Nancy's Haute Affair

First of all I have to give credit of these photos to my sister-in-law Paula. I just ripped them off her blog. I didn't take ANY 

pictures of Nancy's new business and it is such a beautiful shop that I wanted to share them on here (and Paula took some cool pics).

There is a picture of Greg (my bro) tasting the fare.

I picture of my other sister (Kristy) and nephew (Stosh) working.

Update: Kendall must have felt differently about today then I did. I heard her singing to her baby about the "best day ever". Humph.

Sanity At Risk

I had written a long post about my rough parenting day. I read it once and got irritated with the complaining. I'll just say I'm tired and need a nap.

This one doesn't want a nap though.

I think I might be a bit of a grump. I'm hoping Brian likes the idea of dinner out tonight.

Take a good look

It may never be this clean again.

And because you always need a little afternoon dance party...

I think Kate is just then figuring out that my big computer was gone, watch her checking out my desk.

Uber Productive

The girls had a great morning. They stayed so busy in the basement. Occasionally a conflict would occur and one or both would make their way back upstairs but shortly after they would make their way back down. 

I got my documents and photos transferred over to the Mac and Brian located our camera cord to download our recent pictures. The girls and I played with sidewalk chalk this week. See, who said art degrees were useless? Not every kid can boast of having Dora, Boots, and Swiper on their driveway!

We are currently down to one car, Brian ran into a bit of trouble with his yesterday (and got himself stranded and waiting on the tow truck before his work cookout at OUR HOUSE). Thankfully he made it home at 3:59 with the party scheduled to start at 4, phew.

Looking through all our photos and previous blog posts this week I was really struck by what a treasure trove of memories we have. I'm anxious to start working on a book format of the blog now. I was too discouraged with the lack of speed to consider working on it before but now I'm excited to get started. I have a feeling that we're going to be stranded at home the next couple of days so I better plan some fun activities for the kids to work on so that I can get started!

This and That

This is currently on my wish

 list:

One of these laptop bags from etsy. Click HERE

Also, spending the day transferring all my photos to the Mac. I vow to delete bad photos (blurry) every time I download from the camera from this point forward. I'm wasting too much time (and computer space) on photos that aren't even good ones!

Lorie uploaded pictures from our zoo trip, our day spent with Jenn and Justin, and a birthday party. They are currently protected so even if you get on her site you wont see them but I'll try to get to that at some point today. I have to approve the shots (this means, make sure she didn't get a shot of when Kendall pulled up my skirt...) and then will post some up here as well as let grandparents know where to find them in case they want to look or order any.

We had a great cookout last night. We love to entertain and feel like we are finally in a house that is suitable for it. It was great to get to know all of Brian's co-workers  a little better. 

Real Simple Recipe

 I love Real Simple Magazine.  I tried out a recipe from their June issue tonight. I had to change it up since I had some different ingredients. Here is their recipe  and this is what I did:

*4 ears of corn (I covered mine with water, added 1T of sugar, brought to boil, covered 7-8 minutes, cool to handle, cut off kernels).

*Stir in 2T lime juice, 2T good olive oil, 2 pieces chopped, cooked turkey bacon and crumbled feta.

It's a great combination of flavors!

I have to find our camera cable to download to the new computer, and I was on such a roll with the blog there too. 

Tomorrow night we're having Brian's work group over for a cookout. Everyone is bringing a dish, we will grill burgers and chicken and I made a cheese tray with olives and some peppered Salome and will pick up the good bread at the local bakery tomorrow. 

I spent the day playing with my toys. Well, as much as I could Kate, has had an upset tummy (evident by the massive quantities of stinky diapers) and she fell off the bottom three steps of BOTH staircases today. Crazy monkey, she had a rough day with the grumps to prove it!

One of the cool new features of the computer is the built in camera/video. We had a brief little 'call' with Jenn and Justin tonight. We loved it, the girls sat on my lap and Brian squatted behind me. Jenn and Justin held Frank and we talked about not much, ha.

