We spent a long weekend in San Diego.  It was warm!  It was sunny!  We were outside wearing sleeves that exposed our white withering arms to sunlight!   

Before booking the trip, we looked online to see some destinations to check out and found a place called the Gaslamp Quarter which has a lot of great restaurants and shops.  We booked a hotel in that area so that we wouldn't have to go far to find something to do.  

We spent some time in the Cedros Design District, which has a lot of neat shops & antique stores.  Within a few blocks of the Design District were some huge consignment stores. I could have spent a whole day there.

I saw so many neat pieces and a very pretty vintage ring almost came home with me.

We also went to Coronado, a little island right across from San Diego.  We checked out the Hotel del Coronado, which was built in 1888 and is still gorgeous.  The whole town is a cool place to explore.  If we go there again, I'd love to rent a bike and cruise along the boardwalk.  

Also checked out the San Diego zoo and really loved the bus tour.  And the landscaping was ah-mazing.

We took Marielle with us and she was such a great traveler on the plane despite some layovers and long lines.  We had to explain to her what that glowing ball of fire in the sky is: "See, Marielle, that's called the sun and it warms our planet but only seems to work in California."

And then we had to leave, put on our winter coats and fly back to Wisconsin to enjoy more of the polar vortex.

Yes, this letter is to the designers and fabricators of the ever popular Rainbow Loom.  

Thanks for taking a break from rolling around in the piles of money that you made during this past year to read this letter.  

You successfully marketed a product under a seemingly benign campaign of "inspiring a child's creativity" in such a way that every little girl I know owns one of your looms.  Parents felt obligated to purchase one of your looms because, surely, they did not want to thwart their child's creativity.  

Oh sure, they all played with the loom for a couple days, perhaps even a week, crafting beautiful bracelets for their family and friends.  They got creative with the color sequences and designs.  And now, the sad and forgotten remnants of the seven thousand rubberbands lay all over the home, sometimes in the most unlikely of places.

But the genius didn't stop there, did it Designers?  You somehow were able to fabricate the rubberbands out of some space age plasticized rubber blend that is impervious to the vacuum cleaner!  Try as you may, parents, but the rubberbands won't suck up into the vacuum cleaner for easy cleanup.  Which means that we parents get to spend time on our hands and knees hand picking the small circles out of floor crevices and corners, muttering under our breath. 

I know that right now, you may be ready to introduce the new spring color lineup so that we are once again inundated with the new batch of pastel colors to scrape off our shoes.   But this time, we parents have wised up to your schemes and will steer our children clear from your part of the toy aisle.  But, Designers, we know that you have likely covertly partnered with the Grandparents in a conspiracy against us and that somehow, someway, the new spring lineup of rubberbands will still end up in our homes.

Well played, Designers.  Well played.  

Sincerely,

Laura

I am a task-oriented person.  I like to check things off a mental list at the end of the day so that I can "prove" to myself that I spent my time well that day.  

You can see the problem with this list.  First, it is impossible to check off laundry.  There is simply no end, no completion of this.  Unless you live in a nudist colony.  Which reminds me....

Kidding.

Second, there is no checking off "raising children". As far as I can tell, there is no end.  Third, there is no foolproof toy organization; that is, if you have children.  I have recently tricked myself into thinking that if I purchase a lot of baskets and cubbies with pretty labels that toys will find their way into their neatly labeled baskets.  IT'S TRICKERY!  BASKETS AND LABELS ARE FOR DECEIVED PARENTS WHO THINK THEIR CHILDREN WILL FOLLOW THE SYSTEM!!! (But the baskets are really pretty and so well labeled).  

But I am fortunate.

I have a network of people around me who support and encourage me to write, to think about valuable things, to keep a sense of humor about the everyday, to be a better mom and better friend.  

It reminds me that I want to be the kind of person who shows up when life is difficult for others around me.  I want to encourage others to rethink what success is.  My days, like everyone else's, is filled with small and seemingly insignificant things.  Our lives are constantly being disrupted by things that aren't on our list and most of those interruptions are really inconvenient and annoying.  How can I [we] use our day today to inspire, encourage and be available to someone who wasn't on our list this morning? 

                       

I think what I enjoy most about decorating is pondering where things should go and how they should look.  Lately, I've been pondering the family room.  We will be using the back bedroom on the first floor as a tv room/family room.  I ordered the sectional for that space a couple of weeks ago and it should be coming soon.  I still haven't painted the room, but here's what I've come up with so far:

I'd like to have some funky plant in the room and would love to have my fiddle leaf fig in there, but I just can't convince it to stay alive.  I have two of these plants now and they are struggling between life and death.  Apparently, I do not have a knack with indoor plants.  I am on the verge of writing them off as too needy and ungrateful.  

