bonnie in beantown

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T13:16:00.000-08:00

Love,
Owen

delayed

2012-02-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

So the battery charger on my camera is dead. I need to order a new one. Which means I haven't posted about the second floor on our house, our new car and now Patrick's birthday! ughh. And that's just my blogging to do list.

But in the meantime, I ran across this picture from before we moved. Sometimes, it's just good to remember that a snuggle and a nap is the best solution. Everything else can wait.

House Tour - first floor

2012-01-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

We've been in our house for a few weeks now, and I feel pretty confident that I can shuffle around the boxes to take some good pictures for everyone to see our house. (But only one floor at a time!).

First, a reminder of what it looked like before when we bought the house:

And to draw out the suspense, the original floor plan and some pictures of the demo:

And finally! The finished first floor:

Go ahead and gush. I picked out all the finishings myself - backsplash, granite, lighting, house numbers, cabinet knobs, appliances... it was a lot of work. Oh and of course the windows. Let's not forget the windows!

it's a girl!

2012-01-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

Most readers of this blog will already know that we're having a GIRL! We found out on December 21st, the day before we flew out to Utah to be with our families for Christmas. So we were really happy to be able to tell so many people in person.

I had a feeling it was a girl since this pregnancy seemed so different from my pregnancy with Owen. But I wasn't sure if that was real evidence. Even so, I wore pink to the ultrasound. Coincidentally, Patrick wore blue and Owen wore black. We may have all been projecting a little...

Just thought this news was worth it's own post, even if it is a little belated on the breaking news front.

Christmas and 2011 a year in review

2012-01-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

We started of our December by 'officially' moving into our new house. There weren't any kitchen appliances hooked up or countertops, but it was livable so in we came. We celebrated our small family Christmas together the night before we flew to Utah.

We had a wonderful time with our families in Utah this Christmas. Owen was great traveling on the plane and couldn't get enough of playing with all of his cousins.

(Actually we started getting in the habit of taking one of the older cousins with us in our car when we'd go somewhere because Owen would get SO upset to be dragged away from them, even for a short trip).

We had so much going on, we didn't do Christmas cards this year even though we had amazing pictures to use. But we did do a Christmas letter. So for our 2011 year in review, please enjoy our Christmas letter (updated with links to any of the posts I may have written if you're interested):

Dear Loved Ones,

We hope this letter finds you each well. We have had a strange, but exciting, year. The beginning of the year started off with our usual celebrations. Patrick turned 31 on February 1st and Owen had his first birthday on February 20th. We celebrated our 8th anniversary the day after Owen's birthday and then Bonnie turned 30 on March 12th. Phew! That's a lot of celebrating in a month and a half.

In June, Owen and Bonnie traveled to Utah in May to attend graduations and had a wonderful time seeing her family for three days before meeting up with Patrick in California and heading to Hawai'i to visit Patrick's dad. Total flight time from Boston to Hawai'i was around 15 hours, so we were happy to break up the travel. We had a fabulous time in Hawai'i.

Owen loved the beaches and wanted to throw himself into the ocean waves whenever he could. He got to meet Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nancy for the first time. Sadly, later this year Nancy passed away unexpectedly and we're grateful they got the chance to meet each other.

Patrick continues to work at OC&C Strategy Consultants where he got promoted in July to 'Manager'. The title isn't very descriptive of what he does, but he is now two steps above (post-graduate school) Consultant and one step away from Associate Partner.

Our summer was spent playing outside where Owen repeatedly discovered the joys of beaches and parks. The fall was spent in classic New England style with apple picking and leaf peeping. We spent a lot of time doing updates to our condo and getting ourselves and our dog out of the way for open houses and showings.

We also got a big surprise in September when we found out that Bonnie is pregnant. We're extremely grateful not to have to do IVF this time around and we are excited for this new addition to our family (even if it is a little earlier than we thought it would be). We will find out the gender at the end of December. Bonnie is due at the end of May 2012.

October was a big month for us. We sold our condo, Bonnie planned and co-hosted our fourth annual Halloween Party and we moved into temporary housing for a month and a half.

Back in June we bought a house in Somerville, MA and started renovations on it. It is a three story, 2000sq foot single family house with a two car detached garage and a yard. It is a lovely colonial style home built in 1910. We have been working with our contractor for the past six months to renovate two of the three floors. We're just a week away from moving in as we write this letter, and we're so excited to have a new home for our growing family.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Santa Claus is coming to town

2011-12-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

Santa showed up at our ward Christmas party this year. It was Owen's first time sitting with the old man, and I think he did pretty good. It was touch and go for a minute, but there were no actual tears shed. Santa and Owen look equally skeptical of this situation....

Pictures!

2011-11-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Our friend Terese took our yearly family photos. Luckily for us, there are lots of great places to take pictures. This year we went to the Boston Public Garden and into Beacon Hill.

It was actually really cold and windy.

So Owen bundled up between locations. I love this improptu shot of Patrick and Owen.

It's fun to see how Owen has changed since our pictures last year.

Surprise!

2011-11-07T06:28:00.000-08:00

Halloween Party Part 3: Moving

2011-11-07T05:42:00.000-08:00

As if our Saturday wasn't crazy enough preparing for this amazing Halloween party, we also had to move out of our house.

We closed on our condo on Friday (yay!) and took the whole day to pack our stuff up. It was a little crazy to keep our things packed and separate into things to go to the new house garage for storage and things we need for the next month and a half.

I went back and forth all day between packing things up and running over to Kate's to help decorate for the party. (This is why I was Edward Scissor-handsing my wig 15 minutes before the party started).

The house is coming along as well.

So now we're all settled in here in our temporary apartment. It's great besides the fact that it's a fourth floor walk up which is a lot of work with a kid and a dog. I've averaged about 7 round trips a day up and down those stairs.

So to make this post more interesting, here are some pictures of Owen's very first trick or treating experience. His very first candy was from John Kerry's house. Once he realized you could walk up to people and get candy from them, he couldn't be stopped!

Yes, I know he's not wearing a costume. He didn't want to...

Halloween Party Part 2: Decorations

2011-11-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

Each year we spend the most time working on the decorations for the Halloween party. We try to be cost conscious and re-use as much of the decorations as possible, but we also try to make the decor look different each year. We decided on a cemetary/mausoleum theme this year.

Wverything looks a lot spookier when the lights are off, but it doesn't make for a good picture. I wish there was a way to capture the whole atmosphere- the dropped ceilings and lit candles on every surface. But you'll just have to use your imagination...

We started off by blocking off the main staircase and adding some flameless candles and a strobe light. This forced people to walk down the creepy bat-infested hallway and up the back stair case.

The downstairs corner had some crows and branches to start the decoration theme.

When you get upstairs, you walk into the kitchen which we decorated as a cemetary. These are a few shots of the 'picture wall' where we took everyone's pictures and our mini cemetary.

The rest of the kitchen was also decorated with hanging lights and candles and lots of delicious food.

We made their living room into a mausoleum. This is the entrance between the two rooms which Kate made into a creepy entrance from a huge cardboard box.

Here's a shot of the cardboard coffin and giant spider web in the corner of the mausoleum.

Another corner of the mausoleum had giant spider egg sacks. We made them out of plastic bags stuffed with newspaper and wrapped in cheesecloth and then some spider webbing.

We made a mummy out of a dress form and printed off a bunch of creepy old pictures and put them in frames to add to the family crypt feel.

The Wangsgards kindly rearranged a bunch of their furniture, so it was really fun to walk into the space all decorated out with creepy things and not like walking into their living room at all.

This is the main wall off the mausoleum. We made miniature mummies (with Kate's son's pajamas stuffed with newspaper and wrapped in cheese cloth). And added on some details like the stone wall and the burial stones of each of the Donigard family members.

Kate had the brilliant idea of adding some pictures of the costumes from previous years. It was fun to look at all the great costumes and we can add to it each year.

We also made these trophies for the costume contest winners. And of course the grand pize cup that gets passed to the winners of the Best of Show category each year.

4th Annual Donigard Halloween Party

2011-11-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's time for part one of our 4th Annual Halloween Party: Costumes!

Patrick, Owen and I went as Cam, Mitchell and Lily from Modern Family (If you aren't watching this show, you should be. It's hilarious). I should mention that I had to trim this wig and was doing it like a crazed Brittany Spears, just 15 minutes before the party started. The giant scissors were flying, faux hair was falling and I accidentally cut off a chunk of my real bangs. True story.

Our amazing co-hosts, Kate and Logan as Edgar Allen Poe and The Raven

Winners: Best Couples Costume

Gwen and Andrew as Legolas and Gimlee

Winners: Best in Show

They totally deserved this award. Every single piece in these costumes was handmade. She fletched her own arrows and etched elven designs into her arm bands.

Cortney and Quinn as The Mad Hatter and The Cheshire Cat

Winners: Judges Pick

Marci as Snow White

Winner: Best Character Representation

Leslie as The Hulk

Rich as Muammar Gaddafi

Winner: Scariest Costume

Elizabeth and Max as Bunnicula and Carrot

Winners: Most obscure costume

Stuart and Aubrey as Unibomber and Transformer Police Car

(Yes, she's really in that little box). See a video of the transformer action here

Aubrey Won: Most Creative Costume

Amelia, Barry and baby Gus as Ron Swansons from Parks and Recreation

Winners: Funniest Costume

Grace and Dave

as Steve Jobs and the iCloud

Deja and Sam

as The Fountain of Youth and Pajama Pants de Leon

Jhordan and Shawn

as Backwards Old People

Laci and Christian

as Bowling Ball and Pin

Lisa and Dan

as Mad Men

Marcus, Sarah and Gwen

as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Loren, Erica and Sophie

as Flynn Rider, Shortie and Rapunzel from Twisted

Sam and Caitlin as

Kermit and Miss Piggy

Tracie and Chris

as Sprite and Mr Pibb

Will and Lauren

as Jack Skellington and Chilean Mother

Aren't our friends amazing with their super creative costumes? It is so fun to see amazing costumes year after year. Stay tuned for more pictures of the decor...

Apple Picking

2011-09-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

We went apple picking this week with a kid's group from church. It is a favorite New England tradition and we love doing it every year.

We had a great time picking apples (and pears) and eating apple cider donuts.

This is Owen's second year apple picking- it's crazy how much he's grown. Here's some pictures from last year.

Going once, Going twice, Sold!

2011-09-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

We've accepted an offer on our condo! We finally signed the agreement, but won't be closing for another month or so. So, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.

Progress on the demo of the new house has been good, but slow. We've been waiting to get our official permits from the city after we discovered we'd have to tear down the two story rear deck and rebuild it. Our plan is to incorporate it into the open square footage of the floor, so it will be good to have it built up right.

The silver lining of all this new demo is that we've updated our second floor plans to allow for a larger master suite in the rear of the house.

Here are some early pictures of the demo on the first floor. We've gone through four industrial sized dumpsters, one pile of approx 800 bricks from the dismantled chimney, one asbestos removal and decontamination process and one hurricane with a lost window.

Toddler Time: 18 months

2011-09-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

My baby adventures have officially morphed into toddler time. Owen had his 18 month check up this week.

weight: 25 pounds (40th percentile)

height: 37 inches (99.96 percentile)

words: mama, dada, ball, more, dog, lalala (meaning Elmo), Charlotte (his friend), milk, bubbles, tickle tickle, and Kate (Soren's mom).

signs we taught him: (most of his verbal words) and banana, please, shoes, socks, bird, airplane, play, Soren (his friend), hello and bye bye, I love you/thank you/blow kisses, baby, train, book, fish, food, milk, diaper, light, tree, hat/head/hair, airplane

Signs he made up on his own: sound, phone, scambled eggs, flag, cracker, truck, brush teeth, Gatsby treat and baby yogurt (Which is really just the sign for baby and then pointing at the fridge. I think this started when he saw the picture of the baby on the container)

Random facts about Owen:

He is a very sweet boy who is full of curiosity and laughter.
He climbs on everything and has an unhealthy lack of fear for his personal safety.
Owen stands with his hands clasped behind his back. It's adorable and amazingly adult looking
He can also identify a handful of body parts, the cutest of which is his snorting and snuffing when asked where his nose is.
He entertains himself by hiding in baskets or closets and closing the lids/doors.
He eats more than I do at almost every meal. It's astounding. I started ordering him his own food at restaurants after he ate half of mine AND Patrick's entrees.
He throws everything. Especially food.

