what's your hobby?

Pictured here is my first trip [ever] to the Hobby Lobby. After having been, I can't believe I consider myself somewhat crafty (in the cool sense of the word) yet I had never been before. Because of its name, I had always thought of Hobby Lobby as a more intense grandma/scrapbooking/glue gun kind of place than its counterpart, Michael's. It turns out that what Hobby Lobby loses in branding it gains in wealth of merchandise. There is nothing--let me repeat, nothing--that they don't have. I can't even remember why I went there in the first place, and I found myself so overwhelmed--in the Bed Bath and Beyond sense of the word--that I couldn't focus on what I even wanted. (Because, trust me, no one needs any of the stuff in here.)

Where was I going with this?

Oh...so I came away with nothing except empty promises to Scout that "we'll come back." I'm not saying that I didn't love the place, but it's the kind of place--like the Container Store--where I shan't go in without a list. Otherwise I find myself with a cart full of ideas and zero execution.

when in doubt, paint it pink

One of my ongoing--and perhaps never-ending--projects is updating all the photos (and frames) that once upon a time hung on the walls of our Charlotte home. The other day I found myself with a quiet hour while the girls were napping and Catcher was putting together his legos at the dining room table. Tired of the pictures that once hung on our bathroom wall in Charlotte but even more tired of the white frames that get lost on our white walls, I decided to paint them pink.

After the first strokes: Catcher told me he wasn't sure about the pink. "It's not my favorite," he said. "What about dark blue?"

Even though I wasn't completely thrilled with the result at first, I did not take Catcher's advice and forged ahead. After the painting was complete, however, I realized I needed to change up the pictures.

This is my practice layout. Alex thought the picture of my feet was weird.

Voila: the new pictures and frames on the bathroom wall (notice I didn't listen to Alex's comments about my feet). I would show you more of the bathroom, but it's a work in progress and there will be a grand "before and after" reveal one of these days.

After staring at my feet in the bathroom for two days, I decided that maybe Alex was right. It was kind of weird.

the new coco and moppy

Who could forget Coco and Moppy? If you're wondering what those rascals have been up to--and who isn't, right?--I'll fill you in on what I've learned . They followed us to Austin, and at one point they were driving around town in a red Mini convertible. They recently moved into a house on Duval street, which happens to be on our way to/from Catcher's school everyday, but they like to come to our house every night for sleepovers. Sometimes I have to open the door for them to come in, which I don't mind. But I do mind that they are waking Catcher up at 5:00 in the morning and he can't--or rather won't--go back to sleep.

This afternoon on our way to the park I heard Catcher talking on the phone to Coco. I told him to let Coco know that he can't come over for sleepovers if he's going to wake Catcher up at 5:00am. "I'm not talking to that Coco," Catcher responded. "I'm talking to Scout's Coco." And then I hear a little voice concur, "Yeah. My Coco. It's my Moppy and my Coco." Can you share imaginary friends? Though I guess technically they aren't sharing since Scout appears to have her own Coco and Moppy.

I can't wait to see what shenanigans these two Moppys and two Cocos are going to get the kids into over the ensuing years. Will Tille have her own set? Can I handle three Cocos and three Moppys? How long do imaginary friends last anyway? I'll admit that when Catcher first started talking about Coco and Moppy, I freaked out a little bit. Never having had imaginary friends myself (except pretending, which sounds weird--pretending to have imaginary friends, because my sister had one) I was worried that Catcher might be schizophrenic...or something. I Googled "imaginary friends" and learned that it's totally normal for children (especially an only child or the eldest) to have them. It turns out that kids have pretty active imaginations. Go figure.

on the prowl

The honeymoon is over. For all those times I've answered parents who have fewer than three children with a coy "It's not that bad. After two, you're just throwing another one into the mix," I'm about to eat my words. Tillie will be eight months on Saturday, and she is on the move. Two weeks ago she was rolling to get around; last week she figured out how to scoot (backwards, then around in a circle); this week is the army-crawl. She has been up on her knees several times--I've actually caught her practicing this in her crib at night--and I know she will be flying across the room in no time. It's funny how, as parents, we look forward to these milestones. And then they are upon us...

Above is a snapshot of our afternoon.  It won't be long before I say goodbye to the days of keeping Tillie happy in the baby bjorn while out and about. Before I know it, I'll look back on the afternoons of coercing [only] two children off of the playground and think that was easy.

the future of babysitting?

Did I miss something? This actual--let me say it again, actual--product that I read about in the New York Times magazine makes me wonder if the world (or at least the world of parenting) is crazy. Is this for real? I don't know if the Exmobaby was created for the over-protective helicopter parent or the working parent who doesn't want to feel guilty about leaving his/her child all day or the parent who has so much money they don't know what to do with it, but what the @$%*?

As parents, we all know that babies cry and babies poop. Do we really need to spend $2,500 to tell us that our baby is crying and pooping even when we're not present? I'm not trying to stir up any mom politics here, but seriously? Seriously.

500!

This is my 500th post (and I remember when I thought 100 was a big deal). To commemorate this feat, I thought I would share other memorable 500's. 

- The best 500 ever: 500 Days of Summer.

- A 500 I couldn't care less about: Daytona 500.

- Best lyric containing 500: I don't know the name, but that song from Rent that goes "Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes..."

- Most popular 500 associated with a car: Ford 500 (I didn't know this, but when I google imaged "500" the Ford 500 popped up everywhere).

- A 500 list I'll never make: Forbes 500.

Here's to the next 500...

at your service

Blame it on the Mad Men craze, but a vintage bar cart--tea trolley, whatever you want to call it--is not easy to find. I've been scouring eBay and local vintage stores for months looking for the right one at the right price, and I almost gave up. Almost, except I love a good deal and a challenge. (And for the record, I've only seen one episode of Mad Men ever.)

A couple weeks ago I saw the cart pictured above listed for $149 on eBay. I watched it. I waited until the last 19 minutes to bid on it (I would have waited until the final two minutes, but it was bath time for the kiddos) and I won it for $171 (plus free shipping!). I saw similar ones listed for $599, so I thought it was a pretty good deal.

On Saturday afternoon it arrived.

This is the package as it appeared on my front doorstep. The seller had warned me that the packaging wouldn't be pretty, but all the parts were there.

This is my assistant who helped assemble the cart in just over an hour. The seller had (thank goodness!) carefully labeled what goes where, so all I needed was an allen wrench and a good assistant to hold the screws.

This is my assistant showing off the final product (while taking it for a test spin around the dining room).

This is another look at the cart. I'm fundamentally against displaying empty liquor bottles; however, we had a few sitting on top of the refrigerator and I wanted to put something on it because I thought it would look even weirder sitting there empty. It happens to be a perfect fit for the corner in the dining room where I tucked it away. I can't wait to roll it out for a party, and I'm psyched to finally have a place to put my W cocktail napkins.