Does that Persian rug look familiar?  I bought it for the sunroom, but I really like how it looks with the charcoal color of the couch.  I'm sure this rug will get moved around to lots of different rooms in the house from time to time.  I love it so.  I have an armoire for the tv and movies and I think I may paint it or strip it.  It's a bit too red for the rest of the stuff going on here.  Also, I plan on reviving a thrift shop coffee table using this tutorial:

  

So many projects….

I talked yesterday about finally hanging the bulletin board and today I'm excited to share with you the mudroom evolution!  

It's certainly one of those rooms that will evolve with time, but I am excited to have a space to hide/organize all the junk that accumulates like snowpants, car seats,  school papers. and miscellaneous "stuff".  I should just call it the Stuff Room.

This room has already served many purposes.  It held all my hardware and light fixtures for about 6 months.  When the weather got colder, I used this room to paint my doors in.  And now it's the place we toss stuff at the end of the day just so we don't have to look at it. I still keep my paint and brushes in here just because I am too lazy to walk ALL THE WAY TO THE BASEMENT (which is about 9 steps away from the mudroom) when I want to paint.  

April 2013

June 2013

August 2013

December 2013

January 2014

The kiddos have been out of school the past two days due to extreme cold temps.  It's difficult to think of things to do when it's so cold outside.  So, what did I do for entertainment in the cold?  I put my babe into a pink knit peapod and took adorable photos of her immobilization.

1. To hang the bulletin board, I first needed to find and purchase a non-puncturing apparatus to mount it to the wall so that a nail wouldn't pierce the china cabinet on the other side of the wall.  I found some velcro strips at Target used for picture hanging.  I attached them to the bulletin board.  Check.  

2.  Next, I needed to paint the part of the wall that the board would hang on.  But hey, while I have the paint can out, I should touch up around the trim that we recently put up to mount our hooks onto.  I should also should touch up the paint in the kitchen around the china cabinet where some of the stain got on the wall.  And why not touch up some other spots around the house where the paint has been nicked up?  Rinse and clean paintbrush.  Check.  

3.  Wow, this mudroom is such a disorganized mess.  I can't hang the bulletin board in all this chaos.  I rearranged the shelves and drawers and made new labels for boxes that I scored on clearance at Target.  I made files for the girls' pile of schoolwork that's been accruing in the mudroom since the beginning of the year. But where's my box of files?  Go dig in the basement through boxes until I find files.  While I am in the basement, I switch the laundry and bring a basket of clean clothes up and fold them.  Put files in filing cabinet.  Put newly folded clothes away.  Check.

4.  The rug in the mudroom looks awful.  I need to clean it to get the soot and dirt off of it from the day the guys hauled the boiler out of the basement.  While I have the carpet cleaner out, I should also clean my living room rug and entry rug as well.  During this process, I ran out of carpet cleaner and had to go digging in the basement for a different bottle.  While I'm in the basement I switch the laundry and haul up the clean clothes basket.  Carpets clean, clothes folded and put away…check.

5.  Order more carpet cleaner. Check.  

6.  Now there's a big clog in the carpet cleaner from the wool rug. I empty the dirty water container for the carpet cleaner and rinse out the wool.  But there's still some stuck in the machine.  I grab a screwdriver and take a couple parts off the machine and clean out the wool.  While those parts are off, I give them a quick rinse in hot water to get the storage dust off of them.  Reassemble carpet cleaner.  Check.

7.  Hang the bulletin board.  Check.  

See, so easy!  

I picked up some barstools at TJ Maxx this weekend. They are comfortable and I like the weathered, imperfect finish on the legs. 

But when I brought them home, I wasn't crazy about them.  I wish that they would be a little taller than the top of the breakfast bar and perhaps something with a more open back.  Also, they stuck out rather far from the breakfast bar into the dining room.

Greg & I hung out in them for hours last night while we worked and they were very comfortable.  But there's a type of stool I've had in my mind for awhile.  I've been reluctant about ordering them because they're online, not easily returnable, and I don't know if they'd be comfortable or not.  

Here's the candidates:

#1.  Safavieh Franklin Stool from Overstock.  I like the height and the contrasting seat, but there's only 1 left!  I am not sure if I'd be able to get my hands on another 2.  And if I don't like, they'd be a pain to return.  These would sit and 1.5" from the top of the breakfast bar.

#2.  Madeleine Barstool from Restoration Hardware (we'd get the armless kind).  These are the cheapest (!) option, but they would stick out into the room even farther than the ones we currently have. I like the height though: they'd be 4" taller than the breakfast bar.

#3.  Constance Stool from Ballard Designs.  These are on sale right now and and have good reviews for comfort and stability.  However, they'd be about an inch shorter than the breakfast bar.   

Has anyone sat for extended periods of time in seats like these?  Cast your votes!