Diner Breakfast and a Flea Market

This past Sunday was an awesome day in my opinion. I mean, any day that begins with a diner breakfast with the family is bound to be amazing, right?! Then we took the girls to their very first outdoor flea market experience. Besides a minor/major bout with carsickness...(Maddie, I'm looking in your direction!!) it was a great time! I have been going to this particular flea market since I was a little girl and my mom would take me on weekends.  I was so happy when we pulled up and Maddie seemed just as excited as I was. She kept saying "everything is so pretty!" haha Maybe not everyone would agree, but I happen to think it was pretty beautiful as well. I found an awesome antique jewelry vendor and was able to pick up a few new things for my shop that I can't wait to share once I get better photos. (I also picked up a little something for myself that I have been wanting forever and can not wait to share with you!!)

 I loved this vendor's handmade furniture and flowering lavender bundles.

I saw a bunch of jugs like the ones in the bottom right of this picture around the market and was really into them.

 Maddie's first flea market purchase ever! (sorry we may already be dreaming about  Halloween around here, although I have been trying so hard to hold out.)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Topiary Collection

Remember when my wonderful husband surprised me for Mother's Day with a beautiful ivy heart topiary? What a sweetheart. I decided that I wanted to start a collection of topiary plants because I love them so much. A few months ago my amazing friend Colette (who has been off being fabulous in Europe for the past 3 years) was home for a visit and we had such a great time having lunch at our favorite cafe and browsing the shops downtown. I was delighted to find this beautiful topiary that simply had to come live at my house. It is doing really well in my kitchen. (The ivy heart topiary went through a bit of a rough patch, but is doing much better in my dining room without so much light.)

And I got the great news that Colette's job is looking to transfer her back to "the states" (as she now calls it) by May of 2013!!!!! That just made my day!!!

Concord Grapes

Just wanted to pop in and share with you a bowl of the most delicous concord grapes from my backyard. My parents gave us our grape bush as a house warming gift when we moved in. I literally can NOT stop eating them....and neither can little Claudia!!!! Shaun picked us this batch last night and he had to stop me from eating the entire bowl so that I would have a photo to post! But now that the photo has been taken.....there is nothing to stop me from finishing off this bowl!!

Have a Great Thursday!

Pea Gravel Patio

For the first few years that we have lived in our house we have mainly focused on indoor projects. Besides painting the front door and shutters and installing a screen door,  we haven't done too much to the yard. My mother and father built Madeline a beautiful garden for her first birthday that I love looking at every day from my kitchen window. Next spring/summer we plan to focus our attention on landscaping and gardening. I would LOVE to add a small patio/type area with an arbor and maybe a small table and some plants and flowers surrounding. I really had my heart set on a pea gravel patio like this one below (ours would be much smaller...but you get the idea.)

 image via San Francisco Chronicle

However, I have been reading that pea gravel is a terrible choice for a patio!!! Ugh, does anyone have any opinions/experience with pea gravel that I should know about???

Mini Pumpkin Patch

My goal is just to relax a little with the family and enjoy these last few weeks of summer. It seems impossible because there are so many things coming up in the next month....birthday parties, PRE-SCHOOL (ahhhh! I am so not ready for that!!!) It's also always a challenge for me not to "rush the season" of fall. It's absolutely my favorite time of year and I literally have to stop myself from daydreaming about fall decorations, pumpkin patches, Halloween parties, crisp air etc etc etc. This spring we got a little bit of a late start on our very own mini pumpkin patch,  but I am really hoping we made it in time to have pumpkins for decorating!!

Wish me pumpkin luck!!!!!

Lemonade Stand

Remember the sunflowers I was talking about in the last post? Well, we decided to set up a "lemonade stand" for the girls in front of their sunflower patch. They had fun, but I think next time we'll play flower shop instead of lemonade stand since my girls seem to be much more into smelling the flowers.

Does anything say summer more than a lemonade stand?

 Maddie decided to take a random nap in the grass...

Sunflowers

Maddie and I have been anxiously awaiting our sunflowers in the front yard. Finally on August 3rd one popped open! (I have no photograph because the weather has been kind of scary lately.) But I thought it was strange that it was the exact same day that 3 years ago Shaun took a picture of a very pregnant me in front of these sunflowers at a local park a month before Maddie was born.

 I was feeling a wee bit uncomfortable and cranky that day and did not exactly want my picture taken but looking back I am glad that I did. Not only because I love the sunflowers, but I just love when I can look at a picture and get transformed back to a certain time and place...when you can still feel the exact emotion you were having in the picture. I was beyond excited but also anxious, even a little bit scared. (Maybe a little bit hungry and annoyed at this specific moment haha.)It was such a special time awaiting the birth of our first daughter. I feel like I was a totally different person just three short years ago. I had no idea what I was in store for, how much having two beautiful little girls would totally change my life. I can't believe how fast the years go once you start having children. Three years ago I was standing in front of a sunflower patch with Maddie in my belly and now I stand in front of my own little sunflower patch with an almost 3-but-still-2 (Maddie is very specific about her age) year old little girl. Sorry....I didn't realize how much sunflowers could put me in a reflective mood.

Laundry Room Wishes

Now that we have finished the kitchen, I am of course thinking about what projects I would like to do next. Although I swore to myself that we would take a break from house projects to enjoy some relaxing family time together and I would like to stick with that. (Not to mention we really don't have any budget left after the kitchen haha) So for now I will stick with a project that I know we will not be able to do even if I wanted to. The people who built our house and lived here before us decided instead of doing a laundry room downstairs that they would put the washer and dryer in a hallway closet upstairs. I hate this about our house. The laundry "closet" is also right across from the girls' bedrooms so I am always worried about running the machines during naptime  or bedtime. If I had my way I would  have an actual laundry room. And it would look exactly like this room I found on Pinterest. I love every detail of this room from the light fixture to the copper sink to the floor. And maybe I would hate doing laundry less if I had a room like this!