Flea Markets

I have been for ages trying to get over to The White Elephant Flea Market  , I was there about 5 years ago as it is very close to my in laws house.  So this am I ventured that way, about an hour and 15 minutes, to see if they had anything I could use.  I saw lots of stuff.  SOme stuff I would LOVE to have and other stuff that would be nice to have.

There were keys and tape measures and mercury glass.  I actually found corbels that will soon grace my kitchen (I just need to paint them).  I did not find the writing table for Sam or myself

but did see some awesome things.

I left there and went to the unfinished wood furniture store.  This is where I found a night stand (yay) and a writers desk.  The night stand is painted blue (Sam loves it) and the desk is unfinished (which I will paint blue).  We are so happy in our home and he has waited so long for these items. I can't wait to show you the room, it is coming together so nicely.  There were also many plants that I am actually looking forward to putting in my yard, yay.  I am very excited that I got such great finds even though they were not all from the market.  Stay tuned for pictures of my finished room.

Inspiration

My friend Mimi, over here

introduced me to Potager gardens.  I fell in love.  Now for the past two years I have been in my parents home and on the deck surrounding the pool had something like a potager garden (not really knowing what this was until Mimi showed me) in the yard.  It was basically a wall/planter.  Every year I have done planting for my parents, growing herbs (we had to move the mint over to a separate potager since it took over one whole area - but YUM MOJITOS!!), cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, beans and much more.  Maya wanted strawberries last year so we added a few.  They actually came up this year and a few more than we had last year.  There are even strawberries coming up now.

So, I have these ugly shrubs outside of my screened in porch.  I believe that is where I will put my potager. I am very excited. Thank you for such wonderful inspiration.

Wonderful Creations

I love waking up to my child telling me that he is hungry only to find out that once I get him said breakfast all he wants to do is play Wii.  So much for being hungry.

Now that I am up I may as well start blogging.  My friend over at My Sweet Savannah introduced me to her friend Lisa who has amazing works of art, found here 

They are truly amazing.  Thank you Melaine.  Such nice stuff to see this morning.

Zizette

Two new Faves

So, I have found two new faves, actually three.  You see on a monthly basis I got to pay my Bloomies bill in person. I cannot explain why but I do.   I don't know if it is some reason to enter the store or what but I go there.  Well, I always pass this wine store called Total Wine and I NEVER go in there, until a few weeks ago.  Well, first and foremost I am a wine lover.  My father has an amazing wine cellar in his basement and we lived there for the past two years.  So we have had our share of good wines.  He is also very friendly with Lydia's son Joe and I got a case of Bastianich wine (I hope I spelled that right) for my birthday from my dad.

Anyway, I went in a few weeks ago and I got my wine Chateau St Michelle Reisling for $8 - UNHEARD of!!  It usually pay $12 by my house.  So of course I had to buy a few bottles (and I only went in to buy 1 bottle), okay so I bought 2 and then they had my next favorite  Kendall Jackson Reisling (what can I say I am on a Reisling kick) for $10.  That seems right in line with about 5 years ago since that is when I tried the wine out in Napa and that is what I paid at the Winery itself.

Somehow the man in the store convinced me to buy some other wines, some I liked some I did not.  The Petals I like and today it was on sale for $7.99 - JACKPOT!!!  So I got a few.  Then I continued to browse the store and found this Double Dog Dare wine, it was $3.99 a bottle and the store rated it as it's #2 Chardonnay.  Hey what the heck, I figured why not get it.  

So, Friday night is Pizza night and wine.  The kids (her 4 and my 2) have a massive play date (2 of her kids are my kids' best friends) enjoy some playing and pizza and we enjoy wine and gossip.  We tried the Double Dog Dare - pretty good.  So we might have a new Friday night wine.  I do believe the Petals wine is from Washington - does anyone know of it?  Have a lovely night.

How awesome are these letters?  I found them here and these too

all in my search for stuff for my son's surfer themed room.  I really wanted to have our home to have a beach inspired/cottage feel to it. It does not completely have it.  However, the upstairs of our home does have that feel.  I think I will change the bedding in our room soon (within the next 6 months) to make it more cottagey/beachy.  I am working on it.  My son's room definitely has the feel and my guest room/playroom is on it's way as well.  It will only be the Princess' room that will stick out but that post is for another day and more work.  We will get there...

