In Decent Order

Kitchen Wipes :: How To

2012-02-24T15:20:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how I needed to replace some old kitchen wipes, which serve as an alternative to paper towels. Since then, my 6 yards of flannel came in the mail, I washed and dried it, and decided to take some photos for a tutorial! Wheee!

1. Decide you don't want to be in the basement sewing alone.

2. Turn on American Idol and haul cutting mat, scissors, ruler, rotary cutter, and fabric up to the living room.

I don't really recommend cutting through 4+ layers of fabric while the mat is on carpet. But, whatever, I did it.

3. Cut 9 inch strips out of your flannel. I had three yards of two different flannels, to create two-layer wipes. I prefer two layers because they clean better than one, and they stack nicer.

4. Cut your strips into squares. Again, 9 inches all the way around.

5. Stack your squares while watching Parenthood. I just love making stacks of fabric.

6. As I said, I cut out squares from two different flannels, because I like it that way. So, yeah, stack your other pile. Because you like to make stacks, too, right?

7. Now, stack your layers together so they are ready to pick up and sew.

8. The next day, decide that it's too pretty of a day to be in the basement and set your serger or sewing machine up where you can enjoy a 73 degree February day in Alabama. (Okay, really, it doesn't have to be the next day. Obviously. But these days I usually can't accomplish an "extra" task like this in one sitting, due to the daily grind. So for me, it took two days to make these.)

Yes, this is the kids' table on my deck. What.

9. Start serging your edges, unless you are using a sewing machine, which means you can zig zag over the edges.

10. Serge the first side until you are maybe an inch and a half away from the corner and then turn the fabric so you that you round off the corner. (I prefer this method because it is faster than serging all four sides of the wipe separately to preserve the square shape.)

11. Repeat all the way around. And serge the edge off the machine. I don't do anything with the tails, but if you don't want them there, you can tuck them into the line of stitching by hand with a large needle.

12. Repeat with all your wipes and start stacking your finished products! That's it.

Well, I said "that's it" but I didn't really mean it. A few final notes ::

I did not iron my flannel after washing. Kind of a sewing no-no, because when you cut, you could get some uneven edges from cutting over wrinkles. But, since I knew I'd be serging the edges off, I decided to forgo the ironing and take my chances. The photo below shows a jagged edge that was then zipped right off by the serger's knives.

I used a total of 6 yards of flannel... three each of a print and a solid. I ended up with 45 wipes total, though I realized that if I had done some basic math, I could have gotten a few more out of it, or I could have made the wipes about half an inch bigger all the way around. I would have ended up with less waste. Oh well.

I personally love a large-scale print. And I love elephants. But, if it bothers you that each wipe will not be the same, maybe use a smaller print. I kind of think it's sweet that some wipes will have a whole elephant...

...or just an elephant tooshy.

The mark of a great serging day ::

More stacks to love... wipes ready for a dirty face, or a spill on the counter.

I Thought It Was Cute At First

2012-02-23T11:29:00.000-06:00

A bird taken up as sentry of my dining room window. She has been flapping, pecking, clawing at the window from 6:15 a.m. until the sun has set at night. Every day. For a week. I can only guess she has a nest on the roof or in the bush just below the window and she is trying to protect some eggs.

But, it has now gotten past the ridiculous point. I feel like I am living in Alfred Hitchcock land. The bird torments me everyday. "What's knocking around in the washer? Oh, it's just the Bird." "What is loose in the dishwasher? Right, it's Bird." "Who is knocking at the door at this weird time of day? Bird."

I am *so* that lady.

Truly, this happens every... single... day. I hear the clawing and for a split second I wonder what is going on. Until I remember.

Today, I decided to provide a... ahhh... deterrent.

It worked for but a moment. Bird was back as soon as I left my post.

I wonder when she'll exhaust herself and stop tormenting me. Her beak and feet have got to be damaged at this point. Bird has even left shmears of something on the windows.

Bird. I beg you. Leave your reflection alone.

PS. Birds seem to be attracted to my house.

Bush Whacked

2012-02-22T18:43:00.000-06:00

Last year when we had our new deck built, Dave moved several bushes from a hedge near the house and replanted them in a couple of different areas. Three of them are now near a rocky firepit area of the backyard. Dave planted them under duress (I think it was raining and they really had to be planted immediately), so he didn't pay much attention to their orientation. Because they had been cut in a hedge before, they all were sort of squared off, like a typical hedge. But, in their new place, they faced all different angles and looked wonky. They were also sort of random in the yard.

After staring at them and being mocked by them for nearly a year now, I took our loppers to them yesterday, in a bit of an experiment. Because I am awesome, I have no "before" shot.

I pruned each of the three bushes to varying degrees. Dave, forgive me. (He is very conservative when it comes to pruning. He doesn't believe me that a harsh pruning is sometimes needed to propagate better growth and restore a plant's natural shape.) I am really, really anti hedge and anti "meatball shrub" beacause of how unnatural it looks. So, my hope is that these bushes will have wonderful new growth that will look more natural, and help create a screen, which will fit in nicely to the landscape design that my friend Sarah came up with.

So, the point of this post is to document if this experiment will work. I hope to update in a couple of months, though really I should see new growth fairly soon, since it's almost March and winter never really arrived here in Alabama anyhow.

Here are my three bushes, post pruning :

I know they are hard to see... I am doing my best here with my camera. It will get better someday. Maybe.

Here is CB for size reference :

Close ups, first of the massively pruned bush :

The medium pruned bush, where I cut off a foot or so all the way around, trying to keep it from being too unnaturally shaped :

And the last bush, where I pruned off just the top several inches, again trying to take off the squared edges :

See how the one above is really "leggy?" (I have no idea if that is a real gardening term.) There are no leaves in the middle... all the growth is towards the end of each branch. I really hate how that looks. I don't have high hopes that this one will look awesome... I think it needs more pruning to encourage it to fill in and become bushier.... but, hey, this is an experiment and if it proves that harsh pruning works best, I will probably end up cutting this one back some day, too.

And now, for gratuitous cuteness and silliness, since my sweet baby was my helper while I took photos :

His hair.... I want to die.

Valentines Cop Out?

2012-02-13T13:32:00.000-06:00

I'll probably get slaughtered by all my crafty Pinterest friends for saying this, but I guess I must consider Valentines Day one of the "Lesser Holidays." The reason I say "I guess" is because I noticed how much I *haven't* done in preparation for tomorrow. I didn't buy Valentines for my son's kindergarten class, I didn't plan sweet little cookies and I didn't pack a surprise card in my travelling-husband's suitcase. Oops?

I love, I mean LOVE, pretty things, making pretty things, giving pretty things. But, as I have discussed ad nauseum, I find that getting into the swing of the school habits is hard. And that includes giving away Valentines cards.

So, whatever, last night it occurred to me that it would be very sad indeed if Tucker went to school and had nothing to give his classmates. He is a generous giver. But, he's not old enough to be responsible for his own Valentines Day stuff.

In order to avoid an extra errand to buy easy fill-in-the-blank cards, which FYI I would 100% endorse and do myself if I had planned ahead, I decided to quickly cut out hearts from pretty two-sided paper I had on hand. On the front I wrote "To:" and on the back scribbled out "Happy Valentines Day! " (Tucker will fill in his friends' names and sign his own name this afternoon, in theory). It was so, so easy, took about 15 minutes, cost nothing beyond what I had already spent on the paper, and turned out marginally cute. I feel that even a bare minimum effort looks so much better when there is pretty paper, or some sort of embellishment. Even plain white card stock hearts decorated with a small border of black-sharpie-pen polka dots would have been sweet. "Pretty" is in the details, right?

Part of my goal with the blog here is to talk about how doing something "Okay" really is okay. [My name is Tara, and I am a recovering perfectionist.] And I feel like this post is important to me (well, I mean, this isn't life changing or anything) because in the age of Pinterest (which I love dearly), it is easy to get into that guilty mommy mode where you think that every kids' mom is making these and you are the only one who sucks and doesn't love your kid enough and isn't dedicated enough to his educational and social experiences.

Besides, let's be real.... these Valentines are going into the trash on February 15. Oh wait, you all do that too, right? Sneak stuff into the trash and hidden paper recyling area while your kid is at school, right?

Listen, if I have to tell myself and tell you, my sweet reader-friend, 100 times a day, I will do it.... Ditch the mommy guilt! It is pointless and a lie and you are a good mom. I am pretty sure. Okay, go hug yourself and eat a cookie. Smooch!

PS. For the record, I do not throw away the uber-thoughtful Valentines cards that my brother's wife sends to the kids each year. Last year, I kept them on our mantle for weeks and weeks. They were so sweet, had unusual art and just meant a lot that she made that kind of effort. I later put them in my kids' "to keep" boxes. And that is saying a lot, as I am ruthless with the paper stuff that I *don't* keep. Her cards for this year are ready and waiting to be opened, on the mantle.

Wipe On, Wipe Off

2012-02-10T11:39:00.002-06:00

I really don't know how to share this post without sounding prissy and clever. I don't think that I am prissy and clever, but it's just hard to figure out how to write about helpful things around the house without coming off like a self-righteous housekeeper. So, I'm going to say sorry in advance for possibly coming off like a know-it-all.

Much to the irritation of my mother, I don't keep paper towels on the counter top in my kitchen. About five years ago, I started using flannel wipes to clean my kid up after meals and I liked them better than using paper towels... they cleaned more thoroughly, and they didn't really create more laundry because I could add them to a load of towels. And, they paid for themselves after awhile. My mother uses paper towels for ev-ery-thing in the kitchen... including drying her hands after washing. She blows through the rolls of paper towels like crazy, but whatever, she likes her system and doesn't mind buying huge packs of paper towels frequently.

I'm currently on my second set of kitchen wipes (the first set looks great and is still in rotation in the kids' bathroom for wiping down counters, floors, etc. when I do my regular cleaning). This current set is starting to look pretty bad. Very stained, and getting pilled. (I've used them for a little over two years.) Plus, I really don't have enough of them. I might have about twenty, which means I do have to wash load of towels/wipes before the load is full because I have run out of wipes in the kitchen.

I like two layers of flannel because they are sturdier, stack nicer and wipe better than one layer. Once they come out of the wash, I stack them ...

...and put them in an under-shelf wire basket in an upper cabinet near the sink. In my old kitchen that had tons of storage space, the wipes had their own very small drawer next to the sink.

To make the wipes, I cut 9-inch square pieces of flannel, put two pieces together and serged around the edges (you could totally do a zig zag stitch on your regular sewing machine). I rounded the corners so that I can get one wipe done without having to remove the wipe from the machine 4 times to do all 4 straight sides. To people with sergers, that sentence makes sense, right? To other people, just ignore that part about rounding the corners.

I do actually keep a roll of paper towels in the kitchen, for those big messes that just need to get tossed in the trash and not get washed with my towels. They are above the sink with my cook books. And when my mom visits, I get them down for her and leave them on the counter.

See them hiding to the right of the cook books? Here's where I feel compelled to explain why they are brown. It's because I took my annual trip to Whole Foods in Birmingham [annual because it's far from me and let's face it, very expensive] and I couldn't resist them. You know me, sometimes I have to be a rebel and be different so I went berserk and bought a huge roll of recycled brown paper towels for $2. Normally, I get plain white Publix brand or whatever is cheapest. I love some crunchy things, but I do not have I-only-use-crunchy-brown-paper-towels-from-Whole-Foods righteousness. I promise. I think.

And because this blog is about "decent" order, you should know that when I took these photos, this is what was in my sink ::

Oooh, how about a bonus orderly tip for the day? See the green kids' Nalgene in the dirty sink? I put painter's tape on it and write Calvin's name with a Sharpie. It's basically free. I know it's not as cute as some of those imprinted bands, but whatever. It also lasts through the dishwasher for months on end, so you don't have to keep replacing it.

Okay, any of my more astute writing friends have some advice for me on how to share helpful things without sound like an overzealous jerk? I mean, I really hate that know-it-all tone, but it's hard to know if I'm writing in it. Ha!

Peace, everyone, it's Friday!

P.S. Here is the flannel I ordered for my new set of kitchen wipes. I can't wait for it to arrive, it's so fun and happy. And if you followed me on Pinterest, you'd already know about this flannel. :) Click on the red "follow me on Pinterest" button on the right sidebar!

Still Working on the New Game Called School

2012-02-07T19:30:00.000-06:00

In November, I wrote about trying to figure out our new life as a family with a school-aged child. I feel like I am still getting my feet under myself regarding the school routine.

It feels good, though, fumbling toward figuring it out. I started walking Tucker to school in the last few weeks, which has been good in every single way. It's a little over a mile away, which is totally doable for Tucker and it gives me nearly 2.5 miles to get a little workout on. I am convinced I have to get in shape.... I am so very weak. To the point that it's hard to be a mother and lift and swing and hold.

I also think the walk is good for my high-energy little boy. I wonder what a few miles a week will do for him. Will it impact his attention span? Will it calm him down? Will it make him a better reader? Or artist? It might.

The walk is good for our relationship, too, I think. It's an extra 45 minutes in the morning where we can interact. (That's roughly 30 minutes walking, plus 15 minutes longer at home versus catching the bus.) That's a lot of time, considering that when he rides the bus, he's gone for 8 hours a day. That means that the walk is 10% less time that he's at school. The afternoons and evenings go by in a blur, usually, which even further makes those 45 morning minutes important to me.

The only problem with the walk is the final .2 miles.... there are no sidewalks into the school. Thankfully, there is a police officer who stops traffic for us to cross a big country road, but, man, entering the school property is high stakes. Drivers don't expect a walker.... I have not seen a single person walk their kid to school there, even though there are several neighborhoods close by. I can only assume that people don't want to risk fighting the traffic as a pedestrian.

Leaving the school, Calvin in stroller, Razor scooter and helmet in basket.

But, it's worth it.

Somehow, it's also made me feel more involved in school, though I don't even enter the building. I am glad to have the visual of Tucker dart off to his class, and I have even seen Calvin's teacher from his Mom's Day Out, as she drops her daughter off. I love that! It's nice to feel a little more community-minded, especially since I live in the least community-minded community in the whole Birmingham area. At least, that's how it seems to me.

Oh, one more little thing about the walk... Tucker has complained that riding his Razor scooter that far makes him tired. He needs a lot of breaks, and he usually gives me some lip when I tell him that it's a Walking Day (maybe 3 times a week). I don't think he's being defiant, I think that his 6:00 a.m. bowl of Cheerios isn't sticking with him. I don't love the idea (yet) of getting up extra early to make a big breakfast, so I had the idea of boiling some eggs tonight. I'll peel them and put them in a Tucker-accessable dish in the fridge so he can help himself to an egg or two, in addition to his cereal. I can't decide if this is genius or lazy. Might be both.

