Dabbling in Decorating

OK, OK, so I haven't been great about following up on my series of "Holiday Gift Ideas" posts (the first, and only to date, post can be found here). I've been collecting ideas on my toughest Christmas shopping challenge - gifts for guys - and I hope to share that soon. But in the meantime, I thought I'd update you on a few home improvement projects we've recently done, and in the process, share at least one gift idea.

The pictures I'm about to show you fall under the "making the house look prettier" category. I'm not going to bore you with pictures of our new furnace and air conditioner, the new basement carpet, or the new windows in the kids' bedrooms. Even though *I* think they do wonders for the house (and better make some kind of difference when we sell this thing, whenever that may be), I realize they don't make for the most interesting blog material. Instead, I'll show you what we've done in our dining room area since we moved the kids' toys down to the basement (pictures of the new playroom are here and here).

First, I'll try to give you an idea of what the "Before" looked like - difficult, because this whole effort has taken place very gradually over the last 3 months. Also difficult because I never actually thought to take any official "Before" photos. I dug through my photo archives find pictures that sort of displayed the area, but they are definitely not perfect.

Our living room and dining room are actually one big room. A set of built-ins abutting a bump out/post-thing demarcates the end of the living room and the start of the dining room. The ceiling in the dining room is your typical 12-foot ceiling, but in the living room, the ceiling is lofted and rises probably 20 feet high. Because of this, we haven't attempted to do any painting - it's way too high/too much space to paint the whole thing, and because of the open floor plan, there wasn't a way to paint just one part of the space (we would then be faced with the "where do we stop" dilemma). Thus the whole area is a sea of off-white blandness.

Here are the built-ins in the living room "Before" (although this is after our yard sale, so I had already cleared a lot of the trinkets that used to sit on these shelves out - trust me, they were much, much more cluttered at one time).



The picture with the black picture frame is hanging on the bump-out/post thing, and to the left of that is the dining room (out of view).

This is the dining room without any furniture in it, the way it looked after we sold our dining room set at our yard sale and cleared all the kids' stuff out:





The doorway and cut out lead to the kitchen, and the stairs in the bottom picture lead down to the basement.

This is what our dining room table looked like, the one we sold:



We sold it because it wasn't meeting our needs anymore - too small, too rickety, etc. This is how crowded it looked when we had only two dinner guests - and THAT was when Lucy was still sitting in a high chair (Hi Jen! Hi Daniel! Sorry for the crappy quality of this photo!):



OK, here's what everything looks like now. We painted one wall in the dining room and the inside of the built-ins a bold color to break up all the overwhelming off-whiteness. My inspiration for painting the built-ins came from a project over on Young House Love. Ours doesn't look quite as stylish (and it's also not 100% finished, as you can see from the empty upper shelves and a few spots that need to be filled in a bit). But I'm pretty happy with it! Much credit goes to my mom, who helped me shop for and display some of the accessories that are on the shelves.

Here is the space after painting, but before accessorizing:






And here are the built-ins now:





I especially like my new owl picture (from Target) and the off-white wooden @ sign (TJ Maxx).

We have a new server to house our wedding china, which my parents were kind enough to haul around on their latest vacation so they could deliver it to us, 8 years after we received it. I love the server, I think it looks great, but the top of it already seems to be slated as the newest "miscellaneous crap goes here" spot. I'll have to try to do something about that, I suppose.

Up-close view

Wide angle

We actually ordered the table that matches the server from Target. Unfortunately, it arrived at our house broken, and it was such a pain in the ass to return it (mail return only, super heavy, unhelpful customer service, etc) that we decided not to try again/re-order it. We instead decided to use the extra dining room table we've always had. It's a drop leaf table, so it's been tucked away in our kitchen with the leaves down, mainly used as a place to hold my stand mixer and a couple other awkward kitchen items. The table is old, scratched, watermarked, and rickety, but with a few placemats and/or a table cloth, none of that is noticeable. Also, it seats 6 people, so it gives us more table space to work with. We purchased some simple, cheap chairs from Target (in person, at the store) to go around the table, and it has been working out pretty well. It's not a long term solution, as the table is less stable than we'd like it to be, but it's fine for now.