Beautiful Murals

A view of the lake from the patio

We spent a lovely day on the Lake in CT.  My in laws have a beautiful home in Northwest CT and my mother in law has done a wonderful job with her addition.  She made it to look authentic.  Here are some pictures of the mural in her breakfast room of what the lake look liked back in the day.

The other side of the lake

The house in the top left corner is supposed to be my in laws house back in the day

Hopefully I can decorate my home like she does some day.  I even did some antiquing and found nothing :(

Ahh, another day.

We heart America

Today my precious one walked in her first parade.  Her Daisy Troop did a fabulous job and I am so proud of all the little ladies.  My little one is the one giggling in the center.

Here she is just resting on the lawn in the center of town after the parade.  I was absolutely amazed at the amount of people who attend the parade.  I am proud of her and our country.

Have a lovely day.

Yard Work

How lovely it would be to have a gorgeous yard like this

I would so love for my yard to look like this one day.  It doesn't right now but with a little work, well a lot of work hopefully it will get there.  Dear hubby is out there right now working on our lawn.

Gardening

I really have to get in gear and do some gardening.  I have about 5-7 massive trees/bushes in my backyard.  Everyone kept saying to us, "Oh you have beautiful rhododendrons back there.  What do I know.  I just see these big green bushes.  They started having these cone like bulbs on them,  Today I see purple coming out of them and I even saw one fully in bloom ( I couldn't get up that high though). I did take pictures of various stages though.

I have to get rid of some other bushes in my yard, we will have to do some yard work.  Lots of yard work.

Keeping Busy

I have been super motivated to be crafty.  Some in part to my general crafty nature and part to the wonderful inspiring ladies I have been following through blogging.  In the past few weeks I have embellished clothing, made magnets and started treasure hunting for new projects I have in mind.  

I know I will have some time during my summer break as I work in a Day Camp and run a department called The Design Center.  I am so excited for this summer.  Last summer was my first, so I ordered all my projects late in the game.  This year, I had time to plan things out.  See crafts from all over and see what I could do with the girls that come to me (girls after all are the only ones who want to attend an activity called The Design Center).

Every project I do is based on photos.  The girls go out and take pictures with a few digital cameras and then do a project based on that photo or photos.  We have done canvas bags, scrapbooks, memory boxes, etc.  This year I am able to incorporate some paperweights, magnets, canvas bags, other types of decoupage frames and boxes so I am very excited.  I have always felt that I wanted the kids to bring home something meaningful and not "crap."  Last year I did charm bracelets so this year I tried to get lots of good beads and such to incorporate into funky frames, boxes and whatever else may suit my fancy.

I decided to originally go back to working at camp to divert the cost of sending my kids there and because I loved going to this camp myself.  I always told myself anytime I felt like i hated it or it wasn't for me I would not come back for a second year.  Well, obviously I enjoyed it and I am going back.  I am very excited for this and I am looking forward to it.

I'll keep you posted and maybe someday I will open my own Etsy shop.  I have too many ideas and I just have to start doing them.

My Wisconsin Finds

Lots of little pictures of the Eiffel Tower

A large poster, antique looking of the Tower

An antique Map of France

These are called wrap wall paper, whatever that is.  It has a good consistency, stay tuned for what I plan to do with them.

I found these lovely papers in a great shop in Wisconsin on State Street.  I will have to keep the number handy just in case what I have in mind for them actually works.  Here they are:

Home Sweet Home

My lovely Family on Lake Mendota

I know I am going backwards here but to be home in my own bed, there is nothing like it.  We went away as a family to Wisconsin to see my baby brother graduate.  It was Grandma, Poppy (my dad), Mom, Hubby, the 2 kids and myself.  We had an awesome time.  For probably the first time ever we were super on time for the flight leaving for Wisconsin only to find out it was delayed by 2 hours.  The airline worker could not grasp that we had to leave on Friday even though he was very persistent to try to get us to change our flight to leave the next day.  We held out and waited and finally left 2 hours later.We drove from Milwaukee to Madison, not so bad.  The kids slept all the way there - ahh peace and quiet even though they were amazing on the flight.  We got to the hotel and settled in.  We stayed at the beautiful Hilton on Lake Menona.  Had a lovely dinner that grandma decided to stay home from to sleep. Actually it was lovely until t

he waitress spilled ICE COLD WATER in my LAP!  Not so bad and then we settle d in for the night. Again, the children were real troopers.