So, we're adding walking and eggs to the routine. I hope to stick with the walking, for sure. As for the eggs, we'll see how if it makes a difference. It can't hurt.

A Closet Do-Over

2012-01-27T21:16:00.002-06:00

About a year ago, Dave and I installed a closet system into our now-two-year-old son Calvin's closet, using components that we brought with us from a closet we had in New York. That sounds bad, doesn't it? We ripped out a built-in closet to move with us? No, we didn't. It actually was a pantry in our kitchen, which we later fully remodeled. I was so glad Dave saved the rails, shelves and brackets. I am not sure if they were Rubbermaid or Closet Maid or what, but we bought them at Lowe's and they look something like these components, except the shelves were MDF, not wire.

When we installed the parts into Calvin's closet last year, we did it the cheap and possibly lazy way.... wanting to be frugal and also not have to go to the store, we only used the parts we had. Because of that, though, it was a very inflexible system. We installed the vertical rails on the studs and then put in all the shelving and a couple of hanging rods. I moved a three drawer chest from my sewing room into the closet, so that I would at least have a few drawers. Oh and I should mention that Calvin does not have a dresser in his room. That is on purpose... I try to get as much stuff into the closets in order to avoid extra pieces of furniture in the kids' rooms. I like for them to have a lot of floor space in their bedrooms, since that is the primary place for them to play.

Because we installed the rails on the studs, there was no possibility of adding the Rubbermaid system canvas drawers I liked at Lowe's.... the studs were closer together than the width of the drawers. The drawers are made to go on vertical rails that are installed something like 22 inches apart, but our rails (again, on the studs) were closer together.

Well, that's fine, I thought. So no other drawers, besides the chest I put in there. I had tons of shelves in there, but as I used the closet, it started becoming clear that the closet was only about half as useful as it could have been. That was frustrating, because I knew that the solution meant to take everything out, unscrew the rails and properly install a horizontal bar for the rails to hang on before being screwed into the wall. Like this.

Even though I love home projects, I don't do a lot of my own hanging of things like curtain rods or other installation that requires some muscle. Redoing this closet meant asking my husband to do it. Generally, I am reluctant to create extra-extra work for him because there's just always something on the list anyhow.

But.

If you've been reading IDO for, say, more than a couple of posts, you've gathered that we are adopting a baby from China. Hopefully this year. We have been preparing ourselves in the last 6 months far more than we have in the last 4 years. Lots of reading, talking to other adoptive families, thinking about the baby as a reality versus a theory.

This means I am imagining what daily life will be like with three kids.... where will she sleep? Will she and the boys bond? What kind of stroller should I use? When can I start shopping for girl clothes?!! And where am I going to put her stuff?

When it gets closer to the adoption, the boys will share a room and the new baby will have the now-Calvin's nursery to herself. This means a merge of the boys' closets. I doubt all of Calvin's stuff will fit in Tucker's sort of small closet, so some of the toys will stay in the nursery. But, with a new person in the family, I am anticipating needing as much storage in the the nursery closet as possible.

I mentioned all this to Dave and, to my surprise, he was really okay with ripping out the old closet and adding new components to increase the storage.

In my handy notebook, I drew up a rough sketch of my vision for the closet, which Dave used as his guide. He measured and figured out that it would (probably) work and we got started.

Not to scale.

Below are a few pathetic "Before" shots... pathetic because I forgot to take photos before we started unloading the closet. And also pathetic because they are cell shots. And a little blurry. My bad.

Normally, a hamper would be to the right of the chest of drawers. A few bins of odds and ends lived on the shelves. Most of Calvin's toys were in a basket in the nursery, not in the closet, but his books and a few miscellaneous toys also were on the shelves. There was also another hanging rod a couple of feet above the other rod. It was too much rod space.... it wasn't well-utilized.

Doesn't he look okay with it?

Here is the closet-in-process after painting it with leftover paint from our living room (Sherwin Williams' Requisite Gray, if you're curious), with all the supports installed on the horizontal track properly. You can't see the horizontal track in the photo below because it is really high on that back wall of the closet.

The rest of the room was a pit while this project was in process :

A wide shot with the closet door on the far left:

In the shot above, the three drawer chest that was in the closet before, served as a work bench slash dumping ground for tools and now lives in Dave's shop in the garage. I have no idea what he's using it for.

We bought three canvas drawers to hold Calvin's clothes. We mounted the bottom drawer quite a bit off the floor because most of the toys needed to be at kid-level. Remember, I wanted to jam as much of Calvin's belongings in the closet as possible. But I also wanted him to be able to access most of his toys himself. Because the vertical rails go to the floor, though, as time goes on, the closet can change. Meaning, when plastic baby toys are no longer loved and needed, more drawers can be added, or maybe an in-closet desk situation could be set up, or whathaveyou. See all the holes in the vertical rails? That's where the brackets fit in... the configuration possibilities are endless because you can move the brackets or other components.

Working from the bottom drawer up.

Dave also picked up something at Lowe's that I wouldn't have thought to add to the closet, but it was genius.... laundry hampers that came with their own shelf. Again, it gets the hampers off the floor. And there are two of them, so in theory, if I sorted my kids' clothes, I could do that as laundry accumulates. Alas, I don't sort their clothes, but still I think the two hampers will come in handy. Pictured below are two "large" and one "medium" canvas drawers from Rubbermaid, along with the Rubbermaid hampers.

Added two more drawers, the hampers, hanging rods and some toys.

I also started putting toys in as I went. This was so I could determine where I wanted the shelving on the sides to go. Everything needed to fit well.... not too crowded, yet not too much empty space.

We already had the two hanging bars from when we did the closet the first time. On the left in the above photo, you can see that one is too long. I noticed that there was room for another medium drawer if I were to hack off part of the pole. Which I did.

Danger in Dave's Shop.

I was glad we added that fourth drawer, because it became a great place to store diapers and wipes. Calvin is mostly potty trained, so these items are only accessed at sleep times. If he still needed frequent changes, this wouldn't be the most convenient spot.... that drawer is high for a growth-stunted girl like me.

All four drawers.

If you look to the left of the top drawer in the photo above, you can see a few clothes on the now-shortened pole. I designated that small area for newly-acquired clothing that is the next size up from what Calvin is currently wearing. (I also have bins of Tucker's old clothes in the attic ... these will come down for Calvin, but the hanging area is for stuff that was given to us or I went ahead and bought.)

Here's that section a little closer. I may move that plastic bin if needed later, but for now it has puzzles in it. Calvin can't see them, which actually is great because then he thinks I'm awesome when I get them down for him to play with. Keeps the novelty to not see them for awhile.

We continued to add short shelves (they were longer, but we cut them to the exact length we wanted with a circular saw) on the sides, under the hanging poles. These shelves are a little bit hard to access, but I think Calvin's determination will help him get to the stuff. Or, he can ask me to get things, which he does sometimes.

See, a little tight. But, hey, no wasted space.

And below that shelf is the floor.... this is where the toy basket goes, as well as Calvin's Halloween cheeseburger costume, which he loves.

Let's go back to the top of the closet, so you can see that there are two full-length-of-the-closet shelves, perfect for storage of extra blankets, sheets (in bin), clothes that are too small and waiting for their next home (in bin), etc. There's plenty of empty space on the top shelf next to the blankets.... thrilling! That means there is room for growth, if needed. My guess is adding a third child, who will be a girl, will take care of that little problem. ;)

And now to the right half of the closet ::

So, a hanging rod, followed by a shelf that has too-big shoes waiting for feet to grow, followed by bins of books, and then a shelf with a drum kit.

The floor below that holds the Little People airport and farm, and a Sterilite bin full of Thomas trains.

The full flooring area ::

And a kid's-eye view :

Oooh, I guess you might want to see a whole-closet shot!

Not only is the closet working for me, but it's also working for CB. He loves it when I open the doors up in the morning. Somehow being able to see all the options has made him want to play with his toys more.

I wish I had a neat price breakdown for this project, but since we already owned a number of components, I had to estimate based on the Lowe's website. With the numbers of shelves, brackets, supports, drawers, laundry bins, and rods, my best price guess is about $350. I'd say about half of that was spent when we had the components from our previous house and the other half was spent for this do-over. The drawers weren't cheap... $27 (each) for the medium and $40 (each) for the large. The hampers with shelf and brackets (as a kit) were $50. We highly customized this (which of course added to the cost), to fit our preferences and the space given, but if you wanted to spend quite a bit less and don't need something quite as built up, it looks like you can get kits from less than $100 to less than $200. Oh yeah, I didn't count the cost of the various storage bins that I already owned, but you can get Sterilite bins for about $4 each at Dollar General.

One last note about the cost.... this project cost less than a comparably sized dresser ($249)and toy storage ($176) from Ikea, and far less than furniture from somewhere a little swankier like Pottery Barn Kids or Crate and Barrel. And the bonus is... no lost floor space in the nursery, which is not huge to begin with. Even though $350 sounds like a lot for a closet, it isn't a lot when you think of what you don't have to buy and the floor space you don't have to lose.

Got any closet questions? Or a good closet idea or inspiration? Is it sick that I like to go into the nursery and just stand there and gaze at such neatness?

Don't answer that last one.

Real Life Photo Documentation

2012-01-18T06:30:00.000-06:00

Birmingham Bargain Mom gets inspiration credit for another IDO post. The other night on Facebook she posted this ::

"I have a personal blog about my kids, their nuances and life experiences but I find myself doing bulk posts, just like I did when I was filling out their baby books. How do you document your family's experiences and life - blog, diary, Facebook, photo galleries?"

Which led me to comment about how I also use some of those things - blog, FB, baby books - to document our family, but I also do an annual photobook. Why haven't I posted about this before? Because I am so dumb. I am very dumb. For real. (Ten thousand bonus points to the person who names that tune in the comments.... and my sister can't play.)

So, here it is, an overdue discussion of how I document our lives. In Real Life. You know, as opposed to clicking through jpegs. Which we do sometimes. But, hey, this post is about hard copies. :)

When my firstborn was a year old in 2006, my first mommy friend, Chelsie, showed me her photo book that she made for her son's grandparents for the upcoming Christmas. It was so clean, and neat, and showcased her photography beautifully. And, like I have with countless numbers of her other good ideas.... I copied her. And I have kept copying her every December since then.

A shot from that first album in 2006. [And lookie, my littlest brother Marc (in the red shirt) holding his nephew, my son Tucker.]

In the first album, I didn't have any text. I guess I wanted it to be *extra* tidy looking. But, I think that was a mistake. In subsequent albums, I use some minimal text to label certain family members or events.

In the past, I used to print up 4 x 6 prints and do regular photo albums with more photos (this was in addition to the photo books pictured here....craaazee), but have since given that up. I think that happened when Calvin was born in 2009. Daaang, it's true what they say about second-borns. Sorry, buddy.

Speaking of "used to's".... I also used to scrapbook. Years and years ago. I gave it up for a number of reasons... it's expensive, took up too much time, and the albums become huge behemoths. And frankly, it just stressed me out.

So, if you'd like some hard copies of your photos, printed photo albums are a nice way to do it. Some tips, and then a few more photos of my books.

These are AWESOME gifts for my kids' grandparents. They look forward to receiving the books.... they were worried this year because I sent the books just *after* Christmas instead of right at Christmastime as usual. [And actually, I think I will keep doing that. I liked having our Christmas Day shots in there.] I always order 3 books... one for my parents, one for Dave's parents and one for us. I will have to order more when we bring home baby #3.... that way when all the kids are grown, there will enough copies in existence that everyone can have one.

I use Snapfish, but Birmingham Bargain Mom suggested a few others as well.... Shutterfly, Mpix, Winkflash, and Walgreens.

Don't order the fabric covered books. Get the leather, or leather-ish option. I have mostly fabric covered books and they do not hold up as well as the leather. (Duh.) They have various marks on the covers that can't be rubbed off.

If you can, stick with ordering the same style and size every year. They will look clean and neat on the shelf.

You can get great deals on these books if you get emails from the company and watch for the sales. Last year, I believe I made all three of my books for something crazy like $25, by using coupon codes and Christmas sales.

Keep the pages neat. It's tempting to jam as many photos as you can on each page (because after a certain number of pages, at least on Snapfish, you start adding significantly to the cost), but your photos will mean so much more if you can actually see the photos clearly. So, maybe use just a few of your best shots on you kid's birthday instead of ten okay shots documenting every mouthful of cake.

I have enjoyed being able to view the photos in chronological order. Snapfish has an autofill option where it puts in the photos into the book based on the date the file was created. Saved me a ton of time this year. And btw, I spend several hours making the book every year. This year it was probably 4 or 5, but I had to reorganize most of the files and folders on my hard drive to make sure I chose all the photos I wanted. I am sure it can be done faster if you keep your photos organized on your computer.

Also... and this is strickly an opinion from an anti-clutter nut job... don't clog the pages up with too much text and detail. Let the photos do most of the talking. When you are looking at the book with your family, simply having the photos there will remind you of all the details you can verbally share with them. [Have you ever seen some scrapbooks that have tons and tons of writing? It can overwhelm the photos, in my opinion. But, on the other hand, there are some people who think that every detail should be preserved in writing. To each his own.]

In a super quick search, I ran across this post on how to make an album from FB photos. There's probably other great resources out there, too. Feel free to share more ideas in the comments.

Of course, you can always just skip the annual photo books and get your blog printed up into a book. My friend Jennifer's husband did that for her.... she blogged about her twin daughters' first five years. Talk about a baby book! I saw the book and it choked me up because it's so special. There are loads of resources online to do this project, so if you try it, let me know in the comments which site you did it through and if you were happy with it. I may want to do that someday.

So, how do you document your photos in real life? The creativity abounds, no doubt! I mean, this *is* the internet. Please feel free to link to your blog in the comments. If I was cool, I'd do a Linky, but I have no idea how to do that yet. ;)

2007

2008

One quick personal note... I am so glad I snapped a few photos of my son holding our adoption paperwork as we went to the post office to mail it off. That was in TWO THOUSAND EIGHT. We started the process in 2007, had another kid meanwhile and we still don't have our sweet baby. But, it's looking promising that 2012 will be the year.

[And, hey, it's Dr Techno!]

2009

2010

2011

A Weekend With Gingerbread Man

2012-01-16T20:39:00.001-06:00

This past three-day weekend was my son Tucker's turn to bring home the class friend, Mr. Gingerbread Man. He was off-the-wall excited to take his friend with us everywhere, all while documenting it on film (?) in order to journal about the weekend. We worked on the journal tonight, and, surprisingly, I acutally enjoyed helping him do that. I feel like, philosophically, I am opposed to parent-driven homework, but whatever, this was fun.

