Living Room Inspiration

We had a lovely lunch date with our friends Brian and Erin at their cozy and well put together home. It made me start thinking even more about our home and the vision I have for the living room. I've also lately found some fun home renovating/decorating blogs, and many post "mood boards" for product and color scheme inspiration. I decided to give it a whirl. Here's iteration #1:

*Click on photo to enlarge

1. Dulaney Mini Sofa by Rowe - already own
2. Surya area rug - Artist Studio 225 - too expensive, but this is just for inspiration right? (why are rugs so spendy?...or at least all the ones I like?) OR Amy Butler Coventry rug (also too expensive, but maybe I should just sell some stuff and save up some money to get the one I like...hmmm) Which rug do you like?
3. Stow Chocolate Leather Storage Ottoman (x2) - Crate & Barrel (the best part is that they can provide extra seating, a place to prop up your feet, and the lids flip over to reveal a tray top!)
4. Dixon chair by Rowe - already own (it's a little more blue than it appears in this photo)
5. Arc de Triomphe original oil painting - already own, considering a new frame (color/style ideas?)
6. Wood Gallery Frames - already own (Pottery Barn), and yes that's us in the photos :)
7. Kinsey Floor Lamp - Crate & Barrel
8. Decorative vases (random) & Canary Candleholder (cb2)

Other: Throw pillows - one yellow/geometric print lumbar pillow for the chair, and a couple colorful pillows for the sofa (including a midwest mod zinna pillow - pattern by Amy Butler)

What do you think? Have you seen anything around that you think would go well with the pieces we already own? I'm especially having a hard time finding an area rug that I (both of us) like at an affordable price. Anywho, it's WAY past my bedtime so I'm going to call it a night. I already have a few ideas brewing in my head for iteration #2. Goodnight!

Cute Kid

Josh snapped a couple of photos while Harper was eating breakfast this morning. I thought I'd share. And no, he doesn't always eat without any clothes on. He was refusing to sit still hardly long enough to get his diaper on. I think he was just hungry.

White stuff

Harper's snow angel.

Trying to crawl and getting very frustrated.

Ooooh.

Staying Warm and Cozy

Any of you who don't live in Minnesota may or may not have heard we are in yet another large snowfall, paralyzing the city and much of the state. The snow didn't start until we were at church, so we easily made it home in time to hunker down and stay safe and warm. While at church, we made plans with our friends Erik and Lara to get together at our house for dinner. 5pm rolled came and went, and I was expecting a phone call from Lara canceling our date when they showed up at our door stoop coated with a flurry of snowflakes. 

Lara made delicious Pad Thai for dinner. I'll definitely be adding the recipe to my cookbook favorites. Like most of our dinners together we lost track of time, and by the time they thought of heading home, the snow had piled up enough the guys had to investigate their chances of getting home unstuck. After pushing out 5 stuck cars, the guys finally showed up and declared there wasn't a chance of making it home. Slumber party! Even though we've had similar snow falls this year, the timing of this one has made Monday morning travel pretty much impossible and has closed most businesses and schools including MSAADA. We completed Phase III drawings for the hospital in Haiti on Friday, so at least we made our deadline before the weekend. I am looking forward to another day at home with Harper and getting some more sewing done during his naps.

Speaking of sewing, my friend Jennifer sent me photos of the quilt I made for their wedding gift. It's the pattern Chantilly by Fig Tree Quilts. I altered the pattern to make it a queen-sized quilt, which involved calculating new block sizes for better looking proportions and avoid sewing hundreds of tiny blocks. I really love how it turned out, and Judy (from Too Crazy Quilters) did a great job on the quilting. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

And for all of you Minnesotans...Happy Snow Day!

10 Months Old

Last year this month we went on our babymoon. Now our baby has been alive longer than I was pregnant! Harper is a happy and finally healthy 10 month old! His string of viruses and colds seems to be over, but he is currently dealing with two top teeth trying to poke their way through. If it's not one thing keeping him from sleeping through the night it's another. Harper blessed us with a complete night's sleep Sunday night, but it's still not a regular occurrence. 

Harper likes to wrinkle up his nose with a toothy grin.

