Art Gallery

So, I haven't blogged in ummm...almost 2 years. I've been to China and back, had a second little one and probably a million other things worth noting. I've thought about blogging. I've written posts in my head. But what really made me want to start up again? Pinterest. It's a virtual pinboard. It's like my granny tearing out magazine articles out and mailing them to me, but ON THE INTERNET. I'm in heaven. It's given me so many ideas I want to try out.

I've been wanting to create a better art gallery for my boys. My littlest just turned one and I know the artwork from him will begin rolling in soon. The three frames I had previously hung, was not going to cut it. I was really tempted to put up the an IKEA Diginet System. I've seen one in a neighbor's house and it looks pretty nice. But my sister had me worried about the wires and kids so I just hadn't gone for it yet. Then I saw this via Pinterest from Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss: Very cool! I searched Pinterest and found more and more cool ideas, but collecting various vintage frames really stuck with me. And thus the journey began.

First up - vintage frame shopping. LOTS of it. I discovered that here in Chicago, Village Discount Outlet had the best selection for the price. Most of their frames were between $.80 and $3.80. Though I love Brown Elephant, I quickly discovered their prices ($15 for a random print or painting?!) were not conducive to this project. I did buy a couple there that had more ornate frames that I really wanted. I also braved Unique Thrift Store on a Monday for everything is 50% off day to get another unique frame I really wanted. I had forgotten how much I enjoy thrifting, though I really have little to no time for it these days. I started with about 10 frames, pliers, scissors, a flat-head screwdriver, the remote, lots of trashy tv and a glass of wine! I tore into all the frames, removed staples, pulled out the previous 'art' and then using some crappy holiday wrap (drove me nuts to wrap with it - it tore too easily!) my husband bought last year I made a paper template of each frame. I numbered each template and then numbered the back of each frame as well. Then I started hanging the templates in my space. I quickly realized that 10 frames was no where near enough. More shopping, chopping and labeling ensued. Twenty two frames! Finally my templates filled the space. I also laid the unpainted frames in the configuration I had taped up, just to double check myself, but it was hard to envision without them painted. There was lots of re-arranging. My trusty sidekick Annie watched all of this...

Once I was relatively satisfied with the frames and layout, it was time to move outside. I started with one can of primer, and three cans of universal glossy white spray paint. Naturally, Annie came along:
She ran away fast once she realize what was coming! Smart choice on her part. I made several lazy rookie mistakes.
1) Using newspaper. The wind kept blowing it up despite my careful arrangement and it stuck to a few of the frames. Also the grass. Ugh. Cardboard would have been a better choice.
2) Not buying enough spray paint. When you live in a city that doesn't sell spray paint, this is a major PITA. I had to paint the interiors of the frames as well since they are visible as you walk up and down my staircase. I started the project with 1 can of primer and 3 cans of paint. In the end I needed SIX cans of spray paint - yikes!
3) Not enough prepping. I should have sanded several of the frames as I didn't realize the nicks would be so visible with the white paint. In the grand scheme of the gallery it's not a big deal, but if you look closely you can see my mistakes.
4) Not wearing shoes or socks and ruining a brand new pedicure!
My first pass with the 3 cans of paint covered all the frames, but on a more superficial level. I had to return the next day, pick each frame up, get the sides and the interior sides.


One day to dry and I was itching to hang my new beauties! I tried to keep the bottom edge lined up and the far right edge, along the straight walls. I worked from the bottom corner and just kept measuring the spacing to be even between the frames as best as I could. Here's the work in progress - slowly hanging frames and removing templates...

Heading up the stairs

My last step - add the art! I decided against adding clips and just used poster putty to hang the creations. I feared all the crumpled creations my son comes home with would curl up in spots and one clip wasn't enough. I wish I had better pictures, but despite reading tutorials, attempting to figure out my own camera, etc. I just couldn't find a great way to capture a stairwell with no natural light! But anywho...

THE GALLERY!

Who knows if I'll be back with a blog post for the next two years. But I enjoyed this one ;-)

A good night

So, I've been sick for what seems like forever...nothing too major, but it's morphed into this horrible cough. Once I get going, it's tough to stop. So I told Henry tonight that I would play a little bit longer and then we had to do three short books because Mommy's throat hurt. We read our books and I prepared for departure...