It was probably enjoyable because it gave me an opportunity to do something fun with my photo-taking. I wish that I shot better photos for the blog, because, let's face it, in the new era of Pinterest, it is in my best interest to have better looking photos. I might need to take all my photos with some sort of effect to make it look more like I know what I am doing, as opposed to friends who actually *do* know what they are doing. I used the opportunity of documenting our weekend with "Gingy" (gosh, that sounds like a mascot for a toothpaste) to try out a photo app called Retro Camera by Urbian. Dave has had this app for awhile and I love the photos it takes. I might just use this app for posts where nice photos would be, well, nice.

Anyhow, here are the photos we took over the weekend.... and PS. it was so fun to upload them to a local pharmacy's website and then run down the street to go pick them up.

At a park with friends, freezing our @rses off.

At Chipotle.

Saturday morning pancakes.

Saturday night fake-sleeping.

Favorite shot of the weekend, taken with the same app, different effect.

Monday morning, off from school and off to the park.

"Hanging around."

Calvin liked Gingy, too.

In Tucker's words, the weekend was "a blast."

Dear Doctor Techno :: Netflix

2012-01-02T22:49:00.000-06:00

Dr Techno, aka my brother Alex, IRL. At my house. Today.

Dear Dr Techno,

I would like to be able to stream Netflix and other video on my living room TV, but I don't have a Wii or a Smart TV. What's the best way to do that?

Hugs,

Tara

PS. We are thinking about becoming Cable Cutters. We currently have DirecTV, but it's a bit overkill for what we watch.

Digital streaming -- Get it?

Dear Tara,

It depends on how much you want to spend and how technical you want to get. And the good news is that the cheapest options require the least geekitude.

If you don't want to have much hassle or pay very much, I'd recommend a Roku ($50) or Boxee ($180) or even an Apple TV ($99). These boxes can plug into your TV and stream Netflix, Hulu Plus and many other services.

For a bit more, you can go ahead and just buy a Wii. They have come down in price to $150 and you can play Wii Sports to your heart's content. A disadvantage of the Wii is that it's a bit slower and won't output HD signal.

For a few hundred dollars and some technical know-how, you can hook up a PC to your TV and have it all : Netflix, Youtube, Hulu (not the $10 Hulu Plus), DVR, and whatever website you want to look at or game you want to play. These are commonly called home theater PC's or HTPC for short. Since this isn't a stand-alone box, you have to deal with the headaches that come with a PC. It won't boot right up into the media center that you want. You need a keyboard and mouse nearby, which are kind of clunky to use on a couch. My personal set up is that I have a fairly high-end PC (about $1000) that can play Blu Ray movies, stream video, record live TV (DVR) and play some serious games.

If you want to go all out, you can buy a brand new smart TV. You pay a premium for its smarts, but you get to watch Netflix, Hulu Plus, Youtube and others. The downside of a smart TV is usually the input to search for content is crummy. There are a couple that have a mini-keyboard to type on, but others you have to navigate with a standard TV remote... not fun.

Anyone can do video streaming, or more, depending on how much time, money, and effort they want to put into their set-up.

Happy cord-cutting,

Dr Techno

2011 Book Run Down

2011-12-28T11:23:00.000-06:00

The Nester is doing a linky party on books read in 2011. It sounded fun, so here is my list! I love to read and love to talk to people about books.

Books I read in 2011, in no particular order ::

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Water for Elephants
The Glass Castle
Adoption Parenting
Half Broke Horses
One Thousand Gifts (still reading.... I'm reading it in bits and pieces)
The Geography of Bliss
The Alabama Stitch Book
The Pressure's Off
Intercessory Prayer
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Chickens in Your Backyard
Creative Walls
The Art of Making Money (this one was soooo very interesting.... about a real-life counterfitter)
The Connected Child
The Trouble with Boys

This list says a few things about me. Clearly, I like novels that are later turned into movies. :) I also read a lot of sad books.... The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is so sad, but absolutely riveting. No regrets.

One of the most life-changing books in this list was The Pressure's Off by Larry Crabb. It talks about accepting God's grace in my life and realizing that all the striving I do to be good or do good things is pointless when it comes to pleasing God or earning his favor. It had implications for every area of my life.... from my need to over control everything, to how I approach teaching and disciplining my children, and even had ramifications for our adoption. (Meaning, the piety of adoption is false.... people who adopt are not saints who are better Christians than non-adoptive families. I know, this sounds obvious, but it's a subtle thing, the piety of adoption. God's grace covers even this pride, though.)

The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre was excellent. Anyone with school-aged boys, preferably preschool, should read this. It discusses how the education system in the United States is failing boys of every demographic. This isn't some ranting essay written by an anti-school wierdo.... the book is full of data and studies and is a complete page-turner. It caused my husband and I to change how we were approaching our school decisions for our kids.

And now for the book that earned the award for the Worst Book I've Ever Read. Drums, please. It was... Adoption Parenting. I don't even want to link to it because I feel sorry for it's authors and editors. Or lack of editors, rather. I really can't believe this book got published with such terrible writing and occasional lack of proper punctuation. I mean, really? My understanding is that this book, in its infancy, was actually a yahoo message board and people would write articles or posts for the board. So, there's lots and lots of information from real-life adoptive families, but those yahoo posts should have been edited to read like proper essays. Instead, they are written in internet-speak, sort of rambling and unclear. It was so annoying. There was one clinician who wrote about adopted kids with ADD. I am going to paraphrase slightly, but she said something like "Some kids are diagnosed with ADD, some with ADHD and then there are then kids with ADHHHHHHHD." What? "ADHHHHHHHHD?" Inexcusably casual and unprofessional to write and publish that in a book. Maybe on a yahoo board or on a blog, or in an email, but never in a book.

One last thing on Adoption Parenting.... it is the adoption equivalent of "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Meaning, it completely stressed me out by looking at the gamut of all the problems that could happen with an adopted child.... lack of attachment, undisclosed illnesses, later acting out, etc. It is overwhelming to be faced with ALL those problems. There is no way that any one child would have every single issue discussed in the book, but it makes for anxious reading, just like WtEwYE. I would have put the book down after about the first 1/3, but it is required reading for our home study. The one good thing I can say about this book is that I feel like I am no longer approaching a potentially stressful international adoption with any naivete.

Anyhow, anyone want to share their most and least favorite reads of the year? Anyone with me on Adoption Parenting??? I'll be sure to list any other books that I remember from this year. I feel like I am missing a couple.

Happy New Year, almost!

House Tour :: Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T16:31:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas, friends! A few photos of my Christmas decor this year. It has been one of my favorites... I didn't put out most of my tacky Christmas decor. Ha. Instead, I copied my friend Gail and cut evergreen branches for most of my seasonal decor. It's free, gorgeous and green. ;)

Our tree this year is my favorite we've ever had. I love how droopy and romantic it looks. We cut it down at Old Baker Farm, our third time to cut our own there. (Btw, I can't believe we've been in Alabama for three Christmases already. We miss New York still, but really, really feel at home here.)

We have some antique trains that Dave and the kids set up around the tree. When I took my photos, the track was partially disassembled. (Thanks, Calvin.) I should have set the train up for the photos, but those trains are hard to set up, so they aren't really my deal. And I *had* to shoot the photos when I did.... couldn't wait for Dave to set up the trains. I mean, my house was sparkling clean and tidy, since we were expecting company, so I jumped all over that and took the photos. Doubtful that my house will be this clean again during the Christmas season for me to take photos.

I'm sort of minimalistic on the amount of fussing I want to do with Christmas cards. I love to look at them, but I don't want to do anything that requires much work. So, I set them on the mantle and we can look at them all season. I don't mind that they overlap and aren't overly arranged.

See the little toy soldiers in the photo above? It's actually a drum line. Go figure.

The greenery above was originally a pile of branches that someone at Old Baker Farm had cut off the bottom of a tree. I asked the guy working if I could have them and he said yes. I love how simple it was to strip the pine needles off the branches and plunk them in a glass vase ($15 from Target in the floral section) filled with water. They have looked healthy for weeks now. And I did this little cheap/free greenery decorating trick in other areas, too ::

The branches on the bookshelf (below) were cut from a shrub in my front yard. I hate the shrub, but love how the branches look once cut. I have been hacking it off all season, any time I needed greenery for an event or for a gift. The actual shrub is looking a little, um, sparse.

And that brings me to the dining room....

In the corner, we have a paper mache nativity set, purchased a year or two ago at one of the Ballard outlets in Atlanta for 70% off after Christmas. (Man, I really can't help myself, I feel absolutely compelled to share when I find deals, even though that's sort of not the point of the post. I digress.)

And listen, I know that my window and console situation ain't great. But it is what it is for now and so I used that area to display some Christmas things that are special to me, like the nesting dolls and the hand-painted "Merry Christmas" banner. Oh and the wonky green candles are supposed to be that way. Don't ask.

(What I'd love to do.... when I have more time.... is take down the white blinds and hang up some fun large-scale printed drapes. Still haven't found the right fabric yet. Oh and I want a real sideboard, not the too-small console table that lives in the dining room right now.)

My friend Gail, who gave me the idea about using fresh-cut greenery for seasonal decor, also have me the idea for the candles and cranberries in the hurricanes. And of course, everything looks intentional when you put it on a tray!

And by the way, the cranberries in the hurricanes are real.... they last forever! One of the hurricanes has had the berries in there since Thanksgiving and they still look great. And they were BOGO at Publix last week.

Also, the small votives are from Dollar General and the pillar candles were ones I already had around the house. Happy accident that they are Christmas colors.

In the photo above, you can see a few of our exterior Christmas lights. This is the first year we've done them, inspired by our friend and neighbor, Ohio Mike. And yes, that's actually what we call him.

This is his house ::

He has inspired many of us in the Hood.... there are way more exterior lights this year that I remember from years past. It's so pretty. I mean, Ohio Mike's house is the star, of course. None of the rest of us mere mortals put up 50,000 lights, but hey, A for Effort!

Back to my house....

Most of the decor is in the living and dining rooms. The only other Christmas items are small trees in the kids' rooms.

The boys love the trees and fall asleep with them on every night. I hope this little tradition will be one they remember fondly and might want to do with their own families.

Oh and I can't forget about the Advent calendar in the hallway, near all the rest of the main decor.

This is so special. My friend Aimee painted it and created each ornament by hand. They are magnetic and each day Tucker puts up a new ornament. They all have a corresponding scripture to go with them, which I have dutifully failed to read every day.

Tucker really wanted to pose for the calendar shot. He's all "See? I'm hanging the ornament of the day!"

And now, some Indecent Order fun.

While I took photos for the blog, these things were actually happening.

Spinning Plates

2011-12-09T16:46:00.000-06:00

Do you ever feel like one of those old timey circus plate-spinners?

Lately, I am SO that guy.

I can't stop laughing.

I mean, did you watch the video?

(Waiting.)

No, I am not that guy, but I totally feel like I am running around like a goober trying to keep my plates spinning and not having them all come crashing down. (I have had a few crashes, but I was not nearly as smiley as that guy when he made mistakes.)

As much as I'd love to unload here and tell you about some of the completely jacked up days and weeks (and more) that I have had this fall.... I won't. I guess. I will, however, share a time-management method I am using so that I don't drop any of my super important plates (or Pyrex bowls).

My method is working for me, for a few reasons ::

I like lists.

I like hand written, in-pencil lists.

It's flexible.

It's super low-tech. And doesn't need to be pretty.

It prompts me to think on my important projects and which of those need attention during the week.

At the end of the week, I can actually see what I did.

Dave can also glance at it, if needed, to see what the household is doing that week. Not that he does, but he totally could, in theory. (I leave the list on my kitchen counter top.)

And btw, this may be some totally real time-management method out there, and it actually has a name like the GitErDun Technique, I don't know. It would be nice to think that I invented this method, but really, it is sort of a hybrid of various systems I have used over the years. Like I said, it's working for me.

This is how it usually goes down ::

Sunday evening, I get this panicked feeling that I have been forgetting to do something and I'd better work on it some time soon. (Same kind of feeling like the one in my recurring nightmare about missing class for an entire semester then still having to take the final. And I can't find the class room. Anyone feel me, y'all?) This panicked feeling is my reminder to plan my week.

Then I drag my trusty notebook out.

I write out the days M-F with plenty of space underneath to make my list, which can be changed throughout the week, in order to be flexible.

While referencing a master list of long-term projects, I think about the big plates that I am spinning (the master list is so I won't forget any of them), and see if I need to do anything about each project that week.

If I do, I decide which day it should be attended to, and write it down. I also check my family calendar on the kitchen wall, and include any appointments on this new list.

The master list, lately. I'll redo it after the new year.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned I am hard on my notebook? There is usually some sort of glass ring or coffee splatter or random coloring on the pages. Oh and also.... I really do prefer paper and pencil for this. I have tried and tried to use electronic means to manage my time and it just does not work. I am way more concrete, I guess. (You wanna be a loser like me. Now, name that tune!)

This was my week, a couple of weeks ago (why didn't I put the date on it? no idea). Ah, and there is the glass ring, nicely centered on Wednesday's activites.

Close ups of that week ::

[Like my awesome Paint-editing slash scribbling? I figured my new friend Kim in Dallas wouldn't like her phone number on my blog. You know, in case my one stalker-reader who lives in Dallas decides to start calling her. Amy M., you know who are.]

You might notice that each item is brief. I don't include much as far as explanation on the list. There is no point.... it only matters if I know what to do with that item. No need to write out "Family breakfast at Tucker's school at 7:15, bring $4 cash."

This was the first part of the week of Thanksgiving ::

Notice that I put a short list with a box around it at the top of the page. This reminds me what I need to be reading (or want to be reading) that week. Sounds kind of homework-y, doesn't it? Well, there is some reading I have to just get completed, so it really is homework-y. In this case, I am reading this super intimidating book called Adoption Parenting and I just really, really need to finish it. Our home study isn't complete until it's read, so that is motivation enough, but also I just neeeeeed to be done reading it. It's kind of like the adoption equivalent of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It has all the stuff that can go wrong with your internationally adopted child. Nice, huh? Anyhow, other weeks I might read something frivolous as well as reading material for my beloved discipleship group (henceforth shall be referred to as D-group). My D-group is also reading One Thousand Gifts, a book not meant to be read quickly, so sometimes I have to remind myself to pick it up to read a couple of chapters.