Here are Harper's stats and current milestones:

• Weight: 20lbs. 5 oz. 
• Length: 30 inches
• Gross-motor: pulling himself up to standing, crawling on hands and knees, kneeling, clapping
• Fine-motor: pinching and picking up items with his thumb and pointer finger
• Language development: clicking tongue, saying ba-ba, babbling, showing first attempt at signing "more"
• Sleepy-time: putting himself to sleep, sometimes sleeping through the night or up once
• Play-time: loves chasing his ball around, making rhythms (egg-shaker), dancing, climbing
• Foods: loves most anything except peaches (just like Josh and me!), especially likes yogurt, and spicy and tomato based foods
• Other: loves bath time, being outside and story time

What the next two months mean to me:

• First birthday party planning! Woot!
• Only two months left of breastfeeding (or thereabout). As much as I've enjoyed breastfeeding and the bonding time I have with Harper, I'm anticipating being done pumping and having my body to myself. You can be sure I'll be planning a few nights out with Josh and my girlfriends! Oh, and I'm also super excited to plan a sewing retreat this Spring!
• Excitement to see how Harper continues to develop and become more interactive with us and other kids.
• Sadness seeing my wee little baby become a little boy.

Get IN Get OUT

This morning, Harper and I joined the ranks of six other moms and a number of children outside the doors of Pacifier in NE Minneapolis. We were all pumped and ready for their big clearance event. I was super excited they were going to have car seats on clearance, as Harper has pretty much outgrown his. The infant car seat is supposed to go up to 30 lbs., and even though he's only 20 lbs., he's too long for it. I was prepared to buy the "cowmooflage" print car seat if that's all they had since it's such a good price, but I was the lucky one who jumped on the only grey version. After quickly snagging the car seat, I started my pile at the register and continued to bounce around the clearance racks. Next I snagged I package of two night lights, a pair of Robeez early walker shoes (12-16mo.), a grey tee-shirt, and this awesome table and stool set. I got the shoes, night lights and shirt 70% off, and the table with 4 stools and a bench was only...can you see the taped on sign?...$25! I had to read the sign twice, slowly, to make sure I didn't misread it. It will be awhile before Harper will be able to successfully sit on a stool, but I couldn't pass it up. 

Knowing I had found enough treasures, I headed to the register to pay and collect my things. Besides, it was quickly getting very crowded in the back of that little store. The staff at Pacifier was super nice and helped carry the large items to my car. I had to make a few arrangement adjustments, but magically fit everything in the Vibe (including our stroller and Harper's current car seat).

All in all, I was in and out of the store in 20 minutes and only spent $180. Not bad considering the car seat is originally $200 itself. Now that I've thrown off Harper's day with our clearance spree, here's to hoping he'll settle down for a nap.

Happy V-Day!

Since Harper would surely eat a Valentine's Day card, I skipped the card and got him an egg shaker. :) Charlie (one of Harper's buddies) had shakers with his music set that Harper really enjoyed playing with, so I thought he might like one of his own. 

Josh and I celebrated Valentine's Day Sunday evening after a walk around Lake Nokomis. We went to dinner at Salut, a French American restaurant. Josh ordered Steak au Poivre, and I ordered Duck à l'Orange. We finished dinner of with Crêpe Suzette. Délicieux!

Tonight I got home from work to my two valentines, flowers, dinner and dessert. What could be better?

Too nice to stay inside

Josh came home a little early yesterday giving us just enough time to walk around Lake Calhoun before sunset. The air was crisp, but the sun was shining, and it was above 30 degrees. We have spring fever now and can't wait to spend more time outdoors. After our walk, we headed home to a pot of vegetarian chili (now my favorite chili recipe!) and cornbread. It was grand.

Up for a Challenge

After finishing a quilt project like the one I made for my friend's wedding present, it's always nice to work on a few instant gratification projects like the sleep sack I made Harper, or these two lovely Figure-8 scarves:

Both of them are made out of fresh, fun fabrics designed by Anna Maria Horner. The one on the left is made of two layers of voile, and the one on the right is one layer of voile and one layer of cotton velveteen. I prefer the all voile one as it is less bulky and drapes nicer. The velveteen one is nice paired with my red coat when I'm heading outside...wait, this is not what my post was to be about.

