on being a power drill weenie

So my man has been gone for a month. (Not deployed. Just in training.)

In Army life, that isn't too big of a deal. But still. It's a deal. 'Specially when you're cooking a small human inside your tummy and you have two other small humans outside your tummy to look after.

After a month by my onesie, I am so happy to tell you that 1) he's coming home, and 2) I ain't afraid of no stinking power drill no more. I decided that it was time to quit being such a weenie about drills, hammers, anchors, nails, screws, and other previously intimidating-to-me "manly" objects. and really? It's empowering to wield a power drill with a big mean bit on it with a big ole pregnant belly, to boot. 'Specially when I'm out with my belly in front of my house on a ladder drilling holes into the front of my house. Makes people drive by reeeeal slow.

Anyway, my point is, I drilled holes in a bunch of crap this month. Like my walls. Which is really not all that exciting. 

Except that it is.

My first attempt using anchors. I'm dumbfounded that it's still on the wall. Like, securely.

Ta-da! music box with wheels.

I found the most awesome vintage hook to use as a curtain holdback. Print from Graphic Anthology.

Sexy glasses, eh? This is a funny picture because my man is not short. He's 5'9. His commander is just ha-yuge.

Welcome home, love. I missed you. You can have your drill back now.

hitting the barf bucket

i don't know whether it's sadder to watch a 2 year-old barf who doesn't know how to barf {it's messy, see} or to have her decked out on the couch like this for a whole day and not want to move. barf bucket close at hand {i knew we saved that joint compound bucket for a good reason}.

killing me. but i won't deny enjoying the unlimited snuggle time.

lizzy had it first. then maren got it. and mama was not spared, nopeity-nope. so not fun.

and then the neighbor kid got it from us, for which i feel like a worm of a human being.

but at least the 3 of us all did our puking at different times, which was a blessing. 

all 3 of us puking simultaneously would have been a nightmare.

on the bright side, it was super short-lived. we slept it off. and slept. and slept some more.

AND i got my curtains up. yeah, color!

choosing minty paint

Since we bought this house, I've become a huge believer in paint samples.

Lots of them.

lots. of. them.

So many that the guy at the hardware store laughs when you walk in the door. Ah-gain.

Picking a minty color isn't anywhere near as trying as gray was, but I'm still glad I laid down the $20 to figure out which color I really love most {'cause, it turns out, the color I would have bought if I hadn't done any samples turned out to be my very least favorite of them all, ahem cremedemint}.

The colors are all a little wonky with the lighting when I took that picture, but you get it. Peridot has just the right balance of whu-bam and ahhh. Figuring out the right color makes me feel much more motivated to get in the bathroom and patch up the walls so I can paint!

{sea glass by glidden. marina bay + creme de mint by benjamin moore. peridot, spring stream, + herbal mist by behr. see my bathroom inspiration gallery here.}

giveaway: shabby apple $50 gift card

I've got a special treat for you today...

Shabby Apple is generously offering one lovely reader a $50 gift certificate to their online store!

I love SA's dress designs {modest is hottest} and their photography/styling has been to die for lately {mad hatter, anyone?}.

Know what I'd want if I were the lucky winner?

alice

el dorado

high marks

honey bee necklace

light as a feather

Decisions, decisions.

To enter, you need to do TWO THINGS.

1. Like Shabby Apple on Facebook.

2. Leave a comment, any comment. Make me smile!

You need to do BOTH THINGS to enter.

I'll randomly select a winner this Thursday, March 29, so you've got until then.

Good luck + happy shopping!

This giveaway is closed + the winner has been notified. 

man cub

I'll spare you the baby private parts picture, but believe me when I say that this kiddo is most definitely a man child. Richard is stoked, I am excited/bewildered, and the girls seem confused {a what now?}. I told R that we could always dress the baby in pink to save on a whole new baby wardrobe, but that idea got categorically vetoed. 

Oh yes, this is going to be my man's-man man-child. {got all that?}

4 almost 5

loves: dress-up, nail polish, caterpillars, coloring, bikes, learning time, friends {i.e. assaulting random 10 year-olds on the playground}, cutting sister's hair, gumbo, curious george, making faces, making fashion statements, making cookies, chasing the cat.

she keeps life spicy around here.

love you, chicken pie.

at home

my neighbor brought over a 1 week old boxer named alice. eeeeeeee

i love opening the fridge and seeing all kinds of homemade deliciousness in jars.

{don't go thinking i'm all high and mighty, let's notice the reddi whip in the back}

our first sticker chart, and it works! for now.

hello, spring, we've been waiting.

happy {belated} first day of spring

Look who snuck out for some squirrel hunting on the first day of Spring. Crazy cat! All of us, 2-footed and 4, are so in love with this weather. We have been hanging clothes outside {little helpers who are close to the ground are a big help to this big-bellied mama}, playing croquet, taking sunshine naps, and having lots and lots of picnics. All this vitamin D is making me so very happy. How about you? Did you celebrate the first day of spring?

unauthorized sibling haircut no. 1

Last week when my dad was here, I went to a Relief Society dinner. Dad was super sweet to babysit and even put the girls to bed while I was gone. Halfway through the dinner, someone was speaking up front when I got a text from my dad. Thinking it was probably important, I read it, and halfway through reading it, my jaw fell on the floor. 

"Are you ok?" my friend Becky whispered.

I mimicked scissors with my fingers. "Lizzy," I mouthed. "Maren."

Honestly, it would have happened no matter who was looking after the girls. 

When I told my husband he laughed and laughed.