Owen is obsessed with dadda. He asks for him all day long. There's a picture of us on our fridge and Owen gives kisses to dadda's picture when he's sad. But, Owen really hates shoulder rides. Even from dadda

special onsite report

2011-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the interruption of your regularly scheduled programming for this special report. Early today, an accident occured in Cambridge, MA involving a bulldozer and a baby. Bonnie in Beantown reports:

Bonnie In Beantown: Thank you. We're onsite at what appears to be the scene of a tragic accident in a construction zone. Reports are still unclear why the infant was was left unsupervised in a construction zone. You're about to see graphic pictures of the tragic accident involving baby and a bulldozer. Reports are still filing in as police investigate how this all went horribly wrong.

Warning: The following is a graphic closeup of the accident. These images should not be viewed by those with knee problems, recurring hiccuping or pregnant women.

The suspected guilty party was questioned, but officials are not ready to make formal allegations.

This is Bonnie in Beantown with our special report. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Lots of Owen

2011-08-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here's lots of pictures and videos of Owen in the last month. I've tried to edit the videos down to around 30 seconds, but I'm sorry if only Grandparents will want to see them all.

"Ring around the Rosies" with his buddies CAL (2years) and SPW (3years)

Say hello!

Owen walking Gatsby

I took literally 7 minutes of footage of this. I paired it down to one minute. This kid is a dancing machine. Sorry it's a little blurry

Kiddie Pool

Ghosting. This is really, truly how this happens, every.single.time. Including the last second... He really likes to do this when he's delirious

Our days consist of lots of walks (with lots of side trips to neighbors decks, fences and staircases and to check out any and all birds, sticks and dirt)

... lots of stroller rides

Sometimes, we get to do special activities like sailling along the charles

(really we just wait, while other people go sailing. But that's okay because we can entertain ourselves pretty good with random things we pick up)

And at least one playgroud trip every day!

(Does this picture remind anyone else of bull riding?)

before and after

2011-07-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

In my defense, he did get stuck in there and start crying before I tied the jump rope to the cabinet. I don't spoil all the fun for no reason. (depending on who you ask).

I found this amazing folding wood castle at Michaels. I used a half off coupon and only spent $10. I was searching online for ideas of little castle figurines he could play with and discovered that it is EXACTLY like the Melissa and Doug play castle ($50 full price) minus the paint job.

Hey, I can draw on little squares with a grey marker .......

after:

I even personalized it with Owen's name (you can't see it super clearly in this picture). I didn't want it to be too obvious what it said either.

throw in this miniature knights and dragons set (also with a half off coupon from AC Moore) :

and we're more than happy with a $13 version of this play castle.

2011-07-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's official. We now own TWO houses and have 23 new keys!

Hopefully we'll sell our condo soon. Know anyone who's looking?

The day before we closed on the house, we did our final walk through and the previous owner's daughter was there cleaning out the last of their things. She grew up in the house and is one of the three siblings who inherited it when her mother passed away and decided to sell it to us. We learned so much about the house talking with her.

Some interesting things: Two of her family members were carpenters and on one of their jobs they brought home the old wood flooring from Somerville High School to redo the floors (they look amazing!). And we learned that the first owner of the house had a slate company and that is why our house and garage have slate roofs (also we're going to find a bunch of slate buried in the back yard when we re-landscape next year...uh oh).

She was a little emotional to sell the house, but happy to have her childhood home go to a family. I guess they had another offer they were going to accept for slightly more from a developer who was also going to remodel the house into a single family home, but they decided to go with our family at the last minute instead.

I was going through the house with a contractor and found this note folded up under some old carpeting. It says "Dear whoever buys this house, please be kind, my nana loved it. ~M.M"

This house has a beautiful history and has been loved by several generations of families. We're so excited to live here.

After closing, demo started the very next day. We're already down one kitchen, one bathroom and two walls. Hopefully, in a few short months we'll have the first floor done. I'm sure you'll be hearing updates about all of this as we go along.

For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, we've been working with an architect to help us design the layout of the new house. This was REALLY really helpful for the first floor. Here's the floor plans he did for the existing first and second floors and then our changes.

First Floor existing conditions

First Floor - new plan

We're knocking down the walls at the entry separating the former entrances to the two units. This will create an open entryway and a hallway. We're incorporating the rear porch into the open floor plan (now a kitchen) which lets in a ton more light. The architect came up with the idea of moving the stairs to the basement from the rear of the house under the interior staircase, so now we can have a mudroom with a large walk-in closet and a walk-in pantry off the kitchen.

Second Floor- existing conditions

Second Floor- new plan

Make the old living room and bathroom into our master suite and master bath. Adding the sqaure footage from the porch allows us to turn the rear of the house into a bedroom, the former kitchen into a family bathroom and still have enough room for a third bedroom and washer/dryer.

There is a third floor, but I'm not including the plans yet. It's still in progess on what exactly we want to do, but it will basically be a large open room with a bathroom for our family room and guest room.

...and all before breakfast

2011-06-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Red Sox

2011-06-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Open House

2011-06-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

So, I've been silent on the blog front because the rest of my life has been going crazy. I've been SO busy with work on our condo and work on buying our house (and traveling for work in Patrick's case). But we survived our first weekend of open houses and the place looks great. I'm really kicking myself for not doing some of these changes years ago.

I tried to find some good before pictures, but I couldn't find any really good ones. These are from 3 years ago, but they show the colors. I liked the paint colors in here, but they were quite dark for a space that only has one full and two half sized windows. Lesson learned, I guess.

We painted everything Linen white in the main living spaces. I freshened up the trim around the doors and window also. We had the built ins put in around the fireplace which I primed and painted white, swapped out the door for one with more glass (duh! why didn't we do that 6 years ago?) and I put in the tile backsplash in the kitchen. Outside, we had a brick patio put in where no sun ever shines and a cover built for the AC unit that sits in plain sight. (We opted not to go the super sneaky route the previous owners did and hide it with a bunch of bushes that will die one week after selling)

The whole space just looks more open and airy and light. We also swapped out our old light bulbs for the 'daylight' light bulbs. Just one more look at the before and after of the brick wall with our new built ins. OH and it doesn't hurt that we rented a whole storage unit and 10 foot truck to move a bunch of our stuff out of the way. Makes me want to downsize permanently.

BEFORE

AFTER

And last, some action shots (just because it was SO much work to get this all done)

Special thanks to the Wangsgards who babysat Owen at key times and lended us their fancy books and artwork when I prematurely packed all our books and accessories away at the bottom of our storage unit and especially to "Kuh-Tuh" who literally scrubbed our baseboards and participated in other tedious cleaning activities the night before the open house.

long over due

2011-06-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy getting things ready at our condo and working on getting things lined up for the new house, that I haven't blogged about our trips back in April/May. First, Owen and I went to Utah for my sister Lisa's graduation from BYU. It was a great, but short trip. We were there for 4 days.

I was really nervous about flying with Owen all on my own. Especially since he wants to be on the move and isn't distracted by anything as easy as a movie. I went to the dollar store and purchased a bunch of new toys (plastic slinkies, chatter teeth, pin wheals, glow sticks, squishy bugs, magnetic fishing pole, etc) and filled a bag with all these things he'd never seen before. I also filled my phone up with home videos of him.

Between the 2-5 minutes each toy got me, the home videos and walking up and down the isles, Owen did great. He was actually a real trooper for most of our flights.

I don't have many pictures from Utah. We stayed at my dad's new house in Saratoga Springs. We attended the graduation ceremonies and commencements for my sister Lisa and hung out with my family. I did snap a few photos of dying Easter Eggs with my mom, my brother's family and Lisa and Jake. Isn't Corinne's little baby bump cute in this pic?

And we had a wonderful baby shower for Corinne and an excellent Easter dinner all together. Everyone was super nice in figuring out how to accommodate our need for nap times and our 'strange' diet. It was a nice trip, although too short. I didn't take nearly enough pictures since my hands were generally busy keeping Owen from running off

After just a few days in Utah, we flew to San Francisco and met up with Patrick for the 6 hour flight to Hawai'i. We stayed with Patrick's dad's neighbor which afforded us more room and most importantly a room just for Owen. But, it did make evenings more difficult when we had to put Owen to bed around 7pm. I ended up staying at the neighbors house and reading while Patrick would spend evening times with his dad.

Owen LOVED the beach and the ocean. He took to the water immediately and kept trying to duck his head under the waves and squirm away from our arms. He loved playing in the holes Patrick dug in the sand and scooping the sand around.

We went to the tropical zoo twice. Owen did a lot of pointing and LOVED the colorful birds (even though he looks terrified in this picture, I promise). He liked the petting zoo, but was the probably the most pleased with the stone turtle that he could ride on and pat.

We had a great trip and appreciated everyone's hospitality.

Home Sweet Home

2011-05-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing trip to Utah and Hawaii which I will have to blog about later, because first I have some big news to share....

We're buying a house!!

It's in Davis Square (5 minute walk from the T). We're going to remodel everything, and hope to have it done while we live in it, and in just one year!

Some of the original features are amazing and staying just as they are- like this great staircase and the original wood floors and stained glass.

And some things will need to be completely remodeled, with lots of updates.

It's been separated into two units, so we're going to convert it back to a single family home. Having it be two separate units, will actually help a lot because we can live in the upstairs unit while the first floor is renovated. Then we can move into the first floor and renovate the other two floors.

The backyard (which will get all leveled out and landscaped after demolition is done) and the 2 car detached garage.

We're so excited! We've been house hunting since November and nearly every weekend was spent going to open houses. This is the FOURTH offer we put in on a house. We learned a lot along the way though. Wish us luck on our closing (selling our current place) and then our renovations!

What we've been doing...

2011-04-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

An unexpectedly warm day got us our first real trip to the park. Luckily Owen has become a pro at walking (and climbing) so the park is really fun!

I tried to tell him this was dangerous, but he didn't seem too concerned. He didn't ever fall, so I guess he was right after all.

I got myself myself a short summer haircut. Then it snowed. And snowed again. And then once more to really drive home that this was a premature move.

There's been lots of dancing and learning going on around here.

Everything else we've basically just swept under the rug

around the house

2011-03-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

Since I've been home full time, I've taken on a few projects around the house. Nothing major, but I really like the changes. So I thought I'd share. First up some kitchen projects.

I'm really bad at remembering to take 'before' shots. So here is one of my kitchen windows with the 'before' curtain. It blocks a lot of the minimal amount of light in the house and has been this way for about 5 years. I actually took a full sized curtain and cut it in half to make these smaller kitchen curtains which I thought was cool when I did it.

For a quick change, I made these easy cornice boxes out of foam core board and batting and covered them with some fabric I liked and had bought previously. The box sticks out from the wall and allows in more light.

Sorry these pictures are kinda dark. I took them with my cell phone. And I didn't really clean up the counters either. Keeping it real here people a la dirty windows and cluttered counters.

My next project was to replace some shelves in the kitchen with a picture wall. I sold the shelves on Craigslist and with that money I got frames from ikea and printed 5x7 pictures we have taken on our various trips.

So here's sort of a combination look at the new window cornices and the picture wall. I don't have a before picture of the shelves, but swapping them out for a clean wall of pictures really helped to open up the space and make it feel a lot less cluttered. I got the pictures all straight by lining up the frames on the floor and then using a piece of wax paper to mark where the nails needed to go. I then taped the wax paper to the wall and put the nails in the exact right spots.

Here are a few of the pictures we used from Turkey, London, France and China

I also recovered our kitchen chair seats with some more durable indoor/outdoor fabric in a really pretty blue geometric pattern. They basically looked like this before (fine, but nothing special).

I was really pleased with how the minor changes in the kitchen turned out. Since then, I've painted the yellow wall in Martha Stewarts 'Sharkey Grey'. It is a more sophisticated looking color that I'm liking so far. I just got two sample containers ($6 total) and used painting supplies I already had for a quick nap-time project. I didn't even use painters tape, I just carefully cut in all the trim and corners with an angled paint brush.

Another big project I tackled is the TV wall. I'm not 100% sure I like it. Here is the before (except we used to have a really long and low TV stand. I swapped that out for this higher one that has glass cabinet doors to keep out little fingers. That's why the art work looks wierdly low. So before:

And after:

I haven't decided if I like it. It leaves these two odd little walls without stripes one each side of the accent wall. One of those walls also has an electrical box that I was hoping to cover up with this wall treatment. Also hanging artwork up there seems like it might be too busy. So I'm not sold. But I thought I'd let you see it anway.

Here's a picture of the process during (see how I originally wanted to extend it to all three walls and cover up that outlet box on the left?).

