59/365 Out of the Box - Lavender

This isn't the lavender I remember, but I think I found the perfect match!

Poor baby got hit in the forehead with an iron gate and 2 hours later walked straight into a metal pole. You can still see the shadow of the bump on her forehead.

57/365 Face

56/365 Train

Playing Animal Train with her besties...

55/365 Lillies

Feeling a bit uninspired these days...

54/365 More kitchen updates

(These are for you Denise!)



When the kids first realized that the new kitchen would not be any bigger than it was before, they couldn't understand why in the world we would undertake a 4 month gut rehab of our old kitchen. To them the wallpaper-clad, gallery kitchen loaded with rotting wood cabinets and a leaky faucet from the 50s was beautiful. Slowly, they are beginning to enjoy our new kitchen.

It isn't any bigger--we still live in a 1950s, urban, brick Georgian house. But it sure is nice to have a dishwasher (after 2 years of hand-washing dishes), under cabinet lighting, a garbage disposal, etc.

Just can't wait until that range sitting in the middle of the kitchen is hooked up, we can take off the moving mats and enjoy our new cork floors and we can put our dishes into those nice big cabinets!

53/365 Mustache

I have been slowly moving items into my newly rehabbed kitchen (there is still much to be done, but we can move things in to certain cabinets).

I was just washing and wiping and organizing when Joey popped a wax mustache into his mouth.

52/365 Out of the Box--Indigo

This week's color at Project 64: Out of the Box is Indigo.



I bought this piece of pottery in North Carolina a few years ago. I was told it is an African Violet pot, but sadly, I'm not very good at growing plants. I tried growing a violet in this pot, but it died. I just like the pot with it's ruffled edges and it's deep indigo color. So I think I'll just leave it sitting on my table as is!

You can see other entries by clicking on the link below.

51/365 Faucet

Progress!

50/365 Good Game

This picture is really noisy and a bit blurry to boot, but I love the moment it captures--high fives and "good game"s all around. I especially love the random basketball that was let loose and captured in the foreground!

The final score was 18 to 6 :(

But Sam was so happy that they got on the board with 6! What a way to think positively!

49/365 Leapin' Lily

48/365 100 Days

No, it's only Day 48 of my Project 365, but we are nearing the 100th day of school. Sam's 1st "major" project is to glue 100 objects to a poster board and make a presentation to his class.

It was Sam's decision to use bottle caps as his 100 objects. I wondered about the appropriateness of sending my 7 year old to school with the evidence of 100 empty bottles of beer, but I got over it quickly as his heart was set on using bottle caps (and we had a little help with the consumption of said liquor).

Joey has never let me help or even sit near him when he is working on a project--he is fiercely independent. Actually, I didn't help much with this project either, but I got to sit next to Sam and watch and help when asked. I loved every minute of it and he did a fantastic job!

From the heart

1 in 100 children are born with a congenital heart defect (CHD). CHDs cause more deaths in the first year of life than any other birth defect. There is no cure yet. Help spread awareness, increase funding and find a cure. Give blood and tell your pregnant friends and relatives to have their babies' oxygen levels checked at birth (not a standard test).

This is my friend Jane with her daughter Ramona just after she had surgery on her tiny little heart. Ramona has had 9 heart surgeries in her four years, but is still considered to be one of the lucky ones while she waits for a cure.

Help spread awareness.

46/365 Yarn

This week's color from the color box is Indigo. I thought I would get a head start and look for this color at home. In the search for indigo, I started taking photos of this basket of yarn--not quite indigo, but still full of the jewel tones I love!

Project 64--Apricot

Here is my contribution to Project 64 this week. The color is Apricot.

Our puppy, Izzy, is the product of an apricot poodle and a golden retriever. Today, she is almost completely white with apricot hints, but when she was a puppy, she was almost all apricot in color.



You can play along:

45/365 Red--I Heart Faces

Happy Valentine's Day!

This week I'm participating in the "I Heart Faces" theme which is red.