Necessary cars in bed? Check.
Sippy cup of water? Check.
Pillow up on the side of the bed so we don't end up with an arm stuck through? Check.
Green alien nightlight? Check.
Tucked in tight? Check.

Generally after this, the best method is to tell him Mommy & Daddy love him and make a dash for the door. No lingering or we get lots of requests - more books, more water, snuggle please (that one is tough to resist!), etc.

So tonight I make the dash, I'm closing the door, trying to avoid any 'requests' and as I'm closing Henry yells "I LOVE YOU MOM!!!" :D He hasn't been one to spontaneously bust out the 'I love yous', so that pretty much made my night.

Picasso

Though I am no clean freak, I am certainly a clutter freak. Everything has it's place in my house (well, almost everything). So, it's only fitting that Henry's artwork now has a place too!

When I discovered these Artwork Display & Storage frames at Target I had to have them. Henry's artwork now hangs in the hallway, over the steps as you head to our basement. And when it's time for new art, they open magnetically, have space to store the art you take down, so it's a quick and easy process!

Toddler Pizza

I try my best to feed Henry a relatively healthy diet. But let's face it 2ish is not exactly a cooperative age. He knows enough that I can only trick him into eating healthy foods a bit. Personally, I have a little guy who will eat tons of cheese, most meat (well, toddler like meat such as nuggets (at least he will eat the Naked ones), turkey sausages, these chicken apple gouda sausages, and of course, fish sticks), tons of fruit, but vegetables? notsomuch.

Anywho, every toddler loves pizza and I've discovered this quickie 'pizza' I can make for him that makes me feel better than picking up a good ol' Hot N' Ready!

Ingredients:

One Arnold's 100% whole wheat Sandwich Thin

pasta sauce (I use Classico Florentine Spinach & Cheese - yay! he's eating a bit of spinach!)
One or two quick cook turkey meatballs
Italian shredded cheese

I just pop open the sandwich thin, spread on some pasta sauce, add some chopped bits of turkey meatball and then cover the whole thing with cheese. I usually set my oven to 350 degrees, but it's never done heating up by the time I'm done. I just pop it in while the oven is heating and it only takes about 5 mins. Just enough to get the cheese good and melty = happy toddler temperature ;-)

So, it's not rocket science, but HDog loves it and it's fast, which only adds to it's awesome factor!

A mix of things

Sorry, I realized I have been MIA blogger for the last two weeks. I have constructed the occasional post in my head, but have been busy with summer so it just hasn't happened. So, here I present to you, a completely random mix of things.

Very excited to see that iconic designer, Jonathan Adler, is being featured on Gilt Groupe on Wednesday of this week! Feel free to leave me a note or email me if by some odd chance you don't belong to Gilt and would like to. I'd be happy to send you the referral!

I read lots of other blogs and must share - I made this fabulous Watermelon Bombe as posted by Second City Soiree, only subbing raspberry sorbet for the watermelon, as I couldn't find watermelon. As for that subsitution: Appearance? A+. The darker red was so realistic! Taste? B-. I didn't care for the tangy mixed with creamy ice cream, but no one complained. I think I might try strawberry ice cream with added food coloring next time. Now I know I should have taken a picture as soon as we sliced into it. And yet I did not! Oops. Oh well. Here's picture of what remains :-) It looks a bit frosty, because we served it on Saturday night and then again on Sunday afternoon (yay for lots of visitors!). Really nice thing was that once I removed it from the bowl, all I had to do was wrap the whole hunk in press n' seal and toss it back in the freezer that way.

