Solvang Sunday

Yesterday we decided we needed to get out of the house and out of town so at noon we packed up the baby and got on the 101 North.

It was really hot but the drive was beautiful. And I wish I had gotten a photo -- holy crap gas got really expensive really fast. The lowest price we saw was $3.93. Most stations were over $4.00. What is up with that? Jerk-faces.

We ended up in Solvang -- one of my favorite places to go around here.




It was William's first time there of course and he LOVED the cuckoo clock store. And, you know how badly I've been wanting a cuckoo clock for his room (and...for me). Well, this shop just happened to be having a sale and we couldn't resist. We found the most perfect one for William's room and he absolutely loves it. He gets so excited when it goes off. Just seeing the look on his face in the store made me get teary-eyed. Now I also need a bigger one for me. I'll have to start saving up. Cuckoo clocks are just like, the coolest things ever.


William got his first taste of an aebleskiver and he loved it. He's going to be so stoked at Christmas -- we have them for breakfast every year (though my mom's are better than these restaurant ones).


We drove home the back way past Lake Cachuma (I'd never been in those parts before. The lake is really pretty and I'm sure we'll go camping there sometime soon).



We ended up in Santa Barbara. We stopped there for a smoothie and to walk around and I once again was hit with a want-y-ness to live there. I love Santa Barbara. The houses are amazing. My dream is to someday live in a 1920s house within walking distance to a downtown shopping district. Doesn't even have to be Santa Barbara. But definitely Santa Barbara-esque.

We didn't take this photo.

Taking a break.

William loves his Daddy.
Finally asleep. -- thanks to loud rock music.

And!!!

Bedroom, Bookcase, Black Hair, Baby

Here is our finished bedroom. And it's amazing. I absolutely love going to bed in this room. It's the first time in my entire life, including my married life, where my bedroom is just that. A bedroom. It's not doubling as an office or library or anything else. We just go to bed there. It's fabulous. And having really yummy, comfy bedding makes it even more luxurious.

The white mirror was a gold mirror that John had before we even met. I painted it white and it was in our living room at our last apartment. It's so perfect now for our bedroom.

The walls are Chocolate and it makes the room so yummy and cozy and rich. It's just really the best.

This picture makes the room look really small. And I guess actually it is a small room -- our queen-size bed takes up nearly all of it. But, it doesn't feel small at all. When all you're doing is sleeping in a room, you don't need much room. It's perfect.



Here is the new bookcase. Not the most exciting thing in the world...but I'm pretty stoked about it. All of my books were in boxes in the garage until we got this up. Now I can actually have access to them and the bookcase really helped make the living room look more finished and home-y. I spent like 2 hours just arranging and re-arranging the books. Ha!


Don't mind the hideous shirt. I was in the middle of painting a door when we decided to take pics before the sun went down.

So, I used to have black hair. Then I got pregnant and decided to stop dying my hair. So, for about the last year I've been a total gradient-head. It wasn't pretty. I didn't realize just how dreadful it was, though, until I saw a picture of the back of my head a few days ago. Something had to be done. I could either cut my hair off to above my shoulders or go black again. John said he'd leave me if I cut my hair. Plus I don't want short hair. Plus I like my hair darker anyway. So...I'm once again black-haired. Or, actually, one step above black. A pain to keep up. But at least I'm still married. ;)

I do find it interesting that not a single person has noticed though. I thought it was a pretty drastic change but even people I live with haven't noticed.



Is anything better than this?

Not a Weird-o?

Well, after I posted about Wiliam's room and my no luck at finding brown crib sheets, Lisa commented that she found some on amazon! It just figures. Believe me, those sheets were NOT there when I was looking for them. They are $40 so I don't know if I'm going to get them...but at least I know I'm not a complete freak for wanting brown sheets for my baby. What a relief.

Also, my brilliant cousin Aurora mentioned that -- HELLO -- a white sheet and RIT dye is all I need. Duh. So that's probably what I'll end up doing. Then I can spend like, $14 on a white crib sheet and a couple bucks on dye. Woot.

ALSO, I forgot to show y'all the one other thing that I want for William's room.



A white cuckoo clock would be perfect for the wall by the door. However, as it goes, I have to either be in the UK or Australia to buy this one. I can't find a website anywhere that either sells it in the US or will ship it here. Maybe I'll have to go pick it up myself.

Unveiled: The Bathroom

We LOVE our bathroom. All that's left is installing the wainscoat (the bare lower third of the walls were conveniently left out of these photos) and new fixtures in the shower! I painted, John installed the new vanity and even did the plumbing! Eric helped with some patching and installed the lights.

I wish we had before photos (we forgot to take before photos of anything!) because you would not believe the difference. It's like a completely different house.

I Should Be Making Money Off a Baby This Cute

Happy 6 month birthday, my sweetest boy.

