Marching: 7 Simple Shares

Playground in February. Pretending it is spring.

A few random things:

1. We recently painted the kitchen, dining room, and hallway. The entire house was a variety of tan and I needed to break it up a little. I am so happy with how it turned out! The kitchen and hallway are this color and the dining room accent wall is this.

After. Don't mind the phone charger and the few items missing from the sideboard.

2. Have you seen Home? It is Emaline's new favorite movie. I feel like I did not hear much about it when it came out. When I look it up, the reviews are mixed but my toddler loves it and so do I! It is funny and sweet with a positive message and a great soundtrack. You can find it on Netflix.

Nick and I went to a concert last weekend.
3. My favorite song from the opening act is this.

4. And my favorite song from the headliner is this.

5. The show was at House of Blues Boston. We have had friends complain about the venue before and we never understood. It turns out that the floor is great and the balcony is awful. If you ever find yourself looking at tickets to a show there, make sure your tickets are for the floor. Do NOT buy tickets for the balcony. Trust me on this.

6. If you are not yet watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you need to check it out. It is informative, sharp, and seriously funny. It airs Sunday nights on HBO. Nick and I watch on HBOGO through our AppleTV and if you don't have access to that, you can find some of his best segments on YouTube like this, this, and now this.

7. Today starts a new month. If you are looking for some inspiration to start decluttering your house, check out this.

Big Things: Focus

Portsmouth

This year, more than any other, seems to carry focus. Not because of some determined resolution but 

because of a path that I have slowly, oh so slowly, been wearing down and creating.

But before I can press my feet into the dirt and continue, I need to take a little bit of time to reflect. A year has ended and a new one has shuffled into place. In reflecting on 2015, the year of balance, it took me a moment to recognize the year as it was. Most of the changes, with some serious exception, are small. A few are light, simple, and fun. But my reason for creating a list is to provide a reminder, context. And in this post of introspection, I realize that 2015 was the year in which this quote proved true:





We rang in 2015 at our house with some of my best college friends. It was wonderful!

A few weeks later, Nick, Emaline, and I flew to Sanibel, Florida with my parents. We rode bikes, collected shells, watched sunsets, drank jai-alai, and swam in the ocean.

While we were there we found out that my Nana Rice was very sick. We wondered if we needed to return home early, but the decision was made for us when a massive snowstorm shut down New England. When we were able to get back,we spent time with my Nana before she passed away.

Nick pulling Emaline through the backyard of the house where my Mom grew up.

My Uncle Paul doing something on the roof. My Nana watching us through the window. The last day we saw her.

On my birthday, we said goodbye to my last grandparent. I wrote about her here. We spent the next few months buried in snow.

When finally the last bit of white melted away, we broke the record for the snowiest winter in Boston's recorded history. And moving forward from that hibernation, I realize now, how many small changes happened then:

• Started a number of house projects 
• Tended the yard and gardens around our home
• Discovered podcasts 
• Continued to simplify, declutter, and slow my home
• Began eating more fruits and veggies with a daily smoothie
• Got myself to enjoy black coffee
• Started wearing lipstick. (It only took me 32 years to decide that I liked the way it looked.) 
• Learned to like cooking a bit more and picked up a few recipes
• Took a painting class
• Attended networking events
• Found a workout class that I really enjoy and have stuck with it. Barre!

In May, we celebrated Emaline's second birthday with a big party at our house and got her a swing-set. A few weeks later, Nick had to go to Amsterdam for a work conference and I took the opportunity to join him. We left Emaline with my Mom and traveled Bruges and Amsterdam for six days. It was a great reminder how much Nick and I love to travel together and want that for our family in the years to come. We also:

• Traveled to Minneapolis three times
• Vacationed on the Cape
• Visited the National Seashore
• Hosted a number of family and friends

The day after we returned from Europe, the organization that I serve as a volunteer board member had our biggest event of the year! We shut down the main street in Portsmouth to host the Stiletto Sprint! A short race run in heels (men and women) to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters. It was an incredible event and I am so proud to be a part of it. In our last meeting, I agreed to take a higher position on the board for this coming year.

And at the end of the summer, I got an offer to join a long term writing project. An author who I love and respect is writing a historical fiction novel and has asked me to research and edit. I officially started on September 1st and it is the best!