And finally, a shot of my week, this very week. Looks like I did nothing today, doesn't it? Well, it was a nice day of getting a few things done around the house, but I didn't need to list anything since nothing was super pressing.

I don't know why, but for some reason this week I didn't put an "X" next to things as I completed them. Hmmm... let me look at that. Well, that's because, now that I look, almost nothing is "complete".... most of those things are works in progress! Oh and to be honest, there are a couple of things I just chose not to do so I wouldn't completely lose it. But, I usually do like to see "progress" by marking things off the list.

I've missed my blog.... it's been weeks since I posted. But, I suppose it is pretty clear why I haven't (see every photo on this post). Have a great weekend!

Put A [ _____ ] On It

2011-11-14T22:55:00.001-06:00

A friend asked me tonight at a dinner out if I ever made the burlap wreath that I found on Pinterest a few months ago. I said yes, which reminded me to post about it. Well, I forgot about it again, until later when I walked my babysitter to the door...

...looked at the wreath....

...and noticed....

... a new friend. Hi, Toad!

Seems that critters like my door decorations.

And while I am sharing the project.... I'll share a little hand-made pin that my friend Marlene made for me. It looks so cute tucked into the silk hydrangeas.

A Brand New Game Called School

2011-11-13T23:26:00.001-06:00

I am in mourning. I am leaving a certain life behind me that I really liked and I am just sad about it.

That certain life was one with pre-school aged children.

Tucker has been in school since August, but it is now clear.... my game is changing. School and its daily-ness and its requirements are changing me. I recognized a glimmer of this a few months ago.... I noticed how prepping the outfit, the breakfast, the snack, the backpack every night was taking forethought and time that I wasn't used to. I noticed how receiving the boy home, looking through the folders, preventing the tired-and-hungry meltdown, doing the daily reading, cleaning out the snack containers.... I wasn't used to that, either. And it also took time and forethought. But, it was okay and we all managed and time has moved on.

But now, today... I am feeling a bit locked in. Like a caged animal because... I noticed the school attendance policy. It wasn't what I thought it was. You mean, I can't pick up and go whenever I want anymore? But! But. But.

Is this what a desperate housewife feels like? Locked in to society's schedule and keeping everyone in the household moving with that schedule? Every day and every month for the rest of the school year? It might be.

I didn't realize that I was a free spirit. I have some free spirit qualities, like needing lots and lots of time in order for creativity to flow. But, sometimes it is hard to be spontaneous. So I assumed I was one of those scheduled people. But maybe not. Maybe that's why I write about how I run my house and life, because maybe it doesn't actually come naturally for me. I wasn't always the way I am now, I guess I had to learn to make my bed and use my calendar and notebook. Yes, I am a free spirit.

So, the caged free spirit is raging inside of me a little bit. Especially because Tucker had a three day weekend, which is now over, and it was lovely. I loved having him around. Calvin was much more content for having his brother to interact with. We did so much, yet it all unfolded without a plan or a time table. We read a lot of books. We watched some tv. We played outside. We made cookies. It was sort of a perfect and stereotypical few days with them. I guess the best part of it was that.... I love that I loved having him around. It made me happy that I wasn't overwhelmed by all the noises and questions and intensity of my sweet oldest child. Maybe I wouldn't feel so romantic about the whole thing after a week off from school, I don't know. But, tonight it's Sunday night and I am sad for Monday to come around.

Gappy Pants

2011-11-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

I have a personal problem.

My pants never fit. Most jeans or slacks I try on have a huge gap in the waist band. Hello, I really ought to be shopping for pants that are known to be draped for the girl with curves, but... I am a slow learner. I've purchased only a pair or two of "curvy" jeans. And even then, I have a pair of Gap Curvy jeans that still have an inch and a half gap at the waist band.

I mentioned this personal problem to my expert-seamstress-and-quilting friend Marlene awhile back and she said that she would show me this "easy alteration." Well, today she did! I took some photos, and while I am not writing this as a full blown tutorial, I hope that it could help someone else with this little, um, ample-bottomed problem. :)

So, Marlene jumped right in and helped me rip apart those Gap-py jeans. She was so confident... she just went to town with her seamripper and these cool Fisker scissor-y things.

Here's Marlene removing the two back belt loops (this was after determining that the pants were too big by 1.5 inches.... and the way they were constructed, she saw it would be easy to take the waistband in from the middle, though you can do it from the side seams as well).

Her Fiskar scissors have a very, very sharp point and of course this is a sturdy tool, perfect for taking out heavy-duty denim stitching.

She then took out several inches of top-stitching.... that's what was attaching the waistband to the pants.

Here is the waist band, separated from the pants for about 6 inches.

She ripped out the center seam on the waist band.... this is where we would sew a new seam at 3/4 of an inch from the original seam, in order to take the waistband in by 1.5 inches.

She had to cut open the facing (the inside part of the waistband) because there was no seam there already.

I don't have a shot of the next step, but all we did was sew the waist band back together, at 3/4 of an inch in from the original seam.

Once we did that, Marlene saw that we would have to take in a little bit of the back of the pants, but thankfully there were already darts there. All we had to do was make the darts bigger.... see how there's a triangle there? The stitching on the right was our new seam, making the dart bigger and therefore taking in the seat of the pants just a bit, in order for the now-smaller waistband to attach properly.

Below is the inside of the waistband.... see the huge seam allowance in the middle? That's the 3/4 of an inch taken in on each side. Also, side note... see the red pen on the right of the photo? That is a Fons and Porter marking tool.... it's like a mechanical pencil, but with white, or green or pink or whatever colored lead. I never knew I needed one, but now I know that I do! The white was perfect for marking on denim, especially because it is more precise than tailor's chalk.

Now with bigger darts and a smaller waistband, it was time to top-stitch the whole thing together. Marlene pinned for me and I sewed two seams (top of the waistband and bottom) to get the whole she-bang back together.

Waist band -- attached!

We marked with the white-leaded tool where to reattach the belt loops, stitched them securely and were done.

We regretted not taking a before and after shot of me wearing the pants, but now that I think about it, that might have been a little TMI for the old blog. Ha!

Now, I wonder if Marlene will help me again, the next time I need to do this, or if I am now ready to fly on my own! Youtube had approximately one helpful video on this alteration when I looked a few months ago, and just now, I couldn't find it. Hey Marlene.... want to do a video tutorial?!

That's How We Purdue It

2011-11-01T22:17:00.000-05:00

Our big Homecoming weekend at Purdue has come and gone.

It was wicked awesome. I mean, really.

We drove over 550 miles to get there, with a van load of 6.... two grandparents, two parents, two kids. That is serious commitment, no?

Let me explain why we were so committed.... because Alumni band is redonkulously fun. And.... I love, love, love to perform. I mean, give me a mic and I'd be a happy girl. I don't get to perform much.... I'd like to think it's just my stage in life. So, when the opportunity to perform comes up and I am able to take it.... I'll take it!

The weekend in photos!

A quick self-portrait at the Engineering fountain before heading out to watch the undergrad band rehearse ::

After walking on campus a bit, we went to watch the AAMB rehearse and march to the hall of music from the drill field. My brother Marc, during rehearsal (he's the one levitating in front of the drum) ::

Dave and the kids in front of my old dorm, Vawter Hall, waiting for the undergrad drumline to march by ::

Is the Big Bass Drum captain supposed to peel the drum head?

Friday evening was rehearsal for the Alumni Band. Dave and his snare buddies have marched together in five previous Homecoming gigs. Some of them even bought matching drums after graduation, in anticipation of years of Alumni hoopla to come. Hi Smoot! Hi Drew! Hi Dave! Hi Red-Head-Guy-Whose-Name-I-Never-Remember!

The alumni band consisted of over 400 people.... want to know what 400+ old band-os sound like, in one tiny room? It's Fighting Varsity!

I have no photos of the color guard rehearsal that night because I was too busy, um.... rehearsing. However, my mother was there and video taped the whole embarrassing mess. I shall not be posting that. Let's just say that perhaps I should have picked up a broom stick and rehearsed the fight songs at least once before getting up to West Lafayette. Thank goodness the choreography has been virtually untouched on those three numbers. It all came back to me, eventually.

That night we stayed in Delphi, Indiana, because we found super cheap condos to rent. However, I can't post the link because I would NEVER, ever stay there again. The mattress was the worst ever. So bad, that I had to sleep on top of a folded towel to prevent a spring from stabbing me in the rib cage all night. There was other stuff, too, but I would just sound like a jerk for complaining. Moving on....

One of the most exciting moments happened Saturday morning, after a very short night. I had dropped Dave off for 6:30 drumline warm ups, dropped the kids and MIL off at the student union, dropped of FIL close to the drill field. I parked my vehicle and as I made my way to the drill field, I was filled with glee as the most wonderful realization dawned.... I was alone. Blissfully, wonderfully alone. I mean, I was about to be on a field of 800 people for most of the day, but the reality of it was that I was only in charge of myself.

OHMYHOLYMOTHER.

My thought process, as I walked down a dark Third Street...."Hmmm. There's no one to talk to. Huh. Wow. Okay, that's because I'm by myself. Woah. And I guess there won't be anybody to talk to during rehearsal and the game because I don't know any of the other guard alumni, really. Huh. Seriously. I guess that means that the only thing I have to deal with today is to memorize drill, perform the old fight song routines, perform two feature songs with new choregraphy, know when to start and stop, and do a nice chair step as we march? Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Can I get a witness? Any one feel me on this? Anyone else suddenly realize that it's really, really draining to think of everyone else's (except your own) thirst, hunger, potty, clothing, sleep needs?!! Yup, it is hard to be a mommy, but it is AMAZING to get a break and not deal with that for a day.]

We rehearsed mostly in the dark, but after sunrise, the director, Dr. Jay Gephart, pumped us up after rehearsal.... he said it looked "spectacular" and I believe it.

I wish I had more photos, but these are from my cell. My mother took a bunch that I'll post when I eventually get them from her.

Just before marching to the stadium, the band parked and played a bit and I found my parents and MIL.... and my little CB, sacked out on my dad's back. Not a clue where the big kid was at that point. Maybe with my other brother, Alex, and his wife, also Purdue alums, who attended the game as well.

Hey, it's me and the Mister! Backed up by the Illini. Or, as Dr. Gephart says, the "Eeeleanee." I know, it's probably not funny at all to Illinois fans, but it was hilarious to me.

My FIL also marched in the alumni band.... he played sax back in the day, but plays clarinet now. He was a trooper.... it was a long day for a 60-something year old man with a bum leg. But he did it! And, he liked it!

My other big thrill of the day came during half-time. We played Hail Purdue and during the final chorus, the color guard pressed in towards the fifty. It was loud, the crowd was cheering, I remembered all the choreography and I couldn't stop smiling. I won't ever forget that moment.

You can catch (someone's perspective of) that moment here, starting at 2:58. You can catch a glimpse of me near the end of the first song, Bang a Drum. But, it's fast, so it's not that exciting. :)

The game was fun, though the things that I find fun during a football game are all the things other than the football game! Ha! It was cool watching the alumni cheerleaders (who were VERY chipper), and I also got to hang out with the Big Bass Drum Crew a lot, because they were near the alumni band and I wasn't doing anything during the actual game, not being an instrumentalist and all. And, that's how I got to be on the Jumbo Tron... I was standing with the crew when the cameras came to interview the also-standing-on-the-sidelines Air Force pilots who did the pre-game fly-over.... Marc and I thought we were pretty slick for mugging for the camera. I know, I know, we are not that slick.

It was an exhausting, can't-stop-grinning day. I've done Alumni band several times and this, by far, was the best one.

Sunday, we spent a few hours running around campus with my family before saying good-bye. Alex and his wife Chelsea are two of the most awesome people I know and they played with the kids a lot..... here's Alex manhandling Tucker. Love it. Can you see the slight look of triumph on Alex's face?

I asked Dave to take a few photos of my family and me.... the next few shots are pretty revealing about who we are. (The first one is one of his test shots.... not sure how we didn't notice that we were in annoying dappled light, but whatev.)

Seriously, why does my normal face look pissed off all the time? I gost to work on that.

There were actually many, many more in this sequence, but this is enough. I wouldn't want to be vain or anything.

So, like I said, there will be a few more weekend photos once I get ahold of my mom's shots. She said she had a great view for half time. I really, reh-hilly want to see the "spectacular" spectacle of 800 people on the field.

House Tour :: Kitchen

2011-10-28T07:30:00.000-05:00

The kitchen needed a scrub.... so it got shot as well today. Welcome!

Look to the left ::

Look to the right ::

I did no styling of this cabinet to the left of the sink before I took this photo. Clearly. All about keeping it realz.

Let's go back to the left ::

Coffee area to the left of stove ::

The coffee cabinet, lately ::

The candle holder is sitting on top of the cast iron griddle that lives on the stove top. I literally never put the griddle away because we use it so often to make quesadillas or pancakes.

Did you know that Alabama has orange groves? Neither did I until I got my Grow Alabama delivery this week.

I used to be a fridge minimalist. But, alas, some things are too special to go anywhere else.

But the front of the fridge is clear. :)

My favorite item in the kitchen ::

And now, for the inside, filled with shelves and stuff! (Also completely unstyled here... hence the wires hanging out of the "charging station" slash bowl.)

Okay, I lied. I did add this snapshot just for the photo. But I really had been planning on putting a picture of Dave there at some point. Because I am hilarious like that.

Continuing on to clockwise is the breakfast and lunch table. I didn't get a great overview shot of the table set up. We don't eat dinner here because I did away with a big high chair for Calvin. Now there is only seating for three.

Next to the table is the shoe area, which is next to the door to the deck.

Three hat/bag hooks live here (above the shoe area). The orange bag contains gardening gloves. Because I have no better place to store them.

And for the final shot, a view of the kitchen from the living room. And, for your bonus, a view of my son mid-temper tantrum because I wouldn't let him take the photos.

Oooh, wait, one last note. The painting on top of the armoire was painted by my great grandmother, Rhea Lulu Thompson. I am so glad to have it.

Food Containers

2011-10-27T13:49:00.000-05:00

I am running low on food storage... not all of the food containers have matching lids, or some containers have gotten broken or cracked. So when I was at The Walmarts today, I picked up a few different kinds of containers to test out. Normally, I'd want all my containers to be uniform for the sake of storage (so they would all nest or fit together nicely) as well as a simplified look, so once I nail down which containers I like, I'll pick more of the same up.

