bought tomatoes are mostly just gross.)  We still had problems with the rabbits and deer, so we had to wrap the plants in netting to save them.  

This year, my neighbor said we could use all of the raised beds.  I got proactive and built fencing around each of them, and thankfully and for the first time ever, the animals have not been an issue.  I got seedlings from our community organic farm, so everything is organic and GMO-free.  It's been so much fun!  The kids love checking the garden every day to see the progress and picking anything that's ripe.  It's exciting when something new appears.  And with so much extra space, I branched out to vegetables I had never grown before.  So cool!

I got this eggplant later in the spring at the spur of the moment, since I had more space left.  We've already eaten one big one, and we have three more growing!  So easy and super fun.

The green beans were started in a paper cup by Aaron in his kindergarten class.  He brought his seedlings home at the end of the year, and we planted them in the garden.  It has grown like crazy!  We've had enough green beans for dinner several times already, and they're still coming!

Zucchini!  I've always wanted to grow zucchini but never had the space.  We have already had at least a dozen, and again, they keep coming!  We've had them grilled, sauteed, baked in bread, cooked in chowder...  So awesome.

We only have one butternut squash so far, but it's a beauty.  I'm not wishing Summer away, but Fall will be wonderful too.

Tomatoes!  We are getting about 15-20 cherry tomatoes a day, plus a regular-sized tomato every few days.  I think the varieties I chose are a little later, so I'm expecting and hoping that August will be full of tomatoes.  Until then, I'm happy to watch Aaron eat cherry tomatoes right off the vine.

We've also enjoyed a good amount of kale, a couple heads of lettuce (we lost a couple more to heavy rain), quite a few cucumbers (they've been overtaken by the zucchini at this point I think), and we have four big broccoli plants that I hope we get to enjoy in the Fall.  Hooray!

House Update - Patio

After last year's construction, we named 2013 the "year of the outdoors".  Now that we had the inside of the house the way we wanted it, we had some work to do in the yard!  After a lot of neglect, we've spent many hours weeding and planting and generally working on making our yard a nice place to be. 

The big project included repaving the driveway, new brick sidewalks, and a new patio!  We are SO excited to have a comfortable area to sit outside.  The first few years, we didn't have anything at all, and the last few, we had a picnic table set up in the grass.  This is a huge step up.  

The patio table and umbrella just got delivered a couple days ago, and the boys and I ate dinner on it that very night...and every night since.  It is awesome.   The grass is still coming in, and we'll be spreading mulch this weekend, but we are already so happy with how it's coming along.  

House Update - Living Room

Wow.  I'm going to start off by saying that our living room is officially the most grown-up room I've ever had.  It still feels a little weird to have such a nice room.  Weird, but awesome.  

We have come a long way.  You can check out this old post to see a glimpse of what the room looked like when we moved in.  Or this old post to see what it looked like after we painted it but were still using it as a family/TV room.  

After last summer's big renovation, we were able to move the more casual couch and chair into the new family room.  That left this room completely empty, except the rug.  We've spent the last six months turning it into a really nice place to sit and have a conversation, listen to records, play board games, or play the piano.  I have always said that I hate formal living rooms - you know, the ones that nobody ever uses?  We made sure that this is a room where we will want to spend time.  

It still needs the finishing touches, of course.  It feels like it could be at home on a showroom floor, especially when entering from the dining room (the view below).  We will eventually add some art to the walls, books or other items to the coffee table, maybe a plant.  You know, the personal items that make it feel like my home and not just a pretty room.  I have to keep reminding myself that these things take time.  I don't want to buy things to put on display just because I want the room to be "done".  It will happen organically, over time.  We'll fall in love with a painting or print and put it up, we'll get coasters, and our book collection will grow.  We'll get presents from family, and we'll bring home items from our travels.  

In the meantime, I'm pretty excited to get to hang out here.  

A Few Little House Updates...

