Last one, I swear.

Check me out here!

Photo again by our bestie, Bethany Nauert.

Milestones

This seventh month of my baby Elsa's life has been pretty monumental. She's turning into a little big girl in front of our eyes. She is now sleeping at the low mattress setting in her crib (1) because she can now sit up on her own for about 20 seconds without falling over (2), we ditched the car seat/stroller combination and now have her strapped in to the stroller seat (3), she can hold up her bottle to her mouth on her own (4), she got her first tooth (5), and last night, she slept through the ENTIRE night for the first time (6)! We didn't have to get up once to give her back her lost pacifier, or change her diaper, and she slept from 7pm to 6:30! It was kind of amazing. I stuffed her cloth diaper with an extra gCloth insert for added absorbency and it totally worked. No more overnight disposables for us!

It's exciting and overwhelming and we're trying to keep up. I'm recording all of this in her baby book (and here of course) because I know in another month she'll be on to new milestones and I'll forget all about these ones. A written record with photographic evidence is a must.

Finally.

One year later... I replanted our veggie garden! Nothing too crazy, just amended the soil and planted seeds for basil, swiss chard, baby greens, and carrots, and then one tiny little jalapeno plant in the corner. We'll see where this goes.

I also bought a few new cherry tomato plants, one for outside Jeff's studio, and another for the garden. Tomatoes are easy to grow and make you feel like an awesome gardener.

Obsessive

It's a good thing Jeff doesn't read my blog, because this post might make him mad. I really want to paint our living room. I know that actually means that I really want Jeff to paint our living room, which is probably why he's vehemently against the idea. I get it. It's a big room and I have weak unhelpful arms. The khaki green currently in the room chosen by the previous owners just doesn't do it for me though. I think it looks muddy and boring with the other strong neutral players in the room (the natural stone fireplace, the white trim, the honey wood floors, white ceiling) and it doesn't let our art pop on the walls. It's a ho-hum color.

I wasn't sure what color I would want to paint the room though if Jeff magically one day said "I really feel like painting a big room". I feel like I should be prepared for that day and pick a color, just in case. So it's always in the back of my mind when I see all the pretty pictures out there in internet-land. This week I found it. Emily (from Secrets from a Stylist on HGTV) posted about her new house which isn't styled yet, but the rooms are painted. She painted their guest room Aegean Teal and BOOM. That was it.

This next one isn't Aegean Teal, but Plumage from the Martha Stewart Line, which I saw on Young House Love. Really saturated and pretty. A little too dark for our living room though, but I still really like it. Teal is IN!

This is a little test shot from the Benjamin Moore website, which I think gives a good little hint at what it might look like in our living room, with the white trim, yellow curtains, wood floors, and brown sofa.

The teal would look SO GOOD against the light neutrals, beautiful with our maize colored curtains, moody with our chocolate brown sofa, and just perfect with all our art in that room. How awesome would our Andrew Brandou painting look against that color!?

I think it fits in nicely too with the other colors we have going on in our house. It won't be cave-like because the room is big and gets a ton of natural light when the curtains are open, plus it has the white ceiling to lighten it up. I'm sold and I want it. Bad.

But I can't have it. So now I'll cry and pout. 

Mr. Opossum

So apparently our house was not secure because we had a breach. I had been hearing noises in our attic for about a month and they finally got scary enough for us to call an exterminator. They came and identified our house's points of weakness, sealed them up, and went critter hunting. They set up some traps (catch and release, not catch and murder) yesterday and said they'd be back on Monday. Awesome, except when we were watching a movie in the living room last night, we heard the snap and crash of the trap being activated and a poor little opossum inside. I didn't want him in there all weekend, even though the exterminator put a can of meow mix in the trap for him to eat and said they can live in a trap with no food or water for a week, because that's sad AND he was super noisy up there.

So Jeff asked our ex-Marine current Fireman neighbor Matt if he was scared of opossums. Matt laughed and said no, and offered to help take it out for us. Yay! 

Jeff standing at a safe distance...

Got ya! I don't care what people say. I think opossums are cute.

Elsa was very upset we chose to do this during her nap time. Sorry baby!

The release effort was caught on video, you can watch it on YouTube here.

Petit Collage baby book

I don't think I ever posted about Elsa's baby book here, but it really does deserve a post. I found this one when I was pregnant and looking for the perfect baby book. There are SO many bad ones out there. Okay, maybe not bad, but boring or expensive. A baby's first book is so special and I wanted something perfect that would encourage me to fill it out and make into an heirloom for Elsa to keep always.