Here's what I got ::

A stack of four 1-cup Pyrex containers :: $9.97

Two Better Homes and Gardens plastic 16 oz. containers :: $3.97 each

Two Ziploc Versa Glass 1.5 cup and 2 cup containers :: $3.97 each

I use containers like this for leftovers, cheese, half a lemon, etc. I realized I was using a ton of ziploc bags for things like these, and that's when I assessed that my food storage situation was low. So, let the test begin. For the record, all of these containers are dishwasher safe.

I'll be sure to update which ones I like the best. I know, I know. I am sure you'll be waiting with baited breath. What can I say, I am a nerd who likes containers.

PS. Most of what I already have on hand is pyrex... I probably would have picked those up again, but The Walmarts didn't have any matching ones in stock. Hence, this test was born.

Boy

2011-10-20T08:57:00.000-05:00

I promise, this is the last post about my gallery wall. Just a quick update.... I finally put a photo in a huge empty frame that is at the center of the new configuration. It's yet another Sarah Cook shot, and it probably is my favorite of all the photos she's done for us.

This was a spontaneous shot of my 6-year-old son that she took while we walked around the Birmingham Botanical Garden. It was too perfect, and so very typical of my son. The shoe fell off, there was no need to put it back on, since plenty of dirt could still be kicked with a sock-foot. I love that kid. And I love this photo.

Yikes, Stripes

2011-10-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post photos of a little project Dave and I did over the summer. I bought an old armoire at my next-door neighbor's garage sale. It had been used to house a TV, and the back of it had several holes cut it it for cords and ventilation. I bought the armoire for kitchen storage ...originally there were a couple of small black cabinets in there, storing some of my fancy shmancy serving dishes, but I had been keeping my eye open for something taller to make use of vertical space. This was it. And I'm pretty sure I only paid $50 for it. We had to buy a new piece of paneling to replace the cut-up back, and I picked up a small pot of yellow paint for the inside of the paneling.

I won't go through the whole process, as there are approximately one million blogs out there to tell you how to do something like this. But, of course, if you have questions, leave them in the comments. I mean, really, could you say anything at all in the comments? That would be cool.

The exterior of the armoire, next to the fridge in the kitchen. Technically, it's in the "eat-in" area of the kitchen.

And now, for the really fun part....

After this photo was taken, Dave, my dad and I built four new shelves and installed them on the right side. I keep a stand mixer, serving dishes, and a boom box (no joke) in there. I hope to photograph the kitchen for a house tour soon, and I'll be sure to share photos of the finished project.

The Usefulness of Pinterest

2011-10-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm finally talking about Pinterest here, so if you already know the deal, pickle... feel free to move on to the next blog in your Reader. I am compelled to write about it today for the sake of a few yet-to-be-named non-Pinterest friends. I really should have talked about it on In Decent Order before now. After all... this is a blog about organization. I think.

Various people use Pinterest in different ways and for different reasons. A few of my creative and crafty friends are reluctant to get on the Pinterest bandwagon and I wonder if it's because they don't want a time waster or maybe they think it's another social network. So, yeah, this is my last ditch effort to get a couple of friends to reconsider their position that Pinterest is overwhelming.

For me, Pinterest is primarily a tool. This is an important distinction because for some, Pinterest might be primarily a leisure activity.

It is a tool because it allows for a highly visual way of organizing internet stuff.

In your Pinterest profile, there are a collection of virtual bulletin boards of various catergories that you name, and you "pin" a photo to it. The pin/photo is attached to a link so you can find the item you pinned before.

I've seen lots of types of pins out there.... home decor, recipes, teaching aids, crafts, holidays, drumming related items (that would be Dave). Pinterest is like your internet browser's favorites list, but far more visual. It's not just a random link in your favorites list, but it's a photo that takes you to the source of the photo.

Pinterest is not another Facebook, or The City, or Twitter that you have to consistently maintain. Yes, there are friends (actually "followers"), but the purpose of following friends on Pinterest isn't to keep up with each other's illness, vacations and kids' photos. It's to see what your other visual-type friends are pinning. For example, my friend Alyssa often pins quilting ideas. I sometimes re-pin her pins to my own sewing board because I don't want to forget a certain technique or quilting method that she pinned (or if you prefer, "publicly bookmarked" instead of "pinned").

So back to the idea that it is a leisure activity for some people.... if you have time to kill, or are looking for something to do or somewhere to go, certainly you could spend half an hour (or two hours) looking at your Pinterest feed at what your friends are pinning. Or you can search all of Pinterest for what other people have pinned related to something you want to do.... I did a search for rain barrels recently. It was nice because it saved me from having to do a broad internet search on the same topic. For me, it weeded out a lot of useless links.

But, even if you never looked at your Pinterest feed, having the "Pin It" tool in your browser so you can mark stuff you want to remember is extremely useful. I have a dude-friend who uses Pinterest for organization, but he has no followers and follows nobody. I mean, it *is* fun to share the ideas, but that wasn't the point for him.

Pinterest isn't just for the crafty folks, but certainly because of it's visual nature, lots of crafty folk use it and pin crafty things.

One of my friends uses Evernote, so maybe she wouldn't find Pinterest nearly as useful as someone who has no internet organization method at all.

My fear is that even with my little bullets, all these words have made it seem complicated. But, really... it's not.

This photo is from my Pinterest feed today. Each small photo is equivalent to one "story" in Facebook. Some items have likes or comments, but most don't. On my Facebook the other day, my feed was full of unrelated items like Russsian bullets, pie-making, movie-watching, and parenting... similarly, this Pinterest feed represents the interests of each unique person who I follow. So there are pins of recipes, a Chewbacca sewing idea, jewelry organization, clothing, and nursery decor, etc.

One last thing, and it's not really my story to tell, but I must share it. My friend Jennifer told me how some of her crafty friends get together regularly to have "Pinterest Parties." Everyone brings a crafty project that they have pinned, but haven't had time to get to. They work on their stuff together while hanging out. They must do this as sort of an anti-procrastination thing... it's easy to pin a lot of project ideas, or recipes, or books, and maybe have no follow through. This is their way of following through... and it sounds fun. Anyhow, she told me that after their latest Pinterest party, she and some of the other women were driving home together late at night when they got pulled over for a "broken light." Apparently, the cop kept grilling them, asking them if they were going out and if they were partying, etc. Jennifer said to me, "Tara! Couldn't he see that we were all wearing cardigans? I mean, I had a glue gun at my feet and a bowl of oatmeal cookies in my lap. Who does he think we are?"

******

So, did it work? Did my last plea convince Tami, Chelsea, Chelsie, Lisa, Lori and Aimee to join? We'll see. If not, I'll have to be content with connecting on a visual and creative level without you. Sad face.

A Fall Update

2011-10-06T16:58:00.000-05:00

An update on more things than you ever wanted to know about what's going on at my house and in my head these days ::

Some of my cousins, aunts and uncles are rolling into town today so that my cousin Steve can act like he's a bad ass while doing this. I don't get to see extended family often, so we are super pumped about spending the weekend with them in the motorcycle pits.

My sister-in-law, Jenny, is also here for a visit right now. So far since she's been here, we listened to Calvin moan in misery over an ear infection, watched The Great Muppet Caper, ate lunch and took naps. Life is exciting at my house.

I am no longer washing my hair with baking soda... at the suggestion of my super amazing hair stylist, I am using Wen, of infomercial fame. To say that I love it would be an understatement.

Speaking of hair, I am in love with my velcro rollers, all over again. I've had them for years and used them occasionally, but recently my stylist put more layers in my hair which has made the velcro rollers more effective. I like the big waves they make and I am hardly using my flat iron these days. I let my hair mostly air dry (or mostly blow it dry if I am in a hurry), put the rollers in (takes about 5 minutes) and let my hair finish drying. I pull the rollers out and that's it.

I have joined a group of women in a year-long journey to become more like Jesus. It's called a discipleship group and we meet once a week. I am beyond thrilled to be with several deep, funny, honest, humble people while we make a point to love each other, reveal our emotions and motives, ask questions, and pray for each other. Jesus is more real to me now than ever... I can't wait to see what is going to happen in our group. In the three weeks we've met so far, I have felt both accepted and challenged.

I flushed a scorpion down the toilet just now.

I still really love my green dining room ceiling and think that everyone should consider a colored ceiling somewhere in their house.

I also like the colored ceiling in the living room... it's not an exciting color like the dining room, but it is half the concentration of the wall color. Feels cozier in here and I like how it makes the room feel more finished.

I'm dying to choose some fabric to make drapes for the dining room, but I am refraining until I get a couple of things accomplished... lingering loose ends with adoption paperwork, plant some already-purchased plants into the ground, a few small organization projects around the house (desk, two toy boxes, a bathroom closet).

I rehung my gallery wall. I took it down when the walls were painted a couple of weeks ago. I reworked it into a tighter arrangement and I think I like it better. In case you might be curious.... all of the pieces were lying on the floor in the basement family room that entire time. I wasn't really ready to rehang it, but with our company this weekend, it forced my hand. See here for "before."

This last bullet point is dedicated to a couple of my friends who make fun of "blog perfection." This is an effort to not just share the things I am proud of... I am going to tell you something you probably could have gone all day without knowing. Stop reading here if you'd like to continue thinking that I am blog perfect. Ha. Okay, here we go. So I have had this gross pink mildew in my shower. It appears in the corners, and all along the bottom of the shower curtain. I looked it up and found out that it's not a mildew at all... it's a bacteria. And it's linked with pneumonia. That was enough for me to kick into serious we-have-to-deal-with-this-regularly-and-thoroughly-for-the-health-of-our-budding-asthmatic-child-as-well-as-ourselves mode. I bleached the heck out of the stall and the shower curtain to get rid of the pink nasty. I have to consistantly hang the shower curtain over the rod until it dries so that the bacteria won't find a hospitable environment there and return to mock me and my bleach. I also have a squeegee that I wipe the stall out with after my shower. I hope this works, but I am sure consistency is the key.

That's it for now! Can I just say that I am in love with October here in Alabama?! Anyone else with me?!

Another Birthday, Another Cake

2011-10-05T06:49:00.000-05:00

Calvin turned two last week. Oh, my heart. My sunshine.

He is obsessed with the garbage truck, so it only made sense to make a garbage-truck-themed cake, using the same method I used to make Tucker's Darth Vader cake.

And now for gratuitous cuteness on Calvin's birthday ::

Still in jammies, ready to make the cake.

Legos, while the cake bakes.

My favorite show!

Dressed, and on to the frosting.... and scavenging errant powdered sugar.

Now, enjoying the dregs of heavy cream, vanilla and salt.

Finally, the finished frosting.

Skyping with the Jersey grandparents.

Dinner.

Needed a little help after awhile.

And now, the best part! Couldn't wait to get my piece, so I went ahead and took a taste.

Tucker made a "cake" out of fondant scraps.

Presents! A puzzle from brother.

A gift from Grandma.

Me, mommy, and my new garbage truck.

Dump the Junk

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

The only two kids' chairs we own have seen far better days. It's time they were trashed.

But, I didn't want to trash them until I had replacements because when we eat out on the deck, the kids' use this table that belonged to my siblings and me when we were kids ::

We all used to eat at a huge table together, but we decided that the table was taking up too much space, so we replaced it with a craigslist find. It was a bright green bistro set that I spray painted oil-rubbed bronze. More on that when I fully update the deck's changes.

I went to TJ Maxx the other day and ran across two little step stools that I thought might work for chairs. I haven't been successful at finding not-ugly or affordable outdoor kids' chairs, so this seemed like a good compromise. They were $10 each.

A Green Ceiling

2011-10-01T08:08:00.000-05:00

I posted about our upcoming paint changes a bit ago. I picked out Hearts of Palm for the dining room ceiling and took a risk by not sampling it first.

The risk was worth it... the painting is complete and Hearts of Palm is fabulous. It's a bit yellow, while still being green. I plan to take some good photos when the lighting is nice, but for now, here is a cell phone photo I posted on Facebook on the day it was painted.

Shade Garden

2011-09-30T16:25:00.000-05:00

You know that phrase... "Bloom where you're planted" ...? I've always told myself to bloom where ever I'm planted... it's something a nomad has to do. Choose happiness. Um. Right?

Birmingham, thankfully, isn't too hard to bloom in. For me, I've made some good friends, found some pretty places, and for Pete's sake, the shopping is more than decent (with a notable exception... no Trader Joe's).

I've been thinking about this because, turns out, I have had a problem with planting plants in the wrong places. Not everything will thrive in just any spot, in any level of sunlight. It might be impossible to bloom where planted. Makes me wonder if I could be that way, too. Would I become a miserable (well, more than usual) person if I lived in some God-forsaken town like Battle Mountain, Nevada? Well, it's likely.

(Side note: I'm reading "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner.... it's his search for the happiest places in the world. So very interesting.)

Anyhow, this poor, pathetic hydrangea has lived in a partly-sunny part area for the last two years. I'm pretty sure I planted it in the previous location because I thought it looked nice. I paid no regard to the sunlight needs of this sweet little piece of potential. Unrealized potential. Clearly.

Today I relocated her to a completely shaded area, a little corner outside the new deck. I gave her some fertilizer, some amended soil and a big drink of water. Tucker and I talked to her and told her we were sorry for blasting her with sun. You can see she doesn't look so great. The tag (still attached after 2 years) said she can get to be six feet wide, but she really hadn't grown at all during that time.

To keep Little Hydrangea company, I planted a huge fern and three little hosta. We instructed them to thrive and promised to water them (see the hose contraption rigged up in the background? It's set on timers and we'll use it until the plants are established and won't need extra water besides the rain.).

I know it doesn't look great now. It would look so much better if there were nice black mulch and if I hadn't been too lazy to hunt down the nice camera instead of my cell phone. Oh well, the point is made and history is preserved. I'm hoping to look back at these in the spring and be amazed at how much has changed.

Good for Me and CB

2011-09-23T10:24:00.000-05:00

A friend sent this to me today and I must repost, in the spirit of Dr Techno's Internet Video Rundown. Calvin, almost two, gives it two thumbs up. So do I.

Looking for A New Gray

2011-09-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

Our roof leaked a few months ago. Said leak is now repaired, and now it's time to paint over the damage.

Can you spot the spots?

There are also streaks on the walls in the above photo, they just are hard to capture on camera. They must be shy.

More spots above the foyer, next to the dining room ::

I can't say I am sad that two rooms and ceilings need to be repainted now. I am ready to move on from Sherwin Williams' Essential Gray. I was very happy with it for the last 2+ years, but now it is striking me as a little too cold for my taste and space. It fights with the warmer tones of the woods visible through the windows, as well as some of the other finishes throughout the house.

I struggled with choosing colors, mostly because I am a recovering perfectionist and I agonized over picking just the right color. Ridiculous.

