Two years ago when we moved into our home (you know the one we bought sight unseen from Switzerland) I took my first drive through the neighborhood and spotted a home that looked similar to the layout of ours but had fresh grey siding and a happy, red door. I jokingly told Seth that whoever lived in that house would be a friend of mine. She had great taste!! So certainly she was friend material.

We dove head first into our home renovations and got busy settling the kids before school. School kicked off and we lived in that first month fog trying to navigate life with a little boy in school, along with all of the wonderful to be stateside activities like playdates, bible study and MOPS! A month or so into school Jackson pointed out one morning that he knew the little girl coming out of the mysterious red door on our way to drop off. I soon learned that this little girl was from Jackson’s class and that her mom was the class room mom. As I got to know her she indeed became a fast friend. Not one that I spent tons of time with but one that I could quickly relate to and jump in where we left off in our last “speed session”. I learned that her family too was a family that moved every couple of years for her husband’s job and she was juggling making life normal for her kids while also trying to keep her sanity in the midst of life being in a state of flux most of the time. We shared a similar lifestyle and similar work so we had plenty to chat about!

Over the last couple of weeks we have been doing the final touches on our outside work on the house. The shutters are done and the fixtures are up but the last thing to do was a cheery red door.  And as much as I wanted a red door I can now tell you from experience that the process was a bit more vulnerable than I had anticipated.

We picked California Poppy by Behr for our first go round. It came out, well, let’s just say, more poppy than we wanted. I went out to take pictures around dusk to send to my mom and it practically glowed!  We tried a couple more coats in hopes it would deepen. Next round we took the remaining paint to HomeDepot and had them add a little black which was supposed to deepen it. When Seth popped open the can to get going on the last coat he discovered that the guy had added WAY more black than needed and it had turned a purpley maroon color. So back to HomeDepot (wonder how much Homedepot makes from projects gone wrong?…probably  more profit there than original purchases) for a deeper color all together. Ruby Ring it is.

Here she is. I haven’t rehung our wreath but you get the idea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She looks extra good with a cute tball player posing in front of her! Don’t you think?!

Back to vulnerability and what the heck this all has to do with friendship. The minute we started taping the door we were causing a scene. Our winter barren front yard left all the attention on the action. Cars were slowing down to see what Seth was doing! Ha! With each coat we got comments from neighbors and held our breath for the outcome. The texts and facebook comments were coming in! It’s a bit like putting yourself out there in friendship. It requires a bold move and risk. And it certainly requires time for the friendship to develop into what you hope it will be. You can feel a little silly and awkward in those early attempts but if you can endure those days of deepening you can see something so much more unique and fulfilling than the surfacy stuff you began with.

The risk is worth taking. On friends and doors. The friendships I have taken risks on are worth every effort, and if they are not I soon know to move on….to other paint colors, I mean friendships.

Paint something red this week….and take a risk on a new friendship. Don’t get scared in the maroon, poppy phase…it will deepen in to something so much better!

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Hi! Hope you are all doing well! Our project time the past few weeks (ummm, more like early Oct but I am way behind!) have been spent prepping the baby’s room. Pardon the coloring on the pictures. I can’t seem to get myself in to take pictures when the lighting is right. And the camera is being held hostage in the car lest we forget it when rushing to the hospital.

This girl, I tell ya, she is not one bit anxious to see her room despite our best efforts to make it ready for her.