A bit of big (and completely unrelated) news, we have moved the HDog to a big boy bed! I did suck it up and purchase the PBK Riley bed I was eyeing and it really is the perfect fit for our space. His room did have to lose the gorgeous Land of Nod District 28 armoire ( Z was NOT PLEASED about taking it down to the basement since it weighs a ton!), but it was worth it. I will say, we had a laugh worthy episode where Henry broke out, but it's mostly been going well. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Oh and lastly, I should add that being the design freak that I am, I hemmed and hawed over his bedding. I refused to buy some crazy licensed Disney/PBS/whatever bedding. I wanted something that will grow with him and was so happy to find this Colorblock set at Target. I also went with the coordinating striped sheet set. The best thing about all of this? It includes Orange & Blue, so when Z inevitably convinces Henry that he needs an Illini room, I just might be able to add some accents and keep this bedding!

Why my parents rock: Part 2

So, while my Dad was measuring, cutting and hanging wood, my Mom and I were tending to things indoors. My mother is a fabulous seamstress and made curtains for at least one room in each of my sister & I's homes since college, crib bedding for one of my nephews, pillow covers for me, and even fabulous quilts for each of her four grandsons! Her talents runneth over. Seriously, I feel like I need to take some hardcore sewing lessons so that I can do these things for Henry someday. Though having a boy, do you think he'll be annoyed when I want to make matching drapes for his dorm room?

The big indoor project for my lovely mother? Drapes for our master bedroom. My beloved Pottery Barn Kylie Peacock duvet was transformed. You can see the before here, and the after...

And a little one to match over at the window by my desk...

A few other projects helped out by Mom's handy work...arranging the shelves in the living room:
We of course did a bit of shopping, hitting up the local garden center, Joann fabrics (to pick out the pergola fabric) and Mom was so excited to visit our new HomeGoods here in the city. HomeGoods just might be our mecca, inexpensive, unique home furnishings all packed in one store? Thankyouverymuch! Mom of course managed to pick up a few things for her own home there. The big win for me from our shopping? This gorgeous pair of lamps for the living room:

There were many other small projects, hanging pictures, etc. and of course they spent quality time playing with Henry, reading him books, helping with baths, the list could go on and on and on. We had such a fun weekend! I feel so very fortunate to have been blessed with such amazing parents!

Why my parents rock: Part 1

So, my lovely husband spends every Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of dudes in the back of a Ryder truck. All his college buddies make this pilgrimage to Indy 500 each year, keg wagon, Kaboom and Ryder truck in tow. I keep waiting for them to realize their bodies are too old to sleep on the floor of a moving truck, but so far the tradition continues...

So, HDog and I are left to fend for ourselves. We have visited my sister & her fam, my parents in Indiana, but this year, we convinced my parents to visit us.

My father, being an engineer and the son of a carpenter, is quite handy. And enjoys a project/challenge. Despite my best efforts to talk him out of it, he insisted not only in tearing down this monstrosity, but rebuilding a suitable replacement. So...here's the before (pardon the white lines, they are measurements I sent to Dad before he arrived):

The cheapos who flipped our house from a 3 flat to a SFH thought it a good plan to build the basic structure with good treated wood and then just put regular old painted lumber up top, along with the plastic lattice work. So basically the entire top layer was rotten. As in, it took my Dad less that 2 hours to tear the whole top off. It was a huge relief to get it down, as I feared falling in on us during a peaceful dinner some night!

After much discussion, we decided to just build a framework inside the existing structure. And so, in less than 72 hours with just a tiny bit of lifting help from me, my fabulous father took us from the scary thing pictured above, to this: Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but there was much measuring, cutting and hanging that went on to get us to this point (and a couple trips to the store and a rented truck to haul lumber!). Please imagine it sanded, painted and with beautiful drapes of fabric running through it! Seriously though, I've ordered this Waverly Yacht Club sunfabric:

It will run up and down in five lovely strips of fabric and then across the front, with a bit hanging down in front so we have shade as the sun sets in the west each evening. Also on it's way - this outdoor chandelier so we can enjoy dinners/parties on our patio. I might even put in a dimmer switch if I think we need it...

The light is a bit fussy for my taste, but turns out, it's kind of hard to find an outdoor light that isn't too simple, too ugly or TOO EXPENSIVE. So this is gonna have to work. Promise to post photos when it is all done!

In summary, my Dad rocks. He always does such cool things for us. I can only hope that I can be a fraction of the great parent to Henry that he has been to me.

Soon to follow, Part 2...my Mom!