I remember when I got my first car that I wanted to sleep in it the first night. I kind of feel that way tonight. I have a lot to learn on here and I just want to sit in my office tonight, ha. But I'm tired, I didn't sleep last night either so I had better get to bed soon. 

This Man!

This man of mine is so sweet. Since before we even moved here my computer was getting really, reeeeeeeeallllllly slow. It's been making awful grinding noises and sometimes it takes several minutes to switch between open windows. Occasionally it will start to make this sound that sounds just like an airplane getting ready to take off. When our desks were in the same room (at the old house) he would sometimes hear me say, "Flight attendants, please prepare for take off."

Well, yesterday out of nowhere I received a cryptic email informing me that a couple of packages would be arriving in the mail--one today and one tomorrow. I had my suspicions but was afraid to guess. I didn't want to guess computer if he had bought me a new pair of tennis shoes, it would seem ungrateful! I could tell he kind of wanted to tell me (he would be at work when they arrive) so it only took a few questions to find out it was a new laptop. Too bad we didn't have a camera on for my reaction, it would have caught me trying to pick him up and carry him around. He held out until bedtime to tell me the best part....it's a Mac Book (of course then I couldn't sleep)! I have this dream er, plan to go back to school for graphic design and the Mac Book will be SWEET for that!!!! He gave me a sweet reason why he did it too, but I wont put it for fear of embarrassing him.

And the little package that arrives today....an iPod touch. Eeek. What a good man!

I think it was good for me to be gone for three weeks. One day over email we had this conversation:

Me: Have you hung our new painting?

B: Not yet, I really haven't had much time, I've had to get groceries, cook my own dinner, do laundry...

Me: Man, you need a wife!

B: I know, when are you coming home?!

He knows just what to say to make me feel appreciated, ha.

Summer Lovin'

We're taking full advantage of the great weather. After nap we gathered our art totes and headed outside.

First you collect and inspect some flowers.

Then you draw them.

Make sure you're comfortable.

What is that I spy? This made me take a sharp intake of breath and grab for my camera...oh wait, it's just a little statue that my neighbor put in the corner of her yard, heee!

Take lots of pictures, just like mom.

Later we played with clay or playdoh.

Finally we took dinner out to the new patio furniture.

Inspiration: Home Edition

I'm a filer, I love to look at magazines and rip out the stuff that I like and neatly place the pages in the appropriate binder (home, craft, kid's activity, or recipe). I also place it in a specific tabbed location within said binder but we wont get into my OCD in this post. I also like to surf the Internet and save pictures within those same categories so for all you blog readers out there here is a little home inspiration. I feel bad doing this because I can't give proper credit though--I don't save the blog addresses where these come from. I love this little reading nook...maybe in one of the girls' rooms or the basement? I also will be framing their artwork for around the house too.

If we ever get the furniture piece for the master bathroom I like this idea for one of the shelves.

Cute little vignette for a girl's room.

I can give credit for this one. This is in photographer Tara Whitney's home. I really like the framed photos, the ledges and the glass jars.


I just found this one yesterday, love it. Shadow box frames with items that relate to the pictures: sidewalk chalk with the picture of the kids writing on sidewalk...

I have a thing for birds, and glass jars.


I love the layering of different fabrics/patterns. I'm thinking of Kate's big girl bed.

I would love to turn our mud room closet into this locker bin type thing. I also love all the red accents.

All right that's it for now. Someday soon maybe I'll do Inspriation: Crafty Edition. Hope you enjoyed the sneak peeks of things that may one day be ripping off to put in my own house.

What We're Doing...Today

Today has been great. We started off working in the veggie garden. The girls and I made cute little tags with drawings of each vegetable. Next we did a quick stop at the used clothing store and I found something that has been on the wish list for a long time. I have actually been in a store ready to pay full priced for this (only to find it was out of stock) but today I got a SWEET deal on an upholstered rocker and ottoman (seen here without the cover since it's being washed). Later we made our way to the pool for a quick afternoon in the sun and now were home for naps.

