365/52 week 27 (let's go with that)

i did a little math. my figuring came to this being the end of week 27.

then again, i was an english major.

and ... go:

henry's room has become mega lego land.

i went to basilica block party with sue. we saw ingrid michaelson, guster, two songs by v.v. brown, and bare naked ladies. in other words: the perfect day.

marc and i cleaned the garage. harper found three bags of stuffed animals that, ahem, mysteriously were trying to get donated. so now all those animals are in our sun room. in other words: not the perfect day.

henry went to a friend's house, so harper got to be in her own little world all morning.

the minis raced each other drinking shared a mint milkshake at red robin. wicked case of neck freeze times two.

summery, water-type playing with friends.

harper thought mario might like some company during his afternoon ritual neighborhood watch.

 

(and yes ... i'm pretty sure i missed a week somewhere. i bet i'll catch up in the fall when i take way more photos.)

 

ironic.

i was contemplating a post about next year's house, then opted against it because ... let's face it ... obsessing for the next nine months (we're down to NINE months!) probably isn't healthy. but then i visited one of my favorite inspiration blogs, urban farmgirl, and she's having a giveaway today from one of my favorite online stores for inspiration, white flower farmhouse, and suddenly, ironically, the universe made sense.

the topic on my brain this morning that i so swiftly swept under the rug? the kitchen. specifically? the back splash tile.

i've been going back and forth between inexpensive, versatile, dare-i-say the easy route, white subway tile for the backsplash ...

or something that would give the room a bit more pop, specifically, aqua glass subway tile ...

and i believe i've come to the conclusion that for me, aqua is a neutral. as much as i go back and forth between loving warm and cool colors, and as much as i like to change pillows, art, and accessories seasonally and plan to give the majority of the main floor of the house a white canvas, i think aqua would work beautifully. it will look equally lovely with red (as with the sign above) as it does with yellow, chocolate brown, charcoal gray, or orange. my possibilities with aqua are endless. and i'm leaning toward a milky olive/army green for the island, and it will be topped with brushed stainless steel, so the thought of those dreamy, watery tiles makes me happy happy happy.

and when i win (ahem) the giveaway at urban farmhouse, i'll get one of these dash and albert rugs from white flower farmhouse

and it will all come together! (before the kitchen ... and house ... actually ... come together.)

theoretically, you could also win the drawing if you leave a comment at urban farmgirl, and theoretically you could be entered more than once if you follow her blog or mention the giveaway on your own blog, but i highly discourage that.

;o)

365/52 week i'll-do-the-math-later

the 365/52 project is past the halfway mark at this point, but by how many weeks? three? i'll have it figured out before the recap of this past week. but first, a photo-heavy look at the three weeks preceding this last one ... because as god as my witness i WILL keep up with this thing!!! (and again, a strict adherence to truthful time line is a bit, well, fuzzy.)

 

harper takes a "max & ruby" break from her summertime activities of coloring and asking when her brother will get home from school.

 

doing the "last day of school" dance.

we're gonna paint the house. technically, we're gonna paint the house one shade darker than the gray on the left.

 

my violet gave me two little blooms.

 

mario looked noir.

 

harper got to feed her cousin. i told you about that in the last post.

one day the light was just right and i told harp i could see her brown stripes. she said, "take a picture," so i did. can you see her brown stripes?

adorable little vessels at my cousin luke's studio and gallery, mudlove. like 'em? stick around ... there's a giveaway coming up.

matt and my dad, celebrating their birthdays with first dessert at the boathouse. second dessert followed at matt & becca's house an hour later.

 

becca's belly's reaction to having just completed a sprint triathlon.

 

my cousin's stinkin' adorable little boy, moses.

 

harp said she "desperately need(ed) a foot bath!" after park camp. then she gave herself one.

 

boston. legal test kitchen. best. lobster. roll. ever.

 

peaceful, ethereal bird sculpture in the center of the spiral staircase at the marriott renaissance.

 

boston harbor and world trade center.

 

just me and him. and boston.

 

entertaining themselves for 30 mins at the carwash by transforming styrofoam cups into shrek ears.

 

looking off the back deck toward an amazing sunset.

harp picked out these mint things. then found this deformed one and demanded it have a photo shoot. she can be so weird sometimes.

 

she can also be quite adorable.

 

rain on the daisies.

 

and rain soaks the neighbor's trees.

 

and ... more rain for the daisies.

 

a sleepover takes control of the sun room.

i loved smith & hawken's honeysuckle jasmine scent because the honeysuckle reminds me of the hedges of honeysuckle at my grandma mary's house when i was a kid. so imagine my happiness when i found a candle of it at target the other day. then the check-out lady said, "oh, this scent reminds me of funerals!" huh. to each his own.

 

hey look! it's raining! again! and chipotle's cups predicted it!

 

the children, browsing barnes & noble.

with every new house that goes up near our lot, our lot suddenly feels smaller and smaller. hope the next-door neighbor leaves us some room.

saw these beautiful flowers at a restaurant and wanted to remember them for my next yard. coleus and lantana and petunias ... oh my!