All photos by John (aka Daddy)

Will-a-bee

Finally...here's William's room!


John rocked the taping for painting the stripes. And he and our friend Eric installed the chair rail. They did a really fantastic job. Then Ruth helped me paint it. You may recognize the quilt in the crib -- my mommy made it and I love love love it. The wall color is most acurately represented in this first photo. The next two are kind of wonky.



These prints are by John W. Golden, who I found on etsy.com. They are amazing. The prints say The Sensible Owl, The Happy Bear and The Crooked Fox. I just about fainted straight away when I found them. It was like a dream come true. And they inspired the rest of the room. Please go check out John W. Golden!!

I looked all over the place for brown crib sheets. They simply do not exist. I searched the entire Internet and...nothing. Apparently brown is not a baby color? Am I crazy for wanting brown sheets? So, I found twin size brown flannel sheets on clearance at Target and just turned them into crib size. I felt cool. And I got what I want. Though, since it's become 1 Million Degree Season here this week...the flannel is probably not the most comfortable. I'm keeping my eye open for some good brown cotton.




You can see the new closet doors that John installed. I'm very impressed with his handyman-ness. It's a whole new side of him I've never seen before. We've never been able to DO anything anywhere we've lived before, so it pretty much is awesome. So now all I have left are the curtains, which will be in the below fabric (Fungus Among Us from superbuzzy, of course). I'm really excited about this print. It's probably my favorite fabric ever. And perfect for a little Will room.




Tomorrow: The Bathroom!

6 Months

Holy crap. Can you believe it? 6 months ago today I had been at the hospital for 11 hours, having already labored at home for 2 days. I still had to endure getting my water broken, 10 more hours of labor, and 2.5 hours of pushing before my little chicken was finally born at 11:56pm. He made every minute worth it.



That night in the hospital, when it was just the two of us, I held him the entire night and could not believe that I had grown and birthed this beautiful little person. It was the most mind-blowing thing I've ever experienced. He was mine and perfect and amazing.



And now look! He's sitting up on his own, eating solids, teething, and starting to get on all fours! He likes playing the piano, splashing in water, chewing on the side of his blue chair, knocking over stacks of blocks, watching Daddy do beats and songs, listening to rock music, nursing, and attacking bottles of water.

We're doing Baby-Led Weaning (aka Self-feeding) which basically means that we let him experience whole foods that he feeds to himself, rather than spoon-feeding purees. I've done a lot of research about it and it just makes so much sense! We started giving him some foods to try last week. He's been wanting our food for probably about a month now but I was trying to hold out until he was 6 months. We almost made it! He's having a lot of fun and it's so cute. So far he's had banana, avocado, apple, pear, sweet potato, green bean, carrot and cucumber. He doesn't always actually eat much but he doesn't need to right now. "Food before 1 is just for fun!"

Some great resources on BLW can be found here, here and here, if you want to learn more.

We are also doing cloth diapers. Up until last week, we'd been using g-diapers. They're a bit difficult to come by locally, however, and I didn't want to pay for shipping, especially as they're already a bit more expensive than disposables. So, last week we started using pre-fold cloth diapers inside the g-diapers covers. So far it's going great! We do use disposables if we're going to be away from home for an extended period of time, but I'm stoked to be able to keep them to a minimum.

Next: Photos of William's new room!

Teeth?

Poor baby. He must be teething. This is what he looked like all evening.

William at 2 weeks old -- Photo Credit: Ali Degraff

Wiggity Wack

Oh yeah, I forgot to show you my new eyeshadow colors. I'm pretty stoked about them. And there are still about 10 more that I need. Plus some of the Paint Pots and Shadesticks. I love you MAC.

Many Things

I'm still working on getting decent photos of some of the finished rooms of our new place. So, until then, here is a list of things for you.

1. My favorite breakfast lately. Trader Joe's Greek-style Fig Yogurt and a banana. I can't stop eating it.



2. I want this tricycle for William so bad it hurts. I think $230 is perfectly reasonable, don't you? It's from Poshtots. Don't ask me how I got on their mailing list, but everything is ridiculously cute and ridiculously expensive. Thanks, Satan!



3. There are lots of babies on the way! We have no less than four couple-friends who are due between now and September (three of which are having boys!) I just placed an order with Superbuzzy for these fabrics to make some little blankets. The only problem is...I want to keep them all for myself!




I just have to find a fabric for the back side of this last one. No idea what to do.

4. More fabric. These ones are for me! Don't have any plans for them yet, but I couldn't pass them up!




That's all for now...but if things go according to plan, I might have something exciting to show off later today!! Now I'm off to Home Depot (heaven help us, I'm so sick of that place) and Target (please no!). Have a lovely Saturday!!

P.S. It's 83 degrees and windy here. My most despised weather of all. Yuck.