Remember my mystery squash? You were all correct. It was a pumpkin. It turned orange and then the vine started to mysteriously die and I thought, what the hell, it’s not october?! GROW SOME MORE! So I’ve no idea if it was the right thing to do, but I picked the pumpkin and pruned the vine back a bit, hoping that will spurt some new growth and new pumpkins.

Also I think I figured out how it got there. The only thing I planted from seed was the sunflowers surrounding it. I planted other seeds, but not outside, I started them indoors (most of them died of neglect once they got outside and I had to buy plants at lowes). So I was really confused on how in the world that freaky pumpkin plant GOT there!

Then I remembered that I laid out compost in the late spring. And I BELEIVE I tossed last years pumpkins in the compost bin last fall. And while most of them were carved (no seeds) I beleive that there was one that sat there whole until it started to rot and then was tossed with the rest.

Thus.. pumpkin seeds in the compost. compost spread in beds. VOILA! Pumpkin vine! Pumpkin!

The pumpking is inside now awaiting to be made into pumpkin cupcakes, the best pumpkin destination I know for it.

In other garden news, my raspberries are really taking off. There were always one or two ready to pick and eat, but when i went out yesterday, I picked (and promptly ate) enough to fill a bowl. Exciting exciting stuff! The tricksy part will be NOT eating them so that I can do something with them.

However, next year I’m going to have to make some sort of support for them because they’re tall, bent over, and I’ve got raspberries growing on the dirt.

In other catch up news, I got my latest piece of etsy artwork and I love it I love it I love it:

\

Obviously not enough to actually hang it yet, though. Shoosh, I’ve been busy. I did get a frame though, don’t I get credit for that?

I never did post the other artwork I got, so here you go, it’s hanging in my guest room:

ain’t it beeyootiful?

have a loverly weekend, all!

but damn, i laughed hard at this.

– i suck at getting pictures off the camera.

– i suck at house cleaning.

– actually, i don’t really suck at house cleaning. i suck at keeping the house clean.

– how DO you keep a house clean, anyhow?

– i feel like i’m being a parental hardass to ethan way too often.

– but that kid thinks that he can argue and debate his way out of anything! for once i just wish he would accept a ‘no’ and move on without all the conniving!

– i think i am guilty for letting him get this way.

– i’m not sure i know how to parent older children. toddlers are so much simpler.

– oh my god just think when they’re teenagers.

– can i change my mind about having children? it’s not too late, right??

– i’ve just had a coronary thinking about the teenager thing.

– MOVING ON… think of something else think of soemthing else think of something else..

– i wish i had the design sense to know what to do with my annoying cavernous spaces over my fireplace. and to the side of my fireplace.

– see, wouldn’t a PICTURE of said space be beneficial, for you, the reader, in seeing what i’m talking about?

– once again.. i suck at getting pictures off the camera.

– i do have my phone on me. which i can then email to myself.

– EUREKA!!

– there, now you can see. you can also see that it’s where stuff gets piled up. Maybe some pretty white bulbous vases. Those lower cavernouse spaces though… I’m clueless.

– that’s enough about that..

– next phone i get i’m making sure the camera part is super mac daddy.

– i need some gum.

– i could also use a drink.

– i think i’ll go get one of those. I’ll let you guess which.

– i haven’t done any brain dumping posts in a long while. i think my posting has become kind of boring this summer. i’ll try to remedy that.

– is this any better? maybe a little bit.

– it’s another thing i suck at though, so don’t hold your breath.

– if i could just take some decent pictures and then post them regularly, then it wouldn’t be boring.

– see point….. well, i’d say “a” or whatever, but I haven’t been numbering.. errr.. lettering these do-dads.

– ahh well.

– bye!

Jocelyn has stated she wants to be Ariel for halloween.

I don’t want to buy another $25 cheapo big box store costume. I realize it may cost more in the long run to make it myself (fabric ain’t cheap) but the construction will be so much better, and it will last a lot longer… so… If I’m going to make it myself, I’d better start NOW!