 

okay ... glad that's done!!

 

until next time!

 

 

wyatt wyatt bo-byatt

god love him, he's just a peach.

a big, squishy, juicy, plump, delicious peach.

remember six months ago, when he was seven weeks early and scaring the pants off all of us? well, now he's all caught up and then some! he's *healthy* for a baby his age. he's DANG healthy for a baby of his adjusted age!

and how those rolls and smiles and fierce love of eating makes us all smile!

when we were in indiana, wyatt (and his mom and dad, of course) came over pretty much every day to hang out, have dinner, let us bask in the adorableness that is mr chunky monkey. the first full day that we were there, my grandma also came for the day, so my kids not only got some great-grandma mary time, but also got to meet their newest cousin. henry, ever the 10-year-old boy, said, "huh. ok." harper was much more impressed.

she even asked aunt becca very sweetly if she could please feed wyatt. and when he was laid on her lap, his head propped up, and his bottle in harp's eager little hand, she smiled very proudly and did her job well.

(and yes, wyatt's head is about as big as harper's. and look at those thighs!! obviously, feeding wyatt is not a battle; harper's confidence was definitely helped by wyatt's professionalism with a bottle.)

after he had his bottle and his cereal, it was time for a bath, and harper again eagerly offered to help.



the next few days with family were fun - hot, but fun, and on friday we drove to winona lake to celebrate both grandpa roush's and uncle matt's birthdays. after dinner, i grabbed my camera and did a little session with matt, becca, and wyatt.

at first, he was just a cutie patootie ...

then his inner cheekiness came out to play:

serious and smoldering ...

dreamy and introspective ...


philosophical and contemplative ...

bemused and a bit "you talkin' to me?" ...

we had a great time in the sunset, and wyatt was a true charmer.

and this? this face is so 100% our dad. though somehow it looks much less impish and much more amused on wyatt ...

and this one? i love how it ...


is just a six-months-later version of this:

this little guy was a fighter from the beginning, and it was so, so good to see him well and happy and healthy and just a sweet, sweet little guy. and i can't wait to see him (and his mom and dad, of course) again in a few weeks for the traditional roush family camping trip to michigan. this time, with spouses and a third generation instead of just the nucleus family.

i got sidetracked.

on the way to photos of wyatt and from our time in indiana, i got waylaid by yet more house-obsessing. this time the culprit is harper's room.

remember the photo of the day that showed her falling head-over-heels for an obnoxious a bright and cheery new bedspread?

well, i've been racking my brain, trying to find ideas that will allow her bedspread to be accepted enjoyed without overwhelming the central nervous system every time someone enters her room.

her room will be shaped like this:

pretty standard. but it's a good size, 14x13 (bigger than any bedroom she's ever had. heck, bigger than any bedroom any of us has ever had in any house ever.), and if that bedspread is going to dictate the space, i'll be darned if that room is going to be 182 sq ft of craziness.

so i came up with this little idea:

the plan for the house is lots and lots of white, and i'd like to use board and batten or v-groove wainscot anywhere i can. heck, i'd clad the ceilings in the entire house with tongue and groove boards if i could! for harper's room, it makes sense to do the white board and batten up her wall, about 2/3rds the height of the room. then add paint above that in the deep fuschia from the bedspread. color, without being COLOR. i truly love the green gingham sheets shown with the bedspread and might bite the bullet and order those (which, if i'm going to do that, it needs to be ASAP, hence the current premature obsession with this room). otherwise, i'll get plain white sheets and add a ribbon detail like on the lily pulitzer sheets. (because while i adore my daughter, she'll only be six when we move. she doesn't need $100 white sheets with green on the edge.)

this whole idea came together in my head when i became unshakably smitten with the white and green ro-sham-beaux pendant lamp. oh, how i love that little light and want it want it want it. however, at $300 for a 10" x 10" lamp, i highly doubt it will be for harp's room, even though it's perfect. but my crafty little head is thinking that an inexpensive light kit and drum shade decked out with some green trim or a pretty green fabric would do the trick. or maybe i could replace the shades on harper's old arstid wall lights from ikea and put them by her bed ... i have options.

i would really love to move her hemnes daybed into the guest room and replace it with two jenny lind beds, maybe painted black (i already have one from my parents that used to be my sister's until i got it for harper to use, then didn't because it was too big in her room ... mom, can i paint it black?), and find a little dresser to paint a pretty color and do this kind of thing:

(see? tongue and groove walls. i'm addicted.)

if i do that though ... i guess that means i need to buy another one of those bedspreads. and quite possibly this rug ...

sigh. make it stop.

one. more. year.

boston.

let me start by saying that of all the places i've ever been in my life, boston is in the top three. it's right up there with saugatuck, michigan, and rockland, maine.

lucky for me, red hat currently holds its annual summit in boston, which means once a year there's a possibility i can go and hang out. and that's just what i did two (three? has it been that long??) weeks ago. (if you want the cliff's notes version in photos, go here.)