I hung up two ceramic bird pictures painted by my great-grandmother by the window, our prime bird watching spot in the house since it overlooks the woods. I love having them there, as it makes me think both of my great grandmother, who I remember, as well as my wonderful Papa (and Mimi) who gave them to me.





And the final touch, just completed this past week:









A sunburst mirror, framed on either side by wonderful canvas-printed photos of each of our kids. These canvases are the "holiday gift idea" I wanted to mention. They are GREAT! We got them from Canvas on Demand - I found a Groupon deal for something like 65% off. Each canvas was only $45, shipping included. They are 16" X 20", so definitely large enough to make a statement. The Groupon deal is not uncommon, I've seen it a few times, and there are typically other deals you can find, too, even if the Groupon isn't being offered. Of course, the canvases are only as good as the photo you send in, and for that I have to send out a huge thank you to Julie Blum for the wonderful, wonderful photos she took of us. We were so lucky to spend a morning with her and get those photos!

If you do decide to get a canvas done for a loved one's holiday gift, just note that Canvas on Demand is EXTREMELY popular right now - it will probably take about 3 weeks to get them printed and shipped out. I know other places offer a similar service (including Costco, apparently), but I can't speak to their quality. I can safely and highly recommend Canvas on Demand, though.

There are a couple of other details (moved the rug from our former office up and stuck it under the dining table, bought two extra fabric dining chairs), but basically, that's it - our big "Take Back Our Dining Room From the Kids" remodel, completed!

And finally, just another quick little decorating update to show you, this one in Lucy's bedroom. Lucy still sleeps in her crib, for now. We'll probably change that in the Spring when she turns 3, because she is starting to look ridiculously large lying in that crib. But we did get rid of her changing table, since it hadn't been used in over a year. To fill the space and provide a place for non-closet-appropriate clothing like socks and underwear, I found this adorable little table at TJ Maxx that Grammy immediately insisted she buy for me (erm, Lucy). I am not normally into shabby chic that much, but I must admit that I have a bit of a crush on this table. Its aqua color (the color in the picture doesn't do it justice - it's more aqua than it looks below) perfectly complements Lucy's hot pink curtains, and it's just so fun and girly!





In addition, my mom insisted on buying some decals for Lucy's walls that we found at Kohls. Since they have perfectly coordinating colors and have plenty of owls and birds, I heartily approved. Aren't these adorable?





Lucy, per usual, was not a willing participant in these photos, but she does love the new "big girl" touches in her bedroom, all appearances aside:



That's it for now. New gift post... soon-ish? Tomorrow?

Arming Our Children

So. Penn State. Pretty freaking awful, right? My mind and heart are having so much trouble with this. The idea that someone could victimize and abuse so many children, for so long... well, even one child is far, far too many, and yet people KNEW. There were signs, suspicions, ACTUAL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS. These children were let down, by so many people. There is no excuse for that.

I know my outrage and sadness is amplified because I have children of my own. I feel this more acutely than I perhaps would have a mere 6 years ago. The last two nights I've been having disturbing dreams, about children dying. One was Finn. I actually woke myself up by shouting out in my sleep, trying to get someone to help him. In the dream, I let him out of my sight, let him go with another adult, and the next time I saw him, he was dead, floating in water near other people who were doing nothing to help him. In another, I dreamt another blogger's child, a person I don't even know, died. I don't remember why, those details are thankfully hazy. I do know that in my dream, I read her blog entry, many times, in disbelief that this beautiful little boy was gone.

I wonder if these dreams aren't related to this glaring evidence that it's just so, so hard to protect our children. I want to pull Finn and Lucy in close, never let them go, never let them out into the world. So many bad things can happen.

But I can't do that, not if I want to give them a good, fulfilling life. As parents, we need to teach our children to think for themselves, to identify and avoid potential dangers, to give them the tools to find help when they need it, to look for ways to know they are putting their trust in the right people. To find a balance between shutting people out and letting people in.