A few house updates:

1.  New pillows for our kitchen seating nook.  It is now officially my favorite spot in the house.  Perfect to sit, drink a cup of coffee, read...  Even better than my gorgeous bathtub, because I actually get to use it!

2.  I got this picture for Christmas 2011.  I originally had an idea of doing a collage wall above our bed, but it never happened, and this awesome piece has been sitting in my closet!  It's now on our dresser.  I love it.  I can just hear them saying "Ten more minutes!".  Quite appropriate.  

3.  Another new chair for the living room.  The fabric turned out much cooler than I had expected, but it's growing on me.  It sits low to the ground, and it's really comfortable.  Next up for this spot - a floor lamp.

4.  More new pillows.  These happy pillows definitely brighten up the couch, and add a touch of femininity to it.  

Little by little...

Kitchen Update

We've been slowly making little additions here and there throughout the house.  Making the house a home.  This week's fun item is our new runner for the kitchen.  Really, I love that it's a good excuse to post more pictures of my pretty kitchen here.  But the rug really does add so much to the space that it's worth showing it again.  This area, between the cooktop and the sink, is where I spend a good portion of my time.  Isn't it cute?

My Evening Routine

I haven't done one of these in a while.  Here is what my evening routine looked the last time I wrote about it, over a year ago.  It's actually not very different, except one significant difference:  I am not forced to start the evening festivities after a full day's work at the office, a long commute, and picking up boys from day care.  Now, I am able to prepare ahead of time and ease into it.  The difference is striking.

4:00 - Get home with the boys.  Start to prepare dinner and/or play.  (One night a week we get home late after Aaron has baseball - leftover night!)

5:45 - Eat dinner with the boys.  I'm still popping up a lot (Nathan's still pretty messy), but most nights are pretty relaxed.  Dinner conversation with a 3 and 6-year-old is always entertaining.

6:15 - Clean up the kitchen.  There is still very often some dancing after dinner.  Then the boys play and eat their dessert (fruit) while I finish cleaning.

6:45 - Bathtime.  I only have to do one now.  Aaron is independent and chooses showers a lot of nights.  It's getting easier!

7:15 - 7:45 - Storytime/Bedtime.  Most nights I do them together.  If Nathan is really tired, then I sometimes read him a story while Aaron's in the shower and get his lights out early.  Sometimes he falls asleep while I'm reading stories to both of them.  Aaron gets stories, but then he also reads by himself for a while before turning his lights out.

8:00 - 8:30 - Pack lunch/snack for the next day, review calendar, work on lists (I always have a list that needs work - the to-do list, the to-buy list, the grocery list, the menu...).  During this time Kevin usually gets home and eats his dinner, so we get a chance to talk and catch up.

8:30ish - Enjoy a little dessert with some TV.

9:30ish - Bedtime.  Quality time with a book.

10 - 10:30.  Lights out.*

*Because of the more relaxed days, I've found we've been able to get to bed just a tad earlier, and we're also able to wake up just a little later.  (Neither of us have to commute all the way downtown anymore!)   In short, we are getting enough sleep!  It's amazing.  You should try it.  I'm not saying I'm not tired sometimes - Nathan had me up from 2-4AM last night, so I'm pooped today - but most of the time I feel on top of things, which is so different from a year ago.

House Update

Just a couple updates to report on our progress towards making this house a home.  The Murphy Bed arrived, and it is installed and ready for use.  The long-term goal will be to paint it white, but I am of the opinion that while the boys are so young and destructive, we should leave it as is.  It is in their playroom, after all.  The walls and floors in this room are already taking a pretty good beating.  In the meantime, the natural color actually goes pretty well with the rest of the big toys in the room.  

Here's a view of the bed pulled down.  The boys had a lot of fun testing it out for us.  Now all we need is a visitor!  It will be a great space to have when we have guests.  

This room is coming along.  We'd like to get a small table for one side of the bed, for guests to be able to use as a nightstand, and we still need some additional organization solutions (another big basket, a bookshelf) for the toys.  But it's working.