*sigh*

We had a really, really nice weekend with my best friend and her family. Finally made a trip out to the Kohl's Children's Museum out in Glenview. It was so cute! I really wish they lived closer...

Awww....

I've been so busy with work and Junior League (placement started yesterday and I'm in charge!) that I didn't get a chance post a photo of the flowers my wonderful husband brought home with him on Thursday, JUST BECAUSE. Man it's gonna suck when he is staffed again (in a couple of weeks) and I have to go back to pseudo single parent again!

Big Boy Bed

Big Boy Bed time is rapidly approaching. I mention it to H every once in a while and the other day, out of the blue, he said "I want a big boy bed." So I'm on the hunt. I'd like to get a trundle bed set. And, Henry's room has this really cool slanted ceiling on the east side of the house, so when my mom spotted this Riley bed from Pottery Barn Kids I checked it out:

I measured yesterday and it's *perfect*. The width of the bed would fit perfectly between the window and the slanted ceiling spot, the back board piece isn't too tall and it has the required trundle. I'm a bit torn on the trundle, as it's expensive and isn't attached to the bed. I'm tempted to just get a simple metal trundle for much cheaper, but then I'll have to add some sort of fabric to hide it. That might be a pain. And of course the price tag, complements of PBK is painful!

Pajama Removal

This seems to be Henry's lastest phase. When I went in to get him up this morning (after much wailing and a way too early wake up), I arrived to find little man, PJs in hand, saying "wan put on! wan put on jammies!"

So, I'm getting ready to crash for the night (after I watch the news, like the old lady I've become), so I went in to check on him. Found my skinny little man all curled up, wearing only the white onesie from under those jammies. PJs were in a heap in his bed. So, I put a couple of extra blankets in his bed, covered him up and kicked the heat up a notch. Didn't figure it was worth waking the kid up to re-dress him!

Weekend recap

Well, it's official, I'm the mom of a two year old. How on earth did two years fly by SO FAST?

The "weekend" kicked off Thursday night with me writing Valentine's from Henry, individually wrapping small playdough pots into heart covered cellophane bags, and attaching the aforementioned Valentine's to the bags with curling ribbon (because I didn't want to use the red wire twist ties on gifts for toddlers). He received a whole bag full of Valentine's Day cards and candy. TONS of candy. Mind you his room at school has kids possibly as young as 15 months and it goes up to age three. Some of the crap that parents chose to send made me stabby. *Sigh* let the school years begin. On a nice note, my parents arrived Friday afternoon and were able to see Henry's school during our early afternoon pick-up. Of course it was Valentine's chaos, but it was still cool for them to see where Henry spends his weekdays.

Saturday was the big birthday. In the morning the guys took Henry to McDonald's playland (I was bummed that Prescott Playtime was closed for the holiday) to burn off some steam. While they were out, Mom and I took care of last minute odds & ends and balloons! Henry woke from his nap, thrilled find six regular balloons and one "NUMBER TWO!". We quickly realized that other gifts were probably unnecessary ;-) But we pressed on and Henry opened a staggering amount of loot from both sets of grandparents and his aunts, uncles and cousins.

Award for the noisiest gift: Parents My First Remote Control Car. Despite my attempts to hide it, he kept asking for it. For the record, I will remember this Aunt A & Uncle W!!!

As expected, Henry hopped directly on his Wheely Cow and took off. He immediately began pushing it, riding it and referring to it as his Wheely Cow. As long as your kiddo is sturdy on his/her feet, I'd highly recommend the Wheely ride-ons.

After the gift madness, we all sat down for delicious cake from Sweet Mandy B's - white frosting, white cake with blueberry filling since blueberries are H's favorite! And, to pay homage to Henry's favorite monkey, Curious George, the party did have a monkey theme. I did manage to avoid most of the tacky character "stuff", but gave in a little here and there. My best buy of the party though, where these awesome Monkey hats from Michaels! I'll spare their dignity here, but I have lovely photos of everyone wearing these puppies.
Now that my sis and her fam are in China, we had the cool opportunity to wish my nephew N a happy birthday since it was Feb. 14 here and already Feb. 15 there, he and Henry shared a birthday for a bit. So we all donned our monkey hats, Skyped away and sang Happy Birthday!