Those are not easy things to teach.

I do know that starting now, I will talk to Finn, and eventually Lucy when she's a little older, about sexual abuse, in terms they can understand. This was actually spurred, not by the Sandusky allegations, but by our pediatrician during Finn's latest check up. Near the end of her physical exam of Finn, she let him know that she would need to look at his private parts. And before and during that quick exam, she quizzed him on who was allowed to look at or touch those private parts. A subject I had never thought to bring up to him. Yes, I've told him that HE can't touch OTHER people's private parts, mostly because preschoolers love all things butt-related, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't running around touching people's butts (given his propensity to touch mine). But I've never talked to him in a way that let him know that no one should be touching him inappropriately.

The doctor's message to Finn was clear: The only people that can touch/look at Finn's "private parts" (we weren't too specific with actually anatomical names yet, but that will come) are Finn himself, Mommy/Daddy, and the doctor. No one else. I'm going to reinforce that message, of course - repetition is the most effective way to get a child to learn something. But these abuse allegations have made me realize that I need to do more. I need to tell Finn that he doesn't need to do ANYTHING that makes him feel uncomfortable. He should not touch anyone else's private parts, even if (especially if) they ask him to. And most of all, if someone does touch him, or get him to touch them, IT'S NOT HIS FAULT. He doesn't need to hide it. He can tell M. and I anything, anything at all, and we will always do everything we can to help him.

Because that's the thing, right? You need to know about abuse before you can stop it. How can I make sure that, god forbid something did happen to Finn or Lucy, they tell me about it? So many victims of abuse are afraid to come forward, in part because they are embarrassed that they did something wrong. I know there are other reasons, too - they might be protecting the abuser, particularly if the abuser is a family member. They might fear retribution. But I think many times (speaking from the point of view of someone who has had no formal education on this whatsoever), abuse victims are made to feel complicit in their abuse, and that's a large part of why they don't seek help. I want to do what I can to combat that notion, preventatively, with my children. I don't really know the best way to go about that, yet, but I'll start with words. Simple conversations. Telling them over and over again, as I always do, always have done, that I will never, ever stop loving them. That they can tell me anything at all, and I will always love them.

I hate that I have to think about these things. But I do. We all do.

Are you addressing this subject with your kids at all? If yes, how are you approaching it? If no, when do you think you will?

Vacationing in Old Stomping Grounds

M., the kids, and I are back from a quick getaway down to Williamsburg, VA. Back in the spring, I bought a Groupon for a 2-night stay, with ideas of showing the kids the campus where I went to college, foraying in to the realm of educational vacations(what with all the people-in-colonial-garb), and finally visiting Busch Gardens, a place I never managed to get to in my four years of residence there. Well, a spring vacation turned in to a fall vacation - that's just how things go, I guess, when life gets away from you. But I think we ended up with a better vacation for it. Busch Gardens was closed for the weekend, so that attraction is just going to have to stay on my "Things To Do" list. And really, did I want to schlep the kids around an amusement park? No, I didn't. So that actually worked out well. Instead, we had plenty of time to meander through the campus of the College of William and Mary, and show the kids the charms of Colonial Williamsburg. They did pretty well, all things considered. Building tours were tough - Lucy had trouble sitting through the little spoken vignettes in each room. Also, there was so much walking that they eventually fought over who got to sit in the umbrella stroller we had with us. Other than that, though, the trip was a much better fit for their age group than I expected. Soldiers with guns, fifes, drums, on horseback; blacksmiths wielding hammers on fiery red metal; horse drawn carriages; impressive looking buildings; an old "gaol"; a garden maze - we all really enjoyed it. The weather was cold but beautiful, and the crowds were much, much less than what you would see in the spring or summer. I highly recommend a visit if you can swing it.

A few photos from our trip follow. And by "a few photos," I really mean "more pictures than you'd ever care to look at."


Finn running toward the Wren building, our first stop on campus.


He was quickly distracted by a nearby cannon.


Meanwhile, Lucy made a new friend.


Then she had to try her hand (butt?) at climbing the cannon, too.