marc and i flew out on a friday so we would have all of saturday through monday to hang out before his week of schmoozing and sitting in presentations started, and we had three days of awesome, fabulous, relaxing, fun quality time.

we didn't arrive until 3:30 p.m. on friday, thanks to a 90-minute delay in indianapolis, during which time marc worked (duh) and i read scout, atticus and boo: a celebration of 50 years of to kill a mockingbird. awesome book. once we landed and got to the renaissance hotel, we were starving, so we walked half a block to legal test kitchen and had what is probably the most amazing and delicious lobster roll either of us has ever had. we then returned to the room and promptly took a nap. when we woke up, we snuggled up to watch pirate radio (which was SO good. then again, how do you go wrong with philip seymour hoffman, bill nighy, and kenneth branagh, i ask you?), then at 10 p.m. decided to wander to the hotel restaurant, 606 congress, for what turned out to be a delicious meal: a perfect shrimp-and-avocado citrus salad, miso soup, seared char with morels, ramps, and fava beans for me, halibut with artichokes and asparagus for marc, followed by cranberry sorbet (mine) and pavlova with raspberries (marc's). delish. we rolled ourselves to the elevator and called it a night.

on saturday we decided to actually leave the hotel, which didn't, in fact, happen until about 11:30 (the bliss of being sans children!!). we walked to the wharf and had lunch at anthony's pier 4, which appears to be a national institution, given the amount of star power on the walls, photographed with anthony himself. politicians (think kennedys), celebrities, etc. we figured it must be good, and were convinced when we saw it was lando calrissian-approved.

a fish-chowder-and-mixed-baby-greens-salad (me) and clam-chowder-and-lobster-roll-(yes-a-second-one) (marc) later, we were happy, full, and ready to go.

the remainder of the morning and early afternoon were spent poking through the boston fire museum and boston common. marc has never been through the park and it's one of my favorite spots in the city, so i wanted to make sure he got a chance to go.

at this point we were exhausted and hot and miserable (it was about 90 degrees ... not fun for two northerners), so we found ourselves a nice quiet, air conditioned spot for some iced tea and cooling down before we set out for the highlight of the trip: taking in a blue man group show.

quick note: if you have never seen blue man group and the opportunity arises, GO! it is the most indescribable, awe-inspiring, funny, blow-you-away experience. and it IS an experience, not just something you sit back and watch. there is participation, and participating brings you into the entire realm of blue man. before the show began, there was a message board at the front of the theater with interactive, audience-response messages scrolling. first it asked a man named jerry to stand up, and we were to thank jerry for mapping the human genome. jerry was sitting right behind us and was laughing at the thought. good sport. then kevin was supposed to stand up. kevin was three rows in front of us, and kevin was being pointed out because he was just a regular guy and we were to make him feel special. then the message board wanted us to recognize that marc skinner hadn't updated his facebook status in more than three minutes. wait ... what?? oh, how i wish i'd gotten a picture of that!

after the show we were pushed into the lobby with the flow of people, and there the blue men stood for quick photos. marc got by one and wanted his picture taken, so i had to instantaneously oblige (no time for preparations. one of those instances that a nice little point-and-shoot with a flash probably would have been good.).

my camera must have piqued the interest of the blue man, because he proceeded to take my camera and go to town with it:

he then handed it back and we were on our way.

totally worth the price of admission.

after that we felt the need for even more crustaceans-on-a-plate, so we went to legal seafood. i don't remember what we ate - i think it involved salmon - but i do remember the lovely wine flight ...

sunday morning came, and we met up with marc's cousin, danny, and his fiance, jen, and had a great lunch of oysters, ruebens, and salad at anthem near faneuil hall. we had a great visit, and a good laugh over me throwing a lemon in order to save a wayward oyster. slippery little devils.

after lunch, danny and jen dropped us off at the uss constitution/uss cassin young for some historical enlightenment.

then it was back to the hotel - in pouring rain and booming thunder - for yet another shower (it was so HOT while we were there! and yes, i'm a whiner. it was probably only 80 degrees or so.) before marc's father's day dinner at morton's. i've never experienced morton's before, and marc promised me yumminess. he was right. but we should have split a meal; there was no way possible to finish even a quarter of the amount they gave us.

monday morning arrived way too quickly, and before i caught my flight home there was one more meal to enjoy (a roasted eggplant and portabella with goat cheese sandwich and smoked paprika chips for me, sdlt burger with rosemary pommes frites for marc at sel de la terre in long wharf) and then a trip through the new england aquarium. the 70-foot-deep tank that climbs up the center of the aquarium was amazing, but my favorite part was the jellyfish exhibit. i love jellyfish.

then it was time to fly home. it was so hard to leave boston marc, but it was time to get home to the kiddos. and ... there's always next year! we'd love to take the kids next time; i know henry would adore all the historical stuff, and harper would go crazy in boston common. and we'd love to spend some time wandering around harvard/mit ... that's something we didn't get to this time around.

if you need more, head to the photo album. and later this week: a photo shoot with wyatt!! he has quite the following here, so i know you'll want to stick around for that!