You can see that I actually used contact paper. It was surprisingly difficult to get them all to line up straight on the wall. If you can paint I suggest doing that. I could have painted, but I wanted to try out the paper as a way to cover up the outlet box. Then I realized it was getting messed up going around the corners. But paint would have been a lot less work! And probably about the same cost since I had to use three rolls of contact paper (about $15).

Do you like it? Is it too charlie brown esqe? Should I extend the zig zags to the two side walls? I can't decide. I certainly have enough contact paper to do the other two walls.

(ignore the zig zag rug, it was just airing out before going into another room)

So those are my recent little house design projects. Hope you enjoyed seeing them.

30 years and counting

2011-03-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to be thirty. Even my dad used to say I was 13 going on 30. I've always just felt like it's the perfect age - you're not longer 'in your twenties' so you can finally be taken seriously (sorta joking) but you can still have fun and let loose because you're not that old.

So I was definitely looking forward to this birthday. But at the same time, Patrick had been traveling for work Monday through Wednesday and was headed to Barcelona on my big day (Saturday) so I was pretty much ready to throw myself a big old pity-party.

But Patrick did not disapoint! It started off a little rocky when he came home early on Thursday and asked what I wanted for my birthday present. As in; you haven't gotten me anything yet? I decided a shopping trip to the mall next door would be acceptible. But when we got there it just didin't feel very special. Patrick (kindly) watched Owen out in the halls as I wandered in and out of stores and bought myself some things. Not very special yet. The trip officially ended with the great poopy disaster of the year. I won't relay the whole story since my test audience of non-parents did not appreciate the first retelling. I will just say that it ended with Owen in nothing but a new diaper and leaving behind some pee on the dressing room floor of Macy's. (Note: avoid the first stall on the right).

So I wasn't expecting much Saturday morning when Patrick came up with the idea to head out for breakfast on my birthday morn. I suggested we go to this amazing new place we've been to once before, The Friendly Toast. Patrick looked up the time it opened and we decided to go first thing at 8am to be sure to get a seat. I thought about calling some friends to see if they wanted to join us but didn't even end up suggesting it because it was too early and too last minute.

I should interject here that I am very hard to surprise. I actually love surprises, but they just never seem to get pulled off. The two surprise parties in my life (one when I was around 8 and another in college) were spoiled by me accidentally figuring them out in advance.

So I was VERY surprised when we walked into the restaurant and about 20 of our friends were sitting there waiting for me to arrive! Wait a minute, wasn't it MY idea to go to The Friendly Toast? Apparently not. Hadn't Patrick looked up what time they open right in front of me? What a faker.

Later that afternoon, Patrick and I went to a movie. Patrick hopped on his plane to Barcelona and then a bunch of our friends came over to our house for an impromptu dinner and cake. We have great friends.

So there was no need to throw my own pity-party after all. (Remember that the above picture was taken super early in the morning and I didn't know there would be an audience. My hair is still wet.).

Thirty is going to be a good year. And it's off to a good start.

birthday wishes

2011-03-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for something to get me for my birthday...

anything from this line at Target in plates, bowls, serving dishes... yes please.

This Miter Saw from Home Depot - or an even bigger or better compound miter saw.

These Nine West shoes from Marshalls, size 9

Any of these dresses from ShabbyApple.com. Free shipping right now with code: PRESPRINGSHIP

I just bought this print. But would love other prints from any of my etsy favorites list.

These shoes from Payless - Cabana Kitten Heal, by Isabel Toledo for Payless, size 9

And anything from my Amazon.com wishlist. Like the cookbook: Veganomicon (and maybe a personal chef to cook the good food). Dream big right?

8 is my favorite number

2011-02-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Patrick and I just celebrated our eighth anniversary together. To celebrate, we had a fabulous dinner in the North End and Giacomo's. We waited outside inthe freezing cold in line for 30 minutes before being seated. (That's how you know the food is going to be great and it was amazing!) Then we got some dessert and hot cocoa at a local italian bakery and saw an improv comedy show to round out the date. It was a great date!

I love you, Patrick. Happy Anniversary. I'm excited to spend many more years together.

In celebration of Valentines day (and our anniversary), I'll share this poem Patrick had to write on the spot at a valentines day party we attending about 4 years ago.

He titled it 'Cheasy Love Poem' and it's in the style of Dr. Seuss

The Terrace and Elms is where our love grew

More than 5 year it’s been since the days when we knew

That we’d be together forever and through it all

now let me here tell you how it’s been a ball

The roses, the clotheses, the noses that blew

When the woes everyone knows hit me and you

London, Singapore and Paris france

Are just a few places where we took a chance

And chance it was because of the anger

That is generated between us when playing with danger-

-ous board game and card games like phase ten and uno

Our marriage seemed doomed because of it you know

My competitive nature, my hatred of losing

But you were patient and we worked it out

So that time spent together is, without a doubt,

The happiest time that I can remember

And if after all the biggest challenge we had

Is playing trivial games together and making me mad

Then hip hip hurray

And to end this poem, let me just say

To Bonnie, my love, happy Valentine’s Day

Baby Adventures: 1 year

2011-02-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

So this is the end of our first year of baby adventures. It's been a great year. If I didn't have the calendar telling me so, I wouldn't believe that it's been that long.

For me it was a bittersweet day. I didn't expect to feel emotional about how quickly the time has gone. Luckily I have a lot more birthdays to look forward to before he's off on his own adventures. Owen's 1 year stats: 21 lbs (35th %), 26 inches tall (60th %). He loves food, especially tofu, black beans, bananas and broccoli.

Owen got 'My Pal Scout' from his grandparents. Here's a video of him enjoying his new pal (and doing a little dancing!).

First steps

2011-02-17T06:10:00.000-08:00

Owen took his first unassisted steps two days ago. We got out the video camera (I got a little over excited- you can hear me try not to squeal).

I can't believe he's going to be a year old in just a few days.

31 years and 11months

2011-02-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

First- Patrick turned 31 years old yesterday. I love you more than words can say. Even with your bleached blonde hair.

And second, 11 months old (two weeks ago):

This month, Owen has accomplished expert crawling and walking with assistance. He's creeping along anything that is his height (ottoman, couch, chairs, legs). He's getting good and transferring from one object to another and balancing inbetween.

He's also mastered going up the stairs all by himself. He thinks it's hilarious when he chases after Gatsby crawling as fast as he can until he head-butts him. Gatsby doesn't think it's funny.

Owen recognizes lots of words, but still hasn't said one specific word yet. His dancing has gotten even greater and crazier! I can't believe he's going to be a year old in just a few short weeks. It's blowing my mind that we've had him in our lives for almost a whole year already. The time has flown by.

2011-01-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share some of the fun christmas presents I actually had time to work on this year. I always want to make great presents for Christmas, but I've never had enough time at home to be able to do them all - until now.

First, a present I actually forgot to bring with me on our trip to Utah which will be in the mail shortly. I'm guessing the recipient will figure out who they are from the picture below.

I was really into monogramming this year aparently. I free hand drew initials for my brothers and their wives onto some mugs for hot chocolate. I was really proud of myself that I remembered that my brother Ben is left handed and should therefore have his monogram on the 'other' side of the mug so you can see it while he's drinking. (I forgot though, that his wife Rainee is also left handed and should have done hers the same way- oops!)

For my teenage step-sister Jessica I made a little piece of art with words that I thought described her. I think it had the right mix of coolness and thoughtfulness. I ran across this amazing program Wordle that does these designs for you. You just enter the words. The more times you enter a specific word the larger it will be. (I did Jessica about 5 times and the other words only once). I matted it in some fun paper and framed it. I think she liked it.

For my grandma, I had what I think was a genious idea. She recently set up a facebook account and uploaded a bunch of old pictures of her and her kids (my dad, aunts and uncles). It is an amazing treasure trove of history! I was able to find exactly one picture each of both her and my grandpa in profile. I adjusted the sizes and then printed out those pictures and cut them out on thick cardstock. Flip them over and you have a perfect profile. The one of my grandpa was taken on their wedding day. The one of her is while she was playing the piano. I really like this gift, it was one of my favorites.

We had a great time visiting family in Utah. For me, it's always the right mix of relaxing, talking and doing fun activities. We went to a place that had mini golf and an arcade and played around.

Even Owen seemed to have a good time even though he had to stay in the stroller most of the time.

We got to meet my brother's 5th child Hunter. Owen and Hunter are only a few months apart in age. Aren't they cute together?

And here's Owen and Hunter with my oldest brother's two kids, Taylor and Alex. (They're expecting a little sister this year!) Maybe someday we'll be able to get the other nine together for a picture.

We didn't take very many pictures of family because we were too busy enjoying their company. We had a wonderful visit with my family and with Patricks.

I especially enjoyed being able to hear my dad play the piano again. His hand had lost a lot of function and has been extremely painful for years following an operation he had realted to his ongoing battle with cancer. But it is finally good enough for him to play the piano and it was a treat to be able to hear. It brought back really fond memories of Sunday mornings as a child waking up to beautiful music.

... and we're back. 2010 a Year in Review

2011-01-20T07:13:00.000-08:00

We have our new computer! Yay. I think my favorite feature is this slide bar across the top that allows you to 'zip' up your computer. Little hands heading your way too fast to close flip the screen down? Not a problem: Zip! No more mysterious program-opening, computer-meltdown noise-making, baby-handed interferrence. Bang away little hands. You can do no harm.

But I digress. Here is my official 2010 year in review post in the form of our first ever Christmas letter. Enjoy.

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy holidays! For the first time in our almost 8 years as a family, we are doing a Christmas letter to catch everyone up on the happenings in the Donigan household in 2010. Because we love lists, and top 10 lists especially, we are doing a top 10 list for 2010. So here are the 10 most exciting Donigan family events for 2010:

10- Patrick and Bonnie start the new year in Utah with family. For Christmas 2009 and New Year’s 2010, we fly to Utah to spend the holidays with both families. Patrick’s gift to 8 month pregnant Bonnie is a night’s stay at the Providence Inn, where they held their wedding reception almost 7 years previous.

9- Grandma Marie and Grandma Katie come to Boston to meet Owen. With Super Grandma Powers in play, Bonnie is able to complete several projects including sleeping and sewing curtains.

8- Bonnie opens and runs an Etsy shop selling handmade bird mobiles. With 50 sales under her belt, Bonnie feels justified calling it a successful venture.

7- Patrick turns 30! We enjoy a low-key celebration with friends. No hair loss is evident yet.

6- Bonnie co-hosts the third annual Halloween Party. The party preparation begins a month in advance with planning, decorating and costuming. Patrick, Bonnie and Owen win the ‘Best in Show’ vote with their homemade Mario, Luigi and Toad costumes.

5- Patrick takes an unexpected trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving. All of Patrick’s siblings fly to be with their father in the hospital. Thankfully, he recovers and all the siblings are able to spend time together in their home state for the first time in approximately 20 years.

4- Bonnie is called as the Relief Society President for her ward. In this unexpected turn of events, Bonnie gets the surprise of the year.

3- Owen takes his first plane ride. We visit Utah to celebrate Patrick’s mom’s wedding to Alex Akina. Owen participates in many firsts including meeting his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and camping in Logan Canyon. We get to spend father’s day with Bonnie’s dad at their new home in Utah. (That’s a lot going on in one trip!)

2- Bonnie trains for and runs a 10k. She runs the entire 6.2 miles in 1 hour and 14 minutes which marks the farthest she has ever run in her entire life. And nothing was even chasing her.

And finally, the very best event of our year…

1- Owen Edward Donigan joins our family on February 20th, one day before Patrick and Bonnie’s 7th anniversary. Initially weighing in at 7lbs even, he is now a 10 month old with six teeth! We love and enjoy this happy and easy-going addition to our family.

With much love,

Patrick, Bonnie and Owen Donigan

on the fritz

2011-01-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

Our computer died a terrible (but quiet) death. My eager husband has already ordered a replacement, but in the meantime I don't have the will to type out blog posts on my itsy bitsy netbook. So this will be all I'm sharing for a little while. So don't worry; we're not dead. And I promise to post our first ever Christmas letter as our '2010 year in review' for you when we return.

In the meantime, I just want to record for all of posterity that I HATE NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS. I pretty much have never made them, because I know that I won't keep them. This doesn't mean I don't make goals for myself- I do. But the goals I have actually achieved have followed a pattern that I didn't even realize. I ran across the following article that made me realize all this and explains it much better than I ever could by blogger and book author Don Miller. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

I’ve written my goals for the year: to eat healthy and exercise, to pay down my home, and to dig deeper into friendships. But while those are great ambitions, if I left them as just ambitions, or resolutions, chances are I wouldn’t get them done. Most people don’t stick with their new-years resolutions. But it’s not because they lack the resolve. It’s because their goals aren’t embedded in the context of a narrative.