She wants to be Ariel in a dress, not Ariel the mermaid… so I’m purchasing this pattern and I’m going to need to get started ASAP!

I’m kind of hoping that she sees this and decides to be Belle instead – I don’t know why, but I just don’t like the thought of her dressing up in a wedding dress. Besides, I like the Belle dress better!

Ethan has stated he wants to be a storm trooper.

James – you get to handle that!

Metro grafiti

I struggle sometimes with the whole princess thing that Jocelyn has got going on. I think having a boy first has really ruined me as a mother to a girl. Boys have such hands on play. Concret. Action. Point A to Point B. Dumping, pushing, scooping, driving, tooting, building… it’s all very simple really. When Jocelyn’s 2nd christmas rolled around, I honestly had no idea what to get her. Clueless, was I. What do girls DO, ANYWAY, was what I thought.

Storytime Treasury, A McCall Book Sleeping Beauty
The Wolf and the Seven Baby Goats
 

Now, of course, I have a much better idea, but it still seems to me that her playing is much less concrete. Much less action oriented. She’s quite content to put on a twirly dress and then kind of wander around. The most action oriented playing she does is when she plays in her kitchen or with her dolls. I realize that this type of playing is fine, it’s just harder for me to wrap my head around it. You’d think having BEEN A LITTLE GIRL MYSELF, with a huge interest in dressing up like a princess and dancing around the house would clue me in to the inner workings of my daughter’s head, but I think I’ve been abducted by aliens and lost that part of my brain or something.

Fratelli Fabbri Editori Publishers
I love the stars!
 

She has a very strong fascination with disney fairy tales. Now don’t get me wrong, I love fairy tales. LOVE THEM. I have collected fairy tale books all my life and read and re-read many different ones. I actually kind of took my older sister’s favorite fairy tale book when I went off to college and she had to nag at me for 5 years before she finally was visiting once and outright took it (damn her!)

Baby Princess, before her christening
I love the fabric all through the book, how it folds and trails.. ahh so beautiful!I wanted that hair long before I ever saw Princess Leia, and here’s why!
 

It’s just the disneyification of fairy tales that bugs me. And I’m lucky! My daughter is in love with CINDERELLA, and that was back in the golden age of disney before it started to change around the story! Don’t even get me started on The Little Mermaid and how they messed THAT up! (She dies. At the end, “Ariel” dies. Talk about taking liberties!)

All the fairies gathering at the christening
More stars! and look at those headdresses – don’t you just want to die, they’re so lovely?
 

Anyway, I don’t mind the fact that for the last month, she will often inform us, “I’m Cinderella!” and insist that we address her so. I don’t mind that she has changed the names of all her dolls and stuffed animals to Cinderella as well. I can understand watching a certain movie over and over and internalizing it to such an extent that you want to BE that character. I personally, wanted to be the Lady Amalphia and run around as a unicorn, and that was only when I wasn’t spinning around in a circle pretending to be Wonder Woman while wearing my Wonder Woman under-roos.

The fairies giving their gifts to the baby princess.
I used to pore over this page, and the one above, just studying each fairy and their apparel.
 

I don’t even mind the disney Cinderella movie that much.. But I decided to take some pains to introduce her (and Ethan, by default) to the other sides of fairy tales. The side that doesn’t have mice scampering around making dresses and birds dressing the main character. The disney movies don’t ever transport me to that magical place of times old and past of kings and queens and princesses..

I broke out my most beloved fairy tale book from when I was a girl. My grandmother must have ordered these books from a magazine. They are in a series called “McCall’s Treasury” and the copyright is for Fratelli Fabbri Editori –which i think is just the publishing house name, not the illustrator’s name.

She was my favorite – again, I love the fabric, falling away from the headdress, and also sheathing the princess.
Oh, and don’t forget the stars! Love the stars!
 

Each book contains 2 stories, and though my grandmother gave them to all my siblings, my brothers weren’t all that interested. I have the ones given to me, some of the ones given to my brothers, and some I’ve purchased on eBay.

