Takeout

Friday is here! Any weekend plans on the horizon? I think my weekend will probably be spent trying to catch-up on chores and work from this week of attempting to catch-up on rest. And hopefully by Monday I will be all caught-up (for the most part) and feeling rejuvenated.  Until we meet again here are some Friday takeouts. Have a great weekend!

I really love this new collection from Colonel (pictured). You can see more here.

According to this list I'd say I am highly-sensitive. But I already knew that, though at least I can have something to blame #5 on (my least favorite trait about myself . . . I think.).

Awhile back my neighbor asked Fisher if he wanted to be in a music video, but being an introvert, he declined (being one myself I whole-heartedly understood). But when my neighbor sent me a link to the video I was like "gaaaah, why didn't you do that?!" This is the video, and that super sweet looking curly-haired boy is my super sweet neighbor. 

One of the things I'd also like to do over the weekend is get started on a little spring cleaning. I recently came across some closet organizing ideas - though, truth be told for most of these, I am never just going to be that organized to bother with them, and I am certainly never going to wrap my clothing hangers with embroidery thread. But number 8? Pure genius, seriously how is this the first time I am seeing this? Better yet why have I never once though of this? 

The Oscars are this weekend which are definitely part of my weekend plans. Hopefully there are more lovely speeches like this acceptance speech by Cate Blanchett at the BAFTA awards in which she dedicates her win to Phillip Seymour Hoffman. 

I just wanted to say thanks again to Allie over at over at AllieNYC for the lovely interview and feature on her blog last week. If you missed it you can see it here. 

The Wes Anderson Collection

I think I am still fighting off whatever virus we last had in our house. Now that my children all seem to be feeling better my body has decided it's tired, really tired and in need of a little more rest than I normally allow it. So yesterday morning when I heard a loud thump on my porch I was happy to see that it was a package - as opposed to my plants being knocked over by the blustery winds again. In the package was The Wes Anderson Collection by Matt Zoller Seitz, a book I have been wanting to get my hands on since I found out it was coming out. I have just skimmed it so far, but it's huge. It's packed with essays and storyboards and interviews, artwork, photos and so much eye candy. And someday when I get around to refinishing my coffee table I am going to be so excited to stick this right on top. Have you come across any good coffee table books lately?

Favorite Finds | 29 | Clare Elsaessar

I can't believe I haven't written this post until now. When I first opened my shop on Etsy I think this may have been the first shop that I "hearted;" I was immediately transfixed and enamored. Water, movement, motion, fluidity, emotion, contemplation, hair, flowers, femininity, arms and legs. Those are just a few of the words that come to mind when I look at Clare Elsaessar's work. It is just so beautiful. It was not easy to choose among the many prints of her paintings that she has in her Etsy shop to share with you today (she has a handful of original paintings as well), so you should definitely go and see the many that I didn't include (which is only because it would have been weird if I had included them all, it's not because I didn't want to). 

House Tour | Nordic Neutral |

Happy Monday and happy last week of February. That was fast! Usually I am slightly lamenting when I say how quickly time has gone by, but when time moves fast in February I am perfectly fine with it. I am ready for spring (as I might have mentioned a time or two lately), and yesterday was the first day it hadn't rained in a month, literally, and I mean literally in its true definition. Unfortunately I was so tired! I couldn't figure out why exactly, but I am thinking it may just have something to do with the 2 rounds of flu we have had in the last few weeks and the nightly visits to the schools. I am hoping today I can make up for the slothing that I did on the couch all day yesterday. Even though I regretted not getting out into it, it was nice to have the windows open and see the sun shining a bit outside. However due to my lazy state and lack of general care-taking I didn't get to really enjoy my house as much as I like to do on first glorious day of sun after so many days of rain. In fact I was so tired that even after I realized there was a somewhat unpleasant scent emanating from somewhere in my house, rather than hunting it down as soon as possible as I normally would, I just laid on my couch and told myself I'd get used to it. Then I looked at houses until found a house that looks like it probably smells like fresh linens and flowers, and would be wonderful to relax in on such a day. (Luckily I pulled it together before bed & I ended up hunting down that scent later - a rogue potato that had rolled under my kitchen shelf. yuck).