I’ve discovered something better than resolutions. If you’ve read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, you know I’ve reorganized my life into stories rather than goals. I don’t have any problem with goals. I like goals and still set them. But without an overarching plot, goals don’t make sense and are hard to achieve. A story gives a goal a narrative context that forces you to engage and follow through. People who are in great shape and have their finances in order probably don’t set goals to be in good shape or get their finances in order. They probably set goals of running a marathon or paying off their house. In other words, they think in narrative rather than goals. The goals get met in the journey of the story.

A story involves a person that wants something and is willing to overcome conflict to get it. If you plan a story this year, instead of just simple goals, your life will be more exciting, more meaningful and more memorable. And you are much more likely to stick to your goals. For instance, rather than saying I want to finish getting into shape this year, I’ve written down that I want to climb Mt. Hood with a couple friends. I have a vision of standing on top of the mountain in May, taking pictures and all that. Now my goal has a narrative context. That’s just a simple story, and I’ve planned some stories that are far more difficult but I only use that as an example. If my goal were to lose twenty pounds, I doubt I’d stick with it. But when you have friends flying up from Texas to summit the mountain with you, you’d better believe you are going to be hitting the stairs. I have to, because it I don’t, my story will be a tragedy. Again, stories give goals context.

So here are a few tips on planning a story for 2010:

1.Want something. In a story, the character wants something. Rudy wants to play football at Notre Dame, Harry wants Sally, Frodo wants to destroy the ring and so on. It’s true in every story, or else a story doesn’t make sense. If we don’t want something in our lives, our stories feel boring, long, meaningless and tired. We feel this way because we are sitting in the theater of our mind watching a story that isn’t getting started. Or worse, we are praying and asking God to give us a story while the entire time God is handing us a pen, telling us to write it ourselves. That’s why he gave us a will. So spend some time thinking about what you want with the year. Do you want to pay down the house, get into shape, deepen a relationship? Make your ambition clear and focussed. Choose two or three dominant desires and write them down.

2. Envision a climactic scene.Screenwriters often begin their story with the end in mind. They know their entire movie is heading toward that scene where Frodo throws the ring into the fire. And they write the movie to get him there. My climactic scene will be (God willing) standing on top of Mt. Hood. So I automatically know the hundreds of scenes that are going to lead up to that climax. I know there will have to be scenes hiking in the gorge, riding my bike, eating well, spending time at high altitude, accumulating gear and so forth. If you’re goals are relational (I highly recommend half your goals be relational, because relational stories are the most fulfilling) you might envision you and your wife renewing your vows, or you and your son refurbishing a car together. Once you have that climactic scene in mind, you’ll know the scenes it takes to get there. Also, write this stuff down. Even if you just throw it away, write down what that climactic scene looks like, smells like and feels like. It will get in your brain and like a good protagonist in a great movie, you’ll wake every day knowing what you are supposed to do with your time.

3. Create an Inciting Incident.Characters don’t want to change. That’s why so many new-years resolutions fail. We write down that we want to lose twenty pounds and end up gaining ten. It happens every year. What we are overlooking is a principle that every good screenwriter knows:Characters don’t change without being forced to change. An inciting incident is the event in a movie that causes upheaval in the protagonist life. The protagonist, then, naturally seeks to return to stability. And in order to do that, he HAS to solve his new problem. In Taken, Liam Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped and he MUST find her. In The Grapes of Wrath, the dust bowl forces the Joad family west. Characters must be pressured to change, or they won’t. And a narrative context can help. For instance, with my wrapping up my fitness goals (I’ve now lost well over 100 pounds, but have definitely taken the year off to just have fun, so it’s time to get back on it) I decided to climb Mt. Hood. But that isn’t enough. An inciting incident has to force me to climb Mt. Hood, so I contacted my friend Brandon Bargo in Austin and for the last couple months we’ve been talking about what it will take. We will also, hopefully, be climbing St. Helens and Adams that same month, so I’m going to have to be in really great shape. If I don’t, there’s a social consequence. I will let my buddy down, and I’ll also look like an idiot in front of all of you guys. So bringing a friend into the mix, and going public with my ambition serves as an inciting incident. Other inciting incidents might be signing up with friends for a marathon, joining a kick-boxing class, inviting friends to dinner every Sunday, writing an I’m Sorry letter to an old friend, buying an engagement ring, writing a check to a ministry, whatever…just something that forces you tomove.

That should get you started, at least. Want something, imagine a climactic scene and create an inciting incident. And do it this week. Don’t wait. I created mine in November so I could get an early start.

I don’t know very many writers who love the actual act of writing. We will do anything to avoid work. But because we have to pay our bills, at some point every day a good writer sits down to do his/her work. And it’s no different when you’re living a good story. I doubt I am going to want to run stairs every day, but the truth is I have to. And I’m not going to want to eat right, either. But I have to. I’m not trying to make the whole thing sound grim. Living a good story is a lot of fun, but it can also be difficult and boring. But when it’s done, when you’ve renewed your vows or climbed a mountain, you’ll look back on one of the most rich and fulfilling years of your life, filled with scenes of difficulty and conflict, of beauty and sacrifice. The year will feel twice as long, because anything that isn’t a story is quickly forgotten by the brain, and your entire year will have been a story.

There’s a lot more to telling a good story with your life. I explore these ideas in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. The book is available at your local bookstore, or your favorite online vendor. Good luck living a great story in 2010!

If you're still here- This is exactly how I lost my baby weight: by wanting to run a 10k with about 12 of my girlfriends- the commitment to run it with my friends (and the weekly 4 mile groups runs we did together) and then the actual work of running which all led to the 'otherwise unsuccessful new year's resolution' of losing the baby weight. I just focused on this goal I couldn't wriggle out of and in order to get there, had to put in the work. Makes a lot of sense when you think about it that way.

It's the holiday season

2010-12-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas. But lately, I've really been enjoying the feel of a de-cluttered house (more on that to come. There's a little sneak peak in this picture though). So I decided to change my usual decorations up a bit and simplify for a holiday that usually means cluttered decor. I'm really excited that this year, I was able to finally get a nativity set. I found this beautiful German nativity.

A close up of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. The other side has a shepherd and two sheep. The nativity spins when you put candles in the holders. I really think it's beautiful.

While on the hunt for a really great nativity, I fell in love with this one I found on etsy. I really like the different tones of the wood and that there are several pieces fitted together for each figure. This one is something the kids can play with. I remember really enjoying rearranging our nativity set over and over as a kid. This set is entirely playable which makes up for how over protective I'm going to be of the spinning one.

One of the things I decided I couldn't handle (especially since we won't be here on Christmas day) was a full-sized tree. I found a good solution to that - you'll see later- but I had all these wonderful glass ornaments I wasn't using. Into some different sized vases they go. Easy, cute.

I have been happily busy with so many different projects. A lot of them are gifts, so I can't share that yet, but here is one I did for decoration. I took this frame we had lying around and spray painted it white. Then I strung some invisible line (think fishing line) on the back in a zig zag pattern with a stapler. I used some cute paperclips for each of the holiday cards we received and now I have a nice collection of them hanging on our wall.

Here's my solution to a really big tree that we don't really have room for. We got this 4 foot tree for $13. It's even kiddie friendly up off the floor. I was inspired by planted trees which are actually pretty expensive. Instead, I wrapped the base in some burlap garland to make it look more like a potted tree.

I decided this year we'd go with a white on white (and some rustic brown) theme. It all started with a burlap garland I found on sale at the craft store and this blog post about beautiful monochromatic giftwrap.

After a trip to the fabric and dollar stores, I made the ornaments on the tree out of different types of lace, fabric and some white poinsettias from the craft store I found for half off. When we leave on the 24th to fly and visit family, I'll take the ornaments off the tree and use them for the presents we're going to give all wrapped up in white paper. Here's a close up of one of the presents I already tested out with this idea.

Another project I needed to do was to find a stocking for Owen. I really wasn't happy with the stockings we bought that had random santas and snowmen. I looked around at plain monogrammed stockings, but NO ONE carries an "O" monogram. Sorry Owen. Around the same time, I was creating a clothing donation pile and had TWO knitted sweaters in brown and gray going out the door. I put two and two together and decided to make a classic knit stocking.

A quick trip to Goodwill got me a red sweater for $5 (that's the total cost of this project!). I used the previous stocking as a pattern (which BTW was way too big for a knit stocking - the less stiff fabric is floppy and I ended up sewing it smaller). If you do this yourself, be sure to make the bottom of the sweater as the top of your stocking so the edge is finished.

This is my favorite stocking- I incorporated the buttons on the neckline into the pattern and stitched some of the v neck closed to make the rest of the flap down to the foot.

You can't see it too well in the photo but the gray one also has a little pouch on it that was on the front of the sweater. I love each of these stockings and their special because they're from unique sweaters. AND I can make another out of a different colored sweater when we need more! So easy to do and I really like the look and uniqueness of each stocking.

Another quick project- a homemade advent calendar out of a shoe organizer. This is great because we have this very random door in the middle of our living space. My hope is that each year every family member will get an ornament representing their year. (More on this to come for 2010). I like the idea that over the years we can fill up this advent calendar (and its nice big pockets) with each of these ornaments and pull them out one day at a time to fill up our tree.

I found a really simple tutorial with the number print outs. I added the scalloped white pieces and the brown tags. I spray painted the clothes pins blue and voila! easy advent calendar that can hold anything!

Most of my project energy has really been going into presents. I can't show you those yet, except for one... my mom already opened her present and it is my very favorite project this year.

It's an antique letter press drawer (where the paper printers kept their wooden block letters). I got it at an antique store here in Cambridge. I strategically cut out some slats to make room for necklaces and bracelets. I drilled the holes and added in the hooks and eyelets. This thing is HUGE. There's room for something like 25 pairs of earrings, 15 rings, 5 bracelets/watches and somewhere around 30 necklaces. I used three picture hangers on the back due to the weight and size.

I liked it so much that when I put my jewelry on it to take this picture, I almost kept it. So, so close. I may have to make one for myself some day. She asked for a larger jewelry storage solution, but I bet she didn't know she was getting into this. So I hope she likes it! More presents to come after Christmas...

Merry Christmas*

baby adventures: 10 months

2010-12-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

10 months is already here! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. This month has been an extremely busy one for Owen.

He's grown the top four front teeth (all in the same week). That makes SIX teeth. That seems like a lot.

AND he started crawling the week after that. (yes, these items deserve their own paragraphs).

And he's finally sleeping completely through the night (although this is 100% my fault that it's happening so late). I decided one night that he shouldn't be waking up (twice!) to eat at night and just stopped feeding him (just at night- geesh. I'm not a monster). I cut it down to one feeding the first night and then only comfort rocking the second night. And THAT WAS IT. He didn't even cry. He just went right back to sleep and started sleeping through the night on day three. I'm such a sucker. Why wasn't I doing this months ago?

Some random stories about Owen this month. He's already a champ at pulling himself up with the help of couches, baskets, the ottoman, his crib and mom's leg. He's still a great (and easy) baby. But now I have to watch out for him crawling around and shoving random dust bunnies or screws (true!) into his eager mouth. I'm sweeping and vacuuming all the time. He's fascinated by all the TV electronics and their buttons, the laptop and its (now falling apart) cord and all things food. He would be confused by the separate category for food- doesn't it all go in your mouth?

The other day I repeated a phrase I say a lot - 'Where's Gatsby?' and Owen pointed at him and smiled big. It was shocking. He did it twice, but wouldn't do it again for dad later that night. He does look and smile at both Momma and Gatsby when you ask where we are - but he hasn't pointed again. It was very surprising to realize he knows names of things. His only other trick is to give you five. He's a two-trick baby for now.

We have a lot of Christmas music playing right now and Owen can often be found bobbing his head or wiggling to the music. You didn't know Christmas music was so beat-a-licious did you? The video I posted last time of him dancing has gone viral at Patrick's work. He also does what we're referring to as bobble-head when he's particularly pleased. Like when he gets heaps of cheerios to pile into his mouth. Speaking of food- he's got so many options now a days. He's handling black beans, cheese cubes, frozen peas, tofu, cheerios - all the fun finger foods. It's fun to think of new things I can put out for him to ~~play with~~ eat.