The witch has done her worst, and now the youngest fairy will try to undo it.
Look at that sweet little baby face.. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but there are halos and halos of ruffles all around the baby’s head – so sweet!
 

This book was my favorite, and if you could see the actual book, you’d be able to tell – the binding is completely shot and one of the pages is ripped significantly. It originally was given to my brother Larry, and my grandmother even wrote a little note to him on the inside cover, with the date as 1972 (2 years before I was born). I’ve been meaning to scan pages from this book for a while, and was going to do it right when my computer died.

The princess as a teen, just after she pricks her fingers.. the material of the clothes – gorgeous!
 

I loved these books as a child, and I think I love them even more as an adult. These illustrations are simply breathtaking. I, of course, loved to pore over the fairies, especially their dress and their headwear. I love the way there are little stars in almost all of the pages, giving it that magical glamourous aura.

Love the teeny kingdown in the distance..
 

So far, the reception of this book has been met with all around approval. They’ve both requested it to be read to them at bedtime. Because of it’s condition (falling apart) and it’s value to me, it is kept away from other books out of their reach, but if they ask for it, I’ll sit down and look through it with them, and then put it away again when we’re done.

Stunning 2-headed dragon!
 

This page is so beautiful! It’s laid out over 2 pages and I had to scan the 4 corners separately and then try to fit them together. This is the last one I scanned, as the “wake up” scene is also on the title page it seemed pointless to scan it again. I strongly urge you to click and look at the bigger versions – they are even more stunning and you can see more detail.

I was thinking I may get some prints of the illustrations framed and put them up on the wall.

Anything to counteract this, currently on the wall above Jocelyn’s bed:

-amy needs a headdress like those just to wear around the house and wash dishes in.

Day 5 of Jocelyn Watch draws to an end. Beleive that it has been a success. Subject had a few moments where the mother figure was worried she would see massive snot production (the biggest downfall to milk protein intolerance) but the subject pulled through and seems to have even fully recovered from her slightly hoarse throat. Any and all post nasal drip has since cleared up, and subject appears to be in normal healthy state.

YAY!

So what does this mean?

I have no idea.

It could mean that she had ice cream that was made with a cooked custard or just crappy highly processed ice cream in which the proteins were altered or broken down enough that her system did not view them as the usual threat.

Or it could mean that she’s well on her way to being milk protein intolerance FREE!

I am tempted to test this further. Now would be a good time, if she does get sick she’d have a week or so to recover before our not-really-camping trip at the end of the month. I would probably go about it by adding a bit of cow’s milk to her soy milk and see what happens.

Must discuss with father figure. Will ponder results and will jointly decide future action.

Word.

I’ve been informed that I am SLACKING in my duties to alert the public on every California Tortilla doing.

I humbly apologize.

Now, go get a burrito, because in celebration of today’s sale of their 5 MILLIONTH burrito, they’re giving away a free t-shirt to the first 100 folks to buy an entre, and everyone gets a free burrito coupon.

I loved CT when they were just in Bethesda, but now they’re virtually EVERYWHERE! Thank god, because I hardly ever get up to Bethesda anymore. Find one near you and go and munch in peace.

Get a crispy bbq ranch burrito for me.

OK, now I’m hungry.

Are you happy now James and Kurt? 🙂

I feel like we’re on an express train hurtling toward the end of the year. End of the year, you say? Yes, well, sort of.

This week is the last week of “Summer Camp” at our kids’ school. Today is the last “splash day” until next year

Of course, every time I try to mention this, there are misunderstandings – Ethan has this memory of when we all stayed HOME together (even daddy, who worked at home in the basement office and popped up for lunch and to witness important feats in block castles) so news of anything school related being “over” instantly translates into not going to school anymore. I try to explain. He gets it. I think I confuse Jocelyn a lot though.

We had our “big” vacation this year in May when we went to Utah to see my family and go camping, but we also planned a wee little getaway for labor day weekend. The kids’ school year (kindergarten & preschool) starts Tuesday after Labor day, and the previous Friday they are closed for a teacher work day, so we took it as an opportunity to take a mini vacation.

