life these days, and a house tour.

Life these days is...

.up early

.shower

.coffee

.unload the dishwasher.  quietly.

.make breakfast

.wake up kids

.rushrushrush till everyone is out the door

.work

.teach latin to 120ish little people

.hand sanitizer.  repeat.

.home for homework, soccer, piano, drums, guitar.

.dinner

.clean up

.make lunches

.{didn't i just do that?}

.bed

.do it again

Yikes.

I'm so tired!

We're still adjusting to our new normal over here.

But, there has been stuff other than the above, too.

Also life, these days:

...dentist appointments

{why doesn't my dentist give out cute glasses?}

...homework.

OH THE HOMEWORK.

Junior High is crazy.

...falling in love with a pair of nude flats.

...pot roast dinner,

courtesy of my mom.

Coming home from work to the smell of dinner cooking is the best.

...a sick kid.

yay, back to school!

...waffling in my grandma's waffle iron.

...praying she wants to be a singer when she grows up,

and not a sinner.

...monkey barring around.

...sunset watching and being in awe of the Creator of it all.

It's been a good couple of September weeks.

And, if you're interested, Heather from Life Made Lovely 

asked me to do a home tour over on her Home Made Lovely series.

It's here, if you want to go have a look.

I even cleaned my kitchen for the occasion.

Happy Friday, friends!

green.

March is such a green month.
The fresh leaves are coming in on trees...
the hills here in northern California are green...
and of course St. Patty's day, for us {mostly} Irish folk.



{basil}



{izze...i'm straight up addicted.  one-a-day.}



{an old tool caddy that now holds bills and other desk junk.}



{to be juiced.}



{my mam-ma's jadeite batter bowl.}



{happy little strawberries.}



{nice legs.}



{to be unloaded.  sigh.}



{jade plant.}



{our realtor gave me this plant in 2002 when we bought our first house and i haven't killed it.}



{a cherished piece of green portugese pottery from my cherished friend in portugal.}



{and my three favorite little people, in a frame from a friend.}

Also green?
All of the money we dropped yesterday to get new front and rear brakes on our suburban.
Holy shamrocks.

let the christmas-ing begin!

The kids are out of school,
it's rainy and cold here,
the She & Him holiday station is playing on Pandora,
and I've been wearing comfy pants and baking all the live long day.

It's dark enough during the day with the rain that
I can leave the lights on on the Christmas trees
{yeah...we have two...i'm one of those people this year}
during the day and it's perfect.



This was yesterday around my house.
The kids weren't home from school yet and it was clean.
It stayed that way for a glorious 2.76 hours.
My house is my favorite this time of year.  It feels the happiest to me.

And can we all just agree that Christmas cards are the best?
Taking them down in January always makes me a little sad.







Today I made some of my very favorite cookies.
These are some of my mom's specialties: Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookies.
Ditch the fruitcake and put these on your baking list for the weekend.

They make your house smell better than any candle.







And...they're a pretty cookie.
Which totally matters.
Give a plate to your mail carrier or UPS man tomorrow.

Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookies

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 stick butter, room temp.
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
ice water 
sugar

Preheat oven to 350.
Lightly grease cookie sheets or use a Silpat.
Stir together the first six ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a mixing bowl beat the shortening, butter, and brown sugar
until fluffy.
Add egg and molasses to the butter mixture
and beat until blended.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Refrigerate dough 1 hour.
Roll dough into small balls and dip quickly in ice water.
Roll in sugar to coat.
Arrange on cookie sheet and bake until cookies
are pale golden and cracked on top but still soft to touch,
around 10 minutes.
Let stand 1 minute then transfer to cooling rack.


Mmmmm.  Chewy, Christmas goodness.

a happy front door.

I got sad in the stupidest place yesterday.
I was in the grocery store.
Not my usual grocery store, but the one by our old, old house.
It's the store that I used to go to when Riley and Colin were babies.

I have memories of running to the store bathroom with Riley
when he was potty training.
And carrying Colin in that super-uncomfortable Baby Bjorn
while doing the bounce-walk thing so he doesn't start crying
in the produce section.

Then yesterday I was walking through the baking aisle all by myself trying to find yeast
and I had a memory of being in that same aisle looking for a cake mix
to use for Riley's first birthday cake.

And I just thought...it's going so fast.
The kids being little is going by SO fast.
I used to shop in that store with my baby boys
nine years ago.
In that same amount of time Avery will be a freshman, Colin will be a senior
and Riley will be in college.
And I got sad.  Sigh.
{also...hormones are lame.}

Okay, enough Debbie Downer.

I've been working on something happy.
If you are looking for a super quick wreath project...



this is not it.

Yarn pompoms are super easy to make,
but they take time.
Lots of time.
But they're the perfect thing to work on while you're sitting on your couch
watching Homeland.
{seriously...WHY are you not watching homeland yet??!}



I think it looks happy.



Christmas lights on houses during the day are not the prettiest thing, are they?

And for the rest of Tuesday...
I have leftover roast and potatoes to feed everyone for dinner tonight
and then I'm going to make fudge.
I've been listening to the Indie Holidays station on Pandora
and my Christmas cards are all ready to drop off at the post office.
Today is good.

it's october. and it's hot. and i'm baking.

October may just be my favorite month.
The weather here in the bay area is nearly perfect in October.
Oh, except for the last few days.
It's 99 right now.
And the kids are all at soccer, sweating their little hearts out.
But by Thursday it's supposed to be back in the 70's.
I'm so ready to wear socks again.

October is also the only month I feel compelled to make pumpkin goodies.
Pumpkin cookies are my favorite.
{here's the recipe}



I made the dough one day {which makes a TON} and have just been baking a dozen at a time.
Freshly-baked cookies every night, for the win.

