86'n It

We have slowly been working on the garden path. Not only does this path give us good access to the garden, but it also gives us an easy way to get the garden to the front yard.

First step was removing all the good soil and transplanting it to the vibe area, while taking the clay from there and moving it to the path.
Marc raked and raked and leveled the path and all 3 of us tamped it down by walking (and walking and walking) all over it. I used this valuable time to text my sisters. <-See image.

Then we let it set a couple of weeks to let it dry out and make sure it would turn into a mud pit. We had up adjust it in one spot, but in general it was great as a sub-surface.

Then Marc shoveled the leftover gravel on top. A pretty thin layer because as we learned with the big gravel area too thick is hard to walk on. (We still need to remedy that in some areas.)

It is great! Nice path to walk on, move the mower, and of course, to sit an play on.

A big thank you to all those who serve.

(My late Grandfather Herman on the right. I really need a pic of my dad too.)

It's been crickets around here.

Lots of good news to report:

-my crotch is 100% better! (Thanks to everyone for their well wishes!)

-nanny is awesome.

-I helped launched a new, crazy company this week at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in NYC. Introducing: Universal Kinetics, Inc. (I did the site, not bad, right?)

Wow, right? The furniture is a little wacky, but hey, so is my partner! Plus I have my own ideas for future kinetic (i.e. moving) pieces.

This quote from Treehugger.com pretty much sums up my feelings:

"This not the sexiest piece of furniture at ICFF, but it may well be the most important."

Read the whole article on us here.

I spent 7 long, long days away. Missed Franca like CRAZY and I had the world's worst trip home. (5 hours on a plane for an hour long flight anyone?) I'm home now and working already again. Ugh.

Hopefully more, renovation-related fun stuff this week!

For full disclosure, I wasn't stand on the chair so much as using it as a step stool to stand on the buffet. Which is likely just as stupid as standing on a chair.

PLEASE NOTE: Any home improvement project that ends with home-improver looking at his/her crotch in a handheld mirror is problematic to say the least.

On Saturday, I decided to finally hang the Ikea Enje blinds in the dining room. These are new versions of the ones we hung in the office, but instead of pull-chains, they are the tension type.

We need them in the dining room thanks to the west-facing windows which provide blinding light at dinner. We just needed shading, not room darkening, so the Enje is perfect.

Only issue is our window trim is, like most of the trim in our house, not well done at all. (I mean who did that miter? Me?) This means our brackets have to sit funny. (See image to left.)

The blinds don't come in our exact window width, so I had to cut them following Door Sixteen's tutorial.

That went fine and the first one went up no problem. It was when putting the second blind into place that I stepped off the chair causing it to tip and me to completely rack myself in the worse way ever.

I cried. Literally. That's how bad it hurt. I cried. I cursed. I would have thrown something had I not been completely paralyzed by the pain.

So now the blinds are up, but sort if crooked and I cannot bring myself and my swollen, abrasion'ed, purple/yellow/green bruised crotch back up on a safe, proper step stool to fix them.

Before with blinding light.

A detail shot just for fun. SO HERE IS MY PSA: Listen to my dad. Don't stand on a bucket, chair, or overturned  plastic storage container to do home improvement projects.  Unless, of course, you plan on starring in some sort of  swollen crotch fetish video, then by all means...

A very happy Mother's day to my mom Joan, sisters Heather & Missy, sister-in-law Anna, mother-in-law Sue and all the other moms!

We celebrated with a delicious breakfast at Over Easy Cafe, then headed to Barnes & Noble to get me a Nook Simple Touch (I'm too impatient to wait for the glowlight one to come instock, and too cheap to pay $60 more for it!)

Franca fell asleep on the way home, so I got to do one of my most favorite things. Carry a sleeping child from the car. I used to LOVE being carried like this as a kid, and adore doing it now. So sweet! It really is the little things in motherhood.

I ran my first half marathon in Indianapolis last weekend. It was 95% humidity and bout 84 degrees. Awesome.

Plus, I had not trained properly. I had been running about 6-7 miles twice a week until Robin, my running partner, left for a month to Finland. Then, I honestly ran about twice. Ugh. Not exactly a training schedule. Running 9 miles ONCE doesn't really prepare your body to race 13. Whoopsa.

I felt amazingly awesome until mile 8, then absolutely hit a wall at 11. I had to make a million bargains with myself not to walk during the last mile. But I didn't, and I ended up with a time that I'm really proud of: 1:54:23, which is an 8:42 pace. Not bad for an ill-prepared first timer right?