A couple years ago, my friend Amber made a beautiful vintage dress to wear to a holiday party I hosted. I immediately purchased the pattern and some fabric and got as far as cutting all the pieces out and transferring markings. Fast-forward two years, and I'm finally digging the fabric back out of my stash and making it my goal to finish it by Easter so I can wear it Easter morning. Let's just say this dress has many many pieces and many many directions. It's definitely do-able and not too difficult, just more challenging and time consuming. Here's where I'm at:

If you can't tell, so far I have just the front put together. Next is the back, including a zipper and four more pleats (making a huge skirt!), yoke and facing, sleeves, and hem. So far it seems to fit well on the mannequin, but I haven't adjusted the measurements in two years either. 

Hopefully it won't be long before it's all put together. I'm just excited to be working with this gorgeous fabric by Art Gallery again. I'm thinking I may have to find a cream cardigan to pair with it...Easter isn't always sunny and warm here in Minnesota.

The Tuesday Times

I realized I haven't posted many pictures of Josh with Harper. I suppose he's usually the one taking the photos. I can definitely see more of Josh's dad in him now that he's a dad too. He'd probably deny it, but it's true. Josh and Harper already love to roll around, play ball, and be tickled to bits.

Sunday evening, Harper was feeling himself so we decided it'd be fun to get out of the house and head over to our friends Jenna and Andy's house to watch the Superbowl. I think I watched three plays out of the whole game but instead played with these two adorable babies. Charlie and Harper are only a month apart and are similar in abilities, so I think they really enjoyed having a playmate.

Harper has a dance move! He recently started rocking back and forth when music is playing or when we sing to him. He also started saying, "ba-ba." I'm not sure if it means anything to him yet, but we're working on consonant sounds instead of the usual, "yah-yah-wah-wah."

Happy Tuesday!

Under Attack

Poor Harper has been sick for two weeks. It was two weekends ago that he was plagued with high fevers and an ear infection. The fever lasted a couple more days during the week, and we thought he was finally in the clear by the next weekend...until a rash started developing on his cheeks and hands. Josh ended up taking him back to the pediatrician last Wednesday to find out he had Fifth's Disease. It sounds much worse than it actually is, and it's apparently very common. It didn't itch. Harper just looked like he had slapped cheeks and a red chin for a couple days. This whole being sick thing was starting to get old. Then, this past Friday while at my friend Katie's house, I noticed Harper had this huge hive, weird looking rash under his left knee and on the inside of his leg. He was starting to feel warm again. I put him down for a nap, and Katie and I had a much needed girl's night with homemade pizza and a movie. After Harper woke up, we checked out his legs and the hive was now on his right leg in the same spot, and he had a fever of 103 degrees. Seriously?! It was obviously bothering him by now, and this time it was itchy. Josh called the nurse line (for the 10 millionth time in a couple weeks), and we ended up thinking it was a reaction to me letting Harper try some feta cheese. That night we got no sleep. Harper refused to stay asleep for more than 30 minutes in his crib. We ended up rocking him all. night. long. Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriends Corynn and Jamie came to the rescue to help out with Harper and so I could get some sleep. Harper still had a high fever, and the hives kept traveling and varying in size. After talking with our pediatrician's nurse, we concluded it wasn't a food allergy and rather hives in conjunction with another virus. Our stock of baby meds is starting to grow. We canceled our weekend plans and just worked on getting Harper healthy once again. He slept much better last night, except for the hour and a half around midnight where he refused to sleep and just wanted to play. Today, his fever is gone and we only noticed a small batch of hives right away in the morning. Thank goodness. We are sick of Harper being sick, and I'm sure he's sick of being sick too. His little body's been working overtime. Pray he gets a break here for awhile!

Sledding BUST

Sunday was a perfect day to be outside. Even though it still wasn't above freezing, the sun was out and the air was still. Josh and I have been wanting to take Harper out in his sled for a while now, but every time we have the chance the temperature dips below zero or it's not light enough outside. Needless to say, we were super excited to take him for some fun in the snow at Lake Nokomis. Harper couldn't disagree more. I'm not sure if it was because he was still tired after an abbreviated nap or if he genuinely didn't like it, but he kept throwing himself back with a wail as in the picture below. Oh well. I think we got our first taste of trying to take your kids somewhere they don't want to go. I certainly remember giving my parents a hard time when they wanted to visit museums instead of the water park. We've crossed over.