What We're Doing

Saturday morning while I cleaned up breakfast the girls did this. I put paper all over the table and laid out crayons, pencils, stickers and eventually stamps. I don't think Kate is quite ready for stamps.

Yesterday was a great Father's Day, after church and naps we took a family bike ride through a huge park to here. Kendall kept saying, "It's so cool Mom, It's SO cool". She was right, it was cool.

To all you mom's out there I recommend this. I bought it a couple of years ago at Target online. They are carrying a cheaper version in the stores now with matching blankets. The one I ordered seems much sturdier though. We use it for picnics and library trips. I can't take it anywhere without getting a dozen comments on it. I imagine that when we're living in Paris I'll take it to the markets each day too.

Speaking of living in France. I'm really enjoying this blog right now. This family bought a cottage in France and are currently renovating it, it gets me excited about our future there.

Bloggy Conversations

One of the hard things about blogging for me is that it too often feels like a one sided conversation. Doing a blog post is so much easier then sending out individual emails to family members BUT if I were to do emails I would at least get an email in response! Evidently when you go for about a month without a blog post and then randomly put one up like yesterday it creates lots of questions. SO I had lots of fun emails in my inbox this morning when I woke up! Love it!! I'll do a blog post answering all the questions, sort of like Dear Abby but it's really Dear The Paper Chick, ha.

#1 A new mommy that is looking to redefine her style asks where I shop.

Most of my clothes come from just a few stores: JCrew, Gap, Target or if it’s something trendy that I wont wear very long I’ll buy something at Old Navy (their stuff often doesn’t last long). The black and white dress from the party was from Ann Taylor. I find lots of cute stuff at Target, but again it’s generally poorly made. Classic stuff that I know I’ll wear a long time I get at JCrew.

#2 Yes, this is a niece not a sister. But I often will claim all my nieces as my little sisters since it feels that way sometimes and often when I'm talking to my kids about one of my nieces I'll accidentally call them Aunt Alex...

#3 & 4 There are five girls and three boys in my family with 22 years between me and the oldest (Greg). Here you go Paula, a picture of my big bro. I got the best of both worlds; I come from a big family but since I'm so much younger then all of them (I was the only one living at home by the time I was in middle school) I also felt like an only child.

#5 We were celebrating my sister Nancy's 50th birthday. We surprised her with the sisters & Greg on Friday night (because it was really hard for all of us to stay in hiding) and the big party with everyone was on Sunday night. Nancy is probably the most generous person I know and like the other sisters she is amazingly creative; however, she also got this crazy business sense along with that and is combining the two traits into a fabulous catering business and shop (to go along with their other two restaurants).

#6 My dad is not shown because he died when I was in middle school. However, if you want to know exactly what he looked like see the above picture of Greg. I will henceforth be calling Greg "Lil Irvin". Actually, I was so very blessed, not only did I have three big brothers to worry about me I also had big brothers-in-law that were amazing male figures in my life. Seriously, two own their own businesses and the other two were Naval Academy grads and pilots. John was available to question and intimidate boys that would come pick me up for dates and then he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day. My girls think of him and Lorie as grandparents.

#7 Two of my brothers were not able to make it to the party, we missed you Bruce and Joe!

#8 I LOVE coming from a big family, it's probably the greatest gift my parents could have given me (since I was the last one I'm especially grateful for all those kids). I however could not do it so no I will not be having a family like that. I do not know how my mom did it, it is a question that often goes through my mind several times a day...usually around dramatic bedtime routines and anytime the girls fight over something.

#9 & #10 Yes, I am originally a Florida girl where I could wear skirts and sandals year round. I took a semester off in college and was living with my sister Lorie (and John and their family) where I met and eventually married Brian. After we were married he was accepted to a business school in Boston and so I finished college up there.

I think that covers them all. This was fun, please send all your relationship questions, fashion dilemmas and decorating dilemmas to Ask The Paper Chick.