I wanted to go camping, especially since we bought stuff in may and hauled it home (mostly I guess it was a tent), but I also didn’t want to go somewhere where we’d be miserable with the heat and humidity. A happy medium was found when we found an almost amusement park type camp ground with water slides, mini golf and… (drum roll) air conditioned cabins. With bathrooms and fridges. So that’s where we’ll be heading that weekend, for what I can’t stop calling our “Camping, but not really camping, trip.”

The other day, Ethan said to me, “Mommy, is it fall yet?”

I looked at him quizzically and said, “No, not yet. A few more weeks. Why?”

I expected him to talk about how he can’t wait to wear long sleeves again, or show his excitement for being a kindergartener, so I was surprised when he answered, “I can’t wait to play soccer again!”

I was quick to point out to Jocelyn that SHE would be playing soccer too, and they both got all excited and wiggly over it. Jocelyn was enamored to hear she would have her VERY OWN shorts and jersey and socks. Now that I think about it.. I wonder if this is why she says “When I turn into a boy…” — maybe because she sees soccer clothes as ‘boy clothes’ and soccer as a ‘boy sport’ (which is crazy because there were tons of girls on ethan’s team in the spring) and since she knows she’s going to play soon, she thinks she’ll turn into a boy.. Hmmm. Will have to ponder this theory.

This express train feeling is all my own doing, really. The kids are kind of getting antsy with school, and I fear it will get worse once summer camp is over and school is only doing general open play for the next 2 weeks w/out any structured activities, but they’ve only fixated on the end of summer and our vacation and the beginning of school/soccer. I think that’s all pretty natural. But I am the big dolt who keeps saying things like, “Maybe for christmas,” when Ethan expresses his wish for a certain toy, and then walking him through the order of everything left in the year, “First our vacation, then school starts, then we have soccer season, and then a few months before Halloween, then Thanksgiving and then Christmas!”

A-duh. If I lay it all out like that, of course I’m going to feel like I’m running a race with the end of the year as the finish line.

So, my goal for the last few weeks of summer.. Live each day. Try to play with the kids more. Try to spend more time with my honey, instead of letting the day-to-day stuff act as “time together.” Let these last few weeks of summer be lazy, no matter what push may be on to get to the end.

And quit laying out the rest of the year like a damn race! 🙂

– amy

You thought I was kidding about turning this spot into a design blog.

Well I wasn’t! I’m all a-flurry with ideas and I must get them out somewhere!

Here is the basic dimensions of our big room in the basement. I’ve dropped some furniture in there too, but it’s all up for grabs at this point.

Created with EQ3’s Room Planner:

There are 3 basic areas this room will have. TV viewing/seating area, kids play/toy area, and my sewing area. Right now I think I want 2 to be the toy area, and 3 to be the sewing area.

I’ve been collecting ideas on all three of these areas, but I’m going to try to consolidate all those thoughts right here over the next few weeks.

Starting with the kids’ play area! First off, I’ll be so glad to get their toy/play area out of our front room and downstairs. Of course, after that happens, I’ll need some furniture to GO in that front room, but let’s take this one step at a time, shall we? 🙂

So.. take a look at the #2 area. The door goes into what will someday be the bathroom, but is now just part of the concrete-floored utility room. We also plan on moving that door to the other wall at some point.. but that is in the distant future and I’m not figuring it into our current plans.
The kids need to good bit of toy storage, and what we currently have going is assorted plastic bins of various sizes and colors filled, and sitting on the lower shelves of a normal sized bookshelf. It works, but the bins stick out a bit and it’s just generally not pretty.

I’d like to get a white expedite bookcase, 2×4 cube size, laid on it’s side, with white or colored boxes/bins in each cube for toy storage.

I’d love to do something like this for the surface of the bookcase for the kids to draw and play:

Need to make sure the bookcase on it’s side would be tall enough for them. Could I attach some short legs to it? Interesting idea.