In addition to this list, are the countless days I have spent with Emaline. Often we are in pajamas, playing hide and seek or babies or kitchen or coloring or singing or freeze dancing. I will admit that sometimes Emaline has to say "Mama, play with me!" before I decide that it is okay to stop what I am doing (this included) and be with her completely. But every night when I squeeze her in my arms before tucking her in, I know this is a time to cherish. And I do. She is no longer a baby but a little person. She is smart, funny, thoughtful, and curious. She counts, sings, knows her colors and letters, uses a high-pitched voice when we play pretend. Every day she does something that just pulls on my heart. This morning she hid stuffed animals in Nick's jacket pocket to surprise him when he went to work.

So 2016, I am ready for you. 2016 is the year of focus. Travel. Finances. Family. Friends. Writing.

Happy New Year!

Summer: Full House

This shall be known as the summer of hosting!

I typically feel guilt when this much time passes without showing my blog some love but this summer was full (hard to believe it's almost a year since this) and the time that I did have to write, I gave to my novel.

The house is quiet for the moment and we have fallen back into a rhythm. But as I notice the date, it seems to signify the end of summer. So I pause to take stock of my favorite season.

As a family we managed one trip to Minnesota, three trips to Cape Cod, numerous beach days, countless hours of yard work, and five (soon to be six) sets of visitors!

We have had house guests nearly nonstop since the beginning of July. As a result, everything has existed around providing a welcoming home and making the most of time together.

I am so grateful to have friends and family that are willing to take time to travel and stay with us. As I have written before, it is powerful when somebody you love is able to step into your everyday and sample your life.

It is looking at life through another lens. And it affords the opportunity to to be a tourist in my own town. It is an excuse to not waste the summer-  the best restaurants and beaches and outdoor concerts and harbor cruises and painting classes and barbecues. It allows a fall back into comfortable friendships and builds new memories.

The beds have been cleared yet again. The laundry and dishes put away. The house- reset. 

Now I write it down. 

But the heat lingers and we likely have a few more days of salt and sand before the season sneaks away. So I embrace each day and try to remember everything that we did. 

New Home: First Christmas

December swept by with such force that I have just now caught my breath. I wrote this post on December 8th and never pressed publish. The holidays are always busy but with Nick travelling for work and us travelling for Christmas, we reached new speed. So in an effort to remember, I am posting now without change to my previously written words.

We spent this weekend getting our new house Christmas ready. On Saturday, we bundled Emaline in a tiny sleeping bag and took her on her first wagon ride. We pulled our all-terrain Radio Flyer down the street to a local flower shop and bought a Christmas tree.

On previous years, my choosing method was to find the fattest tree that I could find. It has not always worked out well. This year I picked one that is skinny but full. It is the best tree we have had in years! For the walk home, I carried the baby sack and Nick pulled the tree which had been tied to the wagon. If only Norman Rockwell could have seen us!

That night my parents came to spend the night. I have heard that the Portsmouth tree lighting is the best day of the year and I was so excited to check it out. unfortunately, the lighting and holiday parade were cancelled because of rain. So we went out for a nice dinner and then came home to decorate the tree, listen to Christmas music, and sip Bailey's on ice. It was great. My Mom also gave me a lesson on putting on Christmas lights. Her tips:

1. Start at the top
2. Hang the lights loose and away from the trunk
3. Step back often and fuzz your eyes to check spacing

Now to finish shopping and get some present under the tree. Merry Christmas!

Did you miss these holiday posts?

Practice: Peonies for Emaline

I have written the obligatory post about our move and everything that goes along with it. But I'm not ready to share. Because of the move and everything that goes along with it, I have not been writing. And the first few times writing after having not written, are a little bit like getting off crutches. I am weak and shaky and my muscles needs to build along with my confidence. So borrowing a little bit of inspiration from one of my favorite bloggers, I am writing a practice post. I will publish it as my warm-up, my opening act. Not to build expectations, please don't do that. But to get my fingers moving and my writer-brain slowly turning. So for the moment, I will pretend that I am not 1,200 miles from Nick's family, an hour from my family, and five minutes from the ocean.

