Updating the Kid's Photographs

With all the craziness of the past year and the move across the country I never got around to having my kid's yearly photographs done. So finally I got a set taken for this year yesterday. I'm not always a big fan of photo sessions at the mall but this year I took advantage of a Living Social deal for the Picture People that was too good to pass up.  If money was no object I would have custom professional photos taken each year however I'm not rich yet.

These pictures turned out GREAT though and I was pleasantly suprised by the Picture People. I know they are my kids and I am partial to how adorable they are but we really did get some good shots that really capture their personalities. 

My favorite shot hands down is the two of them in their Polarn O. Pyret shirts on the black background. It is so bright and vivid and it shows Max's great smile and Sara's sneakiness. 

Here are a few more photographs of my kiddos from yesterdays photo shoot. It was just too hard to pick one or two but I tried to limit myself for this post. If you are family don't worry I will have copies for all of you next week. 

It feels so great to see my kids smile and smile so big. I hope these pictures make you smile too.

A Family Room fit for All

This past weekend we had Max's ART party but unlike some of the past years the location for 2011 was our house. We've lived here in this 1951 modern style home for slightly over one year and the remodel adventure continues but we have also conquered so much. I think it is easy to forget what you have done in life when you think about all that you have left to do. I get so focused on the kitchen needing an update that I easily forget that we have finished the home office, tackled a new furnace and water tank with a remodeled space for it's new location, overhauled the family room (including a new cork floor that we LOVE) and are currently digging out the backyard and relocating a lot of it to the front yard. Above is a picture of the finished version of the family room although I'm still debating painting that ivory wall yellow too and the lighting issues have yet to be resolved in this room.

When we moved in we called this room the blue sea because there was so much blue carpet. I knew moving in that I would want to carpet to go as soon as possible. Not only was it not an appealing color but it had stains in every corner area. The other issue with this room is that it use to have double glass doors leading into the master bedroom on the wall that now houses the television. There were two issues with this for me. The first was that we had no privacy in the master suite (which has a second entrance in the hallway) and two was that by having the doors we had no full walls in the family room. I love the full glass window walls but you also need some space for living.

As you can see in the pictures we use one side of the room as a tv and adult space but the other half is all for the kids. Our final goal is to build a loft on their side being the ceilings are so high and the space is just too good to pass up.

It felt pretty good to have party going parents tell us how much they loved the house and what a great space we had. Making my house a home full of funky, artsy, graphically pleasing spaces is a huge goal of mine. I want my kids and guests to know we are a family of artists and it is okay to fill your home with crazy fun items that either have good memories and meaning or just look so darn cool. I plan on painting a grandfather clock on the wall in this room and hanging a simple wall clock at the top so I'll be sure to make a post to share the idea and the process with you all when I get there. I'll also continue to bring you updates on the house's progress as it moves along.

The CLEK Booster Seat

My little girl is not so little anymore. This week she officially moved up to a full back booster seat and thinks she is hot stuff. Both of my kids are tiny for their age but when we went to Disneyland recently we learned that she is almost 39", tall enough to ride most roller coasters in the park (and to ride in a full back booster). The only concern I had was her weight but the new booster by Clek is made in full back mode as a start for children 3 years and up, 33lbs and 38". I also love the fact that it has the easiest to use latch system to lock the seat into the car unlike my son's booster that is loose AND the back is removable so once your child is big enough for just a seat booster it can continue to grow with them. The seat is a bit heavy to move but moveable and that is well worth the bit of trouble knowing that it is due to the magnesium frame hidden inside. When I first brought this seat home the one negative I saw was that the seat was going to have to be spot cleaned but as I read the manual more I learned that every single piece of padded seat comes off the booster and the fabric can either be replaced with new covers or washed and put back together.

For the visual people out there the appearance of the seat comes in two different versions, 1. simple and solid block color like pink, green, blue or black or 2. featuring Paul Frank's famous monkey.

But the GREAT design does not stop there. The packaging design invested in this product is awesome. I love the box it came home in and it looks even better when on display in the store. We purchased the blue seat thus our box is blue (not green like the one pictured) and is currently under the beginning design phase by my children to become a space ship.

Clek's website is also clean and simply but at the same time forward thinking and modern. One of my favorite elements on their site is the little widgets. Sometimes a great product can be the best thing out there but fail because the marketing is just not appealing. Other times you can get both an amazing product and the visual that makes you want to buy it. In other words you have a great marriage between the industrial designer and the graphic designer. Makes me smile just thinking about it. Take a look for yourself at www.clekinc.com.