Just so you don't think he's perfect - while we mostly have our sweet, happy, bobbly headed, dancing baby he definitely has an evil twin. This little monster shows up to tell us how displeased he is when we take away a particularly delicious iphone, candy cane or scissor. Or when we're not shoveling in the delicious sweet potatoes fast enough. That sin is particularly unforgivable. We can usually chase away Evil B.Owen with a distraction or a nap. I love naps.

And finally, in case you're wondering about these amazing photos, we had a little photo shoot outside - all within easy walking distance of our house- to try and get some good Christmas card photos. I'm showing you mostly ones we didn't use for the final Christmas card (that's how good they were! Thanks Kate).

i {heart} craigslist

2010-12-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

So I have a whole picture folder called Craigslist. I was just perusing through it and realized that I have sold a LOT of stuff on Craigslist. I did a quick (and totally unscientific) sum of what I've sold so far and I think I've 'made' about $700 on things I've sold. Not bad right? Oh and this doesn't even count the complete bedroom furniture set we sold for $500.

My very favorite sell was when I was trying to downsize on my craft supplies to make room for a nursery. I went through and put stuff in a box that I didn't really need or had more than one of. I was trying to figure out what to do with all this stuff. Toss it? Give it away? I know- I'll put it on Craigslist. A few days later I had $50 in my pocket for something I almost threw away!

Anyone have any good CL stories?

Two Videos

2010-12-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

I'm pulling out the mommy card- this is all about the kiddo. Run now, save yourself.

You're still here? Okay, well here's two videos of Owen. I got this jumper on Craigslist (for $15! I *believe* in second hand baby entertainment). This video is from right after I got it and the first time Patrick saw it.

This video is just a few days old. Owen decided he liked the jiving Christmas music and started moving to the beat. I had to go get my camera and that's why you see him looking over his shoulder... trying to figure out why I'm trying not to laugh and why that little silver box is pointing at him (again). This is the first time I've ever even seen him move to a beat or wiggle like this.

And because my kid looked so dapper in his church clothes, here's a few pics for you to enjoy.

(PS: You should really appreciate how hard it is to get a kid AND a dog to hold still for a picture.)

Remember BMG music club?

2010-11-28T06:18:00.000-08:00

I went to bust out my Christmas music this morning (I only have a precious 5 weeks to listen to my favorite Carpenters Christmas album!) and I found my old CD case. I'm going to publicly humiliate myself by sharing it's contents (all pre-1999).

It all started with this little music club called BMG and my 15 CDs for $1...

Boyz II Men - Motown
Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions
Bon Jovi - These Days
Louis Armstrong
Randy Crawford - Naked and True (I had no idea who this was when I picked it. Still don't get it.)
The Cranberries
K-ci&JoJo - Love Always
Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
Led Zeppelin - Zoso
The Best of Santana
Rod Stewart Unplugged - and seated
Melissa Etheridge - Yes I am
Michael Jackson - greatest hits (2 cds)

My very first CD I purchased (or maybe I asked for it for Christmas) was Paula Abdul -Spellbound. Still proud of that purchase. I also LOVED my Bryan Adams - So far so good album.

A few other spontaneous purchases before college:

Sarah Brightman
Joe - My name is Joe
Joshua Kadison - Painted Desert Serenade
PM Dawn - I had no right (single)
Monica - angel of mine (single)
Whitney Houston - My love is your love (I believe this is before 'The Crazy', but you never know)
Waking Ned Devine Soundtrack
The Saint Soundtrack
Tim McGraw - Greatest Hits
The Cranberries
Maria Carey - Music Box & Daydream (of course.)

There a little insight into my early years. I hope you enjoyed. What crappy/ amazing music did you listen to? Fess up...

Happy Hampshire Holiday

2010-11-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a BuyWithMe deal at an off season ski resort, we spent two fun nights up in New Hampshire with 9 of our good friends last weekend. We had a great time hanging out, playing games and eating amazing food (both cooked by us and out- including an interesting, but good, mac and cheese pizza).

As usual, I was too busy having fun to bust out my camera on a regular basis. But I did bring it along on our 'nature walk'.

I also have a strange fascination with pictures where Patrick looks like he's pregnant. I guess it would be only fair for him to carry some baby weight around too.

The resort had an indoor swimming pool and hot tub, where Kate was kind enough to snap some cute photos of Owen at the pool for his first time. He seemed to like it, even though the pool water was a little too cold and the hot tub was obviously too hot.

Too bad we saw this sign at the END of our trip: "Don't Mass Up New Hampshire". Guess we didn't know better. We love you even if you don't love us...

baby adventures: 8 & 9 months

2010-11-16T06:20:00.000-08:00

Owen's had his nine month checkup about a week early, so I figured I would do a combined post about months 8 and 9.

Owen's official 9 month stats:

height: 29.5" (89th percentile)

weight: 18lbs 11oz (24th percentile)

head: 46cm (74th percentile)

These past two months have been a busy ones for Owen. He's gotten really good at eating pureed foods and is finally excited about lots of different veggies and fruits. I still mix some of the less favorite ones with Aunt Meg's delicious squash soup. He's started eating those little puffed rice cereals that sort of dissolve in his mouth. He's really proud of himself when he gets them into his little fingers and then into his mouth. He laughs and giggles about it really cutely. Gatsby has also been enjoying this development as a lot of those little puffs drop right onto the floor. We suspect Owen might be a lefty (if these things are decided this early- I don't know).

He's still got a lot of red hair. Strangers comment on it all the time. I'm sure this coloring came from me, but it was still a surprise. He has his two bottom teeth and likes to chew on anything he can get his mouth on. He's never bit me intentionally, but he bites dad's fingers all the time. I think there is a correlation here between the amount of time one spends sticking their fingers into his mouth...

Owen hasn't started crawling yet, but he's pretty reliable at standing up while holding on to something. He's really close to pulling himself up on objects too. Honestly, I'm not encouraging either of these behaviors- it'll come when it comes. Right now, I love being able to set him down on a blanket surrounded by toys and not have to worry about him moving away. We're working on sleeping for longer stretches at night so I can finally get more than 5 hours of sleep at a time. Last night he slept for 7 hours straight, so we're on the right track.

I'm constantly amazed at the new little things he does. It's like in just one day he's suddenly developed a whole new skill set. He's getting really opinionated about what things he should get to play with (on the top of the list are any electronics, pens and Gatsby). And he lets you know when he's not happy with something - like when I put him down instead of carrying him around. He's also really interactive with people around him and smiles and flirts with them.

In closing, probably because I like to editorialize what Owen is thinking, I'd like to share this commercial which is currently tickling my funny bone. "Apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is FROWNED UPON - IN THIS ESTABLISHMENT."

Third Annual Donigard Halloween Party

2010-10-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

This year we hosted our third Halloween party with our friends the Wangsgards. It was definitely the best one yet. We had a great time with all of our friends who are awesome and willing to dress up and even play silly Halloween games. To help our friends from feeling silly hanging out in costumes, we try to set the mood right.

I think this was by far our best party yet. I'll just say that the decor took more than one day to accomplish and leave it at that. Keep in mind that these things look much scarier in candle light and strobe lights (instead of the camera flash).

Each of these jars had an object with a label like you would find in a witches lair. We had anice as a goblins heart, red pepper flakes as scabs, dried apricots as tongues of virgins, a veiny cabbage as a human brain, a large aloe leaf as an alligator tail- shrunken skeletons, severed hands, zombie teeth, dragon eyeballs, pygmy skull, maggots... all kinds of delicious ingredients a witch would store.

The entrance set the mood with the fog machine and witches cauldron. We also used our cut out mice running up the stairwell and lots and lots of bats hanging from the ceiling and up on the walls.

Severed head as a delicious main course. We also made the cupcakes and bony finger pretzels. Our friends brought their favorite Halloween treats to share and we all enjoyed lots of delicious snacks.

Every year we have a costume contest by popular vote, so here are this year's amazing costumes and the winner in each category:

Mario, Luigi and Toad

Bonnie, Patrick and Owen

** Best in Show **

(We were finally able to dethrone the Wangsgards for the Best in Show award. I've figured out the secret ingredient; a cute kid incorporated into your theme. Since they sent theirs to bed and ours stayed up a little longer... I think we got a (totally fair) advantage. I sewed these costumes, including the overalls, the little vest and hat for Owen)

Peter Pan, Captain Hook and a Little (not so sleepy) Pirate

Kate, Logan and Soren

** Best Couples Costume**

(Our amazing co-hosts who generously let us trash their house each year. Soren says: "arrrgh!" and "On guard!" )

Chilean Miners

Jhordan and Shawn

** Runners up Best in Show **

Aang and Katara from The Last Airbender

Andrew and Gwen

** Best Character Representation **

(PS- Gwen sewed every piece of these costumes)

Adam and Eve

Marci and Adam

** Most Fitting Costume **

Captain Ahab and Moby Dick

Max and Elizabeth

** Most Improved **

(Max's commitment to the Ahab costume included shaving off his mustache.)

Insane Clown Posse

Courtney and Quinn

** Scariest Costume **

Jellyfish

Sharon and Seth

** Most Creative **

(These amazing jellyfish costumes glowed with portable christmas lights. They were seriously impressive)

Dan and Lisa

Lisa and Dan

** Funniest Costume**

Pac Man and Ghost

Aubrey and Stuart

** Judges Choice **

(We added this category this year because there were so many times where someone got a lot of votes across the board, but they didn't dominate in any one category. These homemade and creative costumes deserved all the credit)

Princess Bubblegum and Finn the Human from "Adventure Time"

Amelia and Barry

** Most Obscure **

(Amelia also sewed most of this costume and made bubble gum pink hair out of something like 1000 feet of pink yarn. Amazing)

Todd and Data from Goonies

Whitney and Josh

Double Rainbow as seen on You Tube

Lyndsay

iPhone and iPad

Tina and Dan

iPhone commercial

Gwen

Knives Chau and Todd Ingram from Scott Pilgram vs The World

Eunice and Peter

Ramona Flowers and Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Marina and Christian

Mondo from Project Runway

Rhonda

Napolean Dynamite and Christine O'Donnell

Clark and Melissa

Aren't our friends amazing and creative? We had a blast at our third annual Halloween party!

10 points for the best costume suggestions

2010-10-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

I have Halloween on the brain. I found these beauties at Payless. I'm not sure why anyone would wear them as anything but a costume, but who knows?

"Get the Gatsby"

2010-10-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

tufts 10k

2010-10-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things that are not anywhere on my 'bucket list'. One of those things is running a race of any kind. I've never had any desire to do it. Why? Because I hate running. It has never been easy for me. Even when I was in the best physical shape of my life - playing multiple sports in high school - I hated running. And if I'm being honest, I've never ran more than one mile consecutively. Which is why I greatly surprised myself when I agreed to do this 10k with a group of my friends.

We ran together weekly for a few months. At first, I was literally pushing myself to run for one minute (try it - it's harder than you think if like me, you don't exercise on a regular basis). Then we were up to three minutes. Then running a full mile. Each week we ran around our beautiful city together along the river for about 4 miles. I was never one of the fastest runners but I got better and better as we kept at it. And I love the feeling of satisfaction that I can run that far.

My running/jogging/walking buddy Kate and I at the finish line. Luckily we had each other to do lots of gym swaps during the day (while the other watched our kids) and to keep ourselves distracted from the physical effort and our hiney's moving when we ran together.

Patrick and Owen waiting for me at the finish line. I finished in 1 hour and 14 minutes which is faster than I thought I would do when I first signed up. My only goal was to finish this race and I was fairly impressed that it ended up being not as difficult for me as I imagined it would be when I first committed to this.

Although it didn't work it's magic for everyone in our group, I feel like I did get a little extra boost from all the race-day energy. When you have 8,200 women running with you, there's a lot of positive energy floating around. I won't lie and say it was easy - there was a lot of work that went into this and still a fair amount of walking during the race, but I'm so glad I did it.

Even though running hasn't become my new favorite activity, I definitely appreciate how good it feels to know that I can do it. And honestly, I most appreciate being back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have a few more pounds to go to my ideal weight and I plan to keep up the exercise. My next goal is to run (no walking) an entire 5k at Thanksgiving. I'll let you know how that goes.

And lastly, my littlest fan sitting on the 'Make Way for Ducklings' statue at the Public Garden after the race.

Apple Picking

2010-10-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

I love fall in New England. It's a season I entirely missed growing up in Alaska. It's so beautiful with the turning leaves and the crisp air. I love wearing sweaters, jeans and scarves, boots, jackets and even hats. I love the approaching holidays and the feeling of freshness in the air.

