86'n It

I got into a conversation recently about useless renovation after photos. You know the kind, they shows a beautiful office or closet with NOTHING in it.

I'll be the first one to admit that my closet renovation after photos were no work of art, but you know what? They were real. That was all my real stuff. Nothing was removed or faked. That is how my closet looks today.

It's easy to make a closet look great when you put 3 shirts in it.



That being said, I tried to take after photos of the office and they sucked. It looked cluttered and unfinished. They looked real, but sad. I showed them to my friend Michelle at SoWonderfulSoMarvelous and she instantly shot back an email of all the stuff I should do to finish it. Ouch. But she was right.

I need to:

1. Add some color
2. Hide the millions of cords under the desk
3. Clean up our desktop
4. Organize the stuff on the shelves

She held her balloon the whole time.

One for luck.

Sugar overload. But, hey it is her party.

Opening some AMAZING dollhouse gifts. We have great friends!

Delish.

Using an old-skool Corbu stencil from architecture school.

Franca had so much fun I bet her face hurts from smiling. She was so happy to be chilling with her friends!

Based on the explosive numbero of posts lately, I think you can tell I'm a *little* excited about this dollhouse and how it is coming together.

I made this table last night by hand after almost cutting my hand off with the chop saw. Bad Mommy. I am going to stain it slightly to match the chair legs.

We are trying to build-up the idea of the dollhouse for Franca now, so let her play with this today and she loves it. After I got the motherload shipment of the rest of the furniture, the delicacy of some of the pieces, including these chairs had me a little worried. But Franca seems to get it and plays really nice.




Can't wait for her to see the whole house next week!

Although a picture of me sitting on a new, unplumbed toilet fully-clothed is not that gross, right?

Anyway, yesterday I also got the first shipment of dollhouse furniture. (This was only 2 pieces that I couldn't get at miniatures.com.) SUPER cute.

Bunk bed and foot stool

Surprise! They un-bunk!

I needed this because there has some snafu with the shipping of the large order from miniatures.com and I don't know when I will get it. GRRRRRR

Stool on a stool. (I could not resist.)

I'm stealing this post from my dear, awesome friend Michelle @ SoWonderfulSoMarvelous. (Seriously, check her out!)

Blogger Users: So, how would you like to get some awesome email from me? Like a direct response to your comment? Well, if you haven't already done so, enable your email address in your blogger profile. It won't share your email or post it, it just shows me your email when you comment. And I'll never share your email, not that I'd even know how. I mean, I had to ask Michelle how to even do this! Blogger and iTunes. My secret technical Achilles' heel.

Here goes. Big props to Michelle for this. I even stole her title. I did edit these instructions for use with the new blogger interface. If you are still using the old one, (tsk tsk), check out Michelle's instructions.

1. You see the little button up there in the right hand corner of Blogger that says "Dashboard"?  Click on it. (Actually, if you'd like, right-click on it and say "open in new tab/page, that way these directions stay open too.)
2. If you are using the new interface, click on your profile name in the upper right corner and then click "Blogger Profile" 
3. Then click "Edit Profile".
4. Under privacy click the little box that says "Show My Email Address".  This doesn't post your email anywhere weird, it just allows bloggers to reply to your comments.
5. If you'd like, {or you can skip this} you can scroll down to the Identity section and change your email address to whatever you'd like or just keep it the same email that you use to log into Blogger.  {So if you're nervous about having your email out there, create an email address that you only use for blogging!}
6. Save your profile!  TA DAAAAA You're done. 

Pathetic to admit it, but I'm sore from working on the dollhouse. My hands are covered in dark wood stain (because I just HAD to purge that box of latex gloves didn't I?), they resemble claws and my thighs and back hurt from the constant crouching down.

Anyway, teaser pics:

OMG. Don't get individual shingles. Gluing these on might be the death of me.

Siding! It's MDF sheets and seriously the cutest ever. Paint colors are our real house's exterior colors.

Colors look a little wonky here, but look at those windows and real, swinging door!

Interior colors are all done except the lower left (kid bedroom) which is in limbo.

I was supposed to score and stain the flooring this evening, but I did our taxes instead. Refund baby!

