a lesson

in patience. i finally made a new curtain panel for the front door. david has been asking me to do this for more than six years. we actually had a serious discussion about it around christmas time. he was on a mission to fix the little things around the house that were making him crazy. we looked at fabric online. i had some favorites, but nothing that i loved. some more procrastination on my part. then last week i was browsing around on reprodepot and it just slapped me in the face. the fabric i couldnt live without in my house. i ordered it, it came on thursday and friday i got on it. slowly and carefully of course. because i figure after waiting six years for the perfect fabric, i needed to get it right people. and be neat about it. so i ironed, and i cut ever so slowly. and then i ironed some more. and then i got out my little slide ruler thing and measured my 1/4 inch hem ever so carefully. and then i measured some more, and ironed. and pinned and pinned and pinned... well you get the picture. i really took my time with it to make it look good. then i hung it. and honestly people, i wanted to cry. uh, not because it was so good, but because somewhere along the line it was two inches too long at the bottom. so my taught, clean, nice, neat panel was sagging at the bottom like a fat man in swishy pants. crap. i gathered my wits, said a little prayer for patience and took the whole thing down. ever so carefully (are you getting a sense of the lesson i am trying to teach myself yet?) i removed every stitch of the bottom hem, cut off the offending sag, ironed again, pressed my seams, ironed some more, pinned some more and then went back to the machine. dragged the chair over to the door, took down the bars, put the panel back up, screwed all the hardware back in and damn, it looks good. thats right. it is awesome. the loveliest little old rectangle i ever did sew. i cleaned up my mess, put away the machine, gave the kids a snack and then waited for david to get home. you know, for the test. would he notice? would he like it? and guess what!? i passed!!! he noticed right away! of course he did, what detail doesnt he notice? duh. but he loves it! i love it! the double gauze is perfect, we still get tons of sun coming in, uh, when there is sun. and yellow?? balloons?? birds??? seriously. its like a dream come true. it just makes the room look so much better. i catch myself just standing there with a dumb smile on my face. and i love it. yeah, sure, in a few months it will fade into the background, but i will still love it. so there. lesson learned.

i like what i like

i don't claim to know much about fashion, but i know what i like. i like color. bright colors. primary colors. don't get me wrong, i try to avoid looking like bozo the clown, but yellow sandals to jazz up a tshirt and jeans? yes please. so of course, this season bold colors seem to be in and i am so happy. those green flats from jcrew? they are giving me fits. fits i tell you. i look at them everyday online. maybe i will treat myself for my birthday, or collette's birthday, it comes sooner. someone emailed me once about my shoes, asking what in the world i wear them with. i think that is the problem, people get caught up trying to make it match somehow, but really, just throwing on a bright scarf or a pair of green flip flops just works. because lets face it, as much as we all love clothes and fashion and looking at pictures of beautiful people in amazing outfits, we wear jeans and tshirts everyday. and let me tell you, any color goes with jeans and tshirts. i promise. and you know what else? those bright sandals, or that yellow bag, or that red scarf, put it on and it will make you smile. i promise that too.

*i just found this link and i love it! put color in your house if you cant put it in your wardrobe, it will still make you smile.

two is a big number

happy birthday sweet arlo! i really just cant believe it, my baby is two years old!!! it amazes me that without fail, you have smiles to give to someone. and lucky lucky me, i get the lion's share. you are so happy and full of life, that i feel like my fears were completely pointless. and here we are, poised on the tail end of babyhood, thought you will always always be my baby. the highchair made its way to some people in need. we took down the crib yesterday, after being up six and a half years straight! oh man. probably one of the biggest "i.wouldda.never.guessed" of my life. and now, in its place, the big girl bed, which is so ironic since your tiny body takes up maybe one third of the whole thing. you barely clear the pillow! arlo, you look so freaking cute in that bed that i just wanted to stand there in the dark and stare at you all night. i didnt, sorry love, but i sure wanted to. i have to admit that a teensy weensy part of my heart is sad to see these baby things go. i wont be sad when we are finally done with diapers. not at all. but for some reason that crib being gone, it kinda hurts. but in a good way. because there is so much more to come. so my love, let's begin!

the baby blues

apparently you can have the flu with no cold symptoms. poor sweet arlo has had a fever since friday. we finally went into urgent care yesterday and six hours later emerged with a diagnosis. flu. ugh. i am just waiting for it to smite the rest of the house. see you all again sometime in march... uh, hopefully not. right?

100 days::100 flags

today is eliot's 100th day of kindergarten! dont worry, i only know this because his teacher planned a celebration, not like i am keeping track or anything. yeah right. the kids had to come up with a project involving 100 in some way. after much deliberation of fantastical (and totally not doable) ideas, eliot finally settled on 100 flags inspired by the set meg sent us that are up in his room. it was really not that bad at all. i picked up some inexpensive quilting cotton in five colors and cut it up with my rotary cutter. four by six inches if you were wondering. i didnt wash it, and i barely ironed it. the key, however, to this project is the serger. just a straight up chain of serged thread. which means of course, that i finally had to face the serger that i got from jenny. im not going to lie, there was blood involved. and cursing. and calling jenny. and flashlights (it doesnt have a light over the needle like a sewing machine!!? what??). and that was all before i even put a single piece of fabric through the thing. then there was a little bit of yelling, and lots of consulting the manual. hmmm. but anyway, yes, i finally figured it out and then it was easy. we actually had this whole family assembly line, sweat shop thing going. it was great. eliot was in charge of green, blue and red, collette manned the orange and david and arlo were all over the yellow. i was braving the machine of course. maybe what i should do is teach david to sew. now that is a brilliant idea. he has way more patience than i do. i could do all the cutting and organizing of pieces and he would do the dangerous, make you want to scream parts. sweetness. anyway, i hope that these become a permanent fixture in eliot's classroom. they make me smile everytime i see them in the kids room. so bright and happy. thank you so much meg! and if you dont have a serger, you could always buy a set from meg's shop.