Which actually gave me an opportunity to get a somewhat decent (and very rare) photo of the two kids together.


A sub-par photo of the Crim Dell, the most scenic spot on campus. Which is saying a lot, as W&M has quite a few scenic spots!


Back at the Wren building; it looks like I have two soldiers defending me here.


An attempt (mostly failed) to corral the kids into posing for a picture.


See that smile? That's me eating a cheese sandwich from the Cheese Shop. It is the stuff of legends. Oh how I have missed those sandwiches!


Waiting for lunch at Chowning's Tavern












The Governor's Palace




In the gardens behind the Governor's Palace


A beautiful arched tree walkway in the Governor's gardens


The kids were enthralled with the maze in the garden


Finn exiting from one last spin through the maze


The day ended with a review of the soldiers - marching, fife-playing and drumming, a rousing speech from a horse-mounted Lafayette, and lots of gun shots and cannon-fires. The kids loved it.


Lucy kept calling the soldiers in red "pirates." She is still asking me where they went. I finally gave up and told her they went back to their ship. She's going to need some remedial history lessons some day.


The kids got another treat - their very own fruit flies to keep as pets/do experiments on. A friend of mine from my grad school days is now faculty at W&M, continuing his research on fruit fly development (my poison of choice for my Ph.D. in Biology). He took the kids on a tour of his lab, showed them some fruit flies under a microscope, and then gave them some to take home. I can't wait to give some classes on the life cycle of the fruit fly as soon as the larvae start digging through their food. I may need to go buy a microscope... :-).


We only have a couple of extra vials of food, so we'll need to get creative if we're going to propagate beyond the next couple of weeks. Or we'll just have to go wild - break out the empty wine bottles and start catching flies the old fashioned way!

So, that was our (long) weekend. How was yours?

Holiday Gift Ideas: Spotlight on Paper Source

So, I owe the grandparents and great grandparents some photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes, but this is not that post. That post will come later-ish.

Instead, this post is an attempt to start a mini-blogging series on (as the title suggests) "Holiday Gift Ideas." I'm going to do my darnedest to gather the gift ideas I find while trolling the Internet, and share them here on a somewhat regular basis throughout the month of November. I have ulterior motives, of course. The main one being that I can never, EVER remember all of the ideas I think of for the people in my life when it's actually time to shop. I get to the mall, or open up Amazon.com, and draw a complete blank. This way I'll have a reservoir of ideas to draw from, and can skip that panicky blank-drawing feeling. And hopefully, it will help you, too. Now, family/friends, please keep in mind that while you may indeed received a gift that I highlight here, you may also get something entirely different. I reserve the right to either surprise you OR get you something that you see on one of these posts that wins raves from you.

Now, I'm not planning to have any kind of format for these posts. I may focus on a specific age group or familial relationship one day, a gift "category" another day (Scarves! Hostess gifts! White elephant gifts for the office party! Food gifts!), just throw up one idea, give you more links than you'd ever want to click on, etc. At this point, it's a mystery to even me what and when I'm going to post. We'll just have to see how this goes.

For the inaugural post, I'm choosing to focus on a particular store: Paper Source (www.paper-source.com). For no real reason other than I saw a few gift ideas on the 2011 Style Lush Holiday Gift Guide: 100 Gifts for $25 or Less from the store that I thought were adorable. In fact, a couple of the items I'm about to point out are shamelessly lifted from that guide, and you should all go check the Style Lush guide out because it has lots of other great ideas. Also, I feel like I need to state that I was not paid or compensated by Paper Source in any way, shape, or form for this post. I just like the stuff, and wanted to share it.

I browsed through Paper Source's inventory, and can tell you a couple of general things first. There are some store locations scattered throughout the country, but they are not ubiquitous (5 in Massachusetts, 2 in Maryland, etc). Your best bet is probably online shopping. I have no idea what their shipping rates are like, as I have never personally ordered anything from the company.