Poor Maren still has no idea that her hair is so much shorter. She is/was incredibly vain about her long hair, for a 2 year-old. Lizzy said something at breakfast the next day about Maren having short hair now, and Maren screamed at her, "NO! I don't have SHORT HAIR. I have LONG HAIR!"

Oh dear.

Oddly, Lizzy did a pretty good job. I think I even like the new 'do better.

cement gray + my dad rocks the house

My dad rocks, friends.  r o c k s.

Not only did he fly across the country solely to paint my house,

not only did he babysit at least 3 times,

not only did he take us to dinner and buy us {me} Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy, shoo me upstairs for a nap every day for a week, do the dishes, take the girls to the park, go half blind by painting the china cabinets semi-gloss YELLOW {no really, Benjamin Moore Yellow. just yellow}, manage the disaster of our very first Unauthorized Sibling Haircut without losing his mind {more on that later, too}... 

he's just so rad. So totally rad.

And I love him.

Thanks, Dad. Mwah.

The walls are Cement Gray with Dove White trim, both Benjamin Moore. I went through a laughable number of gray paint samples. Stonington. Abalone. Dolphin Fin. Ashes. Porpoise. Barren Plain. I was torn about spending so much on paint (Ben is not cheap), but it covers so well, which we really needed on these walls. I would have ended up spending just as much on extra paint for a second coat if I'd picked a lesser quality paint. Cement Gray is so lovely. Not too brown, not too blue, no funky pink overtones, just calm and cool and lovely. I'm so excited to get curtains and artwork up.

the gray has landed

Since December, we have gone from hanging sheet rock...

to taping and mudding (goodbye, gorgeous retro wallpaper)...

to talking my dad into flying to NY to paint for me...

to some lick-the-walls gray gorgeousness.

More pics tomorrow. 

wanted: clean historical fiction

>>>

I asked my bookworm peeps on Facebook a few weeks ago for CLEAN historical fiction recommendations. I love me a good story, but I think it's getting really hard to find fiction that isn't stuffed full of gratuitous hanky panky. Tell you what, I got me a giant reading list now. Some books I've loved lately (all are linked to Amazon):

A Morbid Taste for Bones

Pope Joan

The Thirteenth Tale

and

Vienna Prelude

Right now I'm working on Garlic and Sapphires for book club and am totally swallowing it whole.

Another friend just recommended Signora daVinci and it looks tasty.

PB&H Breakfast Wrap with Yogurt, Granola, & Bananas

This may fall squarely into the realm of Weird Foods I Loved Growing Up, but I don't care, because I remembered this wrap today, made one, and it was so insanely good that I had to share it. I got the recipe from a sandwich cookbook, can't remember the name of it. I worked at a bookstore in high school and loved to sneak on-the-clock reads in the cookbook section. This wrap makes an equally awesome breakfast or mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

It's simple, it's healthy, it's filling, and it's really, really tasty. 

I even made homemade granola AND homemade yogurt this week, can't get much better than that

 {except maybe harvesting your own honey?? hmm}.

PB&H Breakfast Wrap with Yogurt, Granola, & Bananas
serves 1

1 flour tortilla
Peanut butter
1/2 banana, sliced
Plain yogurt, about 1/4 cup
Granola, about 1/4 cup
Honey

Smear peanut butter on the tortilla. Distribute banana slices over the middle third of the tortilla. Top with yogurt, granola, and a generous drizzle of honey. Wrap that baby tight and nosh it up.

little happinesses.

:: popcorn :: requested often by all. with butter. lots of.

:: very orange :: fabric arrived this week for dining room curtains

:: singing :: happy birthday with the girls to my mom on the phone (60!)

:: sunshine :: making more and more frequent appearances

:: board games :: these little ones are taking a sudden shine to

:: park deliciousness :: went twice today for bike riding, mud slinging, and pretend gardening

:: vintage hankies :: making curtains soon, inspiration here

:: olive leaf :: soap. completely unexpectedly luxuriously delicious.

:: sunshine :: did i already say that?

good / bad

bad. stepped in {clean} toilet at 11 pm last night.

good. slipper dry after sitting on the heating vent all night.
bad. this is the same slipper with which i stepped on the primer can lid and tracked primer all over the floor.

good. rocking my goals {thanks for the encouragement!}.

good. snacking so much healthier lately + the girls love taking "lunch boxes" in the car.
bad. deny my children sweets but then stuff myself with sweets the second they've gone to bed.
or the second their backs are turned.
good. me and my rad sis in law Amber are totally on the same page about this.

good. discovered an {{uh-may-zing}} tower of safety-orange metal shelves in the basement.

bad. shelves are covered in rust. attempting to fix. the cat is supportive.

bad. splashed self in the face with lemon/borax mixture immediately after thinking how terrible it would be to splash oneself in the face with lemon/borax mixture. 

good. I suddenly realized how totally chic this pipe/hand rail is that goes down to the basement.
we are totally rocking the vintage-modern industrial vibe.

good. haircut and target run tomorrow, in which I will undoubtedly fulfill this recurring prophecy.
good. mint nail polish. revlon minted.

good. had the best library day.
good. but also kind of sad. random man in checkout line asked, "are you really going to read all of those books to your children?" then told me how jealous he was because his mom never read to him.
it was a weird moment of mixed sadness/go-me.
good. THE BASEBOARDS ARE ON! see them? see them??
good. have finally picked a gray paint color. can't remember the name right now. i have lost track of how many samples i've gone through. ask me for synonyms for "gray" and you'll get an earful.
good. happy almost-weekend!