25 Days, 5

I think it's understood among those who know me that my tastes run toward the "five-year-old-girl imagines how she'll decorate her house when she grows up." I always start out fairly restrained, but things usually end up a bit more Alice in Wonderland than is probably normal.

That said, look at these beautiful, amazing valances from Julia Rothman. Not only are they dee-vine, they were also ten bucks each at Urban Outfitters. The new linen sheers were $11 per panel from JCPenney. I am in heaven.

25 Days, 4

I was seven months pregnant when we bought and furnished this house. Also, we had no money. So our coffee and dining tables are round (for baby's safety!) and cheap. The coffee table is from Martha Stewart's Kmart collection because we're classy and it was $70 INCLUDING THE SIDE TABLE. So, you know, when you get two pieces of furniture for less than a hundred bucks, they're probably not going to wear like nails. Three years later and the coffee table was chipped and tired but still stable and still the perfect size and shape. So I painted it with stripes.

before

after

25 Days, 3

My poor husband. He had no idea that 5 years after reciting our vows I would have us living in a household that uses recycled toilet paper and cleans exclusively with vinegar spray. But I have clues that he's come around. Here is one of my Mother's Day gifts:

It's a GIANT EFFING COMPOSTER, YO! We are that guy! The one that composts!

Here's a picture of the filth that is fermenting inside. I know nobody needs to see this, but if I have to look at it every time I go out to dump a load of garbage in, so do you.

This is what I store our compost garbage in until I get outside. Much more civilized, no? It's melamine with a silicone seal to keep the smells out of the kitchen. It's a pretty good system if I may say so myself.

We haven't generated a load of compost yet, but when we do I think we all know there will be much crowing with pictures.

25 Days, 2

In the summers I take Fridays off rather than take an actual 2-week vacation. Usually I send Dash to school and use the time to clean and grocery shop and fold laundry and do all the stuff that you don't want to waste summer weekends on. This Friday, though, I kept Dash home and we played baseball and chased each other around with hoses (set to mist) and ate watermelon and popsicles.

And we did this.

Our entire side yard is lined in river rocks. I plucked a few pretty ones and Dash & I took it upon ourselves to improve on nature.

I hope he's always this fearless with color.

The prettiest ones are decorating a terrarium I made as a housewarming gift for our lovely friend Jen.

Another 25 Days

Last year around this time I spent 25 days meditating on my life's joys and pleasures. I credit that project with helping to lift me out of the post partum depression I had mostly unknowingly been suffering. (Not that I believe that good thoughts can end an actual clinical depression, but think mine was mainly over and I just needed to deal with figuring out my new place in the world as a working mother.)

Anyway, I loved spending those days looking for little bits of loveliness in my regular old life and am excited to return to my 25 Days.


I have, weirdly, never been stung by a bee. I think that's mainly why I am terrified of them. You've never seen someone spazz out and haul ass faster than me when confronted with a bee. But then I heard about colony collapse disorder. (Isn't it funny how quickly a little information can change your thinking? It used to be impossible for me to wrap my mind around how people could clean their houses without using paper towels. Then I realized that using paper towels had a real and lasting negative consequence for the planet and so I [mostly] stopped using them. Easy.)

But my point is, I read about colony collapse and something just clicked. We needed bees. And I could do my small part to help. So we planted tons of bee-friendly lavender and hung up this mason bee house. They don't actually live in it. They just lay their eggs in the little tubes. Now when I see a fat bee loping around my yard I welcome it and ask it to invite friends, too.

Peanuts, Cracker Jacks

The ideas of Josh and baseball are tightly entwined in my mind. His love of the game is so literary and innocent and optimistic and exactly what baseball should mean to men and boys alike. So there's been a countdown almost from conception to Dash's first game.

We didn't have terribly high hopes. It was a night game, and Dash had a birthday party to attend that afternoon. We knew he'd be really tired and probably cranky. But he wasn't. He was happy and curious and totally thrilled to be there. I know it's silly to say that a two-year-old got that he was at his first baseball game and everything that it meant to his father. But I swear to God he did. From the moment we sat down and he saw men taking the field he just knew that something awesome was about to go down.

There was a family one row ahead of us with a mom and her teenage son and his girlfriend. She coo'd a little over Dash and said she could remember her son's first game. That in the blink of an eye he went from a darling toddler to the tall and awkward kid sitting at her side. All I could think was, Yes, and he is still sitting at your side here. After all those years. I hope we are blessed that way, too.

On the way in

Josh & Dash have a game (sorta like Marco Polo) where Josh says, "Vladimir" and Dash responds, "Gew-weh-wo"

Dash's first Cracker Jacks were a hit, but the prize was seriously the worst I've ever seen. A mini-bio of Ben Franklin. No joke.

It was Guerrero Bat and Ball Day

Awe

A really good day

The Game

Lookit what I found here: Domesticali

Here's mine.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name