When I was in Texas I found fabrics I loved for a great price and my sister-in-law’s mother agreed to make a bumper for us! While I was in the fabric shop I grabbed a few extra 1/4 yds of fabrics that were coordinating and I just couldn’t resist.  If you happen to be in the Dallas/Ft Worth area check out Cabbage Rose Quilting Shop in Ft. Worth.  At most fabric shops my problem is not loving any of the offerings but in this place you will find way too many choices!! I leaned towards vintage-looking  prints with florals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend lent me her old Pottery Barn crib. We called PBkids and they sent us a special kit to make it a fixed side crib! I highly recommend doing this if you have a crib you want to use but it’s drop-side. Easy, peasy fix and it’s free! Owen gnawed on the sides of his crib…so while it is slightly dangerous to reuse as a crib it converts into a full bed headboard and baseboard. So someday that will be sanded down and used in his room when he’s older.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letters for her name I got from my friend Jennifer at 163 Design Company. I covered them with fabrics samples that I got to compliment the bedding. She made them exactly how I wanted them, got them to me super quickly and her prices are awesome! Shameless plug! I paid for them so don’t think I am bragging on her because I am doing her a favor. I just really love her stuff!  I have a few of her things around the house. Her monograms make great gifts!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this chair on Craigslist. It was the big splurge of the room but a good deal nonetheless. The robin egg blue linen cover was filthy. I did a couple of rounds of Oxy soak and it is much improved but after a couple of weeks of seeing it au natural I think I have decided to keep it this way. The little duck pillow was sent to Jackson when he was at MD Anderson by my friend Annie. She had it made out of the little robe her kids wore when they were little and I took care of them. I can’t wait to send it back to her when she has a grandbaby someday…(someday, those teenage girls better not see this as encouragement to have a baby now!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the paint color we pulled the pale blue green from the bedding. We used a darker shade on the paint chip for the backs of the book shelves. I am having a hard time finding the paint chip or the link on Home Depot but we used Behr Premium Plus and I believe the name of the wall color was Country Mist and the background on the shelves is the next shade darker on the chip.

Curtains. I was hunting through my box of curtains and found these sweet, lace curtains. I had to wrack my brain to figure out where they had come from but I remembered that my friend Annie had given them to me years ago when she no longer needed them for her little girls room and they were neutral enough to try in one of my apartments. I never used them then for some reason but they are perfect in the babies room.

Shelves. I shopped the house for things that I could use in baby girls room. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago and I can already see that I have fussed with the shelves a bit more and things have moved and more has been simplified.

The walls. I used embroidery hoops from Michael’s to make inexpensive art with the pieces of coordinating fabrics from the bedding.  I picked up this picture at HomeGoods almost a year ago. It’s been residing in the laundry room until now. When I saw it it reminded me of  what I would hope to instill in a little girl should we ever be blessed with one (and myself). I love the wind blowing through her hair, making it wild and messy. I love her determination and confidence and of course her shoes like the ones I wore when I was a girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The changing table ($5 at garage sale) is being used as closet storage and we plan to use a changing pad on the bed since the room is so snug.  The headboard for the bed was from our neighbors in Bern…when they packed out for another FS tour they underestimated their weight and started tossing stuff. I spruced it up with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint. I found a free headboard in Switzerland and also used chalk paint on that as well although I didn’t take pictures of either of these.

For lighting I wanted something sweet and feminine. Everywhere I looked light was over $100 and while it was cute I didn’t think we would use them long term. I had bought this $6 bird cage originally as decor for the room but with the room being so small we didn’t need any more stuff.  So, Seth sawed off the top and we used a cheap Home Depot lighting kit to make the bird cage into a light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it…or most of it at least. Now come, baby, come!  We are so excited to meet you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hiya!!

Well we are finally getting into our new groove with a new sitter, job, and lots on the Spring docket. We sat down a few evenings ago to really look at the calendar and it seems we are booked most weekends and a couple evenings a week until school gets out in mid June! We have a trip planned early July to have a Kolb family reunion and to spend time with my family welcoming our niece Grace into the world!  It’s all good stuff but we definitely need to pace ourselves! It’s nice to be busy this year with life and not a move. It’s nice to literally put down some roots and look forward to seeing the fruit.

The biggest gig around here right now is the garden project. When we were house shopping last year one of our biggest things on the list was a yard that could both fit and provide enough sunlight for a garden.  While the house and yard have some quirkiness we are excited that it does fit the bill to have space and sun for a garden. We are hoping our light green thumbs darken as we dive into this learning experience of growing lots at one time.

My mom is my garden consultant from afar. She is the one who planted the love for gardening in me. So much of her life as a young mom was spent being involved in serving others through our church as a pastors wife. Her garden was her own project that she enjoyed cultivating and sharing with others.  She always had some kind of garden no matter what parsonage she was in. The one that sticks out to me the most was the one that she did down the road from our house on the church property. Our yard had a steep slope and a zillion trees so a garden was impossible. She asked the leaders of the church if they would let her use a plot of land on the back of the property to plant. They agreed….not withholding their chuckles about planting a garden in a back field with no hose or water line. I can remember my mom saving milk jugs and filling the minivan with enough jugs to water the garden. Not sure how on earth she did it with three young children but it must have been a project that brought her sanity and joy because she pressed on! She recalled the shock of the small town Ohio folk when they saw things like eggplant growing in her garden.  They had never seen it and the thought of growing it and eating it was unheard of. That might have been the year she wowed us all with Eggplant Parmesan.   Even my not so adventurous husband is now known to request it. That and ratatouille…which by the way isn’t just a kids movie. We are looking forward to lots of deliciousness to come…or at least we hope!  Currently we have strawberries and herbs in the ground as well as flower pots. Next round will be tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, eggplant,  watermelon, cantaloupe, zinnias and sunflowers.  The only thing missing is my mom being close by or able to just pop up!

