Nursery rearranging

I had to shift around Elsa's room layout a bit today for two reasons. 1) It's starting to get cold so we're back to using Elsa's wipe warmer that we used for about 3 minutes when she was a newborn. She didn't seem to mind the cold wipes back then, but she shivers in the morning now when we do diaper changes and it breaks my heart. So warm butt wipes it is. Problem is that the cord didn't reach the outlet from where the changing table used to be, so that's reason #1. Elongated.

Reason #2 is that Elsa has taken a liking to being disobedient. She thinks it's funny when we scold her Supernanny-style and tell her not to try to rip the 20 lb painting off the wall hanging above her head. We don't agree with that behavior. But I don't think it's stopping anytime soon unfortunately, so again, changing table needed to move.

Because the crib and dresser kind of needed to stay where they are (I am NOT rehanging those 27 framed pictures), I was left with few options. I think I succeeded though, and Elsa seems to like it.

And of course Elsa was locked out of the room for a few minutes while I styled everything for my pictures. She insisted on being let back in though to restyle the ottoman:

*Elsa's adorable outfit supplied by her clothing sponsor, Lynne Baczynski.

**Sorry for the crappy photo quality. I'm too lazy to do anything about it and Elsa is demanding attention.

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Smallcombe!

My best friend Matthew got married to his sweetheart Kellycopter this past Saturday! It was such a rad wedding, mostly because I did the flowers and was the Best Mate. Just kidding! I guess Kelly and Matthew and the rest of their family and friends had a few things to do with its greatness too. The wedding was up in Saratoga at the 6th grade science camp Walden West, and was such an awesome wedding venue. It'd be pretty amazing to take over that whole site for a long weekend and camp there too and make out with some banana slugs. I love that part of the proceeds Walden West makes from renting it out for weddings go to subsidizing the camp for kids whose parents can't afford to send them. I remember my 6th grade science camp week, and the week that I returned to Camp Koinonia as a camp counselor, so fondly and can't wait for Elsa to have the same experience.

Anyways, on to the pictures! Obviously I was in the wedding and not carrying a camera, leaving it up to Jeff and the professionals to snap the pictures, but we got a couple of gems that I can share before I pester Kelly into sending me the others. (P.S. if you're on Instagram, you're going to be bored because most of these I already posted there. Too bad so sad.)

So half of We Like Flowers (me) was asked to do the flowers for the wedding and I was happy to oblige. Kelly and I went to the San Francisco flower mart for the first time, and it was awesome. Pretty different from the LA mart, more expensive but really good product. Kind of a bummer that it opens so late to the public (10:00am) so you could tell lots was picked over. Luckily Kelly was the opposite of a Bridezilla and really easy going with the flowers we chose. She wanted a wildflower look to the wedding so we went with a lot of budget friendly filler flowers. We splurged on some beautiful dahlias for her bouquet and these awesome dried white berries that matched the tablecloth accent fabric, and kept it pretty simple.

We got these buckets of misty at 50% off because they were starting to dry up, but it just added to the wildflowerness of the look. Matthew wanted to urban forage all of the wedding flowers, but I didn't feel like getting arrested.

And of course I get made fun of their billy ball and scabiosa pods, because apparently it's kind of my thing. SO WHAT!? They're graphic and awesome and Kelly wanted them.

 

I did the bouts for the boys with three billies and some white statice, and a scabiosa pod for Matthew's bout. NOTE to future brides: Scabiosa pods in the groom's bout is a bad idea if you have a flowy veil. Kelly's kept getting caught in Matthew's. Ooopsies... bout fail.

They had four different flavors of cakes from La Patisserie, the bakery next door to Longs where Matthew and I worked and ate tons of, but my favorite was the strawberry shortcake. It was actually the only one I ate, but damn it was good.

Like my neon green index cards that my Best Mate speech was on? Thanks Dad! I gave them to Matthew as a souvenir because we didn't videotape his Mate-of-Honor speech at my wedding and while I remember loving it and thinking it was perfectly Matthew, I don't remember what he said and I wish wish wish I did. I went off the cards a little, but the meat of the speech is there for him to reflect back on and remember what an amazing friend I am.

They were so sweet and didn't shove the cake all over each other like heathens.

Centerpieces! I love the table numbers that they made of logs and spray painted house numbers from Lowe's. NOTE to future brides: Kelly is selling these! Let me know if you want them.

Good lord why don't we always wear suits and shiny dresses? We look amazing. Like really, really good.

Kelly's dress was not shiny, but it was more than amazing. So pretty on her, and so quintessentially bridal. You really were a glowing and gorgeous bride Kellycopter. Worthy of my bestie Matthew!

Oh, look who showed up to bless the wedding ceremony... GOD! In the form of the sun.

Ta-da! Mr. and Mrs.! And can we stop for a second and comment on how awesome her bouquet looks here? I normally make Mandy do the bride's bouquets since she's like 40% better than me, but I put a special effort into making Kelly's. Hopefully the professionals got a few good pictures of the bouquet because duh, of course I forgot.

Wolfpack! Skyba, Matthew, girl wolf, and Khoi, in front of the boys bobcat room. The bridal suite was the teacher's lounge and had awesome comfy 80's couches, champagne, cookies, and a beauty station. The bobcat room had bare bunk beds and lots of Axe body products. I *may* have defected to the Bridal suite for longer than just a peek... (p.s. look at Matthew's scabiosa pod stuck to my hair. Dang it scabiosa!!)

Matthew and Kellycopter are doing a road trip honeymoon down the California Coast so hopefully we get to see them again in a few days! Congratulations friends! Love you!

Halloween

Last year Elsa was no fun for Halloween, only wanting to sleep in her skeleton onesie, so this year we actually got to put her in a costume. Two costumes in fact! Since I'm the "crafty" one, I got to do her costume and I decided to go with an avant garde number. I've always loved Bjork's swan dress that she wore to the 2001 Oscars, and what's better than Bjork in a crazy outfit? An awesome baby in a crazy Bjork outfit! 

So here was the inspiration:

And here was my interpretation of it:

I sewed up a white tulle skirt with a white feather boa coiled and stitched on top of it, and then used a giant chenille pipe cleaner for the swan neck and head. I twisted it together to make it thicker and then looped it around and sewed up the coils for the head. A little orange felt cone sewed to the head, a black pom pom for the eye, and some black sharpie coloring in the black pieces of the swan head finished her off.

Nip slip! How embarrassing.

Here was the back. Pretty risque for her first Halloween I guess. I figure if she's in sexy Halloween costumes as a baby, she'll rebel in her teenage years and dress modestly. Right? Totally sound logic.

Aaaaand 35 seconds into the photo shoot she rips the swan neck off. DONE!

Knowing that she would either eat the feathers or rip apart the swan dress, plus paired with the inappropriateness of the costume for nighttime trick or treating, I had to have a more comfortable back up costume for Elsa. Enter Visionary Steve Jobs.

Quit throwing a tantrum and pose for my pictures Steve Jobs!

As soon as she saw pictures of herself on the screen, she quieted down.

And then ate the iPad.

Next year I'm upping the ante, and going with Cher's Bob Mackie. I better find my Bedazzler and start early.