I made a checklist of the critieria that needed to be met ::

In case you can't read my handwriting through the distortion of water spots and general wear (I keep my notebook in the kitchen usually... it gets pretty beat up), here's what it says::

Paint

neutral -- grey/greige
cohesive with rest of house
warmer than current paint
DR [dining room] darker than LR [living room]
possibly paint ceilings
will hide handprints -- not too light

Looking through a fan deck in the last few days, I landed on three strips that I liked, though I wasn't sure which shade to choose... the second color down or the third color down? I was afraid that the second color down would be too washed out because the rooms-to-be-painted are flooded with sunlight most of the day. The colors I liked (3rd color down on the strips) ::

Versitile Gray
Anew Gray
Requisite Gray

I also really liked a greenish yellow called Hearts of Palm and thought that might be cool on the ceiling. The photo below shows the greenish strip, the three new greys to consider, as well as the strip where Essential Gray lives (third color down on the far right strip).

Can you see how Essential Grey looks hard and steely? That might work in someone's very modern space, but like I said above, it seemed like it's time was over in our house. Time to warm it up.

I picked up samples at SW (they are only $5 a pot... completely worth it, IMO, to avoid a huge painting mistake). I painted swatches on two walls and was amazed at how different the colors looked based on the locations and lighting. VersitileGray ended up looking quite beige on one of the walls, though it was fine in a darker spot... but ultimately it is too "meh" for my taste and space. It is the top swatch in the photo below, next to the top cream/yellow swatch ::

I know, it is hard to tell in these photos, since I am not a photo and lighting expert. In real life, Versitile Gray definitely comes off as beige, not a warm grey. It might work for some people and certain spaces, just not for my light-flooded, vast expanses of drywall.

I liked the Requisite Gray, but just to make sure, I pulled out a can of Anew Gray that was stored in the garage (that's what my sewing room is painted). I painted a patch of it on the walls (after the above photos were taken) and I've almost made my decision....

Pretty sure it's going to be Requisite Gray for the living room. I've decided to keep the dining room Special Gray (both Dave and I just really, really like it), which looks pretty good next to the Requisite Gray. But, the dining room ceiling will be painted in Hearts of Palm, which is a shade darker than the darkest of the yellow/cream swatches above. [I didn't get a sample of it... I'm pretty darn confident that I love it. I do know that the two shades lighter (again, seen above) come off as super light and creamy. I want more of a green-yellow.] As for the living room ceiling.... not sure yet. It will indeed be something other than white. Guess I better decide before morning when the painter shows up.

Oh and here's the "before" of the living room, in it's current state of Essential Gray, with a white ceiling ::

Dear Dr Techno: Fluoride

2011-09-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

My brother Alex, a new blogger and a PhD candidate at Northwestern University, and I decided to put our heads together some sort of blog collaboration. Thought it would be fun to find an intersection of his scientific interests, as well as my home-centric interests. We had a few ideas, but nothing that seemed just the right fit. Until last week.

It started when I was bouncing around the blogosphere, and ended up on a relatively well-known sorta-crunchy blog. (I say sorta-crunchy with no condescension... one might call me sorta-crunchy as well. I'll never forget when a new friend came to my house one morning and after seeing a few different things such as the natural peanut butter that we like, she said "Okay, so you like a lot of.... natural stuff." Boy, she would not hang well with some of my Albany, NY, friends.)

So, this sorta-crunchy blog had a recipe for natural tooth paste. I was intrigued.... it is fun to make products at home occasionally, so I read it. I used to make a lot of my own cleaning products until my mother-in-law gave me an all-in-one jug of concentrated all-purpose natural cleaner several years ago. That jug will probably last until my kids are in high school.... so, like, a long time from now. Aaaanyhow, I read through the MYO tooth paste post and one of the stated reasons for making the tooth paste was to avoid fluoride. It seemed a smidge fear-based, like, oh if I use fluorinated tooth paste, really bad stuff might happen.

This caused me to send an email to my science-minded brother that simply said "hey, what are your thoughts on fluoride?" Except that I misspelled it as "flouride." Like some sort of mutant wheat product. Heh.

His emailed response prompted me to call him to announce that our joint blog project had been born. Welcome to the first installment of Dear Doctor Techno. Be sure to stop by his blog, become a follower, and check out his Internet Video Rundowns. He also writes about science and technology.

[Side note: I decided not to include the link to the original blog post, because my point here is for information and research, not to publicly call someone out. If you'd like to read the original post, email me and I will send the link.]

[Dear Dr Techno is a feature where we pose a question to my brother, Alex Thompson, a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering and blogger at Dr Techno. Have a question for Dr Techno? Feel free to ask! It's all in good fun.]

Dear Dr Techno,

What are your thoughts on flouride?

-Tara

Dear Tara,

You're wondering if fluoride in tooth paste is dangerous, based on the blog post link you sent me. My dentist says my tooth enamel is really strong, probably because in modern society, we get a lot of fluoride. Both in out tap water and in toothpaste.

The main points of the post:

Fluoride is banned in many countries water, but not the US,
Fluoride is highly corrosive and toxic, and
Fluoride is highly reactive. Therefore, maybe we should limit our fluoride intake by making your own toothpaste.

I'll focus on fluoride in water since with toothpaste you spit the fluoride out at the end. And I'm not aware of a bunch of mouth cancers due to brushing teeth. So, I think the interesting question is about fluoride in water.

Firstly, let's look at the blogger's fluoride-is-banned-in-certain-countries claim.

It seems like a pretty interesting argument. But something about the claim seemed funny to me. So this is the first thing I searched for, and within moments, I found an article on Wikipedia for water fluoridation and countries add fluoride. France and Germany are listed on the MYO toothpaste post among the countries that ban fluoride in water, but both actually add fluoride to salt. Denmark's health board is in favor of adding fluoride to water, but the country hasn't implemented it. So, I'm not sure if they ban fluoride in their water, but they are definitely not against ingesting fluoride.

I want to emphasize how easy it was to show that the fluoride-is-banned-in-some-countries list rings hollow and is quite disingenuous. With a simple Google search, I was able to find independent information that shows some of those countries are in fact pro-fluoride.

Next, let's look at the arguments about fluoride being toxic, and reactive.

A quick refresher in chemistry. Elements in the same column in the periodic table are have similar chemical properties. (For example, the precious metals silver and gold are in the same column.) It turns out that fluorine is chemically similar (corrosive, toxic, reactive) to chlorine, which is contained in table salt. And spoiler alert: don't stop eating salt. You will die.

Points 2 and 3 seem like there is a poor understanding of the relevant science, not unlike the recent apple juice-arsenic controversy. Or the fake controversy about dihydrogen monoxide (it is contained in cancer, it will kill you if you breathe it in, it is used in nuclear power plants-- it's just plain water).

So what should we think about the safety of fluoride in water?

Briefly looking at Wikipedia, it seems like fluoride is safe at low doses and there aren't any big cases of epidemics from over fluoridation (though there have been some localized cases). But over large areas and long times, it seems to not be detrimental.

So if you want to make your own toothpaste, do it to save money or as a teaching aid for you kids, but don't do it because of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Perhaps you are concerned about the fluoride's effects on the environment or you aren't sure if it is effective when drunk, do some independent research, but I don't think you have to worry about fluoride in your tap water hurting you. There are other things in society we know are big problems like obesity, diabetes, and sitting too much (perhaps watching internet videos).

It is true, you shouldn't have too much fluoride, but also, not too little. Moderation in everything. just like with water (it turns out water poisoning is a thing).

And your dentist called. He asked me to remind you to floss. And not just the week before you go see him. He knows.

Sincerely,

Dr Techno

Lamp Hat

2011-09-20T20:43:00.002-05:00

My uncle is a talented wood-working hobbyist. He made a purpleheart wood lamp for us after my son Calvin was born. It has been in Calvin's room, and I think of my aunt and uncle whenever I see it. A few months ago, it was knocked off the desk and, as my uncle predicted should this sort of thing happen, the fall didn't phase the wood a bit. Purpleheart wood is dense and practically indestructible. The shade, though, was punctured. It's hard to tell in this photo (hello, cell phone shot), but there is an ugly hole in the shade that completely distracts from the beauty of the lamp... the hole was where my eye went every time I turned the lamp on.

I found a replacement shade while shopping in Homewood with a friend. I am decorating Calvin's room in sort of vintage + rustic + modern style (yo, isn't everyone decorating like that these days?). The shade nods towards all three of those criteria.

It looks like it is covered in a wide-woven burlap.

Can I just say... homemade gifts are my most favorite gifts, ever. The lamp will probably end up being an heirloom... it's with us for the long haul.

Maybe I Should Be Dutch

2011-09-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

...except that I like being American. Anyone see this article a few weeks ago?

I loved the whole article, but this quote sums it up for me:

“Perhaps [Dutch women] are happy because they don’t feel guilty for falling short of perfection. We are torn to shreds between the American and the Mediterranean models of womanhood. On one hand, we are boardroom feminists expecting equality of expectation and outcome. On the other, we are matriarchs, wanting to run model kitchens and walk through meadows with bands of children.”

Marching Band-o

2011-09-13T10:25:00.000-05:00

Just can't help it.... marching band is so awesome to me.

This video that my brother Marc made gives me chills and tears and makes me want to go find some high school color guard to coach, just so I can be in that world again for a bit.

Anyhow, I signed up for Alumni Band today.... which means I will get to be in that world for a weekend soon. Dave plans to participate and play his snare, though he is conditioning himself carefully, due to his drumming-related injuries.

This year should be pretty awesome....it's a big anniversary year for the Purdue All-American Marching Band. Maybe band alum Neil Armstrong will be there! My in-laws are coming with us, and my parents will meet us there. So, there will be plenty of grandparent coverage for the kids. I can't wait for my boys to be exposed to such hugeness.... that's something I remember vividly when I was a freshman in the band. It was huge! It was a privilege to be a cog in such an awesome machine.

A Fondant Darth Vader

2011-09-12T19:08:00.000-05:00

My kid turned 6 on Labor Day. In 2005, September 5 was also Labor Day. People who are born on holidays are so lucky. The whole world celebrates. (Steve T. need not comment on that point.... Christmas babies may be the exceptions.) My friend Jen was born on Valentine's Day and she has always felt her birthday was extra special because of all the chocolate and love. Anyhow, our three-day weekends around Tucker's birthday are memorable every year.

This year we went up to Marriott Shoals in Florence, Alabama. They have an awesome swimming area with a water slide, baby pool,and indoor pool. The on-site restaurant, Swampers, makes me ridiculously happy. If you go there, order the Monte Cristo sandwich with the sweet potato fries. I ordered it both nights we had dinner there. Delish.

We headed back home on the actual birthday, after three days of pre-birthday fun, like swimming, bowling, general merriment. I didn't plan ahead much for Tucker's real birthday celebration, so we stopped at Joann Fabrics on the way home for me to peruse the cake decorating section. Tucker had been talking about a "Star Warts" cake for months.

Joann's didn't have any character cake toppers. But they did have pre-colored, rolled out sheets of fondant. A lightbulb went off in my head. In an instant, I figured out how to do the the cake. And then I thought, Did I really just come up with my Star Warts cake scheme? On my own? I never have my own ideas... I copy everyone else's good ideas, so I was a bit giddy and full of myself for having an original idea. (Well, perhaps other people online have had this idea too, it's just this time I didn't copy those people.)

I picked up a sheet of white and a sheet of black fondant. (First several photos taken with cell phone. Planning fail.... good camera's battery was dead.)

As soon as we got home, Tucker and I made his traditional Wacky Cake and got it in the oven. He was banished from the kitchen as I worked on the next step.

While the cake baked, I did a Google image search for "Darth Vader's Head" and scrolled through until I found a black and white rendering... I didn't want a photo or a life-like drawing. I needed it to be graphic. And, I have no idea if that is the right term. I'll just show you what I found.... it was somebody's greeting card that I blew up to the size I wanted, printed out and cut out.

I used this image to create a copy with the rolled fondant. I laid my paper template directly on the black icing, and cut out the head shape with an exacto knife.

Then, I cut out the white pieces, cutting directly through the paper template and the fondant at the same time . Sometimes it didn't go all the way through the fondant, but the marks were visible, so I cut again after removing the paper.

I laid each white piece in place as I cut.... but I didn't afix it permanently. I wanted to do that all at the same time when I was finished cutting.

Once finished cutting, I used a tiny paint brush and applied water to the backs of the white fondant pieces. Then, following the original template (by now all sorts of cut up), I placed the white pieces on the black Darth Vader head.

The fondant on the left, the template on the right ::

I was pleased with how it turned out. I admit, looking at the photo now, my Darth looks a little "concerned" due to eyebrow placement. But, whatever. He still looks marginally evil and scary. More important, he was recognizable.

Tucker was allowed back in the kitchen to ice the cake, though Darth was covered with a towel. (I'm pretty sure its not kosher to call Darth Vader simply "Darth," right? Whatever, it sounds really funny to me.) I followed America's Test Kitchen recipe for butter cream frosting. Can I just say.... holy smokies?! It might have been the best icing I have ever eaten. And I might have eaten a lot of icing in my life time. Let's just say cake for me is just an excuse to eat icing.

The cake, pre-icing (and btw, I cut off part of the top.... it had too much of a crown and needed to be flatter... the white stuff on top of the cake is errant powdered-sugar) ::

Not only did it taste good, but it spread perfectly. There were no cake crumbs stuck in it. It was just stiff enough.

Tucker got kicked out again so I could attach Darth to the cake. Here's where the good camera's battery was finished charging! Oh yeah, I added edible star glitter and a number 6 (icing from a tube) on a piece of fondant cut into a circle.

And now... time to present it to the birthday boy!

I got two enthusiastic "Awesomes!" out of him. Oooooh, my heart.

After singing happy birthday and making a wish, I asked T-man what he thought about cutting up Darth Vader. He said "That's what he deserves for being mean to good guys!" Funny, considering he has only seen Star Warts once about six months ago and has refused to watch it since then.

Oh, have I mentioned here on IDO that Tucker is a bit, um, directive? Check out what he's doing in the next two shots ::

Yep, he's telling me exactly what to do. That's my kid. That's what he does.

And yep, that might be my other kid sitting on the table with no pants on. He does have undies on, though. And I have washed the table cloth since then, in case you were wondering.

This is the exact piece Tucker wanted ::

The rest of the crew approved, as well.