So this one by Petit Collage that I bought is perfect. The book is sweetly illustrated, has just enough sections to fill out (and not too many- I'm not the type to want to write down my dreams for the baby in her book) and places to put pictures, PLUS it comes in a beautiful magnetic closure box with a drawer and glassine envelopes to store keepsakes. You'd think something like this would be over $100 because it's beautiful and baby-related so they know they can jack up the price and emotional pregnant ladies will buy it. But no! The retail price is $50 but you can get it here on Amazon for $31.50! Such a steal.

To avoid the baby paparazzi

Elsa needed sunglasses (she has blue eyes) so we went on a hunt for a flattering pair. These from Old Navy were a little too Nicole Ritchie:

But THESE... 

are perfect!! They might be the cutest things I've ever seen. She doesn't seem to mind wearing them either.

Lynne's playing nanny for the day.

And this one is for my mom, who requested more fascinator head flair shots:

My turn!

Are you all getting sick of this "We're on Apartment Therapy!" thing? TOO BAD! One more tour goes up on Monday, this time MY "office"! Sneak peek:

Cloud 9

These new "price sensitive" fabrics from Cloud 9 come out in the spring and summer this year and the wheels are spinning with what I want to make from them. They are so gorgeous, and organic! Win!

This one will be perfect for a replacement purse for my mom so she can toss the old one I made her that's getting a little too "loved". 

These next two are perfect for crib sheets:

I love the idea of these cut and sew fabrics to make plushies from. The lion and fox are so great.

I love these blue herons up close but not so much far away when you can't see what they are. This would have to go on a small project for my taste.

I think scallops are so feminine, especially in these Valentine colors. This would make a perfect little A-line dress for Elsie.

Safety first!

A few well-intentioned commenters on Elsa's nursery tour mentioned (demanded) that her mattress should be dropped ASAP for fear that the baby would flip herself out of the crib at the height we had it. I sort of pish-poshed the idea at first because Elsa can barely sit on her own, let alone pull herself up to a seated position, but those comments got into my head! I was sleeping soundly last night when Jeff came in from the studio and dropped something heavy in the kitchen. I swore it was the baby flinging herself onto the floor and bolted out of bed and into her room. She was fine, but guess who got a crib modification today!?

She approves, but my back isn't thrilled.

Jeff's promos

New promos Jeff is sending out for illustration gigs. So pretty, don't you think? I love the girls, they're my favorites.

Her first tooth!

Can you see it?? Elsa's first tooth broke the surface today!! It's barely perceptible but it's there all right. I can feel it when she jams my finger into her mouth and chomps down. I wonder how long before it will really pop up... Another week maybe?

Jeff's turn!

Jeff's studio tour on Apartment Therapy posted today! Check it out here!

Photos by the rad Bethany Nauert.

Welcome to Hollywood!! Whas yo dream!?

Remember that time that Jeff and I went to Norway? And went fishing on a little island off the coast of Grimstad? No? Go here. We stayed with the Folkman's and one of their sons came to visit us this weekend! Lars is just about the nicest 17 year old on the planet. So smart, polite, worldly... he's pretty great. We've liked having him around this weekend, and took him to check out Hollywood yesterday. It was a freak show as usual, and just what he wanted to see. Good times!

Gotta take a picture in front of the Hollywood sign...

By Kodak theater, where they were setting up for the Oscars... Elsa was probably looking at the Michael Jackson impersonator there. 

Same shot, but with Jeff swapped in. We are worthless when it comes to taking pictures. I'm the only that thinks to memorex the occasion and now all I think about is the baby. And funnel cakes. But mostly the baby.

Natalia's baby shower

We went to a rock star's baby shower at another rock star's house in Malibu today... you know, no big whoop. I've kind of loved Bad Religion ever since my big brother told me Salt n' Peppa was lame and punk rock was cool, so it's kind of special that I got to go to Jay Bentley's baby shower. And not to mention our good friend Natalia who is carrying Jay's baby is an amazing and famous artist. And of course, I barely got any pictures. D'oh!!

Here are a few of some punk rock gold pleather and leopard print fur bibs and burp cloths I made them though:

I should have used my regular camera for these instead of Hipstamatic. That blue flannel on the burp cloth is actually a beautiful peacock teal, with hot pink topstitching.

Jana made the awesome vegan cake and cupcakes. Sooo good!

The baby was a little peach for most of the party, and made it seem to all the guests that babies are fantastic and super fun to have hanging off of you. She went to the dark side about two hours in and we had to leave, but still, two hours is pretty good.

I wish you could see her little denim dress here. It was super cute with little rolled sleeves and side ties. From Polarn O. Pyret. Love them.

So fun to see our friends celebrating babies. Fun in the 'Bu.