Oh, the honor of it all!

My mother-in-law, Christine, got her blog online and she chose a picture of me and the little darling as her first post.  Awwww!   She credits the pic for inspiring her to take pictures professionally!

And she is goooood

Umber Dove, you are killing me softly

Innocently enough I clicked over to Kelly’s Etsy shop and BLAM!!!

My newest and surely to be treasured purchase…

A redwood tree?  Are you kidding me??  Way to go right for my heart, Lady! 

I’m categorizing this as an honorary Shiny Thing.  I’m sure everyone agrees

p.s.  Kelly – I can’t wait to see you!!  Seattle, watch out!

Taming the mayhem and foolishness

Painting the bathroom has made a mess of my whole house.  Everything that was previously out in the open or in my medicine cabinet has vomited itself out and down the hallway and in to the livingroom.  Yeah, it’s just as pretty as it sounds.

Hopefully these little bastards – I mean BASKETS – will be my salvation!

I also bought some stinky drawer liner paper to line the back of the unit over the dumping station – I mean TOILET

The blue, obviously.

I think I have decorating fatigue-induced Turrets!

Opinions please

What do you think?

Paint the walls that same blue, and that gray for the curtains?

Accessorized with lots of shiny things, of course

UPDATE (a big 20 minutes after the original post – d’oh!):  While I value your opinion, and it means the world to me, I got a case of CLICKY-CLICKY fever (and decorating fatigue) and ordered this any way.  It’s **TOTALLY** (bold, underlined, in ALL CAPS and with some asterisks even!!) me. 

Why drag this out any longer?  Now I can paint the damn room and be out of my misery!  Oh, and can you see how all the colors are tying in together YET AGAIN?  Dooooood, I am so good

One of these days I’ll do something with the garden

and I am going to keep this trellis in mind…

I have some seriously bland fence to cover and I love the idea of creeping things.  Maybe trumpet vine?  Or wisteria?  Oooh or maybe hydrangea?

The back of the house was just painted a nice shade of yellow, so I need to figure out how to tie it in to the view from my livingroom.  Stay tuned for a post on that.  I’ll need another vote from the peanut gallery on what color to paint my sorry-ass patio set.  (Of course I’m already defaulting to chrome )  You have to remember how gloomy it is most of the time in my back yard!

I’m officially a design dork

… because I saw these and said, “I must have those!”  Can you imagine how awesome a “Lex, archduke of Lucite” would be??

 

 

We now interrupt this design-ish blog

… for something a little more political…

 

Broadcasting my shopping list

I have some things I need to buy and some I’d prefer not to have to buy new, so I thought I’d throw my Shopping List in a bottle and cast it out in to the vast sea of the Interwebs.

Please contact me if you have, or know of, any of the following juicy tidbits:

1. white (not smoker’s teeth yellow) bathroom sink (I’ll post measurements later)
2. bathroom vanity, faucet if they are so cool I must have them
3. chrome shower curtain rod
4. chrome bath accessories:  towel racks, tp holder, etc.
5. storage/organization boxes that can be painted or papered
6. small vanity/dressing table – anything (roughly) rectangular between 28″ and 41″ wide – a vintage vanity or a parsons-ish table – decent to terrible-but-salvageable condition
7. nifty spot to sit while at above table-thingy
8. large dresser with 6+ drawers, prefer wide to tall – modern, deco, or provincial – dark wood or wood that I can paint without destroying something of value.  I probably prefer paint-worthy to nice wood
9. double-bonus superstar points for a large mirror that goes over above dresser
10. mirror approx 20″x20″ that is, or can be, cut that size
11. mirror – oval or round – approx 24″ at widest
12. wine glasses! (for your weekly visits, Rae )
13. self-cleaning litter box (hey, a girl can dream can’t she?)
14. a really cute fix-it boy with a tool belt and a propensity for working with no shirt on (I know, now I’m reeeeally dreaming – don’t wake me up just yet )

Not everything is big-ticket, that’s just everything on my current shopping list other than new linens for my bedroom.

Mr. Devil, sir, can I interest you in my soul?

If I can have this, it’s all yours…

Statistical Validation

When I talk to people about how tough/lonely it is to be a single parent in San Francisco I almost always get the same response:  thinly veiled disbelief.  Of course they are all people that either have no kids or are married with kids, because I only know two other single parents (and one of those I only know as far as nodding “Hey” at the kids’ school.)

There are few parents in San Francisco and not many of them are single.

In recent years at least 12 city schools have been closed, merged or relocated due to lack of enrollment.  Families with kids have gone Bridge & Tunnel.

Of those families with kids that remain, very few are single parent ones.  A study showed that in 2005 SF was #2 in the nation for fewest single parent homes, and #4 in 2006 – 27% of families both years are ones with only one parent.

You’d think there would be more of Us in the wicked and liberal San Francisco than in the Bible belt, but nooooo…

• Omaha, NE - 35%
• Minneapolis, MN - 44%
• Kansas City, MO – 48%
• Cleveland, OH – 68%

And the mecca for single parents… drumroll please!  Detroit, MI with a staggering 70%!

PLEASE don’t misunderstand me… I think 2 parents is the ideal way to go.  I’m just saying it’s hard to find birds of a feather in this town to hang out with.  The closest “Parents Without Partners” chapter is in Hayward.

End of story.

 

Lovely Loo

Alrighty then – this is certainly looking better, no?!