I am not sure what clicked while I made this cake, but something did click for me. I caught myself smiling while I worked, especially while cutting out Darth Vader. I guess I couldn't wait to show everyone. It was turning out far better than other cakes I have made.... they always tasted good, but looked like a hot mess. I kind of get why some people cook or bake... it can give a ton of pleasure to family and friends, so all the planning and work is worth it! Maybe I am now inspired to be less utilitarian with some of my cooking.... maybe I can find it in myself to cook just for the pleasure of it, now and then.

Six years, my son! I love you.

Want to Get Happy?

2011-09-07T22:58:00.002-05:00

My brother Alex has a blog... that makes 4 out of 5 siblings in my family of origin who are somehow strangely interested in the blogging thing. Alex posted a video this week that makes me unbelievably happy every time I watch it. Have I admitted yet here on IDO that I am a complete wannabe dancer? I should totally be in this video. Check his post out and say "Hey!" while you're there.

I Kissed Couponing Goodbye

2011-09-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

So.... couponing.

I'm all done with it. It was fun for awhile and I was an advocate for awhile, but I've changed my mind about it.

It was too stressful. It took loads of time to hunt the coupons down, to print them off, and, most of all, to plan the shopping trip out. When I was couponing weekly at Publix, it would take me about an hour to plan out a trip and I would go when Tucker was at preschool (to be slightly more focused on the job by only having one "helper"). An hour a week doesn't sound like much, but, that was just the planning, not the execution. I went on Wednesdays because that is the day that Publix has their penny item. So, I would either have to plan the trip on Tuesday night after the kids were down (Southern Savers always posted the new ad on Tuesday nights), or I'd have to drop Tucker off at school, come home, plan it out, and then either let Calvin do his nap, or try to squeeze the shopping in before nap time. I would have to be home by 1:00 to greet Tucker from preschool, so if you work it all out, it made for crap Wednesdays. I could have gone on Mondays or Fridays, but I would have missed one of the biggest savings (the penny item) and risked the on-sale items being sold out because all the other local couponers shopped before me (closer to Wednesday when the ad came out). Doesn't that all sound crazy? I can't even re-read this paragraph fully because my mind turns to mush as I relive it. I have post-traumatic couponing disorder.

For me, all that ca-raziness was a steep price to pay in the name of saving money. When I did well at the store, I saved maybe 40%. It was a decent amount, totaling up to $40 or $50 a week, but only on the really good weeks. On regular weeks, I'd save $30-$35.

Last spring my Sunday newspaper subscription recently ran out and that's when I stopped regularly couponing. I had a cheap deal for a Wednesday and Sunday subscription to the Birmingham News ($52 for the year), but even still that $52 is a "hidden" cost of couponing. Nothing is free, including the ink and paper to print out online coupons.

One morning since then, while drinking one of my thrice-weekly Starbucks (talk about frugal), I was thinking about the cost to coupon. The irony slowly revealed itself ... I could save a good portion of potential-coupon-savings by changing my coffee habits. Dang! Sounds so stupid and obvious now that I am writing about it. But, yes, coffee savings are about $150 in the last couple of months, thanks to this. I love you, Ree.

I am not against couponing in general and have no problem with people who do it. My sister regularly gets amazing deals, especially at CVS. If I were to somehow get ahold of the Sunday coupon inserts in the future (hint, hint, Dad), I could see myself doing an occasional CVS run for household staples like toilet paper and razors. But for now, with my given situation in life (a husband, two young kids, working on an international adoption, maintaining/improving my home, blogging, traveling, being a friend, etc.), I choose not to regularly coupon.

What I *do* do (doo-doo.... heh, reminds me of the "duty" episode of Friends where Chandler blows an interview by making a poo joke), is shop the weekly sale for snack items, cereal, etc. and then buy store-brand for necessities that are not on sale. For example, in general, I will buy the fruit that is on sale that week, while foregoing the fruit that is full price. That's not to say I will ever pass an avocado up, sale or not. But, I still internally cringe when I have to buy deodorant for $4 a stick, when I could have gotten it for free. I have this internal dialogue that goes something like, "Ugh! Don't buy it at full price, you could get this way cheaper!" "Yes, you could have gotten it for "free" but at what cost! Stop being a freak, freak."

When I buy the on-sale bread, frozen veggies, and other on-sale items, as well as inexpensive store-brand staples, I still end up saving $20-$25 a week. Between that, not paying for a newspaper, and not buying coffee treats all the time, I figure I am kind of ahead of where I was a year ago. Anyhow, I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, but this is where I am at for now. Couponing is big in Birmingham, but I am finding more and more people here who are ex-couponers these days. It is a matter of stewarding resources, to put it another way.

***Update***

So, I actually wrote the material above several weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting it. Since then, I read a book about food called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. In the book, Kingsolver documents a year where she and her family raised and ate their own food... virtually nothing was store-bought or non-local (exceptions were made for coffee and spices). I loved reading about the food, farming, and cooking journey (though the first few chapters were rough to get through... she basically rants against America, politicians, petroleum-addicts, and in general sounds accusatory during those chapters). Kingsolver talks about many positive fruits (pun intended) of eating food grown/raised at home (or at least, nearby), and cost-savings was one of those fruits. She saved thousands of dollars in that year (though that really wasn't the point for her).

What a great idea for the frugal-minded, yet coupon-avoidant... food grown in the back yard to save money. I, for one, have gardened for the "fun" of it, not for the cost-savings. And, of course, my garden has been a near-complete failure the last two summers, but I count it towards experience. Maybe next spring will be more profitable. If I could get enough experience and confidence, maybe I would save some money with a garden.

And one last thought... sometimes getting something as cheaply as possible may not be the point... maybe quality matters. Kingsolver railed about the strange things called tomatoes that show up at the grocery store and how they cannot possibly compare to home grown tomatoes, freshly picked and turned into a salad, or a sauce. She made the point that if you can't grow your own, maybe it's worth it to spend a little more to buy a locally grown 'mater, full of flavor. Seriously, cheap isn't always the highest value. Is cheap the highest value when considering what car to buy? What clothes to purchase? What hotel to book?

Thoughts on Marrying an Introvert

2011-08-28T19:41:00.000-05:00

A preface:: this post has nothing to do with order, house, or kids stuff. Strictly personal today.

Last week, my friend Emily posted a well-known (new to me, though) article called "Caring for Your Introvert" by Johnathan Rauch. There is a follow up interview that is thought-provoking as well... the title alone is hilarious.

The topic of introversion and extroversion has come up many times this year, but for some reason these particular articles have motivated me to learn more about these strange creatures, the introverts. I mean, I *do* live with one. I've known that for a long time. But, what I haven't known is how our opposite dispositions deeply impact my expectations, my emotions, and therefore my marriage.

Gosh, I truly don't know how much detail to give here. I'll let my husband read it before I post it... it's no secret that extroverts need to talk/write to process, and might do so without actually meaning the first few things said/written. Maybe we're the weird ones after all. So, anyhow, I'll dive in and have Dave edit later.

So, I tend to be open and verbal about my emotions and thoughts. It is easy for me to connect with people, especially those who reciprocate. I long for deep, intimate relationships, whether that's with friends or family. I find myself dissatisfied with shallow friendships and even try to think about how I can connect better, or more often, or whatever, in order to build friendships. It bothers me to no end that we bought a house on a street full of introverts (well, introverts and super-busy people). I care about my neighbors (though there's a few so deeply-entrenched introverts that they have only been spotted them a time or two, like endangered creatures).... but, I don't understand why no one wants to get together, to have coffee, to talk, or even connect momentarily, but regularly, on the street as we go about our days. This is nothing against these exotic animals.... it's simply different.... and hard for me to appreciate, since I am the opposite. I even had a neighbor, a sweet older woman, tell me the day we moved in that it was nice to meet us and she'll probably wave when she sees us, but she won't come over to talk. Well, at least she set the expectations at the beginning! I respect that now, though at the time I thought it was odd (a classic mistake we extroverts make, thinking introversion to be odd...it's not). She is a true introvert.

In recent years, especially since the birth of our second child, connecting with my husband has been hard. I could blame it on the intense years of having little kids, but now I am wondering if it's something else altogether... perhaps being "married singles" for 8 years before kids set me up for disappointment later. Dave now has three people in his household making demands upon him, and that is beyond the regular demands of working in manufacturing, as well as serving at church by playing drums (one of the few activities that he actually enjoys these days). I remember the first time he said that word, "demanding." He said he has a demanding job, demanding kids, and a demanding wife, but hey, don't take it the wrong way, honey. I didn't understand... I don't force him to do anything. I don't consciously pressure him to do extroverted-type things like I did when we were first married. But, now.... I might be getting it.. Just another's presence alone can be demanding and full of unspoken pressure to an introvert. Especially one who almost never has a moment alone.

In the past, and even recent past, our evenings and weekends have been rough. Not enjoyable for anyone in our family except the short people who only need Legos in order to have a great time. There has been an unspoken pressure that neither of us have been able to define. It's weird expectations. It's feeling that whatever the other person is doing is not what they should be doing. Or feeling like we *must* spend every waking moment together doing the same activity, whether it's watching a TV show, or tidying up the house, even if both of us would rather be alone. Weird cannot begin to describe it, because neither of us wants any of that. It's ridiculous, stupid and a complete waste of emotional energy.

In the last few months, especially since I have been learning about and reveling in God's grace for me and the rest of humanity, the pressure is slightly...lessened. I'm learning to accept my introvert for who he is and not try to push connecting and talking and doing and whatever. I mistakenly believed our almost 14-year marriage had problems, when now I think that *I* have had problems... problems understanding and respecting what makes up my husband's personality. Several months ago, a friend suggested I become a student of my husband's personality, in the name of strengthening our marriage. I never followed up on it. I don't know why....but I do know I regret not listening to her. She was right, and now I understand the value of getting what makes Dave tick. I doubt I have scratched the surface, yet there is hope in this new basic awareness. Hope.

My favorite line from the Rauch article sums it up perfectly ::

"Remember, someone you know, respect, and interact with every day is an introvert, and you are probably driving this person nuts. "

Paint By Numbers?

2011-08-26T17:51:00.000-05:00

So, the walls in my living room are mostly blank and boring and I've been unsure about how to fill the wall. Shelving? Barrister's bookcase? Artwork? The one wall that bothers me the most is pretty huge....the ceilings are about 16 feet tall (don't quote me on that). The only thing on the wall is an entertainment console and the TV.

My current view of said wall, as I sit on the sectional and blog.

Bor-ring, no? Keep in mind that wall stretches another many, many feet above where the photo ends... we're talking a lot of grey.

I've thought it would be cool to have some sort of artwork hanging to the left of the TV... something soft, maybe a tapestry of some sort. But, like I said, I have been paralyzed and haven't run across just the right thing. Story of a perfectionist's life.

But...

While at Home Depot today browsing the spray paint, I noticed their canvas drop cloths. There was one that was five foot square with hemmed edges for less than $8. I picked it up, thinking maybe I could create something for that wall out of the canvas.

I got home, hopped on Facebook and asked my creative sister-in-law to help me brainstorm ideas on what to do with the canvas. She pointed me to this post from Layla, a blogger from Birmingham. Paint by numbers? Really. Oh yes. I am sold.

So, I've been browsing Ebay and Joann's for paint by number kits... Joann's was basically a waste. Ebay was far more entertaining. Turns out there is a surprising amount of dirty paint by number kits. And a not-so-surprising amount of tacky paint by number kits. Anyhow, I would love to hear some input on a few I am considering, so give me your thoughts in the comments, please!

Let's start with my favorite piece ::

Kidding. Clearly.

This one is actually my favorite ::

Okay, for real. Option 1 ::

Option 2 ::

Option 3 ::

Option 4 ::

Option 5 ::

I like that the method on Layla's blog allows for customization of colors, so each of these PBN projects could look very different (soft and neutral, edgy and bright, etc.) based on my own color choices. Also, I am not sold on any of these, so if I find more options, I'll post them here for more feedback. Okay! Thoughts! Let's have 'em!

House Tour :: Sewing Room :: Indecent Order

2011-08-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

I recently did a sewing room tour post and things had been looking pretty good. When my friend Sarah came over the other day to take some house tour photos for me, the sewing room was pretty much a pit. She took a couple of shots. This first shot isn't too messy, but I did want to show off Sarah's photography skillz, so I am including it here. (BTW, she was shooting in a windowless basement room... pretty good!)

But then, there was the couch area. There were piles of pillows, curtains, cut up sheets, dried flowers, silk flowers and more junked up on and in front of the couch. It's kind of like this a lot.... a clean sewing room is certainly the exception. What is interesting to me is how Sarah took such a pretty shot of what is an eye sore in real life.

On top of the sewing table was a pile of church-related sewing. It included this little fabric sign I later pinned to the table cloths so that set-up people (usually dudes who aren't super concerned about table cloths... they want to help and set up and get it done, but they don't always know which way is right on the linens) can have a hint about how certain linens have to be placed.

Drummer Ceeber

2011-08-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Calvin is almost twenty three months old. He usually plays drums with three sticks at a time.

[Photos by Sarah Cook.]

Calvin's Toys

2011-08-23T11:49:00.000-05:00

Anything is a toy to sweet Calvin....just like any toddler is entertained by thermometers and book lights. As for his "real toys," I store them in a basket in his room. The basket used to be in the dining room, then the living room, but when he turned around 20 months old, it was time to move the basket into his bedroom. He doesn't have to be under constant supervision (like within my vision) anymore, and I generally want most toys to live in the kids' rooms. Certainly, stuff migrates out during the day (currently looking at a rubber ducky, some noisy police car contraption, a pretend syringe and its still morning), but it always ends up back in its home in a toy box/basket, closet, bin, etc. located in the kids' rooms.

Here is his toy set up (though there are few things in his closet that I get down when he seems bored) ::

[Artwork is by Andrea D'Aquino. It's called Two Fish and Calvin loves the guitars.]

The wall hooks are from Hobby Lobby, just for fun. Different toys end up on the hooks depending on the day.

And, a view of the toy basket.... pretty random stuff (like the neck pillow), mixed in with favorites like the yellow drum.

House Tour :: Family Room

2011-08-22T08:01:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the basement family room.... this is where Dave's drums and rocks live, as well as our desktop computer. We sometimes watch movies or Netflix shows down here, and I also work on our bills, adoption, and sometimes blog from this room. The kids' floor puzzles live down here, along with umbrellas and other non-toy toys. From an organizational standpoint, it is great to have infrequently used toys like the puzzles here, since we aren't in this room as much as the rest of the house (the upstairs level)... keeps the toys novel and special when the kids do come down to play.

This overall shot is mine... the difference between this photo and the rest, which my friend Sarah took, is pretty clear.