Sam looking Fierce

Me and the Children at the Roof Top Garden

The next day we went to the roof top gardens overlooking Lake Menona.  Gorgeous.  Saw

 Heath graduate and walked down the famous State Street.  Found and awesome little stor

e called Little Luxuries (I went back the next day to get some goodies).

The new Graduate and his favorite fans

There was a mix up on the dinner arrangements and we had a very late dinner reservation to which my mom did not think was good.  My brilliant brother came up with the idea of getting the kids room service and we rotate or something so one of us (me and my hubby) could have dinner and watch the kids.  BUT grandma offered to babysit the kids (she would not have lasted through dinner that late).  So the kids got room service which they have declared their new favorite thing and rented BOLT. YEAH!!!  SO we had a lovely dinner with my brother and parents while the kiddies watched a movie with their great grandma.

My baby doing her POSE

Today we went back to State Street bought the goodies, went to the University of Wisconsin's Student Union - absolutely breathtaking on the water and came home.  A lovely family trip.

I Love Cooking and Baking

I cannot wait for breakfast tomorrow morning

As you can see they really liked the quiche

This evening I asked my son what he wanted for dinner.  Now usually on a Tuesday night we have Tacos, hence the phrase Tuesday Tacos Day.  Today I did not have any chop meat so I took a gamble, well, my boy wanted quiche.  A bacon and cheesy quiche.  No problem.  My children were not picky eaters, then they started to be picky eaters.  They would, if I allowed it, survive on cheese sandwiches (Sam) and chicken and noodles (Maya).  I started to create interest in different foods by 1. offering up a quarter and 2. having them participate in food preparation.  They loved making the quiche and now they love eating it.  In fact my son now wants me to make the actual pie crust.  I told him that has to be another day that I am not working, maybe over the summer.  This works well for as my husband is a Graduate of the CIA - Culinary Institute of America - THE place to learn to be a chef.  SO he is always on hand to tell us what to do or new ideas.

After the quiche idea I was inspired to make a banana chocolate chip loaf.  I bought a slice at Starbucks today and I love it but why pay for it if I have all the ingredients at home?  SO I made it tonight and will enjoy it tomorrow morning with my coffee, you know that first cup of the day, the first cup out of the fresh pot, that one.  My husband said to me the other day that no cup is as good as the first cup and he's right (dare I say it and dare he find out I said it).  I agree with him BUT I also feel that you cannot refill a cup until you have completely finished the first cup, it ruins it.  I never allow a diner or restaurant refill my cup until I am done, I like my coffee from start to finish.

So I got to do some of my favorite things today like cooking and baking, I love the smell of the house when I do these things (PS I also did my other favorite - shopping).  I had received a gift card and I got myself some new shoes (lots of happy smiles here).  I got some nice Via Spiga sandals for next to nothing and some flip flops I would have never bought if it weren't for the gift card (so it wasn't like I  was buying the flip flops someone else was).

There were only 3 pairs left in the whole store

So overall I had a pretty good day and look forward to another one tomorrow.

Baby You're a Star

Yes, My baby girl is a star.  In the past two days I have seen her dress rehearsal for her recital (which we are missing to be at my brother's graduation from the University of Wisconsin) and her fabulous Kindergarten concert.  She loves to entertain. She loves to sing and I have to say, not just because I am her mother, that she has a fabulous voice.  I will allow her to do her activities as long as she wants.  I try not to be a "stage mom" and allow her to be who she wants to be - hard since she is just 5 1/2.  But I love my baby and her dreams are my dreams.

Giveaways

The Lettered Cottage is having a wonderful giveaway. All you have to do is go to her site and this post to enter.  She is offering up one of her wonderful quote jars and one of her Good Jars. They are so sweet and inspiring.

I am starting to get the hang of this Giveaway thing, I think.