I love the the soft light and mix of (slight) country and nordic design in this home. It just looks so inviting and comfortable. The neutral colors and that ever so modest shade of mint; the color of those eames chairs is so great too. And of course I have to mention the windows. Love those windows.  

Images: Bo Bedre Photos: Mikkel Adsbøl

Moodboard | In The Pale |

Erp, I just realized it's only Thursday. I thought it was Friday. Wait it is Friday. Agh. This week has felt like a long one. With sickness in our house again (even the dog), I have been staying up late to get things done and waking up early from the sounds of coughing. Like 5 am early which I don't do. My internal alarm clock is around 7ish, if I wake up earlier I am liable to be found wandering, bumping into things and talking to myself. And if I wake up any later I spend the day with one of those throbbing sleepy headaches. I've also spent every evening this week going to open houses to look at schools for M+L. I found one that I like, it looks cool, literally: concrete and wood floors, exposed beams and ductwork, big giant glass garage doors in the classrooms, which I might add smelled strangely good for a school. Every class I went in my brain said "yum, vanilla. ooo strawberry" So I am not sure if it's the aesthetics of the school or the school itself, which was kind of confusing (a democracy but without voting because that marginalizes the minority. which seemed to translate to lots of meetings. Not so sure how M+L would do in meetings.). It's also it's a bit of a drive, and they don't really use desks, mostly just ikea shag carpets. And I don't know, I don't think desks are so bad.

This school was seeming like my best bet (or there was some sort of subliminal olfactory messages being sent to my brain), but last night I went to the school that is closest to us (yet not our neighborhood school :/) and I am feeling that's the one. Our real neighborhood school is one of three in the Portland Public that has a uniform policy and there are a lot of reasons I could give for hating this fact (like, they also happen have this uniform policy only in the few schools in portland where white children are the minority - my inner social worker is going huh? that's weird. and not weird in a good way. weird in a aclu way.). And having twins that look identical, I am not so into sending them to school dressed exactly the same everyday. "which one are you?" "who are you?" "are you milo or luca?" They get it enough. Different shirts is like our only tool in the toolbox for quick identification and differentiation. Anyway, I was feeling pretty despondent with the whole thing until last night when I went to our not-neighborhood-neighborhood school and I was immediately thrust into the arms of two moms with twins who told gave me tips and let me know this school has an odd amount of twins there, a fact that they knew from experience worked in their favor. So I am hopeful. But still after all that I needed to come home and look at pretty things.

Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Crush | Custom Sofa's |

Astra | Chloe | Huntley | Barton | Dove | Rocco | Lena

Remember awhile back I mentioned that my couch broke and I really hoped it would be fixable because I didn't want to have to buy a new couch, and then it turned out it was fixable and I didn't have to buy a new couch? But just in case it turned out I needed to I rounded-up my favorite couches anyway? That temporarily broken spring was enough to plant the seed and it's been growing like an invasive weed in my brain since then. It likely hasn't helped that the sofa round-ups I did for said post has been liked/re-pinned multiple times everyday since then and it's been like a not-so-subliminal message to buy a new couch. Well, it turns out I really do want to buy a new couch. I give in. 

When I bought my sofa about four years ago I just shopped locally, which I am a huge proponent of, but it took me months to finally settle on something. Everything I loved was at stores I couldn't afford to buy a vase at, let alone a major piece of furniture. So the idea of going through the pains of buying a new couch again filled me with a bit of dread. However, now with, I don't know, hundreds of hours spent online later, I found a store that has a huge selection of sofa's I really like, and while they aren't local to me, they are all made in the USA and support a local economy - they even source all their fabric from the US as well. The hardest part now is going to be narrowing it down to style, and then narrowing down the size I want, and then narrowing down the fabric (because I get to choose all of these things). If you have read my blog for awhile you may know I am not the most decisive person, but I really do love having choices, even if I am not always graceful whilst trying to make them. These are the front runners, though every time I visit their site I add a new one to the list. Do you have a favorite style out of these ones? I think I know my favorite, but then a minute later I don't.

Images: Your Space Furniture

Detour | AllieNYC |

Today I have a pretty exciting detour - exciting for me because I am so very honored to be featured with a little q&a about my work over at AllieNYC. Exciting for you because if you haven't visited Allies blog before you are in for a treat. Allie is one of those people who, with her eye for fashion and design, her energy, and talents, never ceases to amaze and inspire me. You can learn more about Allie here, and you can also find her on Instagram /  Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest. 