Baby Announcements

I have always thought that Spring is the perfect time of year for planning a baby but then maybe that is because I have two Summer birthdays. I remember so fondly nesting with the windows open, the sun shinning in and the fresh air in my lungs as I prepared for my little monkey. During the last trimester of my first pregnancy I had this great idea to paint a mural in the baby room. It was such a great idea that to this day I can remember the pain I had in my legs from climbing up and down that ladder day after day, eight months pregnant to try and finish before the big day arrived. But the results were great and my little man loved it. I just had to include this darling picture of him posing in front of Winnie the Pooh.

This also means this is the time of year that when I put my designer hat on I am most likely working on new Birth Announcements rather than weddings. I'm taking the next two weeks to brainstorm some new ideas but I am currently loving this girly girl pink start.

 

I'm also trying to come up with ideas of how to get more of my great friends, family, colleagues and fellow mothers to sign up as followers to my blog. How do you all feel about a personalized invitation give away? I'm thinking if I open up for one week (five days) whoever has either signed up during the week or already was a follower will be entered to win 30 custom invitations, announcements, holiday cards, etc. of your choice handmade by me and mailed directly to you. They could include a photo or not. Let me know what you think.

ART Party Final Invite

After all that sketching and brainstorming Max and I decided to go with an email invite instead of a traditional snail mail. In the end I think the results turned out amazing and I am thrilled with how it looks. I am a huge fan of the online service PunchBowl, www.punchbowl.com. Their designs (in my opinion) are much better than the average online email invitation service and what I like even better is that so many of the designs are free. We have had so many compliments on the invite already.

But my favorite part of using PunchBowl is that an envelope is delivered to your email inbox and when you click it the envelope turns over and opens up to slide your invite out. As a designer I love total design and on an invite that usually means the envelope, envelope liner, stamp, invite and anything else that may be inside. With PunchBowl you get to choose all of these options for your invite. Here are some images of the process.

Yard Remodel for Kids and Parents

The last two weekends here in the Northwest have been gorgeous with sunshine and the upper 70's. With this beauty there is only one thing to do when you live somewhere that rains so much, GET OUTSIDE. My family and I spent the past two weekends finishing a project that has been in the works since we moved here a year ago. We assembled the kid's swing set.

This was no easy task but the results are fabulous. The biggest perk is that since the set has been put up the children come home from school and literally live on it or in the sandbox below. This means extra time for me to enjoy their giggles and get some things finished for myself.

My husband and I built this set from scratch so I was extremely excited when our house in Virginia was purchased that they did not want the swing set. At first we planned on leaving it but just like any project this was a labor of love and I didn't want to start again. The set is called the Fort Gemini and it WAS sold by B.Y.O. Swingset, www.byoswingset.com. The main reason we made this choice was we purchased a hardware kit with blue prints and that saved us a lot of money. At the time the hardware cost us around $300 (w/ slide) and then the wood came from the local Home Depot for around $700. What a steal! I noticed as I surfed the B.Y.O. website that a lot has changed in four years since we bought from them but I can honestly say they have a great product and amazing customer service. 

Would I do it again or just buy one from Costco (or some place similar)? As I say just buy one and assemble it (don't go through the labor of routing all the wood and drilling for all the bolts and setting for all the washers) we are simultaneously starting a fancy new tree house. As an FYI it took a lot of special tools to prepare the wood but my husband is an Industrial Designer so tools collecting is a hobby for him. Oh, the burden of being a designer.

After all of that what I really wanted to tell you about was the amazing transformation our yard and house are undergoing. We purchased a mid century modern home that was previously owned by an elderly woman and needs some definite updating but that has left us lots of room for personalization.

Gardening is a favorite hobby for me and what I really love to do is transform a space with very little money. I love to see it come alive by simply changing the layout or location of plants. Arranging in a way to create an outdoor room and living space and generally make a yard that is more suitable for outdoor living in a warm climate.

Here are some before pictures of how overgrown the yard was and then the process we went through in the back left corner for the swing set and the final results. As the summer continues we have wood chips to go, sod to be set, a patio to be jack hammered up, a retaining wall to build and a lot more. I'll keep you posted as I go. I'm always so excited to share what we do.