The House is My Canvas

This is how we roll on a Tuesday afternoon. We had 40's French music playing. Annika was hot and decided to only wear her bloomers while she drew on the fire place.  I'm on the couch laughing and cheering Annika on as she does the funniest dance! These are the days I'll be most proud of when I look back at the time I spent with my girls.  


I mentioned before that we had a problem with the fireplace.  I don't want to have it plastered and painted with a baby in the house.  There would be too much toxic stuff in the air and I don't want to go through the hassle of having to explain to people why this is important to me.  I always get the "you'll be fine, the baby will be fine" and then I tell them my concerns and they have no idea what I'm talking about because they've never read and understood the ingredients in a can of paint. 


So, until we go forward with a renovation I decided we should have fun with this space.  I got big fat Sharpies and we've been drawing on the wall. I know it's nuts. The best is watching people react to it when they walk in the house.  Most don't get it.  Oh well.  We're enjoying this freedom. I mean who gets to write on the house walls for Pete's sake?!?!

Ikea's Nordmyra Chairs

We just did a big switch-a-roo of dining chairs!  Yes, I loved our Bertoias but they aren't really comfortable for kids.  Gemma (5 months) will be sitting at the dining table in the next two months.  Annika (4.5 years) is ready to sit in a regular dining chair. So in the near future we'll be playing musical chairs. The Bertoias are a bit painful to get into for a child Annika's age. Kids use their knees as leverage to get into a chair and the wire hurts. Since Annika is letting go of her Stokke and passing it onto Gemma I want her to be comfortable in her new chair.  I was on the lookout for an inexpensive alternative.

Ikea in Burbank had a sale on the Nordmyra chairs, $19.99 from $39.99!  I thought they were perfect! Inexpensive, flat surface, clean lines, and they reminded me of something I had seen in Remodelista.

I set time aside the first day they went on sale and drove across the valley to pick up 6.  Burbank was sold out and wasn't getting more but Carson had them. The following day I drove to Carson.  When I went to pay it totaled $180 instead of $120! Turns out Ikea has different prices at different locations and they won't honor another location's price.  A lesson learned and good to know. Next time I'll be calling ahead to verify price and stock.  I felt it was so sneaky of Ikea to list a chair on sale at a location that had none.  Well, at least they were $29.99. The price of all 6 chairs is half the price of just one of the chairs I really want.    

We all love the chairs.  Annika can get into it no problem. It's a little harder for her to get out of it, but I like that.  It's making her sit still longer at dinner. If you've eaten with kids you know how hard it is to have a child just sit and eat without getting up all the time.  My only complaint was the noise they make on the tile floor. I ended up gluing felt to the feet to quiet them down a bit.  We'll see how long they last.

These chairs will hold us over for a while.  Before spending $350 on a chair I'd like to get to the years when I won't have to worry about artistic designs magically flying off the paper and onto the furniture.

We still have the Bertoias. It was always intended for them to eventually go outside. I'd like to  create a seating area that looks like this picture below. I love the hard, modern lines of the chairs mixed with the more organic, softer wood table. And I'd love to have an official dining area outside.  We do live in Southern California afterall!

picture via coco+kelley

Bath Towels

There are basic things in life that I love. Bath towels for one. I love them big, thick, fluffy and white.  When I was single that was exactly what I had. Now, I'm married with kids and the towels are ripped, thin and horribly stained. And when these awful bath towels are hanging up they make the entire bathroom look really awful. 

I was driving home with Gemma, in traffic, one afternoon this week.  Her wailing was so bad I had to stop.  We landed in the parking lot of Cost Plus. I decided to go in and give her some time out of the car seat and in my arms.  To my great delight I found some very cool bath towels on sale!   This alone has transformed the bathroom!  Look, same space, different towels!

They're exactly what I was looking for. Non-white, semi-thick, stylish, colorful towels.  With kids white is out of the question. As are thick towels. When the towels are really thick it's hard to dry all their nooks and crannies, which they have a lot of.   These towels aren't really thick but they're ribbed so they dry really well!  I guess in retrospect, thank God for Gemma's crying! Looking at these towels makes me so happy!