A Nugget and a Doodle

Please pardon the interruption in home decor and crafting updates for some family vacation photos! It's been almost exactly 4 years since Brent and I took our last vacation.  Nugget was 10 months old, and the trip was an absolute disaster, in spite of the best laid plans.  He picked up a stomach bug from daycare the day we left, so the vacation kicked off with him puking all over me on the airplane, and bless her heart, the woman behind us too!  Nugget didn't eat all week.  Dad and I both got that bug eventually too, and I got quarantined in our room after calling the ship's medical staff to ask if they sold immodium.  Mom had gall bladder attacks which resulted in emergency gall bladder removal.  *shivers*  So you get the idea.  Awful trip. So we decided to give it another shot, this time with 2 kids in tow!  What could go wrong?  Well, don't answer that.  The good news is nothing went wrong.  We had the best vacation ...

Since I finished the kids halloween costumes in October, I've been slaving away in my little workshop like a totally spastic elf getting all my new decorations ready for our first year in the new house!  Get comfy, because this is a LOOOOOOONG post, which is reflective of the number of hours that went into all this stuff! When we decided to move across country, I sold or gave away probably 75% of our Christmas decorations.  I'm really glad I did because most of them were a total reflection of my twenties style.  Everything was shiny, and sparkly, and bold.  In my thirties I'm really into more of a lived-in, loved and worn style as it feels more comfy and cozy to me.  In this new house, that shiny sparkly stuff just doesn't work, and I decided I needed to supplement with a lot of new decor for Christmas.  New doesn't mean it has to come from a store though! I started with making all new tree ornaments, nearly 100 of them.  When my nana died, the who...

I posted an early phase 1 photo on facebook a couple weeks ago without telling anyone what it was or what it would become.  I didn't get any guesses, and if I did, I'm confident they'd have been wrong.  :) Here's a reminder of those 2 photos I posted. Pretty underwhelming looking start, right?  I've never posted in-progress photos before finishing it so this was a little scary!  No idea what it is right?  Well, if the title of this post didn't tip you off friends, then you need to spend one Christmas season in Boston, or make more Italian American friends! This painters tape and papertowel monstrosity was to become my long awaited Dominick the Donkey!  Please please please tell me you know the song.  In Boston, they played it at 5pm every day from Thanksgiving until Christmas!  The nostalgia from being a kid, from living back in New England, and the memories it raises of my fur-sister Maggie are just so warm an...

Many of you know that I really dedicated myself to losing weight starting in January 2013.  Even through the stress and chaos of relocating across country, I stuck with it and lost about 75 pounds.  I never got to my final goal of 100 pounds, and then the holidays hit, and bad habits snuck back into our routine, and then we had our second move in a year and bad habits became the complete norm.  In fact, most of this year has been a yo yo, on again, off again.  I'd do well leading up to a trip for work, and then I'd succumb during the trip and then it would take a week or two to get back to eating better again resulting in a couple more pounds gained back each time I'd slip.  My method of weight loss was just documenting everything I ate and counting calories to burn more than I take in.  And that works.  The science made sense to me.  There are two big "buuuuuuut's" coming. 1) My objective was simple.  Eat fewer calories than I burn.  ...

Many of you have seen or heard about bits and pieces relating to our work outside, but this phase is finally done and it's time to share!  Disclaimer:  I retain the right to start another phase tomorrow if I choose.  :) Where to begin?  Well, we bought the vacant lot next to us a couple months ago.  We did this to a) block a local builder from building a spec house there and b) to extend our landscaping so that our house doesn't look so smooshed into the end of the cul de sac.  If I could turn back time, we'd buy both lots at the same time and center the houses on them.  Ahh, hindsight.  When we bought the lot, the neighbors on the other side were devastated because they thought that builder [who happens to have just built one of the less attractive homes in the hood got the lot, and they had inquired about purchasing a couple times over the past few years but the developer wouldn't budge on the price.  So, they somewhat hopelessly asked wi...

This post is long overdue.  This handsome little man is 4 weeks old today, and the goal was to blog about his nursery before he was born.  He did arrive almost 2 weeks early, so I guess I'll let mama off the hook for the delayed photos!  :) This is Cole.  As you can see, sometimes he's really happy, and sometimes he's really sad.  But he's always super cute and so is his nursery!!

Chances are if you're reading this, you know I've been redesigning the office only months after moving into our new house, at which time the office was completely decorated in a jewel toned peacock-inspired scheme.  Lots of people have told me I'm crazy to re-do it, either because they can't imagine dedicating this much time to a single room, or because they're politely trying to imply they loved it as is.  :)  Maybe some of you did truly love it, who knows?!  But after literally like a day, I didn't love it, and in fact, I hated it.  In a vacuum it was kind of cool, but it was very visible from the main living area, which is a far cry from mod, wacky peacock colors.  It was the odd man out and needed reconciliation with the rest of the house.   Just in case you haven't seen it a million times already, here is what the office looked like before:    It felt really dark in here too, which was depressing.  We work from ...