House Tour | Nordic Flat |

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great (long) weekend. Yesterday we woke up with another cold (grrrr) and so far it's all in my head, so honestly, I can't even think to try to recount what our weekend consisted of. Well, except for the set of four dining chairs that I found (they are these ones - without the arms) and they are a great deal. In fact I am having a wave of panic as I write this that someone may read it and go try to find them. I was in a hurry when I drove past them sitting on the sidewalk outside a shop (in an undisclosed location) and I couldn't turn my car around fast enough to see if they were in fact what I thought they were. Luckily I made it across traffic safely and stopped to get a closer look, and they were indeed exactly what I thought they were. I placed them on hold until the shop opens again on Wednesday (you now know what i will be doing wednesday morning). So maybe it's my cold that is filling my head and making it difficult for me to think, or maybe it's the chairs. It's probably the chairs. But onto this house tour which also has fantastic bentwood cane chairs. 

I am always envious of interiors where there are so many lovely little still-life vignettes and collections without the home looking encumbered and cluttered by them. This is something that I am always trying to improve upon in my home - the finer styling details is not my strong suit. That is one of the things that caught my eye in this house tour which belongs to the owner of the Swedish shop Artilleriet. I love the overall open and minimalist design but with the mix of unique objects that bring life and interest to the home. There are more photos that I left out which you can find here. 

Takeout!

Happy valentine's day! Last night I had stop one of the information nights for schools, which is a required step in applying, and by applying I mean being placed in the lottery. I have visited them all before when I went through this with Fisher and it was a bit strange to be going through it all again 10 (!) years later for my little m+l. On my way to school one (i think i will be visiting approximately 8 in all over the next week or so) I stopped by Target to kill some time and it was packed. This was when I realized that valentine's day was indeed today. But luckily I made that little detour and was able to jump into the crowds at the card and dollar sections and pick up a few v-day goodies. No big valentine's day plans for us around here, I get so crazed at Christmas, I am usually holiday'ed out until about the fourth of July. Do you have any special v-day plans?  

In case you need something to get you in the spirit of love here is this. A few of these definitely gave my heart a serious squeeze and my eyes a little drink of water. And for all the single ladies (and gents) there is this. 

Here is a cute little construction paper valentines heart pouch that you can make to store all your valentines in (i think m+l and i might make one today just to hang on the wall.)

And if you are even more behind on valentine's day than I was, this is so simple and kind of clever. Best of all you just need a banana and sharpie.

One of my favorite love stories is that of poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. You can read more about their love story here and read some of their beautiful written letters. 

Have a wonderful day and weekend. I heart you all so very much. xo

Image: That's Eurobeat

MoodBoard | Mint |

Yesterday was one of those day where I felt like I was juggling a bunch a different things but not really getting much of anything done. There has been a lot of talk of the teachers striking here in Portland and it looks like it is indeed going to happen next week. It's also the time of year where I need to start applying to schools for M+L, because even though there is a really great school a stones throw away, our address falls in the boundaries of a school that is not so great, and definitely not as great as the art school Fisher got into. But my chances with two kids getting in, more people, less schools (portland like to shut entire schools down) it's sounding a lot more difficult this time around, and the glitch of the very likely to happen strike seemed to release the valve off the anxiety I have had about it. So I spent a lot of yesterday mentally scrambling trying to figure out how to meet all the criteria of applying to schools when the application dates/school visits and so forth fall within all the schools being shut down during the strike, whilst trying to accomplish tasks at hand. But all that for another day/post perhaps. At the end of the day I found myself drawn to all these tranquil shades of mint and sea foam green. I have to say this is a color I have always loved and have found to be both so calming and so happy at the same time. I like the looks of that blue sky in the first picture too. Yes, please. 

Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  5 | 6 | 7

Dreamy Spaces

These are just a handful of spaces I am finding oh so dreamy at the moment. I am ready for some spring cleeeaaaaning! Unfortunately when I say spring cleaning I hear a little cha-ching go off in my brain, because what I really want to do is clean my house and buy new stuff to put in it. I also have fierce dreams of every cupboard and closet looking beautiful and organized like that middle picture - that would be dreamy.