One last note for Henry's birthday weekend, between Christmas and now his birthday, the number of noisy, plastic, flashy things has increased. Rapidly. My orderly and anal nature forced me to buy furniture to hide some of this. Mom & I hit IKEA on Sunday and now our living room has this lovely number behind the couch, perfect for hiding the "stuff" I'd rather not look at when H is not around (bonus glimpse of the Wheely Cow in the corner)!!!

Mooooo!!!

I'm very excited, as this Wheely Cow is out for delivery with UPS today. It is gonna take a lot of will power to keep it from Henry until Feb 14!!! (even bigger bonus - I bought it "free" with amazon.com gc's we get as credit card rewards)!!

25

Days that is, since Henry started daycare, or "school" as we call it for his sake (and maybe a bit for ours too - it just feels better than saying daycare). This morning when I dropped him off, I removed his hat, hung up his coat, chatted with him a bit and then he took the teacher's hand and went off to see the babies. He likes to go see the babies in the morning (and no we won't be giving him a sibling any time soon thankyouverymuch!), so that is often the distraction used when I am leaving. This morning, he DID NOT CRY!!! I was so happy!

In other news, my treadmill walking is going well. I did take roughly a week off during the plague, but now I am back at it. Some nights I have to force myself, but so far I'm sticking to my 6 days a week. I know I chose wisely to start small and my back is already feeling a bit better. I kind of want to get a bosu ball because I think it would be great for my balance & core, but again, I better stick to my small goal for a month or two before I start adding on.

And one last random note, I think I might be slightly lactose intolerant. Without getting too gross, having digestive issues has always been pretty common for me, but not to an extent that it really bothered me. So, post-plague as I slowly returned to the land of normal eating, I of course went into for my usually non-fat chai tea latte. And it gave me a stomachache. And crazy bloating. So after two days like that, I switched to soy in my chai. Holy crap! What a difference. So, I think I'm jumping on the soy bandwagon.

Two

Henry is rapidly approaching two years old. Valentine's Day is the big day. He really is at a fun age and we feel very fortunate that he is such a big talker for his age (I didn't say much at all until I was nearly 3). He is very curious and I swear you can just see his little mind working as he examines things. He seems to know almost all his letters and can sing the beginning of the alphabet. He can count from 1 to 10, but won't do it if you ask, I only catch him doing so on his own! He can also count down, at least from 4 to 1, as he did so last night while pushing rubber duckies into the tub.

Now, all of those things are great fun and I really am enjoying him these days, but that being said, it's coming with a wicked stubborn independent streak. Two days ago I practically had a wrestling match (scary how strong a 2 year old is, or does that show that I am weak?! troubling.) with him to get his shirt on. He gets very mad when you remove his jammies, unless of course he is watching television while you do so. We are also having some strong words when there is food involved. I have tried giving him options and it works sometimes. But other times, it's like he isn't listening, or just doesn't care and he won't answer when I ask, "turkey dog or chicken nuggets"? (I know, I know, thrilling culinary choices!). So, I make a choice, sit him down and the table and we get screams and protest. I tell him to "use your words" and all I get are "NO CHICKEN NUGGETS!". Which I will say is a vast improvement from the "NO WANT IT" phase we went through, but still, not really the desired conversation a tired, stressed mom wants to be having.

I'm sure that this too will pass, but I'm gonna throw it out there, mom's who have been there, done that, what have you done to help encourage GOOD behavior from your kids regarding routine things like getting dressed, eating meals, etc? I've read 1-2-3 Magic and we are getting ready to lay down some house rules and some time outs. There is some info about timers and positive reinforcement charts, but I'm just wondering if 2 is too young? Any input welcome!

"I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight."

Well, not exactly, but things have been a bit rough around my household for the past week. Yep, stomach flu. And it totally and completely sucks. Luckily Henry's round one was literally just one round (cleaning out a puke soaked car seat may be the most disgusting thing I have ever done). But he has been left behind, stuffy nosed and with a hacking cough reminiscent of a pack a day smoker. Just when I thought we had survived without receiving the infectious plague, it struck both my husband and I, at nearly midnight on Sunday night. And to add insult to injury, HDog still had a fever on Monday, so we spent all day watching PBS cartoons, praying to the porcelain god and trying to negotiate who felt worse when H needed more attention.