Live Life Joyfully

I would love to have this saying as my new motto and I am going to try to live my life like this.  I spent the day at my sister in law's house for Mothers Day.  She had this sign on her new installed counter (in the end phase of a huge kitchen remodel/addition).  She won this sign at the Relay for Life.  It is so amazing and I love it.  If I can't find one I will be making one.  She also showed me some amazing fabrics from a store in her town and I fell in love with a few.  When I come from from Wisconsin I will go to her for the day and get some fabric and redo the cushions on two chairs in our living room.  I am very excited and she is awesome at coordinating fabrics.

So, back to my new motto, I have already started living this way because...

I have these two beauties that bring joy to me every day.  So just try to, Live Life Joyfully.

Happy Mothers Day

To all of those wonderful mothers out there:

Have a Happy Mothers Day

I hope you enjoy the day either with your mother, as a mother, thinking about your mothers in some way or another.  Have a lovely Day.

Zizette

New Couch, Yipppeee!

So, for 11 years I have had the same couch.  A very simple couch I got when I bought my first place, fast forward 11 years and it has seen: a cat, a new man (later to be my husband), 2 children, countless parties, countless houseguests (it is a sofabed after all), many a night with me sleeping with my newborn son (5 months to be exact), 2 years in storage and a new house.  WOW!  Finally we got a new couch today.  I hope this one lasts me just the same and gives me the same durability that ole bessie did.  She is actually in our living room (since there's no furniture in there).  The couch is very nice BUT it has me wanting to do more now (tomorrow I am heading to the White Elephant Flea Market in New Milford, CT).  I have a few ideas for things that I want to get from there *hopefully* and it is on the way to my MIL's house.  

After the delivery men came and gave me my new couch, that I really like, I got Sam his hair cut.  Now he wants long hair and it was looking too scraggly.  So our friend Bari the hairdresser fixed him up good.  We also went to Lowes to show daddy the counter I want put in in the kitchen to give us more space.  He said it looks good and to just make sure that we can do the six foot counter if not then we will do the 4 foot counter.  I am very excited.  I wanted to put the pictures up of the couch but wanted to wait until I could take a picture in the daylight.  I also headed over to Home Goods and found lots of goodies for Sam's room.  He has a surfer theme and I have had a little difficulty finding stuff that I like.  Last week I found a surfboard shelf on Ebay from Mikes Shelves and it is going to look amazing in the room.  Sam was very happy wen we came home with goodies for his room.  Maya on the other hand was upset we didn't find anything for her.  I told her some days I can find things for her, or him, or both or no one.  It's just the way shopping goes.  I did also see at Home goods boxes just like Layla has in her kitchen with the hooks.  Pretty cool, they said the names of the herbs and had those big hooks on them.  I like them but need to find a place for them before I get them.  I'll just keep on plugging away at my designing.

State of Panic

I have actually never been apart from my children for more than 24 hours, weird huh?  I am sort of insane in that sense.  Either that or I am just such a control freak that I can't be apart from them in the slightest bit of fear that they are not being cared for the way I would or something would happen and I would not be there for my children.  The sad thing is, my husband, their dad will be caring for them.  I am crazy... or do I just love my kids so much I can't be without them?  I do long to go away for a weekend with my hubby but I will miss my kids.  Is that normal?  I also know my kids will miss me.  My sweet little girl wants a picture of me to keep with her because she will miss me.

I will miss my kids very much and of course my husband.  It is truly amazing how we feel about our kids.  There are days, and they are many, that these two creations of mine drive me NuTs!  But I love them more than anything.  I am afraid I might miss something?  Afraid they will miss me?  I have no idea.  I think it is the pure fact that something might happen to any of us and I won't be here for them.  That scares the *crap* out of me.  So I will go on my trip, miss my kids and come back to the love.  I'll survive, they will survive and I am not so sure how and if my husband will survive.

1st Time Contestant

Layla has a wonderful contest going on over at The Lettered Cottage from the fabulous Grace of Coastline

A fabulous runner that is personalized just for you or maybe that someone special.

check this out: http://theletteredcottage.blogspot.com/2009/05/coastline-contest.html

and this: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7044601

Enjoy and good Luck!