Now that we have a toilet (to be delivered tomorrow!), we better start planning the bathroom, huh?
Because Marc is in charge of this one, this is likely the most detail you will see. His sketch:

That's entry, coat closet, sliding (telescoping?) door, tall storage, sink, toilet & shower.

Now let's zoom out a little:


This is what EVERY single piece of paper in our office looks like. Man, this Franca can doodle!
She also insists you write her name and draw random things. School buses. Stars. Moons. Bathroom floor elevations.

Marc is a little jealous I will be home tomorrow when the toilet is delivered. He *knows* I'm going to un-box that puppy and sit on it with my pants on. Maybe I'll text him a pic, just to taunt him. Maybe I'll share it tomorrow. ;)

I've got potty on the brain over here. I'm potty training two girls under two years old, so I can't help it. Which was why I was not surprised when Friday morning went like this:

1. Wake up.
2. Feed two girls.
3. Do our "yoga". (Seriously, cutest thing ever.)
4. Buy a toilet.

Dining/Kitchen Break-down:

• Have
• paint color from our dining room (Ben Moore Kalamata)
• Ordered
• Kitchen, dining room chairs, and work table (backordered) (miniatures.com)
• DIY
• Flooring: Bought 1/8" thick sheet wood from AC Moore, will stain and poly.
• Rug: Will print image on ?? TBD
• Photo: My Grandfather in his Air Force Days. Will print.
• ?
• This table is from Etsy. For some reason, I can't pull the trigger on it.

I've decided to use the word "mock up" instead of the gag-worthy "mood board". What ever makes me cringe less right? I have been installing programs on my computer all day, so I had time to flush out the bedroom.

The kid's one literally had me up at night mulling it over, but first, the pretty adult bedroom. It just happens to be the same wall color as our bedroom (SW Hearts of Palm).

For the kid's bedroom I found this adorable fabric at Hancocks super cheap. I had planned to use it on the walls, but it was completely overwhelming, so I decided to use it as bedding and cut out a piece for a wall mural.



I don't know. Now that I see it I wonder if not using the fabric on the walls is a cop-out? What do you think? Is the stripe dated?

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine flour, the 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk, oil, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Stir in nutella and chocolate pieces.
2. Divide (scoop) batter evenly among six 5- to 8-oz. oven-safe bowls or ramekins. (I used larger, but honeslty, it was too big!) Set aside. In the same bowl for the batter, stir together 1/2 cup sugar and cocoa. Gradually stir in boiling water. Pour evenly over batter in dishes.
3. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into cake portion comes out clean. Larger dishes will require more time. Mine took 30 mins. Serve warm with ice cream and strawberries. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've also made a furniture order list and selected paint colors, dorki-ly enough to match those in our house. (Bonus: I can use our leftover paint!)

Plus, (I can't believe it because they usually annoy me so much) I did mood boards!

Marc and I started a tradition of going all-out for our "decade" birthdays (there is totally a word for that right?). For Marc's 30th, we kidnapped him and took him to Mexico. An amazing time. I used a photo from that trip for his 40th invite:

For my 30th, Marc surprised me with a trip to Puerto Rico. Amazing time!

It just so happened for Marc's 40th birthday, he had already booked our tickets to Fort Myers Beach to spend the time with his family. While I toyed with the idea of kidnapping him away for 2 days in Key West, I realized he would much rather spend the time with this family. I did however want to plan something local.

So I faked a neighbor's 50th birthday party. Said neighbor was actually in Brazil at the time, so that was risky. I took Marc downtown to the "party" location where he was promptly kidnapped by the SAME TWO GREAT FRIENDS who kidnapped him on his 30th birthday. Pretty cool. We then drove around town leaving clues for a search party who had already gathered to come and find Marc.

Advised by two lawyer friends, we opted to hide and drink cocktails on private property while awaiting the search party. When they found us, we all headed to a nearby restaurant/bar and celebrated. Pretty good times with very good friends!

Marc on another friend's 30th birthday in Mexico.

Franca generously donated some stickers.

I had hidden liquor for them to drink with this clue.

All of the clues in bags.

Family time on the beach!

A night out in his *best* shirt.