Do you remember the other day when I told you about that bra company, True & Co?
Well I got my box in the mail.



The bras were so pretty.
I tried them on in the comfort of my own bathroom,
kept one, and returned the rest.  Easy.
I wish the polka dot one had worked.  Isn't it cute?

I'm on a nail polish kick lately.
And I have a confession.
When I'm in Target or CVS or wherever looking at colors
I usually paint one of my nails in the color I think I want.
Is that bad?
Is it kind of like eating a grape at the grocery store before you pay for them?
{i don't do that.  that grosses me out.}



See my copper-colored thumb?
It's a new Essie color...I think it's called Penny Talk?
I like it.  My nails look like shiny new pennies!

This is our dining room.
I finally hung up the plates for my plate wall.
My friend Lori brought me that beautiful green one from Portugal.
I like the wall...but I think maybe a spaced them too evenly apart.
Something is bugging me about this wall, but I can't quite figure it out.
I need to stare at it some more.



And I hate that light.
With a passion.
#firstworldproblems

I've told you before about our bingo group that gets together every month.
This month's theme was "a pick me up".



There was nothing too fancy inside:
an Essie polish, Burt's Bees lip balm, a frappuccino, a candy bar,
and a copy of Mumford & Son's latest.
{which, like everyone else, i am L.O.V.I.N.G.}

The leaf was from my morning run,
and the letter stamps from the Target dollar section.
That was seriously my best dollar bin score to date.

And now that the temperature has just bumped up to 100 degrees I'm off to soccer
and to dream of Thursday when the high is supposed to be 73.
Ahhhhhh.

upstairs.

Well I had planned on writing this last night,
but then a certain little girl came home from soccer practice
and 15 minutes later had a 102 point-something fever.
I'm sure you can guess what kind of night follows that.

And she was mis.er.a.ble today.
I hate fevers.

Anyway.
For weeks {months?} now I've been working on a wall upstairs.
It was totally blank for the first year and a half that we lived here,
but I've known I wanted a colorful wall full of things we love.
This is how it looked back in May.
{hello totally in-the-way thermostat.}



Back in April I collected a bunch of frames from Goodwill.
They were cheap.



I hate it when I have to buy new frames.
They're so expensive!
I did have to buy a few for this wall, but I tried to use the 40% coupons from Michaels.
By the way, I miss Hobby Lobby.
That was one of the best parts of living in Texas.
That and Freebirds burrito and being able to say "y'all" freely.
Can NorCal please get a Hobby Lobby?
Anyway.

First I laid out all the things I wanted to put on the wall,
in roughly the layout I wanted.



I had already painted the frame from Ikea.
You know the infamous Ung Drill frame and/or mirror, right?
Love it.

Next I painted the other frames and
bought the ones I needed
and traced their outlines on the back of wrapping paper.



Honestly...it took me forever to move from that stage to the next.
It took weeks to frame everything...have a matte made...hang them up.
I'm slow like that sometimes.
But I finally got it done.



The pictures are a mixture of art the kids have done...
an etsy print...
and lithographs that Gary has been given from Pixar.
We have one from every movie since he's been working there...starting with Nemo.
{11 years ago.  crazy!}



The red banner was made by my friend Wendy,
hanging on some burlap from my brother's coffee company.

This wall makes me happy.
It's just full of things that make me smile.



I love my map in the other room, too.
And my chalkboard.
I try to keep happy messages up there.



That's a happy message...my friend is coming tomorrow!

Looking over from the chalk board...



I probably need to frame that butterfly print to fill up more space on the wall,
but right now it's staying on the hanger.
I still need to paint...and crown moulding would be nice.  One day.
That desk doesn't get used much right now,
because the boys don't like to do their homework upstairs by themselves,
but I think they'll use it a lot once they're older.



So that's our upstairs.
It makes me happy.
It's not going to be featured in Pottery Barn anytime soon,
but I'm okay with that.
A PB house would be nice, but it's not real...
for us, anyway.

In one of my grandparents' homes growing up there were rooms we weren't allowed to go in

because they were for formal gatherings only.

That is the complete opposite of what I want.

I like colorful, personal, homey spaces.

I want the kids to look back and remember our home as a place they felt comfortable.

And happy, I hope.

And speaking of happy, 

a full nights' sleep would make me pretty happy right now.

Goodnight.

fun paint.

First, I feel the need to tell you that I have a twitch in my cheek that isn't going away.
I'm just sure that everyone I talk to is staring at that twitch.
I hate that.

I had some time by myself today, which was awesome.
I went to Target alone.  Bliss.
I also ran errands alone.  Bliss again.
There's this fun shop in our town that sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.
Have you heard of it?
My sister-in-law told me about it several months ago
and I've been wanting to try it ever since.



Isn't it pretty?
I'll show you soon what I'm working on,
but I'm loving the paint so far.
I'm trying to get our guest room done before next week.
Did I tell you one of my closest friends will be visiting from Portugal?
I'm so excited.
She has requested eating at In-n-Out and going to sushi while she's here.
It'll be rough, but we'll get it done.

Also in the guest room: a little something for over the bed.
My dad made me this wooden slat board quite awhile ago,
and I just recently got around to painting it white.



I printed out the letters I wanted to paint on it in the size I wanted,
and then taped them to the board.



I traced over them as hard as I could with a pencil,
and the trace marks left a faint imprint on the board.



Then I just painted.



Blessed.  It's true.

I might actually repaint the letters in the slightly darker Annie Sloan paint.
We'll see.



I've been making pillows, and I think the bed needs one more...
maybe a bolster?

Back to painting tomorrow.
I have two Project Runways to watch while I paint.
Perfect combo.
And my cheek twitch is gone now.
Happy day!