Now I love my job, or at least my second job.  Too bad it took me so long to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Back in the day I was young, working in the city and making decent money for a young girl.  Who knew or thought what life would be like when I was 26.  Hey I love my life, most days and this is basically the final piece in the puzzle.  I love working with the students I have and have recently been approved to further my training in a vital aspect of what I do and today I found out I passed a crucial test in my licensing. YAY Me!!  

Now from reading all of these fabulous blogs I have the decorating bug, creative bug and the inspiration bug.  I bought a couch yesterday that will hopefully get delivered on Saturday - Thank you to Layla for some of her design inspiration.  I need to return the shade I bought since it says 31 inches and it is not even 30 inches.  Then once the couch comes in I will take the pillow and coordinate my curtain.  I am so inspired by these lovely women that I am doing what I love both at home and at work.  This is giving me a sense of inner piece.  I guess that is why I invited friends  over last night for family dinner (6 adults and 7 kids).  I made my famous lasagna and chicken cutlet parm.  It was really nice to have good company and good food on a rainy Sunday night.  Maybe now I will start to entertain more, thanks ladies.

Lovely Saturday

This day started off with the usual dance and then rush to Sam's baseball game.  We all came home to do some yard work; raking leaves, trimming hedges, picking up sticks, etc. So my husband tells me what I am going to do - is he on drugs? Doesn't he know it's me that tells him what to do not the other way around?  So I play his game for a little but obviously he doesn't have a plan that figures into my way of doing things so i say I want to go to Nyack (antiquing) and he says fine, take the kids.  I gather my children and we head over to Nyack.  Now I did find some wonderful items in Christopher's Warehouse but they were way beyond my budget.  Then we looked all around Nyack, perusing all the sweet stores. Found something that might have fit what I was looking for but decided not to.

I did see a wonderful flower shop but a quaint little roaring brook/stream with little waterfalls and such. They had these beautiful Sunflowers outside, so we stopped in.  Now I am not at all partial to sunflowers or daisy type flowers but these just appeared to call my name.  So we stopped in and bought them and some tulips. The lovely shop owner gave Maya a white rose, she loved it but then Sam said, "what do I get?"  Which was right, how could you give one child something and not the other? So she gave him a Lily.  Very cute and they were very grateful for it.

On the way home my dearest called to say he cut the cord on the hedge trimmer and needed me to stop at Home Depot to get a replacement. I did and they spent a few minutes looking around - Big Mistake since I found more projects to do.  So I bought a shade for our family room that I had contemplated before and saw on Layla's site and decided it would probably work just fine.  So I bought it.  I will figure a coordinating curtain when I order a couch *tomorrow* and then we will be semi set for the big things.

Look what I made

My little model showing off her new clothes that mommy made so special for her.  I have spent countless dollars on cute outfits that I could easily make for my special girl, Maya.  She was so happy that I did this for her.  She watched me do it and offered her expert advice on design (I did have to explain things just don't go together - because of mommy's quirkiness and some things JUST DON'T go together).  Anyway, I had such a blast doing it. Now I just have to find an affordable shirt, lagging and capri to do more.  My sister told me my niece would love one too, then she and Maya would match.  I have also had an idea for a dress that I saw in a boutique a long while ago and thing it would be really cool.  Now I have to get a sewing machine.  Lots to do today...

Visits with Friends

I love them. My friend has been rendered car-less for a few months and has not been able to come over as she has in the past.  We have always enjoyed friday night cocktail night since back in that day from working with each other.  She finally has her car back and came over this evening.  We had our usual of wine and then broke out the hard stuff of Tequila and Limeade (nice alternative to Margaritas and a tribute to Cinco De Mayo festivities).  It was great to sit back and chat with my girlfriend, made me feel so adult.  The kids hung out and chatted with Rebecca and it was like old times.  We got some pizza and ate it out on my screened in porch (another first in the new house).  Which leads me to decorating the screened in porch. I decided to put up string light in my rafters to add a nice little ambiance in the evenings since I plan on spending many a summer evening out there.  This weekend we will head over to the new Lowes that opened yesterday and buy a ceiling fan for the room too.  I would love to paint the inside of the porch but everyone says leave it the beautiful cedar that it is.  I am not sure about that one.  So many projects and I don't know where to begin.  See a post about friends leads me to decorating my porch. In any case I love having visitors and it was great to see my friend this evening.