A picture to pull you into a new topic. Emaline!

Emaline's first birthday is in less than a week! Nothing in the world messes with the passage of time more than a child. This year has flown by runs parallel in truth to that feels so long ago. Nick and I keep repeating these statements as we prepare to celebrate. We are having a party for her on Saturday and her actual birthday is on Tuesday. I have a Pinterest board of ideas. We will see what plans come to fruition. I know I want flowers, and balloons, and to decorate her highchair.

What I imagine. But this won't happen. 

I imagined peonies filling the house. When I announced that I was pregnant, I chose peonies as the image to accompany my words because they come into bloom at the same time that my baby was to be born. Yes, there was a lot of thought over that image. And since that time, I have associated those beautiful flowers with my littlest love.

Yesterday, I called the local flower shop and asked if they had any peonies. The lady excitedly told me they were coming in tomorrow. I almost ran for my credit card. This is perfect. I will buy so many. "They are $7.00 a stem." she said breaking through the daydream of my peony house.

"Like per flower? A stem is a flower?" I asked incredulously, realizing only now, how dumb I must have sounded.

After a few beats of silence she responded, "Yes. That's right."

So I am revising my floral plans. I will share some here and when we buy a house (which will be soon but we're not talking about that yet!) I will plant peonies. And every spring when they bloom, I will clip a bunch and put them in a vase for my little girl.

  

Nest: It's the Little Things

When we returned from the baby shower, I washed, sorted, and folded all of the tiny clothes. The crib and dresser will not come in for another 7-9 weeks (who's worried?) so I stacked them in a laundry basket in the baby's closet.

I am deep in the throes of nesting. I want to spend all my time preparing and I get anxious when there is nothing for me to do.

I have to wait for her crib and dresser. I am waiting for a shipment from my Mom with the items we could not pack into our suitcases after the shower. Nick and I have implemented a budget and I am trying to wait until the end of the month to spend money on other baby items (shelf, baskets, curtains, blinds). So right now, I am stuck. I keep measuring her room to see how everything will fit. And sometimes, I just sit in there and look around. Do I sound crazy yet?

As for her tiny clothes- so. much. pink. I knew it was going to happen and I absolutely do not mind but I do love when clothes can be really cute or girly without being pink. It shows a little creativity. My absolute favorite is when clothes have ruffles on the butt.

And a few weeks ago, I found the below image on pinterest. I fell in love. It made me think about summer. I would have purchased it on the spot except it turned out to be instructions on how to sew the outfit. Not going to happen.

 The socks are impossibly small. We did already lose one (it has since been recovered) but I know it's just a matter of time before they start slipping into the land of the missing. I plan on using this clever idea to help mitigate our losses.

The other thing that I want to address is the registry. It is a lot of work.

It is nothing like registering for a wedding. Your wedding is all about things you want. Oh that rug is pretty, check. It is awesome. You get nice towels and matching bowls and it is important, but you are adding things to the life that you currently have. (Example: Nick and I love hosting dinner parties, we should get some items that we can use.)

 When you build a baby registry, it is a lot more involved. You are preparing for a life that you do not yet have. And you are asking for items that will help a tiny human live. (Example: I want to leave my house with this baby, I need to put it somewhere safe.)

Nick and I spent hours researching what we need. We read hundreds of amazon reviews and reached out to friends and family with questions. So much thought went into every item we added. So it shocked me when a friend told me she had trouble picking something out for us because "there wasn't anything special on the registry". I know what she meant and it is a thought I have had before when looking at other registries. But I can tell you now, every item on that registry is special. Changing pads might not be glamorous but I need to put my baby down on something so that I can keep that pretty rug.



 Speaking of special gifts, for my birthday Nick gave me Make Way for Ducklings. If you grew up in New England, chances are you had this book. And if you grew up in Boston, chances are this book was cause for a field trip. If you have no idea what I am talking about, buy this book for a child in your life and then go to the Public Garden in Boston. I posted a picture of them on this blog post.

Nick and I had our wedding photos done in that park.

Also there's this:

 

Around the House: Projects and Habits

A few weeks ago, Nick came home with a bunch of arugula for pizza. We knew it would take time to go through all of it so, as a bit of an experiment, he stuck it in a glass with water. It actually looked pretty and lasted much longer than it would have in the fridge. In the dreary winter months, any pops of green are welcome. 