Above the bookcase, I’d like to hang some of the ikea kitchen caddy’s for storing smaller items (crayons, markers, miscelaneous lego dudes, etc.)

And then further up on the wall, some floating white shelves that would be parent-only reachable.

I love these two chairs from Ikea and know the kids would LOVE them:

2 svinga ikea chairs $60/each

OR

2 egg chairs, blue $70/each

I’m not sure how these will work. I would love to incorporate them, but I’m not sure it’s possible in that space… the door is problematic and I wouldn’t want to hang them in front of the back wall.. If you look at the floor plan, you can see how I tried to place them (i used the dimensions for the hanging chairs) on either side of the door. Of course, if I used the egg chairs, the kids could move them all over as needed. I wish that door was gone already. Anyway. Need to think on it.

RUG

Little knees on hard floor does not a happy camper make!

3×4 FLOR puzzle rug tiles (would equal approx 5′ x 6.5′ in size)
undecided on color, but probably blue or green
cost: $15.99 / tile = $192

Less fancy FLOR:

I could buy two of these prepackaged dealios from Target ($60/each for a total of $120) for the same size rug (12 tiles). I will miss the puzzle pieces though – I just LOVE THEM!

other rug ideas (cheaper)
sew 2 or 3 of these together:

Barnslig Rand, $20/each ($60 for 3)

And this just struck me… we already have a road playmat rug currently residing right in our front entry, andwhile it is on the small side, we could just put that down there in lieu of something new.. It definitely will need to go somewhere, as it is used heavily! I guess in my head, I figured that it would stay on the main level with a bin of cars. Hmmm.

I’m referencing Ikea a lot aren’t I? What can I say. It’s because it’s cheap. And easy to link. And for kids… Ikea just makes sense. Moving on…

On the back wall, I’d like to paint the bottom half(ish, maybe bottom 1/3) with magnetic black chalkboard paint

Inspiration:

and the top half a bright color. I thought at first gray would be cool, but since it’s the toy area, I’m thinking a blue or green. will depend on the other main color of the room.

Oooh, I almost forgot.. I also would like to put ceiling to floor curtains on that back wall – the one with the window (which is one of those tiny, up high basement windows, by the way). They will likely be pulled back at all times, but I think it will make a storybook sort of feel, especially to whatever the kids are drawing on the chalkboard wall. What sort of fabric for that however, I’m clueless on. I love so many fabrics, but at the same time, fabric kind of scares me. More on that later when I expound on my ideas for my crafty sewing corner.

So those are my thoughts for the toy area! Any thoughts? Would love some more ideas. In my mind, it all works together wonderuflly, but working with that floor plan was kind of a eye-opener.. Not sure it would actually work in that space, but I guess we will see. This whole thing is going to be a big work in progress for a while, since it will be put together bit by bit rather than all in one fell swoop.. For example, I think the chairs would be a good christmas present for the kids.

THOUGHTS ON WALL COLOR FOR THE ENTIRE ROOM:

Probably a brown. Not too dark, as this is a basement we’re talking about. Although if I keep the furniture light, a dark espresso might look stunning. Oh decisions! I figure that the main color will go everywhere, with 2 accent walls – The kids chalkboard wall, and the small little wall in my sewing nook. the rest will be the main color.

How beautiful is this gray featured in domino magazine???

I like this light brown – and how cool is that ceiling? I think it works so well here because of those super tall ceilings. I wonder how it would work with normal ceilings. Could use that color for the upper half of the chalkboard wall in the kid’s nook..

Also quite fancy these colors as well:

Mmmmmmm. Yes. I like that. I definitely like that.

I also need to keep in mind the green color that is through the door into james’ office.

And I also need to remember that the color will have to carry up the staircase onto the main level too. Ooooh that gray is looking better and better! I think I need to resist.

Isn’t this fun? I think so. I’m having a ball. Since I’m a decorating clueless person, any thoughts anyone wants to offer me is VERY welcome 🙂

– amy can’t figure out what her style is.