The other update is that we now have kitchen stools!  We spent a long time searching.  Because of the wood on the island top, we wanted to steer clear of another wood finish.  We started looking at metal options, and there are some really cool ideas out there.  We didn't fall in love with any of them, though, and if you're going to spend $750 per stool then you should really be in love.  So we backtracked and decided that we should stay simple.  I have always liked these easy, backless stools, and they coordinate nicely with the black table in the seating area.  Plus they were significantly cheaper than most other options.  The boys love this space, and they've been eating lunch at the island every day since they arrived.

Little by little...  Up next:  Living room furniture!

Sandy Update

Dinner by candlelight

We got the fun part of the hurricane.  A couple days without school, a brief (4-5 hours) power outage, and fun hanging out with my boys.  The yard is a little messy, but I have no complaints.  The storm even moved through in time for Halloween.  Tomorrow's trick-or-treating should be a go - perhaps a little wet, but nothing that would prevent me from taking out my pirate and train engineer for some treats.  Yay!

I am still shocked at some of the pictures coming out of New York and New Jersey, though.  I hope they are able to complete the cleanup quickly and get the city up and running again soon.

Having fun with slow shutter speeds

Who needs power when you have Superman and Batman?

Kitchen Update

My favorite spot!

We continue to make progress on the house.  This latest reveal focuses on the kitchen dining nook.  Honestly, I will have a hard time expressing how much I adore this little corner.  It wasn't even in the original plans, because we weren't sure we would have room for it.  I am SO happy we figured out how to fit it in.  It is now my favorite part of the new space!  

For those of you who have followed my kitchen inspiration pictures over the years (hi family!), you know that I always said I wanted a white kitchen, but not a boring or stuffy-looking one.  I wanted a cheerful one with colorful accents.  After looking at the main part of the kitchen, you might've thought, "Well where's the color?" Here it is!  We chose red cushions and put together a collage of some of our favorite works of art created by the boys.

The table was custom made with salvaged wood by a place in Vermont.  The corner is rather tight, and most of the trestle tables I looked at were simply too big.  We got a custom one made for about the same price as a new one.   Yay!

And finally, a lesson learned.  If I could do it again, I'd spend more to have them build a back for the bench.  My boys are still young, and they are very hard on the house.  The wall behind the bench is already pretty beat.  For now, my little guy sits in the chair.  In a couple years - when he has a little more self-control - I'll let him move over to the bench.  

What do you think?

Yes I did go straighten out all the pictures after taking this shot.

I wish I knew how to take better interior pictures!

Masterpieces

My New Kitchen!

After seven years of dreaming and planning, I'm proud to present my new and fabulous kitchen!  Isn't she pretty?  

It's not 100% done yet either.  As you can see, we are missing a few stools in front of the island.  We're still trying to decide.  I may post a couple we've been debating to ask for input.  It's on the back-burner at the moment.  

A few notes about some of the decisions we made along the way:

*We wrestled with the decision over whether to install a hood vent or to use a downdraft vent that comes up out of the island.  Obviously we chose the hood, and I'm very thankful we did.  It's quiet, works well, and isn't nearly as obstructive as I originally thought it would be.  Yay!

*The top of the double-oven is actually a combination microwave/convection oven.  So I not only got the microwave off the countertop, but I got the double-oven I wanted too!  Awesome.  

*I love having glass-front cabinets.  We only have a couple upper cabinets, but it's so nice being able to see where the glasses are.

*The countertop is actually granite, although it looks like soapstone.  Another great find.  It is exactly the look I wanted without the maintenance of soapstone.

Confession:

*I did already have the Pelegrino, but I put a couple bottles on the counter just to take pictures.  Although I swore I'd have a bowl of lemons on display, I didn't have the patience for that.  A bowl of tomatoes had to suffice.

Here are a couple other pictures as well as the before shots.  Be forewarned...they are ugly.  

I almost hate to post such ugliness, but it's fun to see how far we've come...