The rest of 2009 better be golden after the shit storm of a start that I've had!!!

Two steps forward...

and now for the one back. After just three days back at daycare, Henry has the stomach flu. Lovely. Tossed his cookies, in the car seat, just one block from daycare this morning. Poor kiddo. Trying to remain positive, but puke patrol is NOT my idea of a good time. Fortunately there is no fever. Let's hope for a 24 hour quickie.

And I pray we don't all catch it.

I Wish

I wish my Christmas had been a bit merrier this year.
I wish I could spend even more time with my sister, her husband and my three nephews before they move to China in less than a month.
I wish Henry would sleep like a baby every single night and wake up happy as a clam each morning.
I wish that my house would magically stay clean.
I wish I had finished undecorating the Christmas tree yesterday.
I wish I had finally gotten my act together and eaten healthy throughout the holiday season.
I wish I had a hot chai latte sitting next to me right now.
I wish my basement had not flooded during the recent snow thaw.
I wish I could bottle the happiness I feel when spending time with my whole family at the holidays.
I wish I could always vividly remember the joy on Henry's face this Christmas.
I wish I could win the lottery.
I wish that my beautiful Granny will rest in peace, now that she has joined my GrandDad.
I wish that 2009 will be a wonderful year for all!

A *tiny* smile

I realized as I was compiling this post in my head, that I never really mentioned a big change in our household. As of December 1, H began attending daycare. We've been really, really fortunate for the past nearly 2 years - first with a wonderful nanny and then a subsequent, possibly even more wonderful nannyshare. It's been great having H at home with me working in our room, but when our fellow nannyshare family announced baby #2 (coming soon - good luck D family!), we decided it would be a good time to take the leap.

It's been a tough adjustment, both for H and for me. Drop off for the first week just might be my definition of hell. NO FUN to leave your child screaming, even though you know he is safe and will enjoy the new friends, toys and lessons in due time. And for me, I went from a house/work environment with a nanny & two noisy toddlers, to just me and our trusty French bulldog, Annie.

So... it's with great pleasure that I post this note. This morning when we arrived at daycare this sweet, older Filipino woman at the center answered the door. She isn't his teacher, she cooks the kid's meals and floats around the center helping out where she is needed. I forget what the kids call her (anyone know a Filipino term of endearment for an older aunt? that's how the director explained her "name" to me), but she peeked out the window, smiled at us and Henry SMILED BACK. It was a just a tiny grin and I swear he snatched it away when he saw me looking, almost a defiant, "What Mom? You think I like this place?" Seriously, it made my morning!

Safe!

Henry that is. Very safe. We had a little chat about helicopters this morning, as one was hovering overhead when we arrived at daycare (or "school" as we call it). I'm guessing there won't be any crazy activity in that neighborhood considering it's crawling with cops, FBI agents, etc. Yep. H's daycare is walking distance from good old G-Rod's house. Yes, the house he was arrested at yesterday morning at 6:15 a.m. Nice.

In case you live under a rock, I'm talking about the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday morning for a laundry list of reasons. I'm loving this quote I read this morning in The Red Eye by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald:

"But the most cynical behavior in all this, the most appalling, is the fact that Gov. Blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama," Fitzgerald said. "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

*sigh* What a disgusting mess.

In completely unrelated news, I must add that despite my crazy consumption of Candy Cane Jo-Jo's (f'ing Trader Joes!!!), I have been feeling pretty good. My back has mellowed a wee bit, so I've jumped on my new treadmill with full force. Did I mention I bought a treadmill? Can't remember, but yeah, I did. It's a small model, Smooth Fitness 4.25, made specifically for walking. I do jog a bit, but prefer to walk, and lets face it, with my geriatric hip/back that's all I can handle for now! So finally, instead of laying on the couch watching TV, I can walk and watch all the trashy TV I want :)