Images: Living Room | Kitchen | Storage | Childs Room | Dining Room | Bedroom

Valentine's Day Gift List

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Valentine's day is almost here and it's probably the holiday that I am the worst at. Maybe it's because I seem to generally lose track of the days come February, but I always forget about it until the last minute and I ending up buying not-so-delicious boxed candy from the grocery store at the 11th hour. So I suppose for me Valentine's day generally reminds me of bad candy in little heart-shaped boxes adorned with a picture of snoopy and woodstock. But if I were to someday be prepared for Valentine's gift giving I think I'd get a couple of these heart-happy items (at least to go with the bad candy, which has become a sort by-default tradition around here). I love the little boys heartbreaker tee and that set of poetry books needs to be purchased as soon as possible. And I think I could happily add the Laduree candle and the Love print to my own wishlist. And, well, as long as I am wishing I may as well add the heart of gold locket - I love, love, love that locket (one of my favorite songs of all time, but really don't let me get started on how much i love neil young).

Instarecap

Is there a 12-step program for talking about the weather so much? After this weekend I am feeling like I need to join one. I really don't want to talk about the weather anymore, but I can't seem to stop myself! But really, we've had some weather. That whole potential two snow storms and possible five inches of snow turned into three snow storms (two which were very blizzardy), followed by freezing rain and way more than a measly five inches. While I was officially ready for spring on December 26th, the snow was delightful and proved too irresistible not to love. Especially Saturday, Miss Marla and I went for a walk - of whom might I mention came around to loving the snow and nearly pulling me down into several times whilst trying to run and folic in it. But luckily it was deep enough that I was sinking in powdery snow up to my calves, Marla also kept falling into giant piles of snow because you couldn't see the curbs which slowed her down a bit (I kept sinking in them too, though I am sure it wasn't nearly as cute). It was quiet, the wind had resided and it was snowing those big beautiful snowflakes. It was a perfect blanket snow over everything and it was just lovely.

But by Saturday night the freezing rain came and added a thick layer of ice to everything that was already heavy with snow and I watched and listened out my windows to the giant oak tree branches creaking overhead. It also sounded like little thousands of baseballs were falling from the sky when the ice would fall from the branches into the hardened snow - which is still happening. That part I don't find as endearing, especially as it's started warming a bit I am now watching big branches falling down and sheets of ice slide from the rooftops. So, as you can imagine this weekend we were snowed in, alternating between watching the Olympics and the "winterblast of 2014" unfold on the local news, which at these times is both gripping and hilarious - like this clip that was apparently Portlandia enough to make it to the Hufpo (just so you know i do feel a little bad for linking to this, that looks like it hurt). But, now, for real-for real, I am ready for spring!

Photo Diary | White Out |

Tripple toe loop, salchow, double lutz, axel jump. I just had to get that out of the way. Did you all watch the olympics last night? I must admit it was kind of fun to watch all these snowy and icy sports whilst it was so snowy and icy outside my house. If it's going to snow in February I say while the winter Olympics are on is a good time to do it. As you can see, we did indeed get snow. As of 11pm last night we had a little more than 4 inches at my house (and it was still snowing), we rarely get "inches" of snow in Portland. Normally when I say 'it snowed in Portland', I usually mean snow fell from the sky and that was that. But yesterday it snowed all day long and piled up around us. School was let out early for Fisher, but not early enough for me to get him, and it took him three hours to get home on the bus. Of course this was the one day his phone battery died and I admit I was a little worried (that photo of the street was on one of my attempts to try to go find him). It was cold. It wasn't snowing as hard as it looks like it was in these photos. But we had 30 mph wind gusts which made the snow whip and whirl around. It felt a lot like a blizzard. Marla was the only soul brave enough to go outside with me. And even she was skeptical and eager to get back inside. M+L tried, but only last about 30 seconds with the temperature a blistery 4 degree fahrenheit with the windchill factor. Luckily I prepared with a trip to the grocery store early yesterday morning to stock up because we are suppose to get more of the same later today. So it looks like this is going to be a stay-in weekend, which makes me even more grateful I spent last weekend out and about. I think my cabin fever would be off the charts if we went straight from flu to a double snow storm weekend. Any weekend plans for you all?