To see other entries, just click this button:

44/365 Valentines

Sam's marching machine men valentines.

43/365 Chapped Lips

When I was a kid, I used to get horrible, awful, painful chapped lips. My dad used to call it "ring around the lips." Yes, it was really mean and obviously, I'm not over it :)

Sadly, Sam has inherited the propensity for chapped lips. And every time I look at him, I think to myself "ring around the lips!"

Poor guy.

42/365 Glasses

I bought this cheap pair of reading glasses for myself at the dollar store the other day. When we got home, Lily kept putting them on and I kept asking her to take them off--she absolutely loved them and I was absolutely sure the "prescription" would ruin her eyesight for life!

I finally gave up the fight, popped out the lenses (not difficult when the glasses only cost a dollar to begin with) and let her claim them as her own. She has been wearing these glasses non-stop since then. I giggle every time I look at her!

Now I still need to buy another pair of "old lady" reading glasses for me!

41/365 Hearts

Decorating for Valentine's Day

40/365 Jump

I was working on Valentines Day projects today and had paper and stickers, glue and glitter spread out all over the dining room table.

Lily was in an adjacent room squealing with delight saying "I'm cracking myself up!" (only in Lily speak, it was more like "I'm tating myself up!"

I peeked in our play room and found her jumping on the couch having the time of her life:

39/365 Gray

Today, I'm participating in Project 64 (a 64 week journey through a box of crayons!). I missed the first 4 colors, but I hope to play along for the rest of the box. This week's color is gray.

Thanks to a perfect birthday gift from my mom and dad, this year, I discovered felted wool mittens lined with fleece.

These are my son Sam's mittens.

I love felted wool mittens.

I heart them.

I can not stop talking about them to my friends.

I love them so much that after wearing them for the first few weeks of winter, I purchased two pairs for my daughter and a pair for my son. They keep your hands remarkably warm and toasty.

You can find your own felted wool, fleece-lined mittens on Etsy.

38/365

This was supposed to be a photo that I was going to enter in the I Heart Faces weekly challenge ("hearts" this week). Besides the fact that it's really hard to find the hearts, it turned out just a bit too posed for my liking. I prefer the much more spontaneous shots of everyday life.

Nonetheless, I still sort of like this photo--it conveys girliness and silliness and yes, a touch of "Mom, are we done yet?"

37/365

It's a Chicago tradition.

A uniquely Chicago tradition.

After every significant snowfall here in my hometown, Chicagoans dutifully shovel out a parking spot on the street and then they mark their territory with an old lawn chair, scrap lumber or, in the case of my elderly neighbor, an old air conditioner.

It's election time in Chicago. And the way things work here--there is no way any politician is going to speak out against saving parking spots on public roads.

And so, while this Chicago tradition is against the law, lawn chairs will be part of my daily landscape for the next several weeks.

Sigh.

36/365

Birthday party fun!

34/365

Snow Day #2

3 hour Monopoly Marathon

33/365

Snow Day

The snow was just about as tall as Lily, but that didn't seem to bother her one bit. She dove right in shoveling, slipping and sliding. In fact, she stayed out there for so long that her mitttens were filled with snow and her hands were bright red! I think she was having so much fun, she didn't even realize how cold she was!

32/365

I have to admit, I never thought I would make it to February with the photo-a-day project. But here were are on February 1 and I still have photos to contribute!

And, since we are waiting for the snowstorm of the century to hit (up to 2 feet by tomorrow at this time), I assume I'll have lots of outdoor snow shots in the next several days.

31/365

10 1/2 weeks.

10 1/2 weeks without a kitchen.

10 1/2 weeks of grilled, crock pot or microwaved food (blech).

10 1/2 weeks of washing dishes in the laundry tub.

10 1/2 weeks of dust...everywhere.

10 1/2 weeks of decisions--some fun, some difficult, some way to drawn out!

10 1/2 weeks of sharing our home with a bunch of men we don't really know.

10 1/2 weeks of waiting

10 1/2 weeks...

...is too long.

I'm ready for this project to be over... :(