The desk, with a corner of the drumset on the far right (and btw, the paint color is Sherwin Williams Warm Stone) ::

From the desk top... a Sarah Cook photo of my kids and my neice from 2010, the satellite box, modem, a couple of cat figurines, remotes, the TV/monitor.

A few of the rocks featured on the Ikea shelving above the desk (oooh, and a Sarah Cook photo of Tucker from a year ago ::

Oh, I love the snapshot of Tucker and my dad from our big Thanksgiving trip to NYC last year... also a shot of our family of three when Tucker was about 6 months old...

A full shot of Dave's electronic drum set... his non-electronic set lives in the garage so he can easily load it for playing at church.

On the wall behind the drumset are a row of photos Dave has taken of his drumset, special gigs, and his former band from New York, Hundred Monkey Theory.

Beneath some of those photos is a welcome sign that my son Tucker made, about a year ago, welcoming friends and family to our guest area. See, the guest bedroom is nearby, and when people come to stay, we pretty much steer clear of the basement so they can have privacy and space. It is interesting to me that Tucker realized that this was a good place to use the painter's tape to welcome people here. I can't bear to tear it down... in fact, I think it is now a permanent installation.

Also, barely visible on the far right in the photo above is the trunk where I keep all those aforementioned floor puzzles.

Continuing clockwise, there is the most comfortable couch I have ever sat on... it is directly across from the desk. So, the computer monitor is also a TV screen, ready for movie viewing. Its not like its a huge screen for a TV, but it is a huge screen for a computer! (See desk photo above.)

The map is a geological map of the Hudson region of New York state. It is mounted (decoupaged) on a piece of wood and screwed into the wall.

Next to the couch is a small side table that holds a vintage radio, a glass ball lamp and a framed post card. Oh, and a Leap Frog keyboard.

To the right of the stairs (not pictured) is a closet door, and then the shoe bench. Most of our frequently worn shoes are kept here, because we go out the garage and van through the door pictured on the far right.

Above the bench is an old mirror (not pictured), found in an abandoned house years ago. To the right of mirror are two rows of hooks for hats, bags, scarves, coats, and so on. I just really, really love this photo!

That's it for the family room. Anyone want to come play on the drums? My kids' friends love to come over and hack around. I love having them all play... seems to be a glimpse of what is to come when the kids are older and want more instruments, amps and space.

House Tour :: Deck

2011-08-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

So a friend of mine tagged me on a Pinterest/Etsy find that is both hilarious and disturbing...

It is a nice reminder that though I am interested in all my blogging, not everyone is. That's why I am not going to start this part of the house tour with some stupid sentence like "It's the part of the house tour you've been waiting for!" Because, most likely, you've not been waiting for anything on my blog. Ha! I should write more about why I blog and why it's important to me.... but another time.

So, here it is, the post you've all not been waiting for. [Hmmm, I don't think Jess would approve that sentence. But, it's kind of funny, if not grammatically awesome.]

It's the new deck! [Most photos shot by Sarah Cook, though these photos were edited by me (a complete novice), so check out her blog for her real work... she is a very talented photog, designer, and Photoshopper (is that a word?).]

The deck was an addition that we hired out this spring. It has been complete for some time now, though we have been using it even before the screens were put in. It is sort of camp or cabin-like and there seems to be an irresistable pull to come out here and sit.

We eat out here regularly...almost every dinner during the week, and most meals on the weekends. Summer in Birmingham isn't exactly outside eating weather, but the contractor installed super powerful ceiling fans and that makes all the difference. The high chair stays on the deck, while a smaller booster lives in the kitchen for Calvin's indoors meals. Makes it nice to not drag that clunker back and forth all the time. [Random note to first time parents.... don't get a stand alone high chair, unless you absolutely have to. A small portable high chair saves a ton of floor space, and is easier to clean that a big wooden chair with lots of slats.]

Turning clockwise from the table is Dave's "zero gravity" chair from Overstock. He loves it. The garden stool was a TJ Maxx purchase a year ago. It was $35 and I saw it that same day at Target for $90.

Can you make out the door behind the chair above? That leads to the uncovered are of the deck, where we have a grill, a potted basil and a potted dead spearmint. I love the view of the willow tree from this area, though the poor thing is covered in leaf spot, along with some of my hydrangeas, butterfly bushes and some other random plants.

In the background of that photo, you can see my pathetic garden boxes, a wheelbarrow and a bit of the fire pit area.

Over the rail of the uncovered area are the zinnias... some of my favorite flowers. So much so, that I really, really want these. Sometimes I cut zinnias from the yard and bring them into the kitchen, which is why I planted them in the first place.

Continuing to turn clockwise, we come to a kids' table that was mine as a child. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you... it is wonky. I think the movers didn't put the legs on properly and we haven't bothered to fix it. Dad... when you're here this weekend...???

The Canada Dry box was just a flea market find, and it holds blocks, which also belonged to me and my siblings when we were little.

Above the table is the landscape plan, kept there for easy reference for working on the back yard over time.

A little metal table from Ikea is a nice queue for stuff that makes it way in and out of the house, as well as fertilizer for my crap garden. [The fertizlier seems to be helping... my lone volunteer tomato plant just sprouted two little 'maters. Yeah, its late August. Whatever, we'll nurture the heck out of 'em and eat the heck out of 'em.]

See the pineapple under the table top? That was a score at a road side antique store in Vermont. Every now and then I light a small candle and it gives off such a pretty glow.

Directly across from the Ikea table is the door to the kitchen. It's funny what different people notice in others' homes and Sarah noticed my fly swatter and pruning clippers. They hang there because they are out of the kids' reach and attention, and Dave and I always know where they are.

Continuing to move clockwise past the green kitchen door... the screen door to the yard is on the left of the following photo. Beyond the deck in the background, you can see the ladder that goes up to the kids' playset.

Future plans for the deck ::

An outdoor rug to go under the table... should break up and lighten all the brown wood and black furniture. I ordered the rug on Home Decorators over the weekend!
A white-painted day bed will take the place of the zero gravity chair... the chair might make its way out to the uncovered area of the deck, once the weather gets nicer. It might be awhile on the daybed because I am building it with the help of a seasoned woodworker. It is difficult to carve (heh...) out time to get together to build. For example, I was supposed to go last Saturday, but had to cancel last minute due to illness.

That's about it for future plans. I don't want to cram a bunch more stuff out there. It is spacious and very functional and I want to keep it that way.

One last shot.... a wider view taken from the fire pit. We have a home-made sandbox, a kiddie pool that has major duct tape patches on the bottom and loads of plastic toys stored under the playset. See... decent order, not perfect order. [Oh and also, note the dry creek.... it is there for water control during torrential Alabama downpours that happen a few times a year... some day when I am further along in the landscaping, the dry creek won't look as lonely and bare out there.)

So, who's coming over to sit on the deck with a nice cold iced coffee? Anyone? Anyone?

What Happens When Two Bloggy Friends Hang

2011-08-18T13:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Sarah came over this morning. Allow me to share a snippet of our morning in photos.

There was a little of this ::

A little of that ::

A *lot* of this ::

And a bit of this ::

Sarah took some beautiful photos for my blog and I am trying my hand at some VERY basic photoshop editing. So far... I am getting really, really good at "save for web" and making the photos the right size. Ha!

Sarah, I sure had a great morning with you! Can't wait to share your photos here in the days (um, weeks?) to come!

Off He Goes

2011-08-12T12:35:00.000-05:00

First day of kindergarden and Tucker is ready to take on the world!

Meanwhile, Calvin is a little groggy, as we had to wake him to head down to the bus stop. Look at those bags under his eyes... hilarious.

Waiting for the bus with some of his culdesac buddies.

And a quick kiss goodbye.

Did this all just happen?!

TMSTD

2011-07-31T21:02:00.000-05:00

In a couple of weeks, my oldest son is off to kindergarten. I am taking a blog-fast until school starts, to seize the day with my little boys at home. Topics I'm looking forward to writing about : another couponing update (it might not be what you'd expect), more house tour, a new lampshade on a hand-made-for-us lamp, things you don't have to do as a SAHM (not *every* mom has to buy only farm market food and hand-tat her own lace), and of course, more blathering on about my family.

I'm out! Peace.

The Concept of Queues

2011-07-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

[Originally posted on here as a guest post on Birmingham Bargain Mom -- photo included here]

In my home, the way things get accomplished happens in a variety of steps. One, I have to make lists. I *require* an external hard drive (the lists), because my built-in one is all jacked up. I can't remember anything anymore. Two, there are various spots in my home that are "to do" areas. I call them "queues." (Although "cues" would work, too... more on that in a second.) These queues are a holding area where items wait until I can get to them.

One particular queue resides on a ledge that separates the dining room from the front entry and stair way. This queue is where downstairs things are put when they have made their way upstairs. (Does this happen to anyone else?... Man, our stuff seems to get rearranged by little elves or something. All. The. Time.) As I run across items that belong downstairs in the sewing room, guest room, family room, or garage, they get placed on the ledge. The next time I make a trip down, everything gets put away. The whole idea is to save steps, and to keep stuff in my line of vision so I don't forget about them.

An example: my husband Dave fixed a little car for the kids over the weekend. He had to glue the wheels back on it. Imagine that, my wild children broke the wheels off a toy....let's just say that's not that unusual. Anyhow, the car and the glue ended up on the ledge. The car was there mainly to dry, but the glue needed to go back into the workshop area of the garage.

I won't forget about putting the glue away because of where it is. This is where "cue" would work because seeing the item in the queue gives me a visual cue that the thing needs to be taken care of. Get it?

A few other queues ::

The passenger seat of my car is a queue for things that need to be mailed at the post office, returns to various stores, or borrowed items that need to be given back to someone.

The deck outside the back door is a queue for trash. I don't always take stuff out to the big garbage can right away, so I might stash the trash, a few recyclables, and an outdoor toy on the deck to all be addressed at the same time. I am outside a lot, so gar-bage (said with French accent) doesn't usually sit there for longer than a couple of hours.

A chair in my closet is a queue for worn clothing that can be reworn. It can also be a queue for new clothing that needs to be tried on to determine if it's going to work for me. (I am a spaz at the store and buy things that I *think* look good, but actually don't once I try them on home. This means I have to make returns sometimes.)

There is a bench near the door of the garage that is a sometimes-queue for things that need to go out to the car for various reasons. Right now, for example, there are some adoption documents lying there. I need to go to the doctor and get them filled out, but I don't want to carry them out to the car until I am actually ready to do that errand. I don't want them to get crushed or torn up. This is a typical example of queues helping me not forget about getting stuff done. Those papers will be in my field of vision every time I leave the house. And, since that spot is often empty, it will stand out to me that there is something there that needs attention.

So, what are your queues? I bet you have them, even if you haven't done it on purpose. Sometimes a little basket or tray is an attractive way to establish a queue. Any other queue ideas out there, friends?

Meet Dave

2011-07-28T08:00:00.002-05:00

There's some real muscle here at home. And, in case you haven't seen my biceps, I'll tell you... it's not me.

It's this guy ::

January 2011

His name is Dave, and he is my husband of 13 and a half years. We met in college marching band at Purdue University. Go ahead, mock if you must.

As an incoming freshman, I was at band camp when the director had all new students stand up in the rehearsal hall. He said something like "Freshmen, look around. Your future spouse is probably in this room." Everyone laughed. And for me, my spouse was in that room, indeed. Dave was a senior-year drummer. I always had a thing for drummers in high school, no idea why. Oh wait, yes I do because dudes who play drums are wicked cool. Sorry all you trumpeters or sax players. You will always play second fiddle to a drummer. Ba dum, pishhhhh. (That was supposed to be the sound of a drumset accenting a joke during a stand-up routine).

Fall 1995

We were married in Louisiana two and a half years after first meeting.

December 1997

The above shot is from our reception, held at the Strand Theater in Shreveport. I loved our reception, which was mostly on the stage and would change very little about it if I could go back and do it all over again. I'd change about 90% of the actual wedding though. :) I'd undo the navy bridesmaid dress choice, for sure. And the church's crappy paneling that is in the background of everyone of my photos. Hello, the ceremony totally should have been outdoors or in a barn or something. Wait, what am I supposed to be writing about here????

Oh yeah, this guy ::

Winter 2005

I kind of like him. (I won't be wearing this, however.)

March 2011

We were married for eight years before having our son, Tucker, in 2005. Aaaand, because we are complete band-o's, we went to Alumni Band five and half weeks after the baby was born. For the record, I did not participate in any of the Alumni Band activities that year. While Dave kicked it with his old drumline buddies, I sat in the stands at the football game and nursed Tucker pretty much the entire time.

October 2005

(Don't ask why I was wearing a Longhorns hat at a Boilermaker game.)

Four years after that, we had our little Ceebers, aka Calvin.

September 27, 2009

We are also in the process of adopting a baby from China.... our family will continue to grow. Insert photo of Dave with new baby here! :)

But, back to The Man. The Drummer Man.

He stills drums, though has nerve problems, which occasionally prevent him from playing .

June 2011

Dave has other talents. I am not sure how it happened that I married an *engineer* who might just be more creative than me.

He is a geologist and a collector of beautiful rocks. Sometime on my house tour, I will devote a section to his rocks. Here he is all MSHA'd up at work ::

June 2009

In the past, Dave has also done some botanical photography (a few of his shots are on our gallery wall). He even had a showing at a small art gallery in Troy, New York, a couple of years ago. He snaps great photos on his various (but infrequent) overseas travel... the shot below is from Greece. The donkeys (mules?) were hauling bags of cement, made by the company Dave works for. Small world.

A few other things about Dave ::

He has a photographic memory of music. So would that be audiographic? He can remember just about any piece after hearing it once.
...and therefore he knows just about every classical piece of music out there. He is pleased that our kids' fave TV show is Little Einsteins.
He has been known to smoke a pipe or cigar. The new deck is nice for that.
He was born in Indiana, then was raised partially in Pittsburgh, PA, until he went back to Indiana for college.
He has worked for the same company since graduating college.
He has lived in IN, PA,IN again, KY, PA again, NY and now AL.
He can't wait to go to China, a nation that has fascinated him for years.
He is pretty handy, though it wasn't always that way.
He loves being a dad to two boys, who are both so much like him as a child.
He reads a lot, though doesn't necessarily enjoy it. Its more for information gathering.
He has loads of patience, rarely loses his temper, and forgives and forgets quickly. These are especially of great benefit to *moi*.
He is a massive introvert. Weirdo.

Questions? Comments? Discussion?

IDO on Birmingham Bargain Mom

2011-07-27T22:59:00.000-05:00

Check out some In Decent Order over on Birmingham Bargain Mom's blog!

Original content will be reposted here tomorrow, for my own archives.