Very near the top of that list is apple picking

This was Owen's first orchard experience and he LOVED the apples. He got really upset when we took away his apple to suck on.

We went to a cute little orchard called Carver Hill that wasn't crowded at all. The weather was absolutely perfect and the apples were delicious. We had apple cider and apple cider donuts. We had great company too.

Since then, we've been able to enjoy apple pie, apple crisp, apple bars and just plain apples.

Big E Fair

2010-10-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

We spent a wonderful Saturday together last week at the Big E fair. It was about an hour and 45 minute drive that took an extra half hour due to fair traffic, but it was worth it! It was like going to a huge county fair (or state fair if you're from Alaska).

There were animals and fried foods, a ferris wheel and a marti gras parade - what more could you ask for?

As it got late, we let Owen sleep in the carrier and watched a few more fun things. We also indulged with some deep fried cheesecake...

The BMX Stunt show was one of my unexpected favorite things because of this view:

There were about a dozen little boys sitting on their dad's shoulders so they could see the bike stunts. How cute is that? Overall a very great day at the fair.

baby adventures: 7 months

2010-09-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since a real post. Shortly after Owen's half birthday party he had his official 6 month check up. His six month stats are:

Height 28.5" (95th%)

weight 17lbs 8oz (43%)

head 46cm (93%)

So we're on to month 7.

What has month 7 brought? Firstly, teething. The face of which is not pretty. But Owen now has two teeth!

His sitting has gotten really good.. Yay! We just put a little bucket of toys in front of him and he goes to town. He's also been talking alot, mostly saying da da da. Which of course Patrick thinks is dadda :) We're still working on solid foods, but he only really loves Auntie Meg's soup. Everything else gets a sealed lips and serious skepticism.

He doesn't have another check up until month 9, so there won't be any official weigh-ins until then. He is an incredibly well tempered little guy and is in a fun stage where he smiles at people and doesn't mind being held by anyone. He's still able to fall asleep in strange places which allows us some freedom to go out on the weekends or to restaurants. Unfortunately, it's ridiculously difficult to get him to act normal when the camera comes out, so you don't get to see any smiles or teeth. We'll work on getting a good shot for next time!

Blug: broken scale

2010-09-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Twitter: Tweet as Blogger: Blug

Here's my blug: Nobody wins when your scale only moves in 5 pound increments.

Gaining weight?. If you have been warned at say +1 maybe you would have skipped the next ice cream Sundae. Now you're 5 pounds heavier.

Losing weight? "I just ran 10 miles this week, why haven't I lost any weight!!?" So demotivating:

Reality Check: Down another 5 pounds! Only three weeks until the big 10k. Okay that's it. And if you were expecting more from a blug, now you know better.

Halfy Birthday Owen

2010-08-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well Owen has officially turned 6 months old. Before we get to the official party stuff, here's what we've been up to: A second Red Sox Game with Patrick's company.

A weekend walk into town to dip our toes in the Frog Pond.

We finally got to Saturday and the big HALF birthday party! We invited some friends to hang out and celebrate with us at a park near our house. Unfortunately, Patrick and the guest of honor got a flat tire right before the party and were about an hour and half late. So we killed the time with some foot ball and jump ropes from the dollar store.

When they finally arrived, we did the half cake and icecream. I made an actual half cake but it sort of fell apart on the way to the park so I ran to the grocery store and bought this one! The one I made tasted better at least :)

Our friends were good sports and participated in a half themed gift exchange. Some items included a half dozen black and white cookies, half made cookies (dough), a bag of red vines (half black, half white), half sized/used notebooks, a half dozen donuts, a flyswatter (half flower, half death), a 50% cocoa baking bar, candy bars that came in twos (kit kat, reeses)... you get the idea. Thanks guys! You're good sports.

What has the little man of honor been up to lately?

He's working on his sitting, eating bananas, rice cereal and avocados. Kicking around in circles in his crib at night. He's getting really good at his grabbing and fine motor skills. Growing lots of reddish hair. Getting all kinds of compliments from strangers and smiling and flirting all the time. I can't believe it's already been six months since he came into our lives.

Halfy Birthday Owen!

I love being featured

2010-08-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

So I just found something that made my day! I got 75 visitors to my etsy shop from this website and went to check it out. A blogger on babycenter.com featured my bird mobile in her post titled "Baby Gifts that Make You Look Good". How cool is that? My mobile picture is her lead photo and it has a link to my shop.

Fun surprise, huh? I've had 17 sales so far and I'm seriously having fun with this. I like filling my down time with creative stuff and I like making money too... Is it weird that even though I'm not making anywhere near my salary when I was working full-time, it's more meaningful income to me?

And a quick plug for google analytics: This program is so cool - it tells me who visited my site, for how long, if they're a repeat visitor, how many items they looked at, what keyword search they used or what site they came from. I bet if I asked it would tell me what they're wearing.... or is that creepy? Anyway, it's amazing. That's how I knew 75 people had clicked to my shop from this site. It's also how I know what advertising I'm using is working (or not). Love it.

Okay - I'm done.

Brought to you by the letter R

2010-08-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Red Sox

Owen went to his first Red Sox game this weekend. I'll admit I spent most of the game trying to shield him from the ridiculously hot sun, and then nursing him in the family room and then trying to get him to stay asleep despite the noise, but the ending made it all worth it! Big hit, run three guys in - win by 1 point in the 9th inning. Amazing. Afterward we went to Spikes, our favorite (veggie) dog joint. A pretty good first game.

Rice Cereal

We've been holding off on this big step, but finally decided Owen was ready for his first solid food.

In case you missed the best shots from the video:

looks like dad is ready for some food too...

Rolling Over

Owen rolled over from his back to his tummy sort of suddenly this last week. I sent Patrick a text at work to tell him and he asked why I didn't also send a picture... well I didn't take a picture. But if I had it would have looked a lot like this.

Brought to you by the letter R.

lately...

2010-07-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

So I have not been good and blogging lately. All of my spare time is taken up by making bird mobiles for my etsy shop - which I enjoy and is going well. But it doesn't leave much time for blogging. So here's a bunch of fairly random photos and happenings from my life.

I heard that you can put a young kiddo into a swing and they'll stay in there. Well it's true. Here's Owen enjoying his first swing. Enjoying might be a strong word- I don't think it was any different to him than any other way of being held, but it was awfully cute to me.

My favorite view of my baby and Daddy singing "Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.". Okay that's the last of the cute Owen pictures. I just love seeing him growing and happy. What can I say?

So I recently went on a fun bike ride with some girl friends along the Charles River. It was perfect weather and greatcompany! I haven't been on a bike in probably 7 years. But it is just like they say- it's like riding a bike. Can you use a cliche to describe the activity you're actually doing? Maybe I could think of something baseball related... nope. It really is Like riding a bike.

I love sitting and watching all the sail boats in the river. It really is such a beautiful city. Everything was great, the only casualty was me... I got edged off the path by some pedestrians and scraped my arm and hand against a stone wall. The road rash is almost completely gone though so I call it a successful ride.

A not so new project that I finished up a little while ago was curtains for our bedroom and for Owen's. I was inspired to start this project when I found the awesome fabric for our bedroom curtains on super sale. Then there was a half off sale on black-out lining. I started tackling this project when my mom came to visit and got all the panels cut out and ironed and some of the sewing done. I eventually finished up the sewing and hemming and added in the hanging grommets and voila!

The "before" of our bedroom:

(what was I thinking with the lime green walls and red curtains?)

And after:

Much better right? I didn't have quite enough of the fabric to make all four panels, so I added this blue stripe on the top. I think it worked our really nicely. The real finishing touch for me was when I decided to hem the bottom edge with some pre-made binding in the same navy blue color. It adds a nice sense of balance to the curtain and saved me from having to do more sewing since I used iron on hemming tape. Each panel is lined with black-out fabric so we get a lot less light in our room in the morning.

Owen's room. I didn't take a before- there just weren't any curtains. I did install these wood blinds as part of our nursery decor, but no curtains until now:

Here's a close-up of the grommets I used to hang them. Pretty fancy, I think.

And lastly- let's see who makes it all the way through this post. I've decided to run this 10k . AHHH! It's true. I have never in my entire life run 6.2 miles at once, and here I go anyway. What happened to a nice, relatively easy 5k?

The race is on October 11th so I have 10 weeks left of training time to get into shape for this. I've already started running about 2 miles (the use of the word 'running' here means jog/walking) every other day. And I've downloaded a trainer onto my phone so I'm totally set - right? I can't believe I'm doing this! But I am excited.

I know this will help jump-start getting rid of the baby weight and the run should be pretty fun since like 10 of my friends are doing it too. I'm secretly hoping I'll somehow start to love running so I can be fit and runner-esque. But... I doubt that will really happen. Now that I've put it on the blog it's official. I have to run. Wish me luck in training.

beautiful veggies

2010-07-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

So I was making dinner the other night and realized how amazing the food prep looked.I didn't do any staging, I promise! I love the vibrant colors and freshness. It always makes me happy when I put out dinner with a wide range of colors on my plate.

This summer we've joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group. Every week we pick up our fresh, local and sustainably grown organic veggies. It makes us eat better and supports good practices. And I get to figure out how to use new and strange veggies. PS: kale is good.

On a related note, I have discovered a new, easy food. You know how there's a short (very short) list of foods that you can just whip up, no big deal? My list includes basically chocolate chip cookies and spaghetti. Patrick's is waffles, pancakes, puffy pancake, french toast and cinnamon rolls. Well, I just added on another item: biscuits. They are SO easy.

Here's the recipe out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook for the drop biscuits which are way simpler than rolling and cutting.

Baking Powder Biscuits
Makes 12

1/2 C Butter (the recipe calls for shortening, I've modified it for butter)
2 C flour
1 TBS sugar
3 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt (1 tsp if using shortening)
1 C milk (I used soy milk and it's great)

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees. Mix softened (not melted) butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves sides of bowl (will be soft and sticky). Drop 12 large spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

I made buttermilk biscuits and then buttermilk biscuits with fresh blueberries. (Patrick made buttermilk pancakes to use of the rest of the milk!) Here's the alteration for buttermilk biscuits.

Decrease baking powder to 2 tsp and add 1/4 tsp baking soda. Substitute buttermilk for milk.

Sorry no picture, they didn't sit around long enough to snap one! Just imagine it instead - warm, delicious biscuits with a little butter and a dollop of apricot preserves. Mmmmmm.

Etsy

2010-07-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

I got so many compliments on my bird mobile that I made for Owen that I decided to take a shot at selling them. So I've opened up an etsy shop (yes, again). But this time it's working out great. It's really filling my need to be crafty and I can do it in my 'down' time. So here it is:

I've already had four sales and it's been really fun to do. I just invested in some Amy Butler fabrics (which are SO cute) and those designs and more pictures will be coming soon. I'm learning a lot of stuff as I go along. If you're in the market for a mobile, check out my shop: www.babybubbo.etsy.com

Baby Adventures: 4 months

2010-07-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a little bit longer than four months, but what can I say? We've been busy.

Owen had his four month check up and here are his official stats: 26.5 inches tall (89th percentile), 14 lbs, 10 oz (35th percentile) and 43.7cm head circumference (79th percentile). So in summary he's tall and skinny like his dad and has a big head like me.

He's reached all kinds of developmental milestones and each one sort of surprises me because he just does it out of the blue. He's sucking his thumb and grabbing toys. He likes to experience everything with his mouth and is chewing whatever he can get in there. He loves to hold his toes in his hands but can't quite get them into his mouth. He's laughing and smiling at people all the time and is a very happy baby.

I took these photos a little bit ago because he is wearing the one thing I allowed myself to purchase before I got pregnant. I thought this was pretty good self control since this encompasses a three year span of time. These were just too cute to pass up. I think Owen does them justice.

I may actually have a small obsession with his feet...

On a side note: "NOT THE FLASH, MOM!"

He still loves his changing table and things it's super hilarious when I wipe him during a diaper change. I try not to think that he is laughing at me because I have to wipe his bum. He is super happy when I get him after a nap. It's so adorable how his eyes light up and he smiles every time I come in to rescue him from his swaddle. He gets attacked with kisses every time.

And lastly, Future Best Buds:

Right now their relationship consists of me trying to keep Gatsby from sitting or jumping on Owen, and Gatsby sniffing out anything near Owen's mouth to make sure he shares any food. He's always interested in the pacifier. But you can just tell it's BFFs in the making.