General pros of the store are: There are lots of creative, humorous, and retro gifts. Think Darth Vader lunch boxes and watches, band-aids that look like bacon, cocktail napkins with witty sayings, lovely stationary and paper, whimsical throw pillows, etc. There is something appropriate for nearly everyone on your list, especially if your list is heavy on females and kids. Also, I ascribe to the point of view that you should give people gifts that they'd never buy for themselves. Don't give them something they're just planning to get already. Make it fun! Make it something they think is great, but would hesitate to spend their own hard-earned money on. Spend your own, instead! This store is great for that kind of gift.

General cons are: There are no product reviews, which can make it hard to judge customer satisfaction (I personally pore over product reviews, though I try to take them all with a grain of salt). The items for kids don't always provide information on the age appropriateness of the toy/game/thing. And, finally, there's not much here for the over 13 male crowd, from what I can tell.

Without further ado, here is a selection of things that caught my eye (with many more that I'm not including - so hard to choose!):

Calendars, for me, fall under the “nice to have, but reluctant to spend $$ on, guess I’ll settle for using the free one from the zoo again this year” category. I prefer the grid type (need those little boxes so I can scribble in birthday and anniversary dates), so the one I chose, the Art Grid Calendar ($24.95), follows that style, but this site has many other types and styles to choose from. Isn't the gnome for December's picture adorable? Reminds me of the huge book about Gnomes I used to have when I was a little girl (click on pictures to enlarge):


I'm kind of patting myself on the back for this next idea - a selection of gift wrap. Give 5-6 patterns of gift wrap (prices range from $3.50 to $7.50 per item, depending on sheet vs. roll) so your gift recipient will always have gift wrap on hand for any occasion AND (bonus) much of it is pretty enough to frame! Here's a few of the many, many that caught my eye:

Birds


Robots


Butterflies


More birds. I have a bird problem.



Alphabet


Cherry Blossoms



OK, though I could go on forever posting links to the wrapping paper, I'll move on. This Mod Multi Shoulder Tote looks like it could hold ANYTHING, and it's cute to boot ($18.95):



How's about some owls? I'm totally ON the owl bandwagon.- I love me some owls!! Here's a little sampling of the cute owl things Paper Source has:

An adorable cloth Owl Rattle ($9.95):



Owl Soap-On-A-Rope, for the soap-on-a-rope enthusiast in your family (there's always at least one, am I right? And for clarification, I don't mean anything dirty by that - some people just really like soap on a rope!) ($16.95):



An Owl Cutting Board. We store our cutting boards propped up on the kitchen counter because a) they're too big/bulky for the cabinets, and b) we use them every day. But they don't exactly add spice to our kitchen. This adorable thing combines decor with function ($24.95):



A Hummingbird Wristlet Wallet, for those days when carrying a big ol' purse/diaper bag isn't going to fly (hello, girls' weekend! Date night!) ($11.95):



Remember that cute gnome from the calendar above? How about a couple of Gnome Mugs? ($6.95 per mug):



I have more glasses than any sane person actually needs, but these Retro Bike Glasses would be fun for both the hipsters and non-hipsters alike in your life ($16.95):



And finally, a few ideas for the kids...

I don't know if this is a universal kid thing or not, but both of my kids are obsessed with chapstick and regularly insist on using and mutilating my tubes. How about their very own tube, from Santa? This Rudolph's Rockin Raspberry Lip Balm would make a great stocking stuffer ($2.50):



Animal Crayons, for the art- and animal-lover child ($8.95):


Finn loves all things airplane - paper airplanes, toy airplanes, spotting every. single. goddamn. airplane that flies over head, etc. According to the description, this Flying Model Airplane kit is great for kids of all ages, so it might be the perfect gift for his stocking ($12.95):


Finn is a perfectionist when it comes to homework and artwork, and he likes to have an eraser nearby for any potential mistakes. He INSISTS on erasing his mistakes, instead of crossing them out, even though his homework is usually done in crayon. These Dessert Erasers (other food types also available) would make his day, I'm sure ($8.95):


Phew! That's it. I'm out of links, for the moment. Feel free to provide suggestions on specific types of gifts you might want me to focus on in the comments. Until next time...