 

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I joked in a previous post about the Doom’s day kits that I often see on Pintrest and how really what the world (at least the world of young families with children) needs are stomach bug preparedness kits. Laugh now folks. Moving beyond the joke….you know you want one! {and dad, just because this seems atrocious that your daughter would write on the world wide web about something like throwing up, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t share….I would hate to keep such a treasure a secret! It would just be wrong}

After each and every family member took their turn on the stomach bug this winter I grew weary of the running around the house to each closet to get this or that, all while trying to get back to my patient before the next round began.

My sister-in-law Sara made us an emergency kit for Christmas complete with collapsible water jugs, special granola bars, matches, etc. It lives down in the laundry room and is handy in the event that we might need it in an emergency or times when the power is out for long periods of time due to storms. And now, residing just next to it is…

Neat sheets- I have been on the hunt for these for a while. I used to see them at Target and Walmart. I found these similar sheets at Michael’s for $6. They are basically waterproof, thick sheets for picnics, etc. Easy to wash and happen to not be towels. Not sure about any of you but I got soooo tired of washing load after load of towels.  My plan when the bug strikes next year is to whip these puppies out and layer them. When one bites the dust it will go straight into the washer….leaving the next neat sheet ready to go. They are big enough to cover the boys beds which means I won’t be layering up loads of towels to cover every inch. And I imagine they will be quieter than making the kids sleep on trash bags!!

Cheap blankets- walmart and target are marking down blankets right now as the seasons change. Grab a few super cheap blankets. When the bug hits take off your kiddos bedding and replace with these. That way your good stuff won’t get ruined and you won’t be running to the laundromat. I speak from experience on this. When Jackson got the bug I actually went up to Owen’s bed and pulled off his comforter. After 4 days I figured he was in the clear and gave the poor boy back his comforter…guess who got the bug that night?! huh?!

Clorox wipes- obviously you will need to do big time cleaning but in those wee hours of the morning and middle of the night you need something disinfecting that is handy and can be thrown straight into the trash.

Pedialyte packs- I love these, I normally don’t go for all of the individual packets because they are pricier but these are worth the cost. I don’t know about now but it used to be that pedialyte in the bottle had to be thrown away after like 24 hours. These packets allow you to mix them with water just what you need, as you need it!

Straw cups- our kids have accumulated these at every party. They don’t fit well in my cabinet but instead of throwing them away I keep a few for “special occasions”. Who knew the stomach bug could be considered a special occasion?! Anyhow, with sick kiddos it’s nice to have cups that close securely and have a straw so they can keep hydrated in bed or wrapped up on the couch without the risk of spilling.

Bucket or bowl- let’s face it, who wants to reuse the bucket or bowl for anything else once it’s been used for major sickness so just buy a cheapo bucket and throw all of your “kit” into it. Then you can sterilize it and use it again.

Garbage bags- in the middle of the night when the washer is already working away and you have more loads incoming, toss them into a trash bag while they wait to spare everything around them getting “the bug”.

Something bubbly- not of the alcoholic variety, although that will be helpful for you as the parents once this all passes!! Something more along the lines of gingerale or sprite to settle tummies. If this is stored upstairs its gone and not ready to go. Stash a bottle with your kit so it’s available!

Now don’t be deceived these items are not propped nicely out of a bucket down in my cabinet….this little display is especially for you my wonderful readers. And while it looks colorful and cheerful I advise you not give these as gifts to friends. They might thank you someday but most likely they will think you are wishing the bug on her and not be so thankful. Just a wee bit of advice!!

I hope none of you EVER need a kit like this!!! Feel free to pin it if you think you might! People might laugh but they will be so jealous when they know you are rockin’ the kit while they run frantically for all of the necessities!!

 

 

 

 

 

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