Firsts

2010-06-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

First Quilt
For my dad for Father's day, I decide to make a picture quilt. I knew he'd really like this gift and it would be something extra special to help him through a rough time with chemo. Unfortunately, I decided this about two weeks before Father's day and have never made a quilt before. After getting everyone's buy in (and financial support) I got all the materials and shopped, cut fabric, ironed on pictures and sewed, sewed, sewed like a crazy lady! In reality, I think Owen really paid the price here, but he was really patient with me. My dad really loved the quilt and that made it all worth it.

First Plane Ride and Camping Trip
So this month has been crazy!! We spent a week in Utah celebrating Patrick's mom's wedding and visiting with family. Happily this overlapped with Father's Day and we got to spend that time with my dad. I was nervous about taking Owen on a plane (especially for the red-eye portion of our flight), but he did awesome. We got more than one comment on how good he was. He was also a champion sleeper the whole time in Utah. I think the combination of 17 other kids running around and the higher altitude tired him out.

The camping trip was a fun Donigan sibling event. We were a bit nervous about taking a four month old into Logan canyon overnight but we bundled him up before it got too cold and layered everything and he did really good. I think he ended up with five layers including his swaddle and a blanket and a hat and gloves. His toes were still a bit cold the next morning, but he slept almost through the entire night.

Baby's Firsts
The other day I went in to get Owen from his nap and had a serious double take moment. He was turned 90 degrees off from the way I had put him down. Considering he hasn't ever rolled, I was very confused for a second there. I thought 'there's no way I put him down like that' and came to the conclusion he must have twisted himself that direction. Since then, he's shown some more skill at rolling - he lifts his legs up to his belly and then flops them down off to the side making himself rotate a little bit.

The other day Patrick was playing Mario Bros on the Wii and I put Owen down on his stomach for some tummy time in front of the TV. For the first time EVER Owen found something worth the effort to lift his head up to 90 degrees so he could watch. Guess he is his father's son after all.

Videos of Owen

2010-06-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to connecting my iphone to a computer and downloaded the pictures and videos. We've posted pictures of Owen before, but I don't think we've posted any videos. Here's a couple.

This first one is the first video we took of Owen. I'm not sure how old he was, but I'm guessing about 3 weeks. He isn't doing much, but is super cute.

The second one is more recent, probably around three months. We have a bunch of videos like this where we try to capture him laughing. He will sometimes laugh harder than this, but he always stops when we pull out the iphone.

Enjoy.

Patrick

What a Consultant Does on a Slow Day

2010-06-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a relatively slow week at work this week, so what did I do with some of my down time? Check blogs, sports scores etc. Sure, there was some of that, but I’ve been really curious about how household spending has changed over time. I am most interested in how it has changed since WWII, but I could only find data since 1984. My hypothesis was that as food and products are cheaper, people take those dollars and spend them on housing, health care, and education. We’ll see if that’s true.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does an annual survey on consumer spending. I’m not sure I trust the numbers because I found some strange anomalies in the macro data (ie tax as a percent of income has gone from 11% to 2%? How is that possible?), but I hope the household expense data is decent.

The first 2 charts show household spending in 1984 and 2008. Not surprisingly spending on housing has gone up from 32% to 36%, food and apparel have gone down, insurance and health care have gone up. It should be noted that Housing here includes everything from rent to cleaning supplies. Given that, it’s not as high as I would have thought. Shelter, ie rent or mortgage interest, is only 23%. This is also as a percentage of expenditure, not income, so as a percent of income it is even lower. I found a few other things surprising. Education spend seems really low. Transportation seems high. Health care seems low.

The other way to look at this, which I find even more interesting, is the change in spending since 1984. The way to read this chart is spending on the category is X times greater in 2008 than it was in 1984. For example, total expenditure is 2.2 times more today than it was in 1984. This is in nominal terms, so the 2.2 can be viewed as an index with the things falling below it as shrinking as a percentage of our expenses and the things above it growing as a percentage of our expenses. Here, education shows up as the fastest growing expenditure, despite the previous observation that it is a very small percentage of spending. Insurance, housing, health care and entertainment are the other categories that are growing as a percentage of expenses. I find it funny that A. reading is a category and B. our spending on reading has actually shrunk in nominal terms relative to 1984. So we are spending a lot more on education and a lot less on books. Hmm.

Anyway, I guess I mostly confirmed my hypothesis that people are spending more on housing, health care, and education and less on food and apparel, but to a much lesser degree than I would have thought. I’m sure if you went back farther the contrast would be much more striking.

Beach Tuesday

2010-05-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I just want to start this post by saying how much I love that I can go to the beach on a Tuesday during the middle of the day! hah. This is awesome. Okay, thanks. That's all the rubbing in I'm going to do.

Here's me, Owen, Soren and Charlotte hanging out under the shady umbrella today at Revere Beach.

Owen took a long nap in the shade while the older kids played in the sand and water. We bought this sound machine that plays imitation ocean wave noises while he sleeps, so I'm not too surprised he nodded off listening to the real ocean tides. His little hands and feet looked so sweet. I couldn't resist taking some pictures while he was sleeping.

Charlotte and Soren looked so cool in their beach outfits.

I wasn't sure if the mommas would want me to post any pictures of them in their suits, so here's a long distance shot of them and their kiddos playing in the shallow water.

It was a beautiful 90 degree day. I've been waiting for months to head out to the beach! What a great first trip of the season.

Grandma Katie's visit

2010-05-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

I really have so many things I haven't blogged about..including the second annual swap party. Guess when you're having too much fun you forget to take actual pictures. I guess I'll sum it up with: it was fun, my friends are awesome and a lot more talented with martini glasses than last year. And I picked up a few new clothing items.

My mom came to visit us a few weeks back. We had a great visit. Owen just adored her and would stare at her and track her movements around the room. My theory is that he thought she was another me. He was so relaxed with her and would constantly fall asleep on her. She brought some amazing handmade wooden toys for Owen that she found in a consignment store. They are all trucks and cars, which I like to imagine some dad making with his son in their woodshop (sad that someone gave up these treasures though!)

I'm not sure if the scale is easy to tell in these pictures- these are very large toy trucks. I love how they are so detailed and well put together with moving parts like the wheels and the bed of the dump truck which lifts up. I know Owen will love them!

Grandma Katie also got us a much loved rocking chair. We made a special trip to find one, and knew we found the right, Owen (and Grandma) approved chair when this happened:

My mom was an amazing help. I thought I had this baby thing down after three months, but it was so nice to have her here to help out with the baby and with cleaning and cooking and letting me get some projects done. We also managed a few fun things like a walking tour of the freedom trail with one of those dressed up period guides and some shopping. My mom was also told at least eight times by different folks that she didn't look old enough to be my mother. I tried to help ensure her humility by telling her that this was probably because I look so old, not that she looks young. I don't think she bought it.

Thanks for everything mom!

After Grandma left, I was in a toy store and saw the cutest magnetic train letters, but they were $6 each!! I even had a little conversation with my friend about how easy it would be to make them on your own. A few days later, .I was wandering through Michaels and ran across the exact same thing for just .99 cents each! How cute are these letters? I haven't yet decided if I will paint them (like the ones in the store) or leave them plain (like the toy cars and trucks my mom got us).

I'm famous!

2010-05-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

My upholstered chair and bird mobile were featured on a friend of mine's design blog, Little Green Notebook. (Follow the link if you want to check it out)

I've been loving her blog ever since I discovered it, and it was the inspiration for deciding to tackle my own chair. While I researched and delayed, my more adventurous friend Kate decided to do her own chair and after shopping with her, I was fully inspired. Check out Kate's great chair here.

If you like design, you should peruse The Little Green Notebook. It's great! She has a ton of DIY projects and inspirations.

Baby Adventures: 10 weeks. Subtitle: a momentous day

2010-05-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day. First we had Owen's '2 month' pediatrician visit where he got three shots. I think I was more anxious about it than it actually hurt him. I have to say that although it was a close call, I didn't cry. When the hysterical crying started, I think I went into crisis mode. I'm very calm in crisis mode.

I was prepared with a bottle- because he won't nurse when he's that upset and luckily with a little soothing and the bottle, he fell into slumber. I pushed my luck and then went shopping on the way home and ended up with an even more hysterical baby while I was trapped in the driver's seat on the way home. THAT was not fun and nearly brought me to tears. On the way home, I decided those yellow caution signs you see hanging in rear windows that say "Baby on Board" are not a warning for other drivers to be careful- it's actually a warning that the driver of this car may be suffering from crying-child-crazy-parent-itis and may be driving recklessly (say reaching one hand behind them in search of a binky burried in a diaper bag or swerving through traffic as to reach their destination as fast a possible. hypothetically.). Good thing I don't have one of those signs to tip others off.

So the 10 week stats are:70th% for height (24"), 39th% for weight (12 lbs 1 oz), and 82nd% for head size (a whopping 42cm). He has the big Pontius head after all. Too bad. But it looks like so far he has the Donigan tall, skinny gene. Daddy is proud.

Do you see what's missing here? An adult hand. He's been getting really good at getting his hands to his mouth and loves to suck on them. When there's a bottle in the way sometimes he just props it up all by himself!

On the subtitle note: Today was a momentous day because I have officially told my work that I'm not returning full time. I have agonized over this decision. I've weighed pros and cons and pro-cons and con-pros. I've thought about the utils (shout out to Matt) from work and from staying home. The social statement I am or am not making, the expectations of family, church, work and self. And it finally came down to this: I like being at home with Owen. I think this will make me happiest. I feel so fortunate to be able to make this decision based on what makes me the happiest. I also feel gratitude that I have a husband that is completely supportive of whatever I want to do. I think he'd even stay home with Owen if I'd give up first dibs.

flax seed

2010-04-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

I bought a gigantic bag of milled flax seed from Costco the other day because it was a good price for even a small sized bag. I figured I could share it with friends. It's supposed to have excellent health benefits and is a good substitute for eggs in many recipes. You can just sprinkle it on most anything you're already going to eat.

Here's a link to some of the benefits, which they think include positive effects on metabolism, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, acne, eczema, psoriasis and hormone imbalances.

So the downside is that it goes bad quickly. If you would like me to send you some, please leave a comment with your mailing address or email me.

Happy Health!

photoshoot

2010-04-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

We did a little photo shoot with Owen. If you want to see all the pictures they're here.

Special thanks to Kate for the awesome pictures and her offer to do the photo shoot in her house where the sun actually shines. Here's a shot with their adorable son Soren. He's created a new nick name for baby Owen - "B. Owen " as in "There's Bonnie and B. Owen!"

Baby Blessing

2010-04-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

In our faith tradition, it is customary for the father to bless his new infant in church. Typically this blessing is a father's priesthood blessing accompanied by other male relatives and close friends. Since most of our family is far away, and with Patrick's permission, I want to share the very touching blessing he gave our son last Sunday, April 4th. Patrick put a lot of thought and feeling into the blessing, and one sleepless night wrote out what he wanted to say. Although it's not an exact transcript, it's pretty close.

Owen Edward Donigan, you are the product of a lot prayer, fasting, trials, and faith. For years, many people both in the this room and across the country have been praying and hoping for your safe arrival. As a result you have been brought into a family that not only has great love for you but also a strong feeling of humility and gratitude. I bless you that you will take that humble gratitude with you throughout your life. That you will realize that for the most important things in life we are entirely dependent on God. And though you should work hard and strive for them, ultimately the important things in life are gifts and blessings that are expressions of your Father in Heaven’s love for you.

I also bless you that you will take the abundance of love that there is for you and seek to share it with those less fortunate than you are. That you will find people who need love and service and serve them and love them. That you can be a blessing to those who are in greatest need.

Owen, you come from a wonderful heritage from both the Donigan and Pontius sides of your family. I bless that you will have the childlike curiosity of your paternal grandfather. That in your early years, you will excel in your studies and have an affinity for your education. I bless you that this love for learning will continue throughout your life, that you will never stop seeking to open your mind and broaden your understanding.

I bless you with the patience and long-suffering of your paternal grandmother. That you will learn to thoughtfully respond rather than react to the world around you. That like her, you will love others without judgment or expectation.

From the Pontius side, I bless that you will inherit the passion and creativity of your grandfather. That you may have the musical and artistic talents that will bring you and those around you joy. And that you will be able to apply that passion and creativity to all aspects of your life; your career and your relationships.

And from your grandmother I bless that you will have the ability to internalize emotion. That in times of trial or suffering, you will be able to have empathy and be a support to those who are in need of comfort. That you will be particularly mindful of people in their greatest time of need. Equally important, I bless you that in times of joy, you will be a fun-loving person that can celebrate and enhance the happiness of those around you.