Here I am crossing the Indy race track finish line.

We ran thru downtown Indy to the race track. The best thing about the whole race is that I seeded myself slower than my pace, which meant that I was passing people the whole time. Horrible, but that always does wonders for my race-self esteem. The other great thing was the amount of small bands along the course. Little kids belting out AC/DC and Van Halen is a great motivator.

I'm not sure I will do another half anytime soon. It was fun, but at mile 9 I just kept thinking: "Why the heck am I doing this?" I didn't have an answer. Surely, it wasn't for the awesome photos. Yeah, check these out. I look like death! (p.s. the HOHA shirt is from my old running club, the Hoboken Harriers.)

One year ago today I quit my job and got three different ones. A year ago I was an architect. Now I'm an architect, childcare provider and product designer/business owner.

It has been a crazy, fulfilling year. Things haven't necessarily gone according to plan, but I never really had a strict plan. Right now I have two houses I helped design under (or almost) under construction, two little girls who make me insane or insanely happy everyday, a new project underway to help teach visually impaired children math graphics, and a new kinetic furniture company launching next week.

I went from one boss to three. Granted, two of those bosses are two years old and the adult one is self-admittedly a little wack-a-doodle. Even if he is nuts, I love my 3rd boss. He's demanding and hard to work with, but he is one of the most fair people I've ever met. He's never lied to me, and that's very important.

I know it is a hard decision for a lot of women to decide to stay at home after having kids, but what about if we stopped thinking so black and white? I've made my own crazy work/life situation and am pretty happy. Maybe more employers would be open to different situations if more women pushed for them?

It's mind-boggling to think that last year at this time Franca had just started walking and now she's running around (in a cast) singing the spiderman theme song.

So cheers to the best decision I've ever made, and fingers crossed for another terrific year!

So today is a pretty special day right? 5 years of blogging.

What started as a way to share our renovation progress with my family without emailing a million photos, gained some traction with the story of several dead cats and now, well, I'm not sure what it is! My blogging, as well as our renovation progress, has been fast at times and painfully slow at others.

I have to admit, blogging sometimes stresses me out. I hate to feel like I disappoint y'all. Lately I can't seem to decide if I should let it fall back to its original 'renovation updates' purpose, or if I should really put some effort into this and grow it.

Actually, the second thing isn't so much of an option right now. Life is crazy for me right now. Insane. Manic. Stressful. BUSY.

So what am I doing on my 5 year blog-o-versary? Doing a big before and after post? Nope. Doing a big giveaway? No. (Not my style anyway.) Working on a renovation project? No way. I'm currently blogging from my phone while traveling thru Tennessee, Indianapolis bound for a half marathon for which I'm woefully under prepared.

Not house related at all!

I guess that is what happens when you try to work 20 hrs/wk, start a new company, care for a two-year-old full-time, another one part-time (potty training them both), half-arse train for a half marathon, keep tabs on two residential architectural projects, cook, clean, laundry AND blog. Ha!

But on this special day I'm happy to say help is coming! Marc's only coworker and my running partner is due back in the States in 2 weeks (miss you Robin), plus (drum roll please) we've hired a nanny! Her name is Meghan and she starts next week. It's a share, so I'll only have her 16-20hrs per week, but I'm ridiculously excited!

We are hoping with help with work, I will stop having to sit at my computer working every. single. night. and have some time to finish some renovation projects.

So if you read this far, thank you. And if you are a 86n'It subscriber, reader or follower, and big big thank you!

5 years are behind us and Big Things are coming, I promise!

And let's see if I can do this from my phone, a before and after photo. You've come a long way baby!

(post cliff notes: today is blog 5 year anniversary, super busy, getting nanny, will renovate more, thank you.)

A lot of people have been wondering how Franca is doing, and I'm pleased to be able to answer: "Ridiculously well!" (what happened here)

The cast does not seem to bother her at all still. (I'm hoping it won't get itchy though.) She has less than 4 weeks left in it.

She learned how to walk on it last Friday, but also gets around by using a baby stroller as a walker (see photo), or crawling. We spent most of the weekend in the backyard, and she was just moving around, climbing up on the rock wall and scaring us by navigating the stairs in what looks like a super slo-mo fall.

This collage looks particularly neglectful, but have you ever tried to force a 2 year old to accept help? HA!
Actually in the front step photos she was just lounging there, looking for bugs, and waiting for Marc to walk home from work.

Sponge baths with a bag on her leg are a hard sell, but that is understandable. We are hoping these next 4 weeks will fly by! Thanks so much for all your well wishes!