Being around the house all day allows me to take on random projects. Cleaning is my favorite way to procrastinate. Yesterday, I cleaned all of the grout in the kitchen. It took a long time and was kind of a pain, but looks like a different floor.

Another project was to tidy up the basement. It is unfinished and used for laundry and storage. At some point, somebody started to put in a bathroom but never finished or put a door on the project. To close it off, I had the idea to hang a shower curtain over the door. I purchased a shower rod, circle hooks, and a simple blue curtain from Target. It actually worked really well. My only complaint is the packaging that target used to send the shower rods. Get it together Target. This is such a waste! See below:

 

Lastly, I have a confession to make. Last month, I read a post on Healthy Tipping Point about how she does not sort her silverware drawer. My confession is that I judged, a little. 

A few weeks later, I was sorting clothes when I realized my own oddity. I mentioned previously that I am bad at folding clothes. What I really mean is that I do not fold them. Clothes have assigned drawers but I take my pile of t-shirts and shove them into the drawer. 

With my limited clothing choices these days, I decided to sort everything. It was somewhere between jeans and long sleeves that I thought back to HTP's post. I guess we all have our own quirks. Sorry Caitlin!  

It has been two weeks since I have tackled my clothes and so far so good. It is nice being able to open my drawers and see my options. It has also helped me keep clothes off the floor. I know in a few months, I will have even more to keep neat so I'm hoping that by starting to change my habits now, it will be easier to maintain when I have tiny clothes stacking up.

The Observation: Writing on the Wall

The other night I was up really late. Nick and I had gone upstairs relatively early and we were both reading. Nick was reading from his Calvin and Hobbes anthology and I started reading The fault in Our Stars.

A few years ago for Christmas, I bought Nick the complete works of Calvin and Hobbes. Yes, the comic. It came in a box set. There are three hardcover books and I would guess that each book weighs twenty pounds. He loves it! That night he carried the entire set upstairs and said this is what he planned to read to our baby.

As he laid beside me holding up twenty pounds of cartoon, he was laughing out loud. Every once in a while he would ask me to read a section. They are funny, I like them, but he likes it to another level.

In a completely different mindset, I was beside him with The Fault in Our Stars. It pulled me in early on and would not let go. I finished the book in less than 24 hours. The story is a little dark as it is dealing with teenagers who are battling cancer. It is beautifully written. The dialogue is so sharp that the characters easily come to life. I was up reading long after Nick fell asleep.

 At 2:30am, I got up to use the bathroom. I was washing my hands when I noticed writing on the wall. In blue marker, Nick had labeled the items on the sink and had drawn arrows pointing to them. My first thought was how strange that I had not noticed this when I first walked into the room. My second thought was why on earth had he written on his bathroom wall?

 I stepped back to think about this, when I noticed more writing! On the wall directly across from the toilet (the wall you look at if you are sitting on the toilet) was an assortment of strange quotes and a drawing of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.

My tired mind started thinking about ghosts again. I could not process that I had not noticed all of this when I first entered the room. But really, I knew my husband was to blame. I still thought there must be a reason. His engineer mind must have thought up some practical application.

I woke Nick up to ask him about the midnight scrawling. He just laughed. When pressed on why he covered his bathroom in blue marker, "It was fun. As soon as I realized that I could write on the walls, I decided to do it."

"Are you going to erase it?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I'll get a different colored marker and add to it."

 And people think that I am the goofy one??

After note: I am bothered by my lack of observation. I took this quiz and failed. What other things am I missing? You should take it too!

Reaarange: Beds and Characters

First, thank you for all of the kind words that came from my last post. It helps tremendously to know that I am not alone in how I feel.

On the night I published that post, Nick and I stayed in and rearranged furniture. We moved our bed to a different room to make space for a nursery. I love our rented house but it has a very strange layout. The upstairs is somewhat of a master suite with a large main area, a smaller room set apart by french doors and another room on the side that has a traditional door. Our closet is off of the room with the french doors so we moved our bed in there so that the baby can be in a room that can shut off entirely.

The steep stairs up. I hear that I will hate these when the baby first comes.

New bed space. Needs a little color but I love the coziness.

I have wanted our bed in the french door room forever because of this picture. Now to find that light fixture. :)

I will take pictures of the other rooms upstairs as progress is made. I am currently working on a new system to store clothes. I am really bad at keeping clothes neat. My family makes fun of me for it constantly. And the baby room is not much to look at yet. I will keep you posted.

My goal today is to work on my novel as much as possible. I started the morning by reading through all of it out loud for editing purposes. Toby is now the only one who has heard the whole story. I think he liked it but he's not hard to please.

 The story does not make sense as is. There are still huge sections that only live in my mind. So after I read through all of it, I pick individual sections that need to be flushed out and begin typing as fast as I can. I try not to edit myself too much in the initial phase. The story already exists in my head so I am attempting a translation of something that I know but have not yet seen. Often, the main points remain but the longer I type, the more the story takes on life and I just try to keep up.

Before I can vigorously type, I have to get my mind to the right space. Getting to that place can be one of the most challenging parts of the process. Sometimes I do not feel inspired and the words seem forced. When this happens, there are a number of tools that I try.

Music is my most powerful tool. It can instantly change my mood and transport my thoughts. Often a single song is played on repeat while writing an entire scene. Today I was working a lot on the romantic relationship between two characters and music alone was not enough. That is when I pulled up this amazing video and then found this one.

How much better would music videos be if they were more like that? Love. 

Sums it up perfectly.

And now back to work I go.

What do you use for inspiration?
 

 

PSA: More than Just Loose Change

I recently said to a friend that I wonder if our house is haunted. At night I hear noises as though someone is moving around downstairs and things have started to go missing. My Nook disappeared out of thin air. It has been gone since March. I have torn the house apart looking for it and, nothing. The day after I was talking about the possibilities of spirits in my living room, the AppleTV remote went missing. The product does not function without the remote so Nick and I went crazy looking for it. It's is small and skinny and we only keep it in a five-foot radius of the television.

I started moving the television and pushing cables around. I pulled out a flashlight and investigated our media console. Nick sat on the couch and dug his arms down into the material. The couch is a leather recliner and has really deep pockets and lots of hidden space. He pulled out a sock, a dryer sheet, and then his eyes lit up. "You'll never believe what I have my hands on." He said, arms buried to his elbows and twisted to his side. Slowly he released his arms from the grip of the couch to reveal my Nook! In disbelief, I lifted it out of the turquoise case and turned it on. The story I was reading last March, flickered on before the battery shut off.

I gave up my post at the console and took a seat on the couch, digging my arms into each crevice. Within moments I had my hands wrapped around the remote. It was jammed between some bars and took some maneuvering but I was able to remove it from the jaws of a convertible abyss.

It is hard now to sit on this couch with the same comfort as before. I wonder what else is in there, what has fallen to a spot that I have not yet reached. Nick and I joke about taking it apart but i don't think we actually can.

I am relieved the mystery to our disappearing items has been resolved but now I don't trust my couch and that is stranger than ghosts.

Simple Dream Home: NOT a Design Blog

In contrast to the above picture, it is so cold here today! I stepped out of the house with plans to ride the bus but my leggings argued for the corolla and won.

To distract myself for the -35 that they are projecting for later tonight, I found pictures of homes that are beautiful, that feel warm, that are not in the upper Midwest.

They are the kinds of homes that I would like to find myself living in. Some of the pictures I have viewed on other blogs a long time ago and fell so in love, that I continue to go back and drool over the warm, simple life that I imagine the space would provide.

This kitchen is simple. Classic with a modern twist. Elegant yet comfortable. Love.

So calming. It would be such an escape to collapse into this bed. I want to nap there right now.

I adore this set up and I'm in love with the light fixture. It just looks so cozy.

Love love love this library. Classy and eclectic. Funky with timeless pieces.

Cutest little girl room I have ever seen. I actually saved this picture twice on two different locations from two different places. I am consistent in my taste.

Oprah's library. Enough said.

Oprah's library part II. I want to curl in in that chair and read/nap by the fire OR have a glass of wine with Oprah.

Oprah library part III. Love this room.