Lastly, and most importantly, I bless that you will build a strong, close, and loving relationship with your Father in Heaven. That He, through the Holy Ghost, will be your constant companion, counselor and guide. That you will seek Him out always, that you will hear His voice, and listen to His words.

reminiscing...

2010-04-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

Family

Friends

Adventures

Love

karate baby

2010-03-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

The last week has been awful. I got a nasty 24 hour stomach virus that completely laid me out. Patrick has been slammed at work and not able to be home, and then of course when I got better, Owen got sick. I have to say, now that he's all better, I can REALLY appreciate how wonderful he normally is.

Oh and a really big shout out to my friend Kate who took care of me when I was about to die. really. Without the medicine, saltines and gatorade she brought me, I'd have been a goner.

And keeping with my theory that pictures of Owen are always best... Owen's already advanced in his Karate class. Check out his moves:

baby adventures: 4 weeks

2010-03-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

It seems so crazy that it's already been a month since we brought Owen home with us. Things have been going really well. I feel like he's changing so quickly already. I'm trying not to be one of those people whose blog turns into a recurring update about their child, but you're going to have to hang in there with me because right now, my life revolves around the moods of an 8 pound baby.

The last week has been a bit harder - Owen is not sleeping well and is keeping me up with him. To illustrate with pictures, I'd like to share the following collage of our nap time routine which repeats about every 2 hours. Starts on the top left and goes roughly clockwise. Enjoy!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2010-03-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

no refunds, no exchanges

2010-03-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

The other night Patrick was changing Owen's diaper when his umbilical cord stump fell off. Patrick said "Guess there's no returning him now that the tag's off."

I thought that was pretty clever for 3am.

It does seem like he's already changing so fast. He officially broke the 8lbs mark this week. He's still an amazing kiddo... good eater, good sleeper, good pooper. Those are his official duties right?

I have graduated to one pair of my non-maternity jeans (they are really my fat jeans, but I think it counts for something), have managed to shower every day, went on my first solo outing with the babe and even did a no-baby outing for a ward charity auction while Patrick stayed home with Owen.

So I got a few comments that there are no pictures of me in my latest blogs. I have to admit I pretty much didn't like any of the pictures of me from the hospital although people told me I don't look like I just went through labor and delivery... but still I think they're pretty bad pictures. In a show of extreme humility, I'll post some now...

I know that I must be biased, but I think our kiddo is just the cutest thing that ever came to Earth. I love all his little expressions and how alert he is. I also love that he thinks that Patrick drumming on rock band and my music playlist is soothing and it helps him drift off to sleep.

And because no post is complete without the much cuter pictures of Owen...

see what I mean? This is the cuteness I get to adore every day. love it.

baby adventures: 2 weeks

2010-03-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying the last two weeks with baby Owen and Patrick all cozied up in our house. It's been a really good couple of weeks. Owen is a really sweet baby. He hardly ever cries and when he does he's quickly soothed. Despite a rough start in the hospital, he's a champ eater too. We've been getting sleep in 2-3 hour stretches, but apart from that first night at home, it feels manageable. He is very alert, but not fussy. And from minute one has been able to get his hands directly to his mouth for some comfort sucking. I love it when he grabs onto my pinkie finger when I'm using it as a pacifier.

Our friends have been taking very good care of us - visiting us in the hospital,, watching Gatsby, setting up a welcome at our house and bringing us meals every day for the last two weeks. Patrick has had the last two weeks off from work and that has also been amazing. I don't know how I would have handled that first week at home by myself. He heads back to work on Monday and I'll be doing my first week all by myself- which I'm a bit nervous about. Hopefully everything will still go great.

Owen has already had four visits to the pediatrician since he lost more than 10% of his body weight in his first week. But as of Thursday he has surpassed his 7lbs birth weight and is now a whopping 7lbs 9oz. This means we got the go ahead to let him sleep 5-6 hours at night without waking him up to feed him- yes!! He already looks bigger and chubbier to me.

I think we've both come to accept that Owen is (so far) a Pontius baby. He looks just like me as a baby - blonde hair, blue eyes, nose... it's all there. Patrick's consolation is that he already seems to have the Donigan height. Another bonus ... he is lacking the Pontius big head gene (thank goodness). I'm sure more Donigan traits will show up. His current stats are 50th percentile for head size(36.5cm), 25th percentile for weight (7.9 lbs) and 60th percentile for height (54cm).

I'm hoping you can guess which one is me as a baby - but just in case, I'm in the bonnet. It's not a very clear picture of Owen, but I think you can see the resemblance best in this photo.

We've already experienced all kinds of fun miles stones like his first sponge bath, and the first pull-over-your-head style onesie, first finger nail clipping, and the first panicked call to the pediatrician for apparently no reason. All fun things!

We are so happy to have this sweet little guy in our lives. We already love him so much and can't imagine our family without him.

Owen Edward Donigan

2010-02-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

We had our baby this morning at 8:04 am. After two weeks of mild contractions, the contractions started getting serious Friday morning at about 4 am. We had a doctors appointment at 8 am and they monitored things for a little while and sent us home. I went to work and Bonnie worked from home but continued to have moderate contractions every 5 minutes or so throughout the day. By the time I got home at about 6, things were looking pretty promising and after a call to the doctor we headed to the hospital at 7 pm. We were admitted into triage at about 7:30. At that point she was about 3.5 cm dilated and she walked through the contractions for about 2 hours at which point she decided she was ready for the epidural.

So we got a room, got an epidural and they told us to sleep if we could. After a long day and an epidural, we could. So we slept for about 2 hour intervals between check-ins until about 5 am at which point she was 9 cm dilated.

After 2 more hours and a little more sleep they came in and checked again and she was still 9 cm dilated and the baby was facing up, which they said is probably slowing things down and would make it more difficult to push. Fortunately after another 45 minutes they checked again and the baby was facing the right direction and things looked ready. Bonnie pushed for about half an hour before Owen was all the way out at 8:04 am.

The stats are: Weight 7 lbs, length 20.5 in. He came out a beautiful pinkish red with just a little bit of strawberry blonde hair. I've attached pictures so you can see how cute he is.

Bonnie and Owen are both doing well and are sleeping while I write this.

Patrick

Zen is the word

2010-02-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

So I keep delaying writing any other blogs because I haven't yet written about Patrick's birthday. For some reason I can't seem to blog about special events if I don't have pictures and I don't have any for his birthday. But we did have a party!! I promise. I'm not THAT lame. I'm thinking about what to do about this...But I'm going to put that on hold (and what a meanie I am because it's the big 3-0 and thus I feel like I should do something special for it) and write about other things while I have the motivation.

This is more of a journal entry than entertainment for ya'll, so sorry... Obviously the other big thing going on in our life is baby. I'm due on Monday, February 22nd. Four more days. I've been having consistent contractions for about 10 days now. Two saturdays ago, I was having fairly mild contractions that were hitting all the target numbers (5 mintues apart, last for 1 minute each, for an hour). I called the afterhours line at the doctor's office and by the time she consulted with the on call doctor and called me back with directions to head into the hospital to be monitored, they had stopped.

This continues on for the week until Thursday when I left work early with harder contractions. I went into the doctors office and was almost 1cm dilated, baby dropped, effaced - all that. Wow that was unexpected!

So over the weekend, I am getting painful enough contractions that I decide to work from home this week, feeling like a ticking time bomb and walking around to get things moving (a week early still). More contractions and a few days later we're instructed to head back into the doctor's office with our stuff for the hospital just in case. I'm still 1 cm dilated and a week until my due date -she proceeds to strip the membrane (TMI? Sorry) without asking me first and tells me the baby could be coming any day, but not to get my hopes up. Uh huh, right. So I'm thinking any time now. Got the hardest yet contractions that night until about 3am. Then nothing.

We had another dr appointment yesterday where they scared me by talking about going to the hospital for monitoring due to concern over baby's non-response to contractions (he was sleeping) and high blood pressure. More blood tests are done along with an additional visit for tomorrow instead of waiting until Monday for my already scheduled appointment.... what does that mean?! I have no idea. My reward for this visit? A $40 parking ticket for expired safety inspection tags. Oops. What I wanted was an 'early' labor and an end to these stupid contractions.

Having packed up the car twice now and feeling like I have to caveat every RSVP with an 'if I'm still here' explanation, I've come to a zen state. I'm going with my original assumption that this baby is NOT going to come before his due date on Monday. Like most other first time births, this one will be late, not early. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm also done with walking around like a crazy person, because it's just painful. If the contractions aren't doing anything, then I'm not going to purposefully bring them on. I'm going with naps instead. I had two today.

shopping

2010-02-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

This arrived in the mail today....

Which goes perfectly with this other thing we bought a few weeks ago....

But is not to be outdone by this (which I plan to buy soon)...

How fun is baby stuff !? I think I've found my new shopping addiction.

"A baby brings life new meaning..."

2010-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

My amazing friends threw me a fantastic baby shower last weekend. There were a lot of helpers, people who brought food and spent time planning. Most of the amazing work came from Kate. She came up with the cutest bird theme and a 'drink bar', baked, organized others, shopped for the group gift, and even dreamed about how she was going to get enough pitchers. She even let me have it at my house so I could show everyone my nursery and also not have to transport presents home afterward. Let's just start with the food....

And then don't forget about the amazing drinks. Every drink had a label and directions on how to mix it. There was fun glasses and fresh cut fruit, custom made bird stirrer sticks and fun straws - all were so cute. All the little details were perfect.

Now we should talk about the amazing friends who came to support me. There were so many people hanging out and helping and bringing food and gifts. It was so nice to share the celebration with such amazing people. We opened up the furniture arrangement and crammed as many chairs as possible into the space and still couldn't fit everyone- sorry to those who didn't have a chair. And also apologies for not getting a group picture.

And then of course we have a massive pile of presents.

And in case you think I wasn't there...

Last, but not least were the adorable favors. Thanks to the gals who put these cute and original chocolate covered nuts into individually made paper cones!! Notice also the little birdhouses covered in coordinating paper? Seriously. Amazing.

And last, I didn't get any pictures of this but there was a little bird cage with cute (theme-coordinated) papers to write baby advice for me and Patrick and also name suggestions. My favorite advice: "only other parents will appreciate poop stories. Remember your audience." My favorite 'name baby donigan' suggestions? You'll just have to wait and see...

Thank you to everyone who organized, participated, helped, gifted and loved us. We feel so lucky to have you in our lives.

nursery

2010-01-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

I spent a large amount of time stressing out about turning our back room into the baby's room. I like to call this period "Stressting" (instead of nesting). I scaled back some of my more grand plans -like adding a second paint color and installing chair railing - and ended up letting Patrick off the hook for all those things and left the room in it's original color. But I did accomplish a few of the things I really wanted in the room like this bird mobile (in my head this rhymes with Bat-Mobile).

The little birds were surprisingly easy to sew, and I finished them up while watching TV. Their bellies all have a different style fabric which you can maybe see if you look closely at the first picture. (Thanks to Nancy for the awesome fabric scraps the last time we visited Hawai'i). The hardest part, by far, was getting the twigs to balance mobile-style. You'd think this is a skill we all perfected in sixth grade, but I must have missed class that day. I got the idea online months ago and knew I wanted to make one for our nursery. The piece of framed artwork over the crib is something I picked up at a museum in London. It's a really beautiful and whimsical map of London with pictures of children's story book characters around the borders.

A few other fun projects around the room include installing new wooden blinds and the chair (See this post for the reupholstery details). We did some very careful furniture arrangement to fit in both the baby stuff and my new craft cabinet (downsized from the previous 6' craft table, storage bins and full sized shelf). I decided we still needed the shelf in the baby's room, but couldn't bring myself to tackle a paint job. Instead I lined it with some coordinating paper I picked up on clearance for $3.

What I love most about this room is the little meaningful things I was able to incorporate into the decor. I inherited several nick-nacks from my maternal grandfather when he passed away a few years ago and always knew they would be perfect for a son's room. The stage coach on the top shelf, the globe book ends and a couple of the smaller car coin banks all came from him. The quilt sampler on the wall was a wedding present from Patrick's aunt that I framed to match the London map and smaller prints of Van Gogh and Monet on the shelves. I even picked up a copy of Peter Rabbit fairy-tales which my grandma used to read to us as kids when we slept over at her house.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! I'm going to post about my amazing baby shower next which was a great motivation to get all this done in a timely manner.