Still need to do baseboards and door and the prettyfiing of it all, but at least the heinous painting is behind me.  Think I’m just being a whiny bitch about it?  That 32 s.f. room has 7 wall surfaces, 15 places that had to be cut in, and the toilet to paint around with less than 6″ on either side to negotiate.

 

Warning: redecorating is contagious!

Rae has officially come down with a case of Redec Fever!  Thankfully it’s treated easily, with paint

Because she’s too estupiano* to blog her own madness, I am doing it for her!

Livingroom Before

I think it’s darling, but she just cannot abide by the yellow.

Livingroom after door painted

It’s so cute how excited she is to have a white door!  Awww, bless!

What I really LOOOOOOVE is the evidence of her tortured decision making process!  How many different patches of BEIGE do we see here??

I love you Honey!

 

 

* estupiano – a word Haley and I made up because estupido sounds too harsh

Virtuoso in Training

It took me two years of piano lessons to play that piece, that well.  And she looks like she’s enjoying it, unlike my experience

ah HA!

Bet you were thinking that I succumbed to the siren song of my new mattress last night, huh?

If you were (and I know you were!), you were mistaken!  So there!!

Not exactly Mission Accomplished, but the most gruesome task is done (ceiling) and the almost-as-gruesome tasks are for the most part done (cutting in and painting behind la toilet). 

For some reason the ceiling paint is looking really blue in here, whereas it is white with the faintest blue cast everywhere else.  Hopefully it will tone down with the gloss white trim and whatnot.  Otherwise I may have to change it

*tears hair from head*

I must say, though, that my cutting-in skills are improving exponentially.  Now that I can get an edge without looking like I have Parkinson’s, it’s soooo much easier not to have to deal with the Bastard Blue Tape.

Last night I also took down the janky medicine cabinet.  Not only is it super stupid hanging on the side of the sink, it’s also causing my child frequent head trauma.  Whenever we share the sink she crowns herself on a corner of the damn thing, and sometimes she manages to get her hair caught on the hinges.  To top it off with a heaping scoop of Special, it’s too high for Haley to see the mirror and she has to brush her teeth and hair in the hallway.  (Oh how I love toothpaste on the hall mirror – NOT)

Between the medicine cabinet and the étagère, the sink space feels like the trash compactor on the Death Star.  I may hang the medicine cabinet behind the door or just stash it until we move. 

My current hair brained schemethought is to frame a large-ish mirror for over the sink – directly over it, how clever! - and just have a hole cut for the electrical outlet.  It’s soooo not worth the brain damage to have the box moved over 6″ to a reasonable location.

So YAY FOR PROGRESS! Right? 

UGH

Can you see how yellow that sink is now??  How was that not SO obvious to be before?? 

Fantastic – now add “New Sink” to the shopping list.

And then shoot me.

Adoration

Haley has a Shadow.  One that wants to share her sandwich.

All together now!  Haley, Haley, old and able, get your elbows off the table!  This is not a horse’s stable but a proper dining table!  It will also eliminate Maggie’s headrest

A project for the Arizona contingency?

Mama likes!  Mama likes!

(If not I’ll make it once the $%*)@#^ painting is done!)

My mind is working overtime

Oh… the possibilities!

Peel-n-stick metal tiles – 54 four inch tiles for $79. 

I desperately need them, but where?

Maggie Hearts Haley

OMG!  Who do you think is happier?  Child or dog? 

Looks like Haley has to hold up Maggie’s head – like she’s buckling under the weight of all her doggy adoration.

Haley Love

Well, the last few days have been epic, to say the least. 

Friday night we jumped in the car with Rae and headed up to Willits.  It was gorgeous up there!  Warm (not too hot), sunny, and smelling of delicious grass We went to the river on Saturday and Sandi treated us to massages! (Thanks, Jeff!  We’ll get you some clients in SF!)  Sunday we lazed around and drug our feet about leaving. 

But there were deer!  Right by the house!  Nature!!

Willits was so fun, in fact, that Sandi has been given the challenge – find me a man with a place in the valley (Little Lake Valley for those of you unfamiliar) and I’ll toss all thought of Kentucky in to the wind!

(fingers crossed, fingers crossed)

We ended up getting home late Sunday so after getting up at a leisurely hour on Monday we jumped in the car and headed to Six Flags in Vallejo.  BINGO!  There was no one there!  No lines!

Yesterday we went to the mall (barf) so Haley could spend her birthday money torturing me at the Sanrio store.  She also had a gift card from Suzanne for Claire’s to spend.  Afterwards we saw Kung Fu Panda on the IMAX screen  (FYI – those screens are huge and make your eyes bleary and your neck hurt – bah humbug )

So all that SUPERHAPPYFUN time made this morning really hard.  We both cried while we waited at the airport.  But now she’s safely with Nana and Baba in Arizona (YAY!) and Haley has more epic adventures in store.  Next week she and Nana are heading off on a road trip to pick up a new Dobie to add to the family.  Reggie will be in Missouri so she’ll get to see New Mexico and Oklahoma on the way.

(Reggie – sooo handsome)

He and Haley will have a ball riding home together.  Maggie is already freaking out for Haley’s arrival

(with Maggie, from this last New Year’s Eve)

 

I LOVE YOU HALEY!  Have super-much fun!  Nana and Baba are so glad that you’re there!

xoxoxo Mama

Willits: final resting place of Seabiscuit and birthplace of me

I’m off for a few days to get some SUN and spend some quality time with the child before she goes down to my mom’s for a few weeks.  Rachel is coming with us to Willits, then Haley and I will come back and try to do something fun when I take Monday and Tuesday off work.