Category Archives: Family

My garden gnome…

Mini-garden makeover in progress… BEFORE Once upon a time, until maybe 4 years ago, there was a huge pine tree in the middle of my backyard.  You can still see this tree on the google map… it was a biggie.  Word on the street (previous owners & neighbors) was that this tree was struck by lightning and split in half. … (more…)

Natural Color Palettes: Topsail Beach

Here’s a moment in time – captured on Topsail Beach, NC last fall.  We were at my sister-in-law’s wedding waiting to get our professional photos snapped.  This one captures the mood of the moment very nicely.  I love my boys The warm colors in the foreground and the cool colors in the background give this photo a nice balance.  Again… (more…)

Natural Color Palettes: Ice on berries

Beauty at a truck stop Ahhh… the memories….  We were driving home for the holidays – the first stop on our 750-mile-in-one-day-commute (with-two-kids-I-might-add).  It was an otherwise crappy stop (literally – the son had a bit of a blowout) along the highway in western Indiana.  Eric had been driving, the weather was terrible, the kids were complaining, Clayton was a… (more…)

Art + Kids + Beer?

For real. Here’s how it went down on Thursday, February 11, 2010.  I pick up my daughter from school at 3:15… about 1 minute passed by before I heard these words, Mom?  We have a Valentine’s day party tomorrow and I have to bring in Valentine’s for everyone. Of course, I should’ve seen it coming… I’m not a fan of… (more…)

Blast from the past…

I have a dusty myspace page.  I’m cleaning house – taking what I’d like to keep, and then divesting myself of this dead real estate.  I started an eo-blog on that myspace page – so I’m resurrecting some of those old posts for all to see (at least – more than the 17 friends that I had on myspace).  The… (more…)

We’re Curve Limited…

It’s OK, you can admit it.  You don’t even have to hide it, at least not in my house.  Just don’t get too carried away.  Remember that you have to share As part of my experiment to not be so ‘distracted by life‘ – the computers have been turned off after school.  This has caused my family to look at… (more…)

Distracted by Life.

Yep.  I admitted yesterday – that I was distracted by….. life.  Which is not the goal really.  I should be fully engaged in life, present – in the moment.  Time for a course correction! In search of a balance I started writing this blog just about 1 month ago… it’s been a learning curve for sure.  Literally, one month and… (more…)

Let your kids orbit.

I have grown to appreciate how the living room opens into the kitchen, the kitchen opens into the dining room, and the dining room opens into the living room.  This allows my kids to ‘orbit’ the house – which is particularly important on cold winter days.  Funny though, they always seem to orbit counter-clockwise. I’ve learned to enjoy this –… (more…)

The previous owners have been verbed.

So, you bought the house from the [insert previous owner's last name here]‘s.  You may or may not have been lucky enough to meet these people to put a face with the name.  All of the pleasantries of closing are behind you – they have moved on, and you have moved in.   Now you really get to examine the place.… (more…)

You know how some people look like their dogs…?

Well, maybe its not the best analogy, but I’m guessing that if you sat down and talked to Eric and I for a few seconds, you’d figure out what our house must look like. As soon as ‘architectural salvage’ spilled out of my mouth – you could imagine